Nakashidze-Sharron

In 1904, Mikhail Nakashidze , son of the general, Prince Alexander Nakashidze , approached the Siberian Cossack regiment of the Manchurian army, in his own initiative, developed a draft machine-gun armored vehicle taking into account the experience of the war in Manchuria. Shortly before the end of the Russian-Japanese war, Nakashidze presented his project to the Military Department, where he received the support of the commander of the Manchurian army, General Nikolai Linevich . The initiative of the energetic officer was approved. The construction of the car according to Russian drawings was ordered by the French company Charron, Girardot et Voigt , which in 1902 presented one of the world's first armored vehicles - Charron 50CV . However, the monograph of M. Kolomiets "Russian armored cars in battle" refutes the authorship of Nakashidze in the creation of an armored car. In addition, it is stated that the prince was the representative of the company " Sharron, Girardot e Vois " and only lobbied its interests in the General Staff. In particular, in the correspondence he presented himself as the director of the armored car department of the company and in fact was its co-owner. The real author of the project is the French colonel-artilleryman Gyuye.

In 1905, an armored car was manufactured and delivered to Russia. ^[2] True, the firm Charron, Girardot et Voigt collected not one, but two armored cars - the second was intended for the French army. ^[one]

Upon arrival in the Russian Empire, the armored car was subjected to extensive testing. In particular, “Nakashidze-Sharron” made a test run on the route St. Petersburg - Oranienbaum - Wenky , during which the armored car moved both along highways and country roads, and off-road and arable land. Mileage demonstrated a fairly high degree of reliability of the machine. Trial shooting at the Oranienbaum rifle school also showed very encouraging results. In the same 1905, the car was used in the Krasnoselsky maneuvers. A special commission of the War Department recognized the armored car to be quite suitable for reconnaissance, communications, fighting cavalry, and also for pursuing a retreating enemy.

According to the results of the tests, the Military Ministry proposed to order 10 automobile chassis in France in order to book them already in Russia, at the Izhora plant . However, due to the heavy workload of the plant, it was decided to give Charron an order for 10 ready-made armored cars. The armored vehicles were ready in 1908 and sent to Russia, but when passing through Germany, two cars were seized by German customs "in order to assess their capabilities." Somewhat later they appeared on landwehr maneuvers. ^{[1] [2]}

In addition, according to fragmentary data, several Nakashidze-Sharron armored vehicles, the project of which was slightly modernized by a naval officer, captain of the third rank Guillet, were produced at Charron factories for the French army.

Corps and Tower

The fully enclosed body of the armored car was made of 4.5 mm thick chrome-nickel steel armor, which protected the machine from bullets, shell fragments and shrapnel . The armor plates of the hull were fastened to the frame with rivets . In front of the engine was located, immediately behind him - the department of management, then - the fighting compartment with a tower of circular rotation.

The landing and disembarking of the crew was carried out through a door in the port side, opening towards the stern. In the department of management, the driver was located on the left, the commander of the armored vehicle - on the right. To observe the battlefield, they had at their disposal viewing slots and periscope . To improve visibility from the driver’s seat outside the battlefield, an inclined frontal hatch could be raised to a horizontal position. Interestingly, in the sides of the hull there were three large windows (two on the right and one on the left side), closed, if necessary, by armor. This solution allowed to significantly increase the comfort of the crew on the march in hot weather. U-shaped steel walkways were attached diagonally to both sides of the hull, which were removed in combat and used to overcome large ditches, ditches and trenches.

On the roof of the fighting compartment, located behind the command compartment, was a medium-sized cylindrical tower with sloping roof sheets. At the same time, the front bevel was at the same time a hatch, the lid of which could be raised to the horizontal position, as well as the frontal armor sheet of the control compartment. The mechanism of rotation of the tower, which did not have the usual ball bearing later, was solved very interestingly. The tower rested on a column mounted on the floor of the fighting compartment. Manually, with the help of a wheel moving along the running screw of the column, it was possible to raise the tower above the hull and turn it. Only in such a position could a roundabout with a machine gun be ensured. ^{[1] [2]}

Armament

The armored car was armed with an 8-mm “Hotchiss” machine gun mounted on a special bracket in the turret. In addition, another machine gun of the same modification - a spare - was transported in the body of an armored car. ^{[1] [2]}

Engine and Transmission

The powerplant of an armored car was a gasoline 4-cylinder Charron carburetor engine with liquid cooling capacity of 37 liters. with. , allowing the car to reach a maximum speed of 45 km / h when driving on the highway and 30 km / h - when moving on the road . It is noteworthy that, in addition to the usual engine start system at that time with the help of the start lever, the engine could be started from the control compartment, which was important in a combat situation. Access to the engine for repair and maintenance was provided through hatches with removable covers that were available in all walls of the engine compartment.

Chassis - rear - wheel drive (4 × 2), with suspension on longitudinal semi-elliptic leaf springs . In the undercarriage used wooden knitting wheels with bullet-resistant tires, covered with armor caps. The rear wheels were additionally covered with semicircular armored air covers. ^[one]

Optional equipment

For movement at night, the armored car was equipped with a large removable headlight - a searchlight placed on the rack in front of the front inclined sheet of the engine compartment. In a combat situation, a second headlamp was used for illumination, which was installed in the front body armor plate under the front window and was covered with an armored guard. ^[one]

Crew

The combat crew of an armored car consisted of three people; the commander and driver were located in the control room, and the shooter was in the machine-gun turret. However, in addition to the crew, two to five people could additionally be accommodated inside the corps, that is, the car could also be used as an armored personnel carrier , carrying, for example, reconnaissance (reconnaissance) groups of infantrymen, liaison officers, wounded soldiers, doctors, etc. ^[one]

Armored cars "Nakashidze-Sharron" became the first mass-produced armored vehicles of the Russian army. Upon arrival in Russia, the armored cars entered special training units of the St. Petersburg, Kiev, Vilna and Warsaw military districts. However, oddly enough, they received no further use. In any case, data on the use of these armored vehicles during the First World War and the Civil War are not available. ^[one]

Undoubtedly, for its time, "Nakashidze-Sharron" was a very advanced fighting vehicle. The armored car embodied a number of engineering solutions that later became classic: a full body armor, a periscope for safe observation of the battlefield, a machine-gun turret with circular rotation, wheels with bullet-resistant rubber tires, the ability to start the engine from the control compartment. The military commission noted that the armored car is very well suited for solving reconnaissance missions, communications in a combat zone, repelling cavalry attacks and operational transfer of forces to dangerous areas, including those not covered by troops. In addition, the commission’s report contained the following, very shrewd phrase: armored cars “have a broad future as an aid to the battlefield” ^[3] .

Nevertheless, the idea of ​​an armored car did not receive adequate support from the military. The cross on the further fate of "Nakashidze-Sharron" put the death of Mikhail Nakashidze in an explosion at the dacha of Prime Minister Peter Stolypin on August 25 (12), 1906 . Without the energy of their creator armored cars, figuratively speaking, "lay on the shelf." There were no further orders for their production, and by the beginning of the First World War, the Russian Empire approached, with almost no armored vehicles.

However, the experience gained by military engineers during the operation of the Nakashidze-Sharronov was one of the reasons that by the end of 1914 Russia was able to launch the production of its own armored cars that were not inferior to Western counterparts, such as the Harford Putilov and the Russo-Russian Balt type C ", and effectively use them in battle. ^{[4] [5]}

• Baryatinsky M. B. , Kolomiets M. V. Armored cars of the Russian army 1906-1917 - M .: Technique-youth, 2000. - 108 p. - 2000 copies - ISBN 5-88879-029-X .
• Kolomiets M.V. Armor of the Russian Army. Armored cars and armored trains in the First World War. - M .: Yauza, 2008. - 448 p. - (From the double-headed eagle to the red flag). - 4000 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-27455-0 .
• Kholyavsky G. L. Encyclopedia of armored weapons and equipment. Wheeled and semi-tracked armored cars and armored personnel carriers. - Mn. : Harvest, 2004. - 656 pp., Ill. - (Library of military history). - 5100 copies - ISBN 985-13-1765-9 .

• Armored car M. A. Nakashidze / Charon 1904 (Neopr.) . www.aviarmor.net . The appeal date was August 19, 2011. Archived April 20, 2012.
• In the beginning of the century. M. Baryatinsky. Model builder. 1990 №9
• A. Kikhtenko. Armored cars of the Russian army (Neopr.) . ww1.milua.org . The appeal date is March 10, 2010. Archived August 17, 2011.