Historical site of Bagheera - secrets of history, mysteries of the universe. Secrets of great empires and ancient civilizations, the fate of lost treasures and biographies of people who changed the world, the secrets of special services. Chronicle of the war, description of battles and battles, reconnaissance operations of the past and present. world traditions, modern life Russia, the unknown USSR, the main directions of culture and other related topics - all that official science is silent about.

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In February 1940, the Red Army, breaking through the powerful line of fortifications of the White Finns, where thousands of Soviet soldiers and commanders, dealt a decisive blow to the enemy troops.

“The Spit of Vasilyevsky Island with its Rostral Columns has been spoken of as an urban ensemble for two centuries, but the arrows of the Petrograd Side, until the cruiser stood there, seemed to not exist. Now the blue building and the cruiser have formed their own ensemble here ”(M. Glinka“ Petrovsky Embankment ”).

Last year, a sensational message spread around the world: a place was found where, after the Second World War, Dr. Josef Mengele was hiding from justice - the same Angel of Death, as they called him in Auschwitz, who performed savage experiments on living prisoners!

The first Russian meteorological observatory was established in St. Petersburg in 1834. The collection of information about the manifestations of the climate was carried out in it for scientific and civilian purposes, but quite soon the military department became one of the main customers. And with the beginning of the era of aeronautics, knowledge of the upcoming weather turned out to be even more necessary.

All heat engines, including rocket engines, convert the internal energy of the burned fuel into mechanical energy. Fuel in this case can have very different forms and parameters. Engines internal combustion(ICE) do not accept either firewood or coal, give them something liquid or gaseous. But there are substances quite unusual.

This week we celebrate March 8 - International Women's Day. Now it seems strange, but quite recently women were quite officially considered second-class people. The famous "Three Ks - Ktiche, Kinder, Kirche" (kitchen, children, church) - for many centuries hung like a sword of Damocles over the female sex, denying their capabilities and desires. Naturally, many women could not put up with this state of affairs and fought for their rights. Sometimes this fight was bloody...

The threat grows every day new war in the Middle East. As experience shows, conflict is easily born, but it is very difficult to extinguish. And you can never be sure that a military fire that breaks out in one country will not spread to other regions. In this regard, we recall the first World War How it started and how it ended. 10 million killed, 20 million maimed, about 10 million died of starvation and epidemics. Who started the war and how? Historians are still arguing about this.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a wave of extremism swept Britain. Mailboxes burned, windows were broken in houses, and the buildings themselves were often set on fire, though mostly empty. Moreover, all these antisocial actions were by no means committed by bandit thugs with batons in their hands, but by fragile women who demanded nothing more than ... to allow them to the ballot boxes!

The idea of ​​creating an atomic tank driven by a nuclear power plant appeared in the middle of the 20th century, when humanity naively believed that an ideal source of energy had been found, safe, practically eternal and applicable even in everyday life.

In addition, some believe that the Object 279 is a nuclear tank of the USSR, although it had a traditional diesel engine.

American developments

So the concept nuclear tanks began development in the United States at the Question Mark III conference in Detroit in June 1954. It was assumed that the nuclear reactor would make the power reserve practically unlimited and allow the equipment to be combat-ready even after long marches. Two options were developed, the first proposed a special machine that supplies power to others during a long ride. The second option involved the creation of a tank with a nuclear reactor inside, protected from all sides by powerful armor.

TV-1 and TV-8

As a result of the development of the second result, the TV-1 project appeared with a mass of 70 tons and a frontal armor of 350 mm. Power point consisted of a reactor and a turbine, and was capable of operating for more than 500 hours without refueling. The tank was armed with a 105 mm T140 cannon and several machine guns.

In August 1955, a conference was held under the number Question Mark IV, at which an improved and lighter project R32 appeared, featuring a 20-ton reduction in weight, 120 mm armor located at a high angle and a 90 mm T208 gun. The tank was protected at the level of modern medium tanks, but it had a cruising range of more than 4,000 without refueling. As in the case of its predecessor, the matter was limited to the project.

It was planned to convert the M103 into a nuclear tank for various tests, but the vehicle was never built.

Also in the USA, an interesting atomic tank Chrysler TV-8 was created, which provides for the placement of the crew and most of the mechanisms, together with a nuclear reactor, inside a huge tower mounted on a maximally reduced body with electric motors driving inside. In fairness, it should be noted that the first version of the tank was equipped with a 300 horsepower eight-cylinder diesel engine rotating a generator. Beyond the unusual appearance, TV-8 was supposed to float due to the displacement of the tower. He was armed with a 90 mm T208 cannon and 2 7.62 machine guns. A very progressive solution for its time was the installation of exterior cameras, designed to save the crew's eyes from flashes of explosions outside.

In the USSR, work was also carried out, albeit less actively. It is sometimes believed that the Soviet atomic tank was created on the basis of the T-10, built in metal and tested, but this is not true. In 1961, TPP-3 was built and put into operation, which is a transportable nuclear power plant that moved on an extended chassis heavy tank and providing food for itself along with food for military and civilian facilities in the regions of the Far North and Siberia.

It is worth mentioning once again the so-called tank for nuclear war Object 279, in fact, hardly able to withstand the explosion and protect its crew.

Also, sometimes a certain tank with nuclear shells is remembered. Probably, they can be called the T-64A, with the launcher, capable of firing both conventional TOURS and tactical missiles with a nuclear charge. This combat vehicle was called Taran, had a mass of 37 tons, a crew of 3 people and was intended to disable enemy forces from a distance that was inaccessible to them.

Despite the abundance of projects, the atomic tank was never created. Why? If only because the slightest damage in battle turned it into a small nuclear bomb, with a guarantee that destroyed its crew and allies around. Even without damage, the crew had to be constantly changed to avoid excessive exposure. Such shortcomings turned out to be critical and even in our time there is no way to overcome them.

In 1956, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev instructed the designers to begin work on the project unique tank who were not afraid of either nuclear explosion, no radiation contamination of the crew, no chemical or biological attacks. The project received article 279.

And such a heavy tank weighing 60 tons was designed by 1957 at SKB-2 of the Kirov Plant of Leningrad (KZL) under the leadership of the chief designer, Major General Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin. It was immediately and rightly called atomic. Moreover, the lion's share of its weight was armor, in some places reaching up to 305 millimeters. That is why the internal space for the crew was much smaller than that of heavy tanks of a similar mass.

The atomic tank embodied the new tactics of World War III and a more "vegetarian" era when human life at least it was worth something. It was the concern for the crew of this armored vehicle that dictated some of the tactical and technical data of this tank. For example, if necessary, the hermetically closing hatch of the tower and the breech of the gun prevented even a speck of dust from entering the interior of the vehicle, not to mention radioactive gases And chemicals infections. Excluded for tankers and bacteriological danger.

So, even the sides of the hull were protected by almost twice as thick armor than the German Tigers. It reached 182 mm on the 279th. The frontal armor of the hull generally had an unprecedented thickness - from 258 to 269 mm. This exceeded the parameters of even such a cyclopean German development of the Third Reich as the heaviest monster in the history of tank building, as if jokingly named by its developer Ferdinand Porsche Maus (“Mouse”). With a vehicle weight of 189 tons, its frontal armor was 200 mm. Whereas in a nuclear tank, it was covered with simply impenetrable 305-mm high-alloy steel. Moreover, the body of the Soviet miracle tank had the shape of a turtle shell - shoot, don't shoot, and the shells simply slid off it and flew on. In addition, the giant's body was also covered with anti-cumulative screens.

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This configuration was chosen by the leading designer of the SKB-2 KZL, Lev Sergeevich Troyanov, not by chance: after all, the tank was not just called nuclear - it was designed to conduct combat operations directly near nuclear explosion. Moreover, the almost flat body excluded the overturning of the car even under the influence of a monstrous shock wave. The armor of the tank withstood a frontal hit even with a 90-millimeter cumulative projectile, as well as a shot with close range armor-piercing charge from a 122-mm cannon. And not only in the forehead - the board also withstood such hits.

By the way, for such a heavyweight, he had a very good speed on the highway - 55 km / h. And being invulnerable, the iron hero himself could deliver a lot of trouble to the enemy: his gun had a caliber of 130 mm, and could easily break through any armor that existed at that time. True, the supply of shells led to pessimistic reflections - according to the instructions, only 24 of them were placed in the tank. In addition to the gun, the four crew members also had a heavy machine gun at their disposal.

Another feature of the Project 279 was its tracks - there were already four of them. In other words, an atomic tank, in principle, could not get stuck - even on complete impassability, thanks also to the low specific pressure on the ground. And successfully overcame mud, and deep snow, and even anti-tank hedgehogs and gouges. On tests in 1959, in the presence of representatives of the military-industrial complex and the Ministry of Defense, the military liked everything, especially the thickness of the armor of the atomic tank and its complete protection from everything. But the ammunition load plunged the generals into despondency. They were not impressed by the difficulty in operating the undercarriage, as well as the extremely low ability to maneuver.


And the project was abandoned. The tank remained manufactured in a single copy, which is now exhibited in Kubinka - in the Armored Museum. And the other two unfinished prototypes were melted down.

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Another exotic development of our military engineers was the A-40 or, as it was also called, "KT" ("Tank Wings"). According to the alternative title, he could even... fly. Design "KT" (namely we are talking about a glider for the domestic T-60) began 75 years ago - in 1941. In order to lift the tank into the air, a glider was attached to it, which was then taken in tow by a TB-3 heavy bomber. The idea of ​​such a non-standard solution was none other than Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, who then worked in the Glider Directorate as the chief engineer at the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry.

It is clear that with a weight of almost eight tons (together with a glider), a tank equipped with wings could fly behind a bomber at a speed of only 130 km / h. Nevertheless, the main thing they wanted to teach him was to land in the right place, having previously unhooked from the BT-3. It was planned that after landing, two crew members would remove from the T-60 all the flight “uniforms” that had become unnecessary and be ready for combat operations, having at their disposal a 20 mm caliber gun and a machine gun. The T-60s were supposed to be delivered to the encircled units of the Red Army or partisans, and they also wanted to use this method of transportation for the emergency transfer of vehicles to the necessary sections of the front.

The flying tank was tested in August-September 1942. Alas, due to the low speed, the glider just kept at a height of forty meters above the ground due to poor streamlining and its rather solid mass. There was a war, and at that time such searchlights were out of place. Only those developments that could become combat vehicles in the very near future were welcomed.

For this reason, the project was cancelled. This happened in February 1943, when Oleg Antonov was already working in the Design Bureau of Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev - his deputy. Another important point, because of which work on the A-40 was stopped, was the condition of transporting its ammunition along with the tank - this question remained open. The flying tank was also made in just one copy. But he was not the only project of our designers. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of such developments. Fortunately, there have always been enough talented engineers in our country.

Vitaly Karyukov

Sometimes amazing, but unadapted to military realities, monsters were born in the imagination of tank designers. Do not be surprised that it did not come to their serial production. Let's find out about 14 unusual tanks born by designers who are carried away by the flight of thought.

Experts believe that the Italian self-propelled gun used to shell Austrian fortifications in the Alps during the First World War

The Italian self-propelled gun was invented around the same time as the Tsar Tank. But, unlike the latter, it was successfully used in the First World War.

The Italian self-propelled gun is one of the most mysterious tanks in history. There is very little information about him. It is authentically known that the unusual tank had big sizes, a cannon was installed on it, firing shells of 305 mm caliber. The firing range reached 17.5 kilometers. Presumably, the Italian self-propelled gun was used in the shelling of the Austrian fortifications located in the Alps. ABOUT future fate this machine, unfortunately, nothing is known.


Tracklayer Best 75 tracked vehicle (USA) was not approved for mass production due to poor handling

Literally, the name of this model is translated as "rail layer". The American military developed it in 1916 after learning about the extent of the use of tanks in the First World War. The authorship of the project belongs to the company C.L. Best, which is why the strange vehicle is often referred to as the Best tank.

In fact, it was a tractor of the same production. An armored hull, a turret, a pair of machine guns and a cannon were superimposed on top of it. Most of all, this tank resembles a boat turned upside down. It's a pity, but the military commission decided not to allow Best's car to mass production. The experts did not like the small viewing angle, thin armor and poor handling. The last remark is true, because the Tracklayer Best 75 could only ride in a straight line with minor deviations.


A small nuclear reactor was supposed to be used to power the Chrysler TV-8

The TV-8 nuclear tank was designed by Chrysler in 1955. He had several distinctive features. The powerful fixed turret was rigidly mounted on a lightweight chassis with a solid monolith. In addition, the engineers decided that the tank would be powered by a small nuclear reactor located right in the turret. Finally, it was planned to mount television cameras in the body so that the crew of the car would not go blind when they were close to the epicenter of a nuclear explosion.

The TV-8 tank was considered a vehicle suitable for combat operations in a nuclear war. The vehicle was to be equipped with a pair of 7.62mm machine guns and a 90mm cannon. It is clear that the project impressed the management, but upon closer examination, several significant shortcomings were revealed. First, the creation of a small nuclear reactor was a difficult task. And secondly, if the enemy got into this reactor, the consequences would be deplorable both for the crew members and for military equipment located close to TV-8, not to mention the soldiers. As a result, it did not even reach the creation of a prototype, and the project was forgotten.


39 meters long, 11 wide and 1000 tons of net weight - all this is a tank

This is interesting: Mass of 1 thousand tons, 39 meters in length and 11 meters in height. If the supermassive Ratte tank had been built in the 40s of the last century, it would have become the largest in history. Moreover, this record would not have been beaten to our time. The German military leadership, however, chose not to develop a project that would have required an incredible amount of resources to implement. The fact is that the "Rat" could not provide german army serious superiority on the battlefield. Therefore, things did not go further than drawings and sketches.

It was planned to arm the tank with a pair of naval guns with a caliber of 280 mm, a 128 mm cannon and 8-10 machine guns. Note that there was no clear idea regarding the type of engines for such a monster at the design stage. The possibility of installing 8 diesel engines or 2 ship engines was considered.


The armored ATV had a power of only 2 Horse power s

If Hollywood had started making films about the indestructible James Bond in 1899, the British armored quad bike would definitely become one of 007's vehicles. The engine power of this four-wheeled vehicle is less than 2 horsepower. The driver had to sit on a bicycle saddle. From armament there was a machine-gun cannon.

Note that the armor of the ATV protected only the torso and head of the driver, and only in front. The cross-country ability of such a machine was extremely low, so it was never mass-produced.


Laser complex 1K17 "Compression" was intended to disable optical and electronic devices of the enemy

Compression is a Russian self-propelled laser system designed to counter enemy optical and electronic devices. Of course, he couldn't fire laser guns like in " Star Wars”, but the significance of this machine was very high.

This is interesting: The 1K17 complex was equipped with a system for searching and automatically aiming lasers at enemy missiles, aircraft and armored vehicles. In other words, if during the war any of the above objects were under the gun of 1K17, he would not be able to fire accurately in the opposite direction.

The tank was also equipped anti-aircraft gun, which would allow him to destroy nearby enemy forces.

A prototype military complex was assembled at the end of 1990. After successfully passing state tests, 1K17 was recommended for adoption. Unfortunately up to series production it didn't work out. The high cost of the complex, the collapse Soviet Union and a sharp reduction in funding for defense programs forced the Russian Ministry of Defense to abandon its release.


Venezuelan tank

This tank was produced in 1934 in Venezuela. The purpose of creating the car was rather strange - intimidation of neighboring Colombia. True, the intimidation turned out to be doubtful. Suffice it to mention that the word "tortuga" in translation from Spanish means "turtle". The pyramid-shaped armor of the tank was attached to a four-wheel drive six-wheeled Ford truck. The turret was equipped with a single weapon, a 7mm Mark 4B machine gun. In total, 7 "turtles" were released in Venezuela.


The tank ball was preserved in a single copy

Almost nothing is known about this vehicle, the only copy of which is kept in the Kubinka armored museum. The mass of the tank was 1.8 tons, it was produced in Nazi Germany by Krupp. The car was seized the Soviet army in 1945. According to one version, this happened in Manchuria, according to another - at a German training ground. There was a radio station in the cockpit, there were no weapons. The hull was solid, it was possible to get into it through a small hatch. The engine of the tank-ball is a single-cylinder motorcycle engine. It is assumed that the strange machine was intended to adjust the direction of artillery strikes.


New Zealand, not having sufficient production capacity, also wanted to create her own tank

Having learned about the grandiose tank battles on the fields of World War II, New Zealand also wanted to get its own tank. In the forties of the last century, New Zealanders, who did not have a sufficient production base, assembled a small armored vehicle. It looked like a tractor covered in metal and carried 7 Bren 7.62mm light machine guns. It turned out, of course, not the most efficient tank in the world, but it was working. combat vehicle named after Bob Semple, then the nation's building minister.

This is interesting: Mass production of the tank never started due to multiple design flaws. Nevertheless, he managed to raise the morale of the New Zealanders.


During the tests, the Tsar Tank got stuck in the mud and remained there for 8 years. And then it was dismantled for scrap

First there were the Tsar Bell and the Tsar Cannon, then the Tsar Tank and the Tsar Bomba. And if the latter went down in history as the most powerful projectile ever tested by man, then the Tsar Tank turned out to be a less successful invention. It was very cumbersome and inefficient in practice. The car was developed by engineer Nikolai Lebedenko shortly before the start of the First World War.

It is noteworthy that this unit was rather not even a tank, but a huge wheeled combat vehicle. Her chassis consisted of a pair of huge front wheels with a diameter of 9 meters, which were complemented by a one and a half meter rear roller. The central part with a fixed machine-gun cabin was suspended above the ground at an 8-meter height. The width of the Tsar Tank reached 12 meters, it was planned to strengthen the extreme points by installing machine guns. Lebedenko was going to supplement the design with a powerful machine-gun turret.

In 1915, the engineer presented his project to Tsar Nicholas II. He was delighted and, of course, approved the idea. Unfortunately, during forest testing, the rear shaft of the prototype got stuck in the mud. Pulling it out turned out to be an impossible task even for the most powerful Maybach trophy engines taken from a wrecked German airship. A huge tank was left to rust in the forest. They forgot about it for 8 years, and in 1923 the car was tritely dismantled for scrap.


Amphibious tank on trial successfully swam across the Hudson River

Built by inventor John Walter Christie in 1921, the amphibious vehicle was designed to carry military weapons or other cargo in combat areas. In addition, it was possible to conduct aimed fire from the gun mounted on it. On both sides of the hull above the tracks were fixed balsa floats hidden in casings made of thin steel sheets.

The 75 mm gun was placed on a special movable frame. The design made it possible to move it forward, which ensured an even distribution of mass and no roll when swimming. In the combat position, the gun was moved back to provide free space for the rollback and maintenance of the gun.

The amphibious tank was released in a single copy. On June 12, 1921, a demonstration of a new machine took place, in which she successfully swam across the Hudson River. However, the Department of Armaments was not interested in amphibians.


A7V - the tank that was defeated in the first tank battle in history

The A7V tank was designed and produced in a small batch of 20 vehicles at the end of the First World War to counter the British army. In fact, it was a huge steel box mounted on top of a tractor chassis. The only advantage of the A7V is a fairly good armament (8 machine guns). It is a pity, but most of the tanks of this series could not visit the battlefield. The crews of some of them lost consciousness from the heat inside the hull, other cars got bogged down in the mud. Low cross-country ability has become the main drawback of the A7V.

This is interesting: The first in history tank battle happened on March 21, 1918 on the banks of the Canal Saint-Quentin. Three A7Vs met with three English MK-IVs that had left the forest. The fight was sudden for both sides. In fact, it was driven by only one tank on each side (2 British vehicles were machine guns, and 2 German vehicles stopped at a disadvantage). Cannon British tank successfully maneuvered and fired from different positions. After 3 accurate hits in the A7V caterpillar, the oil cooler of the German car failed. The crew took the tank aside and left it. And the British got reason to consider themselves the winners of the first tank confrontation.


The A-40 flying tank made a single flight, after which the project was declared unpromising

The flying tank A-40 (another name is “winged tank”) was created by the famous Soviet aircraft designer Antonov. The well-proven T-60 model served as the basis for it. A hybrid of a tank and a glider was intended to quickly deliver a combat vehicle to the right place by air in order to assist the partisans. Interestingly, the crew had the ability to control the flight of the glider while inside the car. After landing, the glider quickly separated, and the A-40 was transformed into a standard T-60.

This is interesting: To raise an 8-ton colossus above the ground, it was necessary to deprive the tank of most of the ammunition. This made the A-40 useless in real combat conditions. Things did not go beyond the creation of a prototype, and the A-40 tank made its only flight in September 1942.


43 powerful steel chains were fixed on a rotating drum

The main task"Crab" was clearing minefields. On a special rotating drum (specially pushed forward) 43 thick metal chains were fixed. The mines detonated upon contact with the chains, without causing any harm to the tank itself. Along the edges of the drum, the designers also installed sharp disks. As they rotated, they cut barbed wire fences. A special screen protected the front of the car from dust and dirt.

The mine trawl was very wide, thanks to which tanks and trucks could follow the path unhindered. An additional device was installed on the later analogues of the Crab, which made it possible to automatically maintain a given height of the trawl above the surface when moving through pits and potholes.

Some of the tanks discussed in the article are considered successful experiments, some are failures. But each of them is unique in its own way and has not so many analogues in the history of military equipment. From the mistakes made, the designers gained valuable experience, which made it possible to make the following models more perfect.

Nuclear tank? Is that possible?

The first nuclear reactor was launched in 1942 in the USA. In the 1950s, scientists actively searched for options practical application nuclear energy. On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was put into operation in the USSR. And in the United States, scientists began to develop the concept of an atomic tank.

It was an incredible idea for those times. After all, all this was still a curiosity and nuclear tanks, and nuclear ships, and nuclear submarines. There were ideas about nuclear trains and airplanes. But back to tanks.

First project - TV-1


The first project of the American nuclear tank received the designation TV-1. He assumed that the tank would weigh 70 tons, be armed with a 105 mm T140 gun and 350 mm frontal armor. The nuclear reactor on board could operate for 500 hours without changing the fuel.

Second project - R32


Atomic science did not stand still, and a year later, in 1955, it became possible to significantly reduce the size of the reactor. And to replace the huge TV-1 was developed new project– R32. It was a project of a 50-ton nuclear tank with a 90-mm T208 smoothbore gun and 120-mm frontal armor. The design range of the R32 was over 4,000 miles.

Just imagine: 6500 kilometers without refueling. But the problem was that this did not mean that the tank could go on an autonomous campaign for such a distance. Anyway, he would need to periodically change the lubricant in various units and assemblies, and most importantly, the crew would have to be changed periodically so as not to expose the tankers to long-term radiation. Plus to this: if such a tank was blown up, the entire area in the area would be infected.

As a result, the Americans abandoned the projects of the atomic tank. Not even a single prototype was produced.

Nuclear tank in the USSR


In the USSR, such projects were not developed. But he still had his own “atomic tank”. So in the press they called TPP-3 - transportable nuclear power plant, which moved itself on four self-propelled tracked chassis, created on the basis of the T-10 heavy tank. And this “tank”, unlike the American ones, really existed!