Burstyn motor gun
| Burstyn motor gun | |
|---|---|
Model of the Burstyn motorized gun in front of the Army History Museum in Vienna (2011) |
|
| General properties | |
| crew | 3 men (commander / loader; gunner; driver) |
| length | 3.5 m (without boom) |
| width | 1.9 m |
| height | 1.9 m |
| Dimensions | approx. 7 t |
| Armor and armament | |
| Armor | 4 mm (side and rear) - 8 mm (front) Combat space an additional 3 mm |
| Main armament | 1 × 37 mm rapid fire cannon |
| Secondary armament | 2 × 7 mm machine guns (planned) |
| agility | |
| drive | Truck petrol engine 45 HP |
| Top speed | calculated:
|
| Power / weight | 6.4 hp / t |
The Burstyn motorized gun was the design of the first modern tank , which was worked out by the Austro-Hungarian First Lieutenant Gunther Burstyn in 1911 before the First World War .
history
While riding a torpedo boat , Burstyn came up with the idea of designing a “land torpedo boat” in 1903. It should be fast, armored and able to carry its own cannon . For official reasons, however, he initially did not pursue the idea.
On November 24, 1904, the first "Holt tractor" with a " track laying chain " was used in California and named by its developer Holt as the "Caterpillar". A little later, large Hungarian farms started using such tractors.
In the spring of 1905, Burstyn noticed the armored car from Daimler at the first automobile fair in Vienna , but he considered the wheels unsuitable for driving off-road. Instead of the wheels, he wanted to use a caterpillar drive (Burstyn called it "sliding band"), as used in the Holt tractors .
Burstyn did not begin technical planning until 1911. At the end of the same year he submitted his draft for a “motorized gun”, the world's first modern tank , to the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry . However, the ministry rejected the drafts and pointed out that the head of the automotive industry could not test the motorized gun at the expense of the army administration. For this reason, but also out of disinterest, the construction of a prototype was rejected (the Austro-Hungarian military administration was not only extremely conservative, but also always extremely scarce in funds). Nonetheless, the Austro-Hungarian Army also experimented with Holt tractors from 1912 in order to use them as tractors for fortress artillery .
Burstyn then submitted his draft to the German War Ministry , which, however, also showed no interest in it.
Both in Austria-Hungary (kuk patent 53248, April 25, 1912), as well as in the German Empire , Burstyn had his "device for motor vehicles for crossing obstacles", i.e. only the boom of the motor gun, patented.
description
The motorized gun already had the typical features of a modern tank:
- an armored structure
- Chain drive instead of wheels
- a pivoting turret with a cannon.
The specialty was the position of the crew.
- the commander or loader should sit in the front right
- the gunner front left
- However, the driver's position was unfortunate. He should sit with his back to the direction of travel, so either look forward through a periscope or steer only on the command of the commander.
Burstyn's design had been well thought out and largely statically and dynamically calculated. It possessed some features that were unique at the time:
agility
Due to its small size and maneuverability, the motorized gun would have been superior to most of the vehicles used in World War I: it would have been faster than the Allied types on the road and off-road and it could even have been used to a limited extent in karst and alpine regions . Maneuverability would only have been limited in forest areas due to the boom. The pairs of wheels and the boom of the motor gun were very complicated constructions for the time. The design itself was extremely progressive even without the boom and wheels. Other advantages were the relatively high mobility and the small size of the vehicle.
- Caterpillar drive
Burstyn did not adopt the chassis of a Holt-Caterpillar tractor, as French and German tank builders did later in World War I. He designed his own caterpillar drive, which he improved several times before the German patent was introduced.
- Liftable and lowerable wheels
The motorized gun should also have two pairs of vertically movable wheels that would have enabled both fast travel on the road and in suitable terrain. The front pair of wheels should be controllable, while the drive should take place via the rear pair of wheels. Since these wheels are not on any drawing, the intended attachment - inside or outside the vehicle - is unclear. When the vehicle was later implemented by Austro-Daimler and Saurer , these wheels were attached outside.
- Device for motor vehicles for crossing obstacles
Burstyn had this sophisticated device patented in Austria-Hungary and Germany. By means of a power take-off from the engine, each of the booms provided with a mechanical clutch should be able to be raised or lowered. Thus the motorized gun could have overcome trenches as well as barbed wire barriers and other obstacles. At the same time, it would have been possible to carry out repairs on the chain or the drive in the open with this constantly present jack . Similar devices later appear on other vehicles; The British company Vickers-Armstrong patented an almost identical concept in 1929.
Armament
The 37-mm rapid-fire cannon in a movable turret made it possible to fight artillery positions and other armored vehicles (the successes of German anti-tank guns later showed that a 37-mm cannon had sufficient penetration against British and French armored vehicles). There was also a high rate of fire. The space requirement for the small-caliber ammunition would have made a high ammunition supply possible. The vehicle was only lightly armored, but protected against infantry weapons and fragments. In addition, secondary armament in the form of two 7 mm machine guns can be assumed, although these are not present on the drawings.
patent
"Armored vehicles, capable of moving with their own motor power not only on roads, but also on impassable terrain, characterized by spring-loaded caterpillars for locomotion, by wheels that can be raised and lowered for driving on roads, and by booms that enable the car to also move wide ditches To exceed."
A patent for the same system was also granted in Austria-Hungary under No. 53248.
Conclusion
The dimensions and performance would have corresponded roughly to the later Renault FT , one of the best tanks of the First World War.
See also
literature
- Robert L. DiNardo and Austin Bay: The First Modern Tank: Gunther Burstyn and His Motorgeschütz . In: Military Affairs, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Jan. 1986), pp. 12-15, JSTOR 1988528 .
Web links
- Burstyn motor gun at doppeladler.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ doppeladler.com section: the motor gun in detail.