The first British medium-caliber anti-aircraft system was the 76, 2-mm Q. F. 3-in 20cwt model 1914. It was originally intended for the armament of ships and was put into production at the beginning of 1914. For firing at aerial targets, shrapnel shells were used, after the modernization of the gun to increase the effectiveness of shooting, a fragmentation grenade with a remote fuse weighing 5, 7 kg was developed, which had a muzzle velocity of 610 m / s. The rate of fire of the gun is 12-14 rds / min. Reach in height - up to 5000 m.
76, 2 mm Q. F. 3-in 20cwt anti-aircraft gun
In total, the British industry produced about 1000 76-mm anti-aircraft guns of modifications: Mk II, Mk IIA, Mk III and Mk IV. In addition to the British armed forces, guns were supplied to Australia, Canada and Finland.
When it became clear that the army needed a more mobile weapon, a special four-support platform was designed for the gun, with which it could be transported in the back of a heavy truck. Later, a four-wheeled carriage was created for the gun.
Although by the beginning of World War II, the weapon was clearly outdated, it continued to be popular among the troops. The anti-aircraft gun was the basis of the air defense batteries as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France. By 1940, some batteries were equipped with newer, 3, 7-inch anti-aircraft guns, but gunners still preferred the lighter and more versatile 3-inch guns with which they were familiar. During the evacuation of the remnants of the British Expeditionary Force, all 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were destroyed or captured by the Germans.
A significant number of these guns were installed on stationary concrete foundations along the British coast to protect port facilities.
They were also mounted on railway platforms, which made it possible, if necessary, to quickly relocate anti-aircraft batteries to cover transport hubs.
Soon after the First World War, it became clear that the projected increase in the combat capabilities of aviation would require replacing the existing 76, 2-mm anti-aircraft guns with more powerful guns. In 1936, the Vickers concern offered a prototype of a new 3, 7-inch (94-mm) anti-aircraft gun. In 1938, the first production samples were presented for military trials. Only in 1939, the guns, designated 3.7-Inch QF AA, began to enter service with air defense batteries.
Anti-aircraft 94 mm gun 3.7-Inch QF AA
The antiaircraft gun was produced in two versions. Along with the transportable installation, the guns were mounted on stationary concrete bases; the latter version had a special counterweight behind the breech. Due to the rather significant weight of the vehicle with the gun (9317 kg), the artillerymen, after meeting in the army, greeted them rather cool.
To facilitate and simplify the gun carriage, several options have been released. The first serial carriages received the Mk I index, the carriages for stationary installation were called Mk II, and the latest version was Mk III. Moreover, there were sub-variants for each modification. In total, about 10,000 guns of all modifications were produced. Production continued until 1945, with an average of 228 guns per month.
British anti-aircraft gunners fire from a 94-mm anti-aircraft gun
However, it was impossible not to admit that the combat characteristics of the 94-mm anti-aircraft guns, despite some shortcomings, significantly exceeded those of the old three-inch guns. By 1941, the guns of this brand became the basis of the British anti-aircraft artillery. The 94-mm anti-aircraft guns had excellent height reach and good projectile damage. A fragmentation projectile weighing 12, 96 kg with an initial speed of 810 m / s could hit targets at an altitude of 9000 m.
Gradually, the developers improved the fire control system, equipped the gun with a mechanical rammer and an automated fuse installation device (as a result, the rate of fire increased to 25 rounds per minute). By the end of the war, most guns of this type received effective remote control, after which the gun servants had only to clean the guns and maintain the automatic loader.
During the North African campaign, 94-mm anti-aircraft guns were used to combat German tanks, however, due to their excessive weight and low maneuverability, they were not very successful in this role, although they could destroy almost any enemy tank with their shot.
In addition, 94-mm anti-aircraft guns were used as long-range field artillery and coastal defense weapons.
In 1936, the 113-mm QF 4.5-inch Mk I naval gun entered trials. It soon became clear that it could be successfully used as an anti-aircraft gun. In 1940, deliveries of the first 113-mm anti-aircraft guns began. Ordnance, QF, 4.5 in AA Mk II.
With an initial speed of 24, 7 kg of a projectile of 732 m / s, the firing range at air targets exceeded 12,000 m. The rate of fire was 15 rds / min.
In most cases, the guns fired with fragmentation shells. True, sometimes special shrapnel shells were used to destroy aircraft flying at low altitudes.
To transport guns weighing more than 16,000 kg, special trailers were required, due to their excessive weight, all of them were mounted in fortified stationary positions. In total, more than 370 guns were deployed by 1944. As a rule, the anti-aircraft battery consisted of four guns. To protect against shrapnel, the gun was covered with a shield.
113 mm anti-aircraft gun Ordnance, QF, 4.5 in AA Mk II
The 113-mm anti-aircraft gun had many of the features of a naval gun inherited from it: a tower-type machine mounted on a heavy steel base, a mechanical rammer, a heavy counterweight above the breech of the barrel and a mechanical fuse set on the charging tray. The device for supplying ammunition was also by no means superfluous, which was especially appreciated by the servants in conditions of prolonged firing, since the weight of a full combat charge reached 38, 98 kg.
British 113 mm anti-aircraft guns in position in the vicinity of London
At the first stage of deployment, anti-aircraft batteries were located in the immediate vicinity of naval bases and large cities, since it was in these places that the most powerful and long-range anti-aircraft guns were required. In 1941, the British Admiralty somewhat relaxed the strictness of the requirements for the mandatory placement of 4.5-inch (113-mm) guns near the objects under its jurisdiction. It was allowed to install anti-aircraft guns on coastal fortifications. Here, 4, 5-inch guns could be used simultaneously as anti-aircraft guns and coastal defense guns.
However, the number of guns used in a similar quality turned out to be relatively small, since their relocation was associated with great difficulties and costs.
In 1942, in the vicinity of London on concrete foundations, three towers were installed with paired 133-mm universal guns 5, 25 QF Mark I.
The installation of the towers required the creation of an infrastructure for their use, similar to that available on a warship. Subsequently, due to the great difficulties with the installation on the shore, the two-gun towers were abandoned.
Towers with one 133-mm gun were mounted on the coast and in the areas of naval bases. They were entrusted with the tasks of coastal defense and the fight against high-flying aircraft. These guns had a rate of fire of 10 rds / min. The great reach in height (15,000 m) at an elevation angle of 70 ° made it possible to fire 36, 3-kg fragmentation shells at high-flying targets.
However, due to the fact that projectiles with mechanical remote fuses were used for firing at long distances, the probability of hitting the target was small. Anti-aircraft shells with radio fuses began en masse to enter service with the British anti-aircraft artillery only in 1944.
A story about British anti-aircraft air defense systems would be incomplete without mentioning unguided anti-aircraft missiles. Shortly before the start of the war, the British military leadership decided to compensate for the insufficient number of modern anti-aircraft guns with simple and inexpensive rockets.
The 2-inch (50, 8-mm) anti-aircraft missile used a warhead with a thin steel wire. At the highest point of the trajectory, the expelling charge threw out a steel wire, which slowly descended by parachute. The wire, as conceived by the developers, was to get entangled in the propellers of enemy aircraft, thus causing them to fall. There was also an option with a 250-gr. a fragmentation charge, on which there was a self-liquidator, configured for 4-5 from flight - by this time the rocket was supposed to reach an estimated height of about 1370 m. A small number of 2-inch missiles and launchers for them were fired, which were used exclusively for educational and training purposes …
More promising was the 3-inch (76, 2-mm) anti-aircraft missile, the warhead of which had the same mass as the 94-mm anti-aircraft projectile. The rocket was a simple tubular structure with stabilizers, the engine used a charge of smokeless powder - SCRK brand cordite. The UP-3 rocket with a length of 1.22 m was not rotating, but stabilized only due to the tail. She carried a fragmentation warhead with a remote fuse.
A single or twin launcher was used to launch, served by two soldiers. The ammunition load of the installation was 100 missiles. The launch of missiles from these early installations was not always reliable, and their accuracy was so low that only defensive anti-aircraft fire was possible.
Anti-aircraft rocket launchers were used to defend the most important objects, where massive attacks by enemy bombers were expected. On the carriage of 76, 2-mm anti-aircraft guns, mobile installations were created, which from 36-rail guides could fire volleys of 9 missiles. By December 1942, there were already 100 such installations.
In the future, the effectiveness of anti-aircraft rocket launchers was increased by increasing the number of missiles on launching devices and improving the proximity fuses of missiles.
And the most powerful was the stationary coastal defense installation, firing 4 salvoes of 20 missiles each, which entered service in 1944.
The anti-aircraft missiles themselves were also improved. The 3-inch (76.2 mm) modernized rocket had a length of 1.83 mm, a launch weight of about 70 kg, a warhead weight of 4 kg and reached an altitude of about 9 km. When firing at altitudes up to 7.5 km, the rocket was supplied with a remote fuse, and when firing at high altitudes, it was equipped with a non-contact photoelectric fuse. Due to the fact that the photoelectric fuse could not work at night, in rain, in fog, in the second half of the war, a non-contact radio fuse was developed and adopted.
At the end of the 30s, the British anti-aircraft artillery clearly did not meet modern requirements, both in terms of numbers and technical condition. On September 1, 1938, the British air defense had only 341 medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns. In September 1939 (declaration of war) anti-aircraft guns were already 540, and by the beginning of the "Battle of Britain" - 1140 guns. This is in view of the fact that several hundred medium-caliber guns were lost in France. However, the British leadership understood the importance of anti-aircraft cover for cities, industrial enterprises and naval bases and did not spare funds for the production of new anti-aircraft guns and the arrangement of positions for them.
The Luftwaffe, in its raids on England, had to face active opposition from the anti-aircraft artillery of the air defense. For the sake of fairness, it must be admitted that during the "Battle of Britain" the main burden of fighting German aviation fell on fighters, and anti-aircraft guns shot down relatively few German bombers. The heavy casualties suffered by the Luftwaffe during the daytime raids on the British Isles forced them to take action at night. The British did not have enough night fighters; the defense of London, like other cities, in this decisive period depended mainly on anti-aircraft artillery and searchlights.
The anti-aircraft artillery of the mother country was part of the ground forces (just like in the British Expeditionary Forces), although in operational terms it was subordinated to the Air Force fighter command. The key to British resistance was the fact that at least a quarter of the anti-aircraft guns were covered by the kingdom's aviation enterprises.
During the "Battle of Britain" anti-aircraft artillery shot down relatively few German bombers, but its actions greatly impeded the flights of German bomber aircraft and, in any case, reduced the accuracy of bombing. Dense anti-aircraft fire forced them to climb to great heights.
Soon after the beginning of the air battle over England, it became clear that British coastal shipping and ports from the sea were very vulnerable to low-altitude actions of enemy bombers and torpedo bombers. At first, they tried to fight this threat by patrolling on the path of the probable overflight of aircraft of British warships. But it was very costly, and not safe for sailors. Later, they decided to neutralize this threat by creating special stationary air defense forts located at a distance from the coast.
In August 1942, the Holloway Brothers company began fulfilling an army order for the construction of several army anti-aircraft forts designed by engineer Guy Maunsell. It was decided to establish anti-aircraft forts on the side of the estuaries of the Thames and Mersey rivers, as well as to protect the approaches from the sea to London and Liverpool. 21 towers were built as part of three forts. The fortifications were erected in 1942-43 and were armed with anti-aircraft guns, radars and searchlights.
On army forts, the guns are dispersed, like a conventional land anti-aircraft battery, at a distance of about 40 meters from each other. The anti-aircraft armament of the turrets consisted of 40 mm L / 60 Bofors and 3.7 inches (94 mm) QF guns.
It was decided to use a group of seven free-standing towers and connect them with walkways located high above the water. This arrangement made it possible to focus the fire of all guns in any direction and made the fortification much more tenacious as a whole. The forts were intended to counter enemy aircraft and were part of the country's air defense system. They were equipped with various means of communication in order to notify in advance of an enemy raid and intercept German aircraft.
At the end of 1935, the first 5 radar stations installed on the east coast of Britain began operation. In the summer of 1938, the air attack defense network consisted of 20 radars. By 1940, a network of 80 radars was located along the coast, providing an air defense system.
Initially, these were bulky Chain Home radar (AMES Type 1) antennas, which were suspended on metal masts with a height of 115 m. The antenna was stationary and had a wide radiation pattern - the aircraft could be detected in the 120 ° sector. The receiving antennas were placed on 80-meter wooden towers. In 1942, the deployment of stations with a rotating antenna began, which searched for targets in a circular sector.
British radars could detect enemy bombers at a distance of up to 200 km, the height of an aircraft located at a distance of 100 km from the radar was determined with an accuracy of 500 m. Often Luftwaffe aircraft were detected immediately after takeoff from their airfields. The role of radars in repelling enemy raids is difficult to overestimate.
On June 13, 1944, the first blow was struck at London by German V-1 shells. Anti-aircraft artillery played a large role in repelling these attacks. A breakthrough in military electronics (the use of radio fuses in combination with PUAZO, information on which came from the radar) made it possible to increase the number of V-1 destroyed when they were fired with anti-aircraft guns from 24% to 79%. As a result, the effectiveness (and intensity) of such raids was significantly reduced, 1866 German "flying bombs" were destroyed by anti-aircraft artillery.
Throughout the war, the air defense of Great Britain was continuously improved, reaching its peak in 1944. But by that time, even the reconnaissance flights of German aircraft over the British Isles had practically ceased. The landing of Allied troops in Normandy made raids by German bombers even less likely. As you know, at the end of the war, the Germans relied on missile technology. British fighters and anti-aircraft guns could not intercept the V-2, the most effective way to combat missile attacks was the bombing of the starting positions of German missiles.
