"Katyusha"- the common name of military vehicles rocket artillery BM-8 (with 82 mm shells), BM-13 (132 mm) and BM-31 (310 mm) during the Great Patriotic War. There are several versions of the origin of this name, the most likely of them is associated with the factory mark "K" of the manufacturer of the first combat vehicles BM-13 (Voronezh Plant named after the Comintern), as well as with the popular song of the same name at that time (music by Matvey Blanter, lyrics by Mikhail Isakovsky).
(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing. Moscow. In 8 volumes -2004. ISBN 5 - 203 01875 - 8)

The fate of the first separate experimental battery was cut short at the beginning of October 1941. After the baptism of fire near Orsha, the battery successfully operated in battles near Rudnya, Smolensk, Yelnya, Roslavl and Spas-Demensk. During the three months of hostilities, the Flerov battery not only inflicted considerable material damage on the Germans, it also contributed to the rise fighting spirit from our soldiers and officers, exhausted by continuous retreats.

The Nazis staged a real hunt for new weapons. But the battery did not stay long in one place - having fired a volley, it immediately changed its position. A tactical technique - a volley - a change of position - was widely used by Katyusha units during the war.

At the beginning of October 1941, as part of a group of troops Western Front The battery ended up in the rear of the Nazi troops. When moving to the front line from the rear on the night of October 7, she was ambushed by the enemy near the village of Bogatyr, Smolensk region. Most of the battery personnel and Ivan Flerov died, having shot all the ammunition and blowing up the combat vehicles. Only 46 soldiers managed to get out of the encirclement. The legendary battalion commander and the rest of the fighters, who fulfilled their duty with honor to the end, were considered "missing." And only when it was possible to find documents from one of the army headquarters of the Wehrmacht, which reported what actually happened on the night of October 6-7, 1941 near the Smolensk village of Bogatyr, Captain Flerov was excluded from the list of missing persons.

For heroism, Ivan Flerov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree in 1963, and in 1995 he was awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation posthumously.

In honor of the feat of the battery, a monument was erected in the city of Orsha and an obelisk near the city of Rudnya.

Unique weapon times of the Great Patriotic War, popularly nicknamed "Katyusha", has long become a legend, and unusual name, which was dubbed the rocket launcher during the war years, and stuck with it. Front-line soldiers say that when shooting from formidable weapons began, Soviet citizens often started a record with the song "Katyusha" ...

The deafening howl that accompanied the flight of the rocket literally drove me crazy. Those who did not die during the shelling often could no longer resist, as they were shell-shocked, stunned, and psychologically depressed.

origin of name

Why did the terrible front-line weapon receive such an affectionate nickname "Katyusha"? And why exactly Katyusha?

There are several versions about this.

The first belongs to the veterans. Like, just before the war, the song of Matusovsky and Blanter about the girl Katyusha was very popular, and the beautiful Russian name somehow by itself stuck to the new jet installation.

The second version was put forward by military experts. Reading an article in Pravda, they speculated what kind of weapon was used near Orsha? A whole salvo! This means that the gun is automatic and multi-barrelled. The report indicated that everything was on fire in the affected area. It is clear: shells are incendiary - thermal. Fire tails?! Those are rockets. And who was then considered their "father", the experts perfectly knew: Andrey Kostikov. The polygoners called "BM-13" in their own way: "Kostikovsky automatic thermal", abbreviated - "KAT". And among the front-line soldiers who came to the training grounds, the word "kat" took root quickly. The fighters took this word to the front line, and even there it remained close to the Katyusha beloved by everyone.

Another version of the version, generated by specialists, suggests that the nickname is associated with the “K” index on the mortar body - the installations were produced by the Comintern plant ...

The third version is even more exotic and requires special explanation. On the chassis of the car, the BM-13 installations had guides, which in technical language were called slopes. A projectile was installed above and below each slope. Unlike cannon artillery, where the calculation of the gun is divided into a loader and a gunner, in rocket artillery the calculation did not have official names, but over time, the division of the soldiers serving the installation according to the functions performed was also determined. A 42-kilogram projectile for the M-13 installation was usually unloaded by several people, and then two, harnessed to straps, dragged the projectiles to the installation itself, raised them to the height of the slopes, and a third person usually helped them, pushing the projectile so that it would definitely enter into guides. Two soldiers were holding a heavy projectile, and for them at that moment the “pusher-roll-katyusha” signal that the projectile stood-rolled-rolled into the guide slopes meant the successful completion of a very important part of the work on equipping the installation for a volley. Of course, all the soldiers carried shells and each carried out hard work on their rise to the slopes. There was no specially designated person responsible for installing the projectile into the ramps. But the work itself led to the fact that at the last moment someone had to take on the role of "Katyusha" to push the projectile onto the guides, taking responsibility for the successful completion of the operation. It is clear that there were cases of shells falling to the ground, and then it had to be lifted from the ground and started all over again if the Katyusha was wrong about something.

One more thing. The installations were so classified that it was forbidden even to give the commands "plee", "fire", "volley" and the like. Instead, the commands were: "sing" and "play." Well, for the infantry, volleys of rocket launchers were the most pleasant music, which meant that today the Germans would get the first number, and there would be almost no losses among their own.

Creation of "Katyusha"

The history of the appearance of the first rockets in Rus' goes back to the fifteenth century. Pyrotechnic rockets became widespread in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, this period is associated with the activities of Peter the Great, during which the first fireworks laboratories were created. In 1680, a special "rocket plant" was organized in Moscow for the production of fireworks, lighting and signal rockets.

In 1717, a one-pound lighting rocket grenade was adopted by the Russian army, rising to a height of more than 1 kilometer. In 1810, the Russian military department instructed the Military Scientific Committee under the Main Artillery Directorate to deal with the creation of combat missiles for use in combat operations.

In 1813, the talented Russian scientist General A. D. Zasyadko created several types of combat missiles with a caliber from 2 to 4 inches. Created by another prominent representative of the Russian artillery school, General K.I. Konstantinov, 2-, 2.5- and 4-inch rockets were adopted by the Russian army, and had higher firing accuracy, better reliability and withstood more long terms storage. However, at that time combat missiles could not compete with rapidly improving artillery due to restrictions on the range of projectiles and their significant dispersion during shelling.

As a result, in January 1886, the Artillery Committee decided to stop the production of combat missiles in Russia.

Nevertheless, it was impossible to stop the development of progress in rocket science, and in the years before the First World War, attempts were made in Russia to create rockets to destroy enemy airplanes and balloons. Former vice director Putilov factory I.V. Volovsky in April 1912 submitted to the Russian War Ministry a promising project of a new type of rotating missiles and a project of two "Throwing Apparatuses" for launching missiles from an aircraft and a car. Despite a number of positive results obtained in the field of jet weapons at the beginning of the twentieth century, this project did not find application. The reason was that the level scientific knowledge in the field of rocket science during this period still remained low. Most of the inventors of solid rockets were not familiar with the theoretical works of K.E. Tsiolkovsky and other scientists in the field of rocket science. But, the main drawback of all rocket projects of the early twentieth century was the use of low-calorie and heterogeneous fuel - black smoke powder - as an energy source.

A new word in the improvement of rocket weapons was said in 1915, when the teacher of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, Colonel I.P. Grave, first proposed a new solid fuel - smokeless pyroxylin powder, which provides the rocket with a large carrying capacity and flight range.

A new life-giving breath in the development of domestic rocket science has come to Soviet time. Understanding the importance and significance of rocket technology for the country's defense capability, the state created a special rocket laboratory in Moscow in 1921 to develop rockets using smokeless powder. It was headed by engineer N.I. Tikhomirov and his associate and associate V.A. Artemiev. On March 3, 1928, after many studies and experiments, tests, the first successful launch was made, designed by N.I. Tikhomirov and V.A. Artemyev, rockets with an engine charge of coarse smokeless powder. With the creation of this first rocket on smokeless powder, the foundation was laid for the development of rockets for guards mortars - for the famous Katyushas. The range of shells even then reached 5-6 kilometers, but they had large deviations from the target, and the problem of ensuring satisfactory accuracy of fire turned out to be the most difficult. Many have been tried various options, however for a long time tests did not give positive results.

In the fall of 1937, the RNII began to put into practice the idea of ​​mechanized rocket launchers. A department was created at the institute under the leadership of I. I. Gvai. The design team included A.P. Pavlenko, A.S. Popov, V.N. Galkovsky. Now it is these scientists who are considered the "fathers" of the legendary Katyusha rocket launcher. It is difficult to find out exactly who came up with the idea to install jet system on a truck. At the same time, they decided to use the Flute-type structure, which had previously been developed for aviation, as guides for rockets.

In a week, a team of authors prepared a technical design of the installation, which included twenty-four Flute-type guides. They were supposed to be arranged in two rows on a metal frame installed across the longitudinal axis of a typical ZIS-5 truck. It was intended to aim the reactive system horizontally with the help of the truck itself, and vertically - with a special manual mechanism. In the summer of 1938, in an atmosphere of strict secrecy, the first two prototypes of a reactive system were manufactured. salvo fire mounted on ZIS-5 vehicles. In December 1938, new types of installations passed military tests already at another training ground, where they were tested by the State Military Commission. The tests took place in thirty-five degrees of frost. All systems worked perfectly, and the missiles hit the calculated targets. The Commission appreciated the new kind weapons, and December 1938 can be considered the month and year of the birth of the legendary Katyushas.

On June 21, 1941, the installation was demonstrated to the leaders of the Soviet government and on the same day, just a few hours before the start of World War II, a decision was made to urgently deploy series production M-13 rockets and a launcher that received official name BM-13 ( fighting machine 13).

Thus, a highly maneuverable, high-speed combat vehicle was created, capable of conducting single, group and salvo fire.

What the Russian "Katyusha" is, the German - "hell flames." The nickname that the Wehrmacht soldiers gave to the Soviet rocket artillery combat vehicle was fully justified. In just 8 seconds, a regiment of 36 BM-13 mobile units fired 576 shells at the enemy. A feature of salvo fire was that one blast wave superimposed on another, the law of addition of impulses came into force, which at times increased the destructive effect.

Fragments of hundreds of mines, heated to 800 degrees, destroyed everything around. As a result, an area of ​​100 hectares turned into a scorched field, riddled with craters from shells. It was possible to escape only to those Nazis who, at the time of the salvo, were lucky enough to be in a securely fortified dugout. The Nazis called this pastime a "concert." The fact is that the Katyusha volleys were accompanied by a terrible roar, for this sound the Wehrmacht soldiers awarded rocket launchers with another nickname - "Stalin's organs".

See in the infographic what the BM-13 rocket artillery system looked like.

The birth of "Katyusha"

In the USSR, it was customary to say that the “Katyusha” was created not by any individual designer, but by the Soviet people. The best minds of the country really worked on the development of combat vehicles. In 1921, N. Tikhomirov and V. Artemiev, employees of the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory, began to create rockets on smokeless powder. In 1922, Artemiev was accused of espionage and next year sent to serve his term in Solovki, in 1925 he returned back to the laboratory.

In 1937, the RS-82 rockets, which were developed by Artemiev, Tikhomirov and G. Langemak, who joined them, were adopted by the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet. In the same year, in connection with the Tukhachevsky case, all those who worked on new types of weapons were subjected to a “cleansing” by the NKVD. Langemak was arrested as a German spy and shot in 1938. In the summer of 1939, aircraft rockets developed with his participation were successfully used in battles with Japanese troops on the Khalkhin Gol River.

From 1939 to 1941 employees of the Moscow Jet Research Institute I. Gvai, N. Galkovsky, A. Pavlenko, A. Popov worked on the creation of a self-propelled multiply charged installation jet fire. On June 17, 1941, she took part in a demonstration of the latest types of artillery weapons. The tests were attended by People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko, his deputy Grigory Kulik and Chief of the General Staff Georgy Zhukov.

Self-propelled rocket launchers were shown last, and at first, trucks with iron guides fixed on top did not make any impression on the tired representatives of the commission. But the volley itself was remembered by them for a long time: according to eyewitnesses, the commanders, seeing the rising column of flame, fell into a stupor for a while.

Timoshenko was the first to come to his senses, he sharply turned to his deputy: “ Why was the presence of such weapons silent and not reported?". Kulik tried to justify himself by saying that this artillery system had simply not been fully developed until recently. On June 21, 1941, just a few hours before the start of the war, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin, after inspecting rocket launchers, decided to deploy their mass production.

A full-fledged baptism of fire "Katyusha" took place on July 14, 1941. Rocket artillery vehicles under the leadership of Flerov fired volleys at the Orsha railway station, where a large number of manpower, equipment and provisions of the enemy. Here is what Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, wrote about these volleys in his diary: “ On July 14 near Orsha, the Russians used hitherto unknown weapons. A fiery flurry of shells burned railway station Orsha, all echelons with personnel and military equipment of the arrived military units. Metal melted, earth burned».

Adolf Hitler met the news about the appearance of a new Russian miracle weapon very painfully. The chief of the Abwehr ** Wilhelm Franz Canaris received a thrashing from the Fuhrer for the fact that his department had not yet stolen the blueprints for rocket launchers. As a result, a real hunt was announced for the Katyushas, ​​to which the main saboteur of the Third Reich, Otto Skorzeny, was involved.

"Katyusha" against "donkey"

Along the front lines of the Great Patriotic War, the Katyusha often had to exchange salvos with a Nebelwerfer (German Nebelwerfer - “fog thrower”) - a German rocket launcher. For the characteristic sound that this six-barreled 150 mm mortar made when firing, soviet soldiers They called him "the donkey". However, when the soldiers of the Red Army fought off enemy equipment, the contemptuous nickname was forgotten - in the service of our artillery, the trophy immediately turned into a “vanyusha”.

True, the Soviet soldiers did not have tender feelings for this weapon. The fact is that the installation was not self-propelled, the 540-kilogram jet mortar had to be towed. When fired, his shells left a thick plume of smoke in the sky, which unmasked the positions of the artillerymen, who could immediately be covered by the fire of enemy howitzers.

Nebelwerfer. German rocket launcher.

The best designers of the Third Reich did not manage to design their analogue of the Katyusha until the end of the war. German developments either exploded during tests at the training ground, or did not differ in firing accuracy.

Why was the volley fire system nicknamed "Katyusha"?

Soldiers at the front liked to give names to weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was called "Mother", the ML-20 howitzer gun - "Emelka". BM-13, at first, was sometimes called "Raisa Sergeevna", as the front-line soldiers deciphered the abbreviation RS (rocket). Who and why was the first to call the rocket launcher "Katyusha" is not known for certain.

The most common versions link the appearance of the nickname:
- with M. Blanter's song, popular during the war years, to the words of M. Isakovsky "Katyusha";
- with the letter "K", embossed on the installation frame. Thus, the plant named after the Comintern marked its products;
- with the name of the beloved of one of the fighters, which he wrote on his BM-13.

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*Mannerheim Line - a complex of defensive structures 135 km long on the Karelian Isthmus.

** Abwehr - (German Abwehr - "defense", "reflection") - the body of military intelligence and counterintelligence in Germany in 1919-1944. He was a member of the High Command of the Wehrmacht.

Tests of new weapons made a strong impression even on worldly-wise military leaders. Indeed, the combat vehicles shrouded in smoke and flame fired sixteen 132-mm rocket-propelled shells in a few seconds, and where the targets had just been seen, fiery tornadoes were already spinning, flooding the distant horizon with a crimson glow.

This is how the demonstration of unusual military equipment took place to the high command of the Red Army, headed by People's Commissar of Defense Marshal S.K. Timoshenko. It was in mid-May 1941, and a week after the start of World War II, an experimental separate battery of rocket artillery of the Reserve was formed. Supreme High Command. A few days later, production began to hand over to the army the first serial BM-13-16 - the famous "Katyusha".

The history of the creation of the guards jet mortar has been rocking since the twenties. Even then the Soviet military science vide-la future combat operations maneuverable, with extensive use of motorized troops and modern technology- tanks, planes, cars. And the classic receiver hardly fit into this holistic picture
artillery. Much more consistent with it were light and mobile rocket launchers. The lack of recoil when fired, low weight and simple design made it possible to do without traditional heavy carriages and beds. Instead of them - light and openwork guides made of pipes, which could be mounted on any truck. True, lower than that of guns, accuracy and low firing range
prevented the adoption of rocket artillery into service.

At first, at the gas-dynamic laboratory, where missile weapons There were more difficulties and failures than successes. However, enthusiasts - engineers N. I. Tikhomirov, V. A. Artemyev, and then G. E. Langeman and B. S. Petropavlovsky stubbornly improved their "brainchild", firmly believing in the success of the business. It took extensive theoretical developments and countless experiments, which eventually led to the creation at the end of 1927 of the 82 mm fragmentation rocket with a powder engine, and after it the more powerful 132 mm caliber. Test firing conducted near Leningrad in March 1928 was encouraging - the range was already 5-6 km, although the dispersion was still large. Long years it could not be significantly reduced: the original concept assumed a projectile with plumage that did not go beyond its caliber. After all, a pipe served as a guide for him - simple, light, convenient for installation.

In 1933, engineer I. T. Kleimenov proposed to make a more developed plumage, significantly (more than 2 times) exceeding the caliber of the projectile in its scope. The accuracy of fire increased, and the flight range also increased, but new open - in particular, rail - guides for shells had to be designed. And again years of experiments, searches...

By 1938, the main difficulties in creating mobile rocket artillery had been overcome. Employees of the Moscow RNII Yu. A. Pobedonostsev, F. N. Poida, L. E. Schwartz and others developed 82-mm fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation and thermite shells (PC) with a solid propellant (powder) engine, which was launched by a remote electric fuse.

The baptism of fire RS-82, mounted on I-16 and I-153 fighter aircraft, took place in the summer of 1939 on the river

Khalkhin Gol, showing there a high combat effectiveness- V dogfights several Japanese planes were shot down. At the same time, for firing at ground targets, the designers proposed several options for mobile multiply charged launchers volley fire (by area). Engineers V. N. Galkovsky, I. I. Gvai, A. P. Pavlenko, A. S. Popov took part in their creation under the guidance of A. G. Kostikov.

The installation consisted of eight open guide rails interconnected into a single whole by tubular welded spars. 16 132-mm rocket projectiles (each weighing 42.5 kg) were fixed using T-shaped pins on top and bottom of the guides in pairs. The design provided for the ability to change the angle of elevation and turn in azimuth. Aiming at the target was carried out through the sight by rotating the handles of the lifting and turning mechanisms. The installation was mounted on the chassis of a three-ton truck - the then common ZIS-5 truck, and in the first version, relatively short guides were located across the machine that received common name MU-1 (mechanized installation). This decision was unsuccessful - when firing, the car swayed, which significantly reduced the accuracy of the battle.

In September 1939, they created the MU-2 reactive system on a three-axle ZIS-6 truck more suitable for this purpose. In this version, elongated guides were installed along the car, rear end which was additionally hung on jacks before firing. The mass of the vehicle with a crew (5-7 people) and full ammunition was 8.33 tons, the firing range reached 8470 m. kg of high-performance explosive. The three-axle ZIS-6 provided the MU-2 with quite satisfactory mobility on the ground, allowing it to quickly make a march maneuver and change positions. And to transfer the car from the traveling position to the combat position, 2-3 minutes were enough.

In 1940, after modifications, the world's first mobile multiply charged multiple launch rocket launcher, called the M-132, successfully passed factory and field tests. By the beginning of 1941, an experimental batch of them had already been produced. She received the army designation BM-13-16, or simply BM-13, and it was decided to industrial production. At the same time, they approved and put into service the BM-82-43 light mobile installation of massive fire, on the rails of which 48 82-mm rockets with a firing range of 5500 m were placed. More often it was called briefly - BM-8. No army in the world had such a powerful weapon then.

The history of the creation of the ZIS-6
Of no less interest is the history of the creation of the ZIS-6, which became the basis for the legendary Katyushas. The mechanization and motorization of the Red Army carried out in the 30s urgently required the production of three-axle off-road vehicles for use as transport vehicles, tractors for artillery, and for the installation of various installations. In the early 1930s, in order to work in difficult road conditions, primarily for use in the army, the domestic automobile industry began to develop three-axle vehicles with two rear-driving axles (6 X 4) based on standard two-axle trucks. The addition of another rear drive axle increased the carrying capacity of the machine by one and a half times, while simultaneously reducing the load on the wheels. This contributed to an increase in cross-country ability on soft soils - a damp meadow, sand, arable land. And the increased grip weight made it possible to develop greater traction, for which the machines were equipped with an additional two-, three-stage gearbox - a demultiplier with a gear ratio range of 1.4-2.05. In February 1931, it was decided to organize mass production of three-axle vehicles in the USSR by three automobile plants in the country on the basis of base vehicles with a carrying capacity of 1.5, 2.5 and 5 tons accepted for production.

In 1931-1932, in the design bureau of the Moscow Automobile Plant AMO, under the leadership of the head of the design bureau, E.I. cars of the new family AMO-5, AMO-7, AMO-8, with their wide unification. The prototypes for the first Amov trios were English trucks VD (“Var Department”), as well as the domestic development of AMO-3-NATI.

The first two experimental vehicles AMO-6 were tested on June 25 - July 4, 1938 in the Moscow - Minsk - Moscow run. A year later, the plant began manufacturing a pilot batch of these machines, called the ZIS-6. In September, they participated in a test run Moscow - Kyiv - Kharkov - Moscow, and in December their mass production began. In total, in 1933, 20 "trehosok" were made. After the reconstruction of the plant, the production of ZIS-6 increased (until 1939, when 4460 vehicles were manufactured), and continued until October 16, 1941, the day the plant was evacuated. In total, 21239 ZIS-6s were produced during this time.

The machine was maximally unified with the base model of the three-ton ZIS-5 and even had the same external dimensions. It had the same six-cylinder 73 hp carburetor engine. with., the same clutch, gearbox, front axle, front suspension, wheels, steering, cab, plumage. The frame, rear axles, rear suspension, brake drive were different. Behind the standard four-speed gearbox was a two-speed range with direct and low (1.53) gears. Further, the torque was transmitted by two cardan shafts to the through rear drive axles with a worm gear, made according to the Timken type. Leading worms were located on top, below - worm wheels made of special bronze. (True, back in 1932, two ZIS-6R trucks with gear two-stage rear axles were built, which had significantly the best performance. But in the automotive industry at that time there was a craze for worm gears, and this decided the matter. And they returned to gear transmissions only in the fall of 1940 on experimental three-axle all-wheel drive (6 X 6) ZIS-36 trucks). The ZIS-6 transmission had three cardan shafts with open Cleveland type universal joints that required regular lubrication.

The bogie of the rear axles had a balancing spring suspension of the VD type. On each side there were two springs with one sprung hinged to the frame. The torques from the bridges were transmitted to the frame by the upper jet rods and springs, they also transmitted pushing forces.

Serial ZIS-6 had a mechanical brake drive on all wheels with vacuum boosters, while the prototypes used hydraulic brakes. The hand brake is central, on the transmission, and at first it was a band brake, and then replaced by a shoe brake. Compared to the base ZIS-5, the ZIS-6 had a reinforced cooling system radiator and generator; two batteries and two gas tanks are installed (for a total of 105 liters of fuel).

The own weight of the ZIS-6 was 4230 kg. By good roads he could carry up to 4 tons of cargo, according to bad ones - 2.5 tons. Max Speed- 50-55 km/h, average speed off-road 10 km/h. The vehicle could climb 20° and ford up to 0.65 m deep.

In general, the ZIS-6 was a fairly reliable car, although due to the low power of the overloaded engine, it had poor dynamics, high fuel consumption (40-41 liters per 100 km on the highway, up to 70 on the country road) and poor cross-country ability.

Like a cargo transport vehicle in the army it was practically not used, but was used as a tractor for artillery systems. On its basis, repair flying houses, workshops, fuel trucks, fire escapes, and cranes were built. In 1935, a heavy armored car BA-5, which turned out to be unsuccessful, was mounted on the ZIS-6 chassis, and at the end of 1939, a more successful BA-11 was mounted on a shortened chassis with an increased power engine. But the ZIS-6 acquired the greatest fame as the carrier of the first BM-13 rocket launchers.

On the night of June 30, 1941, under the command of Captain I. A. Flerov, the first experimental battery of rocket launchers set off to the west, consisting of seven experimental BM-13 installations (with 8 thousand shells) and a sighting 122-mm howitzer.

And two weeks later, on July 14, 1941, Flerov's battery, observing complete secrecy - they moved mainly at night, by country roads, avoiding crowded highways - arrived in the area of ​​​​the Orshitsa River. The day before, the Germans had captured the city of Orsha with a blow from the south, and now, not for a moment doubting their success, they were crossing the eastern bank of the Orshitsa. But then bright flashes lit up the sky: with a rattle and a deafening hiss, rocket shells fell on the crossing. A moment later, they rushed into the thick of the moving stream of fascist troops. Each rocket projectile formed an eight-meter funnel in the ground, one and a half meters deep. The Nazis had never seen anything like it before. Fear and panic seized the ranks of the Nazis ...

The debut of jet weapons, stunning for the enemy, prompted our industry to speed up the serial production of a new mortar. However, for the "Katyushas" at first there were not enough self-propelled chassis - carriers of rocket launchers. They tried to restore the production of ZIS-6 at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, where the Moscow ZIS was evacuated in October 1941, but the lack of specialized equipment for the production of worm axles did not allow this to be done. In October 1941, the T-60 tank (without a turret) with the BM-8-24 installation mounted on it was put into service.

Rocket launchers were also equipped with STZ-5 tracked tractors, Ford Marmon, International Jimsea and Austin off-road vehicles received under Lend-Lease. But the largest number of Katyushas were mounted on Studebaker all-wheel drive three-axle vehicles, including from 1944 the new, more powerful BM-31-12 - with 12 M-30 and M-31 mines of 300 mm caliber, weighing 91 .5 kg (firing range - up to 4325 m). To increase the accuracy of fire, the M-13UK and M-31UK projectiles with improved accuracy were created and mastered in flight.

The share of rocket artillery on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War was constantly increasing. If in November 1941 45 Katyusha divisions were formed, then on January 1, 1942 there were already 87 of them, in October 1942 - 350, and at the beginning of 1945 - 519. During only one 1941, the industry manufactured 593 installations and provided them with shells in the amount of 25-26 volleys for each car. Parts of jet mortars received honorary title guards. Separate BM-13 installations on the ZIS-6 chassis served throughout the war and reached Berlin and Prague. One of them, No. 3354, commanded by Guards Sergeant Masharin, is now in the exposition of the Leningrad Artillery Museum, engineering troops and means of communication.

Unfortunately, all the monuments to the Guards mortars erected in their honor in Moscow, Mtsensk, Orsha, Rudin are based on an imitation of the ZIS-6 chassis. But in the memory of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the Katyusha was preserved as an angular, old-fashioned three-axle car with a formidable weapon mounted on it, which played a huge role in the defeat of fascism.

The performance characteristics of the BM-13 "Katyusha":

Characteristics
Year of issue 1940
Weight without projectiles 7200 kg
Weight with projectiles 7880 kg

Armament
number of guides 16
Missile 132 mm M-13
Maximum firing range 8470 m
projectile weight 42.5 kg
projectile caliber 132 mm
volley time 7-10 s
vertical firing angle from 7° to 45°
horizontal firing angle 20°

Driving performance
Engine ZIS
Power 73 HP
Type carburettor
Road speed 50 km/h

Under the command of Captain I. A. Flerov, the station in the city of Orsha was literally wiped off the face of the earth along with the German echelons with troops and equipment that were on it. The first samples of rockets launched from a mobile carrier (vehicles based on the ZIS-5 truck) were tested at Soviet training grounds from the end of 1938. On June 21, 1941, they were demonstrated to the leaders of the Soviet government, and literally a few hours before the start of World War II war, it was decided to urgently deploy the mass production of rockets and a launcher, which received the official name "BM-13".


It was truly a weapon of unprecedented power - the range of the projectile reached eight and a half kilometers, and the temperature at the epicenter of the explosion was one and a half thousand degrees. The Germans repeatedly tried to capture a sample of Russian miracle technology, but the Katyusha crews strictly observed the rule - they could not fall into the hands of the enemy. In a critical case, the machines were equipped with a self-destruct mechanism. From those legendary installations comes, in fact, the entire history of Russian rocket technology. And rockets for "Katyushas" were developed by Vladimir Andreevich Artemyev.

He was born in 1885 in St. Petersburg in the family of a military man, graduated from the St. Petersburg gymnasium and volunteered for Russo-Japanese War. For courage and courage, he was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer and awarded the St. George Cross, then he graduated from the Alekseevsky cadet school. At the beginning of 1920, Artemiev met N.I. Tikhomirov and became his closest assistant, but in 1922, in the wake of general suspicion of former officers tsarist army was imprisoned in a concentration camp. Returning from Solovki, he continued to improve rockets, work on which he began back in the twenties and interrupted due to his arrest. During the Great Patriotic War, he made many valuable inventions in the field of military equipment.

After the war, V. A. Artemiev, being the chief designer of a number of research and design institutes, created new models of rocket shells, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star, and was a laureate of the Stalin Prizes. Died September 11, 1962 in Moscow. His name is on the map of the Moon: one of the craters on its surface is named in memory of the creator of the Katyusha.

"Katyusha" is the unofficial collective name for the BM-8 (82 mm), BM-13 (132 mm) and BM-31 (310 mm) rocket artillery combat vehicles. Such installations were actively used by the USSR during World War II.

After the 82-mm air-to-air missiles RS-82 (1937) and 132-mm air-to-ground missiles RS-132 (1938) were adopted by aviation, the Main Artillery Directorate set before the projectile developer - Reactive Research Institute - the task of creating a reactive field multiple launch rocket system based on RS-132 shells. An updated tactical and technical assignment was issued to the institute in June 1938.

In accordance with this task, by the summer of 1939, the institute developed a new 132-mm high-explosive fragmentation projectile, which later received the official name M-13. Compared to the aviation RS-132, this projectile had a longer flight range and a much more powerful warhead. The increase in flight range was achieved by increasing the number rocket fuel, for this it was necessary to lengthen the rocket and head parts of the rocket projectile by 48 cm. The M-13 projectile had slightly better aerodynamic characteristics than the RS-132, which made it possible to obtain higher accuracy.

A self-propelled multiply charged launcher was also developed for the projectile. Its first version was created on the basis of the ZIS-5 truck and was designated MU-1 (mechanized installation, first sample). Conducted in the period from December 1938 to February 1939, field tests of the installation showed that it did not fully meet the requirements. Taking into account the test results, the Reactive Research Institute developed a new MU-2 launcher, which in September 1939 was accepted by the Main Artillery Directorate for field tests. Based on the results of field tests that ended in November 1939, the Institute was ordered five launchers for military testing. Another installation ordered Artillery Directorate Navy for use in the coastal defense system.

On June 21, 1941, the installation was demonstrated to the leaders of the CPSU (6) and the Soviet government, and on the same day, just a few hours before the start of World War II, it was decided to urgently deploy the mass production of M-13 rockets and the launcher, which received the official name is BM-13 (combat vehicle 13).

The production of BM-13 installations was organized at the Voronezh plant. Comintern and at the Moscow plant "Compressor". One of the main enterprises for the production of rockets was the Moscow plant. Vladimir Ilyich.

During the war, the production of launchers was urgently deployed at several enterprises with different production capabilities, in connection with this, more or less significant changes were made to the design of the installation. Thus, up to ten varieties of the BM-13 launcher were used in the troops, which made it difficult to train personnel and adversely affected the operation of military equipment. For these reasons, a unified (normalized) BM-13N launcher was developed and put into service in April 1943, during the creation of which the designers critically analyzed all the parts and assemblies in order to increase the manufacturability of their production and reduce the cost, as a result of which all the nodes received independent indexes and became universal.

The composition of the BM-13 "Katyusha" includes the following weapons:

Combat vehicle (BM) MU-2 (MU-1);
Rockets.

Rocket M-13:

The M-13 projectile (see diagram) consists of a warhead and a powder jet engine. head part in its design, it resembles a high-explosive fragmentation projectile and is equipped with an explosive charge, which is detonated using a contact fuse and an additional detonator. The jet engine has a combustion chamber in which a powder propellant charge is placed in the form of cylindrical pieces with an axial channel. Pirozapals are used to ignite the powder charge. The gases formed during the combustion of powder pellets flow through a nozzle, in front of which there is a diaphragm that prevents the pellets from being ejected through the nozzle. Stabilization of the projectile in flight is provided by a tail stabilizer with four feathers welded from stamped steel halves. (This method of stabilization provides lower accuracy compared to the stabilization of rotation around the longitudinal axis, however, it allows you to get a longer range of the projectile. In addition, the use of a feathered stabilizer greatly simplifies the technology for the production of rockets).

The flight range of the M-13 projectile reached 8470 m, but at the same time there was a very significant dispersion. According to the firing tables of 1942, with a firing range of 3000 m, the lateral deviation was 51 m, and in range - 257 m.

In 1943, a modernized version of the rocket was developed, which received the designation M-13-UK (improved accuracy). To increase the accuracy of fire of the M-13-UK projectile, 12 tangentially located holes are made in the front centering thickening of the rocket part, through which, during the operation of the rocket engine, part of the powder gases escapes, causing the projectile to rotate. Although the range of the projectile was somewhat reduced (to 7.9 km), the improvement in accuracy led to a decrease in the dispersion area and to an increase in the density of fire by 3 times compared to the M-13 projectiles. The adoption of the M-13-UK projectile into service in April 1944 contributed to a sharp increase in the firing capabilities of rocket artillery.

Launcher MLRS "Katyusha":

A self-propelled multiply charged launcher was developed for the projectile. Its first version - MU-1 based on the ZIS-5 truck - had 24 guides mounted on a special frame in a transverse position with respect to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. Its design made it possible to launch rockets only perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, and jets of hot gases damaged the elements of the installation and the body of the ZIS-5. Security was also not ensured when controlling fire from the driver's cab. The launcher swayed strongly, which worsened the accuracy of firing rockets. Loading the launcher from the front of the rails was inconvenient and time consuming. The ZIS-5 car had limited cross-country ability.

A more advanced MU-2 launcher (see diagram) based on a ZIS-6 off-road truck had 16 guides located along the axis of the vehicle. Each two guides were connected, forming a single structure, called "spark". A new unit was introduced into the design of the installation - a subframe. The subframe made it possible to assemble the entire artillery part of the launcher (as a single unit) on it, and not on the chassis, as it was before. Assembled artillery unit relatively easy to mount on the chassis of any brand of car with minimal modification of the latter. The created design made it possible to reduce the complexity, manufacturing time and cost of launchers. The weight of the artillery unit was reduced by 250 kg, the cost - by more than 20 percent. Both the combat and operational qualities of the installation were significantly increased. Due to the introduction of reservations for the gas tank, gas pipeline, side and rear walls of the driver's cab, the survivability of launchers in battle was increased. The firing sector was increased, the stability of the launcher in the stowed position was increased, improved lifting and turning mechanisms made it possible to increase the speed of aiming the installation at the target. Before launch, the MU-2 combat vehicle was jacked up similarly to the MU-1. The forces that rock the launcher, due to the location of the guides along the chassis of the car, were applied along its axis to two jacks located near the center of gravity, so the rocking became minimal. Loading in the installation was carried out from the breech, that is, from the rear end of the guides. It was more convenient and allowed to significantly speed up the operation. The MU-2 installation had swivel and lifting mechanisms of the simplest design, a bracket for mounting a sight with a conventional artillery panorama and a large metal fuel tank mounted behind the cab. The cockpit windows were covered with armored folding shields. Opposite the seat of the commander of the combat vehicle on the front panel was mounted a small rectangular box with a turntable, reminiscent of a telephone dial, and a handle for turning the dial. This device was called the "fire control panel" (PUO). From it came a harness to a special battery and to each guide.


Launcher BM-13 "Katyusha" on the chassis Studebaker (6x4)

With one turn of the PUO handle, the electrical circuit was closed, the squib placed in front of the rocket chamber of the projectile was fired, the reactive charge was ignited and a shot was fired. The rate of fire was determined by the rate of rotation of the PUO handle. All 16 shells could be fired in 7-10 seconds. The time for transferring the MU-2 launcher from traveling to combat position was 2-3 minutes, the angle of vertical fire was in the range from 4 ° to 45 °, the angle of horizontal fire was 20 °.

The design of the launcher allowed it to move in a charged state with quite high speed(up to 40 km/h) and rapid deployment in a firing position, which contributed to the infliction of surprise attacks on the enemy.

A significant factor increasing the tactical mobility of rocket artillery units armed with BM-13N launchers was the fact that a powerful American freight car"Studebaker US 6x6", supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease. This car had an increased cross-country ability, provided by a powerful engine, three driven axles (6x6 wheel formula), a demultiplier, a winch for self-pulling, a high location of all parts and mechanisms that are sensitive to water. With the creation of this launcher, the development of the BM-13 serial combat vehicle was finally completed. In this form, she fought until the end of the war.

Testing and operation

The first battery of field rocket artillery, sent to the front on the night of July 1-2, 1941, under the command of Captain I.A. Flerov, was armed with seven installations manufactured by the Reactive Research Institute. With its first salvo at 15:15 on July 14, 1941, the battery wiped out the Orsha railway junction, along with the German trains with troops and military equipment on it.

The exceptional effectiveness of the actions of the battery of Captain I. A. Flerov and the seven more such batteries formed after it contributed to the rapid increase in the pace of production of jet weapons. Already in the autumn of 1941, 45 divisions of three-battery composition with four launchers in the battery operated on the fronts. For their armament in 1941, 593 BM-13 installations were manufactured. As military equipment arrived from industry, the formation of rocket artillery regiments began, consisting of three divisions armed with BM-13 launchers and an anti-aircraft division. The regiment had 1414 personnel, 36 BM-13 launchers and 12 anti-aircraft 37-mm guns. The volley of the regiment was 576 shells of 132mm caliber. At the same time, the living force Combat vehicles the enemy was destroyed on an area of ​​over 100 hectares. Officially, the regiments were called Guards Mortar Artillery Regiments of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.