152 mm cannon of the 1935 model (Br-2)

Already at the end of the 19th century, a class of long-range cannons of large and special power appeared in the artillery of the leading countries of the world, designed for counter-battery firing , shelling of important objects in the enemy’s rear lines, and the destruction of particularly durable long-term fortifications . Almost all of these weapons in the army of the Russian Empire were imported, and by the end of the Civil War they were obsolete and physically worn out. Therefore, the leadership of the USSR , not having in the 1920s the opportunity to acquire such weapons abroad, ordered the development of high-powered cannons and howitzers from scratch.

B-10 gun

Work on the creation of long-range long-barreled 152-mm guns for artillery of the reserve of the high command (ARGK) was launched in the USSR on September 21, 1929 , when the artillery department (AU) issued tactical and technical requirements (TTT) to the Leningrad plant "Bolshevik" (former Obukhov plant) on a new gun ^[2] . The first barrel of the new gun, which received the B-10 index (all the tools of the Bolshevik plant had an index consisting of the letter “B” and a digital designation), was ready in April 1932 . On May 10 of the same year, the cannon's field tests began, while still without a regular carriage . From November 1932 to October 1934, repeated field tests of the first two guns were carried out on a standard carriage, and in 1935, military tests of the new artillery system were carried out. The tests revealed a number of shortcomings of the new gun, the most serious of them were:

• low speed vertical guidance (VN);
• low rate of fire;
• low survivability.

As a result, the test system did not pass.

As a result, it was decided not to take the B-10 gun into service (especially since the more advanced B-30 and Br-2 guns were ready), and use two manufactured prototypes for various experiments. In particular, barrel No. 1 was re-cut for firing shells with finished rifles, and barrel No. 2 was fired for firing polygonal shells . In addition, an attempt was made to increase the HV speed by installing an electric drive, for the first time for Soviet ground guns. All experiments ended unsuccessfully - rifled and polygon shells have a number of specific drawbacks (which was found out during tests at Russian test sites back in the 19th century), and it was not possible to provide smooth aiming with the help of an electric drive - for this, a Jenny coupling was needed, as on marine drives guns. Navy men were also interested in the possibility of using the B-10 in coastal defense; projects of towed and self-propelled units were created, the latter based on the T-28 tank . The project of the towed installation received the B-25 index and reached the stage of factory tests, but was ultimately rejected due to a number of difficult to eliminate shortcomings and the army’s refusal to adopt the B-10 ^[2] .

The B-10 conceptual features - ballistic characteristics and tracked carriage - were transferred to the designs of subsequent B-30 and Br-2 guns.

The choice between the B-30 and the Br-2

In the 1930s, the AU made an attempt to create a triplex of high power - 203 mm howitzers, 152 mm guns and 280 mm mortars on a single carriage. The use of a single gun carriage gave a number of advantages - the development, production and operation of guns became significantly cheaper and easier. The triplex was developed by competing design bureaus of two factories - the Leningrad Bolshevik and the Stalingrad Barricades .

The project of the Bolshevik plant was called B-30 (sometimes the B-10-2-30 index was used). The new gun was an overlay of a slightly modified barrel of the B-10 gun on the tracked carriage of a 203-mm howitzer B-4 . The first B-30 gun arrived at the training ground on July 21, 1935 . According to the results of military tests, the gun was recommended for adoption, provided that the identified deficiencies were eliminated. At the end of 1936, a batch of six guns was made at the Bolshevik plant, one of which was installed on an experimental self-propelled gun SU-14 . The B-30 guns, as well as the B-10, were used to conduct a series of experiments regarding various barrel cutting systems. So, we tested the slicing system of the company Ansaldo (Eng. Ansaldo) of variable depth, as well as again firing shells with finished rifles. All tests failed. Also, trunks for the B-30 were made of increased length (55 calibers ) and normal length, but with in-depth cuts. As a result, the B-30 was not adopted for service. The fate of the guns released to date remains unclear.

The project of the Barricades factory was called Br-2 (the letters Br and the digital index in the name carried all the tools developed at this factory). Like the B-30, this gun was an overlay of the B-10 barrel on the B-4 carriage. The gun was distinguished from the B-Z0 by the barrel arrangement (fastened instead of a free tube), the presence of a balancing mechanism and minor changes in the shock mechanism of the shutter . The prototype Br-2 arrived at the training ground on December 9, 1931 . The gun did not pass field tests because of imbalance, low rate of fire, tight shutter closure and a number of other problems. Nevertheless, contrary to the recommendations of the training ground, the AU sent the Br-2 to military tests, which took place from March 7 to March 24, 1936 and were discontinued due to the destruction of the guns. The commissions of both landfills gave preference to the B-30, but for unclear reasons the leadership of the AU chose to adopt the Br-2. The famous historian of Russian and Soviet artillery A. B. Shirokorad believes ^[2] that this choice was subjective in nature and notes that the leaders of the AU involved in this decision were subsequently held accountable.

Increased barrel survivability

Serial production of Br-2 guns began on March 14, 1936 (that is, even before the completion of military tests), and, unlike the prototype, serial guns were ordered to be released with a free pipe of the B-30 type. The adopted gun suffered a number of defects, in particular, it had an extremely low barrel survivability (about 100 shots; this value is estimated by reducing the initial velocity of the projectile from the passport value to a certain minimum acceptable limit). The solution to this problem went in two directions - a sample of a gun with a longer barrel (55 calibres) was created and tested, and a barrel with a deeper cut and a smaller chamber was tested . As a result, the second option was chosen, and in 1938 the production of deep-cut guns began. At the same time, it was stated that the barrel survivability increased five-fold, which is doubtful in light of the exemptions made in the tests to the criterion for evaluating this parameter (the allowable drop in the initial projectile velocity was increased from 4 to 10%) ^[2] .

Br-19 Cannon

The next attempt to modernize the Br-2 was the Br-19 gun. This gun was a refinement of the B-30 using the Br-2 units already tested in serial production - a barrel with in-depth cuts and a shutter . The Br-19 military tests took place together with the Br-2 (the later version with in-depth cutting) from November 25 to December 30, 1939 . According to the test results, the advantage of the Br-19 over the Br-2 was noted, and the first system was recommended for adoption instead of the last. The development of the working drawings of the Br-19 for serial production was started, which, for reasons still unclear, has not yet begun ^[2] .

Carriage upgrades

Another direction of modernization of the Br-2 was to improve the mobility of the gun due to the introduction of a wheel drive, since the tracked carriage of the gun had a significant number of drawbacks (see. Project evaluation ). Attempts to modernize the tracked carriage (for example, the new T-117 move tested in 1939 ) did not lead to positive results. In 1940, the Br-15 wheeled barrel wagon was recommended for use, but was not accepted due to the inexpediency of the presence of a barrel wagon of increased mobility in the presence of a low mobility tracked carriage.

In 1938, the AU approved the tactical and technical requirements for the development of a new wheeled carriage for a high-power duplex (152-mm Br-2 gun and 203-mm B-4 howitzer), in 1940 it was proposed to develop this carriage for the 280-mm mortar Br -5 . The new carriage was to be developed by the Design Bureau of Plant No. 172 ( Perm Plant ) under the leadership of F.F. Petrov . The gun carriage received the M-50 index, but work on it went extremely slowly due to the heavy workload of the design bureau on other systems. As a result, by the beginning of the war, everything was limited to the development of the project, after which all work was stopped.

In 1955, the Br-2 underwent a major modernization; a new wheel carriage was developed for the gun. The carriage of the guns became inseparable, the speed of the carriage significantly (up to 35 km / h on the highway) increased. The upgraded gun received the Br-2M index.

Experiments and experiments

The Br-2 cannon was used in experiments on ultra-long-range firing of caliber shells with a detachable pan . At the same time, a special free pipe of 162 mm caliber and shells with star pallets of 162/100 mm caliber were made for the gun barrel. After leaving the bore during firing , the 162 mm caliber pallet was detached, and then the secondary projectile of the 100 mm caliber continued to fly . The tests took place in 1940 and ended unsuccessfully (there was an improper projectile flight , loading difficulties and other problems), while the gun barrel was damaged. At the same time, experiments were carried out on firing from a standard cannon with caliber shells with a 152/107 mm caliber pallet, which also ended in failure - it turned out that the firing range of the caliber projectile was not much higher than that for a standard projectile.

Br-21 Cannon

Also, on the basis of the Br-2 was created 180-mm gun Br-21. The gun was created at the Barricades factory on an initiative basis, while the aim was to use Br-2 barrels that had accumulated at the factory and, for one reason or another, were not accepted by military acceptance (mainly with small cuts). The barrel of the Br-2 was bored to a caliber of 180 mm and superimposed on a standard carriage of the B-4 howitzer. On December 20, 1939, the gun entered field tests and successfully passed them, demonstrating significantly better accuracy in comparison with the Br-2, as well as the best action on fortified structures . However, the gun was not adopted for service, since the caliber of 180 mm was not used in land artillery, and the shells of naval 180 mm guns were not suitable for him. Accordingly, for the Br-21 would have to develop and manufacture new shells ^[2] .

The Br-2 guns were mass-produced at the Barricades plant in Stalingrad from 1937 to 1940. In total, at least 37 guns were fired, including some of the guns (in all likelihood, prototypes) were fired before 1937. In 1937, 7 small-cut guns were produced, subsequently only deep-cut guns were produced. In 1938, the guns were not produced, in 1939 4 guns were released, in 1940 - another 23, on which the serial production of the Br-2 was completed.

The Br-2 gun is a long-barreled cannon placed on a single-barreled carriage with a caterpillar track . The same carriage with minor design changes was used for the 203-mm howitzer B-4 and 280-mm mortars Br-5. The main design features of the gun include:

• A barrel with a free pipe of 47.2 gauge length.
• Piston type shutter .
• Hydraulic brake rollback.
• Hydropneumatic recuperator.
• The rollback length is variable.
• Cartridge loading guns. To facilitate the supply of shells from the ground, there was a special crane with a winch.

The carriage has a special hydropneumatic push-type balancing mechanism. For short distances, the gun could move unassembled at a speed of 5-8 km / h, for greater distances the system moved unassembled — the barrel separately on a special gun cart, the carriage separately. The Br-10 gun cart (the 1937 guns were equipped with the Br-6 cart) - wheeled, the total mass of the cart with the barrel is 11,100 kg. The wagon consisted of a hull, a forward gear with an arrow of mechanical traction, a reverse gear, a brake device and a device for re-equipping the system. Could also be used caterpillar barrel wagon B-29 with a total weight of 13 420 kg barrel. In the report of comparative tests of the Br-10 and B-29 carts of August 7, 1938, it was noted: “Both carts are bad and do not meet the requirements” ^[2] . The B-29 wagon was heavier and had great stragging force, the Br-10 wagon had insufficient patency and got stuck on poor dirt roads, in ditches, etc. The time it took for the gun to move from its stowed position to the combat position with separate carts ranged from 45 minutes to 2 hours . The gun was towed by Voroshilovets caterpillar tractors , the barrel carts by the less powerful Komintern crawler tractors.

As of June 1941, the Br-2 guns were part of the heavy cannon regiment of the reserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK). The regiment included 4 divisions of three-battery composition, each battery had two guns, that is, the total number of Br-2s in the regiment was 24 guns. In addition, the Br-2 was armed with two separate two-gun batteries. After the outbreak of war, guns were used as part of separate divisions of 6 guns. Later, the organizational and staffing structure changed again - a cannon regiment of special power was introduced, consisting of four batteries of two guns. In its arsenal, the cannon regiment of special power had six 152-mm Br-2 guns and two 210-mm Br-17 guns. As of May 1945, units of the RVGK included four such regiments.

Br-2 guns were designed to destroy various objects in the enemy’s near rear — high-level command posts, warehouses , field airfields , railway stations , troop accumulations, long-range batteries, as well as the destruction of vertical fortifications by direct fire .

The Br-2 or B-30 guns participated in the Soviet-Finnish war , and one gun was lost ^[3] . As of June 1941, there were 37 Br-2 guns in total in the Red Army (according to other sources, 38 guns ^[4] ), while the troops contained 28 guns that were part of one heavy cannon regiment of the RVGK and two separate batteries (the latter were in the Arkhangelsk military district for use for coastal defense ^[5] ). The rest of the guns were in warehouses and landfills, mainly these were small-sized guns and experimental guns. Very little is known about the combat use of Br-2 guns, in particular, there is information about their use in the Battle of Kursk ^[6] . Also, these guns were available in the artillery group of the 8th Guards Army in April 1945, guns were used to destroy targets at the Zeelov Heights during the Berlin offensive operation ^[7] . In 1944, 9.9 thousand rounds were fired for the Br-2 (on the Leningrad (7.1 thousand rounds), the 1st Baltic and 2nd Belorussian fronts), in 1945 - 3036 rounds, in 1942 and 1943 years, the consumption of shells of these guns was not recorded ^[8] . Probably, in the Great Patriotic War, guns of this type did not suffer losses, since by May 1, 1945 in the units of the RVGK there were as many guns as there were at the beginning of the war - 28. This fact is associated with very careful use of high-powered guns, as well as their timely evacuation in 1941 from the western regions of the country to the rear.

The upgraded Br-2M guns were in service at least until the 1970s .

• Br-2 with a fastened barrel - a prototype.
• Br-2 with a fine cut of the barrel ( GAU index - 52-P-550) - at least 7 pieces were produced. in the years 1936-1937.
• The Br-2 with a 162 mm caliber barrel is a prototype.
• Br-2 with a deep cut of the barrel ( GAU index - 52-P-551) - 27 pieces were produced. in the years 1939-1940.
• Br-21 - an experimental gun with a caliber of 180 mm.
• Br-2M - Br-2 receiver group on a new wheeled carriage, in service since 1955.
• D-4 - barrel with ballistic Br-2 on a modified gun carriage of the ML-20 howitzer gun . Prototype.

The Br-2 cannon was installed on an experimental self-propelled artillery mount (SAU) SU-14-1 , which was submitted for field tests on May 16, 1936, initially with a 203-mm howitzer B-4. This open-type self-propelled guns with a total weight of 48 tons was built on a modified chassis of the T-35 heavy tank using units and assemblies of the T-28 medium tank. Field tests of the SU-14-1 were unsuccessful, although the potential for further design improvement was noted. In 1937, the installation was handed over to the warehouse, in connection with the arrest of one of its developers P.N. Syachintov . In 1940 , with the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish war , they decided to prepare the installation for military operations; it was assumed that a powerful gun would effectively destroy the fortifications of the Mannerheim line . However, the finalization of the installation, including the strengthening of the reservation using armored screens and the installation of a closed armored cabin, was delayed, did not manage to get to the front of the self-propelled guns and remained at the training ground in Kubinka . A self-propelled gun modified in this way is known in the literature as SU-14Br-2. In the fall of 1941, when German troops approached the SU-14Br-2 firing range, they fired at them from long distances. Also, the gun was installed on an experimental self-propelled artillery installation Object 212 .

The Br-2 cannon, like other high-power triplex guns, is hardly a successful model. This fact is largely due to the lack of experience of the young Soviet design school, which occupied one of the leading positions in the world only towards the very end of the 1930s - the beginning of the 1940s , after a long journey that included the creation of not very successful models and the extensive borrowing of advanced foreign experience. The design of guns of great and special power, in view of the great complexity of these systems, was particularly difficult compared to other classes of artillery systems. Lack of experience in this area and poor use of foreign developments greatly impeded Soviet designers in their work.

The main problem of the Br-2, as well as the entire triplex, was the caterpillar mount . Its design was conceived as providing high throughput when moving on virgin lands or arable land, which in theory allowed to increase the survivability of the guns due to the quick change of firing position in an unassembled form. In reality, the use of a tracked carriage led to the bulkiness and very low mobility of the entire system, both unassembled and unassembled. Fire maneuvering capabilities were severely limited by the horizontal angle (GN) of only 8 °. For turning the cannon by forces of calculation beyond the limits of the GN angle, it took at least 25 minutes. The very necessity of disassembling the guns on the campaign and the presence of a separate barrel vehicle did not contribute to the mobility and survivability of the system. The gun was hardly moved by the most powerful of the available Soviet tractors, but in the case of poor terrain conditions ( mud , ice ), this system actually lost mobility. Thus, the gun had poor maneuverability in all respects.

Among other shortcomings of the gun, it is necessary to note a low rate of fire. The survivability of the barrel, despite all the upgrades, also left much to be desired. The haste with the launch of an insufficiently tested system in serial production led to the fact that the already few artillery system was divided into two series, distinguished by the cutting of the barrel and the ammunition used.

Problems with guns of large and special power of Soviet production forced the country's leadership to turn to the tried and tested path - the use of advanced foreign experience. In 1938, a contract was signed with Skoda for the supply of prototypes and technical documentation for two powerful artillery systems - 210 mm guns and 305 mm howitzers, which received the production of the Br-17 and Br-18 indices.

The main problem of the entire Soviet heavy cannon artillery was an extremely small number of fired cannons ^[9] . As of June 1941, the Red Army had only 37-38 Br-2 guns, including landfill samples and low-effective weapons with small cuts, as well as 9 Br-17 guns, to which there were no ammunition at the beginning of the war.

For comparison, the Wehrmacht had several types of powerful 150 mm guns at once - K.16 (28 guns), SKC / 28 (at least 45 guns), K.18 (at least 101 guns) and K.39 (53 guns) ^{[ 10]} . All of them were highly mobile artillery systems on wheels with powerful ballistics. For example, the K.18 150-mm gun had the following tactical and technical characteristics: marching mass of 18 310 kg, combat weight - 12 930 kg, GN angle - 360 ° on the platform or 11 ° with extended beds, rate of fire - 2 rounds / min, maximum firing range - 24,740 m. Obviously, K.18 with the same firing range with the Br-2 qualitatively surpassed the Soviet cannon in all other respects. Also, German guns had a significantly larger assortment of ammunition, which included three varieties of high-explosive fragmentation shells : concrete-piercing , armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing shells . The only advantage of the Br-2 is a slightly more powerful high-explosive fragmentation projectile containing 1 kg more explosives compared to the German counterpart. Even heavier 170-mm guns on the mortar carriage K.18 Mrs. Laf. (release for 1941-1945 - 338 guns), firing a projectile weighing 68 kg at a distance of 29.5 km, exceeded the mobility of the Br-2.

It is also of interest to compare the characteristics of the Br-2 with the American heavy 155-mm gun M1 “Long Tom” . The last gun was developed, like the Br-2, in the mid -1930s , had a barrel length of 45 calibers, a muzzle velocity of 853 m / s. Despite the fact that the Long Tom was inferior to the Br-2 in its maximum firing range by almost 2 km (23.2 km against 25 km), it also had a mass in the stowed position of 13.9 tons (in combat even less), which was almost 4.5 tons less than the combat weight of the Br-2. In addition, the American gun was mounted on a wheeled carriage of a special design with extendable beds, in which the wheels were lifted during firing, and a special platform was lowered, which was lowered to the ground. Compared to the Br-2 caterpillar carriage rolling backwards during firing, this made it possible to substantially win in accuracy of fire; in addition, the horizontal sector was 60 °. The inseparability, mobility of the Long Tom, together with the presence of powerful tractors and high firing accuracy, clearly puts the Br-2 at a disadvantage even with a shorter firing range of the Long Tom compared to the Br-2.

The Br-2 gun fired only with its own specially designed ammunition; and guns with deep and shallow cuts also had their own non-interchangeable shells . Shells for deep-cut guns had one leading belt , and for small-cut guns - two belts. The range of shells included high-explosive and concrete-piercing shells, the presence of chemical and, later, special ( nuclear ) ammunition is not ruled out, but reliable information on this subject is missing. The charges are arranged in caps, there are 3 charges in total — full, No. 1 and No. 2, and the service consisted of “old” and “new” charges, identical in ballistics , but different in composition of half-charges , beams , additional packets and in mass.

The Br-2 cannons on the tracked carriage are on display at the Museum of Artillery and Engineering Troops in St. Petersburg , the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow , the Museum of Russian Military History in the village of Padikovo, Moscow Region, and the Museum of Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol on Sapun Mountain in Sevastopol ( The Sevastopol exhibit was made in 1937 at the Barricades artillery factory in Stalingrad using a 203-mm howitzer B-4 tracked carriage ^[11] ). Self-propelled gun SU-14-1 with Br-2 is exhibited at the Military History Museum of Armored Forces in Kubinka .

• Shirokorad A. B. Encyclopedia of Russian artillery. - Mn. : Harvest, 2000 .-- 1156 p.: Ill. with. - ISBN 985-433-703-0 .
• Shirokorad A. B. God of War of the Third Reich. - M .: AST, 2002 .-- 576 p.: 32 l. silt with. - ISBN 5-17-015302-3 .
• Ivanov A. Artillery of the USSR in World War II. - SPb. : Neva, 2003 .-- 64 p. - ISBN 5-7654-2731-6 .

• Br-2 on the website of the series of games "Confrontation" (Sudden Strike)