Anti-aircraft defense of the Red Army. Air defense during the Great Patriotic War

Understanding the ever-increasing role of aviation in modern war, the leadership of the Red Army was concerned about the creation modern means air defense.
Royal inheritance in the form of: 76 mm anti-aircraft guns Lender, a few 40-mm Vickers assault rifles and semi-handicraft installations of the Maxim machine gun, did not meet modern requirements.

The first Soviet anti-aircraft installation was designed by M.N. Kondakov under the machine gun of the Maxim system arr. 1910. It was made in the form of a tripod and connected to a machine gun with a swivel. Possessing simplicity and reliability, installation arr. 1928 provided circular fire and high elevation angles.

A ring sight was adopted for it, designed to fire at aircraft moving at speeds up to 320 km / h at a distance of up to 1500 m. Later, with an increase in flight speed, the sight was repeatedly upgraded.

In the Design Bureau of the Tula Arms Plant in 1930, a twin anti-aircraft gun was designed, which turned out to be much more massive. The ability to fire from each machine gun separately was retained, which reduced the consumption of ammunition during zeroing.

She also entered service, although for a number of reasons she did not receive much distribution.

In connection with the need to equip the air defense forces with more powerful installations capable of providing massive fire, the famous gunsmith N.F. Tokarev created a quad anti-aircraft machine gun Maxim arr. 1931

She had a high rate of fire, good maneuverability, constant combat readiness. Shooting at air targets from it was carried out using the same sights as in single and twin installations.

Due to the presence of a liquid cooling system and the large capacity of the tapes, it was for its time effective tool fighting low-flying aircraft. It had a high combat rate of fire and density of fire.

good combat effectiveness installation, first used in the battle on Hassan, was noted by foreign military observers who were present in the Japanese army.

The quad installation of the Tokarev system was the first integrated anti-aircraft installation put into service. ground forces.
During the Great Patriotic War, the quadruple anti-aircraft gun was successfully used to cover troops, important military facilities and cities, and was repeatedly used with great efficiency to combat enemy manpower.

After the adoption of aviation rapid-fire machine gun ShKAS, in 1936 serial production of a twin anti-aircraft gun began. However, ShKAS did not take root on earth. This gun needed ammo. special edition, the use of conventional infantry ammunition led to a large number shooting delays. The machine gun turned out to be poorly adapted for service on the ground: it is complex in design and sensitive to pollution.

Most of the existing anti-aircraft installations with ShKAS machine guns were used for air defense of airfields, where they had conditioned ammunition and qualified service.

In the initial period of the war, in order to strengthen the air defense and compensate for the losses incurred, it was decided to use the PV-1, DA and DA-2 aircraft machine guns available in the warehouses.

At the same time, it was decided to follow the path of maximum simplification, without a significant decrease in combat effectiveness.

On the basis of PV-1 N.F. Tokarev in August 1941. a built-in ZPU was created. In 1941-42. 626 such units were manufactured.

A significant part of them was used in the defense of Stalingrad.

Twin and single aviation machine guns YES designed by V.A. Degtyarev were mounted on a simple swivel.

Often this happened in military workshops, in field conditions. Despite the relatively low rate of fire and the disk magazine with a capacity of only 63 rounds, these installations played a role in the initial period of the war.

In the course of the war, due to the increase in the survivability of aircraft, the importance of rifle-caliber installations in the fight against enemy aircraft noticeably decreases, and they are inferior to the primacy of the DShK heavy machine gun, although they continue to play a certain role.

February 26, 1939 by the decision of the Committee of Defense, 12.7-mm is adopted for service. easel machine gun DShK (Degtyarev-Shpagin large-caliber) on a universal machine Kolesnikov. For firing at air targets, the machine gun was equipped with special anti-aircraft sights. The first machine guns entered the army in 1940. But by the beginning of the war, there were still very few of them in the troops.

The DShK became a powerful means of combating enemy aircraft, having high armor penetration, it significantly exceeded the 7.62-mm ZPU. in range and altitude of effective fire. Thanks to positive qualities DShK machine guns, their number in the army was constantly growing.

During the war, twin and triple DShK installations were designed and produced.

In addition to domestic machine guns for anti-aircraft fire, they were used supplied under Lend-Lease: 7.62-mm Browning M1919A4 and large-caliber 12.7-mm. "Browning" M2, as well as captured MG-34 and MG-42.

The powerful quadruple 12.7-mm guns were especially valued among the troops. American-made M17 installations mounted on the chassis of the M3 half-track armored personnel carrier.

These self-propelled guns have proven to be very effective means of protection. tank units and formations on the march from air attack.
In addition, M17s were successfully used during the fighting in cities, delivering heavy fire on upper floors buildings.

The pre-war industry of the USSR was not able to fully equip the troops with the necessary anti-aircraft weapons, air defense The USSR on 06/22/1941 was equipped with anti-aircraft machine gun installations by only 61%.

Not less than a difficult situation was with heavy machine guns. January 1, 1942. there were only 720 of them in the active army. However, with the transition to a military footing, industry in ever-increasing volumes of troops is saturated with weapons.

Six months later, in the army already -1947 units. DShK, and by January 1, 1944 - 8442 units. In two years, the number has increased almost 12 times.

The value of machine gun fire in military air defense and the country's air defense was maintained throughout the war. Of the 3,837 enemy planes shot down by the troops of the fronts from June 22, 1941 to June 22, 1942, 295 fell on anti-aircraft machine gun installations, 268 - on rifle and machine gun fire of the troops. From June 1942, the staff of the army anti-aircraft artillery regiment included a company of DShK, which had 8 machine guns, and from February 1943 - 16 machine guns.

Formed since November 1942, anti-aircraft artillery divisions(zenad) RVGK had one of the same company in each regiment of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery. Quite characteristic is the sharp increase in the number of heavy machine guns in the troops in 1943-1944. Only in preparation for Battle of Kursk 520 12.7-mm machine guns were sent to the fronts. True, since the spring of 1943, the number of DShKs in the zenad has decreased from 80 to 52, while the number of guns has increased from 48 to 64, and according to the state updated in the spring of 1944, the zenad had 88 anti-aircraft guns and 48 DShK machine guns. But at the same time, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of March 31, 1943, from April 5, an anti-aircraft artillery regiment was introduced into the staff of tank and mechanized corps (16 anti-aircraft guns of 37 mm caliber and 16 heavy machine guns, the same regiment was introduced into the cavalry corps), in staff of tank, mechanized and motorized brigades - anti-aircraft machine gun company with 9 heavy machine guns. At the beginning of 1944, anti-aircraft machine gun companies of 18 DShKs introduced some rifle divisions.

DShK machine guns were usually used by platoon. So, the anti-aircraft machine-gun company of the division usually covered the area of ​​​​artillery firing positions with four platoons (12 machine guns), two platoons (6 machine guns) - command post divisions.

Anti-aircraft machine guns were also introduced into medium-caliber anti-aircraft batteries to cover them from enemy attacks from low altitudes. Machine gunners often successfully interacted with air defense fighters - cutting off enemy fighters with fire, they provided their pilots with evasion from pursuit. Anti-aircraft machine guns were usually located no further than 300-500 m from leading edge defense. They covered advanced units, command posts, front-line railways and roads.

By the beginning of the war, the situation with anti-aircraft artillery was very difficult.

As of June 22, 1941, there were:
-1370 pcs. 37 mm. automatic anti-aircraft guns model 1939 (61-K)
-805 pcs. 76 mm. field guns model 1900 on anti-aircraft installations Ivanov systems
-539 pcs. 76 mm. anti-aircraft guns mod. 1914/15 Lender systems
-19 pcs. 76 mm. anti-aircraft guns mod. 1915/28
-3821 pcs. 76 mm. anti-aircraft guns mod. 1931 (3-K)
-750 pcs. 76 mm. anti-aircraft guns mod. 1938
-2630 pcs. 85 mm. arr. 1939 (52-K)

A significant part of them were hopelessly outdated systems, with weak ballistics, without anti-aircraft fire control devices (POISO).

Let's dwell on the guns that had real combat value.

37 mm. the automatic anti-aircraft gun model 1939 was the only small-caliber machine gun adopted before the war, it was created on the basis of the Swedish 40 mm Bofors gun.

The 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun of the 1939 model is a single-barreled small-caliber automatic anti-aircraft gun on a four-beam carriage with an inseparable four-wheel drive.

The automation of the gun is based on the use of recoil force according to the scheme with a short barrel recoil. All actions necessary for firing a shot (opening the bolt after a shot with the cartridge case extracted, cocking the firing pin, feeding cartridges into the chamber, closing the bolt and lowering the firing pin) are performed automatically. Aiming, aiming the gun and feeding clips with cartridges to the magazine are carried out manually.

According to the manual of the gun service, its main task was to fight against air targets at ranges up to 4 km and at altitudes up to 3 km. If necessary, the gun can also be successfully used for firing at ground targets, including tanks and armored vehicles.

During the battles of 1941, anti-aircraft guns suffered significant losses - until September 1, 1941, 841 guns were lost, and in total in 1941 - 1204 guns. Huge losses were hardly made up for by production - on January 1, 1942, there were about 1,600 37-mm anti-aircraft guns in stock. On January 1, 1945, there were about 19,800 guns. However, this number included 40 mm. Bofors guns supplied under Lend-Lease.

61-K during the Great Patriotic War were the main means of air defense Soviet troops in the front line.

Shortly before the war, a 25-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun of the 1940 model (72-K) was created, borrowing a series constructive solutions from 37 mm. 61-K. But by the beginning of hostilities, she did not get into the troops.

Anti-aircraft guns 72-K were intended for air defense at the level of a rifle regiment and in the Red Army occupied an intermediate position between large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns DShK and more powerful 37-mm anti-aircraft guns 61-K. However, the use of clip loading for a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun greatly reduced the practical rate of fire.

Due to the difficulty in mastering serial production a significant number of 25-mm anti-aircraft guns appeared in the Red Army only in the second half of the war. 72-K anti-aircraft guns and twin 94-KM mounts based on them were successfully used against low-flying and diving targets. In terms of the number of issued copies, they were much inferior to the 37 mm. automatic machines.

The most numerous at the beginning of the war 76-mm. anti-aircraft gun mod. 1931 (3-K) was created on the basis of the German 7.5 cm anti-aircraft 7.5 cm Flak L / 59 company "Rheinmetall" in the framework of military cooperation with Germany. The original samples, made in Germany, were tested in February-April 1932 at the Scientific Research Anti-Aircraft Range. In the same year, the gun was put into service under the name "76-mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1931".

A new projectile was developed for it, with a bottle-shaped cartridge case, which was used only in anti-aircraft guns.

76 mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1931 is a semi-automatic gun, since the opening of the shutter, the extraction of spent cartridges and the closing of the shutter during firing are carried out automatically, and the supply of cartridges to the chamber and the shot are made manually. The presence of semi-automatic mechanisms ensures a high combat rate of fire of the gun - up to 20 rounds per minute. The lifting mechanism allows you to fire in the range of vertical aiming angles from -3° to +82°. In the horizontal plane, shooting can be carried out in any direction.

Cannon arr. 1931 was a completely modern gun with good ballistic characteristics. Its carriage with four folding beds provided circular fire, and with a projectile weight of 6.5 kg, the vertical firing range was 9 km. A significant drawback of the gun was that its transfer from traveling to combat took a relatively long time (more than 5 minutes) and was a rather laborious operation.

Several dozen guns were installed on YaG-10 trucks. The self-propelled guns received the index 29K.

In the back of a YAG-10 truck with a reinforced bottom, the swinging part of the 76.2-mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1931 (3K) on a standard pedestal. To increase the stability of the platform during firing, the gun pedestal was lowered relative to the platform by 85 mm. The car was supplemented with four folding "paws" - "jack-type" stops. The body was supplemented with protective armored shields, which folded horizontally in the combat position, increasing the gun maintenance area. In front of the cockpit there are two charging boxes with ammunition (2x24 rounds). On the hinged sides there were places for four crew numbers "on the march".

On the basis of the 3-K gun, a 76-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model was developed. The same gun was installed on a new, four-wheeled wagon. That significantly reduced the deployment time and increased the speed of transportation of the system. In the same year, a synchronous servo drive system was developed by Academician M.P. Kostenko.

However, the growth of speeds and the "ceiling" of aircraft, the increase in their survivability required an increase in the reach of anti-aircraft guns in height and an increase in the power of the projectile.

Designed in Germany 76mm. the anti-aircraft gun had an increased margin of safety. Calculations showed that it is possible to increase the caliber of the gun to 85 mm.

The main advantage of the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun over its predecessor - the 76-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model - is the increased power of the projectile, which created a larger amount of destruction in the target area.

Due to the extremely tight deadlines for the development new system, lead designer G.D. Dorokhin decided to put an 85-mm barrel on the platform of a 76-mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1938, using the bolt and semi-automatic of this gun.

A muzzle brake was installed to reduce recoil. After finishing tests, the anti-aircraft gun was launched into mass production on a simplified carriage (with a four-wheeled cart) of a 76.2-mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1938

Thus, minimal cost and in a short time a qualitatively new anti-aircraft gun was created.

In order to improve the accuracy of firing at air targets, batteries of 85-mm anti-aircraft guns were equipped with PUAZO-3 artillery anti-aircraft fire control devices, which made it possible to solve the task of meeting and developing the coordinates of a predicted target point within a range of 700-12000 m, in height up to 9600 m at base size up to 2000 m. In PUAZO-3, an electrical synchronous transmission of the generated data to the guns was used, which ensured high rates of fire and its accuracy, as well as the possibility of firing at maneuvering targets.

85 mm. The 52-K anti-aircraft gun became the most advanced Soviet medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun of the war. In 1943 in order to increase the service and operational characteristics and reduce the cost of production, it was modernized.

Very often, Soviet medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns were used to fire at ground targets, especially in anti-tank defense. Anti-aircraft guns sometimes became the only barrier in the way of German tanks.

Air defense systems played a very important role in the Great Patriotic War. According to official data, during the war, 21,645 aircraft were shot down by ground-based air defense systems of the ground forces, including 4,047 aircraft by anti-aircraft guns of caliber 76 mm or more, 14,657 aircraft by anti-aircraft guns, 2,401 aircraft by anti-aircraft machine guns, and 2,401 aircraft by machine-gun fire. 540 aircraft

But it is impossible not to note a number of blunders in the creation of air defense systems.
In addition to the clearly unsatisfactory quantitative saturation of the troops with anti-aircraft weapons, there were serious shortcomings in the design and creation of new models.

In 1930, the USSR and the German company Rheinmetall, represented by the front company BYuTAST, entered into an agreement for the supply of a number of artillery weapons, including automatic anti-aircraft guns. According to the terms of the contract, Rheinmetall supplied the USSR with two samples of a 20-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun and complete design documentation for this gun. It was adopted in the Soviet Union for service under official name"20-mm automatic anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun mod. 1930". However, in the USSR, for production reasons, they could not be brought to an acceptable level of reliability. In Germany, this machine gun, which received the designation 2 cm Flugabwehrkanone 30, was adopted and massively used until the very end of the war.

At the end of 1937 at the plant. Kalinin, the first prototype of a 45-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun was manufactured, which received the factory index ZIK-45, later changed to 49-K. After modifications, it successfully passed the tests, but the military leadership short-sightedly considered that the 45-mm. the projectile has excess power, and the designers were asked to develop a similar 37 mm. anti-aircraft gun.
Structurally, the 49-K and 61-K almost did not differ, had a close cost (60 thousand rubles versus 55 thousand rubles), but at the same time, the reach and destructive effect of 45-mm shells are significantly higher.

Instead of the not-so-successful 25mm. 72-K submachine gun, which had manual clip loading, which limited the rate of fire, 23-mm would be more suitable for the needs of air defense of the regimental level aircraft gun Volkov-Yartsev (VYa) design, which has a belt feed and a high rate of fire. During the war, VYa were installed on Il-2 attack aircraft, where they proved themselves excellently. Only in the navy, for weapons torpedo boats, a number of twin 23mm were used. anti-aircraft guns.
Only in the aftermath of the war, under the cartridge of the VYa cannon, were twin anti-aircraft guns ZU-23 and ZSU "Shilka" created.

The opportunity was also missed to create a highly effective anti-aircraft weapon under 14.5 mm during the war. cartridge PTR. This was done only after the end of hostilities in the Vladimirov Heavy Machine Gun (KPV), which is still in service.

The realization of all these missed opportunities would significantly increase the potential of the air defense forces of the Red Army and hasten the victory.

According to materials:
Shirokorad A. B. Encyclopedia of domestic artillery.
Ivanov A.A. Artillery of the USSR in World War II.
http://www.soslugivci-odnopolhane.ru/orugie/5-orugie/94-zenitki.html
http://www.tehnikapobedy.ru/76mm38hist.htm
http://alexandrkandry.narod.ru/html/weapon/sovet/artelery/z/72k.html

Barrage balloons near the Kremlin.
1941.
Moscow.

Air defense of Moscow during the Great Patriotic War In the first month of the war, the State Defense Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme Command carried out a number of measures to strengthen and improve Moscow's air defense. In July 1941, the 6th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Corps was formed as part of the 21st Fighter Aviation Regiment. Moscow was covered by the troops of the Moscow Air Defense Zone (commander Major General M.S. Gromadin), which included the 1st Air Defense Corps (Major General D.A. Zhuravlev) and the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps (Colonel I.D. Klimov). In total, there were over 600 fighters, over 1,000 anti-aircraft guns, over 330 anti-aircraft machine guns, 124 barrage balloon posts, about 620 anti-aircraft searchlights and over 600 VNOS posts (airborne surveillance, warning and communications). The air defense of the capital was built on the principle of all-round defense, its depth was up to 250 km. This made it possible to start a fight with enemy aircraft on the distant approaches to the capital, provided protection for the entire Central Industrial Region of the USSR and covered the groupings of troops of the fronts participating in the Battle of Moscow. A balloon barrier zone with a radius of 56 km from the Kremlin was created around the city center. For actions in the Moscow direction, the fascist German command allocated the 2nd Air Fleet, numbering 1600 aircraft, created a special aviation group, which included the best bomber formations of the German Air Force, which had the task of "leveling Moscow to the ground." From July 22 to the end of August 1941, the enemy carried out 25 raids on Moscow, in which more than 2200 aircraft took part, 200 of them were shot down. Only individual planes broke through to the capital.

In November 1941, the post of commander of the Air Defense Forces of the country's territory was introduced (Major General Gromadin was the first commander). On the basis of the 1st Air Defense Corps on November 19, 1941, the Moscow Air Defense Corps District was created, and new units were formed.

The first German air raid on Moscow was made on the night of July 22, 1941. In total, during the war years, the German Air Force carried out 141 raids on Moscow, in which about 8 thousand aircraft participated, but only 229 broke through to the city. separate days 1941 destroyed 3040 aircraft. The enemy used high-explosive bombs weighing 501000 kg, mines 1400 kg, incendiary aviation bombs. During the first 9 months of the war, about 1600 high-explosive and about 100 thousand incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. As a result of the bombing in the city, about 2,200 people were killed, about 3,100 were slightly injured, and about 2,500 were seriously injured; damage was minor. Important role in the defense of Moscow, in addition to aviation and anti-aircraft artillery, local air defense formations (MPVO), which included 650 thousand residents of the city, camouflage of urban objects, introduced on July 22, 1941, and blackout of residential buildings, played. Muscovites were on duty in institutions, enterprises, residential buildings and prevented massive fires. Of the 45 thousand fires that arose within the city during enemy raids in 194142, 43.5 thousand were eliminated. There were 4,330 gas shelters and 1,975 bomb shelters in Moscow; metro stations were also used as bomb shelters.

With the beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive near Moscow (December 56, 1941), the number of enemy air raids on the capital decreased significantly. In the spring of 1942, the German command transferred several bomber formations from France and Italy to the Moscow direction. In April 1942, the air defense forces of the city were merged into the Moscow Air Defense Front (commander Lieutenant General Zhuravlev) and reinforced with newly formed units. In June-August 1942, enemy aircraft made new attempts to break through to Moscow, but were repulsed. During the Battle of Moscow, the Air Defense Forces destroyed about 1,300 enemy aircraft. They also fought against the ground enemy and destroyed a significant amount of manpower and military equipment. From the autumn of 1942 until the end of the war, individual reconnaissance aircraft appeared in the Moscow area only occasionally, flying, as a rule, on high altitude. In June 1943, on the basis of the Moscow Air Defense Front, the Special Moscow Air Defense Army was created, which on October 20, 1945 was transformed into the Moscow Air Defense District.

Literature: Zhuravlev D.A., Fire Shield of Moscow, 2nd ed., M., 1988; "Moscow air raid alert!", M., 1991.

Anti-aircraft battery near the territory of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.
1942.
Moscow.

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"Air defense of Moscow in the Great Patriotic War" in books

AIR DEFENSE