In addition to the tangible damage to the enemy, the cannon, with a thunderous sound, is capable of causing harm to the gun crew in the form of acute acoustic trauma. Of course, in the arsenal of artillerymen there are many methods of protection: covering your ears with your palms, opening your mouth, plugging your ear canal with your finger, or simply pressing the tragus of the auricle. But during intense shooting, the fighter often does not have time to catch the right moment in time and receives an injury to the eardrums. As a result, it became vital to develop a special noise protection device for artillery.
The first to sound the alarm in the middle of the 16th century was the French surgeon Ambroise Paré, who described the injuries of gunners from cannon volleys. In 1830, they already talked about the hearing loss of the gunners of ship guns after the shooting. But the critical period came in the First World War with the growth of gun calibers and, accordingly, with the aggravation of traumatic lesions of the hearing organs. In the 30s, in the calculations of anti-aircraft artillery, ear diseases were recorded in 20% of the total number of servicemen in the unit. The development of new guns in the future was impossible without the installation of a muzzle brake, which redistributes the direction of the outflow of powder gas through the muzzle. As a result, the muzzle shock wave went at a certain angle backward during the shot, which increased the acoustic load on the calculation, and it was impossible to save oneself only with soundproof palms.
In the USSR, the problems of the hearing organs of artillerymen during the Great Patriotic War did not reach their hands in any way. It was only in 1949 that the Main Research Artillery Range received a "party" assignment to develop individual means of protection against the action of a muzzle wave. The problem was taken up by the physiological laboratory at the training ground, which had previously worked on standards in the field of physiology and the organization of military labor. Laboratory studies have shown that the critical value of the muzzle shock wave pressure for hearing organs varies in the range of 0.1-0.2 kg / cm2, for large values, protection is required. It is interesting that the "habituation" to cannonade, which is often referred to by experienced gunners, is only a subjective perception - it does not prevent damage to the hearing organs. The good old-fashioned trick of opening the mouth at the moment of a shot is also not a panacea for hearing trauma. From an anatomical and physiological point of view, the Eustachian tube at such a moment can remain closed, and swallowing movements that can open its lumen and create counterpressure on the eardrum when opening the mouth are simply impossible.
The project started with very ambiguous conditions, according to which it was required to create a device for hearing protection, while being able to "pass" commands, including those transmitted by phone. A “market survey” of existing anti-noise devices led researchers to cotton swabs soaked in paraffin or wax, P. E. Kalymkov and V. I. All specimens had the same shortcomings - they were weak in the ears, displaced, fall out, irritated the skin, and also left the temporal regions unprotected from the shock wave, so they decided to go their own way at the Main Research Artillery Range. The solution was to develop a specialized helmet based on the design of aviation helmets, Kulikovsky's comforter and a tank helmet. Porous PVC-E PVC was chosen as a sound-absorbing material, which has a number of remarkable properties - it did not absorb moisture, did not swell, did not rot or decompose, and also did not wear out almost and was very resistant to fuels and lubricants. Of the eight prototypes created, a model based on a tank headset, made of a cape-tent cloth on a bike lining, is worthy of special attention. A special feature, in addition to noise-protective elements for the ears, are protective pads for the temporal, frontal and occipital regions of the head. With a helmet mass of 600-700 grams, it made it possible to clearly distinguish speech at a distance of 15 meters, and loud commands were heard up to 50 meters. However, the helmet was good in the off-season and in winter, but in the summer heat it caused more problems, so they offered two options at once: without a warm pad with ventilation holes and for cold weather with a heater. As a result, the development remained in the category of experienced ones, since the Artillery Committee refused to take the noise-protective helmet into service, citing the tangible discomfort that users felt during prolonged wear. The helmet needed to be lightened so that it could be rolled up and stowed in a pocket or bag after shooting.
The appearance of a lightweight helmet for gun crews. Source: "News of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences"
For help in manufacturing, they turned to the master of the Moscow Rostikino fur factory, offering him a flight comforter as a basis. They decided to leave the lower part from a raincoat-tent fabric on a flannel lining, and the upper part already from a knitted mesh and cotton tape. Anti-noise elements with a diameter of 90 mm were located opposite the auricles and were also made of PVC-E. Each plug was closed with a 1 mm thick sheet aluminum cap. As a result, work on lightening the helmet led to a decrease in the total weight of the device to 200-250 grams. The first 100 copies were made by the Leningrad factory "Krasny stolyarshchik" in 1953. They were immediately sent to trial operation. In the Leningrad, Turkestan and Odessa military districts, helmets were tested by firing from guns D-74, D-20, D-48, D-44, Ch-26 and BS-3. The results of field studies have shown that the helmet protects well from the muzzle wave, does not interfere with hearing commands and is quite suitable for the work of gun crews. However, even then, the artillery helmet was not accepted for service, since the problem of wearing it with headdresses suddenly arose. It turned out that the cap and the steel helmet did not hold well on the head due to the abutment against the upper part of the anti-noise elements. The shape of the plug was promptly changed, and now the headgear was quite tolerably placed on the heads of the gunners. Some problems remained when putting on a hat with earflaps with lowered valves, but even this could be solved with proper skill.
Combination of an artillery helmet with a steel helmet and cap. Source: "News of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences"
The shape of the helmet plug (original - on the left, changed - on the right) Source: "Izvestia of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences"
In this modified form, the helmet was nevertheless adopted by the Soviet Army in 1955 under the designation 52-Yu-61. An important advantage of using a helmet was the absence of a moment of alertness and waiting for a shot, which allowed the gunners to focus on accurate firing. The noise-protective helmet stood for several decades on the supply of the army, effectively drowned out the pressure of the muzzle shock wave of the artillery gun, while it was tolerably combined with headgear and ensured normal audibility of commands. And how many hearing injuries have been avoided over the years of combat and shooting practice, it is almost impossible to calculate. Paradoxically, the attention of the military to the 52-Yu-61 almost disappeared over time, it was not modernized, and in 1994 the helmet for gun crews was completely removed from supply. They did this for reasons of cost savings and did not foresee a replacement at all. The noise protection device is still produced in small series, and it is intended for the calculations of individual anti-tank melee weapons (SPG, ATGM and RPG-7). At the moment, the issue of equipping artillerymen with noise-protective helmets in the Russian army remains open, although the guns of the "god of war" did not shoot quieter.
