Dear friends, welcome to the channel the Eastern Front! In one of the villages in
the Kaluga region, they were digging a pit for a garage. Suddenly, ordinary work turned into a
very dangerous event: flames burst out from under the bucket of the excavator, acrid and thick smoke
poured down. Sappers were immediately called. Specialists of the mine clearance group found
14 vessels made of dark glass, resembling large grapefruits in size. On one side,
the balls had a cemented plug, and a transparent liquid splashed inside.
During the Second World War, many unusual weapons were used, but the Soviet ampoule gun, firing
glass and tin shells with an incendiary mixture, became one of the most extraordinary weapons.
The ampoule gun is a small mortar with a caliber of 125 millimeters. The system was
installed on a machine with wheels or skis. Weight - 28 kilograms. Projectile throwing
is carried out using a blank rifle cartridge. The maximum firing range of the ampoule gun
was 250 - 350 meters. The rate of fire is up to eight rounds per minute.
The main ammunition for ampoule guns were aviation tin ampoules of 125 mm caliber.
From the side it resembles a Maxim machine gun without a shield. This glass ball was filled
with a "rare rubbish" mixture of phosphoric acid, which, when in contact with oxygen,
flashed a snow-white fiery cloud of hissing drops flying in all directions,
burning at a temperature of 1000 degrees. Falling into a person within a few seconds burned through
him, termite drops caused a fatal pain shock in the affected person. Upon contact with the tank,
the termite leaked into all the cracks and the red-hot armor lost its properties.
The shot from the Ampoule Gun was made as follows. A loaded cartridge without a bullet was used for
shot, a glass core was rolled into the barrel like an old cannon. Its walls were very thick,
and in order to break the ball it was necessary to make no weak efforts. Then a shot was fired
by pressing the trigger. The power of the powder charge and the design of the breech
was enough to launch an ampoule at a distance of over 200 meters. The Ampoule gun was used
more effectively to fight "enemy nests" in houses, ruins or pillboxes, as well as armored vehicles.
You can't throw a grenade or a Molotov cocktail further than 15 meters, but here it is aimed at
50-100 meters and even with such force. These devices were most successfully used in street
battles. When fascists are holed up in the house opposite, across the street. You have a few
options. Stand up with a full-length grenade in the window opening, swing harder and throw!?
Throwing a grenade precisely into the window of the house opposite is still not an easy task,
plus they were covered with sandbags leaving a small embrasure! And of course heavy fire
was being fired from all directions. An ampoule gun installed in the back of the room, or pushed
the "pipe" into the gap, took aim calmly as it should and hit the window of the house opposite.
Eyewitnesses said - "when the ball flew into the depths of the room, all the windows of
the floor were illuminated for a second with a snow-white flash similar to a giant unbearably
blinding photo flash, and the screams of the enemy drowned out the cannonade and firing!"
The Ampoule Gun had two disadvantages. The inconvenience of loading and the balls themselves,
or rather the transportation of ammunition, were carried in a special basket resembling
a box of milk bottles for six pieces. A stray bullet, or stumbled, with a swing
on the bricks and that's it! You and all the surrounding comrades will be burned!
Therefore, at the end of 1942, they were withdrawn from service. At one time, the unused ampoules
were used by bomber aircraft to destroy enemy columns and commit mass fire-raising.
But because of the danger of such supplies for the aircraft, the aviators also refused them.
Despite the fact that ampoule guns were removed from service, the remaining units were used for
throwing leaflets and setting up smoke screens. The Ampoule gun has completed its task for
work! This device saved a lot of lives from the assault groups soldiers.
Dear friends, that's all for today. It was Tim and the Eastern Front channel. Please leave your
opinion in the comments. It is really important. And as usual I wish you peace and health. See you.