Fortifications are very important, as they protect personnel and military equipment during the conduct of hostilities. One of the simplest types of fortifications is trenches. A trench is a fortification earthen structure, which is designed for the covered movement of personnel on the battlefield, as well as firing small arms, observing and controlling the battle. Trenches can be equipped with platforms for installing machine guns, cells for shooters, as well as the simplest shelters for unit personnel.
In appearance, any trench is a ditch of a certain length, which is dug into the ground. If its main task is to ensure the covert movement of personnel, various ammunition and other types of materiel along the front line or to the rear, protected from enemy fire, then they are called "communication trenches." If the section of the trench is intended for small arms fire and is equipped with positions for firing from automatic weapons, grenade launchers and other small arms, as well as, if possible, various shelters for personnel (cracks, shelters, dugouts), then this section is called a "small arms trench" or just a "trench". For example, "a trench for a motorized rifle squad."
Over time, a need arose in the armies of the world to equip troops with various trench excavators, which greatly simplified and accelerated the preparation of defensive lines. Initially, the equipment of troops with excavators was carried out on the basis of the selection and testing of national economic samples, but then (much later) - through the development of special military models. A similar situation was typical for all, without exception, classes of earth-moving military equipment, as well as other types of engineering army vehicles. The first trench excavators appeared in the USSR in the 30s of the last century.
During their existence, they have gone through a serious path of development. In 1978, a new trenching machine, TMK, was put into service. The TMK trenching machine is designed for digging trenches in non-frozen and frozen soils when equipping defensive positions of troops. This machine today belongs to a dual-use technique and, in terms of a set of its technical characteristics, it meets the army requirements and the requirements of the national economy as much as possible.
TMK is a wheeled tractor based on MAZ-538, which was equipped with equipment for digging trenches and special bulldozer equipment. This trenching machine allows you to dig trenches in soils up to category IV inclusive (oily clay with crushed stone, heavy clay, shale clay, with a density of up to 1900-2000 kg / m3). The machine is able to tear off full profile trenches with a depth of 1.5 meters in thawed soils at a speed of 700 meters per hour, in frozen soils at a speed of 210 meters per hour.
The machine is equipped with a bucketless rotary working body. The TMK working equipment includes - a hydraulic mechanism for raising and lowering the working body, mechanical transmission. On the frame of the working body, passive slopes are located, which ensure the formation of inclined walls at the trenches. The soil raised from the bottom of the trench with the help of throwers is scattered on both sides of the trench.
In addition, TMK has installed auxiliary bulldozer equipment with a blade width of 3 meters, which allows the machine to perform terrain leveling, backfilling of ditches, holes, as well as digging pits and perform similar work. The basic wheeled tractor MAZ-538, which has all-wheel drive, is equipped with a D-12A-375A engine, which develops a power of 375 hp. Initially, production was carried out at the Dmitrov excavator plant.
Currently, the Russian army is armed with the K-703MV-TMK-3 trench vehicle. This trenching machine, like its predecessors, consists of a base chassis, a rotary trenching implement and a bulldozer. At present, the Special Design Bureau of Transport Engineering from St. Petersburg is engaged in the production of this engineering machine. It was decided to abandon the MAZ chassis, this model uses the well-known and recognizable K-703MV wheeled tractor as the base chassis, which is maximally unified with the K-703M industrial tractor. The modern trenching machine TMK-3 is a high-performance, highly mobile earth-moving device that easily finds application not only in the Russian army, but also in the civil service.
The importance of earthmoving engineering technology
Currently, earthmoving equipment is in most engineering and sapper divisions and in all engineering and sapper divisions of combined arms units. This technique is mainly used to solve positional problems that are closely related to the construction of fortifications. Their main task is to help the combined-arms units "bury themselves in the ground." Often, for an infantryman, burrowing deeper into the ground is the only way to survive in battle. Even during the Second World War, the American General Bradley liked to repeat to his soldiers: "Dig, or they will bury you yourself."
At the same time, the "army" earthworks themselves do not differ so much from others. But there is still a difference. The thing is that, in addition to efficiency and productivity, other qualities are valued in military engineering technology. Despite the external similarity, civilian and military engineering equipment often have different performance characteristics. Moreover, their working bodies usually do not have fundamental differences. Moreover, for many decades there was no need for special army earth-moving equipment.
However, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, our command of the engineering troops made a conclusion about the installation of special equipment and machines on the most maneuverable and sufficiently high-speed chassis. Between 1940-60, with the aim of reducing the cost and unification, combat vehicles were adopted, which were already used in the troops (in other branches of the military). However, the events in Czechoslovakia clearly showed that the available engineering vehicles lag behind the combined arms units and subunits on the march. This became the starting point for the creation of military equipment specifically for the engineering troops.
However, the importance of earthmoving equipment should not be underestimated. The trench of a motorized rifle squad has a length of about 100 meters and requires 200-300 man-hours of labor to dig with small infantry shovels (better known as small sapper). Large shovels, which the infantry simply do not have, would take 100-150 man-hours. That is, a motorized rifle squad will open its trench within 2-3 days (minimum). Naturally, the enemy does not always give the infantry so much time to arrange positions. At the same time, a machine like TMK can do this job in 15-20 minutes. The infantrymen will only have to do the re-equipment of the positions: equip the rifle cells and dig the blocked slots. They will cope with this task in half a day. At the same time, the stronghold of a motorized rifle platoon has the length of the main trenches and communication trenches of about 900 meters. This is already 2.5-4 hours of work for TMK, or almost a week of hard work by the entire personnel of a motorized rifle platoon.
In this case, the trench is very important. According to operational-tactical standards, it ensures the stability of the defense 1: 3 or 1: 4, that is, a motorized rifle squad, buried in the ground, is able to repel an attack of a similar platoon. If we take into account the experience of both Chechen campaigns, then we can conclude that trained and resilient infantry, with a competent command, is able to keep the enemy at their trenches for weeks. It is no coincidence that in all wars, after a successful breakthrough of the defense, the military leaders demanded from their units persistent and round-the-clock pursuit of the retreating enemy units, even at the limit of their capabilities. The main thing is not to let the enemy stop. Allowing enemy infantry units to stop and dig even a little into the ground meant slowing down or stopping the offensive altogether. Therefore, the importance of such seemingly clumsy and "non-combat" vehicles like the TMK is very great.
