Soviet M46 130mm gun

[Edwin Parks]

Yet another search for yet another strange model. Once upon a time, when the world was young I had the honour of commanding 8 Medium Battery of the Sultan of Oman's Artillery which was equipped with Soviet M46 130mm guns (at that time the longest ranged artillery piece in service anywhere) towed by huge Kraz 6X6 lorries. I do actually have a model of the combination, but it's tiny, about 3in overall) and I think designed for wargaming??

 

I wonder if there is or ever was a bigger kit? A search of the WWW does not seem to produce any results in any scale.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2019 by Edwin Parks
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[rickshaw]

Trumpeter do a PLA Type 56 130mm gun, which is virtually identical to the Soviet Type 46 gun, in 1/35 scale.

[Kingsman]

And Roden do several KrAZ trucks of the right sort of vintage in 1/35.

 

I'm sure someone out there knows the minutia of the variations between the Russian original gun and its Chinese clone, but I don't imagine they were huge.  And unless it's something affecting the shape or configuration of the major parts only the most ardent artillery nut is likely to notice.  And covers over the muzzle brake, breech area etc can hide much - while also hiding much detail.  This would be a somewhat large combination with the gun hitched to the tractor: must be the best part of 2 feet long.  Impressive, though.

 

I must admit I didn't realise that the Sultan's armed forces had ever invested in anything of Soviet/Russian origin, being very Western-leaning.  I did some training work for their procurement people in 2000-01.  But to paraphrase Oddball, having the longest-ranged artillery in a large empty barren country can give you a nice edge.  And it's basically a 5 inch gun, so decent target effect on arrival.

 

I believe the gun was originally adapted from a naval weapon.

[Edwin Parks]

I commanded a battery of these guns so I am very intimately familiar with every bit of them. We actually had a Chinese version on trial and it is really very different, a built-in traversing platform for one and wheels to help open and close the trails.

 

Egypt gave the Sultanate 12 guns which had been standing on a gun park somewhere for many years. The range was important because with them we could hit the Yemeni base at Habrut from the SAF positions at Sarfait. The Sultan himself felt strongly about this because he had been shelled by Yemeni 130s while visiting troops at Sarfait.

 

They were superb guns although we did have some problems. The sights had to be converted from Soviet mils to Nato mils. We actually used 25pdr sights of which there was a good supply. Sadly somebody blundered in converting the range table and Charge 3 was rather doubtful at certain elevations. They also had solid rubber tires which had a nasty habit of catching fire!