When, at range shooting, soldiers and commanders asked a GAU representative to name the “true” name of the combat installation, he advised: “Name the installation as usual artillery piece. This is important for maintaining secrecy."

There is no single version of why the BM-13 began to be called “Katyusha”. There are several assumptions:

1After the title of Blanter’s song, which became popular before the war, based on the words of Isakovsky< КАТЮША>.

The version is convincing, since the battery first fired on July 14, 1941 at a gathering of fascists on Bazarnaya Square in the city of Rudnya, Smolensk region. She was shooting from a high steep mountain at direct fire - the association with the high steep bank in the song immediately arose among the fighters. The former sergeant of the 217th Headquarters Company is finally alive. separate battalion communications of the 144th Infantry Division of the 20th Army Andrei Sapronov, now a military historian, who gave it this name. Red Army soldier Kashirin, having arrived with him at the battery after the shelling of Rudnya, exclaimed in surprise: “What a song!” “Katyusha,” answered Andrei Sapronov. Through the communications center of the headquarters company, the news about a miracle weapon called “Katyusha” within 24 hours became the property of the entire 20th Army, and through its command, the entire country. On July 13, 2010, the veteran and “godfather” of Katyusha turned 89 years old.

2By the abbreviation “KAT” - there is a version that this is what the rangers called the BM-13 - “Kostikovsky automatic thermal” (according to another source - “Cumulative artillery thermal”), after the name of the project manager, (however, given the secrecy of the project, the possibility of exchanging information between rangers and front-line soldiers is doubtful).

3Another option is that the name is associated with the “K” index on the mortar body - the installations were produced by the Kalinin plant (according to another source, by the Comintern plant). And front-line soldiers loved to give nicknames to their weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed “Mother”, the ML-20 howitzer gun was nicknamed “Emelka”. Yes, and the BM-13 was at first sometimes called “Raisa Sergeevna,” thus deciphering the abbreviation RS (missile).

4The fourth version suggests that this is what the girls from the Moscow Kompressor plant who worked on the assembly dubbed these cars.

5Another, exotic version. The guides on which the projectiles were mounted were called ramps. The forty-two-kilogram projectile was lifted by two fighters harnessed to the straps, and the third usually helped them, pushing the projectile so that it lay exactly on the guides, and he also informed those holding that the projectile stood up, rolled, and rolled onto the guides. It was allegedly called “Katyusha” - the role of those holding the projectile and rolling it was constantly changing, since the crew of the BM-13, unlike barrel artillery, was not explicitly divided into loader, aimer, etc.

6 It should also be noted that the installations were so secret that it was even forbidden to use the commands “fire”, “fire”, “volley”, instead they were sounded “sing” or “play” (to start it was necessary to turn the handle of the electric coil very quickly), that , may also have been related to the song “Katyusha”. And for the infantry, a salvo of Katyusha rockets was the most pleasant music.

7There is an assumption that the initial nickname “Katyusha” was a front-line bomber equipped with rockets - an analogue of the M-13. And this nickname jumped from the plane to rocket launcher through the same shells.

And further Interesting Facts about the names of BM-13:

• On the Northwestern Front, the installation was initially called “Raisa Sergeevna”, thus decoding RS - that is, a rocket.

• In the German troops, these machines were called "Stalin's organs" due to the external resemblance of the rocket launcher to the pipe system of this musical instrument and the powerful, stunning roar that was produced when the missiles were launched.

• During the battles for Poznan and Berlin, the M-30 and M-31 single-launch installations received the nickname “Russian Faustpatron” from the Germans, although these shells were not used as an anti-tank weapon. From a distance of 100-200 meters, the guards pierced any walls using these shells.

Since the advent of rocket artillery - RA, its units have been subordinate to the Supreme High Command. They were used to strengthen the rifle divisions defending in the first echelon, which significantly increased their firepower and increased stability in defensive battles. The requirements for the use of new weapons were massiveness and surprise.

It is also worth noting that during the Great Patriotic War“Katyusha” repeatedly fell into the hands of the enemy (the first was captured on August 22, 1941, southeast of Staraya Russa by Manstein’s 56th motorized corps, and the BM-8-24 installation, captured on the Leningrad Front, even became the prototype of the German 8 cm rocket launchers Raketen-Vielfachwerfer.

During the Battle of Moscow, due to the difficult situation at the front, the command was forced to use rocket artillery on a divisional basis. But by the end of 1941, the number of rocket artillery in the troops increased significantly and reached 5-10 divisions in the armies operating in the main direction. Controlling the fire and maneuver of a large number of divisions, as well as supplying them with ammunition and other types of food, became difficult. By decision of the Headquarters, the creation of 20 Guards mortar regiments began in January 1942. “The Guards Mortar Regiment - GMP artillery of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command of the RVG in the state consisted of three divisions of three batteries. Each battery had four combat vehicles. Thus, a salvo of only one division of 12 BM-13-16 GMP vehicles (Headquarters directive No. 002490 prohibited the use of RA in numbers of less than a division) could be compared in strength to a salvo of 12 heavy howitzer regiments of the RVGK (48 152 mm howitzers per regiment) or 18 heavy howitzer brigades of the RVGK (32 152 mm howitzers per brigade).
The emotional effect was also important: during the salvo, all the missiles were fired almost simultaneously - within a few seconds, the ground in the target area was literally plowed up by rockets. The mobility of the installation made it possible to quickly change position and avoid a retaliatory strike from the enemy.

On July 17, 1942, in the area of ​​the village of Nalyuchi, a salvo of 144 launching frames equipped with 300-mm rockets was heard. This was the first use of a somewhat less famous related weapon - "Andryusha".

In July-August 42, the Katyushas (three regiments and a separate division) were the main striking force of the Mobile Mechanized Group of the Southern Front, which held back the advance of the 1st for several days tank army Germans south of Rostov. This is even reflected in the diary of General Halder: “increased Russian resistance south of Rostov”

In August 1942, in the city of Sochi, in the garage of the Caucasian Riviera sanatorium, under the leadership of the head of mobile repair workshop No. 6, military engineer of the 3rd rank A. Alferov, a portable version of the installation was created based on M-8 shells, which was later called the “mountain Katyusha”. The first “mountain Katyushas” entered service with the 20th Mountain Rifle Division and were used in battles at the Goytkh Pass. In February - March 1943, two divisions of “Mountain Katyushas” became part of the troops defending the legendary bridgehead on Malaya Zemlya near Novorossiysk. In addition, 4 installations based on railcars were created at the Sochi locomotive depot, which were used to protect the city of Sochi from the shore. The minesweeper "Skumbria" was equipped with eight installations, which covered the landing on Malaya Zemlya

In September 1943, the Katyusha maneuver along the front line made it possible to carry out a sudden flank attack on the Bryansk Front.During the artillery preparation, 6,000 rocket shells and only 2,000 barrel shells were used. As a result, the German defense was “collapsed” in the zone of the entire front - 250 kilometers.

, adopted for service in 1941, was in service until 1980, 30,000 pieces were manufactured during the Second World War. Legends about this weapon began to take shape immediately after it appeared. However, the history of the creation and use of the BM-13 guards mortar is indeed unusual; we will dilute the article a little with photos, although not always on time in the text, but on topic, that’s it.

BM-13 Katyusha rocket launcher volley fire photo, was demonstrated to Soviet leaders on June 21, 1941. And on the same day, literally a few hours before the start of the war, a decision was made to urgently launch mass production of M-13 missiles and a launcher for them, which received the official name BM-13 (combat machine-13).

Diagram of the BM-13 Katyusha rocket launcher

First field battery BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher photo , sent to the front on the night of July 1-2, 1941 under the command of Captain Flerov, consisted of seven automobile installations based on the three-axle ZiS-6 truck. On July 14, a combat premiere took place in the form of shelling of the market square of the town of Rudnya. But "finest hour" missile weapons came on July 16, 1941. A salvo fired by the battery literally wiped out the occupied railway junction of Orsha from the face of the earth, along with the Red Army echelons located there, which did not have time to evacuate (!).

BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher based on the ZIS-6 photo, this is a three-axle version of the ZIS-5 truck and is largely unified with it.

As a result, a huge amount of weapons, fuel and ammunition did not reach the enemy. The effect of the artillery attack was such that many Germans caught in the affected area went crazy. This was, in addition to everything else, psychological impact new weapons, as many Wehrmacht soldiers and officers admitted in their memoirs. It must be said that the first use of rockets occurred a little earlier, in air battles with the Japanese over the distant Khalkhin Gol river. Then the 82-mm air-to-air missiles RS-82 developed in 1937 and the 132-mm air-to-ground missiles PC-132, created a year later, were successfully tested. It was after this that the Main Artillery Directorate set the developer of these shells, the Jet Research Institute, the task of creating a multiple launch rocket system based on PC-132 shells. The updated tactical and technical specifications were issued to the institute in June 1938.

In the photo of "Katyusha" upon closer examination you can see a lot of interesting things

The RNII itself was created at the end of 1933 on the basis of two design groups. In Moscow, under the Central Council of Osoaviakhim, since August 1931, there was a “Group for the Study jet propulsion"(GIRD), in October of the same year, a similar group called "Gas Dynamic Laboratory" (GDL) was formed in Leningrad. The initiator of the merger of two initially independent teams into a single organization was the then chief of armaments of the Red Army, M.N. Tukhachevsky. In his opinion, the RNII should have resolved issues rocket technology in relation to military affairs, primarily aviation and artillery. I.T. was appointed director of the institute. Kleymenov, and his deputy - G.E. Langemak, both military engineers. Aviation designer S.P. Korolev was appointed head of the 5th department of the institute, which was entrusted with the development of rocket planes and cruise missiles. In accordance with the assignment received, by the summer of 1939, a 132-mm rocket was developed, which later received the name M-13. Compared to its aviation counterpart, the PC-132 had a longer flight range, greater mass and significantly more powerful combat unit. This was achieved by increasing the amount of rocket fuel and explosives, for which the rocket and head parts of the projectile were lengthened by 48 cm. The M-13 projectile also had better aerodynamic characteristics than the PC-132, which made it possible to obtain a higher accuracy of fire.
During their time at the institute, Kleymenov and Langemak almost completed the development of the RS-82 and RS-132 missiles. In total, in 1933, official field tests of nine types of missiles of various calibers designed by B.S. were carried out at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory from land, sea vessels and aircraft. Petropavlovsky, G.E. Langemak and V.A. Artemyeva, II.I. Tikhomirov and Yu.A. Pobedonostsev using smokeless powder.

M-13 rocket shells from the BM-13 Katyusha rocket artillery combat vehicle

And everything would be fine if... Over time, two opposing groups formed in the RNII. It was believed that the disagreement arose over what fuel to fill the rocket with. In fact, the roots of the conflict and subsequent tragedy should be sought deeper. Some of the employees led by A.G. The Kostikovs believed that they were being unfairly “overwritten” by those who occupied command posts Kleymenov, Langemak, Korolev and Glushko. The method of fighting for a place in the sun was known and tested. Kostikov began writing denunciations against his colleagues to the NKVD. “The revelation of the counter-revolutionary Trotskyist sabotage and sabotage gang, their methods and tactics, persistently requires us to again take an even deeper look at our work, at the people leading and working in this or that section of the Institute,” he wrote in one of his letters. - I assert that in production a completely unsuitable system was clearly adopted, inhibiting development. This is also not a random fact. Give me all the materials, and I will clearly prove with facts that someone’s hand, perhaps due to inexperience, slowed down the work and brought the state into colossal losses. Kleymenov, Langemak and Padezhip are to blame for this, first of all...”

132-mm multiple launch rocket system BM-13 Katyusha photo of various chassis

Feeling that he would not be allowed to work at the RNII in peace, Kleimenov at the end of the summer of 1937 agreed with the head of TsAGI Kharlamov about his transfer there. However, he didn’t have time... On the night of November 2, 1937, Ivan Terentyevich Kleimenov was arrested as a German spy and saboteur. At the same time, the same fate befell his deputy G.E. Langemak (German by nationality, which was an aggravating circumstance).

BM-13 Katyusha multiple launch rocket launcher on the ZiS-6 chassis, almost all rocket launcher monuments are based on this chassis, pay attention to the square wings, in fact the ZiS-6 had rounded wings. Some BM-13 units on the ZIS-6 chassis served throughout the war and reached Berlin and Prague.

Soon both were shot. Perhaps an additional (or main) role in this crime was played by the close contacts of those arrested with Tukhachevsky. Much later, November 19, 1955, Military Collegium Supreme Court The USSR determined: “... the verdict... of January 11, 1938 against Georgy Erikhovich Langemak, due to newly discovered circumstances, is canceled, and the case against him on the basis of clause 5 of Art. 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR should be terminated criminally due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions...” Almost four decades later, by Decree of the President of the USSR of June 21, 1991, Langemaku G.E. awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously). The same Decree was awarded to his colleagues - I.T. Kleymenov, V.P. Luzhin, B.S. Petropavlovsky, B.M. Slonimer and II.I. Tikhomirov. All the heroes turned out to be innocent, but you can’t bring the dead back from the other world... As for Kostikov, he achieved his goal by becoming the head of the RPII. True, thanks to his efforts, the institute did not last long. On February 18, 1944, the State Defense Committee, in connection with the “unbearable situation that has arisen with the development of jet technology in the USSR,” decided: “... State Institute liquidate the jet technology under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and entrust the solution of this problem to the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry."

Katyusha multiple rocket launcher on a Studebaker chassis photo

So, one might say, the legendary Katyusha was born despite many circumstances. Poe was born! Its rockets were launched from guides located in the body of a self-propelled multi-charge launcher. The first option was based on the chassis of the ZiS-5 truck and was designated MU-1 (mechanized unit, first sample). Field tests of the installation carried out between December 1938 and February 1939 showed that it did not fully meet the requirements.

Installation of MU-1 photo, late version, the guides are located transversely, but the chassis is already used by the ZiS-6

In particular, when firing, the vehicle began to sway on the suspension springs, which reduced the accuracy of the fire, which was already not very high. Taking into account the test results, RPII developed a new launcher MU-2 (ZiS-6), which in September 1939 was accepted by the Main Artillery Directorate for field testing. Based on their results, the institute was ordered five such installations for military testing. Another stationary installation was ordered by the Navy Artillery Directorate for use in the coastal defense system.

BM-13 "Katyusha" on the chassis of the STZ-5-NATI tractor

The exceptional effectiveness of the combat operations of Captain Flerov’s battery and seven more such batteries formed after it contributed to the rapid increase in the rate of production of jet weapons. Already in the autumn of 1941, 45 divisions operated on the fronts, each of which consisted of three batteries with four launchers each. For their armament in 1941, 593 BM-13 installations were manufactured. As military equipment arrived from factories, the formation of full-fledged rocket artillery regiments began, consisting of three divisions armed with BM-13 launchers and an anti-aircraft division.

• Each regiment had 1414 personnel,
• 36 BM-13 launchers
• twelve 37-mm anti-aircraft guns.
• The artillery regiment's salvo amounted to 576 132 mm shells.
• At the same time, enemy manpower and equipment were destroyed over an area of ​​over 100 hectares. Officially, such units began to be called “guards mortar regiments of the reserve artillery of the Supreme High Command.”

The crew, having driven to the rear, reloads the BM-13 combat mount based on the Chevrolet G-7117 truck, summer 1943.

What was the exceptional combat power of the Guards mortars based on? Each projectile was approximately equal in power to a howitzer of the same caliber, and the installation itself could almost simultaneously fire, depending on the model, from 8 to 32 missiles. Moreover, in each division, equipped, for example, with BM-13 installations, there were five vehicles, each of which had 16 guides for launching 132-mm M-13 projectiles, each weighing 42 kg, with a flight range of 8470 m. Accordingly, only one division could fire 80 shells at the enemy.

BM-8-36 rocket launcher based on the ZIS-6 vehicle

If the division was equipped with BM-8 launchers with 32 82-mm shells, then one salvo consisted of 160 smaller-caliber missiles. A literally avalanche of fire and metal fell on the enemy in a few seconds. It was the highest fire density that distinguished rocket artillery from cannon artillery. During offensives, the Soviet command traditionally tried to concentrate as much artillery as possible at the forefront of the main attack.

The device of rockets BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher photo : 1 - fuse retaining ring, 2 - GVMZ fuse, 3 - detonator block, 4 - explosive charge, 5 - head part, 6 - igniter, 7 - chamber bottom, 8 - guide pin, 9 - rocket charge, 10 - rocket part , 11 - grate, 12 - critical section of the nozzle, 13 - nozzle, 14 - stabilizer, 15 - remote fuse pin, 16 - AGDT remote fuse, 17 - igniter.
The super-massive artillery barrage, which preceded the breakthrough of the enemy front, became one of the main trump cards of the Red Army. No army in that war could provide such a density of fire. Thus, in 1945, during the offensive, the Soviet command concentrated up to 230-260 cannon artillery pieces on one kilometer of the front. In addition to them, every kilometer there were, on average, 15-20 rocket artillery combat vehicles, not counting the larger stationary M-30 missile launchers. Traditionally, Katyushas completed an artillery attack: rocket launchers fired a salvo when the infantry was already attacking. The front-line soldiers said: “Well, the Katyusha started singing...”

Multiple rocket launcher on GMC CCKW chassis photo

By the way, why the gun mount received such an unofficial name, no one could really answer, either then or even today. Some say that it was simply in honor of a popular song at that time: at the beginning of the shooting, the shells, falling off the guides, flew off on their last eight-kilometer path with a drawn-out “singing.” Others believe that the name came from homemade soldier lighters, also nicknamed “Katyushas” for some reason. Even during the Spanish War, Tupolev SB bombers, sometimes armed with RSs, were called by the same name. One way or another, but after the Katyusha mortars finished their song, the infantry entered the shelled locality or into enemy positions without encountering any resistance. There was no one to resist. The few enemy soldiers who remained alive were completely demoralized. True, over time the enemy reorganized. Yes, this is understandable. Otherwise, the entire Wehrmacht would have been completely demoralized after a while, gone crazy from the Katyusha rockets, and the Red Army would have had no one to fight with. German soldiers learned to hide in well-fortified dugouts at the first sounds of “Stalin’s organs,” as the enemy nicknamed our missiles for their unbearable howl. Then our rocket men also reorganized. Now the Katyushas began the artillery preparation, and the guns finished it.

BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher on a Ford chassis WOT photo

“If you bring in a gun regiment for artillery preparation, the regiment commander will definitely say: “I don’t have accurate data, I have to shoot the guns...” If they started shooting, and they usually shoot with one gun, taking the target into the “fork,” this is a signal to the enemy to hide. Which is what the soldiers did in 15-20 seconds. During this time, the artillery barrel fired only one or two shells. And in 15-20 seconds I will fire 120 missiles as a division, all of which fly at once,” said the commander of the rocket mortar regiment A.F. Panuev. But, as you know, there are no pros without cons. Mobile installations of rocket mortars usually moved into position immediately before the salvo and just as quickly after the salvo they tried to leave the area. At the same time, the Germans, for obvious reasons, tried to destroy the Katyushas first. Therefore, immediately after a salvo of mortars, volleys, as a rule, fell on the positions of those who remained German artillery and bombs from instantly arriving Yu-87 dive bombers. So now the rocket men had to hide. Here is what artilleryman Ivan Trofimovich Salnitsky recalled about this:

“We are choosing firing positions. They tell us: there is a firing position in such and such a place, you will wait for soldiers or placed beacons. We take a firing position at night. At this time the Katyusha division is approaching. If I had time, I would immediately remove my guns from there. Because the Katyushas fired a salvo and left. And the Germans raised nine Uikers and attacked our battery. There was a commotion! open place, hid under the gun carriages..."

Destroyed rocket launcher, photo date unknown

However, the rocket scientists themselves also suffered. As veteran mortarman Semyon Savelyevich Kristya said, there was the strictest secret instructions. On some forums there is a dispute that it was precisely because of the secret of the fuel that the Germans tried to capture the installation. As you can see in the photo, the installation was captured and not alone.

Rocket launcher BM-13-16, on the chassis of a ZIS-6 vehicle captured intact by German troops, photo Eastern Front, autumn 1941

A BM-13-16 rocket launcher abandoned during the retreat. Summer 1942, Eastern Front photo, as can be seen from both photos, the ammunition was fired, in fact, the composition of the shells was no secret, but at least for our allies, they made the bulk of the shells

B-13-16 Katyusha rocket launcher on a ZIS-6 chassis (captured by the Germans), as seen in the photo with full ammunition

In the event of a threat of possible capture of the missile launcher by the enemy, the crew " BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher photo "was supposed to blow up the installation using a self-destruction system. The compilers of the instructions did not specify what would happen to the crew themselves... This is exactly how the wounded captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov committed suicide while surrounded on October 7, 1941. But comrade Cristea was captured twice, caught by special teams of the Wehrmacht, who were sent to capture the Katyushas and their crews. Semyon Savelyevich, I must say, was lucky. He was able to escape from captivity twice, stunning the guards. But upon returning to his native regiment, he remained silent about these exploits. Otherwise, like many, he would have fallen from the frying pan into the fire... Such adventures happened more often in the first year of the war. Then our troops stopped retreating so quickly that it was impossible to keep up behind the front even with a car, and the rocket men themselves, having acquired the necessary combat experience, began to act more carefully.

BM-13 Katyusha rocket mortar on the chassis of the T-40 tank, by the way, the Americans also installed their multiple launch rocket systems on the Sherman

First, officers took positions and made the appropriate calculations, which, by the way, were quite complex, since it was necessary to take into account not only the distance to the target, the speed and direction of the wind, but even the air temperature, which also influenced the flight path of the missiles. After all the calculations were made, the vehicles moved into position, fired several salvos (usually no more than five) and quickly rushed to the rear. Delay in this case was indeed like death - the Germans immediately covered the place from which the rocket mortars were firing with return artillery fire.
During the offensive, the tactics of using Katyushas, ​​which were finally perfected by 1943 and were used everywhere until the end of the war, were as follows: at the very beginning of the offensive, when it was necessary to break through the enemy’s deeply layered defenses, the artillery formed a so-called “barrage of fire” . At the beginning of the shelling, all howitzers (often heavy self-propelled guns) and rocket mortars worked on the first line of defense. Then the fire moved to the fortifications of the second line, and the attacking infantry occupied the trenches and dugouts of the first. After this, the fire was transferred to the third line, while the infantrymen occupied the second line.

Katyusha multiple rocket launcher based on Ford-Marmon photo

Most likely the same part, the photo was taken from a different angle

Moreover, the further forward the infantry went, the less cannon artillery could support it - towed guns could not accompany it throughout the entire offensive. This task was assigned to much more mobile self-propelled guns and Katyushas. It was they, along with the slippers, who followed the infantry, supporting it with fire.
Now the Wehrmacht soldiers had no time to hunt for Katyushas. And the installations themselves, which increasingly began to be based on the all-wheel drive American Studebaker US6, did not represent much of a secret. Steel rails served as missile guides during launch; their angle of inclination was manually adjusted by a simple screw gear. The only secret was the rockets themselves, or rather, their filling. And after the salvo, there weren’t any of them left on the installations. Attempts were made to install launchers on the basis of tracked vehicles, but the speed of movement for rocket artillery turned out to be more important than maneuverability. Katyushas were also installed on armored trains and ships

BM-13 Katyusha firing photo

BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher on the streets of Berlin photo

By the way, Kostikov was never really able to organize the production of gunpowder for equipping missiles at the RNII. It got to the point that at one time the Americans produced solid rocket fuel for us according to our recipes (!). This was another reason for the disbandment of the institute... And as things stood with our opponents, they had their own six-barreled mortar rocket launcher, the Nebelwerfer.

Nebelwerfer. German rocket launcher 15 cm photo

It was used from the very beginning of the war, but the Germans did not have such massive formations of units as we did, see the article “German six-barreled mortar.”
The design and combat experience gained with Katyushas served as the basis for the creation and further improvement of Grads, Hurricanes, Typhoons and other multiple rocket launchers. Only one thing remained almost at the same level - the accuracy of the salvo, which even today leaves much to be desired. The work of reactive systems cannot be called jewelry. That’s why they hit them mainly in squares, including in the current Ukrainian war. And it is often civilians who suffer more from this fire, like Soviet citizens who had the imprudence to end up in their huts in 41 near the Orsha station...

Famous phrase: “I don’t know what weapon will be used to fight the third World War, but the fourth with stones and sticks” belongs to Albert Einstein. Perhaps everyone understands what the great scientist meant.

The process of development and improvement of weapons, going hand in hand with the achievements of science and technology, ultimately leads to mass destruction of people. The father of the “theory of relativity” aphoristically explained what the outcome could be. What is there to argue about...?

But here's the paradox. Understanding that any weapon is intended to destroy a person (the nonsense about lethal and non-lethal is not worth repeating), people respectfully preserve the memory of its individual types.

“Weapon of victory”: T-34 tank or Katyusha rocket launcher.

Who hasn't heard of the Mosin three-line gun or the famous Maxim machine gun? Don’t the T-34 tank or the Katyusha rocket launcher deservedly bear the title “Weapon of Victory”. It's like that. And as long as the “doves of peace” give way to the “hawks,” weapons will continue to be produced.

How the weapon of Victory was created

Missiles, the principle of operation of which is based on powder rockets, have been tried to be used in many armies e back in the 19th century. Moreover, by the end of the century before last, they were even abandoned as ineffective. This was justified as follows:

• there was a danger of injury to one's own personnel in the unauthorized explosion of such shells;
• large dispersion and insufficient shooting accuracy;
• short flight range, practically no different from this indicator for cannon artillery.

The cause of the shortcomings was the use of low-quality rocket fuel. Black powder (black powder) was not suitable, and there was no other option. And for almost half a century they forgot about rockets. But as it turned out, not forever.

In the Soviet Union, work on creating new shells began in the early 20s. This process was led by engineers N.I. Tikhomirov and V.A. Artemyev.

by the end of the year, after numerous tests, 82 and 132 mm air-to-ground projectiles were created for aviation

The test results showed good results. The flight range was 5 and 6 km, respectively. But the large dispersion negated the effect of the shot.

As in other areas of the country’s life, many engineers and designers - the authors of new types of weapons - experienced the “delights” of repression. Nevertheless, in 1937-38. RS-82 and RS-132 missiles were developed and put into service for bomber aviation

At the same time, work was underway to create similar ammunition, but for artillery. The most successful option turned out to be a modified RS-132, which became known as the M-13.

After regular tests carried out on June 21, 1945, the new M-13 projectile was sent into mass production. Accordingly, BM-13 launchers, the Katyusha weapon of victory, also began to be produced.

Military vehicle Katyusha BM-13 with launcher

The first unit equipped with the new systems to arrive at the front was a battery consisting of 7 launchers based on ZiS-6 trucks. The unit was commanded by Captain Flerov.

Katyusha fired her first salvo on July 16, 1941 at the railway junction of the Orsha station, where a large number enemy troops. The effect was impressive. Explosions and flames destroyed everything. After delivering the first crushing blow, Katyusha became the main weapon of the Second World War.

The successful results of using rocket mortars (following Captain Flerov’s unit, 7 more batteries were formed) contributed to increasing the pace of production of new weapons.

Already by the autumn of 1941 defense industry was able to deliver about 600 BM-13s to the front, which made it possible to form 45 divisions. Each battery contains three batteries with four launchers. These units were equipped with military equipment and personnel first and 100%.

Later, the reorganization of rocket artillery began, uniting individual divisions into regiments. The regiments had four divisional composition (in addition to three jets there was one anti-aircraft division). The regiment was armed with 36 Katyushas and 12 anti-aircraft guns (37 mm caliber).

The regiment was armed with 36 Katyushas and 12 anti-aircraft guns.

Each regiment had 1,414 personnel on staff. The formed regiments were immediately awarded the rank of Guards and were officially called Guards Mortar Regiments.

During the war, for the creators of rocket artillery, despite results achieved, remained unchanged combat missions: achieve an increase in firing range, increase the power of the missile warhead, increase the accuracy and accuracy of fire.

To solve them, work was simultaneously carried out to improve the missile charge and to increase the combat capabilities of the missile projectile as a whole. Along with the shells that were put into service even before the war, the M-31 version was developed and began to be mass-produced.

BM-13 on Studebaker

Characteristics of rockets

Options	M-13	M-8	M-31
Body weight rocket engine, kg	14	4,1	29
Inner diameter of the case, mm	123,5	73	128
Case wall thickness, mm	4	3,5	5
Diameter of the critical section of the nozzle α cr, mm	37,5	19	45
Diameter of the nozzle bell α a, mm	75	43	76,5
Ratio α a /α cr	2	2,26	1,7
Pobedonostsev criterion	170	100	160
Charge density, g/cm 3	1,15	1,0	1,0
Engine mass perfection coefficient α	1,95	3,5	2,6
Engine intensity indicator β, kgf.s/kg	95	55	70

The Germans were terribly afraid of this our lethal weapons, calling them “Stalinist organs.” Rocket shells were most often used to suppress an advancing enemy. Usually after application missile strike infantry and tanks stopped moving forward and were not active for a long time on this section of the front.

Therefore, the rapid development of rocket artillery during the war does not need explanation.

launchers and 12 million missile shells were produced by the country's defense industry in the period from 1941-1945

The bulk of the installations were based first on ZiS-6 vehicles, and after deliveries under Lend-Lease, on American Studebaker vehicles. Others have also been used vehicles: motorcycles, snowmobiles, armored boats, railway platforms and even certain types of tanks. But BM-13, "Katyusha" was the most effective installation.

The secret behind the name of the BM-13 rocket launcher is “Katyusha”

Practice of assigning official and unofficial names certain species weapons has been known for a long time. It exists in many countries of the world.

In the Red Army, some tank models bore the names of statesmen (KV - Kliment Voroshilov, IS - Joseph Stalin), aircraft were named after the names of their creators (La-Lavochkin, Pe-Petlyakov).

But to the factory abbreviations of artillery systems, taking into account their features, soldiers’ invention added proper names (For example, the M-30 howitzer was called “Mother”).

There are several versions about why the Katyusha artillery mount received this name:

1. The name of the rocket launcher is associated with the popular song “Katyusha” by M. Isakovsky and M. Blanter. The first salvo of the rocket battery was fired from a hill. So an association arose with a line from the song...
2. On the body of the mortar there was the letter “K”, denoting the plant named after. Comintern. It is possible that the first letter of the name was the reason for assigning it to the rocket launcher.
3. There is another version. In the battles at Khalkhin Gol, bomber aircraft used M-132 shells, the ground analogue of which was the M-13 Katyusha ammunition. And these planes were sometimes called “Katyushas”.

In any case, the most widespread, well-known and deserving of the title “weapon of Victory” rocket-propelled mortar (and during the war it was not the only one) was the “Katyusha”.

Modifications of military equipment Katyusha

Even during the war years, German experts tried to obtain descriptions, characteristics, diagrams, and technical details associated with the formidable Soviet weapons. Was dedicated to one of the episodes of the war associated with the increased secrecy surrounding the BM-13 Feature Film"Special forces team".

As already noted, several modifications of rocket launchers were created during the war. Among them it is worth highlighting:

A feature of this installation is the presence of spiral guides. This innovation contributed to increased shot accuracy.

Military equipment Katyusha BM-13-SN (photo)

BM-8-48

Here the relationship between quantity and quality was tested. A less powerful M-8 projectile was used and at the same time the number of guides was increased to 48.

The numbers show that the more powerful 310mm M-31 ammunition was used for this installation.

But, apparently, the developers of new variants, trying to improve the BM-13, came to the banal conclusion that the best is the enemy of the good. The characteristics presented in the table emphasize the main advantage of the Guards mortar - its simplicity.

Performance characteristics of BM-13

CharacteristicBM-13 launcher		CharacteristicM-13 missile
Chassis	ZiS-6	Caliber (mm)	132
Number of guides	16	Stabilizer blade span (mm)	300
Guide length	5	Length (mm)	1465
Elevation angle (deg)	+4/+ 45	Weight, kg)
Horizontal aiming angle (deg)	-10/+10	loaded ammunition	42,36
Length in stowed position (m)	6,7	equipped warhead	21,3
Width (m)	2,3	bursting charge	4,9
Height in stowed position (m)	2,8	loaded jet engine	20,8
Weight without shells (kg)	7200	Projectile speed (m/sec)
Engine power (hp)	73	when leaving the guide	70
Speed ​​(km/h)	50	maximum	355
Crew (persons)	7	Length of active trajectory section (m)	1125
Transition from traveling position. in combat (min)	2-3	Maximum firing range (m)	8470
Installation charging time (min)	5-10
Full salvo time - 7-10 minutes

Advantages and disadvantages

The simple design of the Katyusha and its launcher is the main trump card in evaluating the BM-13 batteries. The artillery unit consists of eight five-meter I-beam guides, a frame, a rotating mechanism and starting electrical equipment.

During technical improvements, a lifting mechanism and an aiming device appeared on the installation.

The crew consisted of 5-7 people.

The Katyusha rocket consisted of two parts: a combat one, similar to a high-explosive fragmentation artillery round, and a rocket propellant projectile.

The ammunition was also quite simple and inexpensive. In a word, along with the effectiveness of combat use, the simplicity and low cost of the system can easily be attributed to the advantages of the Katyusha.

For the sake of objectivity, it is necessary to point out the shortcomings of the BM-13:

• low accuracy and dispersion of projectiles when firing a salvo. With the advent of spiral guides, this problem was partially solved. By the way, modern MLRS still have these shortcomings to some extent;
• short, compared to cannon artillery, range of combat use;
• the heavy smoke that appeared during the shooting unmasked the unit’s combat position;
• the high-explosive fragmentation effect of the rocket did not pose a particular danger to those in long-term shelters or armored vehicles;
• The tactics of the BM-13 divisions provided for their rapid movement from one firing position to another. The increased center of gravity of cars often led to their overturning while on the move.

Post-war history of the multiple launch rocket system

After the victory, the story of the creation of Katyusha continued. Work to improve the multiple rocket launcher has not stopped. They continued in Peaceful time. The main model was the BM-13-SN rocket system, the improvement and testing of which continued for several years with varying degrees of success.

It is interesting that the Katyusha multiple launch rocket system, almost unchanged (only the chassis changed), remained in demand until 1991. The USSR sold MLRS to almost all socialist and some developing countries. And Iran, China, Czechoslovakia and North Korea produced them.

If we abstract from complex technical innovations, then all the post-war MLRS, known under the names: BM-24, BM-21 “Grad”, 220 mm “Hurricane”, “Smerch”, can undoubtedly consider the world-famous “ Katyusha."

Katyusha - a unique combat vehicle of the USSR which had no analogues in the world. The unofficial name for barrelless field rocket artillery systems (BM-8, BM-13, BM-31 and others) was developed during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. Such installations were actively used Armed Forces USSR during World War II. The popularity of the nickname turned out to be so great that “Katyusha” colloquial speech Post-war MLRS on automobile chassis, in particular BM-14 and BM-21 “Grad”, also often began to be called.

"Katyusha" BM-13-16 on the ZIS-6 chassis

The fate of the developers:

On November 2, 1937, as a result of the “war of denunciations” within the institute, the director of RNII-3 I. T. Kleymenov and the chief engineer G. E. Langemak were arrested. On January 10 and 11, 1938, respectively, they were shot at the NKVD Kommunarka training ground.
Rehabilitated in 1955.
By decree of the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev dated June 21, 1991, I. T. Kleimenov, G. E. Langemak, V. N. Luzhin, B. S. Petropavlovsky, B. M. Slonimer and N. I. Tikhomirov were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

BM-31-12 on the ZIS-12 chassis in the Museum on Sapun Mountain, Sevastopol

BM-13N on a Studebaker US6 chassis (with exhaust protection armor plates lowered) at the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow

Origin of the name Katyusha

It is known why BM-13 installations began to be called “guards mortars” at one time. The BM-13 installations were not actually mortars, but the command sought to keep their design secret for as long as possible. When, at a firing range, soldiers and commanders asked a GAU representative to name the “true” name of the combat installation, he advised: “Call the installation as an ordinary artillery piece. This is important for maintaining secrecy."

There is no single version of why the BM-13 began to be called “Katyusha”. There are several assumptions:
1. Based on the name of Blanter’s song, which became popular before the war, based on the words of Isakovsky “Katyusha”. The version is convincing, since the battery first fired on July 14, 1941 (on the 23rd day of the war) at a concentration of fascists on Bazarnaya Square in the city of Rudnya, Smolensk region. She was shooting from a high, steep mountain - the association with the high, steep bank in the song immediately arose among the fighters. Finally, the former sergeant of the headquarters company of the 217th separate communications battalion of the 144th Infantry Division of the 20th Army, Andrei Sapronov, is alive, now a military historian, who gave it this name. Red Army soldier Kashirin, having arrived with him at the battery after the shelling of Rudnya, exclaimed in surprise: “What a song!” “Katyusha,” answered Andrei Sapronov (from the memoirs of A. Sapronov in the Rossiya newspaper No. 23 of June 21-27, 2001 and in the Parliamentary Gazette No. 80 of May 5, 2005). Through the communications center of the headquarters company, the news about a miracle weapon called “Katyusha” within 24 hours became the property of the entire 20th Army, and through its command - the entire country. On July 13, 2011, the veteran and “godfather” of Katyusha turned 90 years old.

2. There is also a version that the name is associated with the “K” index on the mortar body - the installations were produced by the Kalinin plant (according to another source - by the Comintern plant). And front-line soldiers loved to give nicknames to their weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed “Mother”, the ML-20 howitzer gun was nicknamed “Emelka”. Yes, and the BM-13 was at first sometimes called “Raisa Sergeevna,” thus deciphering the abbreviation RS (missile).

3. The third version suggests that this is how the girls from the Moscow Kompressor plant who worked on the assembly dubbed these cars.
Another, exotic version. The guides on which the projectiles were mounted were called ramps. The forty-two-kilogram projectile was lifted by two fighters harnessed to the straps, and the third usually helped them, pushing the projectile so that it lay exactly on the guides, and he also informed those holding that the projectile stood up, rolled, and rolled onto the guides. It was allegedly called “Katyusha” (the role of those holding the projectile and the one rolling it was constantly changing, since the crew of the BM-13, unlike cannon artillery, was not explicitly divided into loader, aimer, etc.)

4. It should also be noted that the installations were so secret that it was even forbidden to use the commands “fire”, “fire”, “volley”, instead they sounded “sing” or “play” (to start it was necessary to turn the handle of the electric coil very quickly) , which may also have been related to the song “Katyusha”. And for our infantry, a salvo of Katyusha rockets was the most pleasant music.

5. There is an assumption that initially the nickname “Katyusha” was a front-line bomber equipped with rockets - an analogue of the M-13. And the nickname jumped from an airplane to a rocket launcher through shells.

In the German troops, these machines were called “Stalin’s organs” due to the external resemblance of the rocket launcher to the pipe system of this musical instrument and the powerful, stunning roar that was produced when the missiles were launched.

During the battles for Poznan and Berlin, the M-30 and M-31 single-launch installations received the nickname “Russian Faustpatron” from the Germans, although these shells were not used as an anti-tank weapon. With “dagger” (from a distance of 100-200 meters) launches of these shells, the guards broke through any walls.

BM-13-16 on the chassis of the STZ-5-NATI tractor (Novomoskovsk)

Soldiers loading Katyusha

If Hitler's oracles had looked more closely at the signs of fate, then surely July 14, 1941 would have become a landmark day for them. It was then that in the area of ​​​​the Orsha railway junction and the crossing of the Orshitsa River, Soviet troops first used BM-13 combat vehicles, which received the affectionate name “Katyusha” among the army. The result of two salvos at the accumulation of enemy forces was stunning for the enemy. German losses fell under the “unacceptable” heading.

Here are excerpts from a directive to the troops of Hitler's high military command: "The Russians have an automatic multi-barrel flamethrower cannon... The shot is fired by electricity... During the shot, smoke is generated..." The obvious helplessness of the wording testified to the complete ignorance of the German generals regarding the device and technical characteristics new Soviet weapons- rocket mortar.

A striking example of the effectiveness of the Guards mortar units, and their basis was “Katyushas,” can be seen in the lines from the memoirs of Marshal Zhukov: “The rockets, by their actions, caused complete devastation. I looked at the areas where shelling was carried out and saw the complete destruction of defensive structures... "

The Germans developed a special plan to seize new Soviet weapons and ammunition. In the late autumn of 1941 they managed to do this. The “captured” mortar was truly “multi-barreled” and fired 16 rocket mines. His firepower was several times more effective than the mortar used by the fascist army. Hitler's command decided to create equivalent weapons.

The Germans did not immediately understand that the Soviet mortar they captured was a truly unique phenomenon, opening a new page in the development of artillery, the era of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).

We must pay tribute to its creators - scientists, engineers, technicians and workers of the Moscow Jet Research Institute (RNII) and related enterprises: V. Aborenkov, V. Artemyev, V. Bessonov, V. Galkovsky, I. Gvai, I. Kleimenov, A. Kostikov, G. Langemak, V. Luzhin, A. Tikhomirov, L. Schwartz, D. Shitov.

The main difference between the BM-13 and similar German weapons was its unusually bold and unexpected concept: mortarmen could reliably hit all targets in a given square with relatively inaccurate rocket-propelled mines. This was achieved precisely due to the salvo nature of the fire, since every point of the area under fire necessarily fell into the affected area of ​​one of the shells. German designers, realizing the brilliant “know-how” of Soviet engineers, decided to reproduce, if not in the form of a copy, then using the main technical ideas.

It was in principle possible to copy the Katyusha as a combat vehicle. Insurmountable difficulties arose when trying to design, test and establish mass production of similar missiles. It turned out that German gunpowder cannot burn in the chamber of a rocket engine as stably and steadily as Soviet ones. German-designed analogues Soviet ammunition behaved unpredictably: either sluggishly left the guides only to immediately fall to the ground, or began flying at breakneck speed and exploded in the air from an excessive increase in pressure inside the chamber. Only a few successfully reached the target.

The point turned out to be that for effective nitroglycerin powders, which were used in Katyusha shells, our chemists achieved a spread in the values ​​of the so-called heat of explosive transformation of no more than 40 conventional units, and the smaller the spread, the more stable the gunpowder burns. Similar German gunpowder had a spread of this parameter, even in one batch, above 100 units. This led to unstable operation of the rocket engines.

The Germans did not know that ammunition for the Katyusha was the fruit of more than ten years of activity by the RNII and several large Soviet research teams, which included the best Soviet gunpowder factories, outstanding Soviet chemists A. Bakaev, D. Galperin, V. Karkina, G. Konovalova, B Pashkov, A. Sporius, B. Fomin, F. Khritinin and many others. They not only developed the most complex formulations of rocket powders, but also found simple and effective ways their mass, continuous and cheap production.

At a time when at Soviet factories, according to ready-made drawings, the production of guards rocket mortars and shells for them was expanding at an unprecedented pace and literally daily increasing, the Germans had yet to conduct research and design work by MLRS. But history has not given them time for this.

Katyusha is an unofficial name for barrelless field rocket artillery systems (BM-8, BM-13, BM-31 and others), which appeared during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. Such installations were actively used by the Armed Forces of the USSR during the Second World War. The popularity of the nickname turned out to be so great that post-war MLRS on automobile chassis, in particular BM-14 and BM-21 Grad, were often called Katyushas in colloquial speech.

Back in 1921, employees of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory N.I. Tikhomirov and V.A. Artemyev began developing rockets for aircraft.

In 1929-1933, B. S. Petropavlovsky, with the participation of other GDL employees, conducted official tests of rockets of various calibers and purposes using multi-shot and single-shot aircraft and ground launchers.

In 1937-1938, rockets developed by the RNII (GDL together with the GIRD in October 1933 formed the newly organized RNII) under the leadership of G. E. Langemak were adopted by the RKKVF. RS-82 rockets of 82 mm caliber were installed on I-15, I-16, and I-153 fighters. In the summer of 1939, RS-82 on I-16 and I-153 were successfully used in battles with Japanese troops on the Khalkhin Gol River.

In 1939-1941, RNII employees I. I. Gvai, V. N. Galkovsky, A. P. Pavlenko, A. S. Popov and others created a multi-charge launcher mounted on a truck.

In March 1941, field tests of the installations, designated BM-13 (combat vehicle with 132 mm caliber shells), were successfully carried out. The RS-132 132 mm rocket and a launcher based on the ZIS-6 BM-13 truck were put into service on June 21, 1941; It was this type of combat vehicle that first received the nickname “Katyusha”. During the Great Patriotic War, a significant number of variants of RS shells and launchers for them were created; In total, Soviet industry produced more than 10,000 rocket artillery combat vehicles during the war years
It is known why BM-13 installations began to be called “guards mortars” at one time. The BM-13 installations were not actually mortars, but the command sought to keep their design secret for as long as possible:
When, at a firing range, soldiers and commanders asked a GAU representative to name the “true” name of the combat installation, he advised: “Call the installation as an ordinary artillery piece. This is important for maintaining secrecy."
There is no single version of why the BM-13 began to be called “Katyusha”. There are several assumptions:
Based on the title of Blanter’s song “Katyusha”, which became popular before the war, based on the words of Isakovsky. The version is convincing, since for the first time Captain Flerov’s battery fired at the enemy on July 14, 1941 at 10 o’clock in the morning, firing a salvo at the Market Square of the city of Rudnya. This was the first combat use“Katyusha”, confirmed in historical literature. The installations were shooting from a high, steep mountain - the association with the high, steep bank in the song immediately arose among the fighters. Finally, the former sergeant of the headquarters company of the 217th separate communications battalion of the 144th Infantry Division of the 20th Army, Andrei Sapronov, is alive, now a military historian, who gave it this name. Red Army soldier Kashirin, having arrived with him at the battery after the shelling of Rudnya, exclaimed in surprise: “What a song!” “Katyusha,” answered Andrei Sapronov (from the memoirs of A. Sapronov in the Rossiya newspaper No. 23 of June 21-27, 2001 and in the Parliamentary Gazette No. 80 of May 5, 2005).
What kind of verses they didn’t come up with at the front based on their favorite song!
There were battles at sea and on land,
Shots roared all around -
Sang songs "Katyusha"
Near Kaluga, Tula and Orel.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
Let the Fritz remember the Russian Katyusha,
Let him hear her sing:
Shakes out the souls of enemies,
And it gives courage to its own!
Through the communications center of the headquarters company, the news about a miracle weapon called “Katyusha” within 24 hours became the property of the entire 20th Army, and through its command - the entire country. On July 13, 2012, the veteran and “godfather” of Katyusha turned 91, and on February 26, 2013 he passed away. On the desk he left his latest work - a chapter about the first salvo of Katyusha rockets for the multi-volume history of the Great Patriotic War, which is being prepared for publication.
There is also a version that the name is associated with the “K” index on the mortar body - the installations were produced by the Kalinin plant (according to another source, by the Comintern plant). And front-line soldiers loved to give nicknames to their weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed “Mother”, the ML-20 howitzer gun was nicknamed “Emelka”. Yes, and the BM-13 was at first sometimes called “Raisa Sergeevna,” thus deciphering the abbreviation RS (missile).
The third version suggests that this is how the girls from the Moscow Kompressor plant, who worked on the assembly, dubbed these cars. [source not specified 284 days]
Another, exotic version. The guides on which the projectiles were mounted were called ramps. The forty-two-kilogram projectile was lifted by two fighters harnessed to the straps, and the third usually helped them, pushing the projectile so that it lay exactly on the guides, and he also informed those holding that the projectile stood up, rolled, and rolled onto the guides. It was allegedly called “Katyusha” (the role of those holding the projectile and the one rolling it was constantly changing, since the crew of the BM-13, unlike cannon artillery, was not explicitly divided into loader, aimer, etc.) [source not 284 days indicated]
It should also be noted that the installations were so secret that it was even forbidden to use the commands “fire”, “fire”, “volley”, instead they were sounded “sing” or “play” (to start it was necessary to turn the handle of the electric generator very quickly), that , may also have been related to the song “Katyusha”. And for our infantry, a salvo of Katyusha rockets was the most pleasant music. [source not specified 284 days]
There is an assumption that initially the nickname “Katyusha” had a front-line bomber equipped with rockets - an analogue of the M-13. And the nickname jumped from an airplane to a rocket launcher via shells. [source not specified 284 days]
An experienced squadron of SV bombers (commander Doyar) in the battles on Khalkhin Gol was armed with RS-132 missiles. SB (fast bomber) bombers were sometimes called "Katyusha". It seems that this name appeared during civil war in Spain in the 1930s.
In the German troops, these machines were called “Stalin’s organs” because of the external resemblance of the rocket launcher to the pipe system of this musical instrument and the powerful stunning roar that was produced when launching missiles. [source not specified 284 days]
During the battles for Poznan and Berlin, the M-30 and M-31 single-launch installations received the nickname “Russian Faustpatron” from the Germans, although these shells were not used as an anti-tank weapon. With “dagger” (from a distance of 100-200 meters) launches of these shells, the guards broke through any walls.