Catching up the "Wave" to the enemy's shore. Part one

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-11 04:35

Ferrying troops across water obstacles is one of the most difficult engineering tasks. The famous military engineer A. Z. Telyakovsky wrote in 1856: "Crossings made in the sight of the enemy belong to the most daring and difficult military operations."

Water obstacles are one of the most common obstacles encountered in the way of troops, and river crossings are among the most dangerous events. In addition, the equipment and maintenance of crossings is also a difficult task for engineering support in all types of modern combat, and especially in an offensive, since the enemy will seek to use water obstacles to delay attacking troops, disrupt the offensive or slow down its pace.

At the same time, there are two ways to overcome a water barrier - actually crossing and forcing. A crossing is a section of a water barrier with an adjacent terrain, provided with the necessary means and equipped for the crossing of troops in one of the possible ways, namely:

- landing on amphibious tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles (landing crossings);

- amphibious assault on landing craft and ferries (ferry crossings);

- on bridges (bridge crossings);

- on ice in winter;

- tanks in deep fords and under water;

- in shallow water ford;

Crossings are equipped and provided with crossing means depending on the nature of the subunits being transported and their weapons. At the same time, one should strive to ensure that subunits (crews, crews) are transported in full force with their standard combat equipment. This determines the type of crossing, its carrying capacity and the necessary engineering equipment.

Forcing is the overcoming by the advancing troops of a water barrier (rivers, canals, bays, reservoirs), the opposite bank of which is defended by the enemy. The forcing differs from the usual river crossing in that the advancing troops, under enemy fire, overcome the water barrier, seize bridgeheads and develop a non-stop offensive on the opposite bank.

Forcing rivers is carried out: - on the move; - with systematic preparation; - in a short time in conditions of direct contact with the enemy on the water line, as well as after an unsuccessful crossing of the river on the move.

Thus, the success of combat operations when crossing water obstacles largely depends on equipping troops with means to overcome water obstacles, as well as on their level of development. Therefore, at all stages of the development of the Soviet Army, special attention was paid to these issues.

The Red Army inherited from the old Russian army an oar-pontoon park designed by Tomilovsky, light ferry means in the form of Ioloshin's canvas bags and Polyansky's inflatable floats.

These means were outdated, were in small quantities and did not correspond to the maneuverable nature of the Red Army's combat operations. The first steps in the development of new ferry facilities were made towards the creation of a park on inflatable boats, which was determined by the positive experience of the use of float assets by the Red Army during the Civil War, as well as the need to focus on the transportation of the park by horse transport.

In 1925, a fleet of A-2 inflatable boats with a wooden topside (deck) was developed and tested. The park made it possible to assemble ferries and build bridges with a carrying capacity of 3, 7 and 9 tons. Since 1931, the park (PA-3) on boats A-3, which provided the guidance of floating bridges with a carrying capacity of 3, 7, 9, became the service bridge for rifle divisions. and 14 tons. In 1938, after some modernization, which slightly increased the carrying capacity, it received the designation MdPA-3 (there is the designation MPA-3). The set was transported on 64 special carts or 26 not equipped vehicles.

In connection with the increase in the level of mechanization and motorization of the Red Army, with the appearance of tanks weighing up to 32 tons, etc. in 1928-29. work began on the search for new designs of pontoon - bridge facilities. The result of this work was the adoption of the Red Army in 1934-35. heavy pontoon park Н2П and light NLP. In these parks, for the first time, high-quality steels were used for the manufacture of the topside (girder), and for the motorization of crossings - tug boats.

However, the N2P and NLP parks did not allow equipping crossings across wide rivers in the presence of significant waves on the water, since they received a large roll, in which the movement of equipment was difficult and sometimes impossible. In addition, open pontoons were often flooded with water. With this in mind, in 1939, a special pontoon fleet SP-19 was adopted. The pontoons of the park were steel, closed and self-propelled.

The park included 122 self-propelled pontoons and 120 large span trusses. For the assembly of bridges and ferries, one railway crane served, also included in the park. Due to the large dimensions, the elements of the park were transported by rail. The span trusses were installed on boats and served as a carriageway for bridges.

During the war years, work continued on new and modernization of pre-war ferry facilities. Thus, a further modernization of the Н2П park was the TMP park (heavy bridge park), which differed from the Н2П by the presence of closed semi-pontoons.

At the end of 1941, a simplified version of the N2P and TMP parks appeared - a wooden bridge park DMP. In 1942, they developed the DMP park - 42 with a carrying capacity of up to 50 tons (at the DMP - up to 30 tons). In 1943, a light wooden park DLP was put into service, which had open glue pontoons.

The experience of using pontoon parks during the years of the Great Patriotic War showed that the work on the arrangement of crossings was poorly mechanized. All parks were multi-element, which increased the labor intensity of the work. Therefore, immediately after the war, in 1946 - 1948, work began on the development of new pontoon parks, and work began on the creation of self-propelled ferry vehicles.

In 1950, for the landing of infantry and light artillery systems, the K-61 tracked amphibious transporter and the large amphibious vehicle BAV were adopted.

In the early 1960s. they are being replaced by more advanced and higher carrying capacity self-propelled ferry GSP and floating conveyor medium PTS. The GSP was intended for transporting tanks, a PTS transporter for transporting personnel and artillery systems together with tractors (the tractor was transported directly on the transporter, and the gun on a special floating trailer).

In 1973, the PTS-2 floating transporter was put into service, and in 1974 - the SPP self-propelled pontoon fleet. The main element of the bridge in the SPP park was the PMM ferry-bridge vehicle, which is a special off-road vehicle with a sealed body and two pontoons. The PMM vehicle can also operate autonomously, providing a ferry for equipment weighing up to 42 tons. In addition to the PMM, in 1978 a tracked version of the PMM-2 self-propelled ferry was adopted.

The creation of self-propelled ferries PMM increased the rate of laying of bridges and ferries, and also significantly reduced the time of transition from bridge to ferry and vice versa.

Self-propelled ferries are designed for ferry and bridge crossing of heavy military equipment, primarily tanks. They can consist of one car or two cars with semi-ferries. The required carrying capacity and stability of self-propelled ferries is ensured by equipping the leading machine with additional containers (pontoons). The pontoons themselves can be rigid or elastic (inflatable). For loading equipment on additional ferries, ramps are hung, as a rule, of a gauge type.

In the Soviet Army, as mentioned above, self-propelled ferries GSP, PMM and PMM - 2 were in service. The main enterprise for the production, development, testing and modernization of the above ferries was the Kryukov Carriage Works, or rather the design department of the OKG - 2.

This is a brief history, and now about the main thing.

Once the chief designer of the special equipment of the Kryukov Carriage Works Evgeny Lenzius was asked: To this Evgeny Evgenievich replied:

But before "Volna - 2" there was a "Volna - 1" car. It all started with the idea that the idea of creating a machine capable of carrying a tank had been flying in the minds of designers for a long time. However, experts understood that to keep such loads on the water, additional sliding or inflatable containers were needed. But how to place them so that these containers can be used not only on the water, but also transported by railway, having entered into its dimensions, taking into account the ground clearance of the length of the railway platform? How do you get the car to be skewed so that it is streamlined and easy to move on land and water? How to get the required volume to create a buoyancy reserve when working on water with a load?

To address these and other issues, the Central Research Institute. Karbysheva designed and manufactured an experimental model of a machine with a longitudinal load collision and folding containers. It was a wheeled vehicle with an 8x8 formula based on a ZIL car, equipped with front and rear water jet engines. During the tests, a number of shortcomings were revealed: when driving on land, the panoramic visibility for the driver was unsatisfactory, the car hardly moored to the shore during the current, etc. These problems had to be solved. And they should have been solved in Kremenchug.

In 1972, the Kryukov Carriage Works received an assignment to develop a ferry-bridge machine under the code "Volna". The purpose of the machine is to provide ferry and bridge crossings over water obstacles for equipment and cargo weighing up to 40 tons.

It should be said that 40 tons is the carrying capacity of one machine. The terms of reference also provided for the possibility of docking individual PMM machines to form ferries of higher carrying capacity and solid bridge crossings across rivers with a current speed of up to 1.5 m / s.

The car was created on the basis of a car with an 8x8 wheel arrangement using components and assemblies of the BAZ-5937 wheeled vehicle. The car itself was commissioned to create the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant.

At the same time, it was decided to design the Volna vehicle (product 80) with a transverse load on the ferry. To obtain the required minimum buoyancy, it was decided to reduce the ground clearance by unloading the torsion bars and placing the wheels on the stop, reduce the pressure in the wheels, and make the car body and pontoons of aluminum alloy.

The "Volna" machine consisted of a leading machine (a sealed body), above which two pontoons were stacked, stacked one on top of the other. On land, the pontoons with the help of hydraulics opened one to the right, the other to the left, forming a cargo platform 9.5 m long. To roll cargo onto the platform, each pontoon was equipped with two ramps, which were laid on the shore, providing a ferry docking with the shore. Each ferry has docking devices, with the help of which the machines can be connected to each other. Thus, depending on the width of the water barrier, a floating bridge was formed, in which there were two, three or more cars.

In order to lighten the structure and meet the requirements for transportation of the car by rail, aluminum alloys were used in the manufacture of hulls and ferries, and all structural elements of the hull are made of alloy steel. At the same time, the complexity was caused by the connection of steel and aluminum elements. Since it was impossible to weld such a connection, bolts and rivets were used.

For the movement of the machine afloat, the Ministry of the Shipbuilding Industry developed special folding columns, which, with the help of remote control, ensured the movement of the machine on the water. However, during the tests, it was found that these columns do not provide the specified speed afloat and synchronization of movement. The plant abandoned these columns and developed its own design of propellers. They were a round nozzle in which a screw was placed. The attachment was attached to the body and had the ability to change its position. When driving on land, the nozzle was retracted into the recess of the hull at the stern of the machine, and when working on water, it was lowered down.

The body of the leading machine - a closed type all-welded structure made of aluminum alloy - has a three-seater enclosed fiberglass cabin and a roadway on which the transported equipment is located. The machine has intra-ferry and inter-ferry butt devices for connecting boats and the hull of the driving machine and forming a ferry with a single carriageway, as well as for connecting several ferries to each other in order to form a ferry with an increased carrying capacity or a floating bridge.

Movement on the water is provided by retractable propulsion and steering devices in the form of two propellers with a diameter of 600 mm in guide nozzles with water rudders.

When a prototype was assembled in 1974, as E. Lenzius recalled

The links of the park were docked to the machines using specially made transition elements - special floats with docking power elements. On one side they docked to the "Volna", and on the other to the links of the PMP park. Depending on the number of vehicles and units of the PMP, bridges of different lengths were created and a column of tanks passed through them. The bridges passed the test.

It is pertinent to note here that even at the stage of development of the technical design of the machine by the Leningrad Institute named after Krylov, studies of her behavior on the water were carried out. And at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, they studied the behavior of a car in the bridge line. Now all this has been confirmed in practice.

The main loads in the bridge line were borne by the joint beams. Each such beam, before being installed in the body, underwent bench strength tests and laboratory tests by strain gauging, i.e., when sensors were glued to all power elements, which showed the voltage on one or another section of the beam under various loads.

The new car had characteristics unheard of at that time. The time for the formation of the ferry, starting from the moment the machine approached the water's edge and until it took over the load, was 3 - 5 minutes. Assembly time for a 100 m long bridge - 30 min. The speed of movement on the water of a ferry from one car with a load of 40 tons is 10 km / h. The crew of the car consisted of three people - the driver, the pontoon and the vehicle commander. Each car was equipped with radio communication and an intercom.

A pumping system was provided at the PMM: one motor pumped water out of the hull, the other from the pontoon. In addition, the Volna pontoons were filled with foam, which increased their unsinkability. For the first time, fiberglass was used for the cabin, it came out lighter and stronger. For the manufacture of the cabin, a special blank was made, which was pasted over with several layers of fiberglass.

After all the necessary tests, PMM "Volna" was put into service, and in 1978 production was launched at the Stakhanov Carriage Works.

On the basis of the PMM "Volna" vehicle, a pontoon-bridge park SPP was created, which included 24 PMM amphibians with coastal and transitional links, which, depending on combat requirements, could be quickly transformed into separate ferries or used for the construction of temporary belt bridge crossings. When two or three ferries were connected, large self-propelled transport and landing vehicles with a carrying capacity of 84 and 126 tons were formed, and from the entire set of the fleet it was supposed to assemble a 50-ton bridge up to 260 m long within 30-40 minutes.

The SPP park was put into service, but in operation it turned out to be impractical and unadapted to perform its main functions. An important design mistake of the PMM machines was the uncovered drive wheels, which significantly increased the resistance afloat and reduced controllability. However, the inclusion of all wheels afloat could provide additional traction. The increased curb weight of ferries and low landing led to an increase in the specific pressure on the ground and a decrease in cross-country ability in the coastal zone (but this could be solved with the help of "pavement"), and their huge dimensions did not allow traveling on public roads and did not fit into the railway dimensions. In addition, PMM amphibians turned out to be the most complex, large and expensive ferry vehicles, unable to compete with traditional transported pontoons. With the advent of heavier military equipment, the use of the SPP fleet and PMM vehicles generally became impractical. Their release was carried out until the mid-1980s, and the total number of collected amphibians was calculated for the acquisition of one set of SPPs. Until now, PMM amphibians remain in service.

Also, the disadvantages of PMM can be attributed to the lack of protective weapons, which is a large and long-standing disadvantage of all engineering vehicles. This disadvantage is especially significant for machines that force water obstacles, i.e. troops operating in battle formations. Moreover, the PMM does not have at least any armor protection.