Sudaev's submachine gun recognized as the best automatic weapon of the Second World War
The fact that in the course of hostilities the submachine gun (which we then referred to for brevity as a submachine gun) turned out to be the main automatic weapon of the infantry, was a definite surprise for all the armies that participated in World War II. Although work on this weapon was carried out in many countries until September 1, 1939, nowhere was it assigned a decisive role. Only the war forced him to enter the troops in large volumes as a means of achieving "fire superiority" over the enemy in close combat.
CONSTRUCTOR FROM DEPTH
Of the domestic samples, the most famous - and deservedly so - was the most massively produced submachine gun of the GS Shpagin system (PPSh). The German MP.38 and MP.40 are also well known to many. Nevertheless, the Sudaev submachine gun was recognized as the best submachine gun of the Second World War. True, in 1942-1945 the Red Army received only 765,373 PPS (mainly PPS-43). Of these, 531,359 were produced by the plant named after. VD Kalmykov in Moscow, 187 912 - enterprises of Leningrad and 46 102 - Tbilisi. PPS made up just over 12% of all submachine guns manufactured in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
By the way, even in the special literature they were sometimes confused, calling the PPS, for example, Sudakov's submachine gun. Therefore, it is worth saying a few words about the constructor itself.
Alexey Ivanovich Sudaev was born in 1912 in the city of Alatyr, Simbirsk province. After graduating from vocational school, he worked as a mechanic. Then, having received his education at the Gorky Construction College, he worked at Soyuztransstroy as a site technician. His first inventions - "Automatic firing from a machine gun through the action of infrared rays" and "Gas meter" (both related to aviation, caused a number of serious remarks) - date back to the beginning of the 30s. But the first copyright certificate, presented to Sudaev in 1934, was associated with the creation of a pneumatic tipper for self-unloading platforms.
Having been drafted into the Red Army in the same year, Alexey served in the railway troops (then he received an inventor's certificate for the invention "Anti-theft"). After retiring in 1936 to the reserve, he entered the Gorky Industrial Institute, but two years later he transferred to the Artillery Academy of the Red Army at the Faculty of Weapons. During his studies, he developed a project for an automatic pistol. The holder of a diploma with honors, junior military technician Sudaev is sent to the Scientific Testing Range of Small Arms (NIPSVO). At the beginning of World War II, he developed a simple-to-manufacture anti-aircraft machine-gun mount, produced at Moscow enterprises. However, the main work of the young designer was ahead.
STRICT REQUIREMENTS
What caused the appearance of a new model of a submachine gun already in the first period of the war? PPSh, "technologically" referring to the new generation submachine guns, designed for mass production technologies (cold stamping of a number of parts, reversing the barrel bore, replacing rivets with welding, reducing the number of threaded connections), "constructively" retained the features of the previous generation and, in particular, "carbine »Scheme with a wooden box. In addition, the PPSh was quite massive - with a drum magazine it weighed 5, 3 kilograms, and with a full ammunition load (213 rounds in three drum magazines) - more than 9.
The modernization of the PPSh at the beginning of 1942 was designed mainly to simplify production. Meanwhile, its cumbersomeness turned out to be inconvenient for a number of categories of reconnaissance fighters (and reconnaissance companies tried to supply them with submachine guns), skiers, tank crews, sappers, etc. True, the drum magazine ("disk") was supplemented with a box-shaped sector magazine already in 1942 (" horn "), but the PPSh itself had to be supplemented with a light and compact model for the same 7.62 mm pistol cartridge.
A competition for a lightweight submachine gun was announced in early 1942. The new sample had to meet the following characteristics:
- weigh 2, 5-3 kg without a magazine, and no more than 6-6, 5 kg with ammunition;
- have a length of 700-750 mm with folded back and 550-600 mm with a folded stock;
- use a box magazine for 30-35 rounds of the type adopted for the PPSh;
- to have a rate of fire reduced to 400-500 rds / min, so that the decrease in the mass of the system does not worsen the accuracy (for the existing PPD and PPSh the rate of fire was 1000-1100 rds / min), the muzzle compensator served the same purpose, at the same time protecting the barrel from contamination;
- to be convenient for all branches of the military.
It was also necessary to improve manufacturability, which is natural for weapons that were to be put into production in a difficult war. The manufacturability of the PPSh seemed already insufficient (metal waste was 60-70% of the rough weight, a number of additional operations required a wooden bed). It was required to make most of the parts by stamping, without further mechanical processing, with an average power of the pressing equipment, to reduce the number of machine work per sample to 3-3.5 hours, and metal waste - no more than 30-40%.
The competition turned out to be one of the most representative - up to 30 samples, developed both by eminent designers: V. A. Degtyarev, G. S. Shpagin, S. A. Korovin, N. G. Rukavishnikov, and much less famous: N. G Menshikov-Shkvornikov, BA Goroneskul, AA Zaitsev (later this designer will take part in the revision of the Kalashnikov assault rifle), etc. Projects were also received from the active army. In the design of many submachine guns, the influence of the German MR.38 and MR.40 was felt.
The first tests took place at NIPSVO in late February - early March 1942. Attention was drawn to samples of V. A. Degtyarev and a student of the Artillery Academy of Technician-Lieutenant I. K. Bezruchko-Vysotsky. The submachine gun of the latter was distinguished by original solutions for automation parts, a desire for widespread use of stamping, seam and spot welding, which corresponded to the original requirements. Bezruchko-Vysotsky was offered to modify the weapon, at the same time his most successful solutions were recommended to be used by the officer of the NIPSVO, military engineer of the 3rd rank A. I. Sudaev, in his experimental submachine gun. It should be noted, however, that although the Sudaev sample used the features of the device of the mobile automation system and the spent cartridge reflector of the Bezruchko-Vysotsky sample, on the whole it was an independent design.
Already in April 1942, a new experienced Sudaev submachine gun was manufactured in the NIPSVO workshop, and at the end of April - beginning of May it passed field tests along with the products of Degtyarev, Korovin, Rukavishnikov, Zaitsev, Ogorodnikov, the second model of Bezruchko-Vysotsky. Soon, a new "all-metal" sample of Shpagin, PPSh-2, was submitted for testing. Artkom GAU on June 17 decided to test samples of Shpagin, Sudaev and Bezruchko-Vysotsky. By mid-July, PPSh-2 of Shpagin and PPS of Sudaev reached the final of the competition (note the tight deadlines for such a thorough work). According to the test results on July 9-13, the teaching staff is recognized as the best. “It has no other equal competitors,” the commission concluded. On June 28, 1942, the submachine gun was submitted for GKO approval. It was recommended to start serial production of a sample designated as PPS-42 to test the technology.
Leningrad fought and worked
It is often mentioned that the serial submachine gun was created in besieged Leningrad. But this was not quite the case. At the end of 1942, the production of PPS was mastered by the Moscow plant. V. D. Kalmykov, who became the leader in the development of a submachine gun and technical documentation for it.
At that time, Sudaev was indeed sent to the Northern capital of Russia to the plant named after V. I. A. A. Kulakov, where he worked from late 1942 to June 1943. It is now customary to speak of besieged Leningrad exclusively as a “dying city”. But the city not only "died out", it also fought and worked. He needed weapons, which had to be produced here using the remaining production facilities. Since the end of 1941, in Leningrad, the production of PPD-40 submachine guns of the Degtyarev system was launched, but it required too much machining of parts with significant metal waste. An exceptionally high-tech PPP was much better suited for this.
Evacuated to Leningrad Sestroretsk plant named after SP Voskov, plant them. Kulakova (where the PPD-40 was previously made) and the Primus artel in just three months mastered the production of PPP - a unique case in the history of weapons, which in itself speaks of the thoughtfulness and manufacturability of the design. We must also take into account the conditions in which this was done: bombing, shelling, and the dire food situation. The city on the Neva had already survived the first year of the blockade, lost many residents, there were very few not only skilled workers and technicians, but also unskilled labor. One example: when the plant “Metallist”, which produced parts for the teaching staff, needed workers, only 20 people with disabilities of II and III groups, a dozen women aged 50 and several teenagers were able to recruit.
Nevertheless, the weapon went into series. Military tests of the PPS took place right there, on the Leningrad front, the submachine gun was highly appreciated by the soldiers and commanders. Alexey Ivanovich not only watched the manufacturing process, but also traveled to active units on the Karelian Isthmus, the Oranienbaum bridgehead to see his weapon in action. During 1943, 46,572 assault rifles were manufactured in Leningrad.
In the course of production, changes were made to the design. The shutter is lightweight and technologically simplified. An emphasis of the reciprocating mainspring was introduced, with which it was connected to the bolt. For greater strength, the bolt box was stamped from 2 mm steel sheet instead of 1.5 mm, but while the barrel was shortened (from 270 to 250 mm) and its casing, the mass of the weapon changed little. According to the type of the second prototype of Bezruchko-Vysotsky, the reflector of the spent cartridge case was eliminated - its role was now played by the guide rod of the reciprocating mainspring. The shape of the bolt handle and fuse head has been changed, the butt has been shortened.
On May 20, 1943, by a GKO decree, the 7, 62-mm submachine gun of A. I. Sudaev of the 1943 model (PPS-43) was adopted. For this work, Alexei Ivanovich was awarded the Stalin Prize of the II degree, the participation of Bezruchko-Vysotsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
RECOGNITION THROUGH IMITATION
The weapon's automatics operated by recoil of the free bolt. The barrel is surrounded by a perforated casing, made in one piece with the bolt (receiver) box. The latter was pivotally connected to the trigger box and, when disassembled, was folded back and forth. The reloading handle was located on the right. The bolt moved in the bolt box with a gap, resting the lower part only on the folds of the trigger box, which increased the reliability of operation in dirty conditions.
By increasing the diameter of the chamber, the likelihood of non-extraction or rupture of the spent cartridge case was reduced. Due to the layout of the return mechanism, it was possible to place a long reciprocating mainspring with a large number of turns within the slide box. The trigger only allowed automatic fire. The increased shutter travel made the automatic operation smoother and reduced the rate of fire to 650-700 rds / min (versus 1000-1100 for PPSh), which made it possible, with a certain skill, to cut off not only short bursts, but also single shots with a short press on the trigger.
Together with the muzzle brake-compensator and the good location of the pistol grip and the magazine throat (used as a front grip), this facilitated the control of the PPS. One of the long-standing problems of submachine guns with a shot from the rear sear was the disruption of the shutter from the sear, which led to spontaneous automatic firing. To avoid this, the PPS was equipped with a safety catch that blocked the trigger mechanism, and in addition, blocked the slot of the slide box and blocked the shutter in the front or rear position. The operation of the PPS fuse was more reliable than that of the PPSh.
The flip-flop sight had sights at 100 and 200 m, which corresponded to the effective firing range achievable with a pistol cartridge. The butt was folded up and down. PPS was equipped with six magazines with a capacity of 35 rounds, worn in two pouches. With a wearable ammunition load of 210 rounds in 6 stores, the PPS weighed 6, 82 kg (more than 2 kg less than the PPSh).
In terms of fighting qualities - effective firing range, combat rate of fire - the PPS was not inferior to the PPSh, but in terms of manufacturability it was much superior. Cold stamping of parts (up to half of the parts were made with it), a minimum of closed holes, a decrease in the number of axes, and the versatility of parts greatly simplified production. The production of one PPSh required an average of 7, 3 machine-hours and 13, 9 kg of metal, one PPS-43 - respectively 2, 7 hours and 6, 2 kg (metal waste was no more than 48%). The number of factory parts for the PPSh is 87, for the PPSh - 73. And today anyone who has taken the PPSh into their hands cannot but appreciate the rational simplicity of its design, which does not reach primitiveness. PPS turned out to be very convenient for scouts, cavalrymen, crews of combat vehicles, mountain shooters, artillerymen, paratroopers, signalmen, partisans.
Sudaev, returning to NIPSVO, continued to improve the submachine gun, having developed nine prototypes - with a wooden stock, with an increased rate of fire, with a folding bayonet, etc. But they did not go into series.
In 1944, Aleksey Ivanovich was the first among domestic designers to start working on an assault rifle chambered for intermediate power, which was supposed to replace submachine guns, and went far enough. In 1945, the Sudaev AS-44 assault rifle was already undergoing military trials. But on August 17, 1946, Major-engineer A. S. Sudaev, after a serious illness, died in the Kremlin hospital at the age of 33.
The PPS continued to serve until the mid-50s, but showed itself in various conflicts and much later. As mentioned above, it was recognized as the best submachine gun of the Second World War in terms of its combination of tactical, technical, production, economic and operational characteristics. And "the best form of recognition is imitation." The Finns already in 1944 began production of the M44, a copy of the PPS chambered for the 9-mm Parabellum cartridge. Copied PPP in Germany. In Spain, in 1953, the DUX-53 submachine gun appeared little different from the PPS and M44, which entered service with the gendarmerie and the border guard of the Federal Republic of Germany. Then, already in Germany, the Mauser company released a modification of the DUX-59 (and the PPS-43 was in service with the GDR army at that time). In China, a copy of the PPS-43 was made under the designation Type 43, in Poland - wz.1943 and modification wz.1943 / 52 with a permanent wooden butt.
AT THE SAME TIME
The fact that the 22-year-old tanker sergeant Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov began his work as a gunsmith designer, at least with this type of weapon, speaks of how relevant the compact submachine gun was in the eyes of front-line soldiers. True, its sample did not participate in the competition for a new submachine gun, and it simply could not keep up with it.
In October 1941, in the battles near Bryansk, MT Kalashnikov was seriously wounded. Having received a six-month leave of absence from the hospital at the beginning of 1942, he took up the implementation of the system of a submachine gun with automatic recoil based on the recoil mechanism he had conceived. The "iron" system was embodied in the workshops of the Matai railway station. This specimen has not survived.
With the help of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan, Kaishangulov, Kalashnikov was able to transfer the work to the workshops of the Moscow Aviation Institute, which was then evacuated in Alma-Ata. Here he was assisted by the dean of the faculty of artillery and small arms A. I. Kazakov: a small working group was created under the leadership of a senior teacher E. P. Eruslanov.
The second sample of the submachine gun had an automation based on the recoil of the bolt with a slow recoil using two telescopic screw pairs at the rear of the bolt. The reloading handle was located on the left. The bolt (receiver) box and the trigger frame were pivotally connected to each other. The shot was fired from the rear sear. At the same time, the sear, which held the drummer in the cocked position, was mounted in the bolt and turned off when it came to the extreme forward position, that is, it played the role of an automatic safety device. The fuse translator is a flag type, in the “fuse” position it blocked the trigger. The sector sight is notched up to 500 meters.
PPS-43 TACTICAL AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Cartridge 7, 62x25 TT
Weight of weapons with cartridges 3, 67 kg
Length:
- with folded stock 616 mm
- with unfolded stock 831 mm
Barrel length 250 mm
Bullet muzzle velocity 500 m / s
Rate of fire 650-700 rds / min
Effective rate of fire 100 rds / min
Sighting range 200 m
Magazine capacity 35 rounds
Food - from a sector-shaped box magazine for 30 rounds. The barrel was covered with a perforated casing, reminiscent of the PPSh casing (the front bevel and the casing window played the role of a muzzle brake-compensator), but tubular in shape - many parts were made on lathes or milling machines. The arrangement of the handles resembled an American Thompson submachine gun, a down-and-forward folding butt and the location of the striker on the guide tube of the return mechanism - the German MR.38 and MR.40.
A copy of the submachine gun was sent to Samarkand in June 1942, where the Red Army Artillery Academy was evacuated. The head of the academy, one of the most prominent specialists in the field of small arms, Lieutenant General A. A. business, originality of solving a number of technical issues”. The command of the Central Asian Military District dispatched Kalashnikov to GAU to test a submachine gun at NIPSVO. According to the act of the landfill of February 9, 1943, the weapon showed satisfactory results, but "… in its present form it is not of industrial interest", although the act noted the "bribing parties": low weight, short length, single fire, a successful combination of an interpreter and a fuse, compact cleaning rod. By that time, the Sudaev submachine gun was already being produced and, of course, the model of a novice and still inexperienced designer could not compete with it.
The work at the test site played a big role in the further fate of the future twice Hero of Socialist Labor - there was a developed test base, a design bureau, a rich collection of infantry weapons, and highly qualified specialists. At NIPSVO, Kalashnikov had a chance to meet Sudaev. Many years later, Mikhail Timofeevich will write: “The design activity of Alexei Ivanovich Sudaev was within the framework of only some four or five years. But during this time he managed to reach such heights in the creation of weapons, which other designers have never dreamed of in their entire life."
