Working on the cycle "Weapons of the Second World War", sometimes you shove through so much information that willy-nilly pulls to write more broadly about any moment. As, for example, happened with the story of Mark Birkier and his HS.404 cannon.
In my articles on artillery, I somehow allowed myself the thought that you can open a detective story in every cannon. Here there will be another Bondiana, with all the indispensable attributes.
But let's start with the main character.
Mark, originally Birkigt. He was born in Switzerland, studied there, served, and when it came time to get down to business, there was no business for Birkigt in his native country. And he went gaster to Spain. Well, just nothing decent was closer at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Spain, Birkgit dabbled in frank little things like designing cars and in passing came up with a propeller shaft as a way to transfer torque from the engine to the wheels. Before him, Daimler and Benz used a chain drive in Mercedes.
And in 1904, La Hispano-Suiza Fabrica de Automoviles S. A., which means "Spanish-Swiss Automobile Factory", was founded in Barcelona, where Mark Birkigt served as CEO and Chief Designer.
And I wouldn’t be engaged in cars all my life, to become a famous person, like the same Daimler, Benz, Porsche, Citroen … Birkigt carried on. Forward and upward.
Everything turned out so strange, but in 1914 he began to deal with aircraft engines. What's more, Birkigt is designing a miracle - a water-cooled Hispano-Suiza V8 V8 aircraft engine with 140 horsepower.
What does this motor compare to? Well, something like a 1911 Colt pistol, a Mosin rifle, a Maxim machine gun. Classic for the ages.
Just think about the numbers: Birkigt's firm produced more than 50,000 of these motors during the First World War. The entire Entente flew on the engine, the HS-V8 was produced under license in France, Great Britain, the USA, Italy, Russia and Japan.
It was after the war that a figurine of a flying stork appeared on Birkigt's machines - the emblem of the famous French fighter squadron "Cigogne" (Stork).
Agree, there would be rubbish engines - the pilots would hardly be so generous.
And then there were two more masterpieces. In the mid-1930s, Hispano-Suiza began production of the HS-12Y twelve-cylinder aircraft engine, which had the Hispano-Suiza HS.404 automatic cannon in the camber of the cylinders.
The Hispano-Suiza Moteur Cannon cannon fired, as is clear from the photo, not through the propeller blades, but through the hollow shaft, on which, in fact, the propeller was attached. This solution simplified many things by eliminating the need to install synchronizers.
Many countries were happy about this. Let's not go far, here is the same HS-12Y.
And here is our VK-105PF.
See the difference? So I did not see either. Only instead of the 404th we have a ShVAK.
In short, a lot of people liked the motor with the cannon. And the money for the development of the licensed issue did not flow even like a river into the pocket of a talented engineer.
But an unforeseen circumstance happened. In 1936, a civil war broke out in Spain. And not knowing how the circumstances would turn out, Birkigt decided to leave Catalonia, which had become hot, and moved to France.
So Birkigt became Birkier in the French way. And he continued to do the same, that is, to produce aircraft engines and guns. And “Hispano-Suiza” gradually began to even crowd out “Oerlikon” in the market. Compatriots, it's a good thing, but not in business, is it?
But Birkier, burnt by the fire of the civil war, did not fixate on France and began a friendship with the British, who liked the gun from the "Hispano-Suiza" more than "Oerlikon".
Why not? Well, it's not ShVAK to bet on Spitfires, is it? And Birkier (let's call him that for now) starts working with the British. In the city of Grantham, the British Manufacture and Research Company (BMARC) was established, in fact a subsidiary of Hispano-Suiza. BMARC has been producing Hispano-Suiza air cannons for more than 20 years.
While the British were building the plant, setting up production and everything else, it caught fire in France. Moreover, it caught fire in full.
In 1937, the enterprising gentlemen in the French government came up with a good idea of nationalization. Indeed, why are there any private traders doing business on supplies to the army? And, moreover, not their own, but aliens. And the gentlemen began to nationalize all the enterprises that worked with the military department.
Mark Birkier and his company "Hispano-Suiza" flew into this show all the way and, quite expectedly, suffered in full. The company's plant in Bois Colombes was nationalized, as well as all of Birkier's prototypes and designs were confiscated.
In 1938, Birkier and Hispano-Suiza filed for bankruptcy, and the next part of the show began.
Birkier became Birkigt again, everything that could be evacuated from France was transported to his homeland in Switzerland, where he founded a new company Hispano-Suiza (Suisse) S. A.
In France, they rubbed their hands in anticipation of profits and dividends from confiscations and nationalizations. All the developments of Marc Birkier were transferred to the state arsenal of Chatellerault ("Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault"), where the military wiseacres were going to independently complete the development, introduce it into the series and start the production of new guns.
The problems began immediately after it turned out that Birkigt was by no means a fool, and took out everything he could. And he was able to do a lot, plus the main thing - his head. The French were in for a complete fiasco, because not only could they not arrange the timely release of weapons under the contracts already signed, so it was impossible to obtain documentary support for what was released.
At Chatellerault, one gun after another was removed from the agenda. By and large, the French were able to keep only the HS.404 issue at the proper level. Turret version HS.405 and 23 mm guns HS.406 and HS.407 by the beginning of 1939 existed only in single copies. Looking ahead, it is worth saying that these guns were never mastered by the French, and only the 404 remained in their armament.
Meanwhile, Birkigt in Switzerland was gradually recovering from the blow inflicted by the French, and was setting up the production of cannons in Switzerland and Great Britain at the same time. There were problems, but of a completely different plan.
The situation was simply wonderful: in France there was an established production without the slightest chance of further modernization and development, in Switzerland the revived Hispano-Suiza offered potential customers both guns and all the relevant documentation. The situation with production was somewhat worse.
In general, many countries that bought a license for the production of HS.404 were put in a rather ugly situation, because, for example, in the case of the United States, the purchased license implied the conclusion of a contract with the French side, which was unable to provide technical support for the products sold.
It can even be called revenge on the part of Birkier, but - nothing personal, right?
And then the Second World War began, and France did not become as such. The war naturally divided Switzerland and Great Britain, which ended up in different camps.
But the British had problems with the 404 being produced. Big problems. And more and more guns were needed, and the BMARC plant seemed to cope with the volumes, but the quality of the guns was (in the opinion of the British) unacceptable.
The British War Department even took an unprecedented step - agreed to supply licensed HS.404 from the United States under Lend-Lease. And after the first batch was delivered, the British realized that their guns were quite normal.
In the United States, they did not cry too much, and, having promptly returned the party, they installed them on the Airacobras and shaken off the Soviet Union. These were the same awful Oldsmobile guns, about which quite a lot has been written and not a word well.
And among the British there were cannon Hurricanes (well, it was necessary to somehow make this coffin competitive) and Spitfires. The Battle of Britain was going on, and the guns were in great demand.
And then gentlemen from British intelligence intervened. Swiss residents contacted Mark Birkigt and tried to explain that British gentlemen and sirs were asking for help with the guns. In Britain, the right to private and intellectual property is highly respected, not like in France, but nevertheless, they can also be understood.
Birkigt understood. Therefore, without much hesitation, he agreed to help. It is unlikely that "Hispano-Suiza" and he himself would have safely suffered another confiscation of the plant.
In general, Birkigt agreed to a business trip to Britain. But there was a small problem. This is the intelligence service of Germany, which also knew how to work, and would have easily buried Birkigt if he had learned about his plans.
What, what, and it was the Germans who knew how.
Birkigt's journey from Switzerland to Portugal by air took 3 days. Yes, a bit too much, but there was a war in Europe, so even the neutrals had a hard time. With the help of the Swedish airline BOAS, Birkigt flew from Switzerland via Austria and France to Portugal.
And in Portugal, more precisely, not far from the Portuguese coast, an English submarine was waiting for Birkigt.
And only in this way he managed to get into the territory of Great Britain. But what can't you do for the sake of business …
The result of the trip was the refined HS.404 cannon, aka Hispano Mark II, which became, if not the best gun of that war, then the most massive one. And then for more than 20 years it was in service with the UK as an aircraft and anti-aircraft gun.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely no data on how and when Birkigt returned back.
World War II buried Birkigt's automotive business, and he completely switched to aviation.
And the Hispano Suiza brand still exists today. True, in a very spicy form. As bought out by the Swiss company "Oerlikon", which, in turn, is part of the concern "Rheinmetall Borsig".
In general, one can only wonder how yesterday's enemies can become allies, and friends and associates can quite normally rob you.
Apparently Mark Birkigt had such karma. Which, however, did not prevent him from going down in history as one of the representatives of engineering geniuses.
