For the protection of the sky.
85 mm anti-aircraft gun 52-K
Anti-aircraft gun mechanisms.
Characteristics
Year of issue
1938
Total produced
?
Weight
4300 kg
Calculation
7 people
Shooting characteristics
Caliber
85 mm
Initial projectile speed
800 m/s
Maximum firing range
15650 m
height reach
10500 m
rate of fire
20 rds/min
Description
On September 5, 1937, the Design Bureau of Plant No. 8 informed the Artillery Directorate about the project of engineer G.D. Dorokhin to lay an 85-mm barrel on the carriage of a 76-mm 3-K gun. The 85 mm barrel is equipped with a muzzle brake, projectile weight 9.2 kg, muzzle velocity 800 m/s.
On September 28, 1937, the People's Commissar of Defense turned to the Artillery Administration with a proposal to include in the plan of experimental work for 1938 at Plant No. 8 the production of a prototype 85-mm mobile gun, the tactical and technical requirements of which would be developed by the Artillery Administration. By that time, the Art Administration was already developing these requirements. So, by the protocol of November 22, 1937, it was decided to withdraw the assignment for the design of an 85-mm remote shrapnel.
On January 31, 1938, Plant No. 8 submitted a description of the 85-mm 52-K gun to the Artillery Directorate. Instead of the existing liner (from the 76-mm anti-aircraft guns 3-K), a free tube was taken, the end of which is free from the casing for a length of 1800 mm and has a screw-on muzzle brake. The free tube casing has a thickening between the grips (so that the balancing mechanism from the 3-K carriage works normally) and is 1431 mm shorter than the existing monoblock 76-mm 3-K gun. This casing can be obtained from an existing forging, the breech and wedge undergo minor changes, so that existing breech and wedge forgings from 3-K can be used.
In January 1938, factory tests of the first experimental 85-mm barrel on a 3-K carriage were carried out. According to the act of January 29, 1938, a total of 35 shots were fired at an angle of 0 °. The first 20 shots were made with a muzzle brake with a projectile weighing 9.2 kg, the initial speed was 613-830 m/s, and then 15 shots were fired without a muzzle brake with an initial speed of 673-714 m/s. For these 15 shots, the maximum initial speed of 715 m / s was set with an allowable recoil of 1150 mm for firing without a muzzle brake.
On January 31, 1938, an 85-mm barrel on a Z-K carriage arrived at the Sofrinsky training ground. On February 1, 45 shots were fired at elevation angles from 0° to +80° with an average muzzle velocity of 827.2 m/s. Failures in the operation of semi-automatic (battery) were noted. Rollback length slightly increased.
The 85-mm gun was first tested at the Scientific Research Anti-Aircraft Artillery Range from July 8 to September 25, 1938. By the time they arrived at NIZAP, 104 shots had already been fired from the 85-mm barrel.
During the tests at NIZAP, 1100 shots were fired and 500 km were covered. The average towing speed for the ZiS-5 on a dirt road is 30-35 km/h, while the maximum speed is about 50 km/h.
Based on the results of field tests, the commission stated that the gun passed the field tests and recommended it for adoption as a corps anti-aircraft gun.
On May 10, 1940, the Artillery Administration finally established the index of the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun - "52-P-365".
The production of 52-K was carried out exclusively at factory No. 8 named after. Kalinin, who until the winter of 1941-42. was located in the village of Podlipki (Moscow region), and then was evacuated to the city of Sverdlovsk.
By June 22, 1941, the troops had 2,630 52-K guns. During the war years, 676 guns were transferred to the Navy.
Artillery
Artillery
It is well known about the units of the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners who defended Venev. And, unfortunately, nothing is known about the field artillery of the rifle units of the Red Army and the 115th regiment of the NKVD.
85-mm anti-aircraft gun 52-K arr. 1939 (USSR)
On the morning of November 21, the 2nd battery of the 702nd anti-tank artillery regiment, armed with 85-mm anti-aircraft guns, arrived from Tula to Venev and took up positions near the road on the western outskirts of Venev. On this day, they shot down 2 enemy aircraft, both pilots were captured. At noon, 21 batteries were transferred to the Semyan area, where 2 more enemy aircraft were shot down. On the morning of November 22, she was relocated to the Venev area.
From the memoirs of S.P. Rodionov: "The projectile of an 85-mm anti-aircraft gun pierced any german tank of that time on two sides at a distance of up to 1.5 kilometers.
85 mm anti-aircraft gun against the backdrop of the Venev panorama. November-December 1941
37 mm automatic gun 61-K (USSR)
Calculation 7 people
Maximum rate of fire 160-170 rds / min
Height reach - 6500 m
The 16th battery of the 732nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment under the command of Lieutenant S.P. Zelyanin and political instructor I.S. Polikarpova, consisting of four 37-mm guns and 66 fighters and commanders, on November 22 hastily moved from Tula to the Venev region, 4 times she was attacked by an air enemy, during which she shot down 2 aircraft. On November 24, the battery took up a position on the eastern outskirts of Venev on a high hillock behind Pushkarskaya Sloboda.
In the center is a 37 mm anti-aircraft gun. Presumably
Venice photo. November-December 1941
From the memoirs of S.P. Rodionov: "The 37-mm anti-aircraft gun / MZA / as part of anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery regiments mainly solved the tasks of air cover for our ground forces in connection with the dominance of enemy aircraft. Effectively deal with enemy tanks due to low penetration armor, she could not. The battles near Orel, Mtsensk, Tula showed that enemy tanks fearlessly went to this material part and, as a rule, destroyed it with caterpillars and fire, because the 37-mm projectile did not damage it. "
20 mm Flak 38 automatic anti-aircraft gun (Germany, 1940-1945)
Calculation 7 people
Rate of fire 220 rds / min
Height reach - 4400 m
Horizontal range - 5700 m
Combat crew Flak 38 against the backdrop of Venev, late November 1941,
from the album Albert Frank
A few more pictures from Albert Frank's album taken together with a photo from Venice, probably they are also from our places.
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One of the German anti-aircraft guns was installed on a hillock near the Zaraisk bridge. During the retreat, they did not have time to pick him up. The Red Army soldiers disarmed the anti-aircraft gun by removing the barrel and throwing it into the river, and the gun carriage, which rotated 360 degrees, was left in the same place. Venevskaya children used it as a carousel for a long time.
88 mm Flak 36/37 anti-aircraft gun (Germany, 1935-1945)
Rate of fire 15-20 rds / min
Residents of Venev recalled that during the retreat of the German troops, one of the guns on a four-wheeled carriage got bogged down in a ford across the Venevka River near the village of Berezovo. Perhaps it was an 88 mm anti-aircraft gun. She was pulled out already by a trophy team.
105 mm heavy gun s.K 18 (Germany, 1934-1945)
Range up to 18 km
Truck KRUPP L3 H 63 (Germany) 1933-1938
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By the end of the 1930s, the leadership of the Soviet armed forces came to the conclusion that the predicted increase in the tactical and technical indicators of aviation in the next few years would lead to obsolescence of the existing air defense weapons. A search began for projects of a more modern anti-aircraft gun with higher combat characteristics. They took 76.2 mm arr. as a basis. 1938 increased it and received an 85-mm anti-aircraft gun, model 1939, KS-12.
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In many respects similar arr. 1938, the new model had a multi-chamber muzzle brake, which was not found in smaller-caliber guns. An armor shield for gun crew was supplied by additional order. In 1939, the production of a new anti-aircraft gun mod. 1939 just started to be produced in Kaliningrad. When the Germans invaded the USSR, the plant was evacuated to the Urals, where it remained until the end of the war. The anti-aircraft gun arr. 1939 became the standard heavy air defense weapon Soviet army. The more powerful 85 mm anti-aircraft gun model 1944, KS 18, began to replace it only at the end of the war. Using the same projectile as arr. 1939, the anti-aircraft gun had higher combat performance due to increased charge. As well as for German 88 mm guns, for mod. 39 and 44 provided for the possibility of using anti-aircraft guns to fight tanks. Soviet anti-aircraft guns were quite successful in this, and the Germans used them along with their own guns of the 88 series under the designation 85-mm Flak M.39 (g) and Flak M.44 (g). As well as the captured Soviet 76.2 mm guns, they were sent to Germany for the needs of air defense. With the expenditure of captured anti-aircraft ammunition, anti-aircraft guns were gradually re-sharpened to the standard 88 mm caliber for the Wehrmacht, becoming 85/88-mm Flak M.39 (r) guns.
The Soviet models of 1939 and 1944 were really good anti-aircraft guns. After the war, part of the gun until the 80s remained in the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries (except the USSR); some of them were in Sudan, in Vietnam they were used during the war with the United States. Later, "modernized" anti-aircraft guns already worked with centralized fire control systems. The basic 85-mm model was used further, in the development of subsequent generations of Soviet weapons. It was adapted as the main gun of the SU-85 self-propelled assault gun and anti-tank gun; there was also a towed model of the same gun.
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52-K or KS-12 (Index GAU - 52-P-365) - Soviet anti-aircraft gun caliber 85 mm. The full official name of the gun is the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1939 model.
The 85-mm anti-aircraft gun was actively used in the Great Patriotic War both as an anti-aircraft gun and an anti-tank gun, and after its completion it was in service with the Soviet Army for a long time before the adoption of anti-aircraft missile systems.
The gun was developed by the design bureau of plant number 8 in Kaliningrad near Moscow on the instructions of the GAU. Its predecessor was the 76-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model, created by Mikhail Nikolayevich Loginov, which was produced in a small series in 1938-1940. Due to extremely tight deadlines for development new system, leading designer G.D. Dorokhin decided to put an 85 mm barrel on the platform of a 76 mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model, using the bolt and semi-automatic of this gun.
In 1939, a new 85-mm anti-aircraft gun with the factory designation 52-K passed field tests, during which it became clear that it was necessary to install a muzzle brake, increase the bearing surface of the bolt wedge and the breech seat.
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 problem of meeting a projectile and an aircraft. In addition to POISOT devices, to control the fire of parts of 85-mm anti-aircraft guns operating in the main directions, they also used radar stations detection RUS.
The gun was also equipped with a mechanical fuse installer designed by Lev Veniaminovich Lyulyev.
When the prototype was tested at the 24th NIZAP (research anti-aircraft artillery range at the Donguzskaya station in the Orenburg region) and the GAU ordered a series of 20 guns from the plant, it turned out that this series also differed from the prototype. The design bureau and the "chief" of the anti-aircraft guns, Grigory Dorokhin, continued to improve the system.
It passed all the tests and was put into service as the 52-K corps anti-aircraft gun of the 1939 model. The Kalinin plant was its sole manufacturer. By the beginning of the war, the troops had 2630 of these most powerful domestic anti-aircraft guns.
In the autumn of 1941, Plant No. 8 was evacuated to Sverdlovsk and Molotov (now the city of Perm). The construction of the plant took place in the extremely difficult conditions of the harsh Ural winter of 1941-1942, with frosts from minus 30 to 43 degrees and no heating in the main workshops. Nevertheless, the work was in full swing. Dozens of platforms with factory property were unloaded, which had accumulated at the railway entrance to the enterprise and at dead ends. As soon as the installation of equipment in the workshops was completed, the machines immediately started to work.
To heat the hull, in the window openings of which there were no glass yet, and the roof was covered with a tarpaulin, a steam locomotive was installed, but the cold was still terrible, the iron stoves installed at the machines and fires in the spans did not help either. The emulsion froze, the hands stiffened. And not a word of reproach, complaint, whining. Workers, and among them there were more and more women, teenagers, silently, with stern faces, built, assembled, produced parts, assemblies.
In February 1942, Kalinin residents, no longer from stocks brought with them, but from parts made in Sverdlovsk, assembled the first 118 anti-aircraft guns, completing the GKO task.
Of course, every Kalinin citizen understood that 118 guns were very few. The front needed many times more guns. But dashing trouble is the beginning! In May, the plant fulfilled the plan for the production of 85-mm anti-aircraft artillery by 136%.
The protracted war, the heavy losses of the army and the civilian population from the raids of the Nazi aviation urgently demanded a further sharp increase in the production of anti-aircraft artillery.
With those meager material and human resources, which in Sverdlovsk the plant named after. Kalinin, there was only one way to solve this problem - reducing the labor intensity and metal consumption of products.
The design of the 52-K gun was simplified, and at the same time the technology of its manufacture was improved.
In 1943, the improved gun was successfully tested, and in February 1944, the gun, which received the factory index KS-12, went into serial production.
The first two letters of the index meant that the tool was created at the plant. Kalinin in Sverdlovsk.
Designed to fight enemy aircraft, to fire at airborne assault forces, at live ground targets and enemy firing points, these guns were also successfully used to destroy fascist tanks. With an unusual task for an anti-aircraft gun, the 52-K coped more successfully than other anti-tank guns of those years. With an armor-piercing projectile attached to it, it could pierce the armor of all types of tanks that were in service with the German army until mid-1943. And when in 1942 G.D. Dorokhin was awarded the title of laureate State Prize, the award noted not only anti-aircraft, but also anti-tank qualities of the gun.
Since 1943, instead of a barrel consisting of a casing and a free pipe, they begin to install a monoblock barrel. In the same year, guns began to be produced with shield covers.
In 1944, instead of semi-automatic inertia-mechanical type, semi-automatic mechanical (copy) type was introduced. During the years of the Great Patriotic War The gun served as the basis for the development of long-barreled tank guns D-5 and ZIS-S-53, which were installed on the SU-85 anti-tank self-propelled guns and the T-34-85, KV-85 and IS-1 tanks. Part of the 52-K anti-aircraft guns, after being removed from service, was redone for peaceful use in highlands as anti-avalanche weapons. The 52-K gun was transferred or sold to other countries to equip their armed forces.
The 85-mm anti-aircraft gun 52-K was installed in the Izmailovsky Park of Culture and Recreation.
Back in the eighties of the twentieth century, the boys loved to turn the flywheels of horizontal and vertical aiming, turning the barrel of the gun, but then the flywheels were welded.
This gun, from the moment of development, starting with the caliber and ending with what appeared in the end. But the main thing is the result, isn't it?
Where did the 85 mm caliber come from, it was not possible to establish at all. Sources are generally silent on this topic, as if someone just took it and decided to invent it. The only thing that could more or less serve as a starting point was the British 18-pounder (83.8 mm or 3.3") gun QF model 1904, which was an enlarged version of the 13-pounder (76.2 mm) gun and very She looked a lot like her in every way, except for her size.
A certain number of such guns fell into the Red Army during civil war, and was also in service with the Baltic states.
Until 1938, there was no 85 mm caliber in Russian artillery at all. Occasionally, he appeared in draft designs, but it didn’t even come to competitions. It seems that the phenomenon of this caliber really turned out to be accidental.
In 1937/1938, the designers of plant No. 8 decided to use the good safety margins laid down in the design of the German Rheinmetall gun, adopted by us under the name "76-mm anti-aircraft gun model 1931." and increase its caliber.
According to calculations, the maximum caliber that could be placed in the casing of a 76 mm gun was 85 mm. Understanding the need to adopt medium-caliber anti-aircraft artillery was justified, so 85-mm anti-aircraft guns were put into mass production before the war.
But again, this is just speculation.
It is also very difficult to say why the Red Army did not like the new 76-mm anti-aircraft gun designed by Loginov, which was a refinement of the 3-K gun, which we already wrote about.
The 76-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model had just been put into service, when it was immediately replaced by the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1939 model.
The designer G.D. Dorokhin took as a basis the development of the same Loginov - a 76-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1938 model. Dorokhin proposed to put a new 85-mm barrel on the platform of a 76-mm anti-aircraft gun, also using its shutter and semi-automatic.
Tests showed the need for further improvements caused by an increase in the caliber of the projectile, the weight of the powder charge and the weight of the installation itself. After increasing the bearing surface of the bolt wedge and the breech seat, as well as installing a muzzle brake, the gun was adopted by the Red Army under the name "85-mm anti-aircraft gun mod. 1939" or 52-K.
Many authors write that important feature The versatility of the new anti-aircraft gun was also its versatility: the 52-K was suitable not only for firing at enemy aircraft, but was also successfully used as an anti-tank gun, firing at enemy armored vehicles with direct fire.
Given that the 52-K received all the mechanisms from the 76-mm gun, everything was true for its predecessor to the same extent. However, the use of a more powerful projectile and a powder charge provided greater armor penetration compared to the 76-mm gun.
The 76-mm gun fired high-explosive and armor-piercing shells. For the 85-mm gun, an armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed caliber projectile 53-UBR-365K and an armor-piercing tracer projectile 53-UBR-365P were developed.
At a 76-mm cannon, an armor-piercing caliber projectile at an initial speed of 816 m / s at a distance of 500 m pierced armor 78 mm thick, and at a distance of 1000 m - 68 mm. The range of a direct shot was 975 m.
The projectile for the 85 mm gun had better performance.
When fired at a meeting angle of 60°, the 9.2-kg projectile pierces armor about 100 mm thick at a distance of 100 m, 90 mm at a distance of 500 m, and 85 mm at a distance of 1,000 m.
At a meeting angle of 96 ° at a distance of 100 m, penetration of armor with a thickness of about 120 mm is provided, at a distance of 500 m - 110 mm, at a distance of 1000 m - 100 mm.
An 85-mm armor-piercing tracer projectile weighing 4.99 kg had an even greater armor-piercing ability.
The firing range of the 85 mm gun was also somewhat greater than that of the 76 mm gun. In height: 10230 m, in distance: 15650 m, for the 76-mm gun, respectively, in height: 9250 m, in distance: 14600 m.
The initial speed of the projectile was approximately equal, in the region of 800 m / s.
In principle, it turns out that the appearance of the 85-mm gun was justified. As well as some haste in development is fully justified. The gun came out more powerful, immediately on a more transportable four-wheeled platform, and most importantly, it could successfully act as an anti-tank gun at the time the Germans got heavy ones in 1942/43.
The creation of a new, four-wheeled ZU-8 platform made it possible to transport anti-aircraft guns at speeds up to 50 km / h, instead of 35 km / h for their predecessors. The combat deployment time has also been reduced (1 minute 20 seconds versus 5 minutes for the 76 mm 3-K gun).
In addition, 52-K served as the basis for the creation of the D-5 and ZIS-S-53 tank guns, which were subsequently installed on the SU-85 self-propelled guns and the T-34-85, KV-85 and IS-1 tanks.
In general, for its time, which includes both design capabilities and industry capabilities, the 52-K gun was very good.
I will say more: it was better for the period 1941-1944. In 1942, when the Germans had "tigers", the 52-K was the only gun that could hit these tanks with almost no problems.
A 76-mm cannon projectile could penetrate the Tiger into the side from 300 meters, and even then, with a 30% probability. The armor-piercing projectile of the 85-mm cannon quite confidently hit the "Tiger" from a distance of 1 km in the frontal projection.
In 1944, a modernization was carried out, which improved the performance of the 52-K, but did not go into the series due to the fact that the urgent need had already disappeared.
In total, for the period from 1939 to 1945, the industry of the USSR produced 14,422 52-K guns.
After being withdrawn from service, the gun was widely supplied abroad. And it sold very well.
And even in our time, 52-K is quite successfully used as an anti-avalanche gun.
In our time, the strengths and weaknesses of the 85 mm Soviet and German 88 mm anti-aircraft guns have been repeatedly discussed. Indeed, "akht-komma-akht" covered itself with glory and earned a reputation as an excellent weapon. But the fact is that 52-K was not inferior to her in anything. And dropped it to the ground in the same way german planes and stopped the tanks.
It is not worth repeating, the fact is that the gun came out very worthy, judging by the results.
Sources:
Museum military history, With. Padikovo, Moscow region.
Shunkov Victor. Red Army.
