During the Soviet era, an underground boat was developed called the "Battle Mole". Such subways were intended to destroy missile silos and enemy command posts. To deliver "Moles" to the shores of the United States was supposed to be on specially equipped nuclear submarines. Alas, the explosion of a test sample, which destroyed the boat and its crew, put an end to this promising development, although before that "Mole" showed very impressive results.
Dream of conquering the underworld
Humanity dreamed and dreams not only to conquer the depths of the oceans, but also underworld and even reach the center of the planet. Science fiction writers were the first to voice this dream. Let us recall the famous novel by Jules Verne "Journey to the Center of the Earth", written by him in 1864. His heroes reached the center of the planet through a vent extinct volcano... But the heroes of the book "Underground Fire" by Count Shuzi (1883) got to the center of the Earth in a rather primitive way, only wielding pickaxes. The main merit of this novel is the assumption of a hot core of the planet. The heroes of the novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" by Alexei Tolstoy (1927) also dug into the bowels of the Earth, mining gold from the depths of the earth's ball.
However, the most curious and very close to our topic was Grigory Adamov's novel Winners of the Subsoil. Its author used the idea of an underground boat, which is very similar to the secret developments of the USSR at that time. Was such a coincidence accidental? Either the author of the novel had the gift of foresight, or for the propaganda of power Soviet power he was specially told some insignificant details secret project... By the way, the speed of the rocket-like apparatus described by Adamov, when passing through rocks, reached 10 km per hour. In 2003, the American film "The Earth's Core" was released, in which, in order to restore the rotation of the Earth's core, several daredevils go deep into the Earth on a special apparatus, which according to all data looks like an underground boat developed in the XX century.
According to a number of publications, our compatriot Peter Rasskazov was the first person who developed the drawings of this subway. In 1918, the scientist-inventor was killed by an agent of German intelligence, who stole all the documentation of the underground apparatus from him. Of course, Americans believe that the famous Thomas Edison invented the subway. But that's why they are Americans, because ex-president Obama declared them an exceptional nation ...
Soviet engineers A. Treblev, A. Baskin and A. Kirilov began the first development of such an underground apparatus in the 1920s and 1930s. It was these scientists who came up with the idea of \ u200b \ u200bthe construction of the first underground boat. True, the machine they developed was intended for civilian purposes: for example, to facilitate oil production, so it had to be specially modified for military needs. Now it is not known what was the basis of these developments, but at the Ural mines in the area of Mount Blagodat, trial tests of this boat were carried out.
Of course, the scale of the device hardly resembled a full-fledged working version. It is believed that in terms of its parameters, it was most likely similar to later combines designed for coal mining. However, due to a number of shortcomings and the absence of clear military advantages, the authorities closed all work on the underground.
"Subterins" of the Third Reich
When the era began mass terror, many participants in the subway project were shot. Suddenly, right before the start of World War II, the authorities remembered this project, and they were again interested in the underground boat. PI Strakhov, a leading expert in this field, was suddenly summoned to the Kremlin. Then he oversaw the construction of the Moscow metro. In a conversation with DF Ustinov, who headed the armaments commissariat, Strakhov confirmed the possibility of building an underground passage.
Strakhov was provided with the surviving drawings and was offered to develop an improved and more suitable for combat use experimental model. Funds, people and necessary equipment... It was supposed to create an underground boat as soon as possible, but this was prevented by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War... The still unfinished experimental sample was cut into metal, and Strakhov was entrusted with the construction of bunkers.
Of course, a similar project was carried out in fascist Germany, where literally all the options for weapons capable of bringing victory to the Third Reich were considered, be it missiles, aircraft, submarines or underground military vehicles. After the end of the war, it was possible to obtain information that the Nazis also developed underground combat vehicles. One of them was called " Sea lion"(Another name - Subterrine), it was a project of R. Trebeletsky and H. von Wern. According to a number of researchers, R. Trebeletsky could have been an engineer A. Treblev, who escaped from the USSR.
For this underground boat, the German engineer Horner von Werner filed a patent back in 1933. As conceived by the designer, this unit was capable of speeds up to 7 km / h. A team of 5 people could be on board, the weight of ammunition reached 300 kg. The boat was able to move not only underground, but also under water. Of course, such a promising military apparatus was immediately classified, but there was no money for the implementation of the project, and it ended up in the military archive.
After the outbreak of war, Count von Staufenberg, who was involved in military projects, suggested that Hitler use such a machine to invade England. It was assumed that the device would cross the English Channel like a submarine, then "bite" into the English coast and secretly reach the desired place underground. This plan was buried by Hermann Goering, who told Hitler that it was easier and cheaper to force the British to surrender by massive bombing. Although Goering did not fulfill his promise, the underground boat was never built.
The second development was called Midgard-schlange (translated as "Midgard Serpent"), it was a project of engineer Ritter. At that time, many German engineers and designers suffered from gigantomania, the underground tunnel for this project had a length of 400 to 520 meters and a weight of 60 thousand tons. It was assumed that this colossus with a crew of 30 people would develop under water a speed of 30 km / h, in the ground and rocks - from 2 to 10 km / h. The armament of the subway consisted of mines, machine guns and underground torpedoes. The device even housed a small transport shuttle Laurin for communication with the surface.
Was such an underground monster actually created? When the Great Patriotic War ended, in the Konigsberg area, the military found strange adits, as if laid by some kind of apparatus, next to which could be seen fragments of some blown up tunneling machine. It was assumed that they are the remnants of the "Serpent of Midgard".
Underground cruiser for Nikita Khrushchev
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the former allies began a real hunt for advanced German developments, military technologies and specialists. The German project "Sea Lion", concerning the development of an underground boat, fell into the hands of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" V. S. Abakumov. To assess its prospects, a special group under the guidance of professors G. I. Pokrovsky and G. I. Babat. After examining the project in detail, the scientists said that the German subway is suitable for military use.
It is worth noting that at about the same time (1948), our engineer M. Tsiferov was engaged in the creation of a domestic underground apparatus, who received the USSR author's certificate for the invention of the underground torpedo. It was not for nothing that his apparatus was called a torpedo, because it could move through the earth at a fairly significant speed - up to 1 m / s! Thus, in the USSR, by the end of the 40s, there were two developments of underground boats - the German "Sea Lion" and the domestic Tsiferova.
When Nikita Khrushchev came to power in the USSR, cold war, an arms race was unleashed, in which our country needed to have certain trump cards. Then Nikita Sergeevich was offered to create an underground combat boat, and already at a higher technical level - with an atomic engine. The head of the country liked the idea, it was decided to build a secret plant for a pilot production in a short time. In 1962, near the village of Gromovka (Ukraine), the construction of a plant for the creation of underground combat boats began. Well, Nikita Sergeevich could not resist and publicly threatened the imperialists that they would be taken out not only from outer space, but even from underground.
Literally a couple of years later, in 1964, a secret plant in Ukraine created the first military underground boat in the USSR, called the "Battle Mole". The boat had a titanium hull, on board was nuclear reactor, the stern and nose were pointed. The boat was 3.8 m in diameter and 35 meters in length. The crew of the "Battle Mole" consisted of five people, on board the boat could take another 15 paratroopers and a ton of explosives or weapons. The nuclear reactor allowed the boat to reach speeds underground up to 7 km / h.
According to the plan of the military, the "Battle Mole" was supposed to destroy missile silos and underground command posts of the enemy. It was proposed to deliver such subterranean tunnels or "subterins" to the shores of the United States by specially designed nuclear submarines. If desired, the "Battle Mole" was able to get even to the White House. According to another "idea" of the military, the underground cruiser could have installed an underground nuclear charge in the California region, where earthquakes often occur. Undermining it would cause a powerful man-made earthquake, which the Americans would perceive as a natural disaster.
In the fall of 1964, tests of the "Battle Mole" were started. The subway was able to show good results, it easily overcame various rocks and destroyed underground bunker conditional adversary. More than once, members of various government commissions attended demonstrations of the capabilities of an underground nuclear-powered icebreaker.
Unfortunately, during the next scheduled tests in Ural mountains ah, for some reason, an explosion occurred on the underground boat (sabotage was not ruled out), and the "Battle Mole", together with the crew led by Colonel Semyon Budnikov and paratroopers, remained forever immured in the mass of rocks. This accident knocked down the project, because of the explosion, the tests were stopped, after the displacement of Khrushchev and Brezhnev's coming to power, the project was completely closed, and its materials were classified. Only in the second half of the 70s did the media begin to surface individual details of this project.
Is there any research in the creation of underground boats in our time? This question is difficult to answer. Most likely, no one is going to make their way underground to the American missile silos, however, I think the military would not refuse to have such devices at their disposal. One thing is clear: in the civilian sphere, no doubt, various equipment for laying underground tunnels are being developed, and in fact, the "Battle Mole" was a kind of autonomous mining machine.
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On the eve of World War II, the Soviet Union and Germany were actively developing new weapons - combat subterins (underground boats), designed to strike strategically important sites the enemy is literally out of the ground.
The ideas of the underground war were not forgotten even after the victory over Germany, but until now developments in this area are under a veil of secrecy. According to some reports, 50 years ago, a successful prototype of a new type of combat vehicle was created in the USSR.
Back in 1904, the Russian inventor Pyotr Rasskazov published in English magazine material about a self-propelled capsule that can move underground. Moreover, later his drawings surfaced in Germany. And the first underground self-propelled vehicle in the 1930s was created by the Soviet engineer and designer A. Trebelev, who was assisted by A. Kirilov and A. Baskin.
The principle of operation of this underground boat was largely copied from the actions of a burrowing mole. Before proceeding with the design of the subterrine, the designers carefully studied the biomechanics of the movements of an animal placed in a box with earth using X-rays.
Particular attention was paid to the work of the head and legs of the mole, and on the basis of the results obtained, its mechanical "double" was constructed. Trebelev's capsule-shaped subterrine was moved underground by a drill, auger and four stern jacks, which pushed it like the hind legs of a mole.
The machine could be controlled both from the inside and from the outside - from the surface of the earth using a cable. The underground boat also received power through the same cable. The average speed of movement of the subterrin was 10 meters per hour.
But due to a number of shortcomings and frequent failures of the apparatus, the project was closed. According to one of the versions, the unreliability of the subterrine was revealed already during the first tests. On the other, before the war itself, they tried to finalize it on the initiative of the future People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR D. Ustinov.
According to the second version, at the beginning of 1940, designer P. Strakhov, on a personal assignment from Ustinov, improved Trebelev's subterrine. Moreover, this project was originally created exclusively for military purposes, and the new underground boat was supposed to operate without communication with the surface.
A prototype was created in a year and a half. It was assumed that he would be able to work autonomously underground for several days. For this period, the subterrine was supplied with fuel, and the crew, which consisted of one person, was supplied with oxygen, water and food. However, the war prevented the completion of work on the project. The fate of the prototype of Strakhov's underground boat is unknown.
It was not only the Soviet Union that showed interest in underground boats. Before the war, subterins were also developed by German designers. In the 1930s, engineer von Wern (according to other sources - von Werner) filed a patent for an underwater-underground "amphibian" which was called Subterrine.
The apparatus was able to move both in water element, and under the surface of the earth, and, according to the calculations of von Wern, in the latter case, the subterrine could develop a speed of up to 7 kilometers per hour. At the same time, the Subterrine was designed to transport a crew and an assault force of five people and 300 kilograms of explosives.
In 1940, Germany was seriously considering the von Wern project for use in hostilities against Great Britain. The plans developed by Hitler for Operation Sea Lion, which included landing on British Isles German landing, there was a place for von Wern's submarines.
His amphibians were supposed to swim unnoticed to the British shores and continue to move through English territory underground, in order to then strike a surprise attack on the British defenses in the most unexpected area for the enemy.
The Subterrine project was ruined by the arrogance of G. Goering, who led the Luftwaffe and hoped to defeat the British in air war without help from underground. As a result, von Verne's underground boat remained an unrealized idea, as well as the fantasies of his famous namesake Jules Verne, who wrote the science fiction novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth" long before the appearance of underground boats.
Another even more ambitious project of a German designer named Ritter was named with a fair amount of pathos "Midgard Schlange" in honor of the mythical reptile - the world serpent that encircles the entire inhabited earth.
This machine was supposed to move above and below ground, as well as on water and under water at a depth of up to one hundred meters. It was assumed that the "Serpent" would move underground at a speed of 2 km / h (in hard ground) to 10 km / h (in soft ground), 3 km / h - under water and 30 km / h - on the surface land.
But what is most striking is the colossal dimensions of this gigantic machine. Midgard Schlange was conceived as an underground train, consisting of many crawler compartments. Each is six meters long. The total length of the "snake" phalanx cars connected together was from 400 meters, in the longest configuration - more than 500 meters.
Four one and a half meter drills pierced the path of the "Snake" in the ground. In addition, the machine had three additional drilling kits and weighed 60,000 tons. To control such a colossus, 12 pairs of rudders and 30 crew members were required.
The armament of the giant subterrine was also impressive: two thousand 250-kilogram and 10-kilogram mines, 12 coaxial machine guns and six-meter underground torpedoes. It was originally planned to use the "Midgard Serpent" to destroy fortifications and strategic facilities in France and Belgium, as well as to undermine British ports.
But in the end, the underground colossus of the Reich never took part in any of the military operations. There is no exact data on whether at least a prototype of the "Snake" was made or whether this idea, like the Subterrine, remained only in paper embodiment.
It is known that the advancing Soviet troops found mysterious adits near Konigsberg, and nearby - a destroyed machine of unknown purpose. In addition, technical documentation describing German underground boats fell into the hands of the scouts.
After the war, the project of the subterine was attempted by the head of SMERSH, V. Abakumov, who attracted professors G. Babat and G. Pokrovsky to work with the trophy drawings and materials. But it was possible to make real progress in this area only in the 1960s with the coming to power of N. Khrushchev.
The new leader of the USSR liked the idea of "getting the imperialists out of the ground." Moreover, he even announced these plans publicly. And, apparently, there were already good reasons for such statements by that time. In particular, it is known that a secret plant for the production of underground boats was built in Ukraine near the village of Gromovka.
In 1964, the first Soviet subterrine with a nuclear reactor, called the "Battle Mole", was produced. About this development, however, little is known. The underground boat had an elongated cylindrical titanium hull with a pointed end and a powerful drill.
According to various sources, the size of the atomic subterrin ranged from 3 to almost 4 meters in diameter and from 25 to 35 meters in length. The speed of movement under the ground is from 7 km / h to 15 km / h. The crew of the "Battle Mole" consisted of five people. In addition, the vehicle could carry up to 15 paratroopers and about a ton of cargo - explosives or weapons.
Such combat vehicles were supposed to destroy fortifications, underground bunkers, command posts and rocket launchers in mines. In addition, the War Moles were preparing for a special mission. According to the plan of the military command of the USSR, in the event of aggravation of relations with the United States, subterins could be used for an underground strike on America.
With the help of submarines, it was planned to deliver "War Moles" to the coastal waters of seismically unstable California, then drill into the United States and install underground nuclear charges in those areas where American strategic facilities were located.
In the case of bringing atomic mines into action, the region would have the most powerful earthquakes and tsunami, which could be attributed to the usual natural disaster... According to some reports, tests of the Soviet atomic subterrine were carried out in different soils- in the suburbs, the Rostov region and the Urals.
Testing of the newest "miracle weapon" took place on the territory Sverdlovsk region, near the town of Kushva, in the area of the Grace Mountain. The first Ural test was completed successfully. All participants in the tests were amazed at the result of the first launch in the conditions of solid Ural soils - the underground boat passed at a low speed through from one side of the mountain to another.
However, during the second test, in the rock mass of Mount Blagodat, an experimental machine with a nuclear reactor exploded for unknown reasons, the entire crew of the boat died due to the explosion, and the boat remained walled up in the thickness of the rock. The fate of the boat's nuclear reactor remained unknown.
Mount Grace with a chapel on top, 1910
After the accident, the project was closed, and all data on testing the latest weapons were either destroyed or classified. There was no official confirmation of the tests and there is still no.
After the closure of the project, according to some reports, the equipment and prototypes of installations were trying to redesign for civilian needs and to adapt combat vehicles for mining needs, for example, for the construction of a subway. But military technology required significant improvements before it could be used in a civilian environment.
As a result, it was decided not to spend money on re-equipment of machines and their processing, but simply to liquidate everything. So the end was put in the history of the underground war machine. Unfortunately, the Soviet designers failed to make the fairy tale come true.
Used materials from the article by Andrey Lyubushkin from the site
Talking about the development of this unique superweapon, it is impossible not to recall the American fantastic thriller "Tremors". Unlike the movie monster-worm that killed all living things in its path, Soviet designers managed to create its real mechanical prototype.
However, the Soviet mechanical "mole" self-destructed along with the people inside.
Life is not the same without "Mole"
As is most often the case in the scientific world, the development of a machine that could freely pass deep underground and suddenly commit sabotage behind enemy lines was the responsibility of the designers different countries... This was one of the fixes of the twentieth century. However, leadership in this direction belongs to the Muscovite Pyotr Rasskazov, who was the first in 1904 to schematically depict an underground self-propelled vehicle.
It should be noted right away that everything connected with the invention of the "mole" mechanism from the very beginning is accompanied by numerous and varied digressions that smell strongly of mysticism.
Rasskazov was allegedly killed by a stray bullet during the 1905 revolution. Then his drawings disappeared, and over time, miraculously materialized in Germany.
The two world superpowers began working on a similar project at the same time. In the USSR, in the early 30s, engineer Alexander Trebelev was in charge of this project. German colleague Horner von Werner stepped on his heels.
Treblev, obsessed with the idea of building a machine that would copy genuine mole skills, allegedly managed to get to the creation of a prototype. But that was it. The Nazis also did not launch their "Midgard Schlange" ("Midgard Serpent", that was the name of the monster from the Scandinavian saga): the project was worth fabulous funds, for this reason the scrupulous Germans turned it down.
They took the stolen, but theirs
The further history of the creation of the Soviet underground submarine, the further, the deeper it becomes overgrown with conspiracy details, since the documentary substantiations of certain events are gradually lost. Probably in in this case these nuances can be attributed to the law of the genre. Or, if you like, on the secrecy of the topic as such.
Nevertheless, it was the borrowed experience of foreign developments of "fighting moles" in the Stalinist USSR that was taken as a basis. The fact that its foundation was laid by a Russian scientist, no one else recalled. The topic was personally supervised by the Minister of State Security of the Soviet Union V.S.Abakumov. Apparently, the time has not yet come to find out about the details of the assignment that Viktor Semenovich personally gave to the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov - these details are still hidden under the heading "top secret".
The ominous secret of the Soviet combat "Nautilus": died, gnawing into the bowels
It is argued that the Soviet "Battle Mole" was nevertheless created. And the underground war machine was endowed with unprecedented capabilities: supposedly it was equipped with a nuclear power plant like a classic nuclear submarine. Describes and specifications Soviet mechanical "Tremors": 35 meters long, 3 meters in diameter. All this was controlled by five crew members, the speed of the "Battle Mole" is 7 kilometers per hour.
The Soviet "Mole" could bite into the ground with 15 paratroopers on board, by 1962 everything was ready for "practical use." In 1964, a pilot copy of an underground submarine was created to the point of “going off the stocks”.
The conspiracy theories of the "Battle Mole" creation are replete with details that have not been scientifically proven to date. In particular, Academician Andrei Sakharov is ranked among the founding fathers of the underground combat vehicle.
Descriptions practical application There is a "mole" (they date back to 1964), but this experience is more like the ending of a fantastic story than the result scientific experiment: allegedly at a depth of ten meters, an underground boat jerked off, and it was nuclear explosion... The people who were in the evaporated apparatus died.
... The secret of the Soviet "Big Mole" resembles the plot with the Dyatlov pass. But if in the case of the history of the death of a group of Soviet climbers today, if not all, then very many details of what happened are open to researchers, then there are still more ambiguities with the fate of the underground Soviet submarine than any textured certainty on which one could build a reasonable version of the creation and testing of Soviet scientific and technical development.
One of the many myths about the secret super-technology of the Third Reich says that there was a development of underground military means under code names"Subterrine" (project of H. von Wern and R. Trebeletsky) and "Midgardschlange" ("The Serpent of Midgard") (project of Ritter).
The huge underground passage according to the second project consisted of several compartments measuring 6 meters in length, 6.8 in width and 3.5 in height, with a total length of 400 to 524 meters. Weight - 60 thousand tons. There were 14 electric motors with a capacity of 20 thousand horsepower. Speed - under water 30 km / h, in the ground - from 2 to 10 km / h. The vehicle was operated by a crew of 30 people. Armament - mines and machine guns, underground torpedoes "Fafnir" (combat) and "Alberich" (reconnaissance). Auxiliaries to be detached are Mjolnir shells for easier penetration in rocky ground and Laurin small transport shuttle for communication with the surface.
At the end of World War II, adits of unknown purpose were found in the area of Konigsberg, and nearby an exploded structure of unknown purpose. There is a possibility that these were the remnants of the "Serpent of Midgard" being developed as one of the incarnations of "retribution".
Watch movie: Underground boat
Lost subterin
For millennia, people have dreamed of conquering the elements. Our ancient ancestors took the first steps in the development of the seas and oceans; watching the flight of birds, people dreamed of freeing themselves from gravity and learning to fly. And now, it would seem, today man has fulfilled his dreams - high-speed ocean liners proudly cut through the waves of all seas and oceans, nuclear submarines silently sneak into the water column, and the sky is streaked with contrails of jet planes. Over the past 20 century, we have even managed to overcome gravity by taking the first step into the infinite space... All this is true, but humanity had another deepest dream - to make a journey to the center of the Earth.
The underworld has always been something very mysterious for people, alluring and at the same time frightening. The mythology and religion of almost all peoples, in one way or another, is associated with the underworld and the creatures that inhabit it. And if in ancient times the underworld was a forbidden place for man, then with the development of sciences and the appearance of the first hypotheses of the structure of the Earth, the idea of travel to its center became more and more tempting. But how to do that?
Of course, this question could not but worry science fiction writers, and while scientists were guessing about the structure of the underworld, in 1864 Jules Verne finished the novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth", in which the main characters of his work, Professor Lindenbron and his nephew Axel make a journey to the center of the Earth through the mouth of the volcano. They travel on a raft through the underground sea and return to the surface through a cave. I must say that in those years there was a popular theory about the existence of vast cavities inside the Earth, which, apparently, Jules Verne based his novel. However, later scientists proved the inconsistency of the "hollow Earth" hypothesis, and in 1883 the story of Count Shusi "Underground Fire" was published. The heroes of his work, using ordinary picks, punch a super-deep shaft into the zone of "underground fire". And although the story "Underground Fire" does not describe any mechanisms, its author already then realized that the road to the center of the Earth must be made by man, and that there are no cavities through which one can travel deep underground. It is understandable, because the Earth's core is exposed to colossal pressure and temperature, and from this it follows that there is no need to talk about any "underground cavities", and even more so the existence of life in them.
In subsequent sci-fi works, descriptions of tools for penetrating the earth's firmament appear, much more perfect than the pickaxe from Count Shusi's story “Underground Fire. So, for example, in 1927, the science fiction novel of Count Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" was published, in which engineer Garin, using his invention, a hyperboloid (heat laser), breaks through many kilometers of the earth's rock and reaches the mysterious olivine belt.
With the improvement of earth science and the development of technology for laying mines deep drilling, the idea of an underground passage arose, a kind of fantastic machine capable of moving through the thickness of solid earth rocks. Thus, in the novel by Grigory Adamov, The Winners of the Subsoil, published in 1937, the author sent his heroes to the underworld on a subway, which was a massive rocket-like projectile. This fantastic machine had drill bits in the front and sharp knives made of heavy-duty metal and capable of crushing any rock in its path. His underground boat could move at speeds up to 10 km per hour.
I must say, a lot of science fiction works have been created and are still being created on the topic of travel to the center of the Earth, and if earlier in them a person traveled to the depths of our planet on foot, then with the development of technology and science, underground travelers make their way with the help of devices in much reminiscent of modern submarines. The existence of such devices in real life is still in doubt, but there are some facts that suggest that a person has more than once tried to design and build an underground boat.
According to one version, the primacy in the creation of underground shells belongs to The Soviet Union... Back in the 30s, engineer A. Treblev, designers A. Kirilov and A. Baskin created a project for an underground boat. According to their plan, it was to be used as an underground oil producer - to go deep into the ground, find oil deposits, and lay an oil pipeline there. The inventors took the structure of a live mole as the basis for the construction of the subway. The tests of the underground boat took place in the Urals in the mines under the Grace Mountain. With its cutters, roughly the same as on coal miners, the underground tunnel destroyed hard rocks, slowly moving forward. But the apparatus turned out to be unreliable, often broke down and the project was deemed untimely. However, the history of the first pre-war developments in our country does not end there. It is known that Doctor of Technical Sciences P.I. Strakhov, who was the designer of underground roadheaders, at the beginning of 1940, while he was busy building the Moscow metro, was summoned by D.F.Ustinov, the future People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR. The conversation that took place between them is more than interesting. Ustinov asked Strakhov if he had heard of the work of his colleague, engineer Treblev, who in the 30s proposed the idea of an underground autonomous self-propelled apparatus? Strakhov was aware of these works, and he answered in the affirmative.
Then Ustinov said that for him there was a much more important and urgent task than the metro - work on the creation of an underground self-propelled apparatus for the Red Army. According to Strakhov himself, he agreed to participate in this project. He was allocated unlimited funds and human resources, and after a year and a half, a prototype of the underground passage passed acceptance tests. The autonomy of the underground boat was designed for a week, that is how much oxygen, food and water should have been sufficient for the driver. However, with the outbreak of war, Strakhov had to switch to building bunkers and further destiny the underground boat is unknown to him.
We should not forget about the numerous legends that enveloped the superweapon of the Third Reich. According to one of them, in Nazi Germany, there were projects of underground combat vehicles codenamed "Subterrine" (project of H. von Wern and R. Trebeletsky) and "Midgardschlange" ("Serpent of Midgard", Ritter's project).
The Midgardschlange subway was designed as a superamphibian capable of moving on the ground, underground and under water at depths of up to 100 meters. The device was created as a combat universal vehicle and consisted of a large number of compartments connected together, measuring 6 meters in length, 6.8 m in width and 3.5 m in height. The total length of the apparatus varied from 400 to 524 meters, depending on the tasks assigned. The weight of this "underground cruiser" was 60 thousand tons. According to some assumptions, it began to be developed in 1939. it weapon of war had on board big number mines and small charges, 12 coaxial machine guns, underground combat torpedoes "Fafnir" and reconnaissance "Alberich", small transport shuttle for communication with the surface "Laurin" and detachable projectiles to assist in penetrating difficult terrain "Mjolnir". The crew consisted of 30 people, the internal structure of the hull resembled the layout of the submarine compartments (living quarters, galley, radio room, etc.). 14 electric motors with a capacity of 20 thousand horsepower and 12 additional engines with a capacity of 3 thousand horsepower were supposed to provide the "Snake of Midgard" maximum speed under water at 30 km / h, and underground - up to 10 km / h.
When the Second ended World War, in the area of the city of Konigsberg, adits of unknown origin were discovered, and nearby are the remains of an exploded structure, possibly the remains of the "Snake of Midgard" - possible option"Weapons of Vengeance" of the Third Reich.
Was in Germany and another, less ambitious than the "Serpent of Midgard", but from that no less interesting project, - besides, it was started much earlier. The project was called "Sea Lion" (another name is "Subterrine") and a patent for it was registered back in 1933 by the German inventor Horner von Werner. According to von Werner's idea, his underground apparatus was supposed to have a speed of up to 7 km / h, a crew of 5 people, carry a 300 kg warhead and move both underground and under water. The invention itself was classified and transferred to the archive. Perhaps they would never have remembered him if Count von Staufenberg had not accidentally stumbled upon him in 1940, besides, Germany developed Operation Sea Lion to invade the British Isles and an underground boat of the same name could be very useful ... The idea was that an underground boat with saboteurs on board could freely cross the English Channel and, having reached the island, unnoticed pass under English soil to the desired place. However, these plans were not destined to come true. Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering managed to convince Hitler that his aviation alone would be able to bring England to its knees. As a result, Operation Sea Lion was canceled, the project was forgotten, and Goering was never able to fulfill his promise.
In 1945, after the victory over Nazi Germany, numerous "trophy teams" of former allies operated on its territory, and the project of the German underground boat "Sea Lion" fell into the hands of General SMERSH Abakumov. The project was sent for revision. Professors G. I. Babat and G. I. Pokrovsky studied the possibilities of developing the idea of an underground combat boat and came to the conclusion that these developments have a great future. Meanwhile, general secretary Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who replaced the deceased Stalin, personally showed interest in the project. Scientists dealing with this problem already had their own developments of an underground boat, and a breakthrough in science in the field nuclear power, brought the project to new step technological development - the creation of an atomic underground boat. For their serial production, the country urgently needed a plant, and in 1962, by order of Khrushchev in Ukraine, in the town of Gromovka, construction of a strategic plant for the production of underground boats began, and Khrushchev made a public promise “to get the imperialists not only from space, but also from the ground ". In 1964, the plant was built and produced the first Soviet nuclear-powered underground boat, named "Battle Mole". The underground boat had a titanium hull with a pointed bow and stern, 3.8 m in diameter and 35 m long. The crew consisted of 5 people. In addition, she was able to take on board 15 more troops and a ton of explosives. home power plant - nuclear reactor- allowed her to develop speeds underground up to 7 km / h. Her combat mission consisted in the destruction of underground command posts and missile silos of the enemy. Ideas were expressed about the possibility of delivering such "subterins" by specially designed nuclear submarines to the shores of the United States, to the region of California, where, as is known, earthquakes often occur. Then the "subterina" could install an underground nuclear charge and, having blown it up, cause an artificial earthquake, the consequences of which would be attributed to a natural disaster.
The first tests of the "Battle Mole" took place in the fall of 1964. The underground boat showed amazing results, passing through the difficult ground "like a knife through butter" and destroying an underground bunker of a simulated enemy.
Further tests continued in the Urals, in the Rostov region and in the Moscow region of Nakhabino ... However, during the next tests, an accident occurred, which entailed an explosion and an underground boat with a crew, including paratroopers and the commander, Colonel Semyon Budnikov, remained forever immured in the thickness of the stone rocks of the Ural mountains. In connection with this incident, the tests were stopped, and after Brezhnev came to power, the project was closed, and all materials were strictly classified.
In 1976, at the initiative of the head of the Main Directorate of State Secret Antonov, reports about this project began to slip in the press, but the remnants of the underground nuclear-powered ship itself, meanwhile, rusted under open air until the 90s. Are research and testing of underground boats carried out in our time, and if so, where? All of this will remain a mystery to which we are unlikely to get a satisfactory answer in the foreseeable future. One thing is clear that man has only partially realized his dream of traveling to the center of the Earth, and let the projects of "subterins" created by scientists cannot be compared with devices from science fiction works and are able to achieve Earth core, yet humanity has made its first timid step in the development of the underworld.
