Voroshilovets
| ХПЗ имени Коминтерна | |
|---|---|
 Voroshilovets captured by the Wehrmacht with crosses on the radiator (1942)
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| Voroshilovets | |
| Manufacturer: | ChPS imeni Kominterna |
| Sales designation: | Ворошиловец |
| Production period: | 1939 – VIII / 1941 |
| Previous model: | Comintern |
| Successor: | AT-T |
| Technical specifications | |
| Designs: | Cot |
| Engines: | 12 cylinder diesel engine |
| Power: | 276 kW |
| Payload: | 3 t |
| Perm. Total weight: | 18.5 t |
The Voroshilovets ( Russian Ворошиловец ) was an artillery tractor with a tracked chassis from the production of the Soviet manufacturer Charkowski Parowosostroitelny Sawod imeni Kominterna (ChPS imeni Kominterna for short, translated into German Charkow locomotive structure called Comintern ). It was produced in series for the Red Army from 1939 to August 1941 , with around 1,100 copies being built. As the work due to the advancing Wehrmacht from Kharkov to Nizhny Tagilwas evacuated to the Urals, production was canceled. The vehicle, of which probably no example has survived today, was one of the heaviest artillery tugs of the Red Army of its time.
Vehicle history
In the 1930s, the Red Army had increasingly developed heavy artillery weapons and put them into service. These included models such as the 122 mm M1931 cannon , the 152 mm M1937 cannon howitzer and the 203 mm M1931 howitzer . In order to be able to move such heavy artillery in the field, powerful traction devices were necessary. The artillery tractors such as the Comintern or civil track tractors such as the Stalinez-65 that existed in the late 1930s either had decisive technical disadvantages such as insufficient maximum speeds or insufficient tractive power. There was also no sufficiently powerful towing vehicle to be able to recover or tow small and medium-sized tanks up to about 30 tons.
The development of a sufficiently powerful vehicle began in the summer of 1935 in the Charkov locomotive works "Comintern". The plan was to create a full track vehicle with a truck body and tank engine. The requirement was defined that the vehicle should be able to generate around 120 kN of pulling force. A trailer load of at least 20 tons and a maximum speed of around 30 km / h were also specified. The construction was completed within a few months. It was planned to use an experimental V12 diesel engine of the type BD-2 with 400 hp. The engine was already similar to the engine installed later: a high-speed runner, the block was cast from an aluminum alloy.
The first two prototypes of the new tractor were manufactured in 1936 and then extensively tested. In 1937 one of the vehicles was taken for a test drive from Kharkov to Moscow , where it was presented in the Moscow Kremlin to Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , whose name it was later to bear. As a result, the responsible authorities approved series production. In 1937, the army also commissioned a prototype with an excavator superstructure, which was later not taken into series production.
The first test samples of the W-2 diesel engine were available before production began . They were built into the prototypes and the vehicles were then tested again. The Voroshilovets received a throttled version of the tank engine with 375 hp instead of the 500 hp engine, which was installed in large numbers in the T-34 , for example . The engine of the type W-2W was arranged lengthways and as low as possible under the driver's cab. In addition to the rear drive wheels of the chain drive, it also drove a powerful rear cable winch with a pulling force of around 120 kN. The engine was started either with two electric starters with 6 HP each or with compressed air, which was stored in separate tanks. However, the compressed air starting system proved to be unreliable, especially at low temperatures. The cooler was built in segments so that individual pipes could also be exchanged.
The artillery tractor received an ordinary friction clutch, which was operated with a pedal. The manual transmission was manufactured in the Kharkov plant itself and was also used in other vehicles. In order to increase the number of gears, an additional two-stage reduction gear was installed. Due to the high forces involved, there were repeated damage to the gearbox. The designers had not been able to gain sufficient experience with the powerful diesel engine. The pulling force of the vehicle had already been limited to around 130 kN at 3.5 km / h, with the built-in engine almost 170 kN would have been possible (the force required to lift a mass of around 17 tons vertically). The reason for the limitation was that the crawler tracks were not designed for even higher forces and speeds and could not transfer the tensile force to the ground. To counteract this, special claws could be mounted on the chains, but they were only suitable for short distances.
Various standard parts from Soviet truck construction were used in production. For example, the driver's cab came from the ZIS-5 , but has been significantly widened.
In the last tests in Moscow in 1939 and also later in use, despite the good tractive power of the vehicles, some significant defects in the design were found. When the snow was wet , the tractor's tracks slipped , and the drive pinions kept breaking. The coupling was dimensioned too weakly and partly already worn after 200 to 300 hours of operation. The gearbox bearings were worn after about 300 to 400 hours of use and the strong vibrations of the engine repeatedly caused breaks on various lines. Seals were of poor quality, a problem that was also encountered on other Kharkov machines. In addition, the trailer hitches and tow hooks did not always withstand the high loads, bent during use or tore off. In the very uneven terrain, the twisting of the frame was so great that it broke. In practice, it was difficult to start the large-volume diesel engine with a displacement of almost 40 liters at temperatures below −20 ° C. The compressed air from the starting system was only of limited use because it was stored in the tanks under high pressure. As it flowed out, it expanded strongly, cooling itself down and flowing cold into the engine. The required ignition temperature for the diesel fuel was not reached and the engine did not start. The drive sockets were not adequately protected against the ingress of dirt, which led to heavy wear after driving through mud. Accordingly, the drive had to be completely dismantled, cleaned and lubricated after such journeys. These extensive deficiencies were also the reason why production of the tug was not continued after the evacuation of the Nizhny Tagil plant.
Series production of the machines began at the end of 1939, but the tugs came to the front only hesitantly at first. The factory's output was between three and six vehicles per day. Exactly 1123 Voroshilovets had been built by August 22, 1941, the plant was then dismantled and relocated to the Urals to protect it from the approaching Wehrmacht. There had been problems with the availability of the engines before, because some of the factories had already been evacuated and the engines were primarily made available for tanks. So they experimented with other engines such as the 400 hp gasoline engine of the BT-7 tank .
The Wehrmacht captured some of the vehicles during the war and put them into service under the name Artillery Tug Stalin 607 (r) . At the end of the war there were still 336 Voroshilovets in the Red Army. From 1947 it was replaced by the AT-T heavy artillery tug . Today there is probably no Voroshilovets left.
Technical specifications
For Voroshilovets, as far as known.
- Engine: V12 diesel engine
- Motor type: W-2W
- Power: 375 PS (276 kW)
- Displacement: 38.88 l
- Pulling force: 127.5 kN at 3.5 km / h
- Transmission: four-speed mechanical transmission
- Reduction gear: two-stage
- Top speed empty: 36.2 km / h, under ideal conditions up to 42 km / h
- Maximum speed under full load: 20 km / h on the road, 16 km / h off-road
- Cable winch: Rear cable winch, driven by the drive motor, 30 m steel cable with a 23 mm diameter, pulling force 117.7 kN
- Tank capacity: 550 l
- Fuel consumption: depending on load and terrain, 200 to 420 l / 100 km
- Range (loaded, with trailer load): 270 km (road), 130 km (terrain)
- Specific ground pressure : 0.578 kg / cm²
- On-board voltage: 24 V.
Dimensions and weights
- Length: 6128 mm
- Width: 2850 mm
- Height: 2736 mm above the cabin, 3087 mm with tarpaulin
- Ground clearance: 462 mm
- Chain width: 428 mm
- Seats: 3 in the cabin, 16 on the loading area
- Empty weight: 15,500 kg
- Payload: 3000 kg
- permissible total weight: 18,500 kg
- permissible trailer load: 22,000 kg
- Gradeability with maximum payload and 18 tonnes trailer load: 17 ° (30.6%)
- Trench crossing ability: 1.5 m
- Fording depth : 1.3 m with preparations
