One of the oldest military branches Russian army is artillery. Thus, the first appearance of firearms in Russia dates back to the 14th century, or more precisely, to 1389. But this is only an officially recognized date, according to numerous studies by Russian, and later Soviet historians, artillery appeared much earlier than this date.

All Russian artillery is surrounded by rich fighting traditions. For several centuries, Russian artillery remained the strongest in the world, and it was largely due to this that victories were won in numerous wars.

Like the entire Russian army, artillery has gone through a difficult path of development and formation. The first firearms were far from examples of design perfection. Most of the tools were made in a handicraft way. For their manufacture, wrought iron was used and strengthened on mobile wooden machines. Pieces of iron and processed stones were used as charges. Starting from the second half of the 15th century, a new era began in the production of tools. Bronze and copper began to be used to cast guns, which, accordingly, affected the quality of firing.

But the most extensive development of artillery began with the advent of Ivan the Terrible to the Russian throne. In all the wars in which Russia took part at that time, artillery played a decisive role. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, artillery was formed as a separate branch of the military. So, according to historical information, separate archery regiments were created, which included artillery. At its core, it was the creation of regimental artillery.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Russian artillery was presented on the battlefields as a separate branch of the armed forces, capable of independently solving the most difficult combat missions. The most significant fact of the use of artillery at that time was the siege of Kazan in 1552. To capture the fortress, 150 heavy guns were used, of which the fortress walls were shelled for a month, and only thanks to this, the Russian army was able to occupy the city. Artillery also played a very important role in the Livonian War. Throughout the military confrontation, the Russian army fought intense battles for enemy fortresses. During their participation in these battles, Russian gunners proved not only how well they master their equipment, but also its strength and firepower.

At the end of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th centuries, completely new artillery pieces appeared in Russia, which proved the successful solution by Russian gunsmiths of extremely difficult tasks for that time. The tools were created by talented craftsmen, most of whom were from the common people.

So, there are a number of vivid historical examples that prove that already in the early period of the existence of artillery in Russia there were gifted craftsmen who cast and forged tools. One of the first cannon makers, whose name history has brought to our time, was Yakov, he lived and worked fruitfully in the second half of the 15th century. The activity of the cannon maker from Tver, Mikula Krechetnikov, belongs to the same period of time. Krechetnikov's hands created many guns that entered the arsenal of artillery weapons of the Russian army.

But the most famous Russian gunsmith was Andrey Chokhov. This talented master cast a lot of different guns, but the Tsar Cannon cast by him brought the greatest celebrity to this man. Despite the fact that the gun made in 1586 never fired, to this day it attracts the attention of visitors to the Moscow Kremlin and experts. For the most part, attention is drawn to the size of the gun. It has a caliber of 89 centimeters, its length is 5 meters, and its weight is about 40 tons. Not a single foreign cannon maker was able to cast anything like this, and this once again emphasized the talent and skill of Russian masters.

Even at an early period in the history of artillery in Russia, guns were created that, according to the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe device used and according to the principles underlying their operation, were far ahead of the corresponding analogues of guns created abroad. For the most part, this refers to the creation of rifled guns and guns with wedge gates. It is known that with the introduction of rifled guns into service with the artillery of the Russian army, in the middle of the 19th century there was a real revolution in artillery technology. First of all, this was due to the fact that rifled artillery had a much greater power of fire in comparison with smooth-walled artillery. The guns of the new model were distinguished by greater range, as well as increased accuracy when firing. Given all these advantages, it is not surprising that rifled guns almost immediately took a leading position on the battlefields and had a significant impact on the development of artillery firing and tactics.

At the end of the 16th century, Russian craftsmen first made an iron squeaker, which had a caliber of 1.7 inches and was loaded from the breech. There were rifling in the channel of the squeaker, and devices for attaching the sight and front sight were provided on its barrel. Shooting from this squeak was carried out with special oblong projectiles. Russian masters continued to improve the squeak, and thanks to this, a completely new model, cast in bronze in 1615. Ten spiral rifling was made in the bore of the squeaker, like the previous model, it was loaded from the breech and closed with a wedge bolt.

These squeakers are the very first guns in the world with a rifled barrel, which were made by Russian craftsmen. Abroad, there are several samples of guns with rifled barrels, which were made only at the end of the 17th century. It is obvious that Russian gunsmiths in the invention of rifled guns were far ahead of foreigners. The only drawback that did not allow mass production of guns with rifled barrels at that time was the lack of the necessary conditions for production.

With the development and improvement of the production of guns, a problem arose with the transition to a new type of gun loading. As you know, the first guns were loaded directly from the barrel, but a more reliable and faster method of charging was required. This method was the loading of the gun from the breech. This required only one thing - a reliable device for locking the bore of the gun. The Russian gunsmiths successfully solved this problem by using a wedge lock to lock the bore, which at that time was not used in the artillery of the armies of other countries.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the origin of Russian artillery science dates back. The first scientific work, which is known to historians of our time, belongs to Onisim Mikhailov, the “master of Pushkar affairs”, which he wrote in 1620, and is called “Charter of cannon military and other matters related to military science”. For more than 150 years, the manuscript remained unknown, and only in 1777 was it found and published by V. Ruban.

The scientific work of Onisim Mikhailov consisted of 663 decrees, and it also contained many truly revolutionary original thoughts. Mikhailov was not only able to generalize many of the provisions known in foreign literature, but also provided an independent solution to a number of issues related to the organization, combat use and materiel of artillery. With his work, Mikhailov laid the foundation for the further development of artillery literature in Russia and, importantly, made a valuable contribution to the development of artillery science.

The beginning of the XVIII century was the most important stage in the formation of Russian artillery. It was during this period of time that Russian artillery became the best in Europe. For the most part, this was achieved thanks to the perseverance, energy and organizational skills of Peter the Great and his combat comrades-in-arms in artillery - G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, Y. V. Bruce, V. D. Korchmin and many others who believed in the future of artillery . Creating a regular army according to a new model, Peter the Great actually rebuilt the structure of artillery on the latest principles. A number of state measures carried out by Peter I were of great importance for the further development and growth of artillery.

So, Peter the Great streamlined the issue related to the production of artillery pieces. Diversity in artillery was abolished. For the production of tools, only standard drawings were used. The creators of the guns were tasked with reducing the weight and achieving maximum maneuverability of the gun on the battlefield. As a result, completely new models of howitzers and cannons appeared in the arsenal of the army, which had high combat qualities and high maneuverability and significantly simplified and facilitated transportation.

Peter I attached great importance to the maneuverability and mobility of artillery on the battlefield. He did his best to ensure that on the battlefield not only the infantry, but also the cavalry always had the support of artillery. For this, units such as horse artillery were introduced in the Russian army. Created by Peter I, horse artillery took part in the battle with the Swedes in 1702 and the battle near Lesnaya in 1708, along with cavalry regiments, and historians admit that it was thanks to this that victories were won. The horse artillery of the Russian army became especially famous during the Patriotic War of 1812 and the subsequent foreign campaigns of 1813–1814.

Particular importance in the further development of artillery was given to personnel training. Peter the Great not only personally mastered the art of artillery, but also put a lot of work into identifying talented people and teaching them the art of artillery combat. It was during this period that the foundation for the development of artillery education was laid in Russia. The efforts expended on carrying out the reorganization of the Russian army and its artillery paid off very quickly and, moreover, a hundredfold. Especially great success fell on the lot of Russian artillery during the Battle of Poltava in 1709. As you know, the Swedish invaders were finally crushed. Russian artillery fired massively, shooting Swedish troops rushing to attack at close range with grapeshot, which led to heavy losses in the enemy camp. The effectiveness of the actions of Russian artillerymen was recognized even by enemies.

Further successes in the development of Russian artillery were associated with the name of P.I. Shuvalov. This outstanding artilleryman in the middle of the 18th century was at the forefront of improving the organization of artillery. Thanks to Shuvalov, more advanced guns were adopted, and the level of combat and technical training of artillerymen also increased significantly. P. I. Shuvalov managed to attract talented inventors to the creation of new tools, among whom were Major Danilov and Colonel Martynov. Thanks to this talented tandem, a completely new weapon was created - the unicorn, which served the Russian army for more than a hundred years. The unicorn project was based on a long howitzer built under Peter I. But in the new gun, the barrel was lengthened to 8 calibers. The new guns were designed to fire shells of various types: incendiary shells, explosive grenades, buckshot, and cannonballs. They had special conical chambers, which made it possible to speed up the charging process.

The heroic and skillful actions of Russian artillery, shown in the second half of the 18th century, were inextricably linked with the outstanding Russian successes achieved under the command of talented Russian commanders M. I. Kutuzov, P. A. Rumyantsev and A. V. Suvorov.

P. A. Rumyantsev introduced a number of important provisions and changes regarding the combat use and organization of artillery. Applying these provisions, Russian gunners achieved significant success in battles with the Turkish army. In particular, it should be noted how the Russian artillery acted in the battles at Larga and Cahul. In these battles, the Russian artillery was able to suppress the fire of the Turkish artillery and dealt a significant blow to the enemy cavalry, which ensured the complete and final defeat of the Turkish troops.

Even more impressive were the successes of the artillery of the Russian army in the battles under the command of the famous A. V. Suvorov. The commander knew artillery perfectly and correctly assessed its combat capabilities. When setting the task for the artillerymen, Suvorov was always brief: "The fires of the Cross open victory to the infantry." The commander always demanded that artillery units prepare an attack by infantry and cavalry. Russian artillery, together with the Suvorov troops, participated in a campaign in distant Italy, and thanks to its power, a number of defeats were inflicted on the French army.

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by bloody wars between Napoleonic France and a coalition of states, including Russia. The Russian army and its artillery met with the advanced at that time and well-armed, trained, led by talented generals and marshals of the French army. In heavy battles with the Napoleonic army, victories and defeats alternated. The most difficult defeat for the Russian army was the lost battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

In 1812, the French army, led by Napoleon, invaded Russia. Thus began the war, which is rightly called the Patriotic War. The Russian people were forced to defend their state from the French interventionists. But for Napoleon, this war ended in complete defeat and exile from Russia. The most significant and decisive in the course of this war was battle of Borodino. The French lost this battle, and thus their former glory, won over the years, was buried. And as the French themselves admitted, their defeat was based on the excellent artillery preparation of the Russian army, which was able to cause significant damage in their camp.

The artillery continued to operate successfully during the period of the famous counter-offensive of the Russian army, led by M. I. Kutuzov and which finally destroyed Napoleon's army. The French army experienced the full power of Russian artillery strikes in the battles near Dorogobuzh and Vyazma, near Maloyaroslavets and Krasny.

In the subsequent wars after this, the military glory of the artillery of the Russian army grew and strengthened. Artillerymen wrote many glorious and heroic pages in the history of Russia during the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. from the Anglo-French-Turkish invaders. In the battles for the city, Russian artillerymen proved not only their skill, but also their ingenuity, resourcefulness and heroism. On the bastions of the city and on Malakhov Kurgan, the invaders lost tens of thousands of soldiers and officers from artillery fire.

As you know, the Crimean War of 1853-1856. was the last to use smoothbore guns. These guns no longer met the requirements for artillery. A period of large-scale re-equipment of all the armies of the world with rifled guns began, after a short time, rapid-fire guns appeared. Russian inventors, designers and scientists have made a significant contribution to solving issues related to the creation of an improved material part of artillery, as well as the development of the basics of its combat use.

During the 19th century, quite a lot of major successes were achieved in the development and improvement of artillery science and technology. Russian mathematicians N. I. Lobachevsky, P. L. Chebyshev, M. V. Ostrogradsky introduced their revolutionary changes and innovations into artillery science. Based on their mathematical solutions, many issues related to internal and external ballistics, as well as artillery firing, were developed and resolved.

Fame and world recognition were awarded to Russian scientists - artillerymen N. A. Zabudsky and N. V. Maievsky. Their studies on the use of rifled guns, the flight of elongated projectiles, and on internal and external ballistics are classic works that most fully and originally represent the solution of problems of artillery technology and science. The works of N. A. Zabudsky and N. V. Maievsky were translated into foreign languages ​​and were highly appreciated by scientists from other countries.

It must be admitted that in Russia considerable attention was paid to the development of artillery, and scientists who invested a lot in the development of artillery. So, Professor A. V. Gadolin was able to solve the problem associated with an increase in the resistance of the gun barrel to the pressure of powder gases. The theory developed by A. V. Gadolin on the use of multi-layered barrels was used for a long period of time in the design of artillery systems.

At the end of the 18th century, field artillery was used by European armies in field battles, which was divided into battery (heavy, positional), linear or regimental and cavalry. The first included heavy field guns and acted in the interests of the entire army in the directions of the main attack, and was also used as the main artillery reserve of the commander in chief. Line artillery guns were lighter than battery guns and performed the task of providing fire support to tactical subunits and units in battle. Cavalry, which was more mobile than regimental and battery artillery due to additional pack strength and was intended for fire support of cavalry actions, for quick maneuver with wheels and fire, and also as an artillery reserve.

The field artillery was armed with field guns, regimental guns, and light howitzers. Also, the Russian army, and only it, was armed with a special kind of guns - unicorns, combining the qualities of guns and howitzers.

A cannon is an artillery piece designed to fire on a flat trajectory or direct fire.

Regimental guns had a caliber of 3-6 pounds (according to the weight of the cast-iron core, 1 pound - 409.51241), that is, the inner diameter of the barrel was 72-94 mm. Cannonballs were used as ammunition, the firing range of which reached 600-700 m. The fire was also fired with buckshot, while the firing range was 300-350 meters. The barrel was usually no longer than 12 gauge. The calculation of the gun could fire up to 3 rounds per minute (faster than the infantryman from a rifle, who could fire no more than two rounds per minute). There were usually 2, less often 4 guns per regiment.

Field guns had a caliber of 12 pounds on a cast-iron core, an internal diameter of the barrel was 120 millimeters, and a length of 12-18 calibers. The initial speed of the core reached 400 m / s, and the maximum range (estimated 2700 m) was within 800-1000 m due to the restriction of the elevation of the barrel. trajectory and direct fire.

Field and regimental guns were made of copper.

Howitzers are weapons designed to shoot at overhanging trajectories. In the field, light howitzers with a caliber of 7-10 pounds, or 100-125 millimeters, were used. In the Russian army, howitzers usually had a caliber of 12-18 pounds (up to 152 millimeters).

As ammunition for howitzers, cores, buckshot were less often used, more often grenades, brandskugels and bombs.

The most famous artillery piece that was in service with the Russian army of that time is the unicorn. It got its name from the mythical animal depicted on the coat of arms of the Counts Shuvalovs. Unicorns were designed by engineers M.V. Martynov and M.G. Danilov and adopted by the Russian army in 1757, under the administrative supervision of Feldzeugmeister General Count Shuvalov, as a universal weapon, which was a cross between a cannon and a howitzer. The barrel length of the unicorn was no more than 10-12 calibers. Of these, fire was fired both along gentle and overhanging trajectories, which made it possible to hit the enemy's manpower through the battle formations of their troops. For shooting from unicorns, the entire range of artillery ammunition was used. In the Russian field artillery, unicorns were armed with a caliber of 3 pounds, a quarter of a pood, a third of a pood, half a pood (1 pood - 16.380496 kg) by weight of a cast-iron core. The field army used copper guns.

Unlike other guns, unicorn dolphins (handles on the barrel) were cast in the shape of unicorns, the chamber (the volume for placing the charge) was 2 calibers long, had the shape of a truncated cone and a spherical bottom. The thickness of the walls of the breech is half a caliber, and the muzzle is a quarter of a caliber. The trunnions (the axis for attaching to the carriage) are significantly advanced forward, for the convenience of giving the necessary position to the barrel, for firing along overhanging trajectories.

What was the artillery ammunition of that era? The combat charge consisted of a projectile and a powder charge. Gunpowder was poured into a canvas bag called a cap. The amount of gunpowder regulated the firing range. In those days, the so-called black powder was used. It was a mixture, which included 30 parts of Bertolet salt, 4 parts of sulfur and 6 parts of coal.

The following were used as projectiles: the core - a monolithic cast-iron ball, with a diameter in accordance with the caliber of the gun, taking into account the gap; grenade - a hollow cast-iron ball, filled with powder and a grenade tube to ignite the contents of a grenade, weighing up to half a pood; a bomb, almost the same, but weighing a pood or more; buckshot, cast-iron round bullets (15 to 30 mm in diameter), which were placed in a tin cylinder with an iron pallet or tied with a cord into a dense consistency, also placed on an iron pallet; Brandskugel - an incendiary projectile, a cast-iron sphere with a combustible filling, with 5 holes for the flame to exit.

The core, as a rule, was sent along a gentle trajectory into the enemy’s battle formations so that, being reflected by a ricochet, it jumped on the ground for as long as possible and hit the enemy’s manpower. Frontal fire was fired at the columns and squares, and flank fire was fired at the lines.

Grenades and bombs fired concentrated fire along overhanging trajectories, with high density for the most effective destruction of enemy manpower.

Buckshot fire was carried out by direct fire or along a very gentle trajectory. After the shot, the bullets under the pressure of powder gases tore the cylinder (ligament cord) and scattered in a narrow, conical sector of about 17-20 degrees, providing a scattered defeat of manpower in this sector due to the high density of bullets. It was effectively used both against close combat formations of infantry and against cavalry at short distances (from 60 to 600 steps).

Artillery in the 18th century was used both for fire preparation of an offensive and in a defensive battle, and for fire support of its troops in an offensive. Supporting the attack of their infantry, the artillery moved with the forward lines of its battle formations and took up firing positions so that there were no own troops between the enemy and the gun barrels. In such a maneuver, mainly cannons were used, since howitzers were too heavy for this. And only the appearance of unicorns allowed artillery to more effectively support their infantry during the offensive and fire at the enemy, over the heads of the combat formations of their troops, remaining in the rear. In general, by the end of the 18th century, the evolution of smooth-bore artillery was completed and reached the peak of its development, both technically and tactically.

Already more than two thousand years ago there were throwing machines - the ancestors of modern guns. But they were so cumbersome that they were used mainly in the siege and defense of fortresses. And in those days, cities were fortresses, surrounded by high and thick stone walls and deep ditches.

The besieged were locked in the city. The besiegers, approaching the fortified city, tried to take the city by storm. Often they went on an attack at night, in order, taking advantage of the darkness, to quietly climb the walls of the city and suddenly attack the besieged.

Warriors, going on the attack, carried long ladders with them, put them against the walls and climbed up them.

If the besieged were vigilant, the attack most often failed; the besieged had a great advantage: they could hit the attackers, themselves remaining behind cover - under the protection of the battlements of the wall. While the attackers climbed the ladders, the besieged wasted no time throwing stones at them, bombarding them with arrows and spears, pouring boiling water and molten resin on them. Those who nevertheless reached the top of the wall were met with swords and pushed down.

Sometimes the besieger repeated the attack. But often the losses were so great that the commander of the attacking side did not dare to repeat the attack. And in fact, with the then means of attack, the stone walls made the city almost invulnerable: as long as they were intact, no army, even the largest and bravest, could capture the city. Therefore, most often the attacking side decided to proceed to the siege: to make gaps in the walls and break into the city through the gaps formed. Only in this case it was possible to take possession of the city.

Swords and spears cannot break through the walls. This required special machines. For many days, the attackers (11) pulled up their convoy to the besieged city - a string of wagons loaded with logs and other building materials or parts of throwing machines, which, due to their bulkiness, had to be transported disassembled. Then the carpenters set to work. Many days were spent building or assembling throwing machines.

Then, when the machines were ready, each of them had several warriors. They prepared the car for action. After a long tedious work, the machines were finally ready. Each car threw a log or a heavy stone block weighing 40–50 kilograms. Either stones or logs flew towards the besieged city. They hit the city wall with force, beat off piece by piece from it. Other stones, whistling over the wall, flew into the city. There they pierced the roofs of houses, killed people.

What were these throwing machines? How were they organized?

The throwing machine of antiquity can be compared with a slingshot - the same slingshot with which children throw pebbles for fun. But the old "slingshot" was so large that the logs for the construction of only one car were brought up on many wagons. Instead of a forked stick of a children's slingshot, strong, iron-bound, poles dug into the ground were placed. With the help of the gate, the warriors pulled back a thick rope attached to a heavy wooden block. The block pulled another rope behind it, tightly tied to two stakes. And these stakes were threaded into bundles of tightly twisted elastic ox intestines or sinews.

The block of the "slingshot", having pulled, was fixed with a hook and then "charged" with a heavy stone or log (Fig. 1); then extended the delay.

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Tightly twisted elastic bundles of ox intestines instantly untwisted, turning the stakes threaded through them. At the same time, the rope pulled the block forward, and it pushed the stone or log with force, and this “projectile” flew 200–300 meters.

Such was the ballista - the siege machine of antiquity. It was used by the Assyrians, followed by the Greeks, Romans and other peoples of antiquity.

There were siege machines and another type - catapults. The basis of this machine was a frame of thick ironed logs. Two thick posts with a crossbar resembled a gate. The lower end of the log, which served as a lever for throwing heavy stones, was threaded through tightly twisted ropes of ox intestines. The upper end of the lever was hollowed out like a spoon.

With the help of the gate, the lever was bent to the ground itself, “charged” with a stone and then released; elastic ropes instantly untwisted, while turning the lever. The upper end of the lever quickly rose and hit with great force on a strong crossbar - a stone projectile flew out of the "spoon" (Fig. 2). The force of the push was so great that the stone flew several hundred meters.

While the “bombardment” was going on, the besiegers brought heaps of earth to the city wall and filled up the ditch in front of the city. The besieged threw stones from the wall onto the heads of the workers and poured molten resin on top of them; but the attackers took refuge in specially constructed sheds on wheels and in long ditches covered with logs and did not interrupt the work. Sooner or later, the attackers managed to build a mound a hundred meters long and twenty meters wide. For a long time, exhausted, warriors and slaves dragged huge siege towers along the embankment on skating rinks. Each tower had five to eight floors.

As soon as the tower came close to the city wall, the soldiers who were on the lower floor of the tower began to swing the heavy log; hanging on chains, and, swinging, they hit the wall with a heavy metal tip, put on a log. (13)

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So the ram began its work. He had to gouge the wall until he broke through it.

The besieged tried to set fire to the siege towers by pouring burning tar from the walls of the city. Sometimes they succeeded. And then the besiegers had to build new siege towers. However, in ancient times they knew how to protect the siege tower from being destroyed by fire: the tower was upholstered on three sides with sheets of iron or copper, and then it was difficult to light it. In addition, light ballistas and catapults stood on the upper platforms of the towers - small copies of their heavy "sisters" (Fig. 3). This "light artillery" fired inner part besieged city.

Such a siege usually dragged on for weeks, or even months. Life in the city became unbearable: one after another, stones flew and destroyed houses; the inhabitants of the city experienced deprivation due to lack of food; often the besiegers built dams to divert water from the besieged city.

Meanwhile, the city wall gradually succumbed to the blows of battering rams.

Finally, the commander of the attacking side appointed a decisive assault. By this time, a new surprise was being prepared: leaving behind a smoky trail, flaming barrels of tar thrown out by catapults, the “incendiary shells” of antiquity, rushed into the city, and to top off all the troubles, a fire started in the besieged city.

The next volleys showered the city with hundreds of heavy stones. And at this time, the besiegers with loud cries rushed to storm, climbed onto the walls of the city from the siege towers and the assault ladders.

And if the besieged could not stand it, then the attackers took possession of the city. However, the battle usually continued inside the city: its inhabitants knew that slavery or death awaited them, and they tried to sell their freedom or life at a higher price.

Throwing machines were also used in ancient Russia. It is known, for example, that the Kyiv Grand Duke Oleg used throwing machines in 907 when taking Constantinople, and the Grand Duke Svyatoslav in 971 repulsed the repeated attacks of the Greeks with arrows and stones from throwing machines, who sought to take the city of Dorostol (now the Bulgarian city of Silistra on the Danube) by attack.

"THATTING SAMOPAL"

Many centuries passed before the methods of siege and defense of fortresses changed. The 14th century brought innovations in this matter. In this century, for the first time, an unprecedented machine appeared on the walls of the city: this machine had neither a winch nor heavy levers; dozens of carpenters did not bother over its construction. A long pipe, a stand - that's the whole thing (Fig. 4). Something was put in the pipe. Then a tashek came up to the pipe - only one person! He didn't pull any ropes; he (15) brought a red-hot iron rod to the chimney, and suddenly thunder was heard, flame and smoke flew out of the chimney, and an iron ball flew at the advancing ones.

“No other than witchcraft,” superstitious people thought in dismay: “what pushes the core if there are no levers in the machine? Probably the devil! Well, how to deal with the power of the devil?!”

And the soldiers, who first encountered the new weapon, fled in horror. There were cases that we find funny. For example, during the siege by the Spaniards of the city of Algeziras, which at that time was owned by the Arabs, the Catholic priests tried to drive away the "evil spirits" from the walls of the city with a prayer, waved a cross at the city walls, sprinkled them with "holy water", and only after that the Spanish soldiers decided to go again for an attack. But the "evil spirits" were not afraid of prayer and the cross. Again, the “sorcerers” approached the cars, each of them brought a red-hot iron rod to the pipe, again smoke and fire burst out of the pipes with thunder, cannonballs flew at the attackers and killed some of the Spanish soldiers. The Spaniards did not dare to fight with an unknown force: (16) the royal soldiers retreated from the city, and no more force could force them to attack again.

After this incident, alarming news spread throughout Europe about "an unknown force that throws cannonballs with noise and thunder, with smoke and fire, knows no mercy and is not even afraid of the cross." The Catholic Church was quick to publicly curse this new "devil" weapon.

But merchants - experienced people who traveled to many countries - explained to their fellow citizens: there is no devilry here; the Chinese have long known that if you mix saltpeter with coal and bring fire to the mixture, the mixture will flare up and quickly burn out, giving a lot of smoke; the Chinese have been making this mixture for a long time and burning it on holidays for fun, and the militant Arabs locked the explosive mixture in a pipe and made it work in the war - to push the cannonball.

Little by little, European masters began to master new weapons.

WEAPONS DANGEROUS TO YOUR TROOPS

But for a long time, the new weapon remained very imperfect. When they began to besiege the city, along with firearms, they also brought old throwing machines, familiar from ancient times, to the walls. For example, in the 15th century, such a spectacle could be observed during the siege of the city.

Not far from the wall of the besieged city stands a clumsy “frondibola” throwing machine (Fig. 5). She looks like a crane (17) of a village well. On the short shoulder of the "crane" is a heavy load. Several people work for a long time to raise it as high as possible. And on the long shoulder, a stone is laid in a loop. Then the "crane" is released. The load quickly pulls its short end down. The long arm, instantly rising, throws the stone steeply upwards. The Frondibola was even more cumbersome and clumsy than the ancient catapults and ballistas; moreover, she was weaker than them and could throw stones of 20 kilograms, only 150 meters.

And not far from the frondibola there is a firearm - a bombard (Fig. 6). This is a thick and heavy iron pipe, welded from iron strips and fastened with iron hoops stuffed on it. The barrel of the bombard is riveted to a wooden block with the same iron strips. The attached bottom of the pipe has a recess. This recess is filled with sticky powder pulp. Then they charge the bombard with a stone core and put the bottom on it. The gap between the pipe and its bottom is covered with clay. Then they fasten the bottom of the bombard with a pipe using a valve, and back the bottom with logs so that it does not vomit when fired. Finally, a long wick is inserted into the hole in the bottom and set on fire with a red-hot iron rod.

Every now and then various "trouble" happened to the bombards: their iron walls were fragile. First one, then another bombard exploded; while she burned, wounded and killed others.

The warriors were afraid, shunned new weapons. They said that it is more dangerous for their troops than for the enemy. Whether business old cars! True, there is no smoke and thunder from them, but soon everyone (18) got used to the smoke and thunder, and this could no longer frighten anyone. And working with old machines was easier and safer.

“Let the craftsmen who make such fragile bombards themselves shoot from their products,” the soldiers said.

And the craftsmen themselves had to fiddle with their brainchildren: they spent hours directing bombards, then taking out, then placing wooden wedges in order to lower or raise the barrel. With a yardstick, and often just by eye, they measured the charge of gunpowder, then reducing it, then increasing it.

Finally, the master set fire to the wick, and he himself hid in a hole away from the gun.

This also served as a signal to the besieged: they also hid behind the stone battlements of the wall, and the ball did not cause them much harm. Sometimes, before a shot, they prayed that the shot would go off safely and the gun would not explode.

In 1453, when the Turks besieged Byzantium, the pride of the Turkish camp was a large mortar; she threw out stone balls weighing 400 kilograms.

Falling at high speed, this heavy core half went into the ground. But it was often impossible to shoot with such cannonballs: there were so many carts with a mortar that it fired only seven shots a day. Finally, she was torn apart. By the day of the attack, the Turks were left with some old throwing machines; almost all of their firearms exploded. The attack was carried out in the old way: thousands of people climbed the walls. But the Turks had 50 warriors for one Byzantine, ”and this decided the outcome of the matter. Byzantium was taken.

No better than the Turks did with the new weapons and the peoples of Western Europe. It seemed that firearms, so fragile and capricious, could not stand the competition with the old ones. After all, safe-to-handle machines with a counterweight throw stones no worse than bombards.

Among the commanders there were disputes about which weapons are better: old or new. And the majority was inclined to believe that the old ones are better.

But in 1494 an event occurred that put an end to the controversy. The young French king Charles VIII was preparing to march to Italy in order to claim his hereditary rights to Naples. Rights had to be backed up by force. And Karl gathered many guns with his thirty thousandth army. There were falconets - light guns that fired cannonballs the size of an orange, and cannons of the "main park" that fired cannonballs the size of a human head.

With this artillery, Charles VIII entered Italy. The troops of local feudal lords came out to meet him. The knights were chained in iron armor. But in the very first battle, the falconets pelted the proud knights with bile "oranges", which easily pierced the knight's armor.

The knights took refuge behind the stone walls of "impregnable" castles. However, the cores of the "main park" guns destroyed the gates and walls of these (19) castles (Fig. 7). Soon Florence, Rome and Naples were in the hands of the conqueror.

News spread throughout Western Europe of a new amazing means of facilitating victory. The old talk that firearms are more dangerous to friendly troops than to the enemy has ceased. Now every city, every king tried to get more firearms, but those that were better and stronger. But still, many more decades passed after these events, until artillery became a full-fledged branch of the armed forces.

THE FIRST FIREARMS IN RUSSIA

This was the case in Western Europe. But such an attitude was not met by our ancestors, the Muscovites: they immediately realized how much this weapon could help in the age-old struggle of the Russian people with its many enemies, and began to improve it.

There is no reliable information about when firearms first appeared in Russia; during the years of the Tatar yoke, many monuments of Russian literature perished: many manuscripts burned down (20) in the cities burned by the Tatars during their countless raids. For a long time it was believed that Russian artillery was born in 1389: this year is the entry in one of the surviving chronicles, the so-called "Golitsyn", that "Armata and fire firing" were brought to Russia, and from that, they say, the hour was understood as from shoot them. In 1889, the 500th anniversary of Russian artillery was even solemnly celebrated. But Soviet scientists, studying ancient manuscripts, found in the annals other, earlier records about firearms, which, it turns out, existed in Russia even before 1389. For example, in the Novgorod chronicle for 1382, the names of the then firearms are mentioned: “mattresses”, “launchers” and “cannons”. And in another chronicle - "Aleksandrovskaya" - in the same 1382, it is described how Muscovites defended their hometown from the raid of the Tatar Khan Tokhtamysh, and the same firearms are mentioned as in the Novgorod chronicle.

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Moscow citizens, the chronicle says, resisting the Tatars, some fired arrows, others threw stones at the Tatars, and others “pushed mattresses on them, and others crossbows ... and other great cannons pushed them” (Fig. 8). After reading these words, do not think that the Muscovites threw cannons at the Tatars; this ancient turn of speech should be translated into modern Russian as follows: “They fired (shot) at them from mattresses, others from crossbows ... and others fired from the largest cannons” (a short firearm was called a mattress in those days). This means that in 1382 cannons and other firearms were already known and used (and not just appeared) both in Moscow and Novgorod.

All these testimonies of the chroniclers speak of one thing: in the second half of the 14th century, various firearms were already used in Russia, and moreover, they were no longer a novelty. So, despite the Tatar yoke that weighed on our homeland, the Russian people learned how to make and use firearms no later than the Western European peoples, and possibly even earlier. Muscovites also knew how to make gunpowder; from the annals it is known that in 1400 there was a major fire due to careless handling of gunpowder: “Moscow is on fire from gunpowder,” the chronicler notes.

CANNON YARD

Brief entries in ancient Russian chronicles; but when you think over their meaning, you are amazed at the intelligence and insight of our ancestors.

The annals say that in 1480 in Moscow, on the banks of the Neglinka River, the Cannon Yard was built.

What is the meaning of this entry?

In Western Europe, firearms became generally recognized only at the very end of the 15th century. But for a long time - for two and a half centuries - the handicraft of Western European masters hampered the development of artillery. Each master made tools as he wanted and as best he could, kept secret the secrets of his production and only before his death passed them on to his sons or apprentices-apprentices. There were no calculations, rules, strength standards, everything was done by eye. Therefore, the guns often exploded, killing those who worked near them. Each gun was one of a kind: it had its own length, its own caliber; the shells of one gun did not fit the other.

It often happened like this: there are a lot of shells, but they cannot be used, because the gun for which these shells were made is knocked out or deteriorated, and these shells are not suitable for other guns.

All this was very inconvenient.

But in the 15th century, the idea that the shells of one gun should be suitable for another did not occur to the craftsmen who were used to working by eye, did not recognize measurements and rules, even the caliber of the gun (22) was determined only approximately; for example, it was said that the gun fired shells "the size of an apple", or shells "the size of a child's head", or shells "the size of an adult's head".

To streamline the work of the masters, to bring it into a certain system, to force the masters to produce not what each of them wants, but what the troops need - such was the urgent task of that time. It was very important to accumulate experience in the manufacture of tools and, on the basis of this experience, improve production. All this was easier and easier to do at the factory than in a handicraft workshop.

The cannon yard of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III turned out to be the first gun factory in Europe and in the world: the craftsmen made guns there under the supervision of grand ducal, and later royal clerks (that is, officials). And this Cannon Yard was founded, built in the manner of a fortress on the banks of the Neglinka River, in 1480 (Fig. 9), when heated debates were still going on in Western Europe, which weapon is better: new - firearms, or old - bows with arrows, throwing cars. This means that the Muscovites were much more far-sighted than the French, Germans, and British, and were better able to organize (23) the production of guns. Of course, the technique of making guns at the Cannon Yard could not immediately be far ahead of the technique of the handicraftsmen, because the experience had not yet been generalized, there was no artillery science yet. The creation of the Cannon Yard ensured the accumulation and generalization of experience and a relatively rapid improvement in the production of guns.

Therefore, Russian artillery began to develop rapidly in its own, original way; it soon became the most advanced and most powerful. It was the creation of the Cannon Yard that marked the beginning of its rapid improvement.

In the wars that Ivan III waged with the Livonian knights and with the Polish invader pans for the unification of the national Russian state, artillery contributed to the victories of the Russian troops. Her successful actions in the battle on the Vedrosha River on July 14, 1500 are especially known.

The rapid development and improvement of artillery in the Russian state led to the fact that in Russia, earlier than in any other country, artillery became an independent branch of the army: in 1547, gunners were separated from the archers and a special Pushkar order was created (in modern - ministry). All this was done at a time when in Western Europe artillery was not yet a separate branch of the armed forces, artillerymen were not considered soldiers, but masters of a special workshop and guns were serviced even in battle by civilian craftsmen, who were hired only for the duration of the war. Only half a century later, events similar to those that had already been held in Russia began to be held in Western Europe.

ARTILLERY OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE

In 1480, under Ivan III, Russia finally overthrew the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

However, the predatory raids of the Crimean and Kazan Tatars continued. The raids of the Kazan khans were especially frequent and fierce.

The capital of the Kazan kingdom - the city of Kazan - was turned by the Tatar khans into a powerful fortress, which was reputed to be impregnable at that time. This fortress served the Tatar khans as a base for their predatory raids on the eastern and even on the central regions of the Muscovite state.

Russian people could not calmly engage in peaceful labor as long as the khan's robber nest existed at the very borders of the Moscow kingdom: the blood of peaceful Russian people continued to flow, as before, the khans drove women and men into slavery.

It was necessary to destroy this constant threat to the peaceful existence of the Russian state.

This is what Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible decided to do. (24)

Already under Ivan the Terrible, Russian artillery became the most numerous in the world: it included more than 2,000 guns, including many heavy ones. This was a very large number for that time: even 250 years later, in the battle of Napoleon's army in Borodino, there were only 587 guns.

Russian artillery showed its formidable strength in the capture of Kazan. When the army of Ivan the Terrible, which was sent to Kazan, there were several hundred guns of various calibers. But the ancient guns, especially those of large calibers, were too heavy; many horses and oxen were required to transport them, especially since there were no good roads in the 16th century.

It was not easy to make a long journey from Moscow to Kazan with a large number of heavy guns, so Ivan the Terrible sent the heaviest siege artillery, the so-called "big outfit", near Kazan by water. About 150 siege weapons were loaded onto barges, and on May 21, 1552, the caravan set sail from Moscow.

He sailed to Kazan down the rivers Moscow, Oka and Volga, partly on oars, partly on sails, for about three months. Finally, the "big outfit" sailed to Kazan. The gunners reloaded the dismantled guns from barges onto carts and, with difficulty overcoming impassability, brought them to the walls of the fortress.

By the evening of August 23, 1552, Russian troops, after a series of fierce battles with the Tatars, surrounded the city of Kazan. The Tatars stubbornly resisted. However, having been defeated during several sorties, they stopped their attacks on the Russian troops and took refuge behind the strong walls of the city. The troops of the Tatar commander Yapanchi, who were operating outside the fortress, were also defeated and driven back from Kazan. After the defeat of the Tatar field troops, Ivan the Terrible began the siege of the fortress.

By August 29, a week after the siege began, Russian troops had built numerous siege works around Kazan. Some of these structures were located 100 meters from the moat, and later were moved close to it. 150 heavy guns of Ivan the Terrible, sailed from Moscow on barges, could now open strong and well-aimed fire on the besieged fortress (Fig. 10).

Soon the Russian gunners silenced almost the entire Tatar fortress artillery.

On the main direction of the upcoming assault, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a solid wooden tower that would be higher than the Kazan city walls. Soon a tower 13 meters high was built. It was equipped with 50 light artillery pieces (“gakovnits”) and 10 heavy ones; to ensure the operation of this artillery, archers were also placed on the tower. Hundreds of people dragged the tower with the help of blocks along the flooring of logs to the wall of the fortress by means of long ropes. So that the besieged could not prevent this, the Russian artillery fired (25) heavy fire on the entire sector of the main direction of the assault. When the tower came close to the city wall, the Russian gunners opened fire from it on the city and along the city walls.

While this bombardment was going on, the royal "reasons" (engineers) were digging under the walls of the fortress; large charges of gunpowder were placed in these tunnels in order to blow up the walls and make breaches in them.

In many places the fortress walls were destroyed by the fire of heavy guns; in addition, as a result of explosions, breaches were formed in the walls. Only after that the archery regiments went on the attack.

When the two columns of Russian troops, which were delivering the main blow, broke into the city through gaps in the fortress wall and hand-to-hand combat began in the streets, heavy artillery stopped firing so as not to hit their archers. Now only small cannons attached to the archery regiments could continue their combat work; they were moved on their hands following the archers who stormed the fortress. These light "regimental" guns smashed strong gates behind which the enemy was hiding, punched holes in the walls of houses, where he defended himself especially stubbornly.

In hand-to-hand combat, along with edged weapons, hand-held firearms were used, from which they fired almost point-blank. (26)

After a long bloody battle inside the city, the fierce resistance of the fortress defenders was broken. Kazan was taken, the khan's nest of robbers was destroyed, peaceful labor in the eastern Russian regions was ensured.

It was an unprecedented success for those times; it was prepared by the successful actions of numerous Russian heavy and light artillery, which provided great assistance to the besieging Russian troops.

Russian artillery showed in the battles near Kazan unprecedented combat power and high art of shooting in those days.

The artillery of Ivan the Terrible also successfully operated during the siege of the city of Derpt by the Russian army in 1558, as well as during the capture of the fortresses of Marienburg and Fellin in 1560, during the Livonian War.

Ivan the Terrible also significantly improved the organization of artillery. Before going to Kazan, he introduced regimental artillery for the first time in the world: he gave each streltsy regiment several light cannons, which were supposed to accompany their regiment everywhere, constantly acting with it.

Bourgeois historians claim that regimental artillery was allegedly introduced for the first time by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648); but this is not true, since Ivan the Terrible introduced regimental artillery to the archery regiments 70 years earlier.

RUSSIAN MASTERS

In the XV and XVI centuries wonderful cannon craftsmen already worked in Russia. Many of them remained unknown; only ancient Russian tools that have survived to this day speak of their art. History has preserved, however, the memory of the outstanding master Andrei Chekhov. He lived under Ivan the Terrible and his successors, worked in Moscow at the Cannon Yard and cast many wonderful guns. The most famous of them is the Tsar Cannon, which has survived to this day and now stands in the Kremlin. It was cast in 1586.

Western European masters gave great importance ostentatious, external side of the case; they tried to make the tool (27) more terrible in appearance. To do this, for example, they braided the siege tower with willow rods, attached wings to it, painted it so that it looked like a fairy-tale monster, and placed small, weak weapons on the tower. Such was the "Aspid-dragon", depicted in fig. eleven.

Foreign craftsmen, of course, improved the design of guns: they made the bombard lighter, put it on an oak machine, attached wheels to it; aiming the gun became more convenient. Instead of welding tools from iron strips, they began to cast them from bronze; the strength of gun barrels from this has increased significantly.

Russian masters not only did not lag behind the Western European ones, but were ahead of them. The thought of our masters worked mainly on the fundamental improvement of guns: Russian gunners thought about how it would be more convenient to load the gun, how to make the projectile fly farther. In addition, casting tools from bronze, they took care not only of the correct shape of the tool, but also of the beauty of its external decoration. Take a look at how beautifully made the trunk of the Russian "gafunica" of the 17th century (Fig. 12).

How was the gun loaded in those days? The gun had no shutter. Pushkar stood in front of the gun with his back to the enemy, first put a charge of gunpowder into the gun and stuffed it with a felt wad, and then put the shell in. After that, the gun was aimed at the target. (28)

Then, a small amount of gunpowder was poured onto a special platform on the gun barrel, which was called a shelf. A burning wick, mounted on a long handle, was brought to this gunpowder. The gunpowder on the shelf caught fire, and through the ignition hole drilled in the barrel wall, the fire was transmitted to the warhead. There was a shot. The core flew forward, and the gun, due to recoil, rolled back a few steps.

After the shot, the gunners manually rolled the gun back to its original place, washed the bore of the gun with water using a bannik - a large round brush mounted on a long shaft. To do this, you again had to stand with your back to the enemy. Only by “piercing” the barrel, that is, by cleaning it of unburned particles of gunpowder, soot and dirt, could the gun be loaded again.

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At the beginning of the 17th century, Russian craftsmen created tools with bolts: a squeaker (cannon) with a retractable wedge-shaped breech and another squeaker with a screw-in breech - the prototype of the modern piston breech (Fig. 13 and 14).

Guns with bolts could be loaded and banged without standing in front of the gun with your back to the enemy.

The wedge-action arquebus is also remarkable in another respect: it is the world's first rifled gun designed to fire oblong projectiles.

With the weak technology of that time, it was impossible to master these wonderful inventions and organize the mass production of rifled guns with bolts. The bold ideas of Russian masters have found a mass practical use only two and a half centuries later.

RUSSIAN ARTILLERY IN THE 17TH CENTURY

In the 17th century, the Russian state had to wage many wars. And in these wars, Russian artillery showed its high fighting qualities.

In 1605, for the first time in military history, the outcome of the battle near Drbrynich with the interventionists - the Polish gentry - was decided in favor of the Russians exclusively by the fire of Russian artillery from cannons and the fire of archers from self-propelled guns, without the usual hand-to-hand combat in those days.

In 1608, the three thousandth Russian garrison of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (now the city of Zagorsk, Moscow Region), skillfully using their strong artillery and self-propelled guns, successfully repulsed the attacks of the thirty thousandth army of the Polish interventionists Sapieha and Lisovsky for 16 months.

In 1610-1611, a small Russian garrison, headed by voivode Shein, heroically defended the city of Smolensk against the troops of the Polish king Sigismund, skillfully using their artillery.

Artillery was successfully used in 1611 in the battles of the Moscow rebels who fought on the streets of Moscow under the leadership of Dmitry Pozharsky against the Polish invaders.

Artillery was of great help to the Russian troops during their capture of Smolensk, Orsha and a number of other cities temporarily captured by the Polish invaders.

At the beginning of his reign, Peter I waged war with Turkey, and in 1696 he took the Turkish fortress of Azov with significant help from his artillery.

All these facts indicate that throughout the entire 17th century, Russian artillery had great advantages over the artillery of other states.

But with the help of this artillery, which retained an obsolete organization, it was no longer possible to solve those huge tasks that faced (30) the Russian army in the stormy era of Peter the Great. New tasks required a new organization and further technical improvement of Russian artillery. Both were carried out by Peter I.

PETROVSKAYA ARTILLERY

Russian artillery reached a new heyday at the beginning of the 18th century under Peter I, who paid much attention to improving artillery. Back in 1695, he established a bombardment company under the Preobrazhensky Regiment, consisting of four guns and six mortars. Peter I himself was the captain of this company for ten years and liked to sign his letters: "Bombardier Peter."

At the beginning of the 18th century (from 1700 to 1721), Russia waged war with Sweden for the return of lands along the coast of the Baltic Sea that had long belonged to the Russian state; these lands were captured by the Swedes during the Polish-Swedish intervention at the beginning of the 17th century.

By the beginning of this war, which went down in history under the name of the Northern War, Peter I's concerns about the improvement of Russian artillery had not yet had time to give decisive results.

At the very beginning of the war, in 1700, forty thousandth Russian army moved to Narva, which was then owned by the Swedes. When the army was 180 guns, most of the old, delivered from the nearest Russian fortresses - Pskov and Novgorod. Made in different years by different craftsmen, these guns were of different calibers. About 20 thousand cannonballs and bombs were brought near Narva for Russian artillery, but of them no more than one third turned out to be suitable; the rest either did not enter the gun barrels at all or entered too freely and were not suitable for firing. Many guns had to be silent during the siege, because of all the cannonballs and bombs brought in, not a single suitable one was found for them. But even this old, different-caliber artillery still managed to make breaches in the Narva fortress wall.

However, this time the Russian troops failed to take Narva: Peter I left Narva for Novgorod in order to hasten the delivery of ammunition, and at that time, the Swedish king arrived in time to rescue the besieged Narva with his army, which was considered the best in Europe at that time. Charles XII.

During the absence of Peter I, the mercenary foreign general de Croa commanded the Russian troops. He turned out to be a traitor: as soon as Charles XII attacked the Russian troops, de Croa and some other foreign officers went over to the side of the Swedes. Russian troops, not controlled by anyone, could not withstand the attacks of the Swedes and began to retreat. Heavy siege artillery did not have time to take away, and it went to the Swedes.

Only two new regiments created by Peter I - Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky - and Peter's "bomber company" did not flinch and did not get confused, repulsed the attacks of the Swedes and only after that they retreated in full (31) order to the location of the military convoy; there they fenced off wagons. The bombardiers dragged their guns there on their own and placed them between the wagons. The Swedes were stopped.

To break the resistance of the Russians, Karl galloped to the place where the new Peter's regiments were staunchly defending themselves. He encouraged the Swedish soldiers and himself led them into a new attack. But the Preobrazhenians and Semenovtsy held firm, and the Petrovsky bombardiers hit the enemy at point-blank range with cannonballs and buckshot. The horse under Karl was killed by a cannonball; The king fell to the ground...

Evening came. The battle has stopped. Preobrazhentsy, Semyonovtsy and Petrovsky bombardiers defended their position until the end of the battle and retained their guns.

At night, they retreated in perfect order towards Novgorod.

After the unsuccessful battle near Narva, Peter I set about creating new Russian artillery with great energy. It took a lot of bronze to cast new gun barrels, and there was nowhere to get it in a short time. Peter I ordered to remove some of the bells from the churches in order to pour them into cannons and mortars. Already in 1701 it was possible to collect about 180 tons of bronze.

The era of rapid development and improvement of artillery began.

Peter I forced 250 young people to study literacy and mathematics so that they could become knowledgeable artillerymen.

Peter I ordered his craftsmen to make samples of guns. Samples have been prepared. But it turned out that some of the guns turned out to be powerful, but very heavy; others pleased with their light weight, but their power turned out to be small.

Peter I really wanted to have tools that would be both powerful and mobile at the same time. But then it was unattainable.

Peter I found a way out of this predicament: he divided all artillery into four types. He understood that for the siege and for the defense of fortresses one must have very powerful artillery. But this artillery usually has little to move; so her weapons can be heavy. Thus, siege and garrison (fortress) artillery was created.

For battles in the open field, Peter I formed a special field and regimental artillery. From guns of these types, he demanded, first of all, ease and convenience of transportation: field and even more so regimental artillery had to keep up with the infantry everywhere (Fig. 15).

Peter I created even more mobile artillery - horse. In horse artillery, all the soldiers who served the guns did not sit on gun carriages and did not walk on foot, as in foot artillery, but were mounted. Therefore, horse artillery moved especially quickly.

This division of artillery into types was an innovation; in no army of foreign states did artillery have such a clear (32) organization. After 50 years, the Prussian king Frederick II borrowed this organization from the Russians, and even later it was introduced in other Western European armies.

But Peter I did not limit himself to the creation of various types of artillery, more was needed; to get rid of the excessive diversity and diversity of guns that brought such great harm in the battle of Narva. The lack of a single caliber of guns was their biggest drawback. Each gun could only fire shells that were made specifically for it. If these shells were not enough, then the gun fell silent, ceased fire, even if the neighboring gun had mountains of shells. Due to the difference in calibers, it was impossible to transfer shells from one gun to another, and this introduced confusion and made it very difficult to supply artillery with shells. As long as there was only handicraft production, it was very difficult to deal with diversity - "every fellow" prepared tools "on his own model." In addition, the diversity in artillery increased as a result of the use of various captured guns.

But during the time of Peter 1, new opportunities in production already appeared. By order of Peter I, state-owned cannon factories were created, where the division of labor according to specialties was introduced. Some masters were specialists in barrel casting, others were engaged in grinding, and still others were finishing. This made it possible to manufacture more uniform guns, since the factory prepared not one, but a large number of guns at once.

Peter I introduced certain calibers for each type of artillery, as well as the established weight of guns and shells.

So Peter I created a new artillery, better organized than in any other army. (33)

And the Russian artillery, armed with new guns and organized in a new way, in the very first battles with the Swedes showed its increased power and its superiority over the Swedish artillery, which until then had not been equal in Western Europe.

Already in 1701, 268 guns were cast from bell bronze. New guns immediately showed themselves in practice.

On December 29, 170, a battle took place between the Russian troops and the Swedish corps near Erestfer. The Russian artillery played the main role in this battle. When the Swedes began to press the Russian infantry, the bombardier Vasily Korchmin, who commanded the artillery of the Russian detachment, put his gunners on horseback, rushed to the battlefield with guns and ordered them to immediately open fire on the Swedes with grapeshot. By this he, as Peter I wrote, "led the enemy into embarrassment." The "confusion" was fair: from the seven thousandth Swedish corps, about 3 thousand people were killed and wounded, 350 Swedes surrendered, 4 Swedish guns and 8 banners were captured.

In June 1702, in the battle of Hummelshof, the new Russian artillery again distinguished itself: quickly taking up positions, it opened well-aimed fire on the columns of Swedish troops, which had not yet had time to turn into battle formation. The fight was short. Swedish infantry in the amount of 2000 people was destroyed mainly by artillery fire. The Swedish cavalry fled in panic. 300 surviving Swedes surrendered. All the banners and all the artillery of the Swedish detachment fell into the hands of the Russians.

These first victories showed that the Russian troops had learned to beat the Swedes, whom until then all of Europe had considered invincible. After these victories, the Russian troops took more serious action.

In the autumn of 1702, they laid siege to the Swedish fortress Noteburg in the upper reaches of the Neva River; in the old days, this fortress belonged to the Russians and was called Oreshek (later Shlisselburg, and now Petrokrepost), Noteburg was surrounded by high stone walls, on which 145 guns were placed.

On October 1, Russian siege batteries opened fire on the fortress. The Swedes answered. The fierce artillery battle continued for days. Peter I personally led the bombardment as a "captain of the bombardment company" (Fig. 16). Russian artillery fired more than 9 thousand shells at the fortress and made breaches in the walls in several places. On October 11, the fortress was stormed. The Swedes desperately resisted, the battle lasted 13 hours. But still the fortress was taken.

Peter I wrote on this occasion: “This nut was very (very) hard, however, it was happily gnawed. Our artillery has done a wonderful job of correcting its work.”

At the mouth of the Neva, not far from the place where Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedish invaders in 1240, the Swedes built the Nyenschanz fortress. (34)

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Peter I decided to take it in the spring of 1703. On April 26, Russian siege artillery approached the fortress. By the same time, Peter I arrived in the army. By April 30, siege artillery was installed in positions and opened fire on Nyenschantz. The heavy bombardment continued throughout the night. A bomb fired from a Russian mortar hit a Swedish powder magazine. There was a terrible explosion. The Swedes were left without gunpowder. Early in the morning the Swedish fortress surrendered.

Not far from this place, on May 22, 1703, Peter I founded the Peter and Paul Fortress on one of the Neva Islands, and on May 27 laid the foundation for the city of Petersburg (now Leningrad).

With the capture of Nyenschantz, the Neva was cleared of the Swedes. In 1704, the turn of Narva came, which Peter I failed to take in 1700.

The bombardment of Narva continued uninterruptedly for 10 days. 12358 cores and 5714 mortar bombs were fired at the fortress; 10,000 poods of gunpowder were used for the bombardment. The walls of the fortress were destroyed in many places. On August 9, the assault took place; the Swedes desperately resisted, but still the fortress fell. Among the trophies, the Russians got 423 guns.

All these victories of the Russian troops were at the same time major successes for the new Russian artillery.

But the main forces of the Swedes, led by King Charles XII, who was known as an outstanding commander, did not yet participate in all these battles: after the battle of Narva in 1700, Charles went with his army to Poland and waged war there with the Polish king Augustus, an ally of Peter I. Charles operated successfully in Poland, and his field army continued to be considered invincible. Her glory was buried later - in the battles near Lesnaya to Poltava.

The famous Battle of Poltava began at 2 am on June 27, 1709, when columns of Swedish troops moved from their camp near Poltava. They unexpectedly stumbled upon advanced fortifications - redoubts erected by the army of Peter I, which came to the rescue of Poltava besieged by the enemy. The Swedes attacked these redoubts from the move; but the cross artillery and rifle fire of the Russians, their attack was repulsed. Then the Swedes rushed into the gaps between the redoubts and slipped into the clearing in front of the fortified Russian camp. As a result, their battle formation was cut into pieces. In addition, the Swedes, moving forward, exposed their right flank to the fire of Russian artillery. The buckshot of Russian cannons began to mow down the ranks of the Swedish infantry. One of the very first volleys killed 2 Swedish generals. The Swedes suffered heavy losses, could not stand it and fled in disorder towards the distant forest. There, under the cover of his cavalry, Karl began (to put the infantry in order.

Meanwhile, Peter I withdrew his troops from the camp. He lined up the regiments in order of battle. In front of the infantry, he placed artillery. (36)

At 9 o'clock in the morning, both armies, built one against the other, went on the offensive and soon approached at a distance of a cannon shot (600 meters). Then the Russian gunners opened heavy fire with cores from 70 guns (Fig. 17). The Swedes answered, but only 4 guns could fire from them: the rest of the guns had no ammunition. This happened because in September 1708, Russian troops destroyed the Swedish auxiliary corps of Levengaupt in Belarus near the village of Lesnoy, which was carrying shells and gunpowder for the Swedish army stationed in Ukraine. In the battle near the village of Lesnoy, all the artillery of the Swedes and their entire convoy with ammunition fell into the hands of the Russians.

Russian artillery inflicted heavy losses on the Swedes. The Swedes quickened their pace in order to quickly converge on the distance of rifle fire. The Russians moved forward. Hand-to-hand combat soon broke out; the Swedes mixed with the Russians, and the Russian artillery had to shift their fire to the second line of Swedish troops, built behind the first line. Russian cannonballs twice smashed the stretcher, on which was wounded even before the "general battle" Karl. Swedish troops of the second line suffered heavy losses from Russian artillery fire; this prevented them from assisting their front line troops.

The fierce battle ended after Menshikov's cavalry hit the right flank of the Swedes, crushed the Swedish cavalry, and then the infantry. At 11 o'clock in the morning began a disorderly retreat of the Swedish army, which soon turned into a rout. But the flight did not save (37) the remnants of the Swedish army; soon they were forced to surrender to the Russians.

Only Charles managed to ride away with a few close associates.

The Russians lost 1,345 killed and 3,290 wounded in this battle. The Swedes lost only 9334 people killed. The Russians got all the Swedish banners and all the guns - 32 guns. Russian artillery earned unfading glory in the Battle of Poltava.

The battle of Poltava ensured the successful completion of the war for Russia; and the former power of warlike Sweden finally collapsed, and it turned into a secondary power.

After the end of the Northern War, Peter I did not stop paying great attention to artillery, introducing new improvements into it.

"UNICORN" UNDER KUNNERSDORF

The Seven Years' War was in its fourth year.

The Prussian king Frederick II, in alliance with the British, led her against the Russians, French and Austrians.

In the spring of 1759, the Russian army launched an offensive against Prussia. This army was commanded by Field Marshal Saltykov.

Having defeated the Prussian corps of General Wedel near Palzig on July 12, Saltykov in early August reached the Oder River near the city of Frankfurt, located 80 kilometers east of Berlin. Here Saltykov learned about the approach of the main forces of the Prussian army, led by Frederick himself.

Saltykov took up a strong defensive position near the village of Kunnersdorf. The position was stretched out in a line on three neighboring hills, in front of which a swamp spread; behind the position was a large forest.

Saltykov knew that Friedrich always used the same formulaic tactics: bypassing the enemy, who had taken up a defensive position, and attacking him in the flank and rear. This technique invariably brought Frederick victory in battles with the French and Austrian troops, who also always acted according to the same pattern and did not show any activity in defense.

But this time Frederick had to deal with the Russian army.

Field Marshal Saltykov, with the help of his cavalry reconnaissance, closely followed the movement of Frederick's troops and, having guessed his plans, reorganized his army in advance so that the Prussians would strike not at the rear, but at the front of the Russian troops. The Russian troops turned around and faced the forest. Now in the rear they had a swamp.

Meanwhile, Frederick, continuing to act according to the old pattern, deployed his main forces, as he believed, against the rear and right flank of the Russian troops. In fact, the Prussians faced the front and the left flank of the Russians. First of all, Friedrich decided to attack (38)

that part of the Russian troops, which occupied the flattest and least fortified of the three hills - Muhlberg.

Having exposed 60 guns against the Russian positions, Friedrich ordered the most powerful fire to be opened on the five Russian regiments defending Mühlberg. Following a fierce bombardment, 8 Prussian regiments attacked the Russian infantry from three sides and threw it into the swamp. 42 Russian guns located on Mulberg fell into the hands of the Prussians.

The Prussian king, delighted with his success, sent a courier to Berlin with the news of a great victory over the Russians, and he himself began to prepare his army to capture the next hill - Spitsberg, where the center of the Russian position and the Russian commander-in-chief was located.

Friedrich's artillery opened fire with cannonballs on Svalbard. Under the cover of her fire, one after another, Friedrich's regiments came out of the Frankfurt Forest and were built at the back of each other's heads on the Muhlberg, in order to follow this with a huge avalanche to fall on Spitsberg.

But then something happened that Friedrich did not expect and did not foresee.

The brave Russian artillery officer Borozdin, seeing from the height of Svalbard how the Prussian infantry was being built on Mulberg, and realizing how dangerous its attack would be, famously brought part of the guns to the slope of the Svalbard hill, facing the enemy (Fig. 18).

Before the Prussians had time to really figure out what was happening on Svalbard, the shells of Russian guns rained down on them like a hail and began to burst among the dense ranks of the Prussian infantry. (39)

It must be said that at that time in Western Europe only heavy fortress guns - mortars, fired explosive shells, and light field guns could only fire cast-iron cannonballs or buckshot - shells, which were cylindrical bags of flammable fabric filled with bullets. When fired, the bag burned out, and the bullets flew forward. Cannonballs did not do much harm to the enemy, because the cannonball only killed or injured people with a direct hit; and the range of field guns was small, only about a kilometer. The range of buckshot was even less - about 500 meters; bullets, scattering in a sheaf immediately after leaving the gun, quickly lost their strength.

That is why the Prussian infantry calmly formed up in front of the Russians, only a kilometer away, confident in their safety.

It turned out, however, that Borozdin's guns could fire not only cannonballs and buckshot, but also explosive shells. The field gun, firing an explosive projectile, was then the latest word in artillery technology; it was first created by the talented Russian artillerymen Nartov, Danilov and Martynov in the middle of the 18th century. This weapon was called "unicorn".

This was the name of the mythical beast, the image of which was engraved on every gun of the new system adopted by the Russian army. From this image of a unicorn they got the name of the tools of the new model.

Frederick II had heard earlier that new improved weapons appeared in the Russian army, and tried to find out their secret through his spies. But although he spent a lot of money on spies, he achieved nothing. Now he had to get acquainted with the new Russian guns in practice.

The shells of Russian unicorns exploded into many fragments; these fragments scattered in all directions and inflicted huge losses on the Prussians. Showered with Russian artillery shells, the Prussian regiments began to back away. The Spitsberg attack threatened to fail because of the bold actions of the Russian gunners and the excellent quality of the Russian guns and shells.

Frederick sent a detachment of cavalry and several battalions of infantry to attack the Russian guns advanced forward from the flank.

Borozdin's unicorns pushed back the enemy's infantry; but the Prussian cavalry managed to enter the rear of the Russian artillery. At this difficult moment, General Rumyantsev rushed to the rescue of the artillerymen with cavalry and two closest infantry regiments. Borozdin's guns were saved and continued to smash the Prussian infantry.

Having hastily completed the formation of his troops, Frederick led them to attack Spitsberg. However, the Prussian infantry, weakened by losses, was no longer able to take Spitsberg. Repulsed by the buckshot of Russian guns, and then by the bayonets of the Russian infantry, she quickly rolled back from Svalbard, leaving the dead and wounded. (40)

Still, Friedrich still had hope of success: by this time, his cavalry had managed to bypass Spitzberg on the other side, from the village of Kunnersdorf, and rushed to the attack. It was the cavalry of General Seydlitz, which was known in Western Europe as invincible.

Self-confident Russian cavalry rushed straight to Spitsberg, where Russian guns were visible. The Prussians were already preparing to chop down the Russian artillerymen, when suddenly a volley of Russian unicorns burst from the Spitsberg hill and shot-shot bullets rained down on Seydlitz's cavalry. Wounded and killed riders and horses began to fall to the ground. But the survivors got so excited that they could not stop and continued to rush forward uncontrollably.

A new volley pulled out many more horses and riders from the ranks of the enemy cavalry. Fell among others and the wounded General Seydlitz. The panic began. The horses reared up, rushed in all directions, dropping riders, knocking each other down. The corpses of men and horses littered the field.

The "invincible" Seydlitz cavalry fled from the battlefield.

Then the Russian troops launched a general offensive, knocked down the remnants of the Prussian infantry from Mulberg and took possession of the battlefield. They returned all the Russian guns that the Prussians seized at the beginning of the battle, captured 10 thousand guns, 28 Prussian banners and all of Friedrich's artillery - 178 guns.

Frederick himself hastily fled with the negligible remnants of his army, in which in the morning there were 48 thousand people, and after the battle no more than three thousand remained.

During this day, two horses were killed near Friedrich, his uniform was shot in several places. Fleeing, Frederick lost his royal hat. It is still kept in the Artillery Historical Museum in Leningrad as a silent witness to the fact that "the Russians always beat the Prussians," as Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov later said.

After the Seven Years' War, Austria and other Western European countries adopted the design of unicorns from Russia. Unicorns served in the Russian army for about 100 years.

STORM OF ISMAEL

The great Russian commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov used artillery with great skill. Suvorov showed the highest example of the use of artillery during the assault on the first-class Turkish fortress of Izmail, located on the Danube.

The best French and German engineers of that time worked on the construction and armament of this fortress. From three sides the fortress (41) was surrounded by an earthen rampart with a length of about 6 kilometers. The height of the shaft reached 8 meters. A ditch up to 10 meters deep and up to 12 meters wide was dug in front of the rampart. This ditch filled with water and became impassable for troops. On the fortress bastions were

numerous weapons. On the fourth, southern side, the fortress adjoined the Danube. There was no rampart here, but this side of the fortress was protected by a wide river and strong artillery: there were 10 batteries armed with 85 cannons and 15 heavy mortars (Fig. 19). The garrison of the fortress consisted of 35 thousand selected Turkish soldiers and officers.

With such weapons and a garrison, Ishmael was considered impregnable. Before the arrival of Suvorov, Russian troops stormed the fortress twice, but both assaults were unsuccessful.

On December 13, 1790, Suvorov arrived near Izmail. He had only 28,500 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, far fewer than the enemy; but Suvorov, without hesitation, decided to take the fortress by storm at all costs.

Suvrrov spent a week preparing and teaching the troops how to storm the fortress, overcome the ditch, and climb the rampart. (42)

The Turks had more than 200 guns, the Russians - three times less. It was clear to Suvorov that this amount of artillery was too small to storm a first-class fortress. In order to create an advantage in artillery, Suvorov brought the Russian military fleet into the Danube, on the ships of which there were 567 guns; the ships lined up against the south side of the fortress, that is, against 100 Turkish guns. Suvorov placed 20 guns against the eastern and western sides of the fortress, not far from the banks of the Danube. Most of the rest of the artillery was placed on the island against the southern side of the fortress; these guns were supposed to fire into the gaps between the Russian ships. The troops advancing on the northern side of the fortress received only a relatively small amount of artillery.

Thus, most of the Russian artillery (including naval artillery) was concentrated against the south side of the fortress.

Western European historians unanimously assert that Napoleon was the first to concentrate artillery in the direction of the main attack. In fact, this was accomplished by Suvorov during the assault on Izmail in 1790, when Napoleon Bonaparte was still a young, unknown lieutenant.

Wanting to avoid bloodshed, Suvorov sent an offer to surrender to the commandant of Ishmael. It was brief in a Suvorov way: “To Seraskir, to the foremen and to the whole society. I came here with an army. Twenty-four hours of reflection for surrender - and the will; my first shots are already bondage; storm - death. Which I leave for you to consider." Having received a refusal, Suvorov appointed an assault on the fortress for December 22, 1790.

Suvorov began preparations for the assault by heavily bombarding the fortress. Early on the morning of December 21, more than 600 pieces of Russian artillery, located on ships and on land, opened heavy fire. The Turks vigorously responded with fire. But the superiority of the Russian artillery was obvious: the shots of Turkish guns were heard less and less often; finally, the Turkish artillery was suppressed by the fire of Russian guns and fell completely silent.

The bombardment of the fortress continued for about a day. The fire of Russian artillery inflicted great damage on the Turks. By the beginning of the assault, numerous destructions were visible on the bastions, on the rampart and in the city.

Early in the morning of December 22, still dark, Russian troops from all sides rushed to storm the fortress.

The Turks fought fiercely. Each meter of fortifications had to be taken after a stubborn battle. But the onslaught of the Russian troops, inspired by their favorite commander, was irresistible. By 8 o'clock in the morning the entire rampart was already captured by the Russians.

However, even in the city, every house had to be taken from the battlefield.

Suvorov ordered a part of the field artillery to be brought into the city, and it provided great assistance to its infantry in street battles. (43)

The fight went on all day. By evening, almost the entire Turkish garrison was exterminated.

Russian troops captured 400 Turkish banners, 265 guns, many cannonballs, gunpowder, food and equipment in the fortress.

The successful assault on Izmail, who seemed impregnable, is one of the most glorious pages of Russian military history. Suvorov himself said that such an assault can only be ventured once in a lifetime. A prominent role in this brilliant victory was played by Russian artillery: having managed to completely suppress the Turkish artillery, it saved many thousands of lives of Russian soldiers; the damage inflicted on the enemy by Russian artillery fire contributed greatly to the success of the assault.

After the fall of Ishmael, Turkey sued for peace, and the war was soon over.

RUSSIAN ARTILLERY IN THE BATTLE OF BORODINO

Early in the morning the first gunshot was heard. Several more rifle and artillery shots sounded in different places, and after that such a cannonade arose that all the sounds merged into one endless roar. The famous Battle of Borodino began on September 7, 1812.

This is how an old Russian soldier describes the beginning of the Battle of Borodino, on whose behalf the story is told in Lermontov's poem "Borodino".

He did not exaggerate, this old soldier: in fact, 1227 guns participated in the Battle of Borodino: 640 Russian, 587 Napoleonic.

On the eve of the battle, the order of the chief of artillery of the Kutuzov army, the young and energetic General Kutaisov, was read to the Russian artillerymen.

“Confirm from me in all companies,” this order said, “that they do not withdraw from their positions until the enemy sits astride the guns ... Artillery must sacrifice itself. Let them take you with guns, but fire the last grape shot at point-blank range. If for all this the battery had been taken, then it would have completely atoned for the loss of the guns.

And the Russian gunners faithfully fulfilled this order.

On the left flank of the Russian position, near the village of Semenovskoye, there were hastily built earthen fortifications - "Semenov flushes". Directly against these fortifications, 1200 meters away, the French placed more than 100 guns. All these guns simultaneously opened fire on the fortifications. Russian artillery responded. But the range of 1200 meters (44) was at that time the limit for artillery, and the fire did not bring significant harm to either side. Seeing this, the French began to move their guns closer to the Russian fortifications. This took about an hour.

From the new positions - 700 meters from the Russian fortifications - the French guns again opened heavy fire on the Semenov fleches. Under the cover of this fire, the French infantry of Davout's corps began to leave the forest and line up on its edge.

Russian gunners noticed in time that the French were preparing to attack. After waiting for the French infantry to finish building, the Russian gunners hit it with grapeshot. The French ranks fell into disarray, and the entire French infantry rushed back into the woods in disarray. The attack did not take place (Fig. 20).

Then the French intensified their artillery fire on the Russian fortifications. Their nuclei began to rain down on the very fortifications and on the field behind them. The Russian troops defending the Semenov fleches began to suffer heavy losses, and reinforcements could not come up due to heavy shelling. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the French infantry for the second time left the forest, hastily lined up in battle formation and quickly moved to the attack.

But the Russian artillery again showered the French with grapeshot, and they stopped. Then Marshal Davout himself rode forward and personally led his infantry into the attack. The Russians increased their fire. The ranks of the French were thinning, (45) but the French soldiers continued to follow their marshal and soon broke into the outer fortification. The Russian grenadiers immediately knocked them out with bayonets and pursued them all the way to the forest.

Napoleon, seeing the failure of Davout, sent another corps to support him - Marshal Ney.

The movements of the French were clearly visible from the hill on which the Semyonov fleches were located. General Bagration ordered to reinforce this area with infantry and advanced all the artillery that he still had in reserve. In addition, he asked for support from a neighbor - General Barclay de Tolly. He sent 3 regiments of guards infantry and 3 artillery companies of 12 guns each to help Bagration.

But there were no telephones then; orderlies had to be sent to convey orders. While the messengers traveled and the troops moved, a lot of time passed; the French managed to repeat the attack and, despite the desperate resistance of the Russian grenadiers, captured all three fortifications.

Following their infantry, the French cavalry rushed forward. They managed to slip between the guns of the Russian batteries, but then the Russian cavalry met them and drove them back. And during this time, the Russian grenadiers managed to put themselves in order and again knocked the French out of the fortifications; Russian artillery continued to shower the retreating French with grapeshot until they again disappeared into the forest.

Napoleon was surprised that even two marshals - Davout and Ney - could not cope with the Russians, who defended three small earthen fortifications, although the French had more than 100 guns in this area against 24 Russian guns. He sent another division to reinforce.

At about 11 o'clock the French launched a new attack, and the Russian artillery again repelled it with grapeshot. But more and more reinforcements approached the French. Two more times the fortifications passed from hand to hand. Finally, after a desperate hand-to-hand fight in which the remnants of the Russian grenadier division, the French took possession of the Semenov flushes. However, they won little from this: only a strip of land covered with corpses 200-300 meters wide. Russian artillery remained behind the fortifications on the top of the hill and continued to fire deadly fire from there; the French suffered heavy losses from him and could not advance further. Meanwhile, the Russian infantry, under the cover of artillery fire, took up a position behind the ravine that ran behind the hill with flushes, and arranged a new line of defense there.

Only after that did the Russian artillery receive an order to withdraw beyond the ravine. But it was impossible to fulfill it under enemy fire: as soon as we moved, the French cores began to hit people, horses, and guns. It was necessary to divert the attention of the enemy from the Russian batteries; the cavalry did it - they attacked the French. (46)

The gunners took advantage of a convenient moment, took their guns behind the ravine and there quickly installed them in new positions. The Russian defense remained as indestructible as it was at the beginning of the battle.

In this sector, the battle began to subside: the French were exhausted, they were no longer able to attack the Russians located behind the ravine. But the battle began to flare up in another area, where in the middle of the location of Russian troops on the mound was the Central Battery.

The Russians beat off the first attack on the Central Battery with buckshot and rifle fire. Napoleon sent fresh troops there. 18 guns of the Central Russian Battery inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.

But the shooting suddenly stopped: our gunners ran out of ammunition, and it was not possible to bring them up, because the French continuously fired heavily at the approaches to the Central Battery.

The French took advantage of this. Their infantry broke into the earthen fortification in which the guns stood. The Russian gunners did not give up and did not retreat: they began to fight off the bayonets of the enemy infantry with everything that was at hand - cleavers, sabers, banners (Fig. 21).

The fight was too unequal; Russian artillerymen, who were on the Central Battery, died to one and all, not wanting to give the enemy a single step of their native land or leave guns to him. (47)

Help came when none of the heroes-artillerymen of the Central Battery were left alive: General Yermolov, seeing the French on the mound, gathered the infantry units located nearby; and he himself led them to counterattack; three Russian artillery companies quickly took up position not far from the mound on which the Central Battery was located, and supported the counterattack with fire.

The enemy could not stand it and ran. The head of the Russian artillery, General Kutaisov, rushed to pursue him, standing at the head of the cavalry units that were nearby. In this fight, Kutaisov was killed.

This happened around noon.

To get a break, Kutuzov sent part of the Russian cavalry, led by the Don ataman Platov, to the rear of the French. Concerned about this, Napoleon personally went to the rear to find out the situation.

He became convinced that there were not many Russian cavalry, and they could not be a serious threat to his army; but the trip took about two hours. During this time, the French did not attack, and the Russians reinforced the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Central Battery with fresh troops, brought ammunition; The soldiers ate and rested.

At about 2 p.m., the French resumed their furious shelling of the mound where the Central Battery was located, and after that they again rushed to the attack. Russian artillery opened fire on the attackers, which managed to take up positions to the right and left of the mound and behind it. For half an hour, more than seven hundred guns fired fiercely from both sides in this small area. The losses of both the Russians and the French were enormous.

“A mountain of bloody bodies prevented the nuclei from flying,” says Lermontov's old soldier.

The guns of the Central Battery were broken by French cannonballs. Russian cannonballs smashed many French guns.

By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the French again broke into the Central Battery. The counterattack of the Russian troops was unsuccessful. But this success did not bring victory to the French: at the cost of huge losses, they captured only a small hill. And the Russian troops, lined up behind this hill, continued to stand as an indestructible wall.

The French are tired. Their losses were enormous: about 60,000 men from an army of 135,000 - two out of every five men - were killed or wounded; New enemy attacks were sluggish, the Russians easily repelled them.

Nowhere else did the French advance a single step. Around 4 p.m. the fighting began to die down; the shooting continued until dark, but the attacks ceased.

In the Battle of Borodino, Russian soldiers showed how they can defend their homeland. Russian gunners showed great skill in shooting, with their fire they inflicted irreplaceable (48) losses on the enemy, and in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy who broke through to the location of the batteries, they showed unprecedented stamina; they preferred to die, but did not give up their guns to the enemy.

The Battle of Borodino will forever remain a testament to the high heroism of Russian artillerymen.

RUSSIAN ARTILLERY DURING THE DEFENSE OF SEVASTOPOL

Sevastopol, the city of Russian military glory, for the first time saw an enemy army in front of him almost a hundred years ago - in September 1854.

The Anglo-French invaders did not dare immediately, from the approach, to storm, and this gave the defenders of Sevastopol time to surround the city from the land with a ring of earthen fortifications. In order to prevent the enemy from approaching from the sea, old sailing ships were flooded at the entrance to the raid, and their guns were placed on the land fortifications of the fortress.

A long siege began, which cost the British and French huge losses and material costs.

The conditions were very unfavorable for the defenders of Sevastopol: fortifications were built hastily, there was little artillery, only 145 fortress guns scattered over seven kilometers; but even these few guns were very poorly supplied with shells and charges. Railways and even highways from the center of Russia to the south and to the Crimea did not exist in those days. Country roads passing through the black earth and clay of the south of Russia and the Crimea became impassable in autumn, winter and spring. Only a pair of strong oxen could pull a wagon through sticky mud, moving at a speed of 15–20 kilometers a day. One shell for a heavy fortress gun, weighing 400 kilograms, traveled for a month or more on a pair of oxen from Rostov-on-Don, Izmail, Bender or Lugansk, from where ammunition was brought for the defenders of Sevastopol. Meanwhile, the British, French and Turks, without any hassle, brought everything they needed by sea; only one ship delivered to them at once 3,000 tons of ammunition, as much as 6,000 carts pulled by twelve thousand oxen could lift.

It is not surprising that during the bombardment, Russian batteries responded with one shell to two or three enemy shells. Another thing should be surprised: that they could even respond with such fire.

But the Russian gunners compensated for the lack of shells with exceptional shooting accuracy and selfless courage. The well-aimed shooting of the Russian artillerymen inflicted great damage on the enemy, forcing the British and French to restore their destroyed fortifications every day. (49)

In vain were the efforts of the British and French artillery to wipe out the Russian bastions from the face of the earth, to destroy the Russian artillery. True, during a heavy bombardment from the hit of many nuclei, earthen embankments spread during the day, and the ditches turned out to be half filled up with earth crumbling into them; but during the night, thousands of Russian artillerymen and infantrymen restored what was destroyed, and in the morning the besiegers again saw formidable fortifications in front of them, embrasures lined with bags of earth, and in place of the wrecked guns - new ones, ready to repulse the enemies (Fig. 22).

The British and French launched a fierce bombardment of the besieged Sevastopol on the morning of October 5 (17), 1854.

At half past six in the morning there was a roar of French batteries. English followed them.

“The air thickened, through the smoke the sun seemed like a pale moon. Sevastopol was surrounded by two lines of fire: one was our fortifications, the other sent us death, ”writes a participant in this battle.

The French and British generals were absolutely sure that Sevastopol would not withstand this terrible bombardment.

But already 2–3 hours after the start of the battle, they could make sure that they miscalculated very seriously: surprise after surprise lay in wait for the besiegers. (fifty)

Formidable fortifications grew around the city in 3-4 weeks; Russian long-range guns fired excellently, the courage of the garrison reached the point of insolence.

The Russian batteries fired so accurately that soon after the start of the bombardment, the French batteries on the right flank of the allies were suppressed by Russian artillery fire.

At 08:40 a French gunpowder depot was blown up by a successful hit by a Russian bomb. There was a thunderous cheer from the Russian battery, and, according to the correspondent of the English newspaper The Times, the Russians began to shoot with such force that they almost completely silenced the French batteries, which managed to fire only at long intervals.

At 1:25 a.m. the second French gunpowder depot was blown up, and at four o'clock the English one.

To the aid of the French and English land batteries came navy, whose ships began the bombardment of Sevastopol from the sea. But the Russian gunners unleashed their well-aimed shells on the enemy ships. From the deadly fire of Russian batteries that day, 5 French battleships and frigates and 3 English ships; several hundred people were killed and wounded on the English and French ships.

After this bombardment, French officers wrote: “The Russians have far surpassed the concept that was drawn up about them. Their fire was deadly and well-aimed. Their cannons strike at a great distance, and if the Russians were forced to cease fire for a moment under the hail of shells that showered their embrasures, then they immediately returned to their places again and resumed the battle with redoubled ardor. The indefatigability and stubborn resistance of the Russians proved that it was not so easy to triumph over them, as some newspapermen predicted to us.

The French and British had to give up their dreams of ending this day by storm: Russian artillery fire thwarted the assault * did not even allow it to begin.

The bombing of Sevastopol was repeated many more times - and all with the same result.

The unequal struggle dragged on; it lasted over eleven months - almost a year.

The whole world was amazed at the heroism and stamina of the Russian troops.

On June 6, 1855, after an exceptionally heavy bombardment, the British, French and Turks went on the attack along the entire defense line of Sevastopol. Violent attacks were repeated six times, and all six times they were repulsed mainly by Russian artillery fire. It should be noted that the British, French and Sardinian soldiers were armed with muzzle-loaded rifled guns - “fittings”, which (51) could inflict defeat at a distance of up to 800 meters, and the Russian infantry, due to the industrial backwardness of tsarist Russia, was armed mainly with smooth-bore muzzle-loading guns capable of striking only at a distance of 200 meters. The conditions of the struggle were too unequal, and therefore the main burden of the defense of Sevastopol was forced to take on the Russian artillery.

The situation of the besieged became more and more difficult. The French and British gradually brought their trenches closer to the Russian fortifications. By the end of the siege, they approached the Sevastopol bastions by 20-25 meters.

Then the French brought up a large number of mortars that fired overhead fire. These mortars bombarded Russian fortifications with shells from which it was impossible to hide behind earthen embankments, because mortar grenades fell almost vertically from above. The Russians, on the other hand, had almost no cannons of mounted fire in Sevastopol, and they could not wage an equal fight with the enemy. But even in this hopeless situation, the natural ingenuity of the Russian gunners helped them out: they themselves began to make mortars in an artisanal way. To do this, they took a gun, the carriage of which was hit, removed the barrel and fixed it in a specially dug hole, at a certain elevation angle. Then they prepared shells and charges for such a home-made mortar and opened fire from it.

But the defenders of the besieged city experienced great difficulties due to the lack of reinforcements and ammunition. On August 27, 1855, after the most fierce of all the bombardments and bloody hand-to-hand combat, the French captured the main fortification of Sevastopol - Malakhov Kurgan, and the position of the defenders became extremely difficult.

The defeat of tsarist Russia in the Crimean War showed all the rottenness and impotence of the Russian autocracy, guilty of the backwardness of Russia and the mediocrity of the high command, but the valiant eleven-month defense of Sevastopol inscribed pages of immortal glory in the history of the Russian army and the Russian people, who showed the whole world what unheard-of feats they are capable of. his sons when they defend their native land from enemies.

BATTLE ROCKETS

Rockets appeared in Russia a long time ago. Back in the 17th century, there were many skilled craftsmen in Russia - "fireworks". Not a single holiday in the capital was complete without brilliant “fireworks performances”, on which various “funny (52) lights” were burned in large numbers: there were “fiery wheels” and “beetroots”, from which multi-colored stars flew out in all directions , and rockets that took off to great heights and fell from there, scattering with a “rain of fire”, and other wonders of pyrotechnics.

But rockets were used not only for entertainment. Under Peter I, rockets were used to signal and illuminate the area during the battle.
In 1680, a rocket laboratory was established in Moscow, where rockets were made and research was carried out to improve their design.

Combat (explosive and incendiary) rockets appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. The creator of Russian combat missiles was an artillery officer and a talented inventor Alexander Dmitrievich Zasyadko. A. D. Zasyadko began work on the creation of domestic combat missiles in 1815 in the regimental pyrotechnic laboratory.

In the 20s of the 19th century, the production of military missiles at a special missile factory was established in St. Petersburg.

As a combat weapon, the Zasyadko missiles, manufactured by the St. Petersburg plant, were first used in Russia in 1828 (during the war with the Turks) during the siege of the fortresses of Varna and Brailov.

In 1832, a pyrotechnic artillery school was opened in St. Petersburg, which trained missilemen for the army. This school developed its work widely when General Konstantin Ivanovich Konstantinov, a tireless propagandist of the rocket business and the most prominent figure in the field of improvement and use of combat missiles in the 19th century, became its head.

In 1850, K. I. Konstantinov became the head of the rocket factory; by his efforts, the production of rockets was raised to an unprecedented height for that time. The missiles designed by K. I. Konstantinov surpassed all foreign models of missiles in their combat action and, with the same charge, flew much further.

K. I. Konstantinov’s rockets were successfully used in 1854 (during the Crimean War): on the Danube during the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria, in the Caucasus and in the Sevastopol defense. (53)

The combat rocket was very simple in its design. It consisted of a sleeve into which the rocket powder composition was pressed, an explosive grenade, which, when burst, defeated enemy infantry and cavalry, and a “tail” - a long wooden pole, which was necessary for the stability of the rocket during flight (Fig. 24).

In order for the rocket to fly in the right direction, it was inserted into a short iron pipe mounted on a tripod machine, and then a powder composition was ignited through the holes in the cartridge case pan:

Compared to artillery pieces, rocket launchers were very light, so it was convenient for cavalry units to operate with them; they greatly helped the troops operating in the mountains. With missiles, it was possible to go everywhere where an infantryman could go. The rocket launcher could be quickly prepared for firing; the production of a shot also took a little time: up to 6 missiles per minute could be fired from the same machine.

The firing range of rockets reached 4 kilometers, that is, more than twice the firing range of smooth-bore guns. (54)

But rocket weapons also had their drawbacks; the main one is the large dispersion when firing: rockets fired from the same machine in the same direction fell in different places? pretty far from one another.

K. I. Konstantinov invented special rockets for marine rescue stations, which, having flown a long distance, threw a thin line (rope) onto a dying ship. Many ports in Russia and abroad were equipped with K. I. Konstantinov’s rescue rocket launchers.

The famous rocket scientist, at the end of his life, had to witness how rocket weapons began to gradually fall out of use. The fact is that in the 60s of the XIX century, rifled guns, loaded from the breech, began to enter service with artillery. They had significant advantages over the old smooth-bore guns - a high rate of fire, range and accuracy of combat. In the presence of such guns, rockets seemed to the gunners an unnecessary relic and were withdrawn from service in all armies.

However, the idea of ​​rocket weapons, which became so widespread in Russia, was not forgotten in our homeland. At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a new formidable rocket weapon appeared on the battlefields, which inflicted huge losses on the Nazi invaders and enjoyed the love and respect of Soviet soldiers: these were the famous Soviet Katyushas, ​​whose fire many times put to flight even the most selective Nazi troops.

RUSSIAN ARTILLERY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY

Artillery guns of the times of the Sevastopol defense were the last word in the technology of smooth-bore artillery. In the 60s of the XIX century, rifled guns loaded from the breech began to come into use.

We have already said that the first rifled gun with a bolt appeared in Russia in the 17th century, but with the low technology of that time it was impossible to master the mass production of such guns: therefore, the production of smooth-bore guns loaded from the muzzle continued.

Only in the middle of the 19th century, mass production of rifled guns with bolts was established at factories equipped with special machine tools and machines.

But this did not succeed immediately: at first they learned how to make rifled guns. The bullets of these guns flew further than the bullets of buckshot, which was the main projectile of smoothbore artillery. Infantry fire began to disable significantly more people than artillery fire; infantrymen could now calmly shoot (55) artillerymen from a safe distance. In part, this happened already during the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

The designers began to work hard on the creation of rifled guns and shells for them. A lot of experiments were done until mass production of such guns and shells was established.

The metallurgical industry began to develop especially rapidly from the middle of the 19th century. Its development was greatly facilitated by the works "Father of metallography" Dmitry Konstantinovich Chernov, Russian scientist of world renown. He studied the structural changes in steel during its heating and cooling, and on the basis of these studies he created the theory of heat treatment of steel (its hardening, tempering and annealing). Only the use of new methods of processing steel at Russian factories helped to get rid of the frequent ruptures of gun barrels during firing, the causes of which no one before Chernov could correctly explain. Chernov's theory was borrowed by metallurgical plants in all other countries.

As a result of Chernov's work, steel of especially strong grades appeared: it was used for the armor of warships, for defensive land structures. It was possible to penetrate such armor only with heavy artillery shells at a very high final speed. Gun factories designed powerful long-range guns and started their production. To characterize the progress of gun technology over 50 years, it is enough to cite a few figures. In 1840, the largest cannon weighed 5 tons and fired 28 kilogram shells with an 8 kilogram gunpowder charge. And in 1890, the heaviest gun weighed 110 tons, fired shells weighing 720 kilograms with a 340-kilogram gunpowder charge; the initial speed of the projectile reached 600 meters per second.

The basis for the creation of powerful artillery in Russia and abroad was the outstanding work of the Russian scientist A.V. Gadolin "The Theory of Hooped Guns", written in 1861-1862 and deserving a large Mikhailovsky Prize.

The large and small Mikhailovsky prizes were awarded annually by the conference of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy for especially valuable (56) works by Russian scientists in the field of artillery and powder making. Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academy was the center of scientific thought in these areas, and almost all of the outstanding Russian gunners and gunners came out of its walls.

General A.V. Gadolin (1828-1890), an extraordinary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of many Russian and foreign scientific societies and institutions.

The barrels of the guns made according to the method of A.V. Gadolin came out especially strong: another steel pipe, the “casing”, was driven hot onto one steel pipe. Cooling down, the casing squeezed the inner tube, and the barrel turned out to be exceptionally hardy.

However, the huge guns created according to the theory of A. V. Gadolin did not yet give the effect that was expected from them; the reason was the weakness of black powder, which could not give a sufficiently large initial velocity to heavy projectiles. A. V. Gadolin himself found a way out of the situation in collaboration with another outstanding Russian artilleryman Nikolai Vladimirovich Maievsky.

Artillery General N. V. Maievsky (1823–1892), professor of ballistics at the Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academy, became famous for his work “External Ballistics Course”, which was also awarded a large Mikhailovsky Prize. The work of N. V. Maievsky far surpassed all similar works; scientists from foreign countries took advantage of it, textbooks for foreign military academies were created on its basis.

The scientific thought of N. V. Maievsky and A. V. Gadolin was not limited to the field of artillery; both of them were prominent powder chemists. A. V. Gadolin and N. V. Maievsky invented a new type of gunpowder, which had great power of action, gave less smoke when fired - it was the so-called brown or chocolate prismatic gunpowder. The grains of this gunpowder were made in the form of hexagonal prisms. Each prism had seven through channels. You will understand the meaning of this form of grains of gunpowder after reading Chapter Four.

AT late XIX centuries, chocolate prismatic powder was the last word in the science of powder making, and this word was uttered in Russia. (57)

Gunpowder grains with seven channels are widely used today. Thus, the invention of Gadolin and Maievsky is of great importance for our time.

Here is what the famous Russian scientist Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zabudsky wrote in the Artillery Journal in July 1885:

“Foreign experts believe that Russia owes Europe the introduction of prismatic gunpowder. We have tested it much earlier, than anywhere. The merit of working out this question belongs to the Russian artillerymen, especially to Generals Gadolin and Maievsky. In Russia, for the first time, they began to produce gunpowder for large guns in the form of regular prismatic cakes with seven holes on the press of Professor Vyshnegradsky's system. Other states followed suit. Prussia turned to the manufacture of the same gunpowder as ours. Belgium in 1867 and then England adopted molded barrel powder with a small central blind hole.

General Yafimovich, a major specialist in the gunpowder business, introduced the production of brown prismatic

gunpowder at the Okhta gunpowder factory. The Okhtensky powder plant (in St. Petersburg) was the first in the world to start factory production of prismatic gunpowder.

Thanks to the work of D.K. Chernov, N.V. Maievsky and A.V. Gadolin, Russian artillery was the first in the world to receive fastened brudii, which could shoot twice as far as the old unfastened ones, and were deservedly called long-range. In 1877, the rearmament of Russian artillery with fastened guns began. The method of fastening the guns was very quickly adopted from the Russians by Western European designers.

The production of steel tools in Russia was established by the talented engineer P. M. Obukhov. Steel guns High Quality were made in St. Petersburg - at the Obukhov plant, where the theory of D.K. Chernov was first applied - and also in Perm at the Motovilikha plant. Russian guns were distinguished by exceptional durability: they served in the army for 40-50 years, and by the end of such a long period they were still operating reliably. So, for example, along with new guns during the First World War (1914-1918), guns manufactured in 1877 were successfully used in the Russian army! (58)

At the same time as A. V. Gadolin and N. V. Maievsky, the talented inventor Vladimir Stepanovich Baranovsky worked on improving artillery pieces. Twenty years earlier than Western European designers were able to achieve this, he created such an instrument, the gun carriage of which remains in place after the shot; in such a gun, the recoil causes only the barrel to roll back, which, after it returns to its own place. Such a weapon does not need to be rolled into place during firing; therefore, it can shoot much faster than the old guns, which rolled back 4-6 meters after each shot. Such guns, in which, after a shot, the gun carriage remains in place, and only the barrel rolls back (and it returns to its place itself), are called rapid-fire.

Today in artillery all guns are quick-firing; and 75 years ago, such a weapon was an unprecedented novelty, a dream of artillerymen. And this dream was realized by V. S. Baranovsky, who in 1872 created the world's first rapid-fire field gun, and three years later completed the design of a rapid-fire mountain gun. Baranovsky's mountain gun was disassembled into several parts for transportation through the mountains on packs.

For his rapid-fire cannon, V. S. Baranovsky also created a high-speed piston valve. The essence of the Baranovsky shutter device remains unchanged in modern piston valves.

V. S. Baranovsky was the first to propose the use of a unitary cartridge for loading guns. In such a cartridge, the projectile and charge are connected into one whole with the help of a sleeve, so loading the gun has become much more convenient and faster. The combination of recoil devices, cartridge case loading and a fast-acting gun breech made the Baranovsky cannon really fast-firing.

The works of V. S. Baranovsky promised a lot of Russian artillery. But the talented inventor died in 1879 from an accident during one of the experiments; his death suspended work on rapid-fire guns, and they were able to introduce them only after two decades ...

When fastened fast-firing gun was adopted, the power of artillery fire increased dramatically. This was also facilitated by the fact that in 1886 smokeless powder was invented. (59) It is three times stronger than the old one - smoky, which artillery fired for more than 500 years; but smokeless powder has another remarkable property: it rid the battlefields of a huge amount of smoke.

With the introduction of smokeless powder, the cloud of smoke stopped covering the target from the shooter and preventing him from aiming correctly. The shooter did not have to wait any longer for the smoke to dissipate in order to fire the next shot. And this, in turn, contributed to an increase in the rate of fire of guns and rifles.

At the end of the 19th century, another important event occurred in the history of the development of artillery: instead of black powder, artillery shells began to be filled with new highly explosive substances, first with pyroxylin, then with melinite, and finally with TNT. From this, the strength of artillery shells increased several times, they began to cause enormous destruction.

In the history of the invention of smokeless powders and their introduction into artillery, Russian scientists have played an outstanding role. In many matters, they have the primacy, which for many years was unfairly attributed to foreign inventors.

We will talk about the exceptionally important role of Russian scientists in the development of the gunpowder business in the second chapter of this book.

IN THE BATTLE OF LIAOYAN

For almost seven months, the Russian-Japanese war had been going on in distant Manchuria. In August 1904, Russian troops fought fierce battles with the Japanese near the city of Liaoyang. On the night of August 17, near the city of Liaoyang, the commander of the artillery battalion, Colonel Slyusarenko, received an order to take positions by dawn in order to reinforce the artillery of the 3rd Siberian Rifle Corps and beat the Japanese in front of the front of this corps. The division consisted of two batteries of 8 guns each. And the Japanese had three eight-gun batteries in this area.

The division commander carefully studied the area on the map, and then went out for reconnaissance. He chose places for his batteries in a different way than was usually chosen at that time: not on the tops of the hills, but behind the hills. These positions were not visible to Japanese observers. The artillery observation post was chosen and equipped on the crest of the hill, near the Chinese grave, which hid it from the eyes of the Japanese. From this observation point, the positions of all enemy batteries were clearly visible.

Colonel Slyusarenko directed the fire of his two batteries on the first Japanese battery he found. From the guns of his batteries, standing behind the hills, the target was not visible (Fig. 29): the gunners aimed the guns at auxiliary aiming points, and the commander gave commands in which he indicated the direction and range of fire. (60)

After 20 minutes, the defeated Japanese battery ceased fire, although the enemy had 24 guns in this sector, and only 16 in Russian batteries.

After the defeat of the first Japanese battery, the fire was transferred to another enemy battery. Soon, she ceased fire. Then came the turn of the third Japanese battery.

Thus, all Japanese batteries in front of the front of the 3rd Rifle Corps were suppressed and ceased fire.

But then Colonel Slyusarenko saw through binoculars how Japanese soldiers, at first one by one and bending low, and then more and more boldly, began to run across the mountain to the kaoliang, which grew on a slope facing the Russian troops. This enemy infantry was accumulating to go on the attack.

The division commander was in no hurry: for almost an hour he watched how the Japanese infantry accumulated. And when the runs over the mountain stopped, the fire of the second battery was opened on the thickets of the kaoliang. Hit by the shells of the Russian battery, the Japanese moved forward in order to quickly get out of the artillery fire, but then they were met by the deadly fire of the Russian riflemen. This caused the Japanese to rush back into the kaoliang; there they were finished off by the guns of Russian artillerymen. (61)

During that day, the guns of two Russian batteries fired more than five thousand shells. And the Japanese did not manage to determine where the Russian batteries were firing from. The artillerymen of Colonel Slyusarenko had almost no losses; only two soldiers were lightly wounded by "stray" bullets.

What explains this remarkable success of the Russian artillerymen?

Colonel V. A. Slyusarenko and another participant Russo-Japanese War- Colonel A. G. Pashchenko - for the first time they began to arrange guns in a new way in battle. They did not set them openly on the crests of the hills, as had been done for more than five hundred years, ever since firearms appeared; Slyusarenko and Pashchenko used "closed" positions; such positions were not visible to the enemy, he could not shoot well at the Russian batteries located behind the hills, behind the groves.

In order to constantly apply this new method of positioning the guns, it was necessary to adapt the guns to firing from closed positions, equip them with angle measuring devices - “goniometers” necessary for aiming the guns at the target at the auxiliary aiming point, and develop new rules for firing.

This arrangement of batteries was later borrowed from the Russian army by the Japanese, German, French, and then other armies.

Since that time, a fundamental change has taken place in the method of artillery operations: the bulk of the artillery moved from open positions to closed ones, becoming little vulnerable to the enemy. Artillery was able to occupy firing positions covertly and open fire suddenly for the enemy.

UNDER GUMBINNEN

On August 1, 1914, the first World War. From the very first days, major battles began on the Russian-German front. On August 20, 1914, the 8th German Army attacked the 1st Russian Army near the town of Gumbinnen in East Prussia. The 17th German army corps of General Mackensen attacked one Russian division. Mackensen had twice as much artillery and three times as many infantry as the Russians. He also had heavy guns, which the Russians did not have in this sector of the front.

The battle was started by German batteries, which fired a large number of shells at the location of the Russian troops. But they fired at random, because the Russian infantry and artillery had learned to camouflage well since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. (62)

This was followed by the attack of the enemy infantry. Part of it cut like a wedge into the gap between two Russian regiments.

Our gunners immediately took advantage of this: they turned their guns almost at a right angle and began to hit the enemy from the flanks with crossfire: two batteries fired on the right and two on the left. The German infantry suffered huge losses in a short time and retreated back, leaving many dead and wounded on the battlefield.

Then the Germans tried to outflank the Russian division. The enemy infantry marched in thick chains, keeping the alignment, as in a parade. Our gunners let the Germans in a short distance;

then the Russian batteries fell upon the enemy with heavy fire (Fig. 30). The chains of the German infantry began to thin rapidly; The Germans broke up into small groups and lay down. In vain did the enemy batteries try to silence our artillery: the Russian batteries, located in closed positions, were not visible to enemy observers and remained invulnerable to German artillery fire.

Then, wanting to encourage their infantry, the German cavalry artillery battalion, consisting of 12 guns, jumped out in horseback formation to the crest of the hill where the German battalions lay down, and began to prepare for battle. It took a matter of seconds to remove the guns from the (63) limbers, aim them and open fire. But only one of the twelve German guns managed to fire just one shot: these same seconds were enough for the Russian artillery battalion of 24 guns to concentrate fire on the German batteries that had taken an open position. A minute later, the German batteries were enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke and dust from the explosions of Russian shells and lost the ability to fire. And when the smoke cleared, it turned out that not a single German artilleryman survived. The Russian infantry went on the offensive and captured all 12 German guns.

So Russian artillery showed its superiority over German artillery already in the first battles of the First World War of 1914-1918. The experience of the Russo-Japanese war was not in vain: our artillery was better able to choose firing positions; Russian artillery officers were better at controlling the fire of their guns than German ones.

ON THE SOUTHWESTERN FRONT IN 1916

In the spring of 1916, the situation on the Western Front of the First World War was very serious. The Germans waged fierce attacks on the main support of the French - the fortress of Verdun. The battle of Verdun decided the fate of France.

At the same time, the allies of the Germans - the Austrians - were advancing on their southern front, inflicting one defeat after another on the Italians. Only their ally Russia could save the position of France and Italy; to do this, she needed to prepare and launch a major offensive of her troops in order to force the Germans and Austrians to withdraw their main forces from Western front. The solution of this difficult task was entrusted to the army Southwestern Front Russian troops.

This is how the combat training of Russian artillerymen went. From the beginning of May 1916, they carried out hard, painstaking work to identify enemy forces. They put everything they noticed on maps: enemy machine-gun nests, observation posts, the location of batteries, bridges, roads for reinforcements to approach. Russian planes flew over enemy trenches; they conducted reconnaissance and photographed enemy positions.

On the side of the Russian troops, hundreds of observation posts were built, built at night, secretly from the enemy. If the work was not completed before dawn, it was carefully masked and no one showed up near the place of work during the day.

Firing positions for light and heavy batteries were also secretly prepared. The soldiers dug trenches at night, and at a little light they left them, disguising all traces of work.

Thus, places for guns were prepared, and the Germans and Austrians did not suspect anything, since only the usual, rare skirmish was fought at the front. (64)

Only a few days before the start of the offensive, Russian guns began to arrive at night; they immediately took refuge in the trenches prepared for them. For the time being, they did not shoot, so that the enemy did not know about their arrival.

To stun the enemy, it was decided to strike quite unexpectedly. This blow was supposed to be short, but extremely powerful.

Everything was prepared in the strictest secrecy. The prisoners later said that the Germans and Austrians did not expect the Russian offensive.

The Russian batteries made all the calculations for firing in advance, determined the distances to the most important enemy targets, but did not shoot until the last day.

And finally, the moment came, which was prepared by the long and painstaking work of the Russian gunners.

Russian guns started talking at 4 o'clock in the morning. The first shots rang out in the morning silence. These heavy guns began zeroing in on targets pre-distributed between them. Each gun fired up to 10 shots.

At the same time, light cannons were also firing at the enemy's wire fences, which covered his fortifications with several rows of barbed wire.

The artillery finished sighting and switched to engagement at 6 o'clock in the morning. Heavy guns fired at regular intervals between shots - first at 6 minutes, then at 2 and 3. Light guns fired more often.

Enemy observation posts flew into the air, warped guns overturned, dugout floors collapsed, killing and maiming enemy soldiers and officers who had taken refuge in them. The power of Russian fire was amazing. Chaos and destruction reigned in the enemy's disposition along the four-kilometer front.

Suddenly the Russian artillery ceased fire. The surviving enemy soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed immeasurably easier for them to meet a living attacking enemy and face him face to face than to endure a fire hurricane that had raged over their heads for more than three hours.

The Austrians and Germans, stunned by the roar of explosions, crawled out of dugouts and shelters, preparing to repel the attack. But only 15 minutes lasted a respite; and then, with a new, redoubled force, the artillery fire raged, sowing death and destruction everywhere.

At 10 o'clock in the morning the fire was transferred to the second line of enemy fortifications; the surviving Austrian and German soldiers (65) and officers again began to prepare to repel the attack. But this time the attack did not begin, and after a short respite, the strongest fire of Russian artillery resumed on the first line of fortifications. The enemy was completely confused, and when the real attack began at noon, no one tried to repel it.

Almost without any resistance, the Russian infantry captured the first and second lines of enemy fortifications. In several places the front was broken through, and the Russian troops rushed into the gaps that had formed.

In the first three days of the offensive, the Russians took 200,000 prisoners. 38 enemy infantry and 11 cavalry divisions were defeated, leaving a huge amount of military equipment on the battlefield. The Germans had to urgently recall about thirty divisions from Verdun; the Austrians withdrew most of their troops from the Italian theater of operations. All this was thrown into battle to close the gap and stop the successfully advancing Russian troops. The offensive of the Germans near Verdun, and the Austrians in Italy, stopped. Austro-Hungarian Empire was on the brink of disaster. But at this decisive moment, the mediocre tsarist high command did not give the Southwestern Front sufficient reinforcements, and the troops of the front were forced to stop further offensive.

For many years, the summer offensive of the Russian troops of the Southwestern Front in 1916 remained an unsurpassed example of the use of artillery in breaking through a fortified zone, and only in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939/40, and especially in the Great Patriotic War Soviet artillerymen showed even more brilliant examples of breaking through heavily fortified defensive lines.

A few brief essays that you have read have introduced you only to the most basic events in the centuries-old history of artillery. You could see what a long and difficult path of development artillery went through before it managed to achieve the power that it possesses in our time.

The First World War of 1914–1918 wrote the last page in the history of pre-Soviet artillery. Great October socialist revolution brought about fundamental changes in the life of our people. To defend the gains of the revolution Communist Party Soviet Union and the Soviet Government created the Red Army - the first army in the history of mankind to defend the peaceful creative labor of the Soviet people and the interests of the world's first socialist state. (66)

Has begun new period and in the history of the development of artillery. During the years of socialist construction in our country, Soviet artillery has reached a genuine flowering, and in the fierce battles for the freedom and independence of our Motherland, it has covered its banners with unfading glory.

We will tell you about this in the last chapters of the book. And now we will introduce you to how an artillery gun is arranged, how it is prepared for battle, how it fires and what technical means are used to ensure powerful and well-aimed artillery fire.

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2017-08-07 19:47:49

So little is said about Russian artillery in the school course that one might think that Russian troops did not drive the Mongols on the Ugra River with their guns, and Ivan the Terrible did not take the city with the help of his advanced artillery.

The first firearms (mattresses and cannons) appeared in Russia at the end of the 14th century. Determining a more accurate date for this event, historians of pre-revolutionary Russia attached exceptional importance to the record of the Tver Chronicle, in which, under 1389, it was noted: "The same summer, the Germans carried out cannons." AT Soviet time a tradition has developed linking the beginning of Russian artillery with an earlier date. Its adherents point to the presence of some firearms in Moscow during the siege by Tokhtamysh (1382). However, this does not take into account not only the fact of the subsequent capture of Moscow, and hence these guns by the Tatars, but also the fact that the first guns in Russia were most likely trophy ones - captured during the 1376 campaign of the Moscow army of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Bobrok Volynsky to the Volga Bulgaria. In this regard, the message about the appearance of cannons in Tver in 1389 is really of paramount importance. This is indicated by the following fact - in 1408, Emir Yedigei, who besieged Moscow, knowing that Tver had first-class artillery, sent Tsarevich Bulat for it. Only the frank sabotage of the Tver prince Ivan Mikhailovich, who was extremely slowly preparing the "outfit" for the campaign, forced Edigei to change his plans: taking a ransom money from the Muscovites (3 thousand rubles), he went to the Horde.

The first Russian guns were made of iron. They were forged from strips of metal 7-10 mm thick, bent, giving the shape of a trunk, and welded. The next curved sheet of iron was put on such a trunk and welded again. Then the procedure was repeated. Fragments of the barrel were obtained from three layers of iron with a length of 200 to 230 mm. The sections were welded to each other, getting the barrel of the desired length. Another way to manufacture cannon barrels involved winding a seamless iron wire rod with its subsequent forging. In this case, the breech was made by hammering a cone-shaped metal plug into the future barrel in a heated state.

Several forged cannons have survived, so we know that 7 sections of pipe were used to make a medium-sized squeak of 50 mm caliber and 1590 mm long. Interestingly, the transverse and longitudinal seams obtained by welding gun barrels were of very good quality, which indicates the high skill of Russian gunsmiths. Russian iron cannons are known, forged from a single billet. In this way, a mortar (mounted cannon) was made, which is stored in the Tver Historical Museum.

Forged tools were in service with the Russian army throughout the 15th century. They were made in caliber 24 - 110 mm, weighing 60 - 170 kg. The first mattresses, cannons and squeaks did not have sights, but the need to adjust the shooting very soon caused the appearance of the simplest sights - front sights and slots, and then tubular and frame sights. To give an elevation angle to the gun, which was in an oak log, a system of wedge-shaped inserts was used, with the help of which the cannon barrel was raised to the required height.

A new stage in the development of Russian artillery was associated with the start of casting copper guns. The introduction of new technology improved the quality of the "outfit" and made it possible to move on to the manufacture of squeaker guns and large-caliber mortars. Cast guns were more expensive, but fired farther and more accurately than forged ones. To cast them in 1475, a Cannon hut was founded at the Spassky Gate, which was later transferred to the Neglinnaya shore. In this "hut" master Yakov made guns with his students Vanya and Vasyuta, and later with a certain Fedka. The first cast copper cannon in Russia (a sixteen-pound squeaker) was made by craftsman Yakov in April 1483. In 1492, he also cast the oldest cast cannon that has survived to this day. The length of the squeaker is 137.6 cm (54.2 inches), weight is 76.12 kg (4 pounds. 26 pounds), caliber is 6.6 cm (2.6 inches). Currently, master Yakov's pishal is stored in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, engineering troops and signal troops in St. Petersburg.

A certain role in improving the quality of Russian artillery pieces was played by Italian and German craftsmen who worked in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. in the Moscow Cannon hut. The well-known builder of the Assumption Cathedral "murol" (architect) Aristotle Fioravanti became famous for the art of pouring cannons and firing them. The recognition of the artillery abilities of the famous Bolognese is evidenced by his participation in the 1485 campaign against Tver, during which the old master was with the regimental "outfit". In 1488, the cannon hut burned down, but soon after the fire that destroyed it, several new cannon huts appeared in the old place, in which the production of artillery pieces resumed. In the XVI century. The Moscow Cannon Yard turned into a large foundry, where copper and iron guns of various types and shells for them were manufactured. Cannons and cannonballs were also made in other cities: Vladimir, Ustyuzhna, Veliky Novgorod, Pskov. The traditions of cannon production were not forgotten in these cities even in the 17th century. In 1632, in Novgorod, “on the orders of the boyar and voivode Prince Yury Yansheevich Suleshev and his comrades,” an “iron squeaker from a German sample was cast, weighing 2 pounds 2 hryvnias, a core around a circle of a quarter of a hryvnia, a machine upholstered in iron for the German case.”

In addition to Aristotle Fioravanti, who created the first large foundry cannon factory in Moscow, other cannon masters are mentioned in the documents of that era: Peter, who arrived in Russia in 1494 with the architect Aleviz Fryazin, Johann Jordan, who commanded the Ryazan artillery during the Tatar invasion of 1521 BC, even earlier Pavlin Debosis, who in 1488 cast the first large-caliber gun in Moscow. At the beginning of the XVI century. under Vasily III, cannon foundry craftsmen from Germany, Italy and Scotland worked in Moscow. In the 1550s-1560s, in the Russian capital, a foreign craftsman Kaspar (“Kashpir Ganusov”) poured cannons, about whom it is known that he was the teacher of Andrei Chokhov. He made at least 10 artillery pieces, including the Sharp Panna, an analogue of the German gun Sharfe Metse. Russian masters worked side by side with foreigners: Bulgak Naugorodov, Kondraty Mikhailov, Bogdan Pyatoy, Ignatiy, Doroga Bolotov, Stepan Petrov, Semyon Dubinin, Pervaya Kuzmin, Login Zhikharev and other predecessors and contemporaries of Chokhov. For the first time, the name of this brilliant master is found in cast inscriptions on gun barrels of the 1570s. with an explanation: "Kashpirov's student Ondrey Chokhov did it." He cast several dozen cannons and mortars, some of which (nominal "Fox", "Troilus", "Inrog", "Aspid", "Tsar Achilles", forty-ton "Tsar Cannon", "fiery" squeaker "Egun", " Hundred-barreled cannon, wall-beating cannon “Nightingale”, a series of mortars “Wolf”, etc.) became masterpieces of foundry. It is known that about 60 people worked on the production of the Tsar Achilles squeak under the direction of Chokhov. The last work of the great cannon maker that has come down to us was a regimental copper squeaker made by him in 1629. The guns cast by Andrey Chokhov turned out to be very durable, a number of them were used even during the years of the Northern War of 1700-1721.

Izhevsk casting copy in Donetsk

Chokhov and other masters, among whom were 6 of his students (V. Andreev, D. Bogdanov, B. Molchanov, N. Pavlov, N. Provotvorov, D. Romanov) worked at the new Cannon Foundry, built in 1547 in Moscow . It was here that the production of "great" guns was started, glorifying the names of their creators. Artillery guns were also created in Ustyuzhna Zheleznopolskaya, Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Veliky Ustyug, from the 17th century. in Tula. In the 17th century, according to incomplete data, 126 craftsmen were engaged in casting cannons.

According to their characteristics, Russian tools of the XV-XVII centuries. can be divided into 5 main types. Pishchali is a generalized name for artillery pieces designed for flat firing at enemy manpower and defensive fortifications. As shells for them, not only solid cores (weighing up to 40 kg.), but also stone and metal "shots" were used. Among the squeakers were large guns and small-caliber "volkonei" (falconets). Riding cannons (mortars) are short-barreled large-caliber artillery guns with a hinged firing trajectory, intended for the destruction of fortifications and buildings located outside the city wall. Stone cannonballs were used as projectiles for them. Mattresses are small artillery pieces designed to fire metal and stone shot at enemy manpower. Information about their manufacture dates back even to the beginning of the 17th century. During this period, mattresses on carriages were found in the arsenals of Russian cities. So, in Staritsa in 1678 there was “a cannon, an iron mattress in a machine, bound with iron on wheels.” In some fortresses, all artillery consisted of guns of this type and squeakers. In the description of Borisov Gorodok in 1666, copper shotguns standing “at the gates of 3 mattresses” are mentioned. "Magpies" and "organs" - small-caliber multi-barreled salvo fire guns. Squeakers are small-caliber guns designed for flat aimed shooting with large lead bullets. There were two types of squeakers, which differed in the way the barrel was attached. In the first case, the squeaker was placed in a special machine. Guns arranged in this way are mentioned in the description of the Pskov and Toropetsk "outfit" of 1678 (in Pskov there were "147 squeakers in machine tools", and in Toropets - 20 such guns). In the second case, the barrel was fixed in the stock, like a gun. Distinctive feature squeakers of the second type was the presence of a "hook" - an emphasis that clung to the fortress wall or any ledge when firing to reduce recoil. This is where the second name of the squeaky squeak comes from - “gakovnitsa”.

At the beginning of the XVII century. in our country, an attempt is being made to introduce the first classification of artillery pieces according to their weight and the weight of the projectile. Its creator was Onisim Mikhailov, who proposed in his "Charter" to divide Russian squeaks and mounted cannons into several main types. The compiler of the "Charter", who recommended the introduction of 18 types of guns, certainly used the experience of European artillery. In Spain under Charles V, 7 models of guns were introduced, in France - 6 (until 1650 there were no mortars in this country), in the Netherlands - 4 main calibers. However, in Europe, the trend towards a reduction in the main types of guns was not always maintained. In the 17th century in Spain there were already 50 of them, with 20 different calibers.

In Russia, the first step towards the unification of artillery pieces and their ammunition was taken in the middle of the 16th century, when certain patterns (“circles”) began to be used in their manufacture.

An interesting list of cannons and squeakers that were in the army of Ivan the Terrible during his campaign in Livonia in 1577 has been preserved. the same 1577, apparently, especially for the Livonian campaign), "Aspid" and "Fox". In the bit entry, not only all guns and mortars are named, but also their main characteristics (weight of the core) are reported. Thanks to this, it can be established that for some types of guns - the "upper guns of the Jacobovs", "one-and-a-half" and "quick-firing" shells of the same weight were used. Here's the entire list:

“Yes, on the same campaign, the sovereign marked along with: the Eagle squeaker - the core of the third pood (2.5 poods - V.V.) and the Inrog squeaker - the core of seventy hryvnias (28.6 kg.), the Bear squeaker - the core of a pood, the squeaker "Wolf" - the core of the pood, the squeaker "The Nightingale of Moscow" - the core of the pood, the squeaker "Aspid" - the core of 30 hryvnias (12.3 kg), two squeakers "Girls" - the core of 20 hryvnias (8.2 kg.), two squeaks "Cheglik" and "Yastrobets" - a core of 15 hryvnias (6.1 kg), two squeaks "Kobets" and "Dermblik" a core of 12 hryvnias (4.9 kg.), two squeaks "Dog » yes "Fox" - a shot of 10 hryvnias (4 kg.), nineteen one-and-a-half squeakers - a shot of 6 hryvnias (2.4 kg.), two rapid-fire squeaks with copper cannonballs for a hryvnia each (409 g.), "Peacock" cannon - core 13 pounds, cannon "Ringed" - core 7 pounds, cannon "Ushataya", which is intact, core 6 pounds, cannon "Kolchataya" new - core 6 pounds, cannon "Ringed" old - core 6 pounds, cannon "ringed" another old one - a core of 6 pounds, four cannons of the upper "Jacobovs" - a core of 6 pounds each, a cannon "Vilyanskaya" a core of 4 pounds, eight cannons of the "Oleksandrovsky "- the core of a pud with a quarter."

To serve this great “outfit”, in addition to artillerymen (gunners and pishchalnikov), 8,600 foot and 4,124 cavalry field people were allocated (a total of 12,724 people). During the years of the Smolensk War of 1632-1634, it took 64 carts to deliver one Inrog squeaker, and another 10 carts were required for the “wheel camp” of this great cannon.

It is not surprising that the campaign of 1577 became one of the most successful Russian campaigns, when almost all the cities and castles of Livonia were captured, except for Riga and Revel.

In the middle of the XVI century. Russian masters created the first samples of artillery systems of volley fire - multi-barreled guns, known from the documents of that time under the name "forty" and "organs". The first "magpies" appeared in the first half of the 16th century. - the existence of such guns in the Moscow army is reported in a Lithuanian document of 1534. In Russian sources, the “fortieth” gunpowder is mentioned starting from 1555. Among the guns of Yermak in his famous campaign in Siberia there was one such gun, which had seven barrels, caliber 18 mm (0.7 d). The barrels were connected by a common iron groove, into which gunpowder was poured to ignite the charges and produce simultaneous shots. Ermak's "magpie" was transported on a two-wheeled small camp. From the description of the "forty" that have not come down to us, it is clear that their characteristics varied greatly. From three to ten trunks were installed on them, as much as the master wanted. Another sample of multi-barreled weapons - "organ" - was made by fixing 4-6 rows of mortars on a rotating drum, caliber approx. 61 mm, 4-5, and sometimes 13 trunks in each row. Apparently, the volley fire weapon was the Cannon Cannon, which has not survived to this day, and was made in 1588 by Andrey Chokhov. The description of the "Hundred-barreled cannon" was made by a participant in the Polish intervention in the Muscovite state at the beginning of the 17th century. S. Maskevich. He saw her "against the gate leading to a living (arranged on floating supports. - V.V.) bridge" across the Moscow River. The cannon struck the author, and he described it in detail, highlighting from the “countless multitude” of guns that stood “on the towers, on the walls, at the gates and on the ground” along the entire length of Kitay-gorod: “There, by the way, I saw one gun, which is loaded with a hundred bullets and fires the same number of shots; it is so high that it will be up to my shoulder, and its bullets are the size of goose eggs. A.P. Lebedyanskaya found a mention of the inspection of the gun in 1640 by Moscow gunners, who noted that the gun had serious damage. From the middle of the XVI century. the technique of making artillery pieces changes somewhat. In Moscow, the first cast-iron tools began to be cast, some of which reached enormous sizes. So, in 1554, a cast-iron cannon was made with a caliber of approx. 66 cm (26 inches) and weighing 19.6 tons (1200 pounds), and in 1555 - another, caliber approx. 60.96 cm (24 inches) and weighing 18 tons (1020 pounds). The Russian artillery of that time was highly appreciated by many contemporaries, one of the most notable was D. Fletcher's review: a good supply of military shells, like the Russian Tsar, this can partly be confirmed by the Armory in Moscow, where there are a huge number of all kinds of guns, all cast from copper and very beautiful. Eric Palmqvist, who visited Russia in 1674, was surprised by the good condition of the Russian artillery, especially the presence of large guns, which had no analogues in Sweden.

The presence of its own skilled craftsmen capable of manufacturing guns of various types and calibers, as well as the actions of a number of border states (Lithuania, Livonia), which sought to limit the penetration of European military technology into Russia, forced the Moscow government to rely on its own forces when creating new types of artillery weapons. However, the conclusion of A.V. Muravyov and A.M. Sakharov that since 1505 "foreign masters of cannon business no longer came to Moscow" sounds too categorical. It is known that in the 1550-1560s. in the Russian capital, a foreign master Kashpir Ganusov, the teacher of Andrei Chokhov, worked. During the Russian-Swedish war of 1554-1556. and the Livonian War, all artillerymen and craftsmen who showed such a desire from among the captured Swedes and Germans were enrolled in the Russian service. Finally, in 1630, on the eve of the Smolensk War of 1632-1634, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf sent the Dutch cannon maker Julis Koet to Moscow with other specialists who knew the secret of casting light field guns - a fundamentally new type of artillery weapons, thanks to which the Swedes won many great victories. Another envoy of Gustav II Adolf Andreas Vinnius (Elisei Ulyanov) began to build Tula and Kashira arms factories.

In the middle of the XVII century. in 100 cities and 4 monasteries, which were under the jurisdiction of the Pushkarsky order, 2637 guns were in service. 2/3 of them were bronze, the rest were iron. If necessary, "snatches" were also used - cannons and squeaks, the trunks of which were damaged (broke during firing), but from which it was still possible to fire at the enemy. From total number guns in 2637 units, only 62 were unsuitable for combat.

An important technical innovation was the use of calibration and measuring compasses - "circled", which were widely used in the casting of guns and cannonballs. These devices were first mentioned in a charter sent to Novgorod on November 27, 1555, probably they were used before. With the help of circles, the diameters of the barrels and cores intended for a particular type of gun were checked so that the gap between the core and the barrel bore ensured the loading speed and the proper shot force. For the same purpose, canvas, cardboard and linen, and other sealing materials were used to wrap the nuclei, and the finished nuclei were stored in special "boxes" - the prototype of future charging boxes. Documents that have come down to us testify to the use of this kind of improvised materials in artillery. So, during the Russian-Swedish war of 1554-1557, on the eve of the Vyborg campaign, Moscow gunners were sent to Novgorod, who were supposed to teach Novgorod blacksmiths how to make “firearms”, perhaps a prototype of future incendiary projectiles. To make them, it was required: “ten canvases, and three hundred sheets of good large paper, which is thick, and twenty-two five-fives of a soft small one, and eight linen hulls, twenty sazhens each, which the gunners will choose, and eight boxes for shots and sacks, Yes, osmers are littered, and twenty hryvnias are lead, and eight sheepskins. Apparently, the shells were made by wrapping iron cores in several layers of thick paper and fabric, possibly impregnated with a combustible composition (resin and sulfur), then braiding them with strong linen "skins".

Despite the appearance in the middle of the XVI century. wheeled carriages, in the 16th and 17th centuries. to the place of battle "great guns" and mortars, their "drags" and "camps from the wheel" were delivered on carts or on river boats. So, in the early spring of 1552, before the start of preparations for the Kazan campaign to Sviyazhsk, the siege artillery of the Russian army was delivered from Nizhny Novgorod down the Volga on plows. During the winter Polotsk campaign of 1563, large wall-beating cannons, according to an eyewitness, were dragged, apparently on sledges. “The first wall-beater was dragged by 1040 peasants. The second is 1000 peasants. Third - 900 peasants. The last one is 800 peasants”. As a rule, cannon carriages were made in Moscow. The sources only once mention the manufacture of 8 "mills" for guns in Belgorod.

The first gunpowder factory (“green mill”) was built in Moscow in 1494, but for many decades the production of gunpowder was the responsibility of the taxable population. The official order of the authorities has been preserved, according to which in 1545, before the next campaign against Kazan, the Novgorodians had to produce for the upcoming war and bring to the treasury a pood of gunpowder from 20 yards, "from all the yards of whose yard you may be." As a result, they collected the necessary 232 poods of gunpowder and about three hundred rubles in money from those who preferred to pay off this duty.

In the first half of the XVI century. The Moscow Powder Yard was located not far from the Cannon Yard on the Neglinnaya River near the Uspensky ravine, in the "Alevizovsky Yard". At that time, it was the country's largest center for "green" production, with a large number working. The evidence is a chronicle story about a fire that took place here in 1531, during which “more than two hundred people” of craftsmen and workers died. In the second half of the XVI century. large "green yards" worked in Pskov, Voronoch, Ostrov, Kostroma, Kolomna, Serpukhov, Murom, Borovsk, Tula, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky. The increased scale of gunpowder production required an increase in saltpeter production. The development of soils containing potassium nitrate was established at Beloozero, in Uglich, Bezhetsk, Kostroma, Poshekhonye, ​​Dmitrov, Klin, Vologda, in the possessions of the Stroganovs in the Urals and other areas.

Russian gunners used stone, iron, lead, copper, and later cast-iron cannonballs as live ammunition, as well as their combinations - sources mention stone cannonballs “doused” with lead, iron “truncations”, also doused with lead or tin. Shot was widely used - chopped pieces of metal ("cut iron shot"), stones, but most often - blacksmith's slag. Such shells were used to destroy enemy manpower. Iron cores were forged by blacksmiths on anvils, and then turned. “17 thin iron ones, on which iron balls are stroked” are mentioned in the painting of tools and stocks stored in Novgorod even in 1649. During the Livonian War of 1558-1583. Russian artillerymen began to use "fiery coolies", "fiery cores" (incendiary projectiles), and later - hardened cores. Mass production of "fiery cores" was established by Russian craftsmen in the middle of the 16th century. on the eve of the Livonian War. Various methods of manufacturing incendiary projectiles were studied in detail by N.E. Brandenburg. The first method is quite simple: before the shot, the stone core was covered with a combustible composition made from resin and sulfur, and then fired from the gun. Subsequently, the technology for manufacturing such shells became more complicated: a hollow metal core filled with combustible substances was placed in a bag braided with ropes, then it was tarred, immersed in melted sulfur, braided again and tarred again, and then used for incendiary shooting. Sometimes pieces of rifle barrels loaded with bullets were inserted into such a core to intimidate the enemy, who decided to put out the fire that had begun. More simple, but quite effective was firing with red-hot cannonballs. When preparing the shot, the powder charge was closed with a wooden wad coated with a layer of clay a finger thick, and then with special tongs an iron core heated on a brazier was lowered into the bore. In 1579, the artillery of the Polish king Stefan Batory fired at the Russian fortresses of Polotsk and Sokol, in 1580 at Velikie Luki, and in 1581 at Pskov. The use of incendiary projectiles of this type by the enemy provoked angry protests from Ivan the Terrible, who called the use of red-hot cannonballs "fierce atrocity." However, the novelty took root in Russia and soon the Moscow masters began to pour "fiery squeaks" for firing exactly the same cores. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize as erroneous the mention by some domestic researchers of cases of the use of "incendiary bombs" by Russian artillerymen during the years of the Livonian War.

In our country, explosive shells (cannon grenades) became widespread no earlier than the middle of the 17th century. Their production became possible thanks to the further development of Russian metallurgy. Since that time, stone cores have fallen out of use. The sources preserved the mention of chain projectiles - the cores of "double shells", stored among other ammunition in April 1649 in Novgorod, apparently for quite a long time, since the "fiery cores" that were with them fell into complete disrepair.

Interesting - for those who think that someone great cast, built, hewed and none of his contemporaries CANNOT!

On the eve of May 9, a copy of the Moscow Tsar Cannon appeared near the entrance of the Izhstal plant. She is not new at all, she is already 13 years old, like her brother in Donetsk. In 2001, the Izhstal plant, commissioned by Moscow, cast two cannons, one remained in the city, the other was presented to the Ukrainian people.

- The production was divided into two stages: in the 17th workshop they made a mold for casting, in workshop No. 21 the mold was filled with cast iron. In total, the cannon consists of 24 elements, including patterns on the gun barrel, a lion's head, a cast image of Tsar Fyodor on a horse, 4 cannonballs and many others.

But since there are no drawings of the original Moscow cannon for a long time, our craftsmen went to Moscow, took photographs and measurements. To begin with, they made a wooden cannon, then a trial one made of cast iron.

In May 2001, a gift from Moscow was brought to Donetsk in two MAZ vehicles - a copy of the Tsar Cannon.

- The only difference between the Donetsk cannon and the Kremlin cannon is the barrel. It is 5.28 m long, which is 6 centimeters shorter than the original.

The gun was mounted on a cast-iron carriage. Ornamental cast-iron cannonballs were placed right in front of it.

- The carriage itself weighs 20 tons, and the gun - 44 tons! The Tsar Cannon was installed in front of the Donetsk City Hall, and it instantly became a tourist symbol of the city and a place of pilgrimage for newlyweds.

A wooden copy is still kept at the factory. On May 1, 2012, she even took part in the festive parade. Until recently, the first cannon made of cast iron stood on the territory of the plant. Before May 9 this year, she was put up at the entrance of the plant.

Moreover, in Yoshkar-Ola they did the same, only smaller.

A century later, Peter the Great radically reformed the army of the Russian state, including artillery. It should be noted that, carrying out grandiose transformations, he successfully combined the best of what his ancestors had achieved with the dictates of the present. But until that time, the gunners of the Muscovite state had to endure many trials and, in the battles for the independence of the Fatherland, enrich artillery with many outstanding accomplishments.

Russian breech-loading pischal of the 17th century with a wedge bolt (caliber - 25 mm; length - 665 mm)

It is generally accepted that only the appearance of rifled guns in the second half of the 19th century served as an impetus that caused fundamental changes in artillery in all countries of the world. The opinion is quite natural, since even the best examples of smooth-bore guns were inferior to rifled ones in range, accuracy of fire and ammunition efficiency. All this is true. But it would be a mistake to believe that the very first samples of rifled breech-loading guns were created only in the 50-60s of the XIX century.

Artillery historians know that as early as the end of the 16th century, Russian gunsmiths made a 1.7-inch iron pishchal - one of the first guns of this type. There were rifling in the bore of its barrel, and on the barrel itself, above the muzzle, a device for attaching a front sight. It had a wonderful gun and an unusual device for all times, which allowed it to be charged from the breech. And it was far from the only example of rifled artillery systems created by Russian craftsmen.

Breech-loading pischal "Three asps", equipped with a vertical wedge gate (barrel length - 4 m)

In the St. Petersburg Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps, you can see a bronze pischal with ten spiral rifling inside the barrel. And this gun, cast in 1615, was also locked “from the treasury” with a wedge gate. By the way, the German "cannon king" Kruip patented a similar shutter only in the 19th century!

Thus, Russian gunners, long before their Western European counterparts, managed to create simple and reliable devices, a kind of forerunner of modern piston and wedge gates. In particular, a piston lock (or, in the terminology of those years, a vineyard) was equipped with an iron arquebus of the 16th century “Faceted”, which owes its name to the characteristic shape of the barrel, made in the form of a polyhedron, so unusual for artillery.

In the same period, Russian gunsmiths continued to deal with issues of increasing the rate of fire of guns. There was only one way to solve this problem in the 16th-17th centuries - by increasing the number of guns in the regiments. However, in this case, the batteries would be oversaturated with equipment, which would negatively affect their maneuverability, and it would be difficult to control the actions of several dozen guns. Russian craftsmen found an original solution to this problem by creating multi-barreled cannons, then called “magpies” (remember the old expression “forty forties”, which meant a great many!). By the way, at the same time, guns with a “repeated firing” mechanism were also made, somewhat reminiscent of magazine rifles and revolvers of the 19th century.

Samples of the first artillery shutters made by Russian gunsmiths in the 16th-17th centuries; a - vingrad - a prototype of a piston valve; b - prototype of a horizontal clip shutter; c - one of the first vertical wedge gates

One of the first multi-barrel systems was taken up by the wonderful Russian gunsmith Andrey Chokhov. It was he who created the previously mentioned hundred-barreled cannon, which for a long time covered the Moskvoretsky Gates of Kitai-Gorod. Later, the hundred-barrel, weighing 5.2 tons, was transported to the Cannon Yard, where it was stored until early XVIII centuries. The Chokhov gun was designed to fire goose egg-sized cannon balls weighing about 200 grams.

Four decades later, Russian craftsmen cast a more modest - "only" three-barreled cannon weighing 952 kilograms, but firing 800-gram cannonballs. Of interest is the "mini-battery" of the 17th century, which consisted of three-inch mortars placed in three rows, eight barrels each. At the same time, the gas stations of each row were connected by a common chute, which made it possible to conduct salvo fire. This gun was mounted on a two-wheeled machine, equipped with a device that allowed vertical aiming of each row of mortars.

Another artillery system of a similar purpose also consisted of two dozen cast-iron mortars. Only they were mounted on a four-wheeled wagon in two separate groups - three rows each.

I must say that in Russian artillery, multi-barreled "magpies" were not something exceptional. In the 17th century, they formed the basis of fortress artillery. For example, according to the inventory of 1637, in Suzdal there were “two squeaks of forties copper, with 37 iron cores, a half-hryvnia core”. In Kaluga - "a fortieth copper squeaker in a camp on wheels, 25 iron cores to it." In addition, the "fortieth" squeaks were in service with the fortress garrisons of Borovsk, Mozhaisk, Tver, Putivl, Kolomna, Pereyaslavl, Tula and others.

Defense of Smolensk in 1633. Fragment of a German engraving

Russian gunsmiths have achieved such remarkable success in the development of artillery because the secrets of production were not the secret of this or that master. On the contrary, they were regularly summarized in manuscripts, and new generations of gunsmiths began to work, having mastered the experience of their predecessors. The manuscript of the “Pushkar case of orders”, dated 1680, and the “Case of the Moscow Pushkar order from November 30, 1681 to January 1, 1685”, have come down to our time, in which extensive material was collected on the development of artillery in the Muscovite state. In particular, it contains detailed information about the production of tools different systems and their combat use.

gun park
Under Ivan the Terrible, Russian artillery was one of the strongest in Europe. The ambassador of the German emperor, Kobenzl, wrote in 1576 that the Moscow tsar always had at least 2,000 guns ready.

The handwritten work “Architecture of Military Teaching”, dating from the same period, outlines the rules for the siege and defense of fortresses, gives recipes for making gunpowder, describes the design features of various guns and ammunition, generalizes ways to place guns in positions. This collection also contains recommendations for gunners on how to achieve effective firing.

Considerable attention was paid in the Muscovite State to the practical training of gunners. Documents have been preserved, indicating that since the time of Ivan the Terrible, annual viewing firing from guns of various calibers and types has been carried out. This practice was further developed during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, and then viewing shooting became traditional for the Russian army. We add that it was at such competitions that guns of new models and types were tested, and the best of them then entered service with the troops. At the same time, effective methods of conducting wholesale for various purposes were developed at the "polygons".

The 17th century was coming to an end, which brought many severe trials to our country. In a number of wars, the Moscow army managed to protect the borders of the state, and the fighters of the Regimental detachment played a significant role in this.

And for gunsmiths, the period of the formation of domestic artillery ended in the 17th century, during which the types of firearms and the organization of artillery business were worked out. In a word, the foundation was laid on which the reforms carried out by "the first scorer of the Moscow army" - Peter I were based.