The entire course of World War II demonstrated that not only weapons systems with excellent characteristics, but also fairly cheap, simple solutions can be effective on the battlefield. So, a small-sized anti-tank mine was able not only to seriously damage the enemy's tank, but also to completely destroy it if it went well, and a simple concrete pyramid could become an insurmountable obstacle for armored vehicles. Among the simple and at the same time effective means of obstacles and weapons, anti-tank hedgehogs gained special fame during the war. Very simple and easy to manufacture, they seriously helped the Red Army in the battles of 1941 and even became one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War, which is captured in numerous photographs and newsreels of those years.
An anti-tank hedgehog is a simple anti-tank obstacle, usually a three-dimensional six-pointed figure. They began to be used in the construction of fortifications from the 1930s, for example, they were used on the border of Czechoslovakia and Germany. Anti-tank hedgehogs were inferior in efficiency to minefields, but they could be produced in very large quantities from scrap materials without the use of high technology and relatively easy to transfer from one sector of the front to another, which was especially valuable in wartime.
Apparently, the first attempt to use such an obstacle against tanks was made in Czechoslovakia (hence the English name for the obstacle - Czech hedgehog, "Czech hedgehog"). The design proposed by the engineers of this country repeated the principle of ancient slingshots, which were effectively used against cavalry for many centuries and have been known since the days of Ancient Rome. At the same time, the Czechs believed that the fence should be massive and absolutely motionless. Such an obstacle was imperfect also because a lot of time and money was spent in its production, since it was made using reinforced concrete.
A fundamentally new type of design of the anti-tank hedgehog was discovered by the Soviet Major General of the Engineering Troops Mikhail Gorikker. Gorikker was not only a good inventor, but also a brave soldier. Born back in 1895 in the city of Berislav, Kherson province, he took part in the First World War, becoming a knight of two soldiers' St. George's crosses of the 3rd and 4th degree. From 1918 in the Red Army, he took part in the civil war. In the interwar period, he built a good military career, graduated from the Stalin Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army, served as a military engineer for the Red Army motorized combat troops, commanded experimental tank units, served as head of the Moscow Tank Technical School.
In June 1941, Mikhail Gorikker was the head of the Kiev tank-technical school, after the outbreak of the war he was appointed head of the Kiev garrison, as well as the head of the city's defense. Already on the 12th day of the war, July 3, 1941, he designed and calculated his own version of the anti-tank hedgehog, which allowed him to go down in the history of wars in the 20th century. Its engineering fence, also known as the "Gorriker's star", played a significant role in the battles of 1941 in the defense of Odessa, Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad, Sevastopol and in other operations of the Great Patriotic War.
The revolutionary idea of General Gorikker was that the anti-tank hedgehog was not fixed in place, like its Czech counterparts, and also did not dig into the ground like gouges. When hitting such an obstacle, the hedgehog began to roll, gradually raising the combat vehicle above the ground. When trying to "get off" the hedgehog, the tank often could not do it on its own. The mobility of hedgehogs was revolutionary and ran counter to the numerous static anti-tank obstacles of those years. Under the onslaught of an enemy tank, the anti-tank hedgehog turned over, finding itself under its bottom. As a result, the combat vehicle was lifted off the ground, very often hitting such an obstacle was accompanied by the failure of the chassis. At the same time, German tanks with a front-mounted transmission were especially vulnerable to hedgehogs, since hitting them could disable it. In the most favorable situation for the defending troops, under the influence of its own mass, a tank sitting on a hedgehog could pierce the bottom and could not continue its further movement.
The tests carried out have shown that the design of the "six-pointed sprocket" (this is how Gorikker called his invention, which is why in some military documents it was referred to as "Gorikker's asterisk") is effective. The optimal material for the manufacture of such anti-tank barriers was a steel I-profile, and the best way to connect structural elements was riveted scarves. In practice, in real conditions, hedgehogs were very often made from everything that was at hand - various corners, a channel or rail, which were often connected to each other by ordinary welding, even without kerchiefs. During the Great Patriotic War, anti-tank hedgehogs (quite often made not according to the rules - very large, interconnected or not strong enough) were used very actively, including in urban battles, becoming one of the symbols of war, which today can be found in any feature film about those events.
When making "hedgehogs" on the ground, there were very often cases when their design was violated, a common mistake was to increase their size - one and a half, or even two times. Such an error deprived the design of the intended purpose of the inventor. The main essence of the anti-tank barrier was that it had to be higher than the tank's clearance, but at the same time lower or equal in height to the upper edge of the lower frontal armor plate. Only under such conditions could the obstacle be turned over, and not budged by the tank. The idea was supported by calculations and tests. The maximum height of the hedgehog was supposed to be - from 0.8 to 1 meter. The most rational arrangement of such obstacles on the ground was also taken into account: 4 rows in a checkerboard pattern. The simplicity of the design of this obstacle made it possible to provide the Red Army with a new anti-tank obstacle in a short time in the difficult 1941 year, and the weight of the structure made it easy to install and sufficiently mobile.
Tests of hedgehogs took place as early as July 1-3, 1941 at a small tankdrome of the Kiev Tank Technical School, where a commission specially arrived and several "Gorikker stars" were delivered. It is interesting that the anti-tank barriers were made from scrap rail. As it turned out later, the origin of the raw materials did not particularly affect the invention itself. As tanks, which were supposed to try to overcome such an obstacle, light vehicles were used - T-26 and BT-5. The result of the passage of tanks over a four-row anti-tank obstacle was remarkable for the inventor and his brainchild. During the first attempt to overcome the obstacle, the T-26 tank lost the oil pump hatch, the oil pipes were damaged. As a result, after 3-5 minutes, all the oil from the engine leaked out, which led to the forced stop of the combat vehicle. It took several hours to repair the damage caused by the hedgehogs. BT-5 performed better. Having dispersed, this light tank was able to overcome a series of "stars". But this trick cost him the bent bottom of the hull, which was reflected in his control and the operation of the side clutches. The tank needed a two-hour repair.
The very first real tests showed that new anti-tank obstacles can disable armored vehicles, confirming their effectiveness. At the same time, the testers of the tankodrome of the Kiev Tank Technical School were instructed to develop the optimal procedure for placing such an obstacle on the ground. As a result, a recommendation was made to place anti-tank hedgehogs in rows every 4 meters, and the distance along the front between adjacent obstacles should be one and a half meters for the front row and 2-2.5 meters for the remaining rows. With such an arrangement, having accelerated and overcame the first row of hedgehogs, the tank could no longer continue to move at a given speed and simply got stuck between the rows of obstacles, along the way it could get damage to the hull or internal units, and also became a convenient target for the anti-tank weapons of the defending side.
Based on the results of tests carried out in early July, the commission recognized the obstacle in the form of six-pointed stars as an effective anti-tank barrier. A recommendation was made to widely apply it in the strip of fortified areas, defile and in especially important areas. The conclusion also contained approximate calculations. So the number of "stars" per kilometer of the front was estimated at 1200 pieces. The average weight of the lightweight design, produced using welding, was 200-250 kg. At the same time, it was especially emphasized that the design can be produced by any plant in large quantities. It was also noted that they can be transported to the place of application in finished form by road and rail.
The defense zone of anti-tank hedgehogs, installed in four rows in a checkerboard pattern, became a very serious obstacle for enemy tanks. Which either got stuck in them, trying to overcome them, or became an easy target for artillery. The fence turned out to be so perfect that in the future the design was not even finalized. Anti-tank hedgehogs became one of the symbols of the battle for Moscow in the fall-winter of 1941. Only on the near approaches to Moscow, about 37.5 thousand of such obstacles were installed.
True, the Germans quickly assessed the impact of the novelty on their tanks and came to the decision that first it was worth making passes through such obstacles and only then moving forward, and not immediately trying to get over them. They were also helped by the fact that the hedgehogs were not in any way attached to the surface on which they were installed. Using a couple of three tanks, the Germans could, with the help of ordinary cables, quickly pull apart hedgehogs, creating a gap for the passage of armored vehicles. The Red Army countered this by installing anti-personnel mines next to anti-tank hedgehogs, and also, if possible, placing machine-gun points and anti-tank weapons near obstacles. So attempts to take away the installed hedgehogs by tying them to the tank could be severely punished by the defenders. Another technique that was designed to make it difficult to make passages in such a fence was tying hedgehogs to each other or tying them to a variety of objects located on the ground. As a result, German sappers and tankers had to solve this "puzzle" with chains and cables on the spot, often doing it under enemy fire.
Currently, one of the most famous monuments that were unveiled in our country in honor of the events of the Great Patriotic War is the "Jerzy" monument, located at the 23rd kilometer of the Leningradskoe highway in the Moscow region. At the same time, the majestic monument in the form of three hedgehogs, which marked the line that the Germans were able to reach in 1941, keeps a secret. It contains the names of the creators of the monument, but there is no name of the inventor, who invented the design of the anti-tank hedgehog. The name of Mikhail Lvovich Gorikker was immortalized only in August 2013, when a memorial plaque in his honor was solemnly unveiled at a residential building in Moscow on Tishinskaya Square, where a military inventor lived.
