TM-3-12 railway installation

Years of release	1938 - 1939
Total released	3 units.
Caliber	305 mm
Weight in the combat position	340 tons
Barrel length	15 850 mm
The length of the threaded part	12 858 mm
Calculation	50 people
Movement speed	45 km / h
Rate of fire	1.8 - 2 shots / min
The highest shooting range	30 000 m
Shooting angles: Horizontal	360 °

In October 1930, the Central Design Bureau for Shipbuilding (TsKBS-3) was established at the Leningrad Metal Works (LMZ), which, under the leadership of A.G. Dukola started the development of a series of railway conveyors with large-caliber guns for coastal defense. The design of the TM-3-12 railway installations began in 1935 by the same design team, but under the new name TsKB-19. The technical project 305/52-mm installation TM-3-12 was approved in October 1936. Their production was established in Nikolaev at the plant number 198 them. Marty and completed

On January 1, 1939 the TM-3-12 units received 305/52-mm guns, literally lifted from the bottom of the sea, more precisely, from the battleship “Empress Maria” flooded in 1916 in Sevastopol. All trunks are bonded. The high ballistic qualities of naval guns also had a downside - low survivability. Thus, the 305/52-mm gun could withstand only 200 shots, and then the gun from the conveyor was removed and sent to the factory (“Bolshevik” or “Barricades”), where the replacement of the inner tube operation, which usually lasted several months, was made. 305/52-mm guns had piston valves, horizontal, pick-up loading. The TM-3-12 ammunition consisted of armor-piercing, semi-armored, long-range and high-explosive shells. Transporters in the stowed position without any problems could move on most of the USSR railways.

TM-3-12 batteries had a three-gun composition. The battery consisted of three gun transporters, three wagons - shell cellars, three wagons - charging cellars, three wagons - power stations, one car - battery post and one - two locomotives of the "E" series. For railway installations at key points on the Baltic coast, special firing positions with concrete bases were built, driving to where the railway transporter turned into a classic coastal installation.

Concrete foundations were built only as part of the whole complex for one rail battery. The complex consisted of two main and two spare railway tracks, three concrete foundations arranged in a staggered manner at a distance of 100 m from each other and a reinforced concrete permanent tower 28.6 m high to accommodate the battery post. The TM-3-12 installation was organizationally part of the railway battery (BZH-9) in the 2nd railway heavy artillery battalion with a base in Mukkolovo and positions on the peninsulas of the Luzhskaya Bay Kurgalsky and Kolgompya.

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, the battery fired on Vyborg, firing over 150 shells. In September 1940, the BZH-9 battery was redeployed through Finland to the Hanko peninsula, where the Red Banner Baltic Fleet naval base was established. In 1941, the battery of the BZH-9 was commanded by Captain N.Z. Volnovsky. With artillery fire, the TM-3-12 railway installation suppressed enemy firing points located on the nearby islands and the city of Tammisaari, and did not allow the ships of the Finnish Navy to conduct targeted shelling of the peninsula. During the defensive battles, 108 shots were fired and about 570 shells were spent.

Before the evacuation of the garrison from the base of Hanko on December 2, 1941, the TM-3-12 installations were partially dismantled - 305-mm trunks were blown up, the recoil devices are broken, arsenal wagons and most of the conveyor equipment are flooded into the sea.

However, from June 1942 to July 1943, the Finnish repair squad restored damaged artillery systems. Trucks were lifted out of the water, recoil devices were restored, and new trunks were received from France from the battleship Alexander III of France of the same type with the Empress Maria, which the White had hijacked in Bizerte in 1920. However, they did not succeed in finally putting the TM-3-12 unit into operation. After the conclusion of a truce with Finland in September 1944, the TM-3-12 installation was returned to the USSR and on January 1, 1945 they again became part of the 1st Guards Marine Railway Krasnoselskaya Red Banner Artillery Brigade as a separate railway battery No. 294 in Baltiysk where they served until 1961.