Tsar Tank "Bat": a favorite project of Emperor Nicholas II. Unusual tanks of Russia and the USSR. "tsar-tank" captain n.n. lebedenko

Alas, during the First World War, our country was not included in the elite club of the great tank powers. The fact that Germany, our main enemy, was also not a member of this club is a weak consolation (the Germans produced 21 (twenty one) serial tanks of their own construction throughout the war).

But, on the other hand, no one will dispute the fact that it was in Russia during the First World War that the world's largest tank was created - 17 meters long, 9 meters high, 60 tons of weight!

True, the tank of this monster can be called purely conditionally, it did not have tracks and a rotating turret, but it had giant wheels. In general, the car resembled a huge cannon carriage.

The idea of ​​building such an unusual machine came from the captain Russian army Nikolai Nikolaevich Lebedenko during his service in the Caucasus, even before the war. He appreciated the arba - a vehicle local residents... There were no roads in the usual sense of the word in the Caucasus at that time, but a cart - a cart with two wheels with high rims easily overcame all the bumps and bumps on what were considered roads there.

And then there was a war. The war, which all the participants planned, is almost like a blitzkrieg. The term itself and the blitzkrieg theory itself appeared later. And then there was no term, no theory, or ... the blitzkrieg itself. Agile fighting quickly gave way to the so-called "positional deadlock". Simple trenches on the Western Front quickly turned into real underground cities, made of logs, sandbags and earth. Infantry attacks in close formation and dashing cavalry attacks became the property of history - His Majesty the Machine Gun dominated the battlefield. The concentration of artillery fire in the breakthrough area helped to mix the first line of defense with the ground, but behind the first line there was a second line with unsuppressed firing points, and behind it a third. The breakthrough of the front to some depth was considered an incredible success. The battles were called "meat grinders". There have never been such one-time losses in the history of wars.

The means of overcoming the damned positional impasse suggested itself - an armored combat vehicle, armed with cannons and machine guns, with sufficient maneuverability so as not to get stuck on the battlefield pitted with craters. The idea of ​​a tank was in the air. History of the first British and French tanks, alas, is beyond the scope of this article. We will devote a separate publication to Porokhovshchikov's all-terrain vehicle, a Russian high-speed single-tracked tank. In the meantime, let's talk about the most original means of overcoming the positional impasse - the Lebedenko tank, which went down in the history of world tank building under the name Tsar-Tank.

In 1914, Captain Lebedenko was in charge of the Private Laboratory for Military Inventions and was developing bomb-dropping devices for the world's first heavy strategic bomber"Ilya Muromets". With the outbreak of hostilities, he remembered his idea to create a combat vehicle built on the principle of a two-wheeled cart - a cart. A kind of a new generation war chariot. Only a very large one.

Nikolai Lebedenko began to "knock the doorstep", go to the authorities. In the end, he managed to enlist the support of the influential prince Lvov - the head of the All-Russian Zemsky Union, charitable organization created to help wounded soldiers. Will independently handle all calculations and preparation project documentation Lebedenko could not. Therefore, having on hand letter of recommendation from Lvov, he turned to Nikolai Zhukovsky, a professor at the Moscow Higher Technical School (now the Bauman Moscow State University). Zhukovsky, who went down in history as the creator of aerodynamics, recommended using the services of his nephews, students of the Moscow Higher Technical School, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin. With their help, the project was ready. The result was a machine weighing 40-44 tons, 9 meters high, 17 meters long, armed with two 76.2 mm guns and ten machine guns. The monster (or mastodon, as the developers themselves called it) could crush huts, move through trenches and trenches of any width and depth, and any of the tanks of the very first generation could envy its firepower. In addition, the estimated maximum speed of this whopper was supposed to be 17 kilometers per hour! The exclamation mark is quite appropriate here - for comparison, the maximum speed of the British Mark I, the first in the world serial tank, on level ground was only 6.4 kilometers per hour (and on rough terrain it dropped to the speed of an infantryman crawling on his bellies).

Now the matter was small - just for all it was necessary to find somewhere funds for the construction of a prototype. Approximately a couple of hundred thousand rubles (for comparison, the annual income of a well-to-do peasant at that time did not exceed 40 (forty) rubles).

A clockwork wooden model of the tank with nickel-plated wheels 30 centimeters in diameter was made. An elegant mahogany chest was made for the model. And Lebedenko again began to "hammer the thresholds". But now he had an influential patron - Prince Lvov. So, the inventor managed to get an audience with the Minister of War, and then the Emperor himself received Lebedenko. The clockwork toy made an indelible impression on the autocrat - according to eyewitnesses, the Tsar and Lebedneko drove a toy tank across the parquet for an hour, watching how it overcomes obstacles in the form of thick volumes of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, taken out of the cabinet specially for sea trials "Experimental model" of the combat vehicle. Of course, Lebedenko convinced Nikolai II that his combat vehicle would easily break through the front in any sector. The shocked tsar immediately gave the order to open an account to finance the project, and left the clockwork model of the tank for himself as a gift (the further fate of this model, alas, is unknown).

Lebedenko managed to quickly collect the necessary 210 thousand rubles. Under the highest patronage, work on the production of a prototype super-tank proceeded at a record pace. The hull was made in the Khamovniki barracks in Moscow, the giant wheels were made on the site near Dmitrov (60 kilometers from Moscow) fenced with barbed wire. The whole tank was mounted there. By the way, it was planned to deliver the tank disassembled to the front line, and assemble it not far from the front line.

The project had to be adjusted. For example, the design thickness of the armor was supposed to be 7 millimeters, but there were no armor plates of that thickness. I had to use what was - sheets 10 millimeters thick. An increase in the thickness of the armor by only 3 millimeters led to an increase in the mass of the tank by one and a half times against the calculated one - up to 60 tons. Engines of the required power to set such a colossus in motion were not produced in Russia. Therefore, two captured Maybach engines with a capacity of 250 liters were installed on the Tsar-Tank. with., taken from the German zeppelin.

On August 27, 1915, near Dmitrov, the first sea trials of a giant tank took place. The first and the last. The car easily passed a dozen meters along the slope, but instantly got stuck tightly on soft ground - the rear guide carriage was stuck in a ditch, and the engine power was not enough to rescue the huge car from captivity. It became clear that the diameter of the wheels of the guide carriage should be increased, and the engine power should be increased to at least 300 hp. With.

Stechkin and Mikulin undertook the development of such an engine, the resulting AMBS index. Alas, the students did not have the experience of developing an engine of such (and any other) power. Their product turned out to be completely unviable - at the first start, the engine worked for no more than one and a half minutes.

This is where the story of "Tsar-Tank" ended. To the Russian state there was no time for giant tanks, and even more so, not for engines for them. The monumental steel structure rusted into near Moscow forest until 1923, until he was sent for melting.

The non-viability of this monster on the battlefield is obvious at first glance. The combat debut of the Lebedenko tank, quite possibly, would have been successful - due to the psychological effect. And then the enemy would quickly figure out that an ordinary shrapnel shot at the wheel hubs would be enough and the steel monster would turn into a stationary target. And the large-scale production of such tanks in tsarist Russia can be imagined by a person with a very rich imagination.

But, every cloud has a silver lining - the engine for Tsar-Tank was the first engine of the work of Alexander Mikulin, the designer who created the aircraft engines, on which the famous Il-2 - "flying tanks" of the Red Army flew.

As we know, the First World War, after a short maneuvering stage, moved into a trench warfare phase, better known as "trench warfare".

It was practically impossible to break through the deeply echeloned enemy defenses using traditional, at that time, methods, massive artillery preparation followed by infantry and cavalry breakthrough of the defense line, this inevitably ended in huge losses in manpower, with minor successes. Even after a lengthy artillery preparation, it was not possible to suppress all well-fortified and camouflaged enemy firing points. New and new ways of using it were required to solve such a problem. This new weapon, according to the engineers of that time, was supposed to be a self-propelled vehicle, with powerful weapons, well-armored and highly maneuverable. The army needed a positional tank capable of breaking down defenses with its might and sowing panic in the ranks of the enemy. One of these "armored monsters" was to be N. Lebedenko's wheeled tank, known as "Mastodon", "Bat", "Tsar - Tank".

The combat vehicle of this engineer can rightfully be called the world's first wheeled tank. N. Lebedenko had been hatching the project of this machine since the beginning of the war. During his service in the Caucasus, he had to see how easily the high-wheeled carts of local peasants overcome bumps, probably so the idea of ​​creating a car with giant wheels occurred to him. To implement his ambitious and at the same time adventurous project, he attracted engineers B. Stechkin, and later A. Mikulin, convincing him that several of these machines would easily break through the German defenses along the entire front in one night and thereby Russia will put a victory point in this war.

The car outwardly resembled a huge gun carriage with huge nine-meter wheels. The turning was carried out with the help of the rear guide carriage, on which there was a roller with a diameter of 1.5 meters. The hull of the tank when viewed from the front had the shape of a cross, according to some sources, 37-mm cannons were located in the side sponsons, according to others - 76.2-mm, and machine-gun turrets were located below and above, in which it was supposed to install 4-5 machine guns "Maxim" ... According to the original design, the armor of the hull was supposed to be 7 mm, the turrets - 8 mm. The design speed is up to 17 km per hour (some sources call the design speed 4 km per hour). Weight - 40 tons. The car was to be driven by two Maybach motors with a capacity of 240 horsepower at 2500 rpm. each shot from the destroyed German Zeppelin. Length - 17800 mm. Width - 12000 mm. Height - 9000 mm. It seemed that having such specifications, the machine will effortlessly overcome a vertical obstacle or trench.

Having made a large-scale model of the future car in advance and having enlisted the support of influential persons, N. Lebedenko achieved an audience with Nicholas II, the model made an indelible impression on the tsar, easily overcoming obstacles in the form of books spread out on the floor. The sovereign kept the "toy" for himself, and in return ordered to open an account to finance the project. N. Lebedenko immediately started making the machine. The running wheels were assembled in the Dmitrov area, and parts of the hull were assembled in the arena near the Khamovniki barracks in high secrecy. The assembly of the tank began in July 1915, 60 km from Moscow, in the vicinity of the Orudyevo station, and in August, in the presence of the highest persons, it was taken out for testing. A. Mikulin, taking the driver's seat, started the engines and set the car in motion. While the tank was walking on hard ground, everything was fine, but, once on soft ground, the rear guide carriage fell into a ditch, and the car stopped. The power of the two 240-horsepower motors was not enough to pull the cart. The actual weight of the tank exceeded the design one and amounted to 60 tons, the specific pressure on the ground turned out to be excessively high, since the supplied sheet metal intended for the hull was thicker than anticipated by the project. Thus, the tank of N. Lebedenko did not pass the tests, it was left under the protection of a soldier's guard, and A. Mikulin and B. Stechkin, with the assistance of the Ot & Weser company, tried to create a more powerful engine to continue work on the project, but they were created within the deadline. he was not, and soon the commission overseeing the progress of the work stopped allocating funds to support the project. He was found unpromising. The giant wheeled tank was abandoned in the forest and stood there until 1923, after which it was dismantled for scrap.

The fate of the project was typical of the time when there were no well-established rules in tank building. However, it was only with the advent of tracked vehicles with a classic layout that it became clear that the idea of ​​a wheeled tank was a dead end.

"Genius thinks and creates.
An ordinary person carries out.
The fool uses and does not thank "
Kozma Prutkov

N For a long time, tanks were the most powerful weapon in the world.
Engineering thought fought for their vitality and invulnerability, for firepower and agility. There have been ups and downs, victories and setbacks.
This post is not copied from anywhere on the internet. This is all collected by me from different sites. Here are the most interesting "tank" engineering solutions (in my opinion), implemented in the creation of tanks different countries.

Russian Tsar Tank

Also known as Bat, Tank Lebedenko, sometimes the Mammoth or Mastodon variant is also found - an armored mobile combat device developed by engineer Nikolai Lebedenko in Russia in 1914-1915. The tank was huge. Wheels with a diameter of 9 meters. He was supposed to help the troops at the front, but alas.

N. Zhukovsky and his nephews, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin took part in the development. Strictly speaking, the object was not a tank, but a wheeled combat vehicle.
The Tsar Tank is the largest armored ground fighting vehicle ever built.

The construction and testing of the tank was carried out in 1915.

On the very first day of testing in the forest near Orudyevo, the combat vehicle was hopelessly bogged down in the ground.

Based on the test results, it was concluded that the tank was generally unsuitable for use in battle conditions, which led to the closure of the project.

Until 1917, the combat vehicle remained at the test site under protection. It was only in 1923 that it was dismantled for scrap.

Combat ATV (1899)

One of the very first prototypes of the tank was created in Great Britain and was a small four-wheeled vehicle with a machine gun. All this was set in motion thanks to a power unit with a capacity of 1.5 horsepower, the tank had practically no armor - it was assumed that the "tankman" would hide from bullets behind a machine gun shield.

Major Schumann's tank

Armored observation posts or the so-called armored carriages of engineer Major Schumann were developed back in the 80s of the nineteenth century for fortresses.
They were intended for one 37- or 57-mm rapid-fire cannon and consisted of a cylindrical box of sheet steel, covered with a dome of steel 2.5 cm thick (from bullets and shrapnel). A door was arranged for the entrance. The dome rested on three legs of the central axis, fixed to the carriage floor in such a way that the axis could be rotated 360 ° using a manual drive. The cannon rack is firmly connected to the dome.

Sometimes they were put on motorized carriages. The gun was serviced by 2 numbers: one was shooting while sitting on a bench, the other was bringing in shells, a decent supply of which is in the carriage itself.

Classic British Monster Tanks

In the photo, the MK-4 tank. Not everyone knows that it was thanks to Russia that the tanks were given the name "tank". Initially, this word did not mean an armored combat vehicle as it does now, but only meant what was meant by the word tank in English language- i.e. "Tank" or "tank". Secrecy is to blame for this confusion. During the First World War, the British command could not allow the information about the first "land ships" sent to the Allies to be at the disposal of Germany. Therefore, information was spread that these were mobile water tanks, cisterns for the needs of the front, and some sources say that the recipient was even specified - the Russian Empire. They even wrote on them "To Berlin" "Caution. Petrograd".

These interesting facts can even be found in Churchill's autobiography - he writes that in the beginning these combat vehicles were called in the documents "water carriers for Russia" (that is, "water carriers for Russia"), but due to the fact that their often abbreviated to "WCs" (which in English means toilet), the phrase "water tank" appeared, and then there was only just "tank".
Well, the tanks themselves sucked ... clumsy, heavy, with weak firepower and huge "dead zones" in the review. At first they were feared due to the rumble and unusual appearance but when the first fear passed ...

Tracked vehicle Besta, USA (1917)

An American citizen named Best built this unique machine that looks like an overturned boat. The weight of the tank was 15 tons. In 1915, the vehicle passed successful tests and was put into service. American army... About 50 of these machines were produced every month.
Looking at the lettering on the front, one would think that it is an armored rail stacker.

Skeleton Tank USA (1918)

Tank from the First World War. It was assumed that the "holes" will reduce weight, and the shells will fly through the tank without damaging it, which will increase survivability.
The body of the tank was attached to steel pipes between the frames and to simplify the design received a box shape. The body was assembled on bolts, rivets and corners, which attached 12-mm armor plates. The fighting compartment and the control compartment were located in the front - there were places for the driver, tank commander and machine gunner. A cylindrical turret with one 7.62 mm machine gun was installed on the roof of the fighting compartment. The rear of the hull housed two 50 hp Beaver 4-cylinder petrol engines. each.
Due to its original design, this combat vehicle received the name "Skeleton Tank", although sometimes the alternative name "Spider Tank" is used. Given the requirements imposed on it, it can be concluded that this tank was classified as an infantry tank.

Amphibious tank Christie (1921)

In 1921, American designer John Walter Christie built a wheeled-tracked water tank. The vehicle was equipped with a 75 mm cannon and was designed to carry out military operations in coastal areas. During the tests, the military revealed a lot of shortcomings: firstly, the Christie tank shook strongly, secondly, it was very cramped inside, and thirdly, the lack of a roof affected the crew's security. Yes, maybe a convertible is not best type bodies for a combat vehicle.

Tank Tortuga (1934)

The Tortuga tank (translated from Spanish - turtle) was developed in Venezuela in 1934. By that time, military technologies had stepped far ahead: the tank had full-fledged armor, however, it looked rather comical, and the armament complex was still limited to one machine gun. Such tanks did not represent any real tactical value, so it was assumed that they would keep the neighboring Colombian army at bay by their mere presence in the military hangars of Venezuela.

Soviet five-tower tank T-35 (1938)

One of the most original and heavy tanks used during the Second World War, the "land battleship". The T-35 was influenced by various British experimental armored fighting vehicles of the twenties. It was first demonstrated during the May Day parade on Red Square in Moscow in 1933, prototype The T-35 aroused noticeable interest in the West, although in no country did tank builders try to create something similar.
Crew - 11 people!
This tank was conceived as a "breakthrough tank" of the enemy's defense. After it is broken through, light tanks and infantry will rush into the gap, but during the assault the T-35 had to be protected from all sides. Carry it around railroad It turned out to be a difficult matter and the vehicles served only as part of one unit - the 5th brigade of heavy tanks, designed to defend the approaches to Moscow.

Bob Sample's Tank (1940)

During World War II, when the global military industry was developing at a frantic pace, the New Zealand government decided to develop its own tank. However, little money was allocated for the project, so Bob Sample's tank (named after the then New Zealand Minister of Labor) was built on a platform from a conventional Caterpillar D8 tractor - hence the somewhat unusual proportions of a combat vehicle. The tank was equipped with seven guns at once, and one machine gunner from the crew had to fire while lying on a mat, which was laid on a thin sheet of iron over the engine.

Self-propelled artillery mount M15A

Only one prototype of this "artillery monster" was produced.

Flying tank Antonov A-40 (1942)

The A-40 flying tank is perhaps the most ambitious project of Soviet engineers during the Great Patriotic War... Designer Oleg Antonov really managed to lift the T-60 tank into the air. On the ground, the tank was propelled by a 70 horsepower GAZ-202 power unit, and the Antonov A-40 flew with four aircraft engines with a power of 970 horsepower each. The total flight weight of the structure was 7800 kilograms. During tests, the tank aircraft was lifted 40 meters up into the air and reached a speed of 130 kilometers per hour.
The mortality rate of the crew was about 10%. After landing, the wings were easily thrown back and the tank became an ordinary land tank.

The most unique Soviet "tank" "NI-1" - "Fear" (1941)

This is an imitation of a tank, created on the basis of a tractor out of desperation. But she worked and helped to beat the enemy! Where else could such people appear if not during the defense of Odessa!
The tank was a conventional STZ-NATI agricultural tracked tractor, sheathed with armor plates. In this instance, the "cannon" is a pure props - just a pipe or even a log sticking out of the tower. The project of the tank was developed by the chief engineer of the plant. January Uprising P. K. Romanov, A. I. Obednikov and Captain U. G. Kogan. The tractors were protected by welded armor, but more often just steel sheets taken from the Odessa shipyard. The sheets were placed for a reason, concrete was poured between them, which increased survivability and made it possible to protect the crew from the usual small arms- a simple steel sheet (even folded 4 times), the rifle shot through. The vehicles were armed with light machine guns and the crew's rifles, which were pushed into the loopholes. Sometimes towers from destroyed tanks were also placed, in this case the guns were not fake.

On the night of September 20, 1941, 20 of these tanks were used in a battle against the Romanian units that were besieging the city. At the same time, a special stake was made on the psychological effect of the use of tanks. Headlights and sirens were switched on on the tanks, and without artillery support they moved into the Romanian trenches. The enemy was put on a stampede. After this battle the name "NI-1" was assigned to the tanks, i.e. "To be frightened." According to the recollections of veterans, when moving, the tank made a terrifying roar.
According to reports, in the fall of 1941, from 50 to 60 such armored tractors were produced by the Kharkov Tractor Plant.

Fascist tank "Mouse"

Tank "Mouse" (mouse) did not have time to go into series, the war ended. The crew of the vehicle consisted of six people: a tank commander, a gun commander, two loaders, a driver and a radio operator. The body of the vehicle was divided by transverse partitions into four compartments: control, engine, combat and transmission.
In the niches of the sides, two fuel tanks were installed, with a total capacity of 1560 liters.

The armament of the tank consisted of a 128-mm tank gun of the 1944 model, model KWK-44 (RaK-44), a 75-mm KWK-40 tank gun paired with it, and a separate MG.42 machine gun of 7.92 mm caliber. The project provided for the installation of an anti-aircraft 20-mm cannon MS.151 / 20 in the turret of the tank instead of the MG.42 machine gun, as well as mortars for setting smoke screens and a flamethrower at the rear of the vehicle.

Gas-dynamic tank-minesweeper "Progrev-T"

Russian tank mounted on the turret jet engine for disposal of mines with a jet stream. Heavy armor protects the crew. Weight over 30 tons.

Heavy tank "Object 279" (1957)

Object 279 is a heavy tank designed to break through especially fortified enemy positions and combat operations in difficult terrain, as well as conduct battles during a nuclear strike. The body of the tank is designed in such a way that the blast wave does not overturn it.
The hull of the tank had a cast curvilinear shape with thin-sheet anti-cumulative screens, where the contours passed to an elongated ellipsoid. The armor of the tank could withstand 122 mm armor-piercing and 90 mm cumulative projectiles... The thickness of the armor in some places was from 93 to 305 mm.
The tank had 4 tracks. This unique design solution allowed the vehicle to overcome areas that were difficult to pass for conventional tanks. The tank moved with ease through snow and swampy terrain, the unique tracked chassis excluded the possibility of landing the tank with the bottom when overcoming hedgehogs, stumps, and gaps. Object 278 had average ground pressure as light tank- 0.6 kg / sq. Cm. The tank overcame a rise of 35 degrees and a ford of 1.2 m.
On the Object 279 tank, a 130 mm M-65 rifled cannon with 24 rounds of ammunition was installed, as well as one 14.5-mm KPVT machine gun paired with the cannon. All this was directed at the target by the TPD-2S stereoscopic rangefinder sight and the TPN-1 night sight.

This concludes the review.)))) I hope it was interesting. And finally, a newspaper clipping, like our ancestors in the first world war imagined the war of the future. How wrong they were ...

Cynically (C) from different places on the Internet

Tsar Tank

Tsar Tank(also known as Bat, Bat, Tank Lebedenko, Lebedenko's car, sometimes the variant Mammoth or Mastodon) is an armored mobile combat device developed by engineer Nikolai Lebedenko in Russia in the years. N. Zhukovsky and his nephews, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin also took part in the development. Strictly speaking, the object was not a tank, but a wheeled combat vehicle. The Tsar Tank is the largest armored ground fighting vehicle ever built. The construction and testing of the tank was carried out in 1915. Based on the test results, it was concluded that the tank was generally unsuitable for use in battle conditions, which led to the closure of the project. The constructed copy was subsequently dismantled for scrap.

Project development

The design of the car was distinguished by great originality and ambition. According to the memoirs of Lebedenko himself, the idea of ​​this car was pushed to him by the Central Asian carts-cart, which, thanks to the wheels large diameter, easily overcome bumps and ditches. Therefore, in contrast to the "classic" tanks using a caterpillar drive, the Tsar Tank was a wheeled combat vehicle and in design resembled a greatly enlarged gun carriage. Two huge spoke front wheels had a diameter of about 9 m, while the rear roller was noticeably smaller, about 1.5 m.The upper stationary machine-gun wheelhouse was raised about 8 m above the ground. the plane of the wheels, the extreme points of the hull, sponsons with machine guns were designed, one on each side (it was also assumed the possibility of installing guns). An additional machine-gun turret was planned to be installed under the bottom. The design speed of the vehicle was 17 km / h.

Paradoxically, with all the unusualness, ambition, complexity and huge size machines, Lebedenko managed to "break through" his project. The car received approval in a number of instances, but the final decision was made by an audience on January 8 (January 21 in a new style) of 1915 with Nicholas II, during which Lebedenko presented the emperor with a clockwork wooden model of his car with an engine based on a gramophone spring. According to the recollections of the courtiers, the emperor and the engineer for half an hour "like little children" crawled on the floor, driving the model around the room. The toy ran briskly on the carpet, easily overcoming stacks of two or three volumes of the Code of Laws Russian Empire". The audience ended with the fact that Nicholas II, impressed by the car, ordered the financing of the project to be opened. 210 thousand rubles were allocated.

Implementation of the project

The design bureau for Tsar-Tank worked in Moscow at the address: Sadovo-Kudrinskaya, 23. Details of the tank were manufactured at a plant in Khamovniki.

Work under the imperial patronage proceeded quickly - it was soon made in metal and from the end of the spring of 1915 it secretly gathered in the forest near the Orudevo station north of Dmitrov. On August 27 (September 9), 1915, the first sea trials of the finished vehicle were carried out. The use of large wheels assumed increased cross-country ability of the entire device, which was confirmed in tests - the car broke birch trees like matches. However, the rear steerable roller, due to its small size and the incorrect distribution of the weight of the machine as a whole, almost immediately after the start of the tests got stuck in soft ground. Large wheels were unable to pull it out, even despite the use of the most powerful propulsion system at that time, which consisted of two captured Maybach engines of 240 hp each. With. each (much more powerful than those used on other tanks of the First World War), removed from a damaged German airship. The tests also revealed the seemingly obvious subsequently significant vulnerability of the machine - mainly the wheels - during artillery shelling, especially high-explosive shells. All this led to the fact that in August the project was canceled as a result of the negative opinion of the High Commission, but Stechkin and Zhukovsky nevertheless began to develop new engines for the car. However, this attempt was unsuccessful, as were the attempts to move the Tsar Tank from its place and pull it out of the test area.

Until 1917, the tank was guarded at the test site, but then, due to the outbreak of political cataclysms, the vehicle was forgotten and was no longer remembered. Design work on it was no longer carried out, and the huge surreal structure of the built combat vehicle rusted for another 7 years in the forest, at the test site, until in 1923 the tank was dismantled for scrap.

Project evaluation

Model of the Tsar Tank N. N. Lebedenko in the Museum-Reserve "Dmitrov Kremlin".

I must say that the fate of the Lebedenko tank is generally similar to the fate of any prototypes developed at a time when not only the established canons of designing such combat vehicles did not exist, but their concept as such. This partly explains the fact that the project, which was approved by high authorities and even implemented in the difficult situation of pre-revolutionary Russia, turned out to be an obvious failure after the fact.

Already during the first tests, the incredible vulnerability of this vehicle became apparent - a simple volley of shrapnel on the spokes of the wheels guaranteed to disable the tank. And with a successful hit in the wheel hub, the car generally folded like a house of cards. At the same time, the colossal dimensions of the tank and the low speed of movement made it an ideal target. The dimensions predetermined the low cross-country ability of the vehicle. Accordingly, the hidden transfer of such colossus to the front also seemed unlikely. Thus, the only success that Lebedenko's combat vehicles could count on, whether they were serially built, was a psychological effect. Undoubtedly, the overwhelming majority of ordinary soldiers of those years could only dream of such a machine in nightmares... True, the mass production of Lebedenko's cars also seems unlikely - everything depended on the lack of powerful engines, and the country, which was uncontrollably slipping into a crisis, would hardly have mastered the production of such machines.

Completing the "defeat" of the project is the fact that, in general, the design and construction of the Tsar Tank did not have any significant impact on the domestic (and even more so on the world) tank building. Fighting machine Lebedenko remained another dead-end project in the development of world tank building, which in the 1910s went almost exclusively by trial and error.

The experience gained by the then young Mikulin and Stechkin can be considered the only positive effect of this project. When it turned out that the power of the apparatus's engines was clearly insufficient, they developed their own AMBS-1 engine, which had very advanced characteristics and technical solutions for that time (for example, direct fuel injection into the cylinders). Both later became prominent Soviet specialists in aircraft engines, academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

see also

Notes (edit)

Literature

• Fedoseev S.L. Tanks of the First World War. Illustrated Encyclopedia. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC, AST Publishing House LLC, 2002. - 288 p. - ( Military equipment). - 7000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-010599-1
• Kholiavsky G.L. Encyclopedia of tanks. - Mn. : Harvest, 1998 .-- 576 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 985-13-8603-0

Links

• Lebedenko (or Tsar) Tank

Video

Tanks and tank equipment of the Russian Empire
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The Lebedenko tank (also known as the Tsar Tank, Bat, Bat, Mastodon or Mammoth) is a combat vehicle that was developed by Russian designer Nikolai Lebedenko in 1914-1915. Today we will get to know her better.

general characteristics

In fact, Lebedenko's tank, whose photo looks very unusual, is not a tank in the usual sense of the word. Rather, it is a wheeled combat vehicle. In addition to Nikolai Lebedenko, N. Zhukovsky and his two nephews, A. Mikulin and B. Stechkin, took part in its development. According to the results of tests carried out in 1915, the tank was declared unsuitable for use in real combat. As a result, the project was closed. Later, the built copy was dismantled for scrap. Despite the complete failure of the Lebedenko tank, it went down in history as an extremely daring and outstanding project. It is thanks to the originality of this combat vehicle that it is remembered to this day.

Idea

According to the memoirs of Nikolai Lebedenko, he was prompted to create such an unusual design by carts-araba, which were used in Central Asia and thanks to the huge wheels, they overcame the off-road without any problems. Thus, the Tsar Tank differed from the usual tanks, in which caterpillar belts are used for movement, primarily in the presence of wheels. By design, it resembled a gun carriage, greatly increased in size.

Design

A pair of huge front spoke wheels of the Lebedenko tank, the photo of which is striking in the scale of the design, had a diameter of about 9 meters. The diameter of the rear roller was much smaller - about 1.5 meters. The upper machine-gun cabin was motionless and was at a height of about 8 meters. The width of the T-shaped box body was 12 meters. At its extreme points, protruding beyond the plane of the wheels, sponsons with machine guns were installed. In addition, the possibility of installing guns was assumed. It was planned to install an additional machine-gun turret under the hull bottom. The design speed of the vehicle was 17 km / h.

Confession

Surprisingly, for all the complexity, unusualness and huge dimensions of the machine, the designer Lebedenko managed to convince the higher authorities of its suitability for use in real combat. The tank has been approved in a number of government agencies, however, he received the main assessment on January 8, 1915 during an audience with Nicholas II. The designer presented the emperor with a reduced clockwork model of his tank, made of wood, with an engine based on a gramophone spring. According to the memoirs of the courtiers, the emperor and the engineer "crawled like little children on the floor, driving the toy around the room." The wooden tank briskly rode across the carpet and passed stacks of several thick books without any problems. As a result, the Emperor, impressed by the car, ordered the financing of the project to begin. 210 thousand rubles were allocated for the creation of the Lebedenko tank.

Implementation of the project

The design bureau, developing the Tsar-tank Lebedenko, worked in Moscow, on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya street. The details of the structure were produced at a plant located in Khamovniki. Work under the patronage of the emperor himself progressed rapidly. Soon the car was ready in metal. From the end of the spring of 1915, they secretly began to collect it in the forest near the Orudevo station, in the north of Dmitrov.

Testing

On August 27, 1915, the tank was completely ready and passed its first tests. Thanks to the use of huge wheels, the device had increased cross-country ability - it broke birches on its way like matches. However, the rear roller, due to its small size and incorrect weight distribution of the machine, almost immediately got stuck in soft ground. Large wheels, even in spite of the use of a very powerful propulsion system for those times, could not pull it out. By the way, on the Lebedenko tank developed in 1914-1915. there were two captured Maybach engines. Each of them developed a power of 240 horsepower, which significantly exceeded the power of the power plants of Russian tanks of that time. These engines were removed from the destroyed enemy airship.

In addition, the tests revealed a significant vulnerability of the machine, which would later seem obvious. The weakest link in the structure was the wheels, which quickly became unusable in the event of enemy shelling with high-explosive shells.

As a result of far from the most successful tests, the project was closed in September 1915. The official reason for this was the negative opinion of the High Commission. Despite the closure of the project, Stechkin and Mikulin continued to develop it and tried to create a new engine for the tank. However, their efforts did not lead to anything, as well as attempts to move the tank stuck in the ground from its place and withdraw it from the test area.

Until 1917, Lebedenko's tank stood at the test site under guard, while, due to the political issues they have not forgotten about him. For another seven years, a huge combat vehicle rusted in the forest. In 1923 it was dismantled for scrap.

Project evaluation

In general, the fate of the Lebedenko tank, developed in 1914-1915, is similar to the fate of almost all prototypes that were developed at that time. Due to the lack of both well-established canons in the design of this kind of machines, and any of their concepts, they all ended their existence in a very prosaic way. This can partly explain the paradoxical situation when a very ambitious and promising project receives approval from high authorities, but in fact remains only a heap of metal.

Already on the first test, the incredible vulnerability of the tank was revealed - an ordinary salvo of shrapnel, aimed at the spokes of the wheels, disabled the car. At the same time, due to the colossal size of the tank and the low speed of its movement, it was an excellent target. The dimensions of the car predetermined its low cross-country ability. A covert transfer of tanks to the front line was unlikely.

Psychological weapon

The Lebedenko tank, whether it was mass-produced, could be used only as a psychological weapon. Definitely, the overwhelming majority of the soldiers of those times could see such a machine only in bad dream. Military history shows that such intimidation mechanisms should definitely not be written off. During the Second World War, for example, Soviet soldiers very successfully forced the enemy to retreat, "dressing" simple tractors in wooden frames, shaped like tanks. However, mass production of such machines in those days in itself was unlikely. The main volume the reason was the lack of powerful motors. And it is unlikely that the country would have mastered such a production.

Project result

The final "defeat" of the project was due to the fact that the creation and construction of the Lebedenko tank had practically no effect on the domestic (and even more so the world) tank building. The war machine was another dead-end attempt in the development of an industry that at that time made its way into the world mainly through trial and error.

The only positive result from of this project was the experience gained by young designers Mikulin and Stechkin. When it was found that the power of the tank's power plant was not enough, they developed a new engine, called AMBS-1. In this engine, advanced solutions for that time were implemented, for example, direct injection of fuel into the cylinders. Both designers later became outstanding specialists in the field of aircraft power plants and members of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

There are many interesting facts connected with the extraordinary car. Here are just the main ones:

1. Among other nicknames, Nikolai Lebedenko's tank was called "The Bat" or "Bat". The fact is that when carried by the rear wheel, the car really resembled in shape bat who sleeps upside down on a tree branch or cave wall.
2. The wooden model, which the designer Lebedenko made to demonstrate his developments to the emperor, Nicholas II kept for himself. The further fate of the model is unknown.
3. There is a legend about a conspiracy, the main link of which was the Tsar Tank. According to her, the obviously failed idea of ​​the machine was intensely lobbied by high-ranking officials acting in the interests of England and serving in the General Staff of Russia. In accordance with this version, the same ranks put an end to the project of the "Porokhovshchikov all-terrain vehicle", the drawings of which later came to the British engineers and formed the basis of the first British tanks... The external similarity of the same "all-terrain vehicle" with tanks of the Mk I series speaks in favor of the latter hypothesis. Nevertheless, these judgments do not have documentary evidence, besides, English cars are very different from a similar element of the failed Russian car.
4. The forest in which the tests took place, and then the Tsar-tank simply rusted, was called "Tank's forest" among the local residents.
5. The history of the development of the Lebedenko tank, the characteristics of which we are considering today, was described in the artistic-historical novel "Talent (Berezhkov's Life)", filmed in 1956 by Alexander Beck. The picture tells about the life and work of A. A. Mikulin, who is represented in it under the pseudonym Alexey Berezhkov.
6. The designers of the IG-227 Hailfire missile tank, which was presented in the picture “ star Wars II ", inspired by the Tsar-tank Lebedenko. The photo of the cinematographic device really resembles a Russian tank of the early 20th century. The fantastic tank differs only in that it does not have a rear roller, and the large wheels are at an angle to each other.

Specifications

Finally, we note the main tactical and technical parameters of the Lebedenko tank developed in 1914-1915:

1. Crew - 15 people.
2. The number of copies produced is 1.
3. Weight - 60 tons (in the project it was planned to be 20 tons less).
4. Length - 17.8 m.
5. Width - 12 m.
6. Height - 9 m.
7. Armor type - rolled steel;
8. Armor thickness: forehead, side and rear of the hull - 10 mm / deg (planned 7); bottom, side of the tower and roof of the hull - 8 mm / deg (planned 5).
9. Cannon type - caponier.
10. The caliber of the gun is 76.2 mm.
11. Cannon ammunition - 60 rounds.
12. The sights are optical.
13. Machine gun model - "Maxim".
14. Machine gun caliber - 7.92 mm.
15. Machine gun ammunition - up to 10 thousand shells.
16. Motor type - aviation carburetor high-board, brand "Maybach".
17. Number of motors in power plant- 2 pcs.
18. Motor power - 240 HP with a torque of 2500 rpm;
19. The speed of the car on the highway is 17 km / h.
20. The speed on rough terrain is 10 km / h.
21. The cruising range on the highway is about 60 km.
22. The cruising range on rough terrain is about 40 km.
23. Suspension type - rigid.
24. Wheel formula - 3 * 2.
25. The specific power of the tank is 8.3 liters. s./t (according to the project - 12.5).