In the first years of its combat life, the machine gun seemed like a miracle weapon. Nevertheless, he also had disadvantages: the rate of fire was leveled by poor accuracy, ease of use in firing points - great weight, etc. In addition, the means of protection did not stand still, and not only foot or mounted soldiers appeared on the battlefield, but also crews of armored vehicles, protected from lead rain. The way out was obvious - the creation of specialized armor-piercing bullets and cartridges of a larger caliber. At the same time, the new large-caliber machine guns turned out to be more effective in the anti-aircraft aspect. But over time, the thickness of the protection of armored vehicles increased, and machine guns, even large-caliber ones, lost their ability to defeat it. It was necessary to look for a way out again.
The solution was the rejection of automatic fire and the creation of anti-tank rifles. Immediately before the Great Patriotic War, several types of these weapons were created in the Soviet Union, and two of them were put into service - the Simonov and Degtyarev rifles (PTRS and PTRD, respectively). Both guns, as well as the Vladimirov, Shpitalny, Rukavishnikov, etc., which were not put into production, were designed for the cartridge 14.5x114 mm. The power of the rifles with this cartridge was enough to penetrate the armor of German tanks, mainly the PzKpfw III and PzKpfw 38 (t) with their relatively thin armor. However, the armor of subsequent models of tanks was thicker and no longer so easily succumbed to anti-tank rifles. In this context, historians like to recall the letter of the front-line soldiers to the gunsmith V. A. Degtyarev, written in August 42nd: in it they expressed their views on heavy machine guns. The dream of the front-line soldiers was a machine gun with the penetrating characteristics of an anti-tank rifle. It could be used not only against enemy armored vehicles, but also against manpower and aircraft. Moreover, in the latter cases, its effectiveness would be greater than that of the existing DShK of 12.7 mm caliber.
The People's Commissariat of Arms and the Main Artillery Directorate took into account the soldier's opinion, and in December of the same year, requirements for a machine gun were formed; the already existing 14.5x114 mm was chosen as a cartridge for it. In 1943, at the Kovrov Plant No. 2 named. NS. Kirkizha was created three versions of the machine gun under the requirements of GAU. All of them had automation based on the removal of gases, but the shutter was locked in different ways. However, tests showed that gas automatics are not too friendly with a powerful 14, 5-mm cartridge: due to the high pressure of the gases, the piston jerked so sharply that problems began with the chambering of the cartridge and the extraction of the sleeve.
In May 43, a group of Kovrov designers from the Department of the Chief Designer (OGK) of Plant No. 2 under the leadership of S. V. Vladimirova took out from under the cloth a draft of the B-20 aircraft cannon. Despite the fact that the gun lost the competition to the Berezin B-20 gun last year, it was decided to take it as a basis. The main reason for turning to the B-20 lay in the system - this gun had automatic equipment with a short barrel stroke. Converting the cannon into a machine gun was tense, but fast - the war obliged not to delay. Already in November, the machine gun was sent for factory tests, and in February of the 44th it was installed on a universal (tripod and wheels) machine designed by Kolesnikov and sent to the Scientific Test Range of Small Arms and Mortars. Two months later, GAU demanded from the Kovrov plant to submit 50 machine guns on machine tools and one anti-aircraft installation for military trials. At the same time, the machine gun was named: "Vladimirov's large-caliber machine gun, model 1944" or simply KPV-44. However, the plant was loaded with work for the needs of the front and military trials began only after the Victory, in May 1945.
During military trials, the shortcomings of the universal machines were revealed: they were inconvenient in operation and, when firing, behaved, if not like the second machine gun from "Wedding in Malinovka" ("the other one jumps like crazy"), then at least unstable. I had to abandon a single machine tool for all machine gun variants. In the 46th, tests began at once for several anti-aircraft machines for KPV-44: single, double and quadruple, which later became the basis for the anti-aircraft installations ZPU-1, ZPU-2 and ZPU-4. All anti-aircraft machines are developed by OGK Plant No. 2. The infantry wheeled machine had to wait longer - until 1948. Then, from several options, a machine designed by A. Kharykin (Leningrad, OKB-43) was chosen, modified in Kovrov. Around the same time, column, turret and turret installations were created for the use of the checkpoint in the fleet.
Almost seven years after the legendary letter to Degtyarev - in 1949 - a large-caliber "anti-tank" machine gun was finally adopted.
When adopted for service, the KPV-44 received a new name: "Vladimirov's 14.5-mm heavy infantry machine gun" (PKP). Serial production of the PKP was started at the same Kovrov plant, which in 49 was named after V. A. Degtyareva. The developers of the machine gun and anti-aircraft machines - S. V. Vladimirov, A. P. Finogenov, G. P. Markov, I. S. Leshchinsky, L. M. Borisova, E. D. Vodopyanov and E. K. Rachinsky - received the Stalin Prize.
In the early 50s, the KPV-44 was modified for use on tanks, this modification was called the KPVT (KPV tank). For the possibility of installation on a turret, pivots or in a twin gun with a gun, an electric trigger was added, the receiver was shortened and the discharge of spent cartridges forward was added to a greater distance from the receiver.
Like the B-20 cannon, the Vladimirov machine gun has an automation based on the recoil of the barrel with a short stroke of the latter. The barrel is locked by turning the bolt, while only the combat larva turns directly. Turning, with its lugs (on the inner side of the larva, see the diagram), it winds over the lugs on the outer surface of the barrel breech. The striking protrusions of the larva and the barrel are intermittent threads, as on some artillery pieces. The larva has a pin that slides in the groove of the receiver - this ensures its rotation.
The KPV barrel can be quickly replaced and is attached to the receiver with a latch. When changing, the barrel is removed together with the perforated casing; for this, a special handle is provided on the casing. It can also be used to carry a machine gun. An expanding muzzle is located at the end of the barrel.
The ammunition supply of the machine gun is carried out from metal strips for 40 (PKP) and 50 (KPVT) rounds. The tape can be received from both sides - only a small re-installation of the tape receiver is required. However, of greater interest is the mechanism for feeding cartridges into the chamber. A special extraction bracket is located on the shutter. When the bolt moves back, it removes the cartridge from the tape. Further, the cartridge goes down to the level of the chamber and, when the bolt moves forward, is sent to it. The fired cartridge case goes down and is thrown out through the short tube of the cartridge case. At KPVT, it was slightly lengthened.
KPV can only conduct automatic fire, firing is conducted from an open bolt. The trigger mechanism is usually located separately: in the infantry version of the machine gun - on the machine, in the tank there is a remotely controlled electric trigger. The machine gun on an infantry machine for fire control has two vertical handles and a trigger between them. The machine gun is reloaded using a side handle (infantry version) or a pneumatic cylinder (KPVT). There is no own sight at the checkpoint, but an optical sight is available on the infantry machine. On anti-aircraft machines, in turn, the corresponding sights are installed.
For use in KPV, there are several options for the cartridge 14, 5x114 mm. They differ only in the types of bullets: from the armor-piercing B-32 and the incendiary MDZ to the sighting-incendiary ZP and even the combined armor-piercing chemical BZH. In the latter case, a small container with chloroacetophenone was placed in the bottom of the core: after breaking through the armor, the inside of the vehicle was filled with a lacrimator gas. This bullet was developed for anti-tank rifles, but was not widely used. After the appearance of the CPV, it also did not become a mass munition.
Separately, it is worth noting the indicators of armor penetration. In the early 70s, the Americans, not without chagrin, learned that the CPV, at a distance of about 500-600 meters, penetrates the frontal armor (38 millimeters) of the main US armored personnel carrier M113. It is believed that it was after this that the thickness of the armor began to grow and, as a result, the weight of NATO's light armored vehicles.
The KPV machine gun was supplied to more than three dozen countries. In addition to the USSR, the machine gun was produced in China and Poland. A similar situation has developed with the cartridge 14, 5x114 mm. At the moment, in different parts of the world, a huge number of CPVs of various modifications and on various machines are operated. Also, photographs regularly appear in the press, which show the checkpoint attached to the next "technical".
