A salvo of the BM-13 Katyusha guards rocket launchers, on the chassis of the American Stedebecker trucks (Studebaker US6). Carpathian region, western Ukraine
or a story about how "Katyusha" became "Katyusha" and ousted from the history of an important hero "Luka" with an indecent, but completely front-line "surname"
We have written, perhaps, more about "KATYUSHA" - multiple launch rocket launchers than about any other type of weapon. Nevertheless, since until now, despite all the laws and decrees, archival documents of the Great Patriotic War period are not available to an independent researcher, along with objective information the reader receives a fair dose of half-truths, outright lies and sensations sucked from the fingers of unscrupulous journalists. Here and the search for the father of "Katyusha", and the exposure of the "false father", endless stories about the mass execution of German tanks from the "Katyusha", and mutants on pedestals - missile launchers, somehow mounted on ZIS-5 cars, on which they never did not fight, or even in post-war cars, passed off as military relics.
In fact, dozens of types of unguided rockets and launchers were used in the Great Patriotic War. The name "Katyusha" was not used in official documents, but was invented by soldiers. Usually "Katyusha" was called 132-mm M-13 shells, but often this name extended to all PCs. But the M-13 shells had several varieties and several dozen types of launchers. So this is not the case to look for a “genius progenitor”.
Since the 10th century, the Chinese have used powder-powered rockets in combat. In the first half of the 19th century, rockets were widely used in European armies (rockets by V. Kongrev, A. D. Zasyadko, K. K. Konstantinov and others). But by the end of the century they were removed from service (in Austria in 1866, in England in 1885, in Russia in 1879). This was due to the successes in the development of rifled artillery and the dominance of the doctrine, according to which all the tasks of a field war could well be solved by a 75-80-mm divisional gun. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, only an illuminating rocket remained in service with the Russian army.
The use of smokeless, slow-burning gunpowder in rockets was fundamentally new. On March 3, 1928, the world's first launch of such an 82-mm rocket designed by Tikhomirov-Artemyev was made.
The flight range was 1300 m, and a mortar was used as a launcher.
The caliber of our missiles of the period of the Great Patriotic War, 82 mm and 132 mm, was determined by nothing more than the diameter of the engine's powder checkers. Seven 24-mm powder sticks, tightly packed into the combustion chamber, give a diameter of 72 mm, the thickness of the chamber walls is 5 mm, hence the diameter (caliber) of the rocket is 82 mm. Seven thicker (40 mm) checkers in the same way give 132 mm caliber.
The most important issue in the design of PCs is the way of stabilization. Soviet designers preferred feathered PCs and adhered to this principle until the end of the war.
In the 30s, missiles with an annular stabilizer that did not go beyond the dimensions of the projectile were tested. These could be fired from tubular guides. But tests have shown that it is impossible to achieve stable flight with the help of an annular stabilizer. Then they fired off 82-mm missiles with a four-blade tail span of 200, 180, 160, 140 and 120 mm. The results were quite definite - with a decrease in tail span, flight stability and accuracy decreased. The plumage, with a span of more than 200 mm, shifted the center of gravity of the projectile back, which also worsened the stability of the flight. Facilitation of the tail by reducing the thickness of the stabilizer blades caused strong oscillations of the blades up to their destruction.
Flute guides were adopted as launchers for feathered missiles. Experiments have shown that the longer they are, the higher the accuracy of the shells. The length for the PC-132 was the maximum - 5 m due to restrictions on railway dimensions.
In December 1937, the 82nd missile (PC) entered service with the I-15 and I-16 fighters, and in July 1938, the PC-132 was adopted by the bombers.
The adoption of the same shells for ground forces was delayed for many reasons, the most important of which was their low accuracy. Based on the experience of the Great Patriotic War, we consider 82-mm and 132-mm rockets as high-explosive fragmentation, although initially incendiary and toxic substances were the filling. So, in 1938, the RSX-132 132-mm chemical rocket was adopted. Another issue is that incendiary shells were ineffective, and chemical ones were not used for political reasons.
The main direction of improving missiles during the Great Patriotic War was to improve accuracy, as well as to increase the weight of the warhead and the flight range.
Rocket projectiles were ineffective when firing at small targets due to the huge dispersion. Therefore, using a PC for shooting at tanks is almost impossible. So, even according to the 1942 firing tables, with a firing range of 3000 m, the range deviation was 257 m, and the lateral deviation was 51 m. It's not hard to imagine the likelihood of a PC hitting a tank at such a distance. If, theoretically, imagine that a combat vehicle somehow manages to shoot at a tank at close range, then the muzzle velocity of a 132-mm projectile is only 70 m / s, which is clearly not enough to penetrate the armor of a "tiger" or "panther". It is not for nothing that the year of publication of the shooting tables is stipulated here.
According to the firing tables of the TS-13 of the same PC M-13, the average range deviation in 1944 is 105 m, and in 1957 - 135 m, lateral deviation, respectively - 200 and 300 meters. Obviously, the tables of 1957 are more accurate, in which the scattering increased by almost 1.5 times.
During the war, domestic designers have been continuously working to improve the accuracy of the PC with wing stabilizers. So, for example, a shorter-range M-13 projectile was created with a TC-14 ballistic index, which differed from the classic M-13 (TC-13) only in the lower weight of the powder engine, range, but somewhat higher accuracy and steepness of the trajectory (howitzer).
The main reason for the low accuracy of the M-13 (TS-13) type PC was the eccentricity of the rocket engine thrust, i.e., the displacement of the thrust vector from the rocket axis due to uneven combustion of gunpowder in the checkers. This phenomenon is easily eliminated when the rocket rotates, then the thrust impulse will always coincide with the rocket axis. The rotation given to a feathered rocket in order to improve accuracy is called cranking. Cranking rockets should not be confused with turbojets.
The rotational speed of the feathered missiles was several tens, at best, hundreds of revolutions per minute, which is not enough to stabilize the projectile by rotation (moreover, rotation occurs in the active phase of the flight (while the engine is running), and then gradually stops., is several thousand revolutions per minute, which creates a gyroscopic effect, and, accordingly, a higher hitting accuracy than that of feathered projectiles, both non-rotating and rotating. In both types of projectiles, rotation occurs due to the outflow of powder gases of the main engine through small (several mm in diameter) nozzles directed at an angle to the axis of the projectile.
Rocket projectiles with cranking due to the energy of powder gases were called UK - improved accuracy, for example, M-13UK and M-31UK. In addition, projectile cranking could be created in other ways. So, for example, in 1944, the M-13 (TS-46) and M-31 (TS-47) shells entered service, differing from the usual non-rotating TS-13 and TS-31 only in the curved oblique tail, due to which there was cranking the projectile in flight. Spiral guides have become an effective tool for turning any feathered shells.
Testing of prototypes of spiral guides began in the middle of 1944. In addition to the rotation of projectiles, spiral guides had greater survivability compared to rectilinear guides, since they were less susceptible to the action of powder gases.
By April 1945, 100 B-13-CH combat vehicles (CH - spiral guides) were manufactured, the first units armed with them were formed. When firing from the BM-13-CH, the accuracy of the M-13 and M-13UK shells was practically the same.
The second direction in the development of domestic PCs was the creation of powerful high-explosive shells, since the high-explosive effect of the PC M-13 is small. In June 1942, the M-20 high-explosive 132-mm projectile was adopted, which differed from the M-13 in a heavier warhead and, accordingly, in a shorter firing range. Nevertheless, the high-explosive action of the M-20 was also soon considered insufficient, and in mid-1944 its production was discontinued.
A German soldier examines the captured Soviet BM-13-16 (Katyusha) installation on the chassis of the STZ-5 tractor
The M-30 projectile turned out to be more successful, in which a powerful over-caliber warhead, made in the form of an ellipsoid, was attached to the rocket engine from the M-13. It had a maximum diameter of 300 mm. For the characteristic shape of the head of the M-30, the front-line soldiers called Luka M … vym (the hero of the famous erotic poem of the same name). Naturally, the official press preferred not to mention this nickname, in contrast to the replicated "Katyusha". "Luka", like the German 28-cm and 30-cm shells, was launched from a wooden packing box, in which it was delivered from the factory. Four, and later eight of these boxes were placed on a special frame, resulting in the simplest launcher. The powerful warhead of the M-30 had an unsuccessful aerodynamic shape, and the accuracy of fire was 2.5 times worse than that of the M-13. Therefore, the M-30 shells were used only massively, at least three M-30 divisions were supposed to be concentrated on 1 km of the breakthrough front. Thus, at least 576 shells fell on 1000 m of the enemy's defense line. According to the stories of the front-line soldiers, some of the M-30 shells got stuck in the capping and flew with them. It is interesting what the Germans thought when they saw the tumbling wooden boxes flying at them.
A significant disadvantage of the M-30 projectile was its short flight range. This deficiency was partially eliminated at the end of 1942, when they created a new 300-mm high-explosive PC M-31 with a firing range 1.5 times longer. In the M-31, the warhead was taken from the M-30, and the missile was developed anew, and its design was based on the engine of the experimental PC M-14.
In October 1944, the M-13-DD long-range PC was put into service. This was the first projectile with a two-chamber rocket engine. Both chambers were standard chambers of the M-13 projectile and were connected in series with an intermediate nozzle, which had eight oblique holes. The rocket engines were running at the same time.
The first installations for firing the M-13 had the BM-13-16 index and were mounted on the chassis of the ZIS-6 car. On the same chassis, the 82-mm PU BM-8-36 was also mounted.
There were only a few hundred ZIS-6 cars, at the beginning of 1942 their production was stopped.
Installation for M-13 missiles (early version)
Launchers of M-8 and M-13 missiles in 1941-1942 mounted on anything. So, 6 M-8 guide shells were installed (on machines from the Maxim machine gun, 12 M-8 guides on a motorcycle, sleigh and snowmobiles (M-8 and M-13), T-40 and T-60 tanks, armored railway platforms (BM-8-48, BM-8-72, BM-13-16), river and sea boats, etc. But mainly PU in 1942-1944 were mounted on cars received under Lend-Lease - "Austin "," Dodge "," Ford-Marmont "," Bedford ", etc. For 5 years of the war, out of 3374 chassis used for combat vehicles, the ZIS-6 accounted for 372 (11%), the Studebaker - 1845 (54.7%), the remaining 17 chassis types (except for the Willys with mountain launchers) - 1157 (34.3%). Finally, it was decided to standardize combat vehicles based on the Studebaker vehicle. In April 1943, such a system was adopted under the designation BM-13N (normalized). In March 1944, a self-propelled launcher for M-31 projectiles on the Studebaker chassis BM-31-12 was adopted.
But in the post-war years, they were ordered to forget about the Studebaker, although combat vehicles on its chassis were in service until the early 60s. In secret instructions "Studebaker" was called "cross-country vehicle". On numerous pedestals, Katyusha mutants ascended on the ZIS-5 chassis or cars of the post-war types, which are stubbornly presented by the guides as genuine military relics, but the original BM-13-16 on the ZIS-6 chassis has survived only in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg.
The tactics of using rockets changed significantly by the beginning of 1945, when hostilities moved from the endless Russian fields to the streets of German cities. It became almost useless to hit small targets with rockets, but they proved to be very effective when firing at stone structures. Almost everywhere, combat vehicles were brought into the streets of cities and at point-blank shot at houses occupied by the enemy. A huge number of handicraft homemade single launchers appeared, carried by soldiers on their hands. Soldiers dragged such and standard packages with shells to the upper floors of houses, installed them on window sills and fired point-blank at neighboring houses. Two or three was enough to completely destroy several floors, or even an entire house.
M-13UK
Shell M-31
Soviet rocket mortars - "Katyusha" BM-13 on the chassis of the ZIS-12 truck, lost in the Mozhaisk region
Repair of the Soviet rocket artillery vehicle BM-13 on the chassis of the American Studebaker truck (Studebaker US6)
BM-13 based on the "GMC" truck
Directly for the assault on the Reichstag, two BM-31-12 battalions (288 launchers) and two BM-13N battalions (256 launchers) were allocated. In addition, many single M-30 shells were installed on the windowsills of the second floor of the "Himmler house".
During the war, the troops received 2, 4 thousand BM-8 installations (1, 4 thousand were lost), the corresponding figures for the BM-13 are 6, 8 and 3, 4 thousand, and for the BM-Z1-12 - 1, 8 and 0, 1 thousand.
German designers have fundamentally differently solved the problem of stabilizing rockets.
All German PCs were turbojets. Multiple rocket launchers were of the honeycomb type (28 and 32 cm PC), or tubular (15, 21 and 30 cm).
The first German multiple launch rocket system was a six-barreled chemical 15-cm mortar of the "D" type, which entered service with the Wehrmacht chemical regiments in the late 1930s. Its main purpose was firing chemical mines (in the German army, rockets were called mines, and tubular launchers for them - mortars) weighing from 39 to 43 kg. Outwardly, chemical mines differed from high-explosive or smoke mines only by the presence of green or yellow rings. Since 1942, the Germans began to call the mortar "D" 15-cm Nb. W 41, that is, smoke mortar (launch) mod. 1941 Our soldiers called this type of mortar "Ivan" or "Vanyusha".
During the war, chemical ammunition was not used and the mortar fired only high-explosive and smoke mines. The dispersion of fragments of a high-explosive fragmentation mine was 40 m sideways and 13 m forward. The smoke mine produced a cloud with a diameter of 80-100 m, which retained sufficient density for 40 seconds.
Six mortar barrels were combined into one block using front and rear clips. The carriage had a sector lifting mechanism with a maximum elevation angle of up to + 45 ° and a swivel mechanism that allowed a rotation of ± 12 °. The combat axis of the carriage is cranked, when firing it turns, the wheels are hung out, and the carriage rests on the openers of the deployed beds and the folding front stop. The fire was carried out in volleys of 6 shots in 5 seconds, the reload time was 1.5 minutes. PU weight was 540 kg without ammunition.
Since April 1943, the Germans began to produce 10-barreled launchers based on the Multir half-track armored vehicle for firing 15-cm mines. They were called 15 cm PW armored launchers. 43. The weight of the system is about 7.1 tons, the ammunition load is 20 minutes, and the maximum speed on the highway was 40 km / h.
According to the "Ivan" type, the Germans created two more powerful launchers ("smoke mortars") on wheeled carriages. This is a five-barreled 21 cm mortar 21. see Nb. W. 42 and six-barreled mortar 30 cm Nb. W.42. The weight of the first was 550, and the second was 1100 kg.
In 1940, the production of 28 cm high explosive and 32 cm incendiary mines began (28 cm WK. And 30 cm WK.). Both had the same engine, but differed in weight, size and warhead filling.
32-cm mines in packing boxes at a firing position (Germany)
The affected area by the shrapnel of a high-explosive mine reached 800 m. With a direct hit of one into the house, it was completely destroyed.
32-cm incendiary mines were loaded with 50 liters of oil. When shooting at a dry meadow or forest, one caused a fire on an area of 200 square meters. m with flames up to two to three meters high. The explosion of a kilogram explosive shell of a mine created an additional fragmentation effect.
The minimum tabular firing range for both mines was 700 m, but it was not recommended to shoot at a distance of less than 1200 m for reasons of personal safety.
The simplest launcher for 28 and 32-cm mines was the heavy throwing device mod. 40 and arr. 41 AD, which was a wooden or iron frame on which there were four mines in the boxes. The frame could be installed at different angles, which made it possible to give the PU guidance angles from + 5 ° to + 42 °. The 28 and 32 cm capping boxes were wooden frames with the same outer dimensions.
To increase mobility six throwing devices mod. 1940 or 41 mounted on half-track armored vehicles (special vehicle 251).
Since 1941, the troops began to receive large quantities of a heavy throwing unit arr. 41 g (28/32 cm Nb. W. 41) of the honeycomb type, which, in contrast to frame installations, mod. 40 and 41 years. non-detachable wheel travel. The installation had a barrel truss with 6 guides, in which both 28-cm and 32-cm mines could be placed. The barrel truss was a two-tier structure made of bar and angle steel. The weight of the launcher was 500 kg, which made it easy for the crew to roll it across the battlefield.
The 8-cm rocket, created by the Germans on the basis of the 82-mm Soviet M-8 projectile, stands apart. It was the only German feathered projectile that fired from a beam-type launcher. Such launchers with 48 guides were installed on captured French tanks "Somua" (German name 303). In addition, a launcher with 24 guides was installed on the already mentioned Multir armored vehicles.
8 cm shells were used mainly by the Waffen SS.
15-cm "Ivan" on "Multira"
"Multi" at the time of launching a 15 cm mine
Rocket launcher of the 1942 model based on the Multir armored personnel carrier
"Multir" - a trophy of the Soviet Army
Heavy throwing installation of 28 cm caliber, sample 1941 (Germany). Captured by the Allies in Normandy
German rocket launcher for a feathered 8-cm projectile - a copy of the Soviet M-8
And finally, a fundamentally new system was the 38 cm RW rocket launcher. 61 on a special tank "Sturmtiger". Unlike all previous rocket launchers, it is not designed for salvo fire across areas, but for firing single projectiles at a specific target. High-explosive turbojet projectile 38 cm R. Sprgr. 4581 was fired from a 2054 mm long rifled barrel with an initial velocity of only 45 m / s. Then the jet engine accelerated the projectile to a speed of 250 m / s. Loading was carried out from the breech, for which the PU (the Germans sometimes called it a mortar) had a horizontal wedge breech. The PU lifting mechanism allowed an elevation angle of up to + 85 °.
The weight of the installation was 65 tons, the frontal armor was 150-200 mm. Transportable ammunition load of 14 rounds. The maximum travel speed is up to 40 km / h.
In 1944-1945, the Henschel company produced 18 Sturmtiger installations.
At the very end of the war, the Germans created a 38-cm wheeled howitzer that fired a 680-mm rocket projectile.
In early February 1944 g. Krupp began designing the R. Wa ultra-long-range missile system. 100. It was supposed to have a thin-walled rifled barrel, from which a small expelling charge would throw out a turbojet projectile. At a distance of about 100 m, the sustainer engine began to work, accelerating it to 1000 m / s. The main purpose of the system was shooting across the English Channel. Variants with 540 and 600-mm barrels were being worked out, the weight of the explosive in the projectile was supposed to be about 200 kg. As a launcher, it was envisaged to use a converted railway transporter 24-cm cannon "Theodore" or a reinforced chassis of a 60-cm self-propelled gun "Karl". The Germans managed to bring the work to the stage of prototyping. After the end of the war, these studies were used in the design in 1945-1946. a similar 56 cm system. RAC in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany.
German rockets data (min)
Production of German launchers
Production of rockets (min)
German six-barreled mortar Nebelwerfer 41 "Ivan"
A volley of a battery of German rocket launchers Nebelwerfer 41 near Demyansk
Soviet soldiers with captured German rocket-propelled 150-mm mortar "Nebelwerfer 41"
M-31 shells in packing boxes at the firing position
Towards the end of the war, German designers created an 80-mm multiple launch rocket system based on captured French medium-sized half-track armored personnel carriers S303 (f) and S307 (f) for 48 Raketensprenggranate missiles (8cm RSprgr.). These machines were in service with the SS troops. The missiles were almost an exact replica of the Soviet M-8 missile known as the Katyusha. In total, the Germans created 6 machines to launch these missiles. Initially, these vehicles were tested as part of the Waffen SS, and then were transferred to the Schnelle brigade West (21. PzDiv.).
Guards rocket launcher BM-31-12 in Berlin. This is a modification of the famous "Katyusha" rocket launcher (by analogy it was named "Andryusha"). It fired with 310 mm projectiles (as opposed to 132-mm Katyusha projectiles), launched from 12 honeycomb-type guides (2 tiers of 6 cells in each). The system is located on the chassis of the American Studebaker US6 truck, which was supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease.
