"What is this Soviet Weapon?" Topic

At 27:16 in this video (2 seconds after video starts)

youtu.be/TRUdAIxnlV0?t=27m14s

Tube thing that is loaded like a mortar, but is horizontal.

An ampulomet.

Dom, as usual, is right. It was a projector which allowed you to fire Molotov cocktails further than you could throw them, apparently not all that much further. Also the projectiles were specially made glass spheres which some what defeated the point of Molotov cocktails, you know the whole grab that crate of bottles and that petrol can lets make some incendiaries. if you are going to make a weapon and special rounds for it why not make a real antitank gun?

Fatman

Why not make a real anti-tank gun? Desperation, perhaps. The British had a similar device called the Smith gun, from the WWII German invasion scare. The tube was mounted through the axle; the crew turned the weapon on its side and it had 360 degree traverse. It was towed by a bicycle, with the towing clamp on the muzzle.

A lot of Molotov cocktails were factory made. They could be made quickly and cheaply using normal bottling equipment making them popular for countries short of resources. eg for the finns: link

The Smith gun was a way of making a direct fire weapon cheaply.

The "flame fougasse" – ultimate molotov cocktail launcher

link

I know its wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampulomet
link

Weddler yeah I was aware of the Smith gun, and the Northover Projector which was the Home Guard equivalent of the Ampulomet, and understand the intent. The advantage of both the British weapons was they used existing, and common, ammunition, 3" shells for the Smith and Standard 1/2 pint pop or beer type bottles for the Northover. The Ampulomet required the production of a specially made spherical glass round, not an easy thing to mass produce. Of course I am working with 20:20 hindsight and don't have an enemy intent on exterminating me at my throat. I am sure it seemed like a good idea at the time and certainly wasn't the worst produced.

One final thought. The Finns captured several weapons and ammunition and after trials decided not to use it. Given that the Finns used almost anything the could beg capture or borrow it must say something about the Ampulomet. ;-P

Fatman

if you are going to make a weapon and special rounds for it why not make a real antitank gun?

I have no idea as to how difficult the ammunition was to manufacture, but the weapon itself seems to have been very simple and relatively lightweight, and had relatively low muzzle velocity.

Thus, they could be manufactured easily in relatively simple conditions, and requiring relatively little material per weapon (proper 45 mm ATG weighed around 20 times more). It could also be easier to transport and maybe easier to train crews. Though actually hitting something might be another issue.

Remember, these were designed in the dark days of late 1941, when the Soviets were pretty desperate for anything to oppose the German invasion.

That said, considering the effectiveness of the design, perhaps the resources could have been better spent on trying to get more anti-tank guns and rifles out. How many German tanks were actually ever hit by these things?

Thanks guys – my son spotted it and we wondered what it was.

We now have to work out rules for it so he can use it in IABSM.

How would they get the liquid in the glass spheres to ignite?

Molotov Cocktails are easy to ignite, in that you have the flaming rag out of the neck of the bottle, but there doesn't appear to be any opening in the glass spheres…

That flaming-rag ignition mechanism for Molotov Cocktail is pretty crude. Finnish military came up with some more user-friendly designs already before WWII.

One design consisted of a sort of long match taped to the side of the bottle. Light the match and throw the bottle, and as the bottle breaks the match will ignite the liquid.

More advanced design involved a small glass vial filled with chemical taped to the side of the main bottle. Upon impact both the main bottle and vial would break up, and the chemical would react with the fuel and air to start a fire. I am not really sure what the chosen chemical was, though.

I have no idea as to what was the ignition mechanism chosen for ampumolets, though I would presume it to have been relatively simple to manufacture.

The spheres had a hole in them.
In some pictures where there's a heap of ammo next to the thing you can see there's some sort of a cap or something sticking out the hole and these are all on the top of the spheres as if maybe someone carefully placed them upright.
Some people reckon this is a fuse you light before loading.
Some people reckon they had phosphorous in the Molotov mix.
Maybe both types were made.

Glass ball of nasty stuff and you light the fuse manually.
Push it down the tube.
Fun.

Hollywood would love it!

I don't think that the real pyrotechnic effects would have been impressive enough for the Hollywood special effects crew.

Remember that there is probably less than one litre of flammable liquid in the bottle, and it is supposed to keep on burning for long enough to lit the engine, rather than going up in a giant fireball.