During World War II, soldiers of the Czechoslovak Army fought with Czech-style light machine guns. Profile photo
The TV series "Bright Sword" has such a scene: the battalion commander Zhang Dabiao is besieged by the Japanese army, and the regimental commander Li Yunlong, under the cover of fire, charges forward with a machine gun and successfully rescues his comrades-
On the screen, this frequently filmed and powerful machine gun is the Czech light machine gun that everyone is familiar with. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China purchased and imitated more than 100,000 Czech light machine guns. What is less known is that its "mother's home" was the "giant" of the military trade market at that time- brno Arsenal.
Once a major arms supplier to austria-Hungary, brno Arsenal became the backbone of Czechoslovakia's military industry after World War I, ranking first in the world's military-industrial enterprise rankings at that time.
Some people will ask, at that time, Czechoslovakia was a small European country, with a land area of less than 130,000 square kilometers, how could such a legendary arsenal be born? What is the story behind a series of classic guns created by it? In this issue, we'll find out.
After winning, the "Light Machine Gun Competition" witnessed a generation of famous guns
Looking at the world map, it is difficult to find the two European countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in a short period of time. After World War I, with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czech Republic and Slovakia announced the formation of a new state, the Czechoslovak Republic.
At that time, the weapons of the Czechoslovak army were "made of all nations", including a large number of Austro-Hungarian weapons left over from World War I, as well as guns and ammunition aided by Britain and France. To this end, Czechoslovakia, which inherited the core industrial area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began to establish a military industrial system and develop new weapons and equipment.
As soon as the government's "hero post" came out, many well-known arms dealers responded positively. In April 1923, at the Czechoslovak Army Small Arms Test Field, a "Light Machine Gun Competition" was staged.
The British MKI light machine gun and the French M1922 light machine gun took the lead in appearing, these two machine guns were the "star products" in the world arms market at that time. The testing process is not complicated: under the premise that the barrel can only be replaced once, which gun has the most bullets in the specified time, and the corresponding gun factory can obtain an army weapons order.
The MKI. light machine gun and the M1922 light machine gun performed well, firing more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition. Subsequently, the Prague I.-23 light machine gun appeared. This is a new machine gun developed by Czechoslovak designers Waclav Harik and Rudolf Geran. The machine gun is equipped with a telescopic stock, a bipod, and a barrel that can be quickly replaced, which has the characteristics of a modern light machine gun. At the scene of the competition, the Prague I.-23 light machine gun fired more than 7500 rounds of ammunition. The results were clear, and the Prague I.-23 light machine gun successfully won the bid for the Czechoslovak Army weapons program.
Soon after, the improved Prague I.-23 light machine gun successfully passed the acceptance and was officially finalized as the ZB-26, which is known to military fans as the Czech light machine gun.
Whether a gun is good or not is known on the battlefield. In July 1943, the independent mixed 8th Brigade of the Japanese army invading China was transferred to Tangshan. On August 22, the Eighth Route Army learned that the Japanese army would have a group of transport vehicles passing through the area around the village of Beipanying, and decided to set up an ambush here. The officers and men dug trenches in advance and set up a ZB-26 light machine gun in a house near the road.
Not long after, 3 Japanese cars slowly approached. With the order of the commander of the Eighth Route Army, the ZB-26 light machine gun fired fiercely, and the Japanese army fled into the wilderness. At the end of the battle, in addition to killing and wounding the enemy, a number of rifles and light machine guns were captured, and none of our troops suffered casualties. Since then, the story of a Czech-style light machine gun completing an ambush battle has been widely circulated on the anti-Japanese battlefield.
Simple structure, not easy to damage, stable performance... The excellent performance of the ZB-26 light machine gun is obvious to all and is widely praised in the world arms market. According to statistics, in the 1930s, the Brno Arsenal exported a total of 120,000 ZB-26 light machine guns, and the number of exports to China reached 30,000.
With sufficient financial security, brno arsenal opened a new round of gun research and development work, and launched a series of "explosive" products. The ZBG machine gun developed on the basis of the ZB-26 light machine gun successfully won the bid for the British Army weapons project; Soon after the production of the first generation of air-cooled heavy machine gun ZB-37, it made a high-profile appearance on the European battlefield, and the Kuomintang army also imported 1,000 equipment troops on the eve of the War of Resistance...
Some people have calculated that at its peak, Czechoslovak military enterprises could produce 1.6 million rifles, 20,000 heavy machine guns, 36,000 light machine guns, and 2,500 cannons per year, and the total export of weapons once accounted for 30% of the total world military market. The Brno Arsenal was able to achieve such a good performance.
Under the siege of the city, the "star enterprise" has become a "war machine"
On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, the Wehrmacht general told Hitler: "The Czechoslovak Army is well-equipped and well-trained, and the Czechoslovak line is as strong as the Maginot Line." ”
At that time, Czechoslovakia looked like a "prickly porcupine" at all. The army has more than one million troops, which is equivalent to the sum of Germany's eastern and western fronts. With the world's second-ranked Skoda Arsenal and the third Brno Arsenal, the Army is well-equipped.
However, the fortress is the easiest to breach from within. In 1938, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, choosing to sacrifice Czechoslovakia to satisfy Nazi Germany.
Some have described the Maginot Line as a "useless shield.". At that time, Czechoslovakia's defense construction was indeed a bit like this defensive line. The developed military industry cannot make up for its inherent shortcomings. After the German army pressed the border, the Czechoslovak defense line collapsed at a touch, and had no choice but to surrender.
Under the nest, there are finished eggs. Driven by the German army's "carrots and sticks", Skoda, Brno and other arsenals became "war machines", while making all-out efforts to manufacture German equipment such as MG-34 general-purpose machine guns, while merging the research and development departments of the arsenals into the German SS Brno Weapons Research Institute to develop new weapons for the German army.
At the beginning of World War II, in order to improve the anti-armor capabilities of infantry, many countries put the development of anti-tank rifles on the agenda. In fact, as early as 1936, the Brno Arsenal designed the ZK-382 anti-tank rifle. Surprised by the sight of the ZK-382 prototype, the Germans produced the M.SS.41 anti-tank rifle on top of the gun and equipped it with the German SS.
It is an impressive anti-tank rifle capable of penetrating 30 mm of vertical armor within 100 meters. But as the thickness of the tank's armor continued to increase, the anti-tank rifle was useless. During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, in the face of the "steel torrent" of the Soviet army, the anti-tank rifle with the highest performance also became helpless.
Defeat and retreat on the battlefield put the countdown to the fall of German fascism. After the Normandy landings, the Allies targeted the German arsenal. In October 1944, in order to destroy the German heavy vehicle plant in Nibelungen, Austria, the Allies dropped a total of 5,000 bombs, almost flattening the entire plant.
In April of the following year, the Czechoslovak Arsenal also failed to escape the "trial". After intensive bombardment by Allied warplanes, the Brno Arsenal was reduced to rubble.
When the national fortune is prosperous, the enterprise is prosperous, and the national fortune is the decline of the enterprise. Looking back at this period of history, it is not difficult to find that the fate of military enterprises is often closely linked to the fate of the country. In the tide of the times, the Brno Arsenal was forced to stand on the opposite side of history and justice, losing its most essential spiritual core. This detour taken by brno arsenal has become an unforgettable memory of the history of enterprise development.
Regain your strength and make a name for yourself again with the Scorpion submachine gun
The movie "The Matrix" has such a scene: in the face of an enemy several times larger than himself, the male protagonist dodges bullets while holding a "scorpion" submachine gun to kill four parties. This submachine gun is the masterpiece of the Brno Arsenal.
In the movie, why did the male protagonist choose the "Scorpion" submachine gun as a melee weapon?
The answer is obvious. The Scorpion submachine gun is small, about the size of a pistol; Light weight, empty weight of only 1.28 kg.
The time goes back to the mid-to-late 1940s, the "golden age" of the development of light weapons. Affected by the war, light weapons in various countries in the world have made great progress in design concepts and production technologies.
After World War II, the Czechoslovak army still used the MP38 and MP40 submachine guns left over from the German army during the war, as well as the pre-war ZK383 submachine gun. In order to unify the equipment, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense was determined to promote the development of a new submachine gun.
At that time, the requirements put forward by the military were extremely demanding: the size and weight of the gun could only be slightly larger than that of the pistol, so that it could be easily carried by pilots and crews of armored vehicles; The firepower should be fierce, and the accuracy and rate of fire parameters set are very high.
Having both "fish" and "bear paws" is a new challenge for the Brno Arsenal. At this time, the Brno Arsenal was in ruins, and the management clearly realized that if it wanted to return to the center of the world arms trade stage, it was necessary to meet the market demand and launch high-quality products.
This is an opportunity to prove strength. It didn't take long for Brno Arsenal designer Waclav Harik to come up with the CZ-447 submachine gun. It was an avant-garde submachine gun with an innovative envelope bolt – the front half of the gun was hollowed out in the middle and the barrel was wrapped around the barrel when fired. This design significantly shortens the length of the bolt while ensuring that the bolt length remains unchanged.
In the late 1950s, the military again proposed to the Brno Arsenal to develop a "short and tough" submachine gun. Designer Roslav Riba unveiled the "Hero List" with the S-59 submachine gun.
Compared with the CZ-447 submachine gun, the S-59 submachine gun is not only shorter in length and lighter in weight, but also has a cleverly designed reducer inside its grip, which can greatly improve the shooting accuracy of the submachine gun. In 1961, the submachine gun was officially named Vz.61, nicknamed the "Scorpion". Over the next five years, the factory produced more than 100,000 Scorpion submachine guns.
At the end of the 1980s, as the international situation eased, hot spots began to "cool down", the world arms market suddenly "shrunk", Czechoslovak arsenals lost large orders, and development was in trouble.
Waiting for a "blood transfusion" or taking the initiative? These arsenals quickly gave the answer —
In June 1993, more than 40 military enterprises such as Skoda and Brno Arsenal chose to "huddle for heating", realizing the concentration of R&D, production and sales, and the market competitiveness was restored and enhanced. Today, these established military companies have gradually moved towards recovery with products such as CZ75 pistols and "Albatross" jet trainers. (Fan Yufeng, Lv Linbo, Zeng Zihuang)
Source: People's Liberation Army Daily