Caliber is the diameter of the barrel of an artillery gun, as well as a pistol, machine gun, and hunting rifle. Anyone who, in one way or another, is connected with military affairs, is familiar with this term, knows what it is, and knows, of course, that aircraft cannons and machine guns have one caliber, and the other on ships. Well, what calibers exist in military affairs in general and how many are there in total? The answer to this question will not be as simple as it seems, first of all, because there are a lot of calibers. Well, just a lot, and not always they were due to some special considerations - that's how! And since all this "riot of calibers" is directly related to the development of military technology, we decided to tell you about it. At the same time, start with the cannons, because the calibers of small arms are a separate topic of their own.
So, the calibers of the guns … But what can be the minimum caliber to say for sure: this is a gun, and this is a machine gun? Experts argued about this for a long time and decided this: everything smaller than 15 mm is a machine gun, but everything larger is a cannon! Since the most common caliber of aircraft guns during the Second World War was 20 mm, therefore, the smallest gun will have a bore diameter of 20 mm, although there are exceptions. The most famous is the Japanese anti-tank rifle, created in the early 30s of the twentieth century. of this caliber. It was the heaviest anti-tank gun in the world, but since it was still a “gun”, two people could carry it. A large caliber means great armor penetration, but in general it did not justify itself, since the speed of its armor-piercing bullet was not very high, and this is a very important indicator for this type of weapon!
M61 Vulcan
On the other hand, there are many known 20-mm automatic aircraft cannons, and the most famous of them is the Vulcan automatic cannon, developed in the United States for arming aircraft and helicopters, as well as anti-aircraft artillery systems on armored personnel carriers and ships. In the second film about the Terminator, you can see how such systems work, although in reality a person cannot withstand the recoil of such a weapon and cannot.
And not only cannons, but even a machine gun! “You have 20, - decided our military, having got acquainted with German aircraft cannons during the Great Patriotic War, - but we will have 23-mm!” And such a gun with a heavier, and therefore more destructive projectile, brand VYa was created and stood on many of our aircraft, including the IL-2 attack aircraft. And in other countries, aircraft and anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 25 and 27 mm were developed, until, finally, the 30-mm caliber replaced all the others. However, it is known that larger-caliber guns were also installed on planes: 35, 37, 40, 45, 50, 55 and even 75-mm, which turned them into a real "flying artillery". However, for aircraft, they all turned out to be too heavy, which is why today the military settled on a 30-mm caliber …
But on land and at sea, 23, 25, 35 and 37 mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as 40-mm, were very popular and remain so today, but only 25-mm today is found mainly on the American BMP " Bradley ". We meet 35-mm anti-aircraft guns on the German "Cheetah" and the Japanese "Type 87" SPAAG. The 45-mm caliber was very popular in the Red Army, where anti-tank guns - "magpies" were its main means of fighting German tanks almost throughout the Great Patriotic War. But in other armies of the world this caliber did not know, except that in Italy there was such a mortar. But there, from Sweden to Japan, 37, 40 and 47 mm anti-tank guns were distributed, as well as 57 mm - a caliber that appeared in our country during the war. Known calibers 50, 51 and 55 mm, but they were not widely used. Caliber 50 and 51 mm belong to modern light mortars in foreign armies. 60-mm is also a "mortar" caliber, but already 64-mm is a quite serious artillery system - the caliber of the first rapid-fire guns in Russia designed by Baranovsky, which had a recoil brake and a reel! 65mm is the caliber of light Spanish howitzers, and 68mm is the caliber of Austrian mountain guns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 73-millimeter guns "Thunder" were on the first Soviet BMP and BMD, but this caliber somehow did not take root in our country. But many people know about the Russian "three-inch" machine from the Putilov plant.
Baranovsky rapid-fire cannon
However, the caliber equal to 75 mm, which is not very different from it, is better known all over the world. The first French rapid-fire cannon of Puteaux and Duport, model 1897, had such a personal one, and already our 76, 2-mm cannon was its direct successor. And that's why "three inches" is understandable. In Russia, as in many other countries in the nineteenth century. gun calibers were then measured in inches, not millimeters. One inch is 25.4 mm, which means that three inches will be exactly equal to 76.2 mm!
The German gun - the enemy of our three-inch gun on the battlefields of the First World War - had a caliber of 77 mm, and in general calibers 75 and 76, 2 are the most common calibers in the world. It was these guns that were also produced as mountain, trench, tank, field and anti-aircraft guns, although exceptions are known. For example, the 70-mm caliber had an English mountain cannon, and the same caliber was found in the Japanese Type 92 infantry gun, which was actively used during the Second World War. Interestingly, it is still in service in China and Vietnam, primarily because it is ideal for small soldiers! By the way, for the same reason, the weight of the shells of this gun was 3, 8 kg for the Japanese, but for the British - 4, 5! Interestingly, the same Englishmen had one more dimension for their guns, but not in inches, but traditionally in pounds by the weight of the projectile. However, it turned out that this is not very convenient and sometimes leads to confusion. So, the British three-inch gun BL Mk2, used in the British army during the Anglo-Boer War, was called 15-pound, but the gun of exactly the same caliber during the First World War was 13-pound, and only because it had a lighter projectile! By the way, in Germany, the calibers of guns were traditionally measured not in millimeters or inches, but in centimeters, and, accordingly, they were also designated in them.
81 and 82 mm are traditionally mortar calibers. Moreover, 81-mm was adopted abroad, but 82-mm - with us. It is believed that this was done so that their mines could be fired from our mortars, but ours cannot be shot from their mortars! Of course, in combat conditions it is beneficial, although the accuracy of shooting when using "not their" mines and slightly decreased.
Then there are medium calibers such as 85, 87, 6, 88, 90 and 94 mm, which are very common both in the field troops and in the tank. The 85-mm is a Soviet anti-aircraft gun and the T-34/85, 87, 6-mm tank gun is an English 25-pounder Mk2 howitzer-cannon that fired from a base plate, which allowed it to rotate 360 degrees, and the 88-mm the caliber had the famous German anti-aircraft gun "eight-eight". It was also the caliber of the Tiger tanks and the Ferdinand self-propelled guns. The 3, 7-inch or 94-mm gun is an anti-aircraft gun of the British air defense in 1937-1950, with a reach of 10 kilometers. But the 90-mm gun was on the American tank "Pershing", which appeared at the very end of the Second World War.
Calibers 100, 102, 105, 107 mm were very popular both in the army and in the navy. The 106-mm recoilless gun is also known, but the 105 and 107-mm cannons were also recoilless. As for rifled guns, they were installed on ships (as the main caliber on light cruisers and destroyers and auxiliary on large ones) and on tanks. Moreover, 105-mm tank guns became the answer of foreign tank builders to the 100-mm caliber of tank guns adopted in our country. When the 105-mm caliber "went" there, we put 115-mm guns on our tanks, and then 125-mm guns! But the caliber 114-mm guns had British field howitzers, and they were also put on the so-called "artillery boats"! It is interesting that such a howitzer was for some reason in the storehouse of the historical museum in Kazan. Or is it not worth it now?
120-mm is a typical mortar caliber, but the same guns were on ships (in particular in the USSR, they were used on monitors and gunboats), and on heavy foreign tanks. But 122-mm howitzers existed only in Russia. Caliber 127-mm - had universal guns on US warships and heavy British guns used both by the British army and in the artillery of the Red Army. 130-mm - the caliber of Soviet naval, coastal and tank guns. 135, 140, 150, 152-mm are the calibers of the cruisers' guns. Moreover, 152-mm - "six-inch" - for a long time was considered the most massive and was also installed on battleships, while 140-mm is the caliber of promising tank guns currently being developed to replace the outdated 120-mm guns.
mortar MT-13
At the same time, 152 and 155-mm are the calibers of heavy howitzers and guns in the ground forces, including self-propelled ones. 160-mm - the caliber of our Soviet (as well as Israeli and Chinese) MT-13 mortars, as well as some naval guns on cruisers and battleships. But on our ships such guns did not stand. 175-mm - on the contrary, it was never used at sea, but the Americans used it in their heavy self-propelled artillery system M107. 180, 190 and 195-mm - again the calibers of naval guns, standing on the cruisers, but 203-mm - the famous "Washington caliber" of heavy cruisers. However, it was (and still have) some ground heavy weapons of the ground forces, designed to suppress and destroy the enemy at a great distance or destroy especially strong fortifications. For example, this is our "Peony". 210-mm is also the caliber of high-power land guns, which were in service with the Red Army and the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
"Pion". 210 mm
The diameter of the barrel bore equal to 229, 234, 240, 254-mm had naval and coastal guns. In particular, our "Tulip" mortar has a caliber of 240 mm. But calibers 270 and 280-mm also belonged to land mortars and long-range guns of battleships and battleships. "Twelve inches" - 305-mm - the most common main caliber on battleships and battleships, but also in coastal and railway artillery, and, in addition, it was also the caliber of heavy howitzers of the reserve of the High Command and individual artillery divisions of special power.
However, soon after its appearance on ships, the twelve-inch caliber ceased to satisfy the naval artillerymen, and from 1875 they began to install more and more powerful guns on the ships. At first, 320, 330, 340, 343, 356, 381-mm - this is how they gradually became more and more, while the shells for them became heavier and more deadly. At the same time, the American land siege mortar, first installed on a railway platform in 1865, had a 330-mm caliber, but many railway guns had 356-mm caliber. The shell of such a gun could weigh 747 kg, and fly out of the barrel at a speed of 731 m / s!
The lifting mechanism of the French heavy 240-mm cannon of the Saint-Chamon concern, model 84/17, captured by the Germans
The caliber of 400 mm was also at the railway gun - the French heavy cannon of the Saint-Chamon company, model 1916. The range of its shot was 16 km. The projectile weight was 900 kg. 406, 412 and 420-mm are the calibers of naval weapons-monsters with barrels weighing over 100 tons! An experienced 406-mm cannon is still at the training ground near S. Petersburg, our post-war self-propelled gun "Condenser" had the same caliber. 412-mm guns were on the British battleship Benbow. 420-mm - guns of the French battleship "Cayman" (1875), and the German heavy field mortar "Big Bertha", which fired shells weighing 810 kg. It is also the caliber of the Soviet post-war self-propelled mortar "Oka". The 450mm guns were the main caliber of the Italian battleships Duilio and Dandolo. Finally, the largest in weight were the 457-mm guns of the Japanese battleship Yamato (and of the same type as Musashi), of which she had nine pieces: a kind of record and now not broken by any other country in the world. But these are not the largest weapons. An even larger caliber, equal to 508-mm, had the guns of American monitors of the period of the American Civil War. Moreover, they sent nuclei weighing 500 kg to the target. They were lifted with a special crane installed inside the tower, by the ears cast on their body, and rolled inside along a special tray inserted into the barrel. The impact force of such nuclei was truly monstrous, but they were only made of cast iron, therefore, hitting sufficiently strong armor, they often simply split, which is why they were abandoned in favor of projectiles with a pointed head.
ACS "Condenser"
On land, guns of larger calibers also existed in abundance. For example, back in 1489 in Flanders, the 495-mm Mons Mag cannon was manufactured, with an unscrewing charging chamber, but the mortar of the Rhodes Knights, which has also survived to this day, was even larger - 584-mm! They had no less powerful cannons in the 15th century. and the opponents of the Christians of that time - the Turks, who fought with Constantinople, as well as with the Knights of Malta. So, during his siege in 1453, the Hungarian foundry Urban cast them a copper bombard of 610 mm caliber, which fired stone cannonballs weighing 328 kg. In 1480, during the siege of the island of Rhodes, the Turks used bombards with a caliber of 890 mm. In response, the Rhodes knights managed to cast the exact same caliber mortar "Pumhard", which threw its stone cannonballs steeply upward, which was more convenient for the Europeans, while the Turks had to shoot from the bottom up. This also includes our legendary Tsar Cannon, which had an initial barrel diameter of 900 mm, and the final one, near a very narrow charging chamber - 825 mm!
Mons Mag
"Tsar Cannon"
But the biggest cannon (and not the bombard!) Was cast by the order of the Indian Raja Gopola in 1670. True, it is inferior in caliber to the Tsar Cannon, but surpasses it in weight and barrel bore length! The German self-propelled guns "Karl" originally had a caliber of 600-mm, but after the first barrels became unusable, they were replaced with new 540-mm ones. The famous "supergun" "Dora" had a caliber of 800 mm and was a gigantic railway transporter with its own bakery and bathhouse, not to mention air defense equipment. But the largest ground weapon was still not she, but the American installation "Little David" with a caliber of 914 mm. Initially, it was used for the experimental throwing of aerial bombs; during their tests, it replaced the bomber plane. At the end of the war, they tried to use it to destroy ground Japanese fortifications, but the war ended before this idea actually worked.
"Little David" caliber 914-mm
However, this tool is not the largest in terms of the bore diameter! The largest-caliber mortar of the Englishman Robert Mallet of 920-mm caliber, created back in 1857, is rightfully considered. But, by the way, also not! Indeed, in Jules Verne's novel Five Hundred Million Begums, a much more monstrous cannon is described, with one shot of which the evil Professor Schulze intended to destroy the whole city of Franceville. And although this is not the best of Jules-Verne's novels, the cannon located in the Tower of the Bull is described in it in sufficient detail and skillfully. And, nevertheless, this is still fiction, but "Little David" can be seen with your own eyes on the open area of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in the United States.
Interestingly, during the Second World War, the so-called bicaliber guns appeared, that is, guns with a tapered bore. At the entrance to it there was one caliber, but at the exit there was another - smaller! They used the "Gerlich principle": when the tapered barrel compresses the bullet to a slightly smaller diameter. In this case, the pressure of gases at its bottom increases, and the initial velocity and energy increase. A typical representative of such weapon systems was the German 28/20-mm (28-mm at the entrance to the cone, and 20-mm at the muzzle) anti-tank gun. With a weight of the gun itself of 229 kg, its armor-piercing projectile had a speed of 1400 m / s, which was an order of magnitude higher than other similar weapons at that time gave. But this achievement came at a high cost to the Germans. Tapered barrels were difficult to manufacture, and they wore out much faster. Shells for them are also much more difficult, but they hold less explosives than ordinary, caliber ones. That is why, in the end, they had to abandon them, although a certain number of them even participated in the battles.
2, 8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41
Most likely, this is not a complete list, but it is sufficient for a conclusion. And what is the conclusion? Only the fact that almost any "hole in the pipe" can be made firing, it would be only a desire! After all, the same Japanese, for example, even made cannons from tree trunks even in 1905, and they fired from them, although, of course, not with cannonballs, but incendiary shells from pieces of bamboo trunks.
