Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

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Kelvin
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Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#1

Post by Kelvin » 16 Oct 2010, 18:14

Apart from 120mm and 160mm mortar brigades, did Soviet organized its 280 mm mortar as separate brigades for war ? Anyone have data on that ?

Art
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#2

Post by Art » 17 Oct 2010, 12:42

280-mm mortars were not used in WW2. May be you mean heavy howitzers of this caliber?


karlik
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#3

Post by karlik » 17 Oct 2010, 15:27

Kelvin wrote: Soviet organized its 280 mm mortar
probably it is a mortar Бр-5
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/280-%D0%BC ... 1%D1%80-5)

Kelvin
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#4

Post by Kelvin » 17 Oct 2010, 17:39

Slaugtherhouse : the handbook of Eastern front mentioned that mortar with specification.

Art
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#5

Post by Art » 18 Oct 2010, 10:33

We had a discussion on translation of the word "mortira" here:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... lit=mortar
It appears that for disambiguation "mortira" is best translated as "howitzer", and English "mortar" corresponds to "minomet".
Br-5 howitzers were organized in separate special power artillery battalions, they were never in brigades as far as I know. I don't remember about experimental works on 280-mm smooth-barrel mortars right now, but they were not present in combat units in WW2.

Kelvin
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#6

Post by Kelvin » 20 Oct 2010, 07:24

Hi, Art, thank so much for your link.

I find that Soviet had both 203mm and 210mm caliber, the former was howitzer and the latter is 210mm gun. From Wiki, I also find that 210mm and 305mm gun were Czech origin and Soviet recieved its blueprint to build it. But Soviet had tried to form separate brigade for 210 mm gun.

In post war period, Soviet had 180 mm gun like German 17 cm gun in WWII, did 180 mm had its origin in WWII Soviet inventory ?

Art
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Re: Soviet 282 mm mortar organization

#7

Post by Art » 30 Oct 2010, 10:45

There is a contraversial information on the number and type of 280 howitzers used. According to Shirokorad (Enyclopedia of Russian/Soviet artillery) by the start of the war there were 25 280-mm heavy howitzers mod. 1914/15 and 47 Br-5 howitzers (mod.1939). On the other hand the known Statistical Handbook No.1 gives 17 howitzers mod.1914/15 and 55 Br-5 in June 1941:
http://www.teatrskazka.com/Raznoe/BiChS ... _3_02.html
According to Shirokorad 20 Br-5s were produced in 1939 and 25 in 1940, so his information seems to be more reliable, the remaining 2 Br-5 as he says were most likely pre-production models. The same books says that by the start of the war there were 8 heavy battalions, each with 6 280-mm howitzers, total 48. The same 48 howitzers were in the GHQ reserve artillery when the war ended.
Regarding Skoda artillery systems, the Stalingrad factory produced 3 Br-17 (210-mm Skoda guns) in 1940 and 6 in 1941, and 3 Br-18 (305-mm Skoda howitzers) in 1940. After 1941 no production took place. As concerns organization according to Shirokorad in June 1941 there was a separate OM (Special Power) artillery battalion with two batteries each of two Br-7 guns. On 1 May 1945 there were four OM cannon regiments each with 2 Br-17 guns and 6 152-mm Br-2 guns. According to the BSSA these regiments were 1st (1st Belorussian Front), 2nd and 20th (3rd Belorussian Front), 18th (Supreme Command reserve).
In general all artillery systems with caliber above 203-mm were in OM units (regiments and battalion). 180-mm was a caliber of naval guns.

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