Already the very first tanks in the world (of those that actually participated in battles) had cannon armament, the purpose of which was to destroy enemy machine guns. “Shoot fast, shoot low! - indicated in the memo - instructions to the British tank artillerymen. "Better to let your shell throw sand in the eyes of the enemy than whistle over his head!" The 57 mm caliber proved to be optimal for this purpose. No wonder the Germans, opponents of the British, put the 57-mm Nordenfeld cannon on their A7V, although there were other projects. In particular, it was planned to install a 75-mm cannon with a shortened rollback, but not only were all orders for them scheduled, the German military was confused by the redundancy of this weapon. In their opinion, the "storm car" would simply have no one to shoot from this cannon. The Russian military also reasoned, it is not for nothing that not one of the projects of Russian inventors was adopted. And the point is not only in their technical imperfection. Armament frightened off: a 203-mm howitzer and 102-mm cannons. "Well, what the hell, tenku has such firepower!" And it was not without reason that the French Saint-Chamond tanks, armed with field 75-mm guns, were used not so much as tanks, but as self-propelled guns. The Saint-Chamon 25-ton tank, which also had to have such a gun, did not go into series production either. But "Renault" FT-17 with a 37-mm gun showed itself from the best side. Moreover, the French have been modernizing it for all the 30s, and all their other machines were built with an eye on this "warlike kid" - they were so impressed by his combat successes.
The first Soviet tank armed with a 45-mm gun was the T-24, which besides it also had a very powerful machine-gun armament, which consisted of four machine guns. If the USSR had more of them, and, accordingly, we would have a more developed industry and … specialists less dependent on the "Western experience", it is from this tank that the brilliant history of the development of Soviet armored vehicles could begin. And so … there were too few of them and they came out too raw to influence anything.
The fashion for a new caliber - 47-mm - was again introduced by the British, and following their example, 45-mm guns began to be installed on Soviet tanks of the 1930s. Again, it was believed that tanks are more often at war with infantry than with other tanks, so that even Vickers Medium tanks were delivered to India without cannons, only with machine guns. What for? But here the inertia of thinking clearly manifested itself. After all, if the infantry is the main target of the tank, then 37, and 47, and even 57-mm calibers are clearly insufficient.
A1E1 The Independent. Despite its impressive size, it had only one 47mm cannon and four machine guns!
And here our Soviet designers turned out to be more far-sighted than the same British. They are on their multi-turret tanks "Vickers-16 t" and "Independent", in spite of everything. continued to put 47-mm cannons. Moreover, the same "Vickers" in three towers had the following armament: a large 47-mm cannon and a 7, 71-mm machine gun and two small ones with two 7, 71-mm machine guns in each. But the Soviet T-28 had a 76 in a large turret, a 2-mm cannon, a machine gun and two machine guns in the front turrets. True, in battle it would be better for them not to collide. Still, the English cannon had greater flatness, rate of fire and penetrating power. But. if we say that a tank is a weapon against infantry (and in the 30s the overwhelming majority of military specialists thought so), then the T-28 should be recognized as more consistent with such views than the British tank. Well, the "five-turret battleship" T-35 also became a more than worthy answer to the British "Independent" with its one single 47-mm cannon.
The Pzkpfwg-III Ausf A was armed with a short-barreled 37 mm cannon.
Surprisingly, in the pre-war years, the calibers of guns grew very slowly. The standard caliber of the French was 47 mm, the British 42 mm, in the USA 37 mm, 45 mm in the USSR, in Germany - 37 mm. As already noted, the same 75-mm guns were installed on such tanks as 2C, B1, T-28, T-35, German NBFZ and T-IV, but the number of the latter was scanty, and all these guns were short-barreled. The Germans themselves called the gun standing on the T-IV "butt", it had such a short barrel, and the speed of its projectile was only 285 m / s. That is, there is a colossal inertia of thinking, once again proving that people, in general, are very stupid creatures.
Pzkpfwg-III Ausf F. It already had a 50mm cannon, but also short.
Pzkpfwg-III Ausf M. Only this model received a 50mm long-barreled gun, but it was too late …
Pzkpfwg-IV Ausf E and its 75-mm "butt" L / 24.
But when the "big war" began. then everything immediately became obvious to everyone: the caliber of the tank gun should be larger, and it itself should have a long barrel, which provides the projectile with high speed. It turned out that cannons are more profitable than machine guns in the fight against infantry. For example, in North Africa, German T-IVs simply opened strong indirect fire from guns at the positions of the British and this was enough to demoralize them, and then break through their trenches without loss. The length of the gun barrel on the Soviet T-34 tank began to grow rapidly, and this trend, coupled with an increase in caliber, became the main one for the entire war.
T-34 with a 57 mm gun.
True, an attempt was made to install a long-barreled 57-mm gun on the T-34. They delivered, but it turned out that these vehicles at the front … did not have a chance to meet with German tanks! I had to shoot at the already damaged vehicles. The result was great! But for the infantry, the 57-mm shells were rather weak. That is why the T-34/85 modification received this particular gun: powerful enough to fight tanks, and with a good high-explosive shell!
"Matilda II" with a 76, 2-mm "howitzer" - an immediate support tank.
Along with the caliber, indicators such as barrel length and armor penetration of the projectile began to grow. The Germans replaced the 37-mm cannons with 50-mm guns. Then they got 75-mm tank guns with a barrel length of 43, then 48, and finally 70 calibers.
It was planned to equip the Pzkpfwg V Ausf F with an 88-mm gun, and even install 100-caliber cannons on the experimental E tanks in order to increase the armor penetration, while maintaining a large ammunition load.
The same was the case with the powerful 88mm cannon. Finally, a 128 mm cannon hit the SPG. And in the same way, guns of larger and larger calibers were installed on Soviet self-propelled guns - 85, 100, 122, 152-mm. Moreover, the 152-mm howitzer was already on the pre-war Soviet tank KV-2!
In the United States, during the war years, 37, 75, 76, 2 and 90-mm guns were used (on self-propelled guns 105 and 155-mm), in England they switched from 42-mm to 57-caliber, and then to the traditional 75-mm and 76 caliber, 2mm on the Sherman Firefly. It should be noted that the shells of all these guns had not only good armor-piercing qualities, but also traditionally had a good high-explosive and fragmentation effect.
AMX-50-120 looked more than solid, but it turned out to be too big, too … too … too - that is, useless in everything!
Challenger Mk I.
The war ended with the stabilization of tank calibers. The USSR stopped at 100-mm, the USA at 90-mm, England 83, 9-mm (some of the fire support vehicles had 95-mm howitzers with a particularly powerful high-explosive projectile). True, a 122-mm cannon was put on heavy tanks in the USSR, and work was underway to adopt a 130-mm tank gun. Actually, it was created, and tanks were already developed for it. But then the USSR actually abandoned heavy tanks, and they did not make new machines with 130-mm. For a while, everyone thought that this was enough and that there were enough calibers. But then the most lagging behind, that is, the British, created their famous 105-mm L7 tank gun, and all its other NATO partners urgently began to put it on their vehicles, including the United States. The USSR responded with a smooth-bore 115-mm cannon, and the British installed a 120-mm cannon on their new vehicles. By this time, a gun of the same caliber was already on the American heavy tank M103 and experimental French vehicles. The Germans and Americans, and then the Japanese and South Koreans, acquired the same, but only smooth-bore gun. In the USSR, in response to this, a 125-mm smooth-bore gun appeared, which has not surrendered its positions for many years and is only being continuously improved. In the West, they wrote about the need to create a 140-mm tank gun; in our country, tanks were tested on which there were 152-mm guns. The Americans used the 152-mm gun on the M60A2 tanks and the Sheridan tank, but this is not quite the right thing. After all, these are cannons - launchers. And the main means of destruction in them was a guided projectile, so in this case these tanks "do not count."
An experimental tank on the Centurion chassis with a 180 mm gun.
The British even armed one of their experienced tanks with a 180-mm cannon (the caliber of the guns of the cruiser "Kirov"), but it is clear that things did not go beyond experiments. However, tanks with the largest caliber (not experimental, but serial!) Still existed, and the guns on them were as much as 165 mm. These are the so-called M728 engineering tanks, created on the basis of the M60 tanks. They, in addition to special equipment, are armed with precisely this large-caliber short-barreled gun that fires a powerful high-explosive projectile designed to destroy various obstacles.
This is what a T-90MS tank could look like with a completely non-standard 145-mm cannon. As you can see, due to its size, there is not so much room in the turret for the crew and the autoloader.
What is the problem with the growth of the caliber of tank guns? For the British, above all in weight! Their tanks are equipped with a rifled gun with separate loading, and even today the 120-mm projectile with a tungsten core for it has a weight to the limit. The same is the case with 140-mm shells, which are very large and heavy. For our 152-mm projectiles, an automatic loader may well be created (there is experience!), But … it will not be possible to load many projectiles into it! And here's the question: can we expect a slow, "step by step" growth of calibers in the future - well, let's say we will again have a 130 mm caliber, and in the West 127 mm, and then “everyone will calm down” to 135 mm … Or someone will again want to get ahead and then the predictions about super-powerful 140 and 152-mm guns will come true ?!
М728 - sapper tank.
Rice. A. Shepsa
