Will Hunter include the Gulaschkanone in CMC ?

[Philippe]

Because if he does, I might bend my rule about not modding vehicles...

[Count D'Ten]

Nice, and HE certainly seems happy about his job. Points out how nice it would be to have a set of rear area vehicles to overrun.

[Runyan99]

Who's clydesdale mod are you using?

[Hunter]

So what does it do?

[Andreas]

Cook food. Make soldiers happy.

All the best

Andreas

[Joachim]

Loaded with meat the Gulaschkanone is the main tool to clear trenches. The often attached recce unit is important when the communication lines are strained. The smoke generator (which resembles a mortar tube) has an effect on morale - the same strength as a StuKa sound but usually in the opposite direction. The caliber is usually measured in pounds. It is interesting to note that both the loading breech and the gun mound are on the same side.

Gruß

Joachim

[Sergei]

That was the schweres Gulaschmörser, not the leichtes Gulaschkanone.

[Bigduke6]

Argh! A Gulaschkanone grog!

As a matter of fact the Soviets had a similar weapon invented by none other than Trotsky in the 1920s, and ultimately developed by Tukashevsky in the 1930s. It was called the "Borschepushka" (Borsch cannon). As with many Soviet designs it cost less to produce than the Western analogue, had better cross-country capability, but lacked some comfort-related details. For instance, the Borschepushka did not have storage bins for salt, pepper, and other spices; as Soviet high command assumed Red army cooks would be able to acquire condiments locally. For another, soldiers were required to bring their own spoons and bowls, which in the case of Siberians often was problematic.

In keeping with Soviet design policy of making weapons adapted to harsh climactic conditions, the traces of the original Borschepushka were sized to the Russian Panjie pony, which, though less muscular than a Capitalist Pecheron or Clydesdale, is more enduring, can survive on less roughage, is a good deal friendlier, and in a pinch tastes better than Percheron if converted to stew.

There is a good deal of evidence the better-known Gulaschkanone of the Axis actually came into being as a result of German staff officers, Gudarian among them, participating in secret field maneuvers in Ukraine in 1934.

The German Wehrmacht captured thousands of Borschepushkas during Barbarossa, as cooks abandoned them in the general Soviet retreat, due to disastrous shortages of beets, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, and fatty pork necessary for a proper borsch.

It is a little-known fact that many of the systems actually saw Wehrmacht service in France and Italy, although of course the local population was shocked by the smell: the Latins never have understood thick soups with lots of tasty chunks swimming around in them.

After reforms introduced by G. Zhukov in 1942 a modernized borschepushka produced by BZNFOR- (Borschepushska Factory Number One Named for the October Revolution) in the Urals was introduced in increasing quantities into Red forces, beginning first with elite Tank and Mechanized Corps. By the end of the war the latest model of the Borschepushka, the B-45, was generally towed by a Lend-Lease Studebaker truck and so fully capable of keeping up with glorious Red Army advances through Germany.

There is no truth to reports in questionable German sources such as Spaeter and von Mellinthen that a self-propelled Borschepusha was in Red Army service before the war's end. In fact, the system, the B-45SKh, was ready for field service as early as March 1945, but the Stavka decided the additional effort and expense necessary to retrain Borschepushka drivers from towed to self-propelled operations was not practical, given the general collapse of German defenses at the time.

Small numbers of the B-45SKh did see service in the Manchurian campaign of August 1945 and performed well. Japanese troops in opposition were reportedly shocked and appalled by their well-equipped Soviet opponents wielding large quantities of a heavy beet-based soup overloaded with calories and garlic; as the Japanese were trained only to handle rice, moderate amounts of fish, a dash of soy sauce or wasabe mustard, and in rare cases transparent noodles.

[Joachim]

@Sergei:

The pic and my description clearly feature a Gulaschkanone as it requires transport. The Gulaschmörser (also known as Gulaschwerfer or GuW) can easily be carried by the Küchenschütze (not to confuse with Küchenschürze, i.e. apron). Maybe you should read more instead of posting.

Gruß

Joachim

[Joachim]

@BD6

The Soviets managed to keep the secret of the T34 and KV series, I doubt they would have revealed the Borschepushka. But this is less important than the fact that regular use of the Gulaschkanone (GuK) is well documented in 1870. Bismarck wanted the Austrians as allies because they had an improved version of the GuK - and the elite Hungarian crews.

Once the Austrians had assembled several super-heavy GuK batteries and started to cook, the French defenders of Sedan could not withstand the assault on their sense of smell.

There are even reports of Gulaschkanonen as early as 1812. These reports coincide with the turning point of the Napoleonic wars. Further evidence is the lack of Gulaschkanonen with troops from Saxony during the 19th century.

In the preface of v. Clausewitz' "The campaign in Russian" his editor F. Dümmler mentions a device similar to the GuK (p. mcxi of the preface of the first edition). There is no exact description, but given that it was published in 1832 it could have been confidential information.

It is very likely that Clausewitz brought the device to Prussian troops. Direct contact between Russian and Allied German troops might have led to German troops adopting the device, too.

Thus the story about comrade Trotsky inventing the device is pure communist propaganda. He just introduced the device to the red army during the revolution, telling the red army how those devices captured from the white troops work. Anybody stating that Trotsky was not the inventor could be easily identified as a former "white" soldier and would face severe punishment. A good reason to remain silent.

Gruß

Joachim

[Philippe]

An example of Küchenschürze:

And it has been suggested that this next piece of equipment was actually developed from a proto-type of one of the deadlier Austro-Hungarian weapons of the first war, the palacinkawerfer.

The German version was redesigned to be more subdued after pre-war experiments indicated that it was likely to cause heightened cholesterol, thick waistlines, and the risk of cardiac arrest on both sides of the battle lines -- an early weapon of mass destruction whose impact was too all-encompasing to use. This was its less lethal descendant, the plain-vanilla German field bakery: