In every country there are people who like to "age" their history or "add points" to their country, attributing to it all the imaginable and inconceivable achievements and perfection. For what and why this was done in the USSR, it is clear: the workers of the regional committee of the CPSU received sausages, but in the field of ballet … with links to sources have been published. But the old songs are still heard. And here is an example from today.
It turns out that the birthday of the tank in Russia should be considered May 18, 1915. It was then in Russia that tests of the first A. Porokhovshchikov's tank, called the All-Terrain Vehicle, allegedly began. And he, it turns out, has successfully passed the test. The team of creators was ready to quickly "bring" the car to mind and even make it floating. But the inertia of the tsarist military experts led to the fact that the project never received support, like a number of other projects of our designers-nuggets, which were developed in Russia at the same time as the "All-terrain vehicle".
We will not specify who wrote it all, although this statement itself is best illustrated by the old folk saying: "You cannot learn new tricks for an old dog." That is, those who studied in their youth from the same books do not always accept everything new. But then it's worth seeing if the tank was born on May 18, 1915, and were the specialists from the GVTU so shortsighted? That is, did A. Porokhovshchikov's "All-terrain vehicle" have all the attributes of the tank?
It is unlikely that I need to describe in detail this "successful tank", the images of which were bypassed, probably, all Soviet and post-Soviet publications "about tanks". But remember that there was only one caterpillar, that he steered with wheels, that in any case it would not have been possible to make it airtight due to the design (and how would he float then?) And that there were no weapons on it. A tower with a machine gun was added to it only later. But how could one man lead this "tank" and shoot from it? And, finally, the most important thing: the tank must overcome (and tear!) Wire obstacles! Could the All-Terrain Vehicle do this? No, I couldn't! Low weight, small dimensions and the caterpillar itself is a canvas or rubber band. Therefore, this is not a tank, but … an all-terrain vehicle, and a bad all-terrain vehicle, which is why it was rejected! And it is sad that the people, whose professional competence is to know all this, for some reason even now cling to "the legends of the times of the Ochakovites and the conquest of the Crimea." But even in the textbook on the design of tanks for 1943 it says: "A tank is a combat vehicle that combines armor protection, fire and maneuver." In this case, even if the “All-Terrain Vehicle” had armor, there was no weaponry. And even if he drove through the snow at a decent speed, then … he certainly could not tear the wire barriers. What kind of tank is it then?
And, by the way, that is why it is believed that the first tank was made by the British. For all the shortcomings of Mk. I, he could do it all, and all these three hypostases were present in his design! And they also built experimental structures and models, but they never considered them as tanks. For example, they built a scaled-down wooden model of Hetterington's "cruiser", looked at it, weighed everything, and decided to be away from it, which they did in June 1915. But it was a mock-up, not a tank!
At the same time, in July 1915, Colonel Engineer Evelen Bell Crompton presented a project of also a composite, but already four-tracked tank with armament in four towers, located on both of its hulls in a linearly elevated pattern, like towers on a battleship! The vehicle received the designation Mk. III (the first two had been rejected before), but although it turned out to be better than the previous ones, the Committee for Land Ships, created by the care of Winston Churchill, did not recommend it for construction, considering it too cumbersome and challenging!
The projects of designer Robert Francis McFay, a Canadian engineer who, however, had a grumpy and quarrelsome character, did not pass either. It is interesting that already his very first project provided for a propeller, which allows us to say that he conceived it as a floating one! He was also on his other project. Moreover, it was supposed to raise and lower it in order to protect it from damage when hitting the ground. Interestingly, the main feature of the last two of his cars was a tracked chassis of three tracks arranged in a triangle: one in front, two in the back.
In this case, the front track was supposed to play the role of a steering device, i.e. turn in different directions, as well as change its position relative to the body in the vertical plane. The designer provided in front and a special cutter for barbed wire and an upward-leaning "nose" made of armor plates to protect this steering track and its drive wheel.
His second project was a tank on four tracks, but the two front ones were located one after the other. The high front track was supposed to facilitate overcoming vertical obstacles, and all the others - to provide a relatively low pressure of the heavy machine on the ground.
Accordingly, the armament on it could be installed both in the hull itself and in two sponsons on both sides of it. But the project seemed to the military too sophisticated, so in the end it was also abandoned. Although it could have turned out to be an interesting vehicle, in any case, it is probably no worse than the serial British tank Mk. I, and all the other tanks from the same series.
Yes, but how did Porokhovshchikov himself react to the remarks made to him, namely that his "All-terrain vehicle" is small, has no weapons, the caterpillar often flies off the drums? And he ACCEPTED them! This is evidenced by his other project, fortunately preserved to this day. In August of the same 1915, he proposed to the GVTU the project of the "Earth battleship" in two versions - field and serf.
One could simply call his invention a technical nonsense, but his nonsense turned out to be very interesting and even instructive. Let's start with the fact that the armor of a field battleship had to withstand the fire of field artillery, the second - a serf! Well, and his car itself looked not so unusual, but simply monstrous. She did not have a body as such. Instead, a steel riveting farm 35 m long and 3 m wide was envisaged, which had a chassis of 10 motor-wheels in the form of armored rollers with a diameter of 2.3 m each. Gasoline engines with a capacity of 160-200 hp were located right in the rollers, and the transmission and the fuel tank were also supposed to be located there. Here, according to the idea of the "talented" inventor, there were also three people serving both the engine and two machine guns and a bomb launcher! That is, the "battleship" would have a whole arsenal of 20 machine guns and 10 bombers on each side, that is, two machine guns and one bomb launcher inside each wheel! But even this was not enough for the engineer Porokhovshchikov. Therefore, in front and behind, he put two armored turrets, with one 4-6 inch (101, 6-152, 4 mm) cannon and a reduced caliber cannon paired with it. In the center of the farm was supposed to be an armored cabin for the commander of the "battleship" and his assistants, and at the top there was a searchlight. The entire crew of the "Field Battleship" was supposed to be 72 people. Armor - 101.6 mm. The declared speed should have been between 4.4 and 21 km / h. The length of the "battleship" in principle allowed him to force ditches and ravines up to 11 m wide. But the inventor clearly did not think about the bending loads that his platform would be subjected to. As well as how such a car will turn. Of course, in theory, it could do this, like any tank, by slowing down the rollers on one side. But … for this it would be necessary to synchronize the rotation of all these rollers, and it would be almost impossible to achieve this. But he proposed to put the "battleship" on a railway track so that it could move by rail.
"Fortress battleship", in addition to booking, was distinguished by the presence of an armored casemate for the landing of 500 people. It turned out a kind of "assault vehicles" of antiquity and the Middle Ages, or even Japanese ninjas, who also seemed to have something like that (in fact, pure fantasy!), Only Porokhovshchikov's fantasy left his predecessors far behind. Now imagine yourself in the place of the members of the GVTU, think about how this "miracle" should have been shaking on the go, and most importantly, remember the strength and torsional stresses in such farms, and you would then fully support the decision of August 13, 1915 at the meeting Of the Technical Committee: “… even without detailed calculations, we can confidently say that the proposal is not feasible. It would be advisable for use in a combat situation to distribute the battleship's armament into separate mobile units that are not linked into one rigid system."
Usually such inventors do not accept any criticism and go "to the end." But Porokhovshchikov agreed with the proposal for "distribution among the links", and by the end of 1915 he presented the project of the "Earth battleship" of "articulated links" or armored platforms "capable of deviating from each other in all directions."
That is, it was an "articulated tank" with armored turrets and landing gears - an unattainable dream of designers today. Each "platform" consisted of two pairs of rollers and an armored platform with weapons. It is clear that this project was not considered either. But the most surprising thing is that it was not just some dropout student who proposed all this, but an engineer with a complete technical education, who should have understood how stupid and ineffective everything that he offers.
Speaking about "other projects", one can recall the idea of the drum-wheels of a certain S. Podolsky, who in October 1915, of the same 1915, offered the car already on six-meter rollers, but a company of soldiers had to push it! At the same time, in order to fire at the scattering enemy, according to the inventor, turrets with machine guns should be installed on the ends of these rollers!
And what other real-world tank projects were there at that time in Russia? That is, there have been projects, but are they being implemented? And, finally, the conclusion from all of the above can be made as follows: it seems to me that we have a rather glorious and rich history that it makes no sense to improve by writing down projects of not very competent engineers and designers in a positive quality of dubious quality.
