On October 8, 2023, tensions in the Palestinian-Israeli region escalated again, and Hamas-affiliated "Qassam Brigades" showed the reporters of the British "Daily Telegraph" their latest ** - a rocket launcher.
Hamas's move was clearly intended to put pressure on Israel, but the Israelis were involved in China.
The Israelis claim that the shape of this rocket launcher is very similar to that of China's Type 63 rocket launcher, and that China must have provided Hamas with the technology for light rocket artillery.
Speaking of the Type 63 107mm rocket launcher, many people will think of its lightness and simplicity. This seemingly inconspicuous small cannon once made the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, suffer a lot.
However, in recent years, with the continuous emergence of new equipment, the position of Type 63 rocket artillery in the PLA has gradually been replaced, and its story has gradually faded out of people's sight.
Today, let's review the past and present of the Type 63 107-mm rocket launcher, and by the way, see if Israel's accusations are founded.
The birth of the Type 63.
In China, when it comes to the Soviet Union, many people can't help but think of a name: Katyusha.
In Russia, Catherine is a common female name, such as the famous Empress Catherine II in Russian history, and the heroine Ekaterina Maslova written by the great Russian writer Tolstoy. In addition to their official names, they also have a common nickname: Katyusha.
During the Battle of Zhanggufeng in 1938, a Soviet Red poet named Isakovsky was inspired by the front-line fighters and wrote a love poem "Katyusha". Later, the poem was composed into a song and became the widely circulated song "Katyusha".
The name "Katyusha" is increasingly used to describe Russian girls.
In the same year that "Katyusha" was born, the Soviet military-industrial scientific research department also made a major breakthrough, and a new type of warfare ** proved to have research and development value. This kind of ** uses rockets as ammunition, multiple rockets can be mounted on one vehicle, and all rockets can be launched in a very short time.
This kind of ** is the rocket artillery we are familiar with. Its firepower is much more powerful than that of conventional artillery.
In the second month after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the BM 13 rocket launcher appeared on the battlefield as a secret **. The soldiers who operate the rocket artillery are very fond of this kind of **, but in order to keep it secret, they didn't know the name of this ** at first, and they could only see a "K" sign on the car, so the soldiers called the rocket artillery Katyusha - the sweetheart of the soldiers.
The Katyusha played a huge role in the Great Patriotic War, and the Soviet soldiers sang "Katyusha" while firing rockets at the enemy, merging the emotions of love and revolution into a unique romance of the Soviet Union.
At this time, farther east, Chinese revolutionaries also noticed the powerful power of Katyusha rocket artillery, as early as the Xibaipo period before the founding of New China, the People's Liberation Army had set up a technical room dedicated to the research and development of rocket artillery.
The person in charge of this technical room is Zhong Lin, who is a rare R&D expert in China, and two years before the establishment of the technical room, Zhong Lin obtained a 45-inch rocket artillery, and on the basis of which ammunition for 4-inch domestic rocket launchers was developed.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the work was handed over to the 52 factory in Shenyang, and Zhong Lin continued to preside over the research and development work. This factory has played an important role in the national defense construction of New China, the aviation industry base during the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, the 724 factory during the period of two bombs and one satellite, and the current Liaoshen Industrial Group are its names in different historical periods.
It took two years for the 52 factory to develop two types of rocket artillery, Type 427 and Type 488, both of which have a caliber of 102 mm, with the former having a range of 5 kilometers and the latter having a range of 8 kilometers.
From the late 40s to the early 50s, the Soviet Union once provided China with artillery, tanks, aircraft and other advanced technologies, but it had reservations about rocket artillery technology, so there is a clear difference between domestic rocket artillery and other early domestic rockets, it is completely independent research and development.
The Soviet Union's rocket artillery research and development work lasted for more than ten years, and the developed Katyusha range was only 85 km. And it took only two years for China to develop a rocket artillery with a range of 8 kilometers, and the exploits of the new and Chinese workers are very great.
It's just a pity that the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out too suddenly, the production capacity of New China was not strong enough, and the domestic rocket artillery was not perfect in many details, so it could not be equipped with volunteer troops on a large scale, and only a small number of early Type 427 products M 501 were installed.
In early November 1950, the Chinese Volunteers encountered the first challenge from the U.S. military at Yunshan. In the Battle of Unsan, the Volunteers eliminated 1,800 U.S. troops and 200 South Korean soldiers, shot down and captured 7 warplanes, and destroyed and captured Chao.
More than 300 pieces of heavy equipment.
The battle was also the debut of domestic rocket artillery, which whizzed and flew towards enemy positions, causing great panic among the American troops, who even mistakenly thought that they had encountered Soviet troops. The U.S. military wrote in the history of the war: "Its appearance means that we are not facing an ordinary enemy. ”
Due to the rapid escalation of the war, the Soviet Union began to provide a large number of first-class equipment to China and North Korea, and the domestic rocket artillery was replaced by the Katyusha of the Soviet Union.
Although the equipment of the American and South Vietnamese armies far outnumbered the German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, the Katyusha was still as powerful as it was back then, and it was not uncommon for a single salvo to kill and wound hundreds of enemies.
During the Battle of Shangganling, the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army used rocket artillery against 5979 Highlands and 5377 heights struck, and it took only 13 minutes to launch **768 rockets, after which the infantry fighters easily occupied the area.