The Littlefield collection is famous for having a huge number of serviceable vehicles,
that’s why we’ve been coming here to film Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch so much.
With the passing of the owner, the collection is being partially split up.
So in order to take advantage of the vehicles while they are still here,
we’re doing a series of short videos, we’re calling them ‘snapshots’,
in which we’re going to go and have a look at some of the vehicles
which are in this collection which we otherwise wouldn’t have had time to do in
‘Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch’.
So stay tuned, and maybe you’ll see some of your favourites.
Artillery has always been a very important part
of any Russian army even back to the Tsarist days.
They call it “the God of War”.
But although they made a plethora of assault guns in WW2,
after the war ended, during the early cold war,
they relied particularly on towed artillery.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that they decided that, with the advent of fast,
mechanized warfare, plus also the threat of nuclear,
chemical or biological attack, that a vehicle-mounted artillery piece might be a good idea again.
The solution was to take the fairly ubiquitous D30 122mm regimental howitzer
and mate it to an MT-LB chassis.
The resulting vehicle was the 2S1, known colloquially as “The Gvozdika”.
The Russians named their artillery pieces after flowers for some reason.
The howitzer was slightly modified.
They give it a double-barreled muzzle brake and also a fume extractor.
On the inside, it comes equipped with a power rammer.
The vehicle itself remains relatively unmodified, however,
it does also swim: a neat additional feature.
As a result, if I open up the front hatch,
you can see that there is a lot of empty space inside the vehicle.
Between the engine, which is a 8 cylinder 300hp
and the transmission, you’ll see that there is a lot of volume
to give buoyancy and displacement.
The vehicle will float with very little preparation,
and will do a grand total of about 2.8 knots.
It has a crew of four, the driver is located in the front left.
He is isolated from the entire rest of the vehicle.
Behind him and to the right slightly is the engine,
and in the rear is the crew compartment with the howitzer,
the 360 degree rotating turret, and a platform for the turret basket.
40 rounds of ammunition are carried, stowed in racks.
There is a ready rack on the loader’s side, there is a semi-ready in the bustle,
and there is additional stowage in the hull rear*.
The gunner is located on the left hand side in front of the commander,
the loader is on the right.
The driver is equipped with the traditional three pedals,
clutch, brake, accelerator, he has a manual transmission to his front right.
And steering is effected by the use of two tillers.
The suspension, MT-LB torsion bar, stamped roadwheels, single pin steel track.
Nothing particularly unusual there.
Maximum rate of fire from the 122 was five rounds a minute,
although the sustained rate of fire was only one or two.
The maximum range was 15km with the gun elevating to 70 degrees,
unless you use an assisted projectile which will get you the better part of 22km.
A variety of ammunition could be carried, there is the traditional high explosive,
high explosive rocket-assisted, armour-piercing high explosive,
flechette if you didn’t like infantry and, to really say you love somebody,
you can also fire chemical munitions.
This was a very simple and effective vehicle.
It was massively produced and widely exported.
Although it fell out of Russian service** in 2007,
it continues to see service in countries throughout the world.
This particular vehicle was captured in 1991 from the Iraqis, brought to the US,
tested by the US Army and hence there is English language signage inside it,
and eventually found its way here to Portola Valley California
to become part of the Littlefield Collection.