"Knock knock!" Manturov walked up to a wooden door and knocked lightly twice. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Didn't I say that? No one is allowed to look for me until three o'clock in the afternoon. The man in the room seemed to be in a bit of a frustrated mood because he was doing something important and mentally draining, and no one was allowed to disturb him.

"Excuse me, Comrade Grabin," Manturov said politely, "I just came from Moscow to talk to you about artillery research and development on behalf of the State Defense Committee, but I didn't know that you were busy. Then I'll come back to you at three o'clock in the afternoon. ”

"Moscow? The National Defense Committee? Grabin, who was in the room, heard these two words, and immediately guessed that a big man was coming, and this time it was not only people from Moscow, but also people from the State Defense Committee! This is the most powerful institution in the country during wartime!

"Comrade National Defense Commissioner, come in." Grabin was not an uninteresting man, and as soon as he learned that the members of the State Defense Committee were coming, he immediately stood up, walked to the door of his office, and opened the door for Manturov.

When Grabin saw the young man outside the door, dressed in a general's uniform, he knew that he had almost caused a big accident. After all, he is just an artillery designer, and he can't afford to offend the defense commissar at the level of a general.

Fortunately, Manturov is still a good-natured person, and he also knows the value of Grabin.

This Vasily Grabin is one of the most famous and powerful artillery designers in Soviet history, and he designed most of the artillery used by the Soviet Union during World War II, including the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun, the ZIS-S-85 tank gun, and so on.

"Comrade Grabin, I didn't disturb your work, did I? What artillery are you designing? Manturov smiled, and no matter how he looked at it, there was not the slightest hint of anger, which reassured Grabin a little.

"No interruption," Grabin said, smiling, "I was informed by you to improve the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun and design a more powerful 85 mm caliber tank gun.

But I don't have a clue yet, so I'm just designing behind closed doors and not letting anyone bother me. ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Grabin, you'll soon have a clue." Manturov said with a smile.

"I hope so."

Manturov cautiously avoided the paper balls on the ground (presumably unsatisfactory artillery blueprints), walked over to Grabin's desk, found a chair and sat down.

Grabin took away the large stack of artillery blueprints on his desk and said in a polite tone: "Comrade Manturov, did you have any important instructions for coming to Gorky (today's Nizhny Novgorod) in person this time?" ”

"I'm here to inspect artillery production, and by the way, I want to exchange knowledge about artillery design with you and provide you with some inspiration."

After Grabin heard this, he felt a little unhappy in his heart, and it was actually not a big deal for a national defense commissioner to personally come to inspect the 92 factory, which was indeed a good thing.

But the question is, this young man who is less than thirty years old and has not yet studied a related major actually wants to exchange knowledge about artillery with a master of artillery design like Grabin? Isn't this a class door axe, or a "grid door cannon"?

Nevertheless, Grabin smiled and said in a kind tone: "Comrade Manturov, I am more than happy to share with you the knowledge of artillery design, and I will thank you if you can give me more inspiration." ”

"Maxim," Manturov said, turning his head to his assistant, "bring in the 'baby' I brought." ”

Mikhail walked in with a metal object and said: "Comrade Grabin, this is a German anti-tank shell captured by Red Army soldiers at the front. ”

Grabin looked at the shell carefully, and at a glance he knew where the excel of the people was. "The warhead of this shell is not much different from ours, but the cartridge is about twice as long as ours.

Because the cartridge has been lengthened, the kinetic energy and muzzle velocity of the shell have also been greatly improved, and the armor-piercing ability should be even stronger than ours.

Thank you, Comrade Manturov, I know how to do it. I can try to make the chamber of the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun longer and wider, and modify the shells to use armor-piercing shells with longer cartridges that can hold more gunpowder, so as to improve the armor-piercing ability of the anti-tank gun. ”

"Very good, I also brought a Pak36(r) anti-tank gun captured from the battlefield this time, you can also refer to the design of this German anti-tank gun to see what is worth referring to."

Grabin had been impressed by Manturov at this time, and he never thought that this young man who had not studied a related major could bring such a good thing to himself, no wonder he had already become a national leader at a young age, and his ability was simply unmatched. "Okay, thank you for what you brought me, I will definitely try my best to complete the task of improving the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun."

"By the way, how is the design of the 85mm tank gun going?" Manturov asked.

"For the time being, it is still under design, it is nothing more than to increase the length of the barrel to 60-68 times the caliber, and to increase the number of rifling to 28-36. However, the exact length to how many times the caliber and how much rifling to increase have not yet been decided. ”

Grabin's design direction was not wrong, and the length of the barrel and the number of rifling were also within the range that Manturov thought, which made Manturov feel the skill of the master of artillery.

"Very well, it's right to design in that direction." "You can try to increase the length of the barrel to 64 times the caliber and increase the number of rifling to 32," Manturov proposed. Then build a prototype cannon and test it. ”

Hearing this, Grabin was completely shocked. Unexpectedly, Manturov's proposal was exactly the same as the "best option" he had in mind, "Comrade Manturov, in fact, I am the same as you think, I intend to increase the length of the barrel to 64 times the caliber, and the number of rifling to 32.

But in this way, there may be problems with the accuracy of the artillery, so we have not dared to make a decision. ”

Grabin's fears were not wrong. Historically, when the 92 factory manufactured this 85mm caliber, 64 times the diameter of the ZIS-85BM tank gun, it was in the first tests that the problem of insufficient accuracy and ballistic instability was discovered.

Later, the Grabin Design Bureau overcame this problem by improving the gun, and the accuracy was improved (presumably to a reasonable level), but the muzzle velocity dropped from 980 m per second to 920 m per second.

Although this 85 mm tank gun was powerful, it did not meet the requirements of "must be stronger than the German KWK43 (88 mm caliber, 71 times diameter, commonly known as 'long 88')", and the war was about to end at that time, and the Soviet Union already had a 100 mm caliber tank gun, so the ZIS-85BM, D-10-85 and other high-power 85 gun schemes were not adopted.

However, if this "Long 85" could have appeared in 1942, it would have been a different story.