Tachanka ZIL-131 ZU-23-2
The ZIL-131 Tachanka was in service with the Ukrainian army, after 2014 the SVU was used in the Donbass as a platform for the ZU-23, and in 2015, during a successful operation, the NM of the DPR was captured, and since February 2022, the vehicle has been participating in the SVO. The ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun of 23 mm caliber has been in service with the armies of the former Soviet Union countries for more than 50 years, and not only that. Despite its frank primitiveness, this weapon is trustworthy because of such ease of maintenance and cheapness of use. The installation is relatively reliable, unpretentious, and therefore suitable for combat use in the conditions of modern conflicts.
One of the most famous Russian-language songs from the Russian Civil War, and which was also frequently performed during World War II, was " Tachanka ". To this day, schoolchildren from all over the former Soviet Union, the entire former Soviet bloc, and even the former Yugoslavia are taught to sing a song about a horse-drawn heavy machine gun used by the Red Army to defeat the superior White Army cavalry.
Tachanka is the name of a four-wheeled horse-drawn spring wagon with an easel machine gun, developed on the basis of a widespread vehicle (a prototype of an impromptu combat vehicle) that existed at the end of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries in Novorossia and the southern regions of the Russian Empire. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the tachanka was common in Eastern Europe, Novorossia, Tavria, as well as among immigrants from these places in the Caucasus and Kuban. The possession of such a rather expensive carriage was a measure of wealth and prestige. During the civil war, the machine gun was the most formidable mobile weapon, and the tachanka was the transport with the highest travel speed.
Carts were especially popular among the Makhnovists. Makhno was a Ukrainian anarchist who opposed the Soviet occupation of Ukraine. Contrary to popular belief, Makhno did not invent the cart, he brought the practice of its combat use to the pinnacle of perfection. Everyone had carts: red, white, and green. But only Makhno concentrated the most formidable weapon of that time - machine guns on mobile vehicles into a separate unit - the famous machine gun regiment, commanded by Foma Kozhin (Skin). The number of machine-gun carts in Makhno's army reached a thousand or even more, and according to Budyonny's memoirs, "there were 20 of them in the regiment, one per platoon." During the Second World War, only two countries of all the warring countries used the same tactics - the Soviet Union and Germany.
The term "hillbilly hardware" is colloquial term for homemade or improvised equipment. So-called “hillbilly” armor is unit-fabricated using whatever materials can be scrounged. An effective field expedient configuration for a gun truck with a cargo bed is a gun box with a pedestal-mounted machine gun placed in an armored “box” located in the bed of the truck. This is accomplished by hardening the cargo bed or a portion thereof with a box consisting of rolled steel plate. Double layering of steel plate may be required, based on the type of steel available.
The key factors in gun truck planning include armor, or the capability of sustaining a hit; weight; speed; maneuverability; and armament. The trade-off between armor and weight is critical. Not enough armor can prove deadly. Too much armor is counterproductive, in that a heavily-hardened vehicle may be too heavy to keep up with the convoy it is charged with defending. The excess weight can also create maintenance problems due to a significant increase in wear of suspension, steering, and braking systems and increased down time. A “hangar queen” cannot be an effective gun truck. Still another factor is weight distribution. Hardening a vehicle changes its center of gravity, and a vehicle can easily be hardened to the point that it becomes unstable. Hardening a vehicle to the extent that it rolls over at the proverbial drop of a hat is not only counterproductive, but extremely dangerous.
Gun trucks are often equipped with inorganic weapons, obtained and fitted to unit vehicles by highly creative Soldiers. Before employing such weapons, ensure the capability to supply and maintain them. Also ensure that the weapon is appropriate for the platform on which you plan to mount it. Testing will prevent both embarrassment and loss of life. Locally fabricated equipment, such as turret shielding and machine gun pedestals, should be thoroughly tested before placed into service.
ZU-23-2 is a 23-mm anti-aircraft gun designed to destroy air targets, enemy manpower, and protect military columns and stationary objects. The ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft installation was developed in the USSR at TsKB-14 (later KBP) under the leadership of E. K. Rachynskyi and R. Ya. Pourtsen. This installation was adopted on March 22, 1960. ZU-23-2 was later produced not only by the USSR, but also by Egypt, the People's Republic of China, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Finland.
A truck with a storage device installed in the body has a number of decisive advantages over other types of weapons. There is an uncountable amount of ammunition and cartridges for them in military warehouses. You can make an improvised, but very powerful combat vehicle from any available car with a loading platform in half an hour, by rolling it and installing it on standard ZU jacks. You can fasten ZU-23 in the body with a 6-mm wire (the so-called "railway wire") through specially made holes in the floor, and to protect the calculation from fire in the front part of the body along the cabin wall, boxes with sand are stacked in one row.
As a rule, the back half of the body is quite enough for the free operation of the calculation. The cabin prevents fire from moving forward, so an awning or canopy is placed in the front part of the body for storing ammunition and resting the calculation. Fire from the ZU-2 is directed sideways and backwards both when escorting a column and at checkpoints. On the most "advanced" machines, the upper part of the sides is even cut off to ensure firing on a downward trajectory.
The lack of reliable protection from small arms of the operator and the driver, the limitation of the firing sector by the cockpit and the impossibility of aimed fire in long bursts due to the swaying of the car are the main disadvantages when placing the ZU-23 in the body. In addition, the location of the center of gravity is high, so there is a risk of tipping over on a mountain serpentine.
However, the advantage of the high-positioned ZU is invaluable, which does not require additional deployment and is covered with a cover to protect against dirt flying from under the wheels (which is inevitable when towing), and therefore always ready for work.
The reserve carrying capacity of any car allows you to increase the security of the calculation by stacking sandbags, hanging sheets of ordinary iron or elements of battered armored vehicles - shield hatches, etc. In addition, the increase in the weight of the machine helps to reduce the swaying of the body during shooting. To protect the projectile boxes, bulletproof vests are often hung on them. The driver, whose protection in the cab is only his own bulletproof vest, was in the most disadvantageous position. Unfortunately, our army has not yet seen a large number of trucks with armored cabins, and "Broniki" on the doors of "Zilov" and "Uralov" are as common as in Afghanistan.
Good ideas inspire followers. According to the type of machine from ZU, folk craftsmen from Sverdlovsk State Police Department for the Leninsky Department of Internal Affairs of Grozny in June 2000 collected armored vehicles for their fire support platoon from ZIL-131, two discarded KPVT and a pile of scrap metal. "Armor" is urgently needed, but it is not provided by the state, and its own armored vehicle under the ironic name "BTR-80" deftly drove militiamen in the operational zone of the commandant's office of the Leninsky district of Grozny. Over time, the improvised combat vehicle acquired a spectacular color and became a local attraction.
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