"The AK-47 is admired by many soldiers, and its designer is no exception. Kalashnikov was recognized as a world-class gun king and a world-class gun designer. Looking back now, the Ka family had not only relied on luck to become a weapon master, but also rare talent and rare opportunities.
In 1919, Karwenz was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Mihail Timofeevich Kalashnikov
Mihail Timofeevich Kalashnikov
A small peasant family. At the age of seven, he entered a 10-year school. It was said that he liked to invent little things when he was a child. To put it bluntly, I never received any education in firearms since I was young, and I never thought that becoming a firearms master was completely self-taught. In 1936, after graduating, he found a job in a department of the Siberian railway, working as a locomotive mechanic. At that time, outside of his job, his greatest interest was researching military equipment, and he had a persistent preference for firearms. Carl never thought he would become a firearms master. Playing with those things was just his hobby.
When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the 19-year-old Karwenz enlisted in the army and was responsible for garrisoning the Kyiv Military District. On June 22, 1941, the war between Germany and Germany broke out, and Karlsberg was recalled to serve as the commander of the T-34 tank. In one battle, Castellan's tank was hit by German artillery fire. He was seriously injured and sent to the rear army hospital for emergency treatment. Although his life was saved, he became disabled from then on, especially his right hand, which could not move freely. Of course, the Carl Family would never have thought that this hospital would be the turning point in his path towards weapon design.
In the hospital, he talked about war and weapons with his comrades. " Why is it that only the German army has automatic rifles, and we don't even have enough old-fashioned rifles?”These words inspired Karwenz to design a new type of automatic rifle. During his stay in the hospital, he even asked the nurse to find all the books about light weapons in the hospital library to read. One of them was called " The Evolution of Light Weapons ", which inspired him greatly.
In the spring of 1942, Carl was awarded the Red Star Medal. He requested to be discharged from the hospital and return to the army to fight. The hospital did not allow him to go home and recuperate for half a year. Karlsberg decided to go to the railway locomotive repair station where he used to work. While working, he would explore the design of firearms. He found his best friend, Krachenko, who worked in the railway technology department, a train driver who was familiar with mechanical processing technology. With the help of his best friend, he hand-polished an automatic rifle in a simple shed.
After the automatic rifle was completed, it was specially sent to the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy for testing and evaluation. After testing, the review board concluded that the rifle's mechanism was too complicated, and its overall performance did not exceed the Soviets 'Sudaev (i.e., the DPS-43) rifle.
But this unsuccessful automatic rifle attracted the attention of the Soviet Equipment Planning Committee
Mihail Timofeevich Kalashnikov
Mihail Timofeevich Kalashnikov
It was the attention of Lieutenant General Blagunlavov, the authority of the Soviet infantry weapons at that time and the dean of the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy. He praised the unique design of the rifle. In 1943, he personally recommended Karwenz to the Advanced Infantry Firearms School for further professional studies. After graduation, he was assigned to work as a technician at the Anske Military Weapons Testing Ground.
In 1944, after countless failed experiments, the 25-year-old Karwenz designed a 7.62mm semi-automatic carbine. In 1946, he designed a fully automatic rifle AK46 based on this semi-automatic carbine and sent it to the National Range Selection Test. There were also many famous rifle designers competing.
After the preliminary selection, three types of rifles, including the AK-46, were designated to participate in the final review. The harsh test could test the real combat ability of the rifle. The outstanding performance of the AK-46 in the Extreme Shooting judging panel impressed many of the judges present. The AK-46 fired 15,000 rounds consecutively. Although the barrel was red, the accuracy of the shots did not change much. After a few shots, the competitor's sample gun would not work normally or even go silent.
The review committee carefully calculated and tabulated the test results, compared each set of shooting data, and compiled all the data into a comprehensive report to be submitted to the Soviet Ministry of Defense. The judges unanimously agreed," The 7.62mm assault rifle designed by Staff Sergeant Kalashnikov is recommended to be included in the official equipment.”
Soon, the review committee decided to produce the first batch of AK-46 rifles, and at the same time, conduct a more important test than the selection--the military trial. As a result, the troops were full of praises for this simple and powerful AK46 automatic rifle. The Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union decided to make the AK-46 an army standard rifle and officially named it the AK-47.
One day in 1947, an engineer named Deming broke into Castellan's drawing room and told him that the AK-47 rifle was designated as the standard equipment of the Soviet Union. Stalin personally awarded him a prize of 150,000 rubles when Kalashnikov was 28 years old.
The individual specifications of the AK47 were not outstanding, but its overall performance was very balanced. Its structure was simple, sturdy and durable, with few faults. It was cheap to manufacture and had great power. The origin of the AK47's serial number was simple: The so-called 47 referred to the time when this rifle was introduced, which was 1947. A was for the automatic rifle, and K was the first letter of its designer, Kalashnikov.
From 1949 onwards, AK-47s were officially equipped with the Soviets on a large scale. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union began to provide such cheap firearms to the warsaw pact allies and third world countries. In 1956, China also manufactured Type 5 and 6 submachine guns based on it and equipped them with the entire army. It was not until the 1980s that they stopped production. In addition to the Soviet Union, other countries also made a large number of copies of the AK47 automatic rifle. It could be said that the AK-47 was the first gun in many countries of the former capitalist camp, and it became one of the two major schools in the gun world.
The reason why Carl was able to design such an excellent automatic rifle was that he was once a soldier and knew what kind of weapons soldiers needed the most. When he designed the gun, his first consideration was to make the gun simple in structure so that it could be used in cold, heat, wind, rain, desert, and even water. Karwenz believed that the greatest tragedy for a gun designer was not being accepted by the user. Therefore, the designer's first consideration was the user.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kalashnikov visited abroad almost every year. In the spring of 1990, Dr. Ezr, the director of the National Military History Museum of the United States, sent a letter to the 71-year-old Castellan, inviting him to the United States to participate in the filming of a television documentary about a famous 20th-century firearm designer. During his visit to the United States, Carl had an academic exchange with Stoner, the designer of the famous M16 rifle. Although they had different beliefs, they shared the same experience: They had all participated in World War II and had not received any advanced education in firearms. They had all entered the field of firearm design on their own and had made great achievements in the field of light weapons.
During his visit to the United States, Carl Karwenz also visited a US Marine Corps base and watched an airborne battalion's firepower show. The commander of the base invited the two weapon masters to have a shooting competition. Karlsberg would fight with the M16 while Stoner would fight with the AK47. The two masters had very high ratings for the rifles in their hands. Both of them believed that the future rifles would develop in the direction of small caliber, lightweight, and versatile. Of course, the premise was still that it was reliable and suitable for all kinds of complex and changing natural climates. In this regard, Stoner admitted that Kalashnikov had an incomparable achievement.
In 1990, the Carl Karwenz Group basically stopped developing military weapons and changed to developing shotguns. Under his father's influence, Karlsberg's son loved gun design since he was young and became a gun designer. In order to thank the Cardinals for their great contribution to the country in the field of firearms, Cardinals 'hometown, Curia, awarded him the title of honorary citizen and erected a bronze bust for him. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kazuki family was still valued by the Russian government. In 1994, Russian President Yelvqin made a special trip to Izhevsk to participate in the "Celebration of the 75th Birthday of the World Famous Weapons Designer Kalashnikov" on November 10th with the Minister of Defense, the Federal Anti-Espiation Director, and other leaders. On his 80th birthday, the police personally congratulated him.
After retiring with the rank of lieutenant general, Karwenz and his wife lived in an old-fashioned two-bedroom house in the Udmurt Republic. At the end of 2002, the 84-year-old Castellan suddenly chose an umbrella company called MMI to cooperate with, allowing the company to use its own name to name the umbrellas and other daily necessities produced. In return, Kalashnikov would receive 30% of the company's shares. Kalashnikov was very happy that his name had market value in the commercial battlefield. He said excitedly,""The gun I designed has a lot in common with MMI's products. They are both reliable, easy to use, and easy to repair, so using my name is the most suitable.”
In September 2004, an entrepreneur named John Florey from the Ying country used the surname " Kalashnikov " as a vodka brand. This was one of the amazing modern marketing techniques. Carl appeared in London many times to promote the vodka named after him.
In 1946, based on the semi-automatic rifle he designed using the 7.62×39mm Mid Type M1943 bullets, Kalashnikov designed a prototype gun that could shoot continuously (called AK-46). The revolving locking mechanism he designed became the prototype of the AK-series locking mechanism. In the same year, he participated in the shooting range selection test. After a series of experiments, the air guide device and the valve system were improved, and the AKR-47 was designed. After rigorous testing in the sand and mud environment, it was selected as the standard equipment of the Soviet army in 1947. In 1949, it was finally finalized and officially put into mass production at the Izhevsk Military Factory. In 1951, it began to equip the former Soviet army, replacing the Semi-automatic Carbine of Simonov. In 1953, AKR-47 changed the production method of the casing from stamping to mechanical processing. AKR-47 began to equip the Soviet army in large numbers. The AK-47 was replaced by the AKM in the late 1950s. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the AKR-47 series was the standard equipment of the former Soviet Army and the National Army of the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, after the 5.45mm AKM-74 series was equipped with the former Soviet army, the 7.62mm AKM-47 series was gradually withdrawn from the Soviet standard equipment.(In fact, AKM had always been used. From the pictures of the second chechen war, it can be seen that the Russian army used AKM.) The AK-47 was now replaced by AKM.
The AK-47 assault rifle was an automatic rifle (semi-automatic). Compared to the rifles of the Second World War, the body was smaller, the range was shorter, and the shooting distance was maintained at 300 meters. It was suitable for close-range assault combat. It used the principle of air-guided automatic gun. The air duct was located above the gun barrel and pushed the action of the gun through the cylinder. Rotary Locking Bolt. 7.62mm caliber, firing 7.62× 39mmM1943 Intermediate Power Bullet. Curved magazine with a capacity of 30 bullets. Safety/slow and slow handle on the right side of the receiver. You can choose semi-automatic or fully automatic firing mode. Pulling handle on the right side of the receiver. The AK-47's safety was very unique. From top to bottom, the general assault rifle was "safety, semi-automatic, fully automatic," while the AK-47 was "safety, fully automatic, semi-automatic."
In response to an emergency, the soldiers would always pull the trigger and fire all the bullets. The AK-47 would only fire one shot, which greatly saved bullets and improved safety. The action of the AKR-47 was reliable. Even if it was shot continuously or when dust and other foreign objects entered the gun, its mechanical structure could still ensure that it continued to work.
It could maintain good performance in extremely harsh environments such as deserts, tropical rainforests, and severe cold. It was said that it could still be fired after being put into the water for a few weeks during the South Vietnam War and then taken out of the water and loaded. Moreover, it had great firepower and was suitable for close combat. Simple structure, easy to disassemble, easy to clean and maintain, good service; Easy to operate and durable. He also heard that during the South Vietnam War, a certain commander of the US military said to his soldiers,"If the weapon in your hand malfunctioned, then the most important thing for you is to find an AK47 immediately.”(In fact, the veterans who had experienced the Vietnam War would only use AK-47s in emergencies, rather than abandon their M-16s.) The firing rate of the AK-47 was about 600 to 650 rounds per minute, while the M-16's firing rate was about 700 to 750 rounds per minute. In the primeval jungles of Yue Nan, gunshots were used to distinguish between friend and foe. If an American soldier were to recklessly pick up an AK-47 and shoot, the result would be that his own people would think that he was a Vietnamese cong and call for powerful firepower. Therefore, it was a misinformation to say that the US military often abandoned the M16 during the Vietnam War.”
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