After the Victory in 1945, there was a direct use by both the Soviet Union and the United States of the intellectual resources of the former enemy. In the USSR, scientists and engineers, exported from Germany in whole teams and individually, participated in the atomic project, the creation of rocket and aviation technology. This was all the more effective since the use of German vehicles and weapons is traditional for our country.
Anyone interested in the history of the Soviet military arsenal knows that the first guided ballistic missile, the R-1, entered service in 1950, is a copy of the German V-2 (V-2, A-4) by Werner von Braun. "V-2" was equipped with the first missile unit in the USSR - the RVGK special-purpose brigade, created in 1946 for testing them.
Reactive start
On the way to the creation of the R-1, the assembly of the A-4 was organized in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany and on the territory of the USSR, their test launches at the Kapustin Yar range took place in 1947. A total of 39 original V-2s were collected. German developments were also used to create other domestic combat missiles. On the basis of the V-1 (V-1) projectile type, the prototype air-to-ground and ground-to-ground controllable cruise missiles of the 10X family were created. On the basis of anti-aircraft guided missiles "Wasserfall", "Reintochter" and "Schmetterling", the first projects of the Soviet missiles R-101, R-102 and R-112 were worked out. They did not become combat models, but the experience gained proved to be a good help. In the first domestic air defense system S-25 "Berkut", which covered Moscow, there was definitely a German trace. As well as in the KSSH anti-ship missile system adopted for service.
Even during the war years, the troops of the Leningrad Front used heavy eres MTV-280 and MTV-320, created on the basis of captured German rockets, and launched with the help of special frames. These unguided rockets differed from our other rockets of that time in that they were stabilized in flight not due to the tail, but by the rotation of powder gases flowing from inclined holes. This ensured better accuracy of fire. Such eres were called turbojets, although they had nothing to do with aircraft engines. On the same principle, the M-14 (140 mm) and M-24 (240 mm) rockets for combat vehicles BM-14 and BM-24 on an auto chassis and BM-24T on a tracked tractor were developed and adopted in the 50s. …
For the sake of completeness, it should probably be mentioned that during the war the Germans also copied and launched into series, slightly modified, the Soviet feathered 82-mm M-8 rocket. With such eras 80 mm WGr. Spreng were equipped with self-propelled rocket artillery units (launchers on half-track armored personnel carriers) Waffen-SS. The Germans were also going to use 150-mm feathered eres on the basis of the captured "Katyushin" 132-mm M-13, but did not have time to bring their replica to mind.
And the German 158, 5-mm six-barreled towed rocket mortars 15 cm Nebelwerfer, known to the front-line soldiers as "donkey" and "Vanyusha", which fell into the possession of the USSR, were supplied to the DPRK during the Korean War of 1950-1953.
On the wings of a motherland
Back in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Red Army Air Force was armed with imported and assembled German aircraft - YUG-1 bombers (Junkers G-23), Fokker D-VII fighters, Fokker D- XI ", I-7 (" Heinkel HD-37 "), scouts" Fokker S-IV "," Junkers Ju-20, Ju-21 ". Until 1938, the RKKF aviation used shipborne flying reconnaissance boats KR-1 (Heinkel He-55), and until 1941 (in polar aviation until 1946), flying boats Dornier Do-15 Val. In 1939–1940, the USSR underwent comprehensive tests of the latest Dornier Do-215B and Junkers Ju-88 bombers, Heinkel He-100 and Messerschmitt Bf-109E fighters, supplied as samples by Hitler's Germany. and Messerschmitt Bf-110C, Messerschmitt Bf-108 and Fieseler Fi-156, training Bücker Bu131 and Bücker Bu133, Focke-Wulf Fw-58 Weiche and even helicopters Focke-Ahgelis Fa-266 ".
In the postwar period, the USSR adopted individual captured samples of German weapons and military equipment. For example, one of the Baltic Fleet fighter regiments was equipped with Focke-Wulf Fw-190D-9 fighters. Until the end of the 50s, the border troops used float reconnaissance aircraft "Arado Ar-196". The captured Junkers Ju-52 / 3m transport and passenger aircraft and at least one Dornier Do-24 seaplane were transferred to civil aviation.
The launch of the German turbojet engines Jumo-004 and BMW-003 (under the designations RD-10 and RD-20) into series in the USSR made it possible to start production of the first Soviet jet fighters Yak-15 and MiG-9 equipped with them, the latter having some features of the one developed in Germany "Messerschmitt R.1101".
Considered, but rejected, a proposal to establish production for the USSR Air Force of German jet fighters "Messerschmitt Me-262" "Schwalbe". The abandonment of the Me-262 can be considered not entirely thought out - after all, it was a machine ready for development by Soviet pilots, besides, allied Czechoslovakia had almost complete technology for its production. It could find application as a night interceptor equipped with a German "Neptune" type radar, meeting the requirements of the time up to the mid-50s, and as a fighter-bomber (modification of the "Sturmvogel") - up to the early 60s. The bomb load of a thousand kilograms exceeded that even of the MiG-15, -17 and -19 that appeared later. By the way, the Czechs themselves continued the production of the Me-262 for their Air Force under the designation S-92.
Germanic genes of post-war Soviet aircraft are a vast topic, solid monographs are devoted to it. It is worth noting another winged vehicle with trophy roots - the operational-tactical twin-engine jet bomber "150", created at the Design Bureau of S. M. Alekseev with the leading role of German specialists working there, headed by Brunolf Baade, who previously worked at the Junkers company. The sample that saw the sky in 1952 had better characteristics than the massive front-line bomber Il-28. However, the series "150" did not go to the allegedly due to the appearance of the Tu-16, although these were machines of different classes.
Meanwhile, the "150" potentially proved to be a worthy rival to the American attack aircraft of the Douglas firm - the carrier-based A-3 Skywarrior and its land modification B-66 Destroyer, which served for several decades and fought in Vietnam. By the way, being released with colleagues in the GDR, Herr Baade developed on the basis of "150" the only East German passenger aircraft "Baade-152".
The first Soviet guided bombs were prototypes of German remote-controlled gliding bombs, which were successfully used by the Luftwaffe.
From locators to bowler hat
Not spared German influence and Soviet barreled artillery. So, even from the tsarist army of the Red Army got 122-mm howitzers of the 1909 model, developed for Russia by the Krupp company and modernized in 1937. These veterans of the First World War and the Civil War were also used in 1941-1945. In 1930, a 37-mm anti-tank gun, developed by the Rheinmetall company and produced under license, appeared in the Red Army - exactly the same as that of the Wehrmacht. In 1938, the 76-mm 3-K anti-aircraft gun, developed on the model of the 7, 62 cm Flak of the same company, was adopted.
Already during the war, the Red Army received captured German 210-mm mortars 21 cm M18, with which the USSR was familiar from two more samples purchased in 1940 in Germany for evaluation tests.
In 1944, the Czech firm Skoda, which worked for the Germans, developed an innovative lightweight 105 mm F. H.43 howitzer with circular fire. Its design served as the basis for the Soviet 122-mm howitzer D-30, popular in many countries of the world, even outwardly very similar to its progenitor.
After the war, captured German 105-mm Flak 38/39 anti-aircraft guns were in service in the USSR Air Defense Forces after the war for some time.
During the war years, self-propelled SG-122 and self-propelled guns SU-76I were created on the chassis of the German StuG III assault guns and PzKpfw III medium tanks (with the installation of 122-mm M-30 howitzers and 76-mm S-1 cannons, respectively). re-equipment of captured vehicles.
The Kommunar tractor, which was used as an artillery tractor and was produced in the USSR since 1924 under license from the German company Hanomag, has found wide application. Even in the famous Soviet army passenger car of high cross-country ability GAZ-69A, the features of its German counterpart - the commander's "Stever-R180 / R200" are noticeable. And the post-war diesel truck MAZ-200, which towed 152-mm D-1 howitzers at the last Stalinist military parades on Red Square, is a mix of the American Mac L and a typical Wehrmacht car Bussing-NAG-4500. The famous heavy army motorcycle M-72, which was in service with the Soviet army almost until its disappearance along with the USSR, is a copy of the pre-war German BMW R71.
And how not to remember that in the Weimar Germany for the Red Army and the Chekists were purchased 7, 63-mm Mauser K-96 pistols, the Germans themselves nicknamed "Bolo" - from "Bolshevik" and used in the Wehrmacht and the SS.
It was very useful to study captured German radar and communications technology - the early warning radars Freya and Manmouth, the Greater Würzburg detection and targeting radar and the Small Würzburg gun guidance station used in German air defense. In 1952, in the Gorky region, a captured super-long-wave high-power radio transmitter "Goliath" was put into operation for communication with submarines. For a long time after the war, the field telephone TAI-43, created on the basis of the German FF-33, was in service with the Soviet army.
Even the Soviet combined soldier's bowler hat was copied from the German model of 1931, as well as the domestic combined-arms protective kit (OZK) was created on the basis of a similar German one that appeared at the end of World War II. By the way, a number of chemical weapons technologies (chemical warfare agents and means of their use), introduced in the USSR, were tested back in 1928-1933 at the Tomka facility (a scientific military-chemical testing ground near the Shikhany settlement in the Saratov region). where German specialists worked under a secret Soviet-German agreement.
Kriegsmarine - to the Soviet fleet
The best submarines built in the USSR before the war are medium-sized type "C" (1934-1948), created on the basis of the project of the German company "Deshimag". As a result of reparations from the defeated Nazi Germany, four large submarines of the XXI series were received, assigned to the project 614 by the USSR Navy. They served in the Baltic Fleet (B-27, B-28, B-29 and B-30). Being the most perfect for the Second World War, the series XXI submarines largely served as a prototype for the post-war Soviet medium diesel torpedo submarines of Project 613, built in mass series in 1950-1957.
In addition, we got reparations or were captured as trophies an ocean-going submarine of the IXC series, four medium submarines of the VIIC series (in total, the USSR Navy received five of them, we assigned them to the TS-14 type) and three small IIB series (in system was not introduced), a very advanced design for its time small submarine of the XXIII series and two ultra-small submarines of the "Seehund" type (there is information about the entry into the USSR Navy in 1948 of one submarine of this type, although Soviet troops at the shipyard captured sections and components for assembling several dozen of these boats).
With the use of captured German components and the corresponding documentation, an experimental submarine S-99 of project 617 was built in 1951-1955, equipped with a combined cycle gas turbine power plant. The boat, accepted into the Baltic Fleet, for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet, developed an underwater speed of 20 knots, but ultimately suffered an accident with an explosion caused by the "abnormal" decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The project did not receive development due to the beginning of the introduction of nuclear power in submarine shipbuilding.
The USSR received an unfinished, but in a high degree of readiness aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin", due to the feeble mind of the Soviet leadership sunk in training artillery and torpedo firing in 1947, and also considered unnecessary outdated training and artillery battleship "Schleswig-Holstein", heavy cruiser " Lutzov "of the" Deutschland "class and the unfinished heavy cruiser" Seydlitz "of the" Admiral Hipper "class. Another heavy cruiser of the "Admiral Hipper" class was sold by Germany to the USSR in an unfinished state in 1940, was named "Petropavlovsk" and participated in the defense of Leningrad as a non-self-propelled floating battery. It was never completed.
Of the large warships, the light cruiser "Nuremberg" (we have "Admiral Makarov"), two destroyers of the "Leberecht Maas" type (in the Navy of the USSR - the "Prytky ") And one each type" Dieter von Raeder "(" Strong ") and" Narvik "(" Agile "). The destroyer "Agile" is the most powerful in the history of our fleet in terms of artillery weapons, it had 150-mm guns.
They were upgraded in class to destroyers and introduced into the Baltic Fleet and German destroyers - one each of types 1935 ("Mobile"), 1937 ("Gusty") and 1939 ("Approximate"), as well as three completely outdated "T-107" (period of the First World War). Among the German acquisitions of the USSR Navy were a large number of minesweepers, minelayers, landing craft, as well as such exotic specimens as the catapult ship for launching heavy flying boats "Falke" yacht "Hela", which became the control ship "Angara" in the Black Sea Fleet.
It can be noted that the USSR Navy's mine-torpedo aviation was armed with captured German 450-mm aircraft torpedoes F-5W.
In 1950, the submarines of the USSR Navy adopted the 533-mm self-guided electric torpedo SAET-50, created on the model of the German T-5, and in 1957 - the 533-mm trackless long-range straight forward "53-57" developed with the participation of German specialists based on German turbine peroxide torpedoes of the Steinval type and others. By the way, back in 1942, the 533-mm straight-forward electric torpedo ET-80 entered service with Soviet submarines, based on the German G7e, which appeared in its first modification in 1929.
With the formation of the GDR, its shipbuilding industry was involved in work in the interests of the USSR Navy. From German shipyards, auxiliary vessels for various purposes were supplied, as well as reconnaissance ships on the hull of the trawler (they were equipped with special equipment, of course, in the USSR). In 1986-1990, the Baltic Fleet received from the GDR 12 small anti-submarine ships of the project 1331M (Parkhim-2 type) developed jointly by specialists from the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau and the East German shipyard Peene-Werft (Volgast) from the GDR. Some of them are still in service. It is curious that similar ships built for the Volksmarine (16 units of the slightly different project 1331 "Parkhim-1"), after the reunification of Germany, were sold to Indonesia, in whose Navy they are listed as corvettes of the "Captain Patimura" class.
At the end of the Warsaw Pact, the GDR was chosen as the main manufacturer of guided missiles for the tactical anti-ship missile system of the Soviet development "Uranus" - an analogue of the American "Harpoon". She was also supposed to build Project 151A missile boats armed with Uranus, intended both for herself and for the fleets of the USSR and Poland. However, these plans were not destined to come true.
