The first cannon shot at the territory of Nazi Germany was fired on August 2, 1944 from a 152 mm howitzer-gun. It was a weapon created back in 1937 by an outstanding artillery designer, the author of the world's best howitzers and corps guns during the Second World War.
Fedor Fedorovich Petrov - (16.02.1902 - 19.08.1978). A peasant's son, a Red Army soldier, a worker of the faculty, a university student, head of the assembly section of a shop, a senior design engineer - a typical biography of an engineer in the 1930s - 40s. And then - his own way: the head of the OKB, the chief designer of the plant number 171 in Motovilikha (Perm), then the plant number 9 in Sverdlovsk (the former workshop of "Uralmash"), which produced artillery pieces, doctor of technical sciences, professor, lieutenant general, laureate Lenin and four Stalin prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor.
Its powerful cannons were installed on IS tanks (caliber 122 mm), self-propelled guns SU-85, ISU-122, as well as on ISU-152, nicknamed "St. John's wort" (the Germans called her "canned food opener"). His 122-mm case gun of the 1937 model is still in combat formation. His 152-mm howitzer, which is still in service with many countries, was created in just two weeks. About his 122-mm howitzer, model 1938, the former commander of the artillery of the Leningrad Front, Marshal of artillery G. Odintsov, years after the war, said: "There can be nothing better than it." Its guns played a primary role in the offensive half of the war, when it was necessary to break into the powerful fortifications of the enemy.
Everything created in the small Petrov Design Bureau was distinguished by the simplicity of manufacture and unification of parts (and hence the low cost of mass production), simplicity and reliability in operation, i.e. reliability in battle and, of course, high fighting qualities. During the war years, 60 thousand of its guns were manufactured. Only the guns of V. G. Grabin (which had a smaller caliber and more widespread use) were released more.
Most of the post-war tanks (T-64, T-72, T-80, T-90) were and are equipped with 100 and 125 mm cannons designed by OKB-9 Petrov. As in the war years, in terms of their tactical and technical data, reliability and survivability, simplicity of the device and ease of operation, all these weapons are better than their foreign counterparts. From 1955 to the end of the 60s, OKB-9, in addition to barrel artillery, developed missile systems for the Ground Forces, missile armament for cruising submarines and anti-submarine missile systems "Vyuga".
Fedor Fedorovich once said:
“In one of the magazines they wrote that there is a spark of God in me. If I had read this text in a manuscript, I would have removed it. Very often it is emphasized that an innate talent is needed for creativity. A man made a good cannon - so this is supposedly intended for him. I wrote a clever book - this is almost from God. And I would always put forward the ability to work in the first place. Talent without hard work is a hundred times worse than hard work without talent ».
Indeed, he was overwhelmed with hard work, but he still possessed a unique intuition - what is called "from God." His successor as General Designer of Plant No. 9 recalled: “Often his ideas were ahead of their time. Many artillery systems, which were put into service in the 70s and 80s, were developed at OKB-9 much earlier, but for the time being they remained unclaimed."
Fyodor Fedorovich was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, but he is remembered both in the Tula region, where he was born, and in Yekaterinburg, where he created the weapon of Victory.
