The Fire Hedgehog weapon

[Milos Sijacki]

Hi guys. Long time no entry I know, sorry.

Was wondering. Recently I heard about the Soviet WW2 weapon known as the Fire Hedgehog-- weapon consisting of 88 machine guns which were aligned in the bomb bay of a bomber. It was used in a low level strafing mission.

Any more info on it or pics???

Thanks

[Bigxiko]

I've never heard of such weapon
but that looks quite interesting

[Flyboy2]

Yeah i got something
see English Russia » The Fire Hedgehog
Apparently this weapon consisted up 88 PPSH machine guns housed in the bomb bay of a Tu-2 bomber. If know my statstics correct the PPSH fires 900 rounds per minute therefore it would fire 79200 rounds per minute (correct me if I'm wrong).

Does anybody know if this was used or not, I sure would be curious

[AVRoe]

During the WW2 Russian Army was using a “Fire Hedgehog” - the set of 88 Tommy-gun alike machine guns loaded into a plane. It was used at low attitude flights to effectively saw off hundreds of enemy soldiers. When the pilot got above some Nazi crowd the pilot of started fire, then the doors in the plane’s bottom were opened and this Fire Hedgehog was coming into play, eighty something non-stop firing machine guns could really look like the Hedgehog from Hell.

[magnocain]

That would not be fun to run under.

[Aggie08]

Holy hell! Seems like those would have been better suited in the use of the Red Army instead of an oddity like that. Would have been terrifying, though.

[Soren]

Must have been a bit hard to aim.. And as for hitting infantry with it, good luck!

Infantry has a habbit of scattering when a/c attack, making such a weapon completely useless... which is probably why the idea was scrapped.

[Soren]

PS: 88x900rpm = 79200 rpm = 1320 rounds pr. second!!

After 4.8 seconds of firing the guns would all be empty!

However after but one second of firing the a/c would suddenly be a whole lot lighter!

[Flyboy2]

Yeah. I could see the best use in groups or like attacking places where infantry were encamped. If you had a large group using that weapon, you could easily level a encampment of tents and soft targets

[evangilder]

What a great way to aerate your lawn...

[Matt308]

The US Army Air Corps did a trial with basically the same concept in the late 20s/early 30s. They used a total of 50, ten rows of five, M1928 Thompsons (drum magazines, and with all the wood furniture to boot!) mounted in the belly of (believe it or not!) a Ford Tri-Motor, firing downwards at varying angles, both fore-and-aft and side-to-side, to cover a large patch of ground with each pass. Nothing much came of it, since the effective range of a .45ACP round is MUCH less than the effective range of, oh let's just say....just about everything intended for AA use?
The basic idea was for the plane to fly along above the trench line and fire downward, spraying 2,500 rounds of .45ACP in mere seconds, scything away dozens, if not hundreds, of soldiers with each pass. The actual firing tests revealed that the aircraft was basically a sitting duck due to its slow speed, but going faster just made the whole thing less effective. Plus, it was pretty much impossible to reload the Tommies given the way they were mounted.
One of the little individual chutes for ejecting the spent brass from the plane (one per gun), an INTERESTING little piece of metalwork, went up on eBay about 2 years ago. The last bid I saw on it was solidly in the $1,500 range.

[Milos Sijacki]

Thanks guys

[timshatz]

On a somewhat related note, the Austrilians used to line up a load of Vickers .303 machine guns (something like 30 to 50 of them) and fire them at a target like artillery. Used to do it during the New Guinea Campaigne.

Those that saw it operate said it was awesome. Just belt fed, water cooled machine guns firing away for 10 minutes.

[comiso90]

Originally Posted by timshatz

On a somewhat related note, the Austrilians used to line up a load of Vickers .303 machine guns (something like 30 to 50 of them) and fire them at a target like artillery. Used to do it during the New Guinea Campaigne.

Those that saw it operate said it was awesome. Just belt fed, water cooled machine guns firing away for 10 minutes.

Sounds like its better suited for the desert. Too many places to hide in the jungle that will stop a .303 .

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by comiso90

Sounds like its better suited for the desert. Too many places to hide in the jungle that will stop a .303 .

Think they used it as artillery in leu of actually having the real thing there. Was used in prep work before attacking a position. Getting a 25lber or 105 up to where is was useful in NG was just beyond the logistics of the time (in many cases).

I read it a long time ago but I am pretty sure it is in this book.

Amazon.com: Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific: Eric M. Bergerud: Books

Great book. All the books by Bergerud are excellent. The guy does his homework, writes well and aknowledges when he has made a mistake (as he did to some extent with this book). There is also a book called "Fire in the Sky" about the air battles in the SouthWest Pacific and Solomons in the Earlier parts of the Pacific war. Great reads.