Having received a telegram from General Sekretev on the purchase of 48 Austin armored vehicles in England (in the documents they were called machines of the 1st blank or 1st series), the automobile department of the Main Military-Technical Directorate of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GUGSH), together with representatives of the Military Driving School and The Officer Rifle School began to develop a state for the formation of auto-armored units. At the beginning of December 1914, the State No. 19 of the automobile machine-gun platoon, which included three Austin machine-gun armored vehicles, four passenger cars, one 3-ton truck, an auto repair shop, a tank truck and four motorcycles, of which one with a sidecar, was approved by the Highest. At the same time, each armored car was attached to one passenger car and a motorcycle without a sidecar for maintenance. The platoon's personnel included four officers (according to the state, the commander was the staff captain, and three junior officers were the second lieutenants) and 46 non-commissioned officers and privates.
A feature of the auto-armored units of the Russian Army was that from the very beginning of their creation, they had a large percentage of volunteers, and not only officers, but also non-commissioned officers. Among the latter, there was a high percentage of long-term servicemen and volunteers from among highly qualified metalworkers and mechanics. In general, the overwhelming majority of those who served in the armored units were literate people who quickly mastered new military equipment, the use of which required technical training and initiative. When assigned to the auto-machine gun platoon, the most trained artillerymen, machine gunners and drivers were selected. Among the officers of the armored units there was a large percentage of people from the artillery and guards units, as well as wartime warrant officers who had a higher technical education or worked as engineers before the war. All this led to the fact that already in the middle of 1915, the armored units became a kind of army elite. This was facilitated by the active use of armored cars in battles, and the high percentage of awarded among the personnel. Therefore, the armored units for the most part remained faithful to the oath and did not succumb to agitation by various parties in 1917.
Officers and soldiers of the 15th auto-machine gun platoon before being sent to the front. Officer Rifle School, March 1915 (VIMAIVVS)
For the auto-armored units, a leather set of uniforms (leather pants and a jacket) and a rather original cap with a visor were introduced - for the first time, the soldiers of the 1st auto-machine-gun company were equipped this way. Moreover, the latter used two emblems for encryption on shoulder straps - an automobile and a machine-gun one, and in 1915, by order of the Military Department No. 328, a special emblem of auto-machine-gun units was introduced. It was a combined symbolism of automobile and machine-gun parts. The emblem was worn on shoulder straps and was made of white or yellow metal, and also sometimes applied with paint through a stencil.
The formation of the first auto-machine gun platoons began immediately after the arrival of armored and auxiliary vehicles from abroad. By December 20, 1914, eight platoons were ready (from No. 5 to 12), which left for the front the next day. The cars included in these units were of various brands (Benz, Pierce-Arrow, Lokomobil, Packard, Ford and others), Humbert and Anfield motorcycles, White trucks, workshops "Nepir", tanks "Austin". All the equipment supplied to manning the platoons was new, purchased by the commission of Colonel Sekretev. The exception was the cars that came from the Reserve Automobile Company. The formation of the first auto-machine gun platoons was carried out by the Officer Rifle School in Oranienbaum and the Military Driving School in Petrograd.
The fighting of the 1st auto-machine-gun company and the first auto-machine-gun platoons showed the need for a cannon armored car to support machine-gun vehicles. Therefore, in March 1915, state number 20 was approved, according to which the number of machine-gun armored cars in platoons was reduced to two, and instead of the third, a cannon squad was included, consisting of a Garford armored car armed with a 76-mm gun built by the Putilovsky plant, and to improve supply combat vehicles added three more trucks - two 1, 5-2 ton and one 3-ton. Thus, according to the new state, the auto-machine-gun platoon included three armored cars (two machine-gun and cannon), four cars, two 3-ton and two 1, 5-2 ton trucks, an auto repair shop, a tank truck and four motorcycles, of which one with a sidecar …
Armored truck "Berlie", manufactured by the workshops of the Military Driving School for training purposes. For some time this vehicle was used to train crews of armored cars, Petrograd, 1915 (TsGAKFD SPB)
Auto repair shop on the chassis of the Piers-Arrow truck in the stowed position. 1916 (ASKM)
Workshop "Pierce-Arrow" in working position. Snapshot 1919 (ASKM)
According to staff number 20, 35 platoons were formed (number 13-47), while the 25th and 29th had non-standard combat materiel (this will be discussed in separate chapters) and, starting from the 37th platoon, instead of "harfords", they were armed with the cannon compartment received armored vehicles "Lanchester" with a 37-mm cannon. The first platoons with Austins (No. 5-12) also received Garford armored vehicles and additional trucks, while the third machine-gun vehicle was not withdrawn from their composition.
To form auto-machine gun platoons and supply them with property, at the beginning of March 1915, a Reserve Automobile Armored Company was formed in Petrograd, the commander of which was appointed Captain Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Khaletsky, and an armored department was created at the Military Automobile School to address the development of new types of armored vehicles. The Office of the Reserve Armored Company was located at house No. 100 on Nevsky Prospekt, the garage at 11 Inzhenernaya Street (Mikhailovsky Manege, now the Winter Stadium), and the workshops at 19 Malaya Dvoryanskaya Street (the latter were called armored car workshops in the documents). Until its disbandment at the end of 1917, this unit played the most significant role in the formation of the armored units of the Russian Army and maintaining them in a combat-ready state. Under the company, an Armored School was created for training drivers and command personnel, as well as a warehouse for technical armored equipment. The company's workshops carried out repairs to the damaged or out of order combat and transport vehicles of auto-machine-gun platoons arriving from the front. In addition, for this, rear auto repair shops were involved: Vilenskaya, Brestskaya, Berdichevskaya, Polotskaya and Kievskaya, as well as workshops of the fronts.
Personnel training for auto-armored units was carried out as follows. Artillery, machine-gun and rifle training for officers, non-commissioned officers and privates passed on a special course of the Officer Rifle School, the automobile unit was trained at the Military Driving School, after which the personnel entered the Armored School of the Reserve Armored Company. Here, training was carried out directly on armored affairs and the formation of units, which was accompanied by a number of demonstration maneuvers and firing at the range.
It should be said that both the Military Automobile and the Officer Rifle Schools were actively engaged in armored parts. Moreover, the head of the latter, Major General Filatov, turned out to be a big fan of the new type of military equipment. At the same time, he was not only engaged in providing training for officers for armored units, but also designed several types of armored vehicles, the production of which was launched at domestic factories.
A tank truck on the chassis of a 1.5-ton White truck was the most common vehicle of this type in the Russian Army. 1916 year. A Renault truck (ASKM) is visible in the background
It should be noted that since the summer of 1915, all armored vehicles (with the exception of "Garfords") received wheel tires filled with the so-called car. This compound, created by the German chemist Guss and modified by the specialists of the Military Driving School, was pumped into a car tire instead of air. A feature of the car was that it froze in the air and, therefore, was not afraid of punctures. In the event of a tire puncture, this compound escaped and, hardening, eliminated the hole.
The first prototypes of tires with a car were manufactured in April 1915, but production was only started in July - August. For the production of bulletproof tires, a special tire factory was created at a military driving school. By the summer of 1917, the mileage of tires with a car on armored cars was at least 6500 miles!
On the 1st series "Austins" that came from England, there were two sets of wheels - ordinary pneumatics and combat ones, with so-called buffer belts. The latter were a fabric-reinforced rubber tire with "pimples", worn on rather massive wooden wheels. The disadvantage of this design was the limitation of the speed of the armored car on the highway - no more than 30 km / h (tires with a car did not have such restrictions). Nevertheless, in England, a certain number of wheels with a buffer tape were ordered along with armored cars. To compare this tape with Russian bulletproof tires, at the beginning of January 1917, a motor rally Petrograd - Moscow - Petrograd was held. It was attended by several vehicles equipped with auto tires and buffer belts supplied from England. The conclusion about the mileage said:
“The tires with the car gave favorable results, and although the outer tires were damaged to the canvas, the inner chambers with the car remained in good condition and the car did not come out.
Tires with buffer tapes began to collapse from three hundred miles, and by 1000 miles the ledges collapsed significantly, and even a white piece of tape fell out."
Having considered the results, the GVTU commission on January 18, 1917 recognized that the buffer tapes were not very suitable for use, and they "should not be ordered from now on."
It should be noted that at that time there were no tires with a similar filler in any army in the world - the Russian motor vehicle was not afraid of bullets and shrapnel: the tires retained their elasticity and performance even with five or more holes.
The building of the Officer Rifle School in Oranienbaum. Photo taken on June 1, 1914 (ASKM)
In the spring of 1915, when the formation of auto-machine gun platoons from the Austins of the 1st series (from the 5th to the 23rd) was ending, the question arose about ordering an additional number of armored vehicles to provide new armored parts. And since the booking of cars at Russian enterprises required quite a long time and, mainly, the delivery of the necessary chassis from abroad, the GVTU decided to place orders abroad. In early March 1915, the Anglo-Russian Government Committee in London was instructed to conclude contracts for the manufacture of armored vehicles according to Russian projects. The number and terms of delivery of orders can be seen in the table below.
In August 1914, the Anglo-Russian Supply Commission was created in London - a special organization for placing Russian military orders through the British government. In early 1915, the commission was renamed the Anglo-Russian Government Committee.
It should be said that when the contracts were signed, all firms received an assignment to manufacture armored vehicles according to Russian requirements: fully armored and with two machine-gun turrets. The general booking scheme was developed in the Reserve Armored Company and the Armored Department of the Military Driving School under the leadership of the school officer, Captain Mironov, and handed over to all firms upon signing contracts.
As you can see, 236 armored cars were to arrive from abroad before December 1, 1915. However, only 161 actually arrived - the North American firm "Morton", which with a typical scale for this country undertook to produce 75 armored vehicles, until August 1915 did not submit a single sample, so the contract with it had to be terminated.
The rest of the campaigns were also not in a hurry to fulfill orders: despite the established deadlines, the first armored vehicles arrived in Russia only in July - August 1915, and the bulk of the vehicles in October - December.
Firm |
Date of issue of the order |
Number of cars |
Delivery time to Russia |
| Austin (Austin Motor Co. Ltd) | April 22, 1915 | 50 | 1 - by May 6, 1915; 20 to 14 May 1915; 29 - by June 14, 1915 |
| Sheffield-Simplex | May 7, 1915 | 10 | By June 15, 1915 |
| Jarrot on Jarrot chassis (Charls Jarrot and Letts) | June 9, 1915 | 10 | By August 15, 1915 |
| Austin (Austin Motor Co Ltd) | July 1915 | 10 | 5 - by October 5, 1915; 5 - by October 15, 1915 |
| Sheffield-Simplex | July 1915 | 15 | No later than November 15, 1915 |
| Jarrot on Fiat chassis (Charls Jarrot and Letts) | August 1915 | 30 | Weekly 4 pieces lo 1 lekabpya 191 5 goals |
|
Army-Motor-Lories" (Army Motors Lorries of Wagons) |
August 11, 1915 | 36 | 3-4 weekly until November 15, 1915 |
| Morton Co Ltd | April 1915 | 75 | By June 25, 1915 |
| TOTAL | 236 |
At the end of 1914, to consider projects of armored vehicles proposed by both domestic designers and various foreign firms, technical committees of the GVTU met, to which representatives of the Military Driving School, the Reserve Armored Company, the Officer Rifle School, the Main Artillery Directorate and armored units were invited. Major General Svidzinsky was the chairman of this committee.
Considering the large volume of various armored cars delivered from abroad, as well as their manufacture at Russian factories, on November 22, 1915, by order of the Minister of War, a special commission was created to accept armored vehicles. At first, its official name sounded like this: "The Commission, formed by order of the Minister of War for the examination of arriving and arriving armored vehicles", and at the beginning of 1916 it was renamed into the "Commission on armored vehicles" (in the documents of that time the name "Armored Commission"). She reported directly to the head of the Main Military-Technical Directorate. Major General Svidzinsky was appointed chairman of the commission (at the beginning of 1916 he was replaced by Major General Filatov), and it included the commander of the Reserve Armored Company Captain Khalepky, the head of the Armored Department of the Military Driving School, Captain Bazhanov, as well as officers of GAU, GVTU, GUGSH, Reserve Armored Authors, Officer Rifle School and Military Driving School - Colonel Ternavsky, staff captains Makarevsky, Mironov, Neelov, Ivanov, ensign Kirillov, Karpov and others.
The task of the Commission was to assess the quality of armored vehicles purchased abroad and built in Russia, as well as to refine their designs for operations on the Russian front. In addition, she did a lot of work on the design of new samples of armored vehicles for production at domestic enterprises, as well as on improving the organization of armored parts. Thanks to close contact with other military departments and organizations - the Main Artillery Directorate, the Military Driving School, the Reserve Armored Authorship and the Officer Rifle School - and also, in many respects, the fact that educated and technically competent people, great patriots of their cause, worked in the commission, by the fall 1917, the Russian Army in the number of armored vehicles, their quality, tactics of combat use and organization surpassed its opponents - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Only in the number of combat vehicles Russia was inferior to Great Britain and France. Thus, the Commission on Armored Cars was the prototype of the Main Armored Directorate of our army.
At the front, armored auto-machine gun platoons were subordinate to the quartermaster generals of the army or corps, and in combat terms they were attached to divisions or regiments. As a result, such a small platoon organization and an unsuccessful system of subordination in the Field Army negatively affected the actions of the armored units. By the fall of 1915, it became clear that it was necessary to move to larger organizational forms, and the Russian Army already had a similar experience - the 1st auto-machine-gun company. By the way, its commander, Colonel Dobrzhansky, actively advocated the unification of armored vehicles into larger formations based on the experience of his unit, about which he repeatedly wrote to the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, the General Staff, and the Main Military-Technical Directorate.
Apparently the last impetus for changing the organization of the armored parts was the use of armored cars during the so-called Lutsk breakthrough - the offensive of the Southwestern Front in the summer of 1916. Despite the fact that armored vehicles acted very effectively during this operation, providing substantial support to their units, it turned out that the platoon organization did not allow the use of military vehicles on a massive scale.
The Winter Stadium in St. Petersburg is the former Mikhailovsky Manege. In 1915-1917, the garage of the Reserve Armored Company (Division) was located here. The picture was taken in 1999 (ASKM)
By order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of June 7, 1916, it was planned to form 12 armored car divisions (according to the number of armies). At the same time, the auto-machine gun platoons were renamed into squads with the preservation of the previous numbering and were included in the divisions. It was assumed that in each division, which were directly subordinate to the army headquarters, there would be from 4 to 6 squads, "according to the number of corps in the army."
According to the declared in this order of the state and the report card, the management of the armored car division included 2 cars, one 3-ton and one 1.5-2-ton trucks, a car repair shop, a tank truck, 4 motorcycles and 2 bicycles. The personnel of the department consisted of four officers (commander, supply manager, senior officer and adjutant), one or two military officials (clerks) and 56 soldiers and non-commissioned officers. Sometimes in the management there was another officer or engineer who served as a division mechanic.
When the auto-machine gun platoons were renamed into squads, their combat strength (three armored vehicles) remained the same, the changes concerned only auxiliary equipment. So, to improve the supply of armored vehicles, the number of trucks in them increased from two to four - one per armored car plus one per compartment. In addition, to conserve gasoline and motorcycle resources, the department received two bicycles - for communication and transmission of orders. Separate auto-machine-gun squads were left only where, due to geographical conditions, it made no sense to bring them into divisions - in the Caucasus. In total, 12 divisions were created - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and the Special Army (in addition, there was a Special Purpose armored division, which had its own organization, which will be discussed below).
Officers of the Russian Army's armored parts during classes at the Officer Rifle School. 1916 year. Colt machine guns (ASKM) are visible in the foreground.
The formation of divisional directorates was carried out in Petrograd by the Reserve Armored Company from July 2 to early August 1916, after which the directorates were sent to the front. Such a long period of formation was explained both by the selection of personnel for the positions of commanders and officers of divisions, and by the lack of automobile property, especially tankers and auto repair shops.
On October 10, 1916, by order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Reserve Armored Company was reorganized into the Reserve Armored Division, while retaining its former functions. According to the new report card number 2, it consisted of eight training armored vehicles - three each in the cannon and machine-gun sections, and 2 in the armored school, which was renamed the school of armored vehicle drivers. Captain V. Khaletsky remained the battalion commander.
On November 15, 1916, another change was made to the staff of the auto-machine-gun department. For more effective use of combat vehicles in battle, another machine-gun armored car was added to its composition. It was assumed that this car will become a spare in case of repair of one of the armored vehicles. True, it was not possible to transfer all departments to a new state - there were not enough armored vehicles for this. Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1917, some of the armored parts of the Western and Southwestern Fronts (18, 23, 46 and a number of other departments) received a fourth armored car.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the well-functioning system of supply and formation of armored parts of the Russian army began to deteriorate rapidly. A wave of rallies and demonstrations swept the country and the army, various councils began to be created everywhere, which began to actively intervene in various military issues and the supply system of the armed forces. For example, on March 25, 1917, the chairman of the Armored Vehicles Commission sent the following letter to the GVTU:
“According to the available information, it turned out that armored vehicles that were in Petrograd suitable for the front, namely: 6 Austins who had just arrived from England and 20 Armstrong-Whitworth-Fiat, could not be expelled from Petrograd now due to the lack of consent to this Council of Workers' Deputies, who consider it necessary to keep these machines in Petrograd against counter-revolution. However, at the same time in Petrograd there are 35 Sheffield-Simplex and Armia-Motor-Lories vehicles unsuitable for the front, which, it would seem, could successfully serve the above purpose. In communicating the above, I ask for appropriate urgent decisions."
Soldiers and officers of the 19th auto-machine gun platoon at the Pylky armored car. Southwestern Front, Tarnopol, July 1915. Armor protection of machine gun barrels of the original form installed in Russia (RGAKFD)
The problem was solved, however, with great difficulty, and in the spring the armored vehicles began to be sent to the troops.
On June 20-22, 1917, the All-Russian armored automobile congress of representatives of the armored units of the front and the Reserve Armored Division was held in Petrograd. It decided to dissolve the Commission on Armored Vehicles (it stopped working on June 22), and also chose a temporary armored vehicle control body - the All-Russian Armored Executive Committee (Vsebronisk), whose chairman was Lieutenant Ganzhumov. At the same time, the congress decided to develop a project for the formation of an independent Armored Department as part of the GVTU (before the creation of the department, its functions were performed by the VseBronisk).
The armored department of the Main Military Engineering Directorate was organized on September 30, 1917, and in its composition there was not a single surname familiar from work in the Commission on Armored Cars. The work of the department continued until it was abolished on December 20, 1917, but nothing fundamental was done in the development of armored parts.
As for the armored divisions at the front, they existed until the beginning of 1918, when in February - March a specially created liquidation commission of the Council for the Management of Armored Forces of the RSFSR carried out their demobilization. According to the final document, the fate of the armored car divisions of the Russian Army was as follows:
“The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th went almost intact to the Germans; 5th was demobilized completely, 6th too; The 7th and 8th divisions were not demobilized, since their vehicles were taken in Kiev by the Ukrainians; The 9th demobilized only the management; The 10th was captured by the Polish legionaries, the 30th squad from its composition was disarmed in Kazan, where it opposed the Soviet power in the days of October, and a pitiful part of it fled to Kaledin on the Don; The 11th division from its composition demobilized only the 43rd and part of the 47th divisions, some of the rest - 34,6 and 41 - were captured near Dubno, in Kremenets and Volochisk and Ukrainized; The 12th was completely demobilized, and as for the Special Purpose and Special Army divisions, they were completely Ukrainianized."
Armored cars that are called "went from hand to hand" and were actively used in battles flaring up on the territory of the former Russian Empire of the Civil War, but that's another story.
"Austins" of the 1st series of the 18th auto-machine gun platoon: "Ratny" and "Rare". Southwestern Front, Tarnopol, May 1915. On "Ratny" there are tires with a car, on "Rare" there are English cargo belts (RGAKFD)
