On the eve of World War II, the USSR and Germany were actively developing new weapons - combat subterrins (underground boats), designed to strike at strategically important enemy targets literally from under the ground. The ideas of the underground war were not forgotten after the victory over Germany, but until now developments in this area are under the veil of secrecy.
Trebelev's capsule
Back in 1904, Russian inventor Pyotr Rasskazov published an article in an English magazine about a self-propelled capsule that can move underground. Moreover, later his drawings surfaced in Germany. And the first underground self-propelled vehicle in the 30s of the last century was created by the Soviet engineer and designer A. Trebelev, who was assisted by A. Kirilov and A. Baskin.
It is curious that the principle of operation of this underground boat was largely copied from the actions of a mole burrowing a hole. Before embarking on the design of the subterrine, the designers carefully studied the biomechanics of the movements of an animal placed in a box with earth using X-rays. Particular attention was paid to the work of the head and legs of the mole. And already on the basis of the results obtained, its mechanical "twin" was constructed.
Trebelev's capsule-shaped subterrine was moved underground by a drill, auger, and four stern jacks, which pushed it like the hind legs of a mole. The machine could be controlled both from the inside and outside - from the surface of the earth, using a cable. The underground boat also received power through the same cable. The average speed of movement of the subterrin was 10 meters per hour. But due to a number of shortcomings and frequent failures of the apparatus, the project was closed.
According to one of the versions, the unreliability of the subterrine was revealed already during the first tests. On the other, before the war itself, they tried to finalize it on the initiative of the future People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR D. Ustinov. According to the second version, at the beginning of 1940, designer P. Strakhov, on a personal assignment from Ustinov, improved Trebelev's subterrine. Moreover, this project was originally created exclusively for military purposes, and the new underground boat had to operate without communication with the surface. A prototype was created in a year and a half. It was assumed that he would be able to work autonomously underground for several days. For this period, the subterrine was supplied with fuel, and the crew, which consisted of one person, was supplied with oxygen, water and food. However, the war prevented the completion of work on the project. The fate of the prototype of Strakhov's underground boat is unknown.
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Reich subterines
It was not only the Soviet Union that showed interest in underground boats. Before the war, subterins were also developed by German designers. In the 1930s, engineer von Wern (according to other sources - von Werner) filed a patent for an underwater-underground "amphibian" which was called Subterrine. The device was able to move both in the water element and under the surface of the earth, and, according to the calculations of von Wern, in the latter case, the subterrina could reach speeds of up to 7 km / h. At the same time, the Subterrine was designed to transport a crew and an assault force of five people and 300 kilograms of explosives.
In 1940, Germany was seriously considering the von Wern project for use in hostilities against Great Britain. In the plans developed by Hitler for Operation Sea Lion, which envisaged the landing of a German landing on the British Isles, there was a place for von Wern's submarines. His amphibians had to swim unnoticed to the British shores and continue to move through English territory underground, in order to then strike a surprise blow at the British defenses in the most unexpected area for the enemy.
According to some reports, by the way, a certain R. Trebeletsky had a hand in the work on von Wern's project. Moreover, there is an unconfirmed version that in fact it was the same Trebelev who developed the first underground boat in the USSR and either visited Germany and met with von Wern, or escaped from the Soviet Union with the help of the Abwehr.
The Subterrine project was ruined by the arrogance of G. Goering, who led the Luftwaffe and hoped to defeat the British in an air war without help from the ground. As a result, von Verne's underground boat remained an unrealized idea, as did the fantasies of his famous namesake Jules Verne, who wrote the science fiction novel Journey to the Center of the Earth long before the appearance of underground boats.
Another even more ambitious project of the German designer by the name of Ritter was named with a fair amount of pathos Midgard Schlange ("Midgard's Serpent") - in honor of the mythical reptile - the world serpent that encircles the entire inhabited earth. This machine was supposed to move above and below the ground, as well as in water and under water at a depth of up to one hundred meters. It was assumed that the "Serpent" would move underground at a speed of 2 km / h (in hard ground) to 10 km / h (in soft ground), 3 km / h - under water and 30 km / h - on the surface land.
But what is most striking is the colossal size of this giant machine. Midgard Schlange was conceived as an underground train, consisting of many crawler compartments. Each is six meters long. The total length of the "snake" phalanx cars connected together was from 400 meters. The longest configuration is more than 500 meters. Four one and a half meter drills pierced the way of the "Snake" in the ground. In addition, the machine had three additional drilling kits and weighed 60,000 tons. To control such a colossus, 12 pairs of rudders and 30 crew members were required. The armament of the giant subterrine was also impressive: two thousand 250-kilogram and 10-kilogram mines, 12 coaxial machine guns and six-meter underground torpedoes.
It was originally planned to use the "Midgard Serpent" to destroy fortifications and strategic facilities in France and Belgium, as well as to undermine British ports. But in the end, the underground colossus of the Reich never took part in any of the military operations. There is no exact data on whether at least a prototype of the "Snake" was made or whether this idea, like the Subterrine, remained only in paper embodiment. But it is known that the advancing Soviet troops found mysterious adits near Konigsberg, and nearby - a destroyed machine of unknown purpose. In addition, the scouts got their hands on technical documentation describing German underground boats.
War Mole
After the war, the project of the subterine was attempted by the head of SMERSH V. Abakumov, who involved professors G. Babat and G. Pokrovsky to work with the trophy drawings and materials. But it was possible to make real progress in this area only in the 60s with the coming to power of N. Khrushchev. The new leader of the USSR liked the idea of "getting the imperialists out of the ground." Moreover, he even announced these plans publicly. And, apparently, for such statements by that time there were already good reasons.
In particular, it is known that a secret plant for the production of underground boats was built in Ukraine. And in 1964, the first Soviet subterrine with a nuclear reactor was released, which was named "Battle Mole". About this development, however, little is known. The underground boat had an elongated cylindrical titanium hull with a pointed end and a powerful drill. According to various sources, the size of the atomic subterrin ranged from 3 to almost 4 meters in diameter and from 25 to 35 meters in length. The speed of movement under the ground is from 7 km / h to 15 km / h.
The crew of the "Battle Mole" consisted of five people. In addition, the vehicle could carry up to 15 paratroopers and about a ton of cargo - explosives or weapons. Such combat vehicles were supposed to destroy fortifications, underground bunkers, command posts and missile launchers in mines. In addition, the War Moles were preparing for a special mission.
According to the plan of the military command of the USSR, in the event of aggravation of relations with the United States, subterins could be used for an underground strike on America. With the help of submarines, it was planned to deliver "War Moles" to the coastal waters of seismically unstable California, then drill into the United States and install underground nuclear charges in those areas where American strategic facilities were located. If the atomic mines were put into action, the most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis would occur in the region, which could be attributed to an ordinary natural cataclysm.
According to some reports, tests of the Soviet atomic subterrine were carried out in different soils - in the Moscow region, the Rostov region and the Urals. Moreover, most of all the witnesses were struck by the capabilities of the underground boat, which she demonstrated, in the Ural mountains. The War Mole easily bored into solid rock and destroyed the underground target. However, a tragedy occurred during repeated tests: the car exploded in the Urals for some unknown reason. The crew was killed. The project was closed shortly thereafter.
Ruslan Melnikov
