The tachanka
Horse, cart. The tachanka (Russian: тача́нка) was a horse-drawn machine gun platform, usually a cart or an open wagon with a heavy machine gun installed in the back. It required a crew of two or three (one driver and a machine gun crew). The name tachanka appears to be the Ukrainian diminutive, or endearing form of the word tachka, meaning 'cart'. A regular civilian horse cart could be easily converted to military use and back. This made the tachanka very popular during the Great War on the Eastern Front, where it was used by the Russian cavalry. The usage of tachankas reached its peak during the Russian Civil War (1917–1920s), particularly in the peasant regions of Southern Russia and Ukraine, where the fronts were fluid and mobile warfare gained much significance. Later on it was adopted by a number of armies, notably the Polish Army which used it with success during the Polish-Bolshevik War. The tactics of tachanka employment are centered around taking advantage of its speed to surprise the enemy. Tachankas, before the introduction of the tank or automobile to the battlefield, were the only way to provide high-speed mobility for the heavy, bulky machine guns of WWI. The speed of the horse-drawn cart would be used to move the machine gun platform to a favorable firing position, and then aimed fire would be opened on the enemy before they had a chance to react. Since the machine gun was pointed towards the rear of the cart, the tachankas also provided effective suppressive fire onto pursuing enemy cavalry after raids and during retreats. Nestor Makhno pioneered the use of the tachanka in a mass charge. A large number of the vehicles would assault the enemy position as if they were cavalry, then wheel in a coordinated maneuver so that all at once suddenly had their muzzles to the enemy, and fire a point-blank burst of machine gun fire, all of it going into the same point of the enemy line.
Size: 5120px × 3369px
Location: Moscow
Photo credit: © Mikhail Kondrashov "fotomik" / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: Yes
Keywords: 1920, army, bolshevik, breed, carriage, carriage--, cart, cavallo, cavalry, civil, coach, cossacks, drawn, driver, equestrian, equine, farms, gallop, groom, harness, hippodrom, horse, horsemen, horses, makhno, mares, military, moscow, nature, pferd, racetrack, racing, red, rider, riding, russian, soviet, stable, stallion, stud, tachanka, troika, trotters, troyka, ukraine, vehicle, war, yamshchik
