Some first German/Soviets after war Rockets and Missiles.

[klem]

At the end of the war in Berlin, from July 1945 until January 1946, the management of the SKG (Soviet Kommandit Gesellschaft), Gema.Berlin, supervised a group of several former Rheinmetall-Borsig employees, whose mission was to assemble documented information on former Rheinmetall-Borsig developments such as the Rheintochter Rheinbote, Schmetterling, HS-294, R-100-BS, Fritz "X", various bombs, etc. The purpose of this mission was to determine the status of Rheinmetall-Borsig's rocket missile development. The Rheinmetall-Borsig files were captured by the Soviets almost intact.Thus, towards the end of 1945, the designs of the first post-war Soviet missiles began : Kurt-Fluse- ABRS 220-Sokol- ABRS 240- Zenith- Ring magazine projectile- Automatic Rocket. (CIA report 1954)

 

[Thos9]

The CIA report of 1954 would be of much interest.

 

[Basil]

At the end of the war in Berlin, from July 1945 until January 1946, the management of the SKG (Soviet Kommandit Gesellschaft), Gema.Berlin, supervised a group of several former Rheinmetall-Borsig employees, whose mission was to assemble documented information on former Rheinmetall-Borsig developments such as the Rheintochter Rheinbote, Schmetterling, HS-294, R-100-BS, Fritz "X", various bombs, etc. The purpose of this mission was to determine the status of Rheinmetall-Borsig's rocket missile development. The Rheinmetall-Borsig files were captured by the Soviets almost intact.Thus, towards the end of 1945, the designs of the first post-war Soviet missiles began : Fluse- ABRS 220-Sokol- ABRS 240- Zenith- Ring magazine projectile- Automatic Rocket. (CIA report 1954)

Klem, this is very interesting.
Do you have more information about Rheinmetall projects from that time? Where do these documents come from?

 

[Grzesio]

ABRS-240 seems to be derived from the German concept of 15 cm WK SD 1/30 and 15 cm WK SD 4 HL/15, just equipped with an M-13 style engine, while ABRS-220 is clearly patterned after the R 100/BS (although the drawing above is very schematic).

 

[Scapaflow]

Thank you for sharing because we are used to reading in the US reports about the transfer of German knowledge and the contribution of German specialists in various fields but not enough about those who were in the East and from what I see it's always a US report that brings to light a part of history because we all know that many projects were signed soviet engineer but their designers were German.

 

[Dilandu]

Very interesting schemes!

 

[klem]

ABRS-240 seems to be derived from the German concept of 15 cm WK SD 1/30 and 15 cm WK SD 4 HL/15, just equipped with an M-13 style engine, while ABRS-220 is clearly patterned after the R 100/BS (although the drawing above is very schematic).

 

[Basil]

ABRS-240 seems to be derived from the German concept of 15 cm WK SD 1/30 and 15 cm WK SD 4 HL/15, just equipped with an M-13 style engine, while ABRS-220 is clearly patterned after the R 100/BS (although the drawing above is very schematic).

Yes, my first thought was that it is a further development of the R 100 BS.

 

[Grzesio]

I've checked my notes in the meantime...
ABRS-220 was a development of the R 100/BS indeed conducted by MSKhM KB-2 in 1946, which later led to OARS-210, ARZOS-212 and eventually ARS-212 (S-21 Ovod) of 1953. What's interesting, Soviet incendiary elements of the OARS-210 had apparently liquid filling, instead of thermite used by Germans, what, in connection with nearly two times smaller explosive charge (5.3 kg instead of 10 kg), produced generally unsatisfactory results.
Also one notice as far as improvements made in the ABRS-220 described above are concerned - standard distance of launching the R 100/BS with the Oberon device was to be 1200 m, rather than 800-900 m.

 

[klem]

 

[Temistocle]

The CIA report of 1954 would be of much interest.

Here it is in pdf format, with its link to the CIA archive:

1954 CIA Report - Guided Missile Activity at Berlin and Krasnoarmeysk

 

[Temistocle]

And these could also be interesting (see for example the table at page 25 of the document "1954 CIA Report - INFORMATION ON GUIDED MISSILE ACTIVITY AT KRASNOARMEYSK")

 

[klem]

And these could also be interesting (see for example the table at page 25 of the document "1954 CIA Report - INFORMATION ON GUIDED MISSILE ACTIVITY AT KRASNOARMEYSK")

Thank you very much for sharing dear Temistocle, I only had one that I had downloaded from a Russian website with which I made the summary.

 

[klem]

At Ostashkov, projects were developed for the improvement of three separate missiles. among them a flak rocket was designed during 1950-1951. This rocket (R-113) was an entirely new design based on knowledge the Germans had gained from an earlier rocket design the Wasserfall).A sketch of a model of this rocket, full size the dimensions, is shown. This model was used for wind tunnel experiments. The rocket was about 2-3 meters long when built. The Soviets proposed this project, sending a special commission of some 3 to 5 men to lay out the work. The Aerodynamics Department had not turned over their plans to the Construction Department when the Soviets took the project over in 1951.the Aarodynamics Department had confidence that its plans were satisfactory except for some concern over the thinness of the wings. Considersble discussion had also been carried on as to the relative merits of 2 or 4 wings, but it was believed that the 2-wing design would be satisfactory. The Steering Department had great difficulty with the stabilization of the rocket, as Dr. Hoch had returned to Moscow before it was well established. It seems that no competent people existed to work out the stability problem.Dr. Albring and Dr. Wolff would have better knowledge of this project.(Guided Missiles Designed at Ostashkov- CIA Report 1953)

 

[Grzesio]

The wind tunnel model seems to show very strong influence of the Henschel Zitterrochen concept.

 

[klem]

The wind tunnel model seems to show very strong influence of the Henschel Zitterrochen concept.

The influence is certainly there, as German specialists are always influenced by existing concepts, which is their starting point,However, now in the Soviet camp the demands are going to push the innovation further than those known during the war and the work in peace time is never that of the constraints in war timeand it should not be forgotten that the Soviets had workshops parallel to those of the Germans which worked on similar projects and most often all the projects requested by the Soviets once finalized their files are withdrawn from the Germans and transferred elsewhere for in-depth exploitations.

 

[klem]

Project R 15 was one of the activities in the USSR of the German scientists of the Zavod 88 Branch No. 1 on the island of Gorodomlyn (Moscow and Kalinin Oblasts). It was a two-stage radio-controlled device (Sketch No. 1).This two-stage unit used an A-4 as the first stage, which was to raise the second stage.The second stage, a ram-jet aircraft with wings and tail unit. (Sketch No. 2).The project was taken over by Dr. Werner Albring, the required characteristics were: a range of 6,000-10,000 kilometres at an altitude of 15-20 kilometres. The length of the ram-jet aircraft was between 15 and 20 meters. It had a ram-jet propulsion unit with combustion chamber elements of a Jumo-TL propulsion unit.(Sketch No. 3).This aircraft was then to be launched into horizontal flight at a speed of 600-800 metres per second.(CIA Report 1953).

 

[Ivan Culjak]

There is a really good article about Germans on Gorodomlya Island :
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/gorodomlya.html

Here is a final sentence, a night before repatriation, from Helmut Gröttrups wife:
On her last day on Gorodomlya Island, Irmgard Gröttrup made the following record in her diary: “Once more we had a meal with our friends, draining glass after glass and taking stock at the past years. We came to the conclusion that they had not been wasted, as we had so often believed. The men agreed that … the long-range rocket has made the conquest of space a definite possibility in the foreseeable future.”
Actually, the whole site http://www.russianspaceweb.com looks quite cool !