Question to a psychologist 

Katyusha artillery. Was the first volley of "Katyushas" on the "Katyushas"? 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

The first thing that comes to mind when the word "Katyusha" is the deadly artillery vehicle used by the Soviet Union during. These machines were widely used during the war and were known for the power of the inflicted jet strike.

The technical purpose of the Katyusha is a rocket artillery combat vehicle (BMRA), such installations cost less than a full-fledged artillery gun, but at the same time they could literally bring down hell on the enemy’s head in a few seconds. Soviet engineers achieved a balance between firepower, mobility, accuracy and cost-effectiveness in creating this system, which made it world famous.

Creation of a combat vehicle

Work on the creation of Katyusha began in early 1938, when the Jet Research Institute (RNII) in Leningrad received permission to develop its own BMRA. Initially, large-scale weapon tests began at the end of 1938, but the huge number of flaws in the car did not impress the Soviet army, however, after the system was finalized, in 1940, Katyusha was still released in a small batch.

You are probably wondering where the artillery vehicle got its special name from - the history of the Katyusha is quite unique. The existence of this weapon was a secret until the very end of the war, during which the combat vehicle, in order to hide its true nature, was marked with the letters “CAT”, which stood for “Kostikova automatic thermite”, which is why the soldiers dubbed it Katyusha, in honor of the patriotic songs by Mikhail Isakovsky.

The Katyusha also made a loud howling sound during the shot, and the arrangement of rockets on the gun resembled a church organ, which is why the German soldiers called the machine "Stalin's Organ", for the sound and fear that it generated in the ranks of the enemy. The weapon itself was so secret that only NKVD operatives and the most trusted people were trained to operate it and had permission to do so, but when the Katyusha went into mass production, the restrictions were lifted, and the car was placed at the disposal of the Soviet troops.

Capabilities BMRA "Katyusha"

Katyusha used an improved RS-132 aviation rocket, adapted for ground installation - M-13.

  • The projectile contained five kilograms of explosive.
  • The machine on which the artillery mount moved - BM-13 - was created specifically for rocket field artillery.
  • The range of the missile reached 8.5 kilometers.
  • The dispersion of the projectile after a shot with a fragmentation action reached ten meters.
  • The installation contained 16 rockets.

A new, improved and enlarged version of the M-13 projectile - the 300 mm M-30/31 - was developed in 1942. This projectile was also launched from a specialized vehicle called the BM-31.

  • The onion-shaped warhead contained more explosives and, unlike the M-13, was launched not from a rail installation, but from a frame.
  • The frame on the BM-31 lacked mobility compared to the BM-13, since the original versions of such a launcher were not designed for mobile platforms.
  • The content of explosives in the M-31 increased to 29 kilograms, but at the cost of reducing the range to 4.3 km.
  • Each frame contained 12 warheads.

A smaller projectile, the M-8, caliber 82 mm, attached to a mount on a BM-8, was also used.

  • The range of the M-8 reached almost six kilometers, and the projectile itself contained a pound of explosive.
  • To launch this warhead, a rail mount was used, on which, due to the smaller size of the projectiles, many more missiles were placed.
  • A vehicle with a capacity of thirty-six missiles was called BM-8-36, a vehicle with a capacity of forty-eight was called BM-8-48, and so on.

Initially, the M-13s were equipped only with explosive warheads and were used against concentrations of enemy troops, but the Katyusha, which proved its functionality during the war, was also equipped with armor-piercing missiles to counter tank forces. Smoke, illumination, and other missiles have also been developed to complement explosive and armor-piercing warheads. However, the M-31 was still equipped exclusively with explosive shells. With a salvo exceeding a hundred missiles, they inflicted not only maximum physical destruction, but also psychological damage to the enemy.

But all such missiles had one drawback - they did not differ in accuracy and were effective only in large quantities and in attacks on large and spread targets.

Initially, Katyusha launchers were mounted on a ZIS-5 truck, but later, as the war progressed, the launchers were mounted on a variety of vehicles, including trains and boats, as well as on thousands of American trucks received during Lend-Lease.

The first battles of the BMRA "Katyusha"

Katyusha made its debut in combat in 1941, during the surprise invasion of German troops into the territory of the Soviet Union. This was not a good time to deploy the vehicle, as the single battery had only four days of training and the factories for mass production had barely been set up.

However, the first battery consisting of seven BM-13 launchers and six hundred M-13 missiles was sent into battle. At that time, the Katyusha was a secret development, so a huge number of measures were taken to hide the installation before participating in combat.

On July 7, 1941, the first battery entered the battle, attacking the attacking German troops near the Berezina River. German soldiers panicked as a shower of explosive shells rained down on their heads, shell fragments flying several meters away wounded and concussed the fighters, and the howling sound of a shot demoralized not only recruits, but also hardened soldiers.

The first battery continued to participate in the battle, over and over again justifying the expectations placed on it, but in October the enemy soldiers were able to surround the battery - however, they failed to capture it, since the retreating Soviet army destroyed shells and launchers so that the secret weapon did not fall into the hands of the enemy.

A salvo of M-13 missiles, fired by a battery of four BM-13s, launched 4.35 tons of explosives over an area of ​​​​more than 400 square meters for 7-10 seconds, which was approximately equal to the destructive power of seventy-two single-caliber artillery batteries.

An excellent demonstration of the combat capabilities of the first BM-13 battery led to the mass production of weapons, and already in 1942 an impressive number of launchers and missiles were available to the Soviet army. They were widely used in the defense of the territories of the USSR and the further attack on Berlin. More than five hundred Katyusha batteries participated in the war with great success, and by the end of the war, more than ten thousand launchers and more than twelve million missiles were produced with the participation of about two hundred different factories.

The rapid production of guns played into the hands of the fact that only light equipment was required to create the Katyusha, and the time and resources spent on production were much less than those needed to create howitzers.

heirs BMRA " Katyusha"

The success of the Katyusha in combat, its simple design and profitable production ensured that this weapon is still being made and used to this day. "Katyusha" has become a household name for Russian BMRAs of various calibers, along with the prefix "BM".

The most famous version, the post-war BM-21 Grad, which entered the army arsenal in 1962, is still in use today. Like the BM-13, the BM-21 is based on simplicity, combat power and efficiency, which has ensured its popularity among both the state military and the militarized opposition, revolutionaries and other illegal groups. The BM-21 has forty missiles that can fire up to 35 kilometers, depending on the type of projectile.

There is also another option that appeared before the BM-21, namely in 1952 - BM-14, caliber 140 mm. Interestingly, this weapon is widely used by extremists, since it has a cheap, compact and mobile variation. The last confirmed use of the BM-14 was in 2013, in the Syrian Civil War, where it once again demonstrated the ability to provide massive firepower in massive attacks.

This was inherited by the BMRA BM-27 and BM-30, which use caliber 220 and 300 mm, respectively. Such Katyushas can be equipped with long-range system-guided missiles, allowing them to attack the enemy with much greater accuracy at greater distances than during the Second World War. The range of the BM-27 reaches 20 km, and the range of the BM-30 is up to 90 km. These rigs can fire a huge amount of projectiles in a very short time, making the old BM-13 look like an innocent toy. A well-coordinated 300-caliber salvo from several batteries can easily level an entire enemy division to the ground.

The latest successor to Katyusha, the Tornado MLRS, is a universal rocket launcher that combines BM-21, BM-27 and BM-30 missiles on an eight-wheeled chassis. It uses automatic ammunition placement, targeting, satellite navigation and positioning systems to fire with far greater accuracy than its predecessors. MLRS Tornado is the future of Russian rocket artillery, ensuring that Katyusha will always remain in demand in the future.

In the protocol of interrogation of German prisoners of war, it was noted that "two captured soldiers in the village of Popkovo went crazy from the fire of rocket launchers", and the captured corporal stated that "there were many cases of insanity in the village of Popkovo from the artillery cannonade of the Soviet troops."

T34 Sherman Calliope (USA) Multiple launch rocket system (1943). It had 60 guides for 114 mm M8 rockets. Mounted on the Sherman tank, guidance was carried out by turning the turret and raising and lowering the barrel (through the rod)

One of the most famous and popular symbols of the weapons of the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War is the BM-8 and BM-13 multiple launch rocket systems, affectionately nicknamed "Katyusha" by the people. The development of rocket projectiles in the USSR was carried out from the beginning of the 1930s, and even then the possibilities of their salvo launch were considered. In 1933, the RNII, the Reactive Research Institute, was established. One of the results of his work was the creation and adoption by aviation in 1937-1938 of 82- and 132-mm rockets. By this time, considerations had already been expressed about the advisability of using rockets in the ground forces. However, due to the low accuracy of their use, the effectiveness of their use could only be achieved when firing simultaneously with a large number of shells. The Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) at the beginning of 1937, and then in 1938, set the institute the task of developing a multi-shot launcher for firing volley fire with 132-mm rockets. Initially, the installation was planned to be used for firing rockets in order to conduct chemical warfare.


In April 1939, a multiply charged launcher was designed according to a fundamentally new scheme with a longitudinal arrangement of guides. Initially, it received the name "mechanized installation" (MU-2), and after the SKB of the Kompressor plant was finalized and put into service in 1941, it was given the name "BM-13 combat vehicle". The rocket launcher itself consisted of 16 groove-type rocket guides. The location of the guides along the chassis of the vehicle and the installation of jacks increased the stability of the launcher and increased the accuracy of fire. Rocket loading was carried out from the rear end of the rails, which made it possible to significantly speed up the reloading process. All 16 shells could be fired in 7 to 10 seconds.

The beginning of the formation of guards mortar units was laid by the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of June 21, 1941 on the deployment of mass production of M-13 shells, M-13 launchers and the beginning of the formation of rocket artillery units. The first separate battery, which received seven BM-13 installations, was commanded by Captain I.A. Flerov. The successful operations of rocket artillery batteries contributed to the rapid growth of this young type of weapon. Already on August 8, 1941, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, the formation of the first eight regiments of rocket artillery began, which was completed by September 12. Until the end of September, the ninth regiment was created.

tactical unit

The main tactical unit of the Guards mortar units was the guards mortar regiment. Organizationally, it consisted of three divisions of rocket launchers M-8 or M-13, an anti-aircraft division, as well as service units. In total, the regiment had 1414 people, 36 combat vehicles, twelve 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, 9 DShK anti-aircraft machine guns and 18 light machine guns. However, the difficult situation on the fronts in the reduction in the production of anti-aircraft artillery guns led to the fact that in 1941 some units of rocket artillery did not actually have an anti-aircraft artillery battalion. The transition to a full-time organization based on a regiment ensured an increase in the density of fire compared to a structure based on individual batteries or divisions. A volley of one regiment of M-13 rocket launchers consisted of 576, and a regiment of M-8 rocket launchers - of 1296 rockets.

The elitism and importance of batteries, divisions and regiments of rocket artillery of the Red Army was emphasized by the fact that immediately upon formation they were given the honorary title of Guards. For this reason, and also in order to maintain secrecy, the Soviet rocket artillery received its official name - “Guards mortar units”.

An important milestone in the history of the Soviet field rocket artillery was GKO Decree No. 642-ss of September 8, 1941. According to this resolution, the Guards mortar units were separated from the Main Artillery Directorate. At the same time, the post of commander of the Guards mortar units was introduced, who was supposed to report directly to the Headquarters of the High Command (SGVK). The first commander of the Guards mortar units (GMCH) was the military engineer of the 1st rank V.V. Aborenkov.

First experience

The first use of Katyushas took place on July 14, 1941. The battery of Captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov fired two volleys from seven launchers at the Orsha railway station, where a large number of German echelons with troops, equipment, ammunition, and fuel had accumulated. As a result of battery fire, the railway junction was wiped off the face of the earth, the enemy suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment.


T34 Sherman Calliope (USA) - multiple launch rocket system (1943). It had 60 guides for 114 mm M8 rockets. It was mounted on a Sherman tank, guidance was carried out by turning the turret and raising and lowering the barrel (through traction).

On August 8, Katyushas were involved in the Kiev direction. This is evidenced by the following lines of a secret report to Malenkov, a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “Today at dawn, new means known to you were used in the Kiev UR. They hit the enemy to a depth of 8 kilometers. The setup is extremely efficient. The command of the sector where the installation was located reported that after several turns of the circle, the enemy completely stopped pressing on the sector from which the installation was operating. Our infantry boldly and confidently went forward. The same document states that the use of the new weapon caused an initially mixed reaction from Soviet soldiers who had never seen anything like it before. “I am transmitting as the Red Army soldiers said: “We hear a roar, then a piercing howl and a large trail of fire. Panic arose among some of our Red Army soldiers, and then the commanders explained where they were shooting from and where ... this literally caused the fighters to rejoice. The gunners give a very good review ... ”The appearance of the Katyusha came as a complete surprise to the leadership of the Wehrmacht. Initially, the use of Soviet BM-8 and BM-13 rocket launchers was perceived by the Germans as a concentration of fire from a large number of artillery. One of the first mentions of the BM-13 rocket launchers can be found in the diary of the head of the German ground forces, Franz Halder, only on August 14, 1941, when he made the following entry: “The Russians have an automatic multi-barreled flamethrower gun ... The shot is fired by electricity. During the shot, smoke is generated ... When capturing such guns, report immediately. Two weeks later, a directive appeared entitled "Russian gun throwing rocket-like projectiles." It said: “Troops report the use by the Russians of a new type of weapon that fires rockets. A large number of shots can be fired from one installation within 3-5 seconds ... Each appearance of these guns must be reported to the general, commander of the chemical troops at the high command, on the same day.


By June 22, 1941, the German troops also had rocket mortars. By this time, the chemical troops of the Wehrmacht had four regiments of six-barreled chemical mortars of 150 mm caliber (Nebelwerfer 41), and the fifth was under formation. The regiment of German chemical mortars organizationally consisted of three divisions of three batteries. For the first time, these mortars were used at the very beginning of the war near Brest, as mentioned in his writings by the historian Paul Karel.

There is nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow

By the autumn of 1941, the main part of rocket artillery was concentrated in the troops of the Western Front and the Moscow Defense Zone. Near Moscow there were 33 divisions out of 59 that were at that time in the Red Army. For comparison: the Leningrad Front had five divisions, the South-Western - nine, the South - six, and the rest - one or two divisions each. In the Battle of Moscow, all armies were reinforced by three or four divisions, and only the 16th Army had seven divisions.

The Soviet leadership attached great importance to the use of Katyushas in the battle of Moscow. In the directive of the Headquarters of the All-Russian Supreme Command on October 1, 1941, “To the commanders of the troops of the fronts and armies on the procedure for using rocket artillery”, in particular, the following was noted: “Parts of the active Red Army have recently received new powerful weapons in the form of combat vehicles M-8 and M- 13, which are the best means of destroying (suppressing) the enemy's manpower, its tanks, motor parts and fire weapons. The sudden, massive and well-prepared fire of the M-8 and M-13 divisions provides an exceptionally good defeat of the enemy and at the same time has a strong moral shock to his manpower, leading to a loss of combat capability. This is especially true at the moment when the enemy infantry has many more tanks than we do, when our infantry most of all needs powerful support from the M-8 and M-13, which can be successfully opposed to enemy tanks.


A battalion of rocket artillery under the command of Captain Karsanov left a bright mark on the defense of Moscow. For example, on November 11, 1941, this division supported the attack of its infantry on Skirmanovo. After the volleys of the division, this settlement was taken almost without resistance. When examining the area in which volleys were fired, 17 wrecked tanks, more than 20 mortars and several guns abandoned by the enemy in a panic were found. During November 22 and 23, the same division, without infantry cover, repelled repeated enemy attacks. Despite the fire of submachine gunners, Captain Karsanov's division did not retreat until it had completed its combat mission.

At the beginning of the counter-offensive near Moscow, not only the infantry and military equipment of the enemy, but also fortified defense lines, using which the Wehrmacht leadership sought to detain the Soviet troops, became objects of fire for the Katyushas. The BM-8 and BM-13 rocket launchers fully justified themselves in these new conditions. For example, the 31st separate mortar division under the command of political instructor Orekhov spent 2.5 divisional volleys to destroy the German garrison in the village of Popkovo. On the same day, the village was taken by Soviet troops with little or no resistance.

Defending Stalingrad

In repelling the enemy's continuous attacks on Stalingrad, the Guards mortar units made a significant contribution. Sudden volleys of rocket launchers devastated the ranks of the advancing German troops, burned their military equipment. In the midst of fierce fighting, many Guards mortar regiments fired 20 to 30 volleys a day. Remarkable examples of combat work were shown by the 19th Guards Mortar Regiment. In just one day of the battle, he fired 30 volleys. The combat rocket launchers of the regiment were located along with the advanced units of our infantry and destroyed a large number of German and Romanian soldiers and officers. Rocket artillery was greatly loved by the defenders of Stalingrad and, above all, by the infantry. The military glory of the regiments of Vorobyov, Parnovsky, Chernyak and Erokhin thundered on the entire front.


In the photo above - Katyusha BM-13 on the ZiS-6 chassis was a launcher consisting of rail guides (from 14 to 48). The BM-31-12 installation (“Andryusha”, photo below) was a constructive development of the Katyusha. It was based on the Studebaker chassis and fired 300-mm rockets from guides not of a rail type, but of a honeycomb type.

IN AND. Chuikov wrote in his memoirs that he would never forget the Katyusha regiment under the command of Colonel Erokhin. On July 26, on the right bank of the Don, Erokhin's regiment participated in repelling the offensive of the 51st Army Corps of the German Army. In early August, this regiment entered the southern operational group of troops. In the first days of September, during German tank attacks on the Chervlenaya River near the village of Tsibenko, the regiment again fired a salvo of 82-millimeter Katyushas at the main enemy forces in the most dangerous place. The 62nd Army fought street battles from September 14 to the end of January 1943, and the Katyusha regiment of Colonel Erokhin constantly received combat missions of the commander V.I. Chuikov. In this regiment, the guide frames (rails) for the shells were mounted on a T-60 tracked base, which gave these installations good maneuverability in any terrain. Being in Stalingrad itself and having chosen positions behind the steep bank of the Volga, the regiment was invulnerable to enemy artillery fire. Erokhin quickly brought his own combat installations on caterpillar tracks to firing positions, fired a volley and with the same speed again went into cover.

In the initial period of the war, the effectiveness of rocket launchers was reduced due to the insufficient number of shells.
In particular, in a conversation between Marshal Shaposhnikov of the USSR and General of the Army G.K. Zhukov, the latter stated the following: “volleys for R.S. (rockets - O.A.) it takes at least 20 to be enough for two days of battle, and now we give negligible. If there were more of them, I vouch that it would be possible to shoot the enemy with only RSs. In the words of Zhukov, there is a clear overestimation of the capabilities of the Katyushas, ​​which had their drawbacks. One of them was mentioned in a letter to GKO member G.M. This shortcoming was especially clearly revealed during the retreat of our troops, when, due to the threat of the capture of this latest secret equipment, the Katyusha crews were forced to blow up their rocket launchers.

Kursk Bulge. Attention tanks!

On the eve of the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops, including rocket artillery, were intensively preparing for the upcoming battles with German armored vehicles. Katyushas drove their front wheels into dug recesses to give the guides a minimum elevation angle, and the shells, leaving parallel to the ground, could hit tanks. Experimental shootings were carried out on plywood models of tanks. In training, rockets smashed targets to pieces. However, this method also had many opponents: after all, the warhead of the M-13 shells was high-explosive fragmentation, and not armor-piercing. It was necessary to check the effectiveness of Katyushas against tanks already during the battles. Despite the fact that rocket launchers were not designed to fight against tanks, in some cases, Katyushas successfully coped with this task. Let us give one example from a secret report addressed personally to I.V. Stalin: “July 5-7, the guards mortar units, repelling enemy attacks and supporting their infantry, carried out: 9 regimental, 96 divisional, 109 battery and 16 platoon volleys against enemy infantry and tanks. As a result, according to incomplete data, up to 15 infantry battalions were destroyed and dispersed, 25 vehicles were burned and knocked out, 16 artillery and mortar batteries were suppressed, and 48 enemy attacks were repelled. During the period July 5-7, 1943, 5,547 M-8 shells and 12,000 M-13 shells were used up. Particularly noteworthy is the combat work on the Voronezh Front of the 415th Guards Mortar Regiment (regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Ganyushkin), who on July 6 defeated the crossing across the Sev River. Donets in the Mikhailovka area and destroyed up to one company of infantry and on July 7, participating in the battle with enemy tanks, firing direct fire, knocked out and destroyed 27 tanks ... "


In general, the use of Katyushas against tanks, despite individual episodes, turned out to be ineffective due to the large dispersion of shells. In addition, as noted earlier, the warhead of the M-13 shells was high-explosive fragmentation, and not armor-piercing. Therefore, even with a direct hit, the rocket was not able to penetrate the frontal armor of the Tigers and Panthers. Despite these circumstances, the Katyushas still inflicted significant damage on the tanks. The fact is that when a rocket projectile hit the frontal armor, the tank crew often failed due to severe shell shock. In addition, as a result of Katyusha fire, the tracks of the tanks were interrupted, the turrets jammed, and if fragments hit the engine part or gas tanks, a fire could start.

Katyushas were successfully used until the very end of World War II, earning the love and respect of Soviet soldiers and officers and the hatred of Wehrmacht servicemen. During the war years, the BM-8 and BM-13 rocket launchers were mounted on various vehicles, tanks, tractors, installed on the armored platforms of armored trains, combat boats, etc. The "brothers" of the Katyusha were also created and participated in the battles - launchers of heavy rockets M-30 and M-31 caliber 300 mm, as well as launchers BM-31-12 caliber 300 mm. Rocket artillery firmly took its place in the Red Army and rightfully became one of the symbols of victory.

It all started with the development of black powder rockets in 1921. N.I. took part in the work on the project. Tikhomirov, V.A. Artemyev from the gas dynamic laboratory.

By 1933, the work was almost completed and official tests began. To launch them, multiply charged aviation and single-shot ground launchers were used. These shells were prototypes of those later used on the Katyushas. The development team of the Reactive Institute was engaged in finalization.

In 1937-38, rockets of this type were adopted by the air forces of the Soviet Union. They were used on the I-15, I-16, I-153 fighters, and later on the Il-2 attack aircraft.

From 1938 to 1941, work was underway at the Reactive Institute to create a multiply charged launcher mounted on the basis of a truck. In March 1941, ground tests of installations were carried out, which received the name BM-13 - Fighting Machine 132 mm shells.

The combat vehicles were equipped with high-explosive fragmentation shells of 132 mm caliber called M-13, which were put into mass production just a few days before the start of the war. On June 26, 1941, the assembly of the first two serial BM-13s based on the ZIS-6 was completed in Voronezh. On June 28, the installations were tested at a training ground near Moscow and were placed at the disposal of the army.

An experimental battery of seven vehicles under the command of Captain I. Flerov first took part in the battles on July 14, 1941 for the city of Rudnya, occupied by the Germans the day before. Two days later, the same unit fired at the Orsha railway station and the crossing over the Orshitsa River.

The production of BM-13 was established at the plant. Comintern in Voronezh, as well as at the Moscow Compressor. The production of shells was organized at the Moscow plant. Vladimir Ilyich. During the war, several modifications of the rocket launcher and shells for it were developed.

A year later, in 1942, shells with a caliber of 310 mm were developed. In April 1944, a self-propelled unit with 12 guides was created for them, which was mounted on the chassis of a truck.

origin of name


In order to maintain secrecy, the management strongly recommended calling the BM-13 installation whatever you like, so as not to disclose the details of its characteristics and purpose. For this reason, the soldiers at first called the BM-13 "guards mortar".

As for the affectionate "Katyusha", there are many versions regarding the appearance of such a name for a mortar installation.

One of the versions says that the mortar installation was called "Katyusha" after the name of Matvey Blanter's popular song before the war to the words of Mikhail Isakovsky "Katyusha". The version is very convincing because during the shelling of Rudnya, the installations were located on one of the local hills.

The other version is somewhat more prosaic, but no less soulful. There was an unspoken tradition in the army to give weapons affectionate nicknames. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed "Mother", the ML-20 howitzer gun was called "Emelka". Initially, the BM-13 was called "Raisa Sergeevna" for some time, thus deciphering the abbreviation RS - a rocket.


The installations were such a closely guarded military secret that during the fighting it was strictly forbidden to use traditional commands like "fire", "volley" or "plee". They were replaced by the commands "play" and "sing": to start it was necessary to turn the handle of the generator very quickly.

Well, one more version is quite simple: an unknown soldier wrote the name of his beloved girl on the installation - Katyusha. The nickname stuck.

Tactical and technical characteristics

Chief designer A.V. Kostikov

  • Number of guides - 16
  • Guide length - 5 meters
  • Weight in camping equipment without shells - 5 tons
  • Transition from traveling to combat position - 2 - 3 minutes
  • Time to load the installation - 5 - 8 minutes
  • Volley duration - 4 - 6 seconds
  • Projectile type - jet, high-explosive fragmentation
  • Caliber - 132 mm
  • Maximum projectile speed - 355 m / s
  • Range - 8470 meters

On July 14, 1941, the Red Army used the Soviet BM-13 rocket artillery vehicle (Katyusha) in combat conditions for the first time.

History of creation

In 1921, the Gas Dynamics Laboratory was established in Moscow under the leadership of N. I. Tikhomirov and V. A. Artemiev, which was entrusted with the task of designing and creating rockets for military aviation. In 1929-1933, such shells were created and tested. Subsequently, the Reactive Research Institute was created on the basis of the laboratory, which continued this work. In 1937-1938 rockets were already in service with the Red Army. And in the summer of 1939, practical combat tests were carried out on. Just before the Great Patriotic War, engineers found a new use for aircraft rockets. They created a multiply charged launcher placed on a truck and designated BM-13.

Volley division BM-13-16 during the Battle of Stalingrad

Battle path

On June 21, 1941, the new development was approved and put into operation. Three weeks later, the first battery of seven installations appeared in the Red Army. Captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov became the commander. On July 14, 1941, the installations fired only two volleys at the Orsha station, but the German troops and equipment that had accumulated there were completely destroyed. The Red Army soldiers affectionately nicknamed the formidable weapon "Katyusha". Unfortunately, there is no reliable information about how such a name appeared. Some believe that it is associated with M. Blanter's song, popular during the war years, to the words of M. Isakovsky "Katyusha", others - that it appeared because of the letter "K" stamped on the frame of the installation. This is how the plant named after the Comintern marked its products. There is another, lyrical version: the name of the beloved girl on the BM-13 was written by a fighter. The production of Katyushas was under the special control of the Supreme High Command, and in the autumn of 1941 there were already 59 divisions in the troops, 33 of which were concentrated near Moscow. The documents of the Supreme High Command noted that the army received a new powerful weapon, which not only gives a high practical result, but also inflicts a moral shock on the German soldiers. The enemy was not ready for the appearance of the Katyushas. The Germans launched a real hunt for new weapons, a big reward was announced for it, and the main German saboteur Otto Skorzeny even joined this hunt, but for a long time this did not bring success. The range of application of the BM-8 (modification) and BM-13 installations was very wide. They were used not only against infantry and military equipment, but also to destroy fortified defense lines, with which the Germans tried to contain the Soviet troops. During the war, rocket artillery became the most powerful weapon of the Red Army. Not a single significant battle took place without the combat use of Katyushas.

The story doesn't end

By May 1945, the army had 40 separate divisions, 115 regiments, 40 separate brigades and 7 divisions. Three types of combat vehicles passed the roads of war, but the BM-13 with 132-mm rockets remained the main and most massive. After the victory over the Nazis in 1945, the Katyushas occupied one of the most important places in the Soviet army. On the basis of the BM-13, new multiple launch rocket systems began to develop. In 1963, the Grad systems were adopted, followed by the MLRS with improved characteristics - the Uragan. In 1987, the Smerch MLRS was adopted, and in 2017, a bicaliber version of the Uragan appeared - Uragan-1M. According to the IISS, at the beginning of 2017, 550 Grads, 200 Hurricanes and 100 Tornadoes were on combat duty in the Russian army.

"Katyusha" at the Victory Parade

July 14, 1941 at one of the defense sectors 20 th army, in the forest to the east Orsha, flames shot up to the sky, accompanied by an unusual rumble, not at all like artillery shots. Clouds of black smoke rose from the trees, and barely noticeable arrows hissed in the sky towards the German positions.

Soon the entire area of ​​the local station, captured by the Nazis, was engulfed in furious fire. The Germans, stunned, fled in panic. It took the enemy a long time to gather their demoralized units. So for the first time in history they declared themselves "Katyusha".

The first combat use of powder rockets of a new type by the Red Army refers to the battles at Khalkhin Gol. On May 28, 1939, the Japanese troops that occupied Manchuria, in the region of the Khalkhin Gol River, went on the offensive against Mongolia, with which the USSR was bound by a mutual assistance treaty. A local, but no less bloody war began. And here in August 1939, a group of fighters I-16 under the command of a test pilot Nikolay Zvonarev first used RS-82 missiles.

The Japanese at first thought that their planes were attacked by a well-camouflaged anti-aircraft gun. Only a few days later, one of the officers who took part in the air battle reported: “Under the wings of Russian aircraft, I saw bright flashes of flame!”

"Katyusha" in combat position

Experts flew in from Tokyo, examined the wrecked planes, and agreed that only a projectile with a diameter of at least 76 mm could cause such destruction. But after all, calculations showed that an aircraft capable of withstanding the recoil of a gun of such a caliber simply could not exist! Only on experimental fighters 20 mm caliber guns were tested. To find out the secret, a real hunt was announced for the planes of Captain Zvonarev and his comrade-in-arms pilots Pimenov, Fedorov, Mikhailenko and Tkachenko. But the Japanese failed to shoot down or land at least one car.

The results of the first use of missiles launched from aircraft exceeded all expectations. In less than a month of fighting (on September 15, a truce was signed), the pilots of the Zvonarev group made 85 sorties and shot down 13 enemy planes in 14 air battles!

rockets, which proved to be so successful on the battlefield, were developed from the beginning of the 1930s at the Reactive Research Institute (RNII), which, after the repressions of 1937-1938, was led by a chemist Boris Slonimer. Directly worked on rockets Yuri Pobedonostsev, to whom now belongs the honor of being called their author.

The success of the new weapon spurred work on the first version of the multiply charged installation, which later turned into the Katyusha. In NII-3 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, as RNII was called before the war, this work was led by Andrey Kostikov, Modern historians speak rather disrespectfully about Kostikov. And this is true, because his denunciations about colleagues (for the same Pobedonostsev) were found in the archives.

The first version of the future "Katyusha" was charging 132 -mm shells similar to those fired at Khalkhin Gol by Captain Zvonarev. The entire installation with 24 rails was mounted on a ZIS-5 truck. Here the authorship belongs to Ivan Gvai, who had previously made the "Flute" - an installation for rockets on I-15 and I-16 fighters. The first ground tests near Moscow, carried out in early 1939, revealed many shortcomings.

Military experts who approached the assessment rocket artillery from the positions of cannon artillery, they saw a technical curiosity in these strange machines. But, despite the ridicule of the gunners, the staff of the institute continued hard work on the second version of the launcher. It was installed on a more powerful ZIS-6 truck. However, 24 rails, mounted, as in the first version, across the machine, did not ensure the stability of the machine when firing.

Field tests of the second option were carried out in the presence of the marshal Klima Voroshilova. Thanks to his favorable assessment, the development team received the support of the commanding staff. At the same time, the designer Galkovsky proposed a completely new option: leave 16 guides and mount them longitudinally on the machine. In August 1939, the pilot plant was manufactured.

By that time, a group led by Leonid Schwartz designed and tested samples of new 132-mm rockets. In the autumn of 1939, another series of tests was carried out at the Leningrad artillery range. This time, the launchers and projectiles for them were approved. From that moment on, the rocket launcher became officially known as BM-13, which meant "fighting vehicle", and 13 is short for the caliber of a 132-mm rocket projectile.

The BM-13 combat vehicle was a chassis of a three-axle ZIS-6 vehicle, on which a rotary truss was installed with a package of guides and a guidance mechanism. For aiming, a swivel and lifting mechanism and an artillery sight were provided. At the rear of the combat vehicle were two jacks, which ensured its greater stability when firing. The launch of rockets was carried out by a handle electric coil connected to the battery and contacts on the rails. When the handle was turned, the contacts closed in turn, and in the next of the shells the starting squib was fired.

At the end of 1939, the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army gave an order to NII-3 for the manufacture of six BM-13s. By November 1940, this order was completed. On June 17, 1941, the vehicles were demonstrated at a review of the Red Army weapons, which took place near Moscow. BM-13 was examined by the marshal Tymoshenko, People's Commissar of Arms Ustinov, People's Commissar of Ammunition Vannikov and Chief of the General Staff Zhukov. On June 21, following the results of the review, the command decided to expand the production of missiles M-13 and installations BM-13.

On the morning of June 22, 1941, the employees of NII-3 gathered within the walls of their institute. It was clear that the new weapons would no longer undergo any military tests - now it is important to collect all the installations and send them into battle. Seven BM-13 vehicles formed the backbone of the first rocket artillery battery, the decision to form which was made on June 28, 1941. And already on the night of July 2, she left for the Western Front under her own power.

The first battery consisted of a control platoon, a sighting platoon, three firing platoons, a combat power platoon, an economic department, a fuel and lubricants department, and a sanitary unit. In addition to seven BM-13 launchers and a 122-mm howitzer of the 1930 model, which served for sighting, the battery had 44 trucks for transporting 600 M-13 rockets, 100 shells for howitzers, trenching tools, three refueling of fuel and lubricants, seven daily norms of food and other property.

Captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov - the first commander of the experimental battery "Katyusha"

The command staff of the battery was staffed mainly by students of the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, who had just completed the first course of the command department. Capt. was appointed battery commander Ivan Flerov- an artillery officer who had experience of the Soviet-Finnish war behind him. Neither the officers nor the numbers of the combat crews of the first battery had any special training; only three classes were held during the formation period.

They were led by the developers of rocket weapons, design engineer Popov and military engineer 2nd rank Shitov. Just before the end of classes, Popov pointed to a large wooden box mounted on the running board of a combat vehicle. “When you are sent to the front,” he said, “we will fill this box with heavy bombs and put a squib so that at the slightest threat of an enemy seizing a rocket weapon, both the installation and the shells can be blown up.” Two days after the march from Moscow, the battery became part of the 20th Army of the Western Front, which fought for Smolensk.

On the night of July 12-13, she was alerted and sent to Orsha. A lot of German echelons with troops, equipment, ammunition and fuel accumulated at the Orsha station. Flerov ordered to deploy the battery five kilometers from the station, behind the hill. The engines of the vehicles were not turned off in order to immediately leave the position after the salvo. At 15:15 on July 14, 1941, Captain Flerov gave the command to open fire.

Here is the text of the report to the German General Staff: “The Russians used a battery with an unprecedented number of guns. High-explosive incendiary shells, but of unusual action. The troops fired upon by the Russians testify: the fire raid is like a hurricane. The projectiles explode at the same time. The loss of life is significant." The morale effect of the use of rocket-propelled mortars was overwhelming. The enemy lost more than an infantry battalion and a huge amount of military equipment and weapons at the Orsha station.

On the same day, Flerov's battery fired at the crossing over the Orshitsa River, where a lot of manpower and equipment of the Nazis had also accumulated. In the following days, the battery was used in various directions of operations of the 20th Army as a fire reserve for the chief of artillery of the army. Several successful volleys were fired at the enemy in the areas of Rudnya, Smolensk, Yartsevo, Dukhovshina. The effect exceeded all expectations.

The German command tried to get samples of the Russian miracle weapon. For the battery of Captain Flerov, as once for Zvonarev's fighters, the hunt began. On October 7, 1941, near the village of Bogatyr in the Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk region, the Germans managed to surround the battery. The enemy attacked her suddenly, on the march, firing from different sides. The forces were unequal, but the calculations fought desperately, Flerov used up the last of his ammunition and then blew up the launchers.

Leading people to a breakthrough, he died heroically. 40 people out of 180 survived, and everyone who survived after the death of the battery in October 41 was declared missing, although they fought until the very victory. Only 50 years after the first salvo of the BM-13, the field near the village of Bogatyr revealed its secret. The remains of Captain Flerov and 17 other rocket men who died with him were finally found there. In 1995, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Ivan Flerov was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia.

Flerov's battery died, but the weapon existed and continued to inflict damage on the advancing enemy. In the first days of the war, the manufacture of new installations began at the Moscow Kompressor plant. Designers also did not have to be customized. In a matter of days, they completed the development of a new combat vehicle for 82-millimeter shells - BM-8. It began to be produced in two versions: one - on the chassis of the ZIS-6 car with 6 guides, the other - on the chassis of the STZ tractor or T-40 and T-60 tanks with 24 guides.

Obvious successes at the front and in production allowed the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in August 1941 to decide on the formation of eight regiments of rocket artillery, which, even before participating in battles, were given the name "Guards mortar regiments of artillery of the reserve of the Supreme High Command." This emphasized the special importance attached to the new type of weapons. The regiment consisted of three divisions, the division - of three batteries, four BM-8 or BM-13 each.

Guides were developed and manufactured for the 82 mm caliber rocket, which were later installed on the chassis of the ZIS-6 car (36 guides) and on the chassis of the T-40 and T-60 light tanks (24 guides). Special launchers for 82 mm and 132 mm caliber rockets were made for their subsequent installation on warships - torpedo boats and armored boats.

The production of BM-8 and BM-13 was continuously growing, and the designers were developing a new 300-millimeter rocket M-30 weighing 72 kg and with a firing range of 2.8 km. Among the people they received the nickname "Andryusha". They were launched from a launching machine (“frame”) made of wood. The launch was carried out with the help of a sapper blasting machine. For the first time, "andryushas" were used in Stalingrad. The new weapons were easy to make, but they took a long time to set up and aim at. In addition, the short range of M-30 rockets made them dangerous for their own calculations. Subsequently, combat experience showed that the M-30 is a powerful offensive weapon capable of destroy bunkers, trenches with canopies, stone buildings and other fortifications. There was even an idea to create a mobile anti-aircraft missile system based on the Katyushas to destroy enemy aircraft, but the prototype was never brought to a serial model.

On the effectiveness of the combat use of "Katyushas" in the course of an attack on the enemy’s fortified center, an example can serve as an example of the defeat of the Tolkachev defensive center during our counteroffensive near Kursk in July 1943. Village Tolkachevo was turned by the Germans into a heavily fortified center of resistance with a large number of dugouts and bunkers in 5-12 runs, with a developed network of trenches and communications. The approaches to the village were heavily mined and covered with barbed wire. A significant part of the bunkers was destroyed by volleys of rocket artillery, the trenches, together with the enemy infantry in them, were filled up, the fire system was completely suppressed. Of the entire garrison of the knot, which numbered 450-500 people, only 28 survived. The Tolkachev knot was taken by our units without any resistance.

By the beginning of 1945, 38 separate divisions, 114 regiments, 11 brigades and 7 divisions armed with rocket artillery were operating on the battlefields. But there were also problems. Mass production of launchers was quickly established, but the widespread use of Katyushas was held back due to a lack of ammunition. There was no industrial base for the manufacture of high-quality gunpowder for projectile engines. Ordinary gunpowder in this case could not be used - special varieties were required with the desired surface and configuration, time, character and combustion temperature. The deficit was limited only by the beginning of 1942, when the factories transferred from west to east began to gain the required production rates. During the entire period of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet industry produced more than ten thousand rocket artillery combat vehicles.

Origin of the name Katyusha

It is known why the 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 the fighters and commanders asked the representative of the GAU to name the “true” name of the combat installation at the firing range, he advised: “Call the installation as an ordinary artillery piece. It's important to maintain secrecy."

There is no single version of why BM-13s began to be called "Katyushas". There are several assumptions:
1. By the name of Blanter's song, which became popular before the war, to the words of Isakovsky "Katyusha". The version is convincing, since for the first time the battery fired on July 14, 1941 (on the 23rd day of the war) at the concentration of Nazis on the Market Square of the city of Rudnya, Smolensk Region. She shot from a high steep mountain - the association with a high steep bank in the song immediately arose among the fighters. Finally, Andrei Sapronov, former sergeant of the headquarters company of the 217th separate communications battalion of the 144th rifle division of the 20th army, is now alive, now a military historian who gave her this name. The Red Army soldier Kashirin, having arrived with him after the shelling of Rudnya on the battery, exclaimed in surprise: “This is a song!” “Katyusha,” Andrey Sapronov answered (from the memoirs of A. Sapronov in the newspaper Rossiya No. 23 of June 21-27, 2001 and in Parliamentary Newspaper No. 80 of May 5, 2005). Through the communication center of the headquarters company, the news about the miracle weapon named "Katyusha" within a day became the property of the entire 20th Army, and through its command - of the whole 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, the Comintern plant). And the front-line soldiers liked to give nicknames to weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed "Mother", the ML-20 howitzer gun - "Emelka". Yes, and BM-13 at first was 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 at the assembly, dubbed these cars.
Another exotic version. The guides on which the shells 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 exactly lay on the guides, he also informed the holders that the projectile had risen, rolled, rolled onto the guides. It was supposedly that they called him “Katyusha” (the role of those who held the projectile and rolled up was constantly changing, since the calculation of the BM-13, unlike barrel artillery, was not explicitly divided into loader, pointer, etc.)

4. It should also be noted that the installations were so secret that it was even forbidden to use the commands “plee”, “fire”, “volley”, instead of them they sounded “sing” or “play” (to start it was necessary to turn the handle of the electric coil very quickly) , which, perhaps, was also associated with the song "Katyusha". And for our infantry, the volley of Katyushas was the most pleasant music.

5. 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 through shells.

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 the rockets were launched.

During the battles for Poznan and Berlin, the M-30 and M-31 single launchers 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 guardsmen broke through any walls.

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

Here are excerpts from the directive to the troops of the Nazi high military command: “The Russians have an automatic multi-barreled 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 of the new Soviet weapon - a rocket mortar.

A vivid example of the effectiveness of the guards mortar units, and their basis was the "Katyusha", can serve as a line from the memoirs of Marshal Zhukov: "Rockets by their actions produced complete devastation. I looked at the areas where the shelling was carried out, and saw the complete destruction of the defensive structures ... "

The Germans developed a special plan to capture new Soviet weapons and ammunition. In the late autumn of 1941, they managed to do this. The "captured" mortar was really "multi-barreled" and fired 16 rocket mines. Its firepower was several times more effective than the mortar, which was in service with the fascist army. Hitler's command decided to create an equivalent weapon.

The Germans did not immediately realize 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 Reactive Research Institute (RNII) and related enterprises: V. Aborenkov, V. Artemiev, 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 an unusually bold and unexpected concept: mortars could reliably hit all targets of a given square with relatively inaccurate rocket-propelled mines. This was achieved precisely due to the salvo nature of the fire, since each point of the shelled area 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 began when trying to design, develop and establish mass production of similar rockets. It turned out that German gunpowder cannot burn in the chamber of a rocket engine as stably and steadily as Soviet ones. The analogues of Soviet ammunition designed by the Germans behaved unpredictably: either sluggishly descended from the guides to immediately fall to the ground, or they started flying at breakneck speed and exploded in the air from an excessive increase in pressure inside the chamber. Only a few units made it to 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 no higher 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 rocket engines.

The Germans did not know that ammunition for the Katyusha was the fruit of more than a decade of activity of the RNII and several large Soviet research teams, which included the best Soviet powder 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 recipes for rocket powders, but also found simple and effective ways to mass-produce them continuously and cheaply.

At a time when the production of Guards rocket launchers and shells for them was being developed at an unprecedented pace at Soviet factories according to ready-made drawings and literally increased daily, the Germans had only to carry out research and design work on MLRS. But history didn't give them time for that.

The article is based on the materials of the book Nepomniachtchi N.N. "100 great secrets of World War II", M., "Veche", 2010, p. 152-157.