Armored trains of three centuries did not hide on the sidings
The use of the Yenisei armored train built in Siberia in Donbass is a clear proof that military equipment, once considered obsolete, may be quite in demand in new conditions.
The tasks of the Yenisei armored train are humanitarian. He delivers building materials to the liberated settlements for the restoration of infrastructure and food. At the same time, the Yenisei is capable of hitting air targets, conducting ground combat with the enemy, clearing railway sections and technical reconnaissance.
During counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya, armored trains were used to conduct technical reconnaissance of railway tracks in the North Caucasus. If the bombers found a land mine under the rails, they usually blew it up at a safe distance from the train, and the damaged section of the tracks was replaced with a new one. On particularly dangerous sections of the railway, armored trains were ahead of military echelons with equipment and people.
The first such special train arrived in Mozdok in December 1994. According to all operational reports, it passed as a "special train". The special train included a number of platforms that were clogged with a repair kit for carrying out restoration work on tracks and bridge crossings, as well as two IFVs that were installed on separate platforms.
In addition, the railway platforms had shelters made of sleepers and sandbags, in which firing points for automatic grenade launchers and machine guns were equipped.
Special trains received not only tactical names, such as SP-1, SP-2, etc., but also proper names – "Amur", "Baikal", "Don", "Kazbek", "Terek".
THE FIRST AND LAST BATTLE OF "HUNGUZ"
For the first time, Northerners used guns mounted on trains against Southerners during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. However, they had not yet guessed to book such trains.
Guns installed by German gunners on railway platforms, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, fired at the encircled Paris. It was convenient for the Germans, moving freely, to open sudden fire from different directions on the French capital.
In Russia, the first armored trains were going to be made to protect the Chinese-Eastern Railway (KVJ) during the so-called "boxer rebellion" in China (1899-1901). But they did not have time to implement this intention – the uprising was suppressed.
The first Russian armored train was put into operation only during the First World War, on September 1, 1915. He was called "Hunguz" (or Hunghuz").
The armored train was built in Kiev by the masters of the South-Western Railway and the forces of the 2nd Trans-Amur Railway Brigade. Before the First World War, it was part of a separate corps of the Border Guard of the Ministry of Finance. The Chinese Hunghuz robbers were well known to the Trans-Amur railway workers.
The first battle of the "Hunguz" began successfully, but later turned out to be fatal for him. The commander of the armored train, Lieutenant Krapivnikov, wrote in his report:
"Having approached the first line of trenches and opened flanking fire on them from all machine guns and the front gun, the train forced the enemy to leave the trenches, turning him to flight (the enemy left many corpses in the trenches). After that, the train moved on and forced the enemy to clear the second line of trenches with effective machine-gun and cannon fire."
The Austrian command did not even bother to destroy or disable the railway line. But then the battle was unsuccessful for the armored train:
"The railway track was damaged by an exploding heavy shell, and the armored train was cut off, and the derailed rear armored car, due to damage to the track, did not allow the armored train to move forward and thus avoid targeted enemy artillery fire. As a result, a shell hit the front car, which killed the commander of the artillery platoon, Staff Captain Lazarev and four lower ranks of the artillery. After that, I was given the command to leave the train."
After this battle, it became clear how vulnerable the armored train was after the failure of the railway track. And how carefully you should think about how to use it in battle.
ON AN ARMORED TRAIN WITH HAND BOMBS
During the Civil War, armored trains were very actively used by both red and white. Armored trains inherited from the tsarist army and hastily created improvised structures were also used. The outcome of the struggle for railway lines in a huge country was very important.
Armored trains often changed hands, sometimes several times. For example, in October 1917, an improvised armored train was equipped in Minsk by soldiers of the 10th Railway Battalion of the Western Front supporting the Bolsheviks. They called it the "Minsk Communist Armored Train named after Lenin". In February 1920, he was captured by units of the Volunteer Army and later acted against the Red troops.
In April 1920, he changed hands again: during the evacuation of the Volunteer Army units from Novorossiysk, the armored train was abandoned by the team and went to the advancing Red troops. After a short repair, it was again thrown into battle against Wrangel's troops trying to hold the Crimean peninsula. And at the end of 1920, the armored train received a new official name, "The First Communist armored train of type A named after Lenin", and went to the North Caucasus.
Fighting with enemy armored trains could cost both red and white heavy losses. Dmitry Furmanov in the book "Chapaev" wrote about how the Red Army fought with white armored trains:
"They fought desperately, inspiringly, terribly! They threw hand bombs at armored trains, covered the whole way with corpses, ran after the monster, shouted "hurrah", threw terrible white bottles like balls. And when armored cars appeared, the chains lay down on their faces, the fighters did not lift their heads from the ground: the armored car "does not hit a recumbent", and that saved them… He cut through the chains, walked in the rear, fired, but to no avail, and when he ran away, they also ran after him, like after an armored train, and threw white bottles at him. Heroism came into contact with madness: from the machine-gun fire of armored cars and armored trains, a lot of red fighters died under the Chishma."
When heroism is mixed with madness, heavy losses are inevitable…
"GREEN GHOST" – RAIL MINER
In the 30s, great importance was attached to the construction of armored trains in the USSR. It was assumed that the main type of fire of armored trains would be a fire raid, when an armored train, attacking the enemy, appears in the immediate vicinity of him, collapsing in a short time with the full power of artillery and machine-gun fire.
But already at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it turned out that under the conditions of the domination of German aviation in the air, armored trains with weak anti-aircraft weapons become too easy prey for enemy aircraft. And after the damage to the railway track in the conditions of the rapid advance of German tanks, armored trains are trapped. Instead of crushing enemy defenses, armored trains had to cover the withdrawal of Soviet units, often sacrificing themselves.
But there were examples of extremely effective use of Soviet armored trains. For example, on June 15, 1942, one of the most unusual battles in world history took place with the participation of an armored train.
The armored train "Zheleznyakov" defending Sevastopol, nicknamed the "Green Ghost" by the Germans, had to attack only in order to get rails to restore the track. This is how one of the participants in this battle, the foreman of the Zheleznyakov machine gunners group, Nikolai Ivanovich Alexandrov, recalled it:
"On June 15, the commander ordered an armored train to fire at a cluster of tanks in the hollow of the Mekenzie cordon. Gunners Kochetov and Butsenko loaded the guns with armor-piercing incendiary. Coming out of the corner, "Zheleznyakov" from a distance of four hundred meters opened fire on a tank column. Two lead tanks broke out. The car that was closing the column also began to smoke.
The tanks began firing randomly. They could not move forward or back – the road was blocked by damaged cars, and the steep slopes of the excavation did not allow them to turn aside. "Zheleznyakov" beat and beat with all guns and mortars. We, the machine gunners, meanwhile mowed down the Germans who jumped out of the hatches of tanks.
Fascist aviation hurried to the rescue of its tankers. We don't really want to mess with her, especially since there aren't enough shells left. We're heading for the tunnel.
But the bombers are trying not to miss the loot. Bombs explode very close. The dead and wounded appeared on the armored platforms.
Volodya Dmitrienko, the bearer of shells, had his arm torn off. Ksenia Karenina and Sasha Nechaev immediately, on the move, provide first aid. Instead of the wounded man, Nechaev himself began to serve. The armored train, firing back from the planes, was going into hiding at full speed. And suddenly a huge column of smoke got in the way. The bomb destroyed the canvas.
Conducting continuous fire on the "Junkers", the armored train maneuvers on the surviving segment of the way. Meanwhile, the repair group is changing rails and sleepers. All spare rails have been unloaded from the ballast platform. But they are not enough. Where to get it? Golovenko remembered that there are rails near the Mekenzievy Gory station. But the enemy is already there... Reported to the commander.
– Full speed ahead! – the commander orders. The armored train, like a meteor, flew into the station, opened fire from all types of weapons. While we were fighting, railway workers under the command of Golovenko and Andreev carried two links of rails in their hands.
Rushing back. In a few minutes, the path was corrected, and the armored train dived into cover. Just pulled into the tunnel, a heavy bomb blocked the entrance. After waiting for the night, the armored train came out from the other end of the tunnel. And while the sappers were clearing the entrance, we went out to raid other areas."
The armored train "Zheleznyakov", made in November 1941, named after the hero of the Civil War, had serious firepower. Five 100-millimeter guns and 15 machine guns were installed on the armored platforms. There was a special platform with eight mortars.
At the end of 1941, instead of four 82-mm mortars, three 120-mm mortars were installed, as well as three new machine guns. In addition to the armored locomotive, the train had an additional powerful locomotive. The crew of the Zheleznyakov was staffed by sailors who effectively used their armored train. It was camouflaged so skillfully that it was very difficult to detect it from the air.
After a short but powerful cannon and mortar strike on previously explored targets, the Zheleznyakov quickly left for areas where the railway passed through narrow recesses cut into the rocks, or into tunnels – before the Germans had time to shoot artillery or raise aircraft.
A special recovery team was attached to the armored train, which restored the damaged railway track under enemy fire. Acting in this way, Zheleznyakov made more than 140 combat exits. Only at the end of the defense of Sevastopol, having brought down all the exits from the tunnel with air strikes, the Germans were able to block the armored train.
THE TRAIN IS STORMING THE SKY
In the course of the war, a new type of armored trains appeared, designed primarily to fight the air enemy. Anti–aircraft armored trains had: medium-caliber firing platoons - three 76.2–millimeter anti-aircraft guns with PUAZO–3 anti-aircraft fire control devices and a rangefinder; small-caliber firing platoons - two 37-millimeter automatic anti-aircraft guns; machine-gun platoon - three large-caliber DShK machine guns. All weapons were placed on armored platforms.
Anti-aircraft armored trains were used to cover the cargo transported from Murmansk via the Kirov Railway, delivered under lend-lease. They protected freight trains from German air strikes and attacks by German and Finnish saboteurs.
And during the rapid offensive operations of the Red Army in 1944-1945, anti-aircraft armored trains provided cover from German air strikes on railway stations.
At the end of the 1950s, it seemed that armored trains with old-fashioned steam locomotives were no longer needed, they were sent "for storage". They were remembered in the late 1960s, during the complication of Soviet-Chinese relations.
Now the Yenisei is successfully operating in the Donbass. Inevitably, questions arise: will armored trains open a "third wind" in this century? And what new tasks will they perform?
Maxim Kustov
Maxim Vladimirovich Kustov is a military historian.
