"Combat buses". Armored personnel carriers are rightfully called "battle buses". But most of all, this definition fits one of the first Soviet production vehicles of this class. We are talking about a heavy armored personnel carrier BTR-152, which was launched into mass production in 1950, together with an armored personnel carrier BTR-40. The BTR-152, created using elements of the chassis of the ZIS-151 truck, could carry 17 infantrymen with relative convenience and comfort, and together with the crew of the BTR it transported 19 people.
BTR-152. From idea to implementation
Until the end of World War II, the Red Army did not have its own armored personnel carrier, and attempts to create it were not given due attention. The emphasis was shifted to the production of tanks and self-propelled artillery units, which were also needed by the front. Despite this, the Soviet commanders were well aware of the capabilities of armored personnel carriers. The only mass-produced vehicle that was operated in the Red Army during the war was the light wheeled American M3A1 Scout Car armored personnel carrier; this armored personnel carrier was also used as a light reconnaissance armored vehicle.
The USSR produced its first armored personnel carriers with an eye on the cars of competitors, so the BTR-40 was created as a domestic analogue of the "Scout", and the heavy armored personnel carrier BTR-152 was created taking into account the experience and combat use of two half-track armored personnel carriers: the American M3 and the German Sd Kfz 251. True, Soviet designers had already abandoned the concept of a half-track or fully tracked armored personnel carrier, preferring wheeled combat vehicles. This choice was rational. Wheeled armored personnel carriers were cheaper and easier to manufacture and operate, and their mass production could be deployed at the facilities of existing automobile enterprises. In addition, it was easier to train the drivers of wheeled vehicles, it was always possible to put yesterday's driver behind their wheel, and wheeled armored personnel carriers had a higher speed and had a greater resource.
The Stalin Plant (ZIS) in Moscow was responsible for the assembly of the BTR-152 in the Soviet Union (after the debunking of the personality cult, it was renamed ZIL). But new armored personnel carriers were assembled not only in the capital, the Bryansk Automobile Plant also participated in the production. A total of 12,421 armored personnel carriers were assembled at two enterprises. Serial production of the BTR-152 lasted from 1950 to 1955, and other modifications of combat vehicles on the same chassis - until 1962.
The fate of the BTR-152 armored personnel carrier is inextricably linked with the fate of the five-ton ZIS-151 off-road truck with a 6x6 wheel arrangement. The designers of the ZIS plant began testing this machine back in May 1946. It was on the basis of the components and assemblies of this chassis that the decision was made to build the first Soviet heavy armored personnel carrier. By November 1946, a group of designers under the leadership of B. M. Fitterman began to develop a new combat vehicle, which received the index "Object 140". According to the terms of reference, the designers had to create an armored personnel carrier with a combat weight of about 8.5 tons with bulletproof and anti-fragmentation armor and a capacity of 15-20 people. One heavy machine gun was considered as a weapon.
By May 1947, two prototypes of the future machine were ready. Factory tests of armored personnel carriers near the city of Chekhov continued until 1949. At the same time, already in May-December 1949, 8 of the 12 built armored personnel carriers were used to conduct full-fledged military tests, which went in parallel with the state tests of the new vehicle. After eliminating all the identified shortcomings on March 24, 1950, a heavy wheeled armored personnel carrier, designated BTR-152, was officially adopted by the Soviet Army. And already on March 28, the chief designer of the car Fitterman was arrested, shortly before the arrest, he was dismissed from the post of chief designer of the enterprise. His arrest took place as part of the investigation into the case "On the wrecking group at the ZIS plant." In December of the same year, he received 25 years in the camps and began serving his sentence in Rechlag, was fully rehabilitated and reinstated in the party in 1955. Those were the times. It is surprising that the creator of the heavy wheeled armored personnel carrier BTR-152 presented the country with the smallest minicar - Boris Mikhailovich was also the chief designer of the Zaporozhets ZAZ-965, but this is a completely different story.
Technical features of the BTR-152
Experts call one of the main merits of the ZIS designers the appeal to the carrier armored hull (ZIS-100). The new heavy armored personnel carrier did not have a frame, only side amplifiers, which were used to fasten a number of components and assemblies of the combat vehicle. At the same time, the designers did a good job on the configuration of the hull and the rational arrangement of the armor plates, at the same time the hull was convenient for placing and dismounting the landing force, and was spacious enough. The decision to abandon the frame allowed the developers to make the body of the armored personnel carrier 200 mm lower without losing the spatial rigidity of the structure. Unlike the American M3 armored personnel carrier, the winch installed on the BTR-152 was located under the bow armored jacket and was protected from bullets and shell fragments.
Also, unlike the Americans, who chose simple shapes for their M3 armored personnel carrier for better use of the internal space, at the ZIS plant they worked on the rational arrangement of the armor plates, creating a well-thought-out "broken" character of the hull, some armor plates were located at angles of 30-45 degrees to the vertical, which increased the bullet resistance of the entire structure. In terms of the shape of the body, the new Soviet armored personnel carrier was closer to the German half-track armored personnel carriers "Hanomag". The greatest thickness of armor was in the frontal part of the hull - up to 13-14 mm, sides and sterns differed in armor thickness of 8-10 mm. Such a reservation was sufficient to protect against rifle-caliber bullets and shell fragments and mines weighing up to 12 grams; in the frontal part of the armored personnel carrier it also held 12.7-mm bullets. From armor-piercing large-caliber bullets, small-caliber guns and large fragments of the BTR-152 were to be protected by passive factors: high speed, maneuverability, low silhouette. The length of the body of the armored personnel carrier was 6830 mm, width - 2320 mm, height - 2050 mm (for a machine gun - 2410 mm).
On the BTR-152, the designers installed an open-type armored body; on conventional models, it was only possible to hide from the weather with a tarp. This decision reduced the security of the landing force, but it was typical for armored vehicles of those years. The body of the bonnet configuration was made by welding from armor plates and consisted of three sections, it was typical for armored personnel carriers of that time. Ahead was the power compartment with the engine, followed by the control compartment, where the commander of the combat vehicle and the driver were located, the entire aft part was occupied by a spacious troop compartment, designed for 17 fighters at once. To accommodate the landing along the sides of the hull, there were sufficiently long longitudinal benches, behind their backs there were clamps for fastening AK assault rifles. The mechvod and the commander left the armored personnel carrier through the side doors, the landing force left the vehicle through the double door located in the rear of the hull, but it was also possible to land directly through the sides. A spare wheel was often located on the door.
The heart of the armored personnel carrier was the forced engine, which was especially important for the vehicle, which was to operate in off-road conditions. The basic 6-cylinder engine ZIS-120 (maximum power 90 hp) was forced to almost the limit of possibilities. The increase in power was achieved by increasing the compression ratio to 6.5, which automatically increased the requirements for fuel, the BTR-152 was fed with the best gasoline in the army at that time - the B-70. In addition, the designers "promoted" the ZIS-120, increasing the rotational speed to the detriment of the durability of the piston group. But the military was ready to put up with a combat vehicle with a reduced engine resource. As a result of all the changes, the new ZIS-123V engine was tightened up to 110 hp. (guaranteed according to GOST), in fact, the engine power reached 118-120 hp. This power was enough to accelerate an armored personnel carrier with a combat weight of 8, 7 tons to 80-87 km / h when driving on the highway. The fuel reserve in the amount of 300 liters was enough for 550 km of travel when driving on the highway. A well-thought-out chassis, a boosted engine and new all-terrain tires with a fir tree tread made it possible to increase the ground speed to 60 km / h, for comparison, the ZIS-151 truck - no more than 33 km / h.
The main armament of the armored personnel carrier, designed to defeat infantry, unarmored targets and enemy firepower at distances of up to 1000 meters, was an easel 7, 62-mm machine gun SGMB (a special version of the SG-43 machine gun) with a belt feed, which was placed on an armored personnel carrier without an armored shield. The standard machine gun ammunition was 1250 rounds. In addition to weapons, a 10RT-12 radio station was installed on the armored personnel carriers, which in the daytime provided stable communication at a distance of up to 35-38 km in the parking lot and up to 25-30 km while driving.
Assessment of the armored personnel carrier BTR-152
For the early 1950s, the heavy Soviet armored personnel carrier was a very successful combat vehicle. This is evidenced by both a large series - 12.5 thousand armored personnel carriers in various versions, and the geography of export deliveries. The Soviet BTR-152 managed to serve in the armies of more than 40 countries of the world. At the same time, China launched mass production of a licensed copy of an armored personnel carrier under its own designation Type-56.
The pluses of the BTR-152 included good cross-country ability, a speed that is high enough for such a technique, especially on the ground, and excellent capacity. Not all armored personnel carriers of those years could carry 19 soldiers, including the crew. Also recognized as successful was the scheme and thickness of the booking, which surpassed that of the American M3 wheeled-tracked armored personnel carriers, not to mention the wheeled "Scout". The obvious disadvantages of the vehicle included weak weapons, represented only by the easel 7, 62-mm machine gun and the personal weapons of the paratroopers. Many foreign models of armored personnel carriers of those years were armed with more powerful large-caliber machine guns.
The fact that the armored personnel carrier turned out to be really good is also evidenced by the fact that the Israelis appreciated the armored personnel carriers BTR-152 captured from Egypt. The Israeli army noted the good protective properties of the corps of the Soviet armored personnel carrier and the rational arrangement of the armor plates, which did not interfere with the landing. Impressed by the Arab trophies, Israel launched the production of its own wheeled armored personnel carrier "Shoet", which outwardly resembled a Soviet combat vehicle.
