Bronekhod: as the son of Mendeleev came up with the perfect tank

Weapons 14/12/19 Bronekhod: as the son of Mendeleev came up with the perfect tank

national tank appeared in Russia in the end of the Civil war, however as a copy of a light French tank . Although there was a chance to create their own heavy tank in the First world, and it could be the most perfect specimen of tank.

Mendeleyev, Mendeleyev son

unlike the well-known sayings about the nature having a rest on children of geniuses, Vasily Mendeleev was quite a worthy son of his father. Vasily graduated from the shipbuilding Department of the naval engineering school, naval engineer. As chief designer he created submarines, mine layers and armadillos. That is, was not a dreamer, creating useless projects. Recognizing the increased role of machine guns in modern war, think about the means of their oppression and came to the idea of mobile armored Fort, further in the text we will call it the familiar term “tank”.

the Development of drawings was begun in 1911 and 24 August 1916, when the First world was already in full swing, has applied to the war Department on Bronekhod, as he called his brainchild.

According to the drawings and description, published in the journal “Tekhnika — molodezhi” No9 from 1949, a box with the armor thickness of 100-150 mm and a length of 10 meters move on the tracks, equipped with air suspension, at a speed of 24 km/h. the Tank had a 120-mm naval gun located in the bow of the hull and lifting turret with a machine gun “Maxim”, allowing a circular flame. The crew — 8 people. Four post control is allowed to continue combat missions even in the case of destruction of the tank by enemy fire that it was virtually eliminated due to the thickness of armor that even a direct fire in an emphasis did not take, no known weapon at the time.

the “Bronekhod” was used to scoretion ahead of its time technical solutions. For example, when shooting the body would sink to the ground, which began to use Germans in a self-propelled artillery pieces only in 1942.

air suspension rollers and compressed air to lift the hull began to use English for airborne tanks during world war II.

Bronekhod could move independently by rail on a special rays that would become a reality decades later.

Despite all the technical perfection “of Bronekhod,” the project, after months of consideration, was shelved.

the Conservatives from the Ministry of defence

what was the reason for such an attitude to the new weapon, which is also proved their superiority on the battlefield: the world’s first attack British tanks at the German trenches 15th of September 1916 in the battle of the Somme and succeeded?

With the extremely rigid approach of the military bureaucracy to adopt new samples. For example. Mikhail Baryatinsky, the historian of armored forces, in his book about Russian armored cars writes how resistance of the military establishment had to face the inventors, despite the fairly high patrons and the willingness of their own money to produce a pilot batch of vehicles. In 1910 said “no” to a promising project Aviator Peter Nesterov. And Alexey Oleynikov – doctor of historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of history at Astrakhan state University — the story of adopting a Russian army flame-thrower reports that it took the personal intervention of Emperor Nicholas II; in may 1915 the Main artillery, the Committee did not consider this solution.

And these episodes dozens. Apparently, the project of “Bronekhod” has not caught the eye of Nicholas II that decided the fate of the tank, remaining only in drawings.

Konstantin Baranovsky

Source:
© Russian Seven

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