The video tells about a half-tracked cross-country motorcycle - SdKfz 2 or Kettenkrad HK 101, created in the Third Reich during the Second World War. I accompanied the narration with rare photos and chronicles.
The SdKfz 2, also known as the Kettenkrad HK 101, is an all-terrain half-track motorcycle designed and mass-produced in Germany during World War II.
Initially developed for use in the parachute and mountain-ranger divisions of the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht, however, due to its high dynamic characteristics, it gained great popularity in the German army and was widely used by all its divisions. In total, from 1940 to 1945, 8,871 motorcycles were produced by NSU and Stoewer. After the end of the war
from the remaining stock of parts in the period from 1945 to 1949, about 550 more machines were assembled, which were used in the national economy until the 50s of the last century.
In 1940, NSU Motorenwerke received an order from the Ministry of Armaments of the Third Reich to develop a lightweight half-track tractor with a carrying capacity of 500 kg. Such a machine was required, first of all, by the parachute and mountain-ranger units as a light artillery tractor, since it was impossible to transport the equipment already available inside the main military transport aircraft Junkers 52 / 3M. I must say that the layout of the half-track
The tractor has been more or less widely used since the First World War, but the designers of the NSU company applied a rather bold technical solution. The new tractor, created by them in a few months, was radically different from everything that had been produced in the world before and visually resembled a hybrid of a tractor and a motorcycle. The car owes this similarity to the nickname Kettenkrad, by which it became widely known. Officially, the new tractor was named Kleines Kettenkraftrad Typ HK 101, and was named SdKfz 2 according to the end-to-end designation index of military equipment of the German army.
Interestingly, one of the main developers of the new vehicle was Heinrich Ernst Knipkamp, later known as the creator of the chassis of the Tiger and Panther tanks, as well as the SdKfz 250 armored personnel carriers and the like. The concept of a half-track motorcycle was developed and patented by him in the summer of 1939. Kniepkamp equipped the new car with a chassis of his own design, a characteristic feature of which
was the staggered arrangement of the road wheels. The turning of the car was carried out mainly through the active Cletrac differential, the brakes of which were cross-linked by rods with the steering wheel fork. The steering wheel itself of a motorcycle type served rather as an auxiliary function of a visual marker of the direction of travel. In addition to the driver, Kettenkrad could take on board two more people, full
the carrying capacity was 325 kilograms, which completely satisfied the military, since the Kettenkrad was able to tow heavier loads.
The first tests of the SdKfz 2 took place at the end of the same 1940. Their results were recognized as very successful, and the new tractor was put into service, after which the deployment of mass production began, and by the end of 1940 the first 142 copies of the Kleines Kettenkraftrad Typ HK 101 were produced. The first three years, the tractors were produced in relatively small
quantities, but the growing popularity of the machine led to the fact that already in 1943 its annual output exceeded 2500. In the same year, Stoewer joined the production of SdKfz 2. Total to the end
During the war, 8,871 tractors of this type were produced, of which Stoewer accounts for about 1,300 units. After the end of the war, from the remaining reserves of the hulls, the same firms produced about 550 more Kettenkrad, however, now as light agricultural tractors. The final production of these machines ended only in 1949. In addition, in the second half of the 1940s, the French company Babiolle converted a number of captured Kettenkrad into ordinary tractors.
(the control post was moved back, the front wheel was dismantled).
Back in 1943, NSU, as a further development of the NK-101, developed a heavy half-track motorcycle NK-102 with a more powerful engine and five seats, but it was not adopted by the Wehrmacht.
Комментарии
Отправить комментарий