Unknown MG 151 and accompanying guns.

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MG 151MG 151

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MG 151

(German:
"Maschinengewehr"
, literally "
automatic weapon
", "
machine gun
") - a German 15-mm machine gun from the Second World War, developed by the Mauser company by 1936.

In 1938, a 20-mm MG 151/20

, which was widely used on all types of Luftwaffe aircraft and formed the basis of the armament of German fighter aircraft during the Second World War.

History of creation

The aviation 15-mm machine gun was developed by Mauser-Werke AG in 1934-1936. In parallel with the design of weapons, a new 15-mm cartridge was developed in various equipment: with fragmentation-incendiary-tracer (OST): Brgr. L'spur m. Zerl

(day tracer, with self-liquidator) and
Brgr.
Gl'spur m. Zerl (night tracer, with self-liquidator);
caliber armor-piercing tracer (AP) Pzgr

H-Pzgr
with a carbide (tungsten carbide) core (more precisely, bullets with a leading belt characteristic of artillery shells).

The MG 151 heavy machine gun went into mass production in 1940. Thanks to the use of successful design solutions, it had characteristics unique for its time, which, along with well-developed 15-mm cartridges with Pzgr

and
H-Pzgr
(see below), ensured its confident superiority over other aircraft systems of 12.7 - 20 mm calibers in terms of muzzle velocity and armor-piercing effect.
It was the high ballistic characteristics of the MG 151 machine gun (the initial velocity of the H-Pzgr
was 1030 m/s, and the flatness of the trajectory) that determined its use on the Henschel Hs 129 attack aircraft for firing at ground targets in addition to the 30-mm MK 103 cannon.

The MG 151 machine gun was adopted by the German Air Force at the beginning of 1941 and was installed on the Bf.109F-2 fighter. However, the MG 151 in this caliber found use only in the initial period of the war, mainly due to insufficient effectiveness when firing at aircraft structures (airframe, planes, tail and fuel tanks). However, in 1941-1942, the Bf.109F aircraft with the MG 151 machine gun posed a serious threat to Soviet aircraft, since at real air combat distances (100 - 300 m) the Pzgr

confidently pierced the armored backrests of the seats of Soviet fighters and the elements of the longitudinal and transverse armor of the armored cabin of the Il-2 attack aircraft.

In 1941, Mauser-Werke AG, based on the 15-mm MG 151 machine gun, developed a new 20-mm MG 151/20 cannon. The latter is widely used as the main armament of Bf.109 and Fw.190 fighters of various modifications, as well as fighter-bombers, night fighters and attack aircraft. In addition, this weapon was actively used as anti-aircraft and auxiliary weapons for ground armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers and tanks), as well as ships and submarines, and was used in air defense forces: Wikipedia: Articles without sources (type: not specified)[ source not specified 2116 days

].
Since the summer of 1941, a gun with a 20 mm caliber barrel under the designation MG 151/20 was mainly used as armament for fighter aircraft. However, the 15-mm MG 151 remained part of the turret mounts for defensive weapons of bombers even after 1941. Variants of 15 and 20 mm machine guns/cannons with electric ignition were created - they were intended mainly for synchronized firing through the plane of rotation of the propeller. Electric ignition cartridges had their cases modified to use a P 2

K
percussion primer .
The samples received the corresponding names: 15 mm MG.151 El.
and
2 cm MG.151/20 El.
[1] Cartridges with percussion cap and ignition sleeve were not interchangeable.

Links[edit]

1. ^ abcd Johnson (1944), pp. 384–385.
2. ↑ abcde Williams (2002), p. 165.
3. Williams (2002), pp. 161-162.
4. Jump up ↑
   Williams (2002), pp. 163.
5. Jump up ↑
   Williams (2002), pp. 166–167.
6. Kaiser, Mark (1999). "Review of the Ki-61 Hien". Japanese aviation
   . Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
7. Williams & Gustin (2003), pp. 238, 274-275.
8. ↑
   Hans Kissel | Hitler's Last Levi | 2005 | page = 91
9. Voroshitel (1997), p. 43.
10. ^ ab Petter-Boyer (2005), pp. 278–279.
11. "GA 1 20 mm gun". SAAF: Unofficial South African Air Force website
    . Retrieved June 18, 2013.
12. ^ abc Williams, Anthony G. (February 2007). "Introduction to Collecting 20mm Gun Ammo". Cartridge Explorer
    . European Cartridge Research Association. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2013 - via Military Guns & Ammunition.
13. “Handbuch Bordwaffenmunition, Teil 5: 2 cm Munition; 2 cm M-Gesch.Patr. 151 El. O. Zerl". michaelhiske.de
    (in German).
    Retrieved February 1, 2022. [ unreliable source?
    ]
14. Jump up ↑
    Williams (2002), pp. 154.
15. Chinn (1951), pp. 105-153.
16. Williams, Anthony G. (December 2004). "Introduction to Anti-Tank Rifle Cartridges". Cartridge Explorer
    . European Cartridge Research Association. Retrieved June 18, 2013 - via Military Guns & Ammunition. (Modified January 2013, thanks to Shimon Stettner.)
17. "American .60 caliber anti-tank rifle, T1 & T1E1". WeaponsMan
    . February 2016. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.

Bibliography[edit]

• Chinn, George M. (1951). "Chapter 4: Artillery Corps automatic short-recoil machine gun". Machine gun
  .
  III
  . Washington, DC: US ​​Government Publishing Office.
• Johnson, Melvin M., Jr. (1944). Rifles and machine guns
  . New York: William Morrow and Company.
• Petter-Bauer, Peter J. H. (2005). Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot
  . Johannesburg: 30°S ISBN 0-9584890-3-3.
• Williams, Anthony G. (2002). Rapid Fire: Development of the Automatic Cannon, Heavy Machine Guns, and Their Ammunition for Armies, Navies, and Air Forces
  . Shrewsbury: Airlife. ISBN 978-1-84037-435-3.
• Williams, Anthony J.; Gustin, Emmanuel (2003). Flying guns of World War II
  . Shrewsbury: Airlife. ISBN 978-1-84037-227-4.
• Windrow, Martin (1997). Algerian War 1954-62
  . On weapons (No. 312). London: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-658-3.

Design Features

The automatic operation of the gun is based on the use of recoil from a movable barrel, with which the bolt is firmly coupled during the shot. In this case, when fired, not just the bolt is thrown back, but the barrel along with the bolt. This ensures that the cartridge case is completely pressed against the walls of the chamber during the entire period of pressure in the cartridge case. Therefore, higher pressures and correspondingly higher initial velocities are permissible relative to blowback weapons. The MG 151 gun uses recoil with a short barrel stroke, shorter than the bolt stroke. The barrel bore is locked by turning the combat cylinder. Slider type feeding mechanism. The gun consists of two movable and four fixed parts. Moving parts: barrel, bolt. Fixed parts: receiver, receiver cover. The reloading mechanism is electromechanical, the firing mechanism is also electromechanical. The cartridges are fed by a belt, the belt is flexible metal, the links are one-piece. Variants with right and left feed are known. Recharging and release are electric from the on-board network with a voltage of 24 volts.

MG 151 barrel rifling: 8 rifling, right-hand rifling, rifling stroke length 500 mm (5.4°).

Bore rifling MG 151/20: 8 rifling, right-hand rifling, rifling stroke length 570 mm (6°20′).

The principle of a bicaliber gun

During the development of the 20-mm version of the MG 151/20 cannon, a fundamentally new design solution (principle) of a 15/20 mm bicaliber cannon with interchangeable barrels of various calibers was born at the beginning of the 1940s - from the German Wechsellauf-Kanone. This principle saw the light of day again 40 years later when Rheinmetall created a new bicaliber 35/50 mm gun Rh 503. Today, the embodiment of this principle is the promising American bicaliber 30/40 mm gun MK44 or “Bushmaster II” and a number of other similar models.

The design of a bicaliber gun with interchangeable barrels allows you to change the caliber of the system, that is, the effectiveness of the weapon, by a simple operation of re-barrel when making minor changes to the feed system, and is based on maintaining the overall dimensions of the cartridges of both systems: the same lengths of cartridges and diameters of the bottom parts of the cartridges. One of the negative aspects of the bicaliber gun system is the limitation of the length of the larger caliber cartridge by the corresponding value of the inferior cartridge, and, accordingly, some limitation of its muzzle energy. In modern systems, to counter this drawback, a larger caliber cartridge can be made according to the cartridge-type telescopic shot.

US derivatives[edit]

During World War II, the US Army produced the .60 caliber T17, a re-engineered copy of the German MG151 chambered for an experimental anti-tank rifle. A speculative order was placed for 5,000 T17 guns, but only about 300 of them were built. However, none of them were delivered to service, despite the availability of 6 million rounds of .60 caliber ammunition. [14] Almost a million rounds were fired during the T17 test program. The main US-produced version, the T17E3, was produced by Frigidaire; it weighed 134 lb (61 kg) and had a rate of fire of only 600 rounds per minute. Further improvements led to the T39 and T51 versions, but these also did not enter service. [15]

Ammunition[edit]

A cartridge originally based on an armor-piercing projectile, developed in 1939 for use with the experimental T1 and T1E1 anti-tank rifles. It was canceled in 1944 when it became clear that modern tanks had too thick armor to penetrate a heavy rifle cartridge. Developments showed that HEAT rifle grenades and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were the future of infantry anti-tank weapons, and the anti-tank rifle concept was abandoned.

Just as the British are attempting to convert their stockpiles of obsolete .55 Boys anti-tank cartridges into heavy machine gun cartridges of their own design, the .60 caliber cartridge has been repurposed as an autocannon cartridge to replace the older .50 Browning. The T17 ammunition and gun were produced from 1942 to 1946, but never showed significant improvements over the .50 Browning and M2HB and M3 heavy machine guns. The cartridge was later shortened and enlarged to fire the 20x102mm Vulcan autocannon round.

• .60 Armor-Piercing (15.2 x 114mm T1E1)
  – 1,180 grain (76.5 grams) kinetic piercing
  round at
  3,600 feet per second (1,100 m/s) for muzzle energy over 34,000 ft/lb. (46 kilojoules). [16] [17]
• .60 T32 Ball (15.2 x 114mm T17)

Ammunition

15×96 mm cartridge with H-Pzgr

intended for firing at ground targets.
High armor penetration rates of 40 mm/0°/300 m were achieved, in particular, by using a carbide core with an ogive head. 15×96 mm cartridge with Pzgr.patr caliber armor-piercing tracer (AP) projectile .
was optimized for firing at air targets.

When developing the 20-mm cartridge, Mauser designers increased the barrel diameter of the 15×96 cartridge and at the same time reduced the height of the cartridge case to 82 mm to keep the length of both cartridges the same and equal to 147 mm. The new cartridge 20x82 (sometimes designated as 20x81) was equipped with projectiles unified with those used for the MG FFM gun (fragmentation tracer, high-explosive, armor-piercing) with subsequent improvement [2]. In total, in the wartime ammunition there were seven types of 20-mm cartridges for various purposes for firing at various types of targets (nowadays, researchers call, taking into account the various types of incendiary cartridges developed, including after the war, a figure 4 times higher), which seems excessive from the point of view of practice accepted in the USSR. Cases of both calibers are brass or steel without a rim, the diameter of the base of the case is 25.2 mm.

BT - armor-piercing tracer; BP - armor-piercing sub-caliber; OT - fragmentation tracer; OST - fragmentation-incendiary-tracer bullet.

F high explosive; B armor-piercing; Armor-piercing explosive ballistic missile. Angle (degrees) from the normal to the armor surface.

The 20-mm high-explosive projectile was fundamentally new and had no analogues among the ammunition of air cannons of other warring states.

, the development of which was based on the research of ballistician Hubert Shardin (Air Force Technical Academy) of detonation processes and experimental measurements of pressure in the shock wave front. The new ammunition managed to combine a number of technical and technological innovations of that time:

• a new principle of damaging aircraft structural elements with a pressure pulse in the shock wave front (and not with fragments of the projectile body)
• a thin-walled alloy steel projectile body obtained by deep drawing, strengthened by high-frequency currents (HFC), which made it possible to increase the mass fraction of the explosive charge (filling) to 20 percent compared to 5-7 percent for fragmentation-type projectiles (OT, OST)
• a powerful explosive based on metallized PETN under the brand name Pentrit A
  , which in 1942 was replaced by the
  HA 41
  based on hexogen, the latter characterized by increased high-explosive and incendiary effects
• fuze with a delayed-action detonator on the gas-dynamic principle ( Sprengkapsel Duplex
  ) index
  VC
  . Provided the possibility of a high-explosive projectile bursting in the internal compartments of the aircraft structure, not designed for the application of excess pressure.
• electric ignition of the cartridge to regulate the rate of fire, etc.

When a 20-mm high-explosive projectile hit the keel or plane of an aircraft made of wood materials (wooden or mixed construction), the aircraft instantly lost these elements, which meant the end of controlled flight.

Due to the fact that the high-explosive projectile worked effectively in the design of the aircraft, the cartridge belt configuration recommended (1944) for the 151/20 gun when firing at air targets included only 20 percent of armor-piercing rounds (2 high-explosive + 2 HP + 1 BR or BZ) [3 ]. For comparison, the standard ammunition configuration of the 20-mm Hispano-Suiza cannon of British fighters (1943-45) consisted of 50 percent armor-piercing rounds (1 OST + 1 BR)[4].

War practice has confirmed the effectiveness of a small-caliber high-explosive projectile against aircraft structures. After the war, in the USSR and allied countries (Great Britain and France), the degree of filling of aircraft shells with explosives was increased (in the USSR - doubled), which in domestic practice were called high-explosive incendiary (HEF) shells.

Ammunition characteristics[edit]

Usage

15 mm MG 151

• Bf 109 F-2. Motor gun MG 151 with impact ignition of the cartridge. Installed in the camshaft of the DB 601 engine
• Do 217E1
• Hs-129 B-1 Two MG 151 cannons with impact ignition cartridges on the sides of the fuselage, at the level of the pilot’s cabin, above the plane of the wing.

20 mm MG 151/20

• Bf 109 series: F-4, G-2, G-4, G-6: motor-gun (with impact ignition of the cartridge). It was installed in the camber of the DB 601E, N, etc. engines. The barrel passed between the camber of the engine (from the outside), firing through the propeller spinner.
• Fw 190 Synchronized guns MG 151/20 El. with electric ignition of the cartridge were installed in the root part of the wing of the Fw 190 series fighter aircraft: A-/D-/F-/G (two per vehicle) with 250 rounds of ammunition per gun. Two more guns on the vehicle were installed in the cantilever part of the wing of the Fw 190 fighter, starting from the A-6 series to the A-9 series.
• BV138, FW200, Ju188 - As part of mobile firing installations type HD151
• Nexter installs its own MG 151/20 on raider versions of Panhard VBL vehicles.[5]

Excerpt describing MG 151

The princess quickly stood up to meet him and extended her hand. “Yes,” she said, peering into his changed face after he kissed her hand, “this is how you and I meet.” “He’s often talked about you lately,” she said, turning her eyes from Pierre to her companion with a shyness that struck Pierre for a moment. “I was so glad to hear about your salvation.” This was the only good news we received for a long time. - Again, the princess looked back at her companion even more restlessly and wanted to say something; but Pierre interrupted her. “You can imagine that I knew nothing about him,” he said. “I thought he was killed.” Everything I learned, I learned from others, through third hands. I only know that he ended up with the Rostovs... What a fate! Pierre spoke quickly and animatedly. He glanced once at the face of his companion, saw a carefully, affectionately curious gaze fixed on him, and, as often happens during a conversation, for some reason he felt that this companion in a black dress was a sweet, kind, nice creature who would not disturb him. intimate conversation with Princess Marya. But when he said the last words about the Rostovs, the confusion in Princess Marya’s face was expressed even more strongly. She again ran her eyes from Pierre’s face to the face of the lady in a black dress and said: “Don’t you recognize it?” Pierre looked again at the pale, thin face of his companion, with black eyes and a strange mouth. Something dear, long forgotten and more than sweet looked at him from those attentive eyes. “But no, this can’t be,” he thought. – Is this a stern, thin and pale, aged face? It can't be her. This is just a memory of that.” But at this time Princess Marya said: “Natasha.” And the face, with attentive eyes, with difficulty, with effort, like a rusty door opening, smiled, and from this open door it suddenly smelled and doused Pierre with that long-forgotten happiness, which, especially now, he did not think about. It smelled, engulfed and swallowed him all up. When she smiled, there could no longer be any doubt: it was Natasha, and he loved her. In the very first minute, Pierre involuntarily told both her, Princess Marya, and, most importantly, himself a secret unknown to him. He blushed joyfully and painfully. He wanted to hide his excitement. But the more he wanted to hide it, the more clearly—more clearly than in the most definite words—he told himself, and her, and Princess Marya that he loved her. “No, it’s just out of surprise,” thought Pierre. But just as he wanted to continue the conversation he had begun with Princess Marya, he looked at Natasha again, and an even stronger blush covered his face, and an even stronger emotion of joy and fear gripped his soul. He got lost in his words and stopped mid-speech. Pierre did not notice Natasha, because he did not expect to see her here, but he did not recognize her because the change that had happened in her since he had not seen her was enormous. She lost weight and became pale. But this was not what made her unrecognizable: she could not be recognized in the first minute when he entered, because on this face, in whose eyes before there had always shone a hidden smile of the joy of life, now, when he entered and looked at her for the first time, there was no there was a hint of a smile; there were only eyes, attentive, kind and sadly questioning. Pierre's embarrassment did not affect Natasha with embarrassment, but only with pleasure, which subtly illuminated her entire face. “She came to visit me,” said Princess Marya. – The Count and Countess will be there one of these days. The Countess is in a terrible situation. But Natasha herself needed to see the doctor. She was forcibly sent with me. – Yes, is there a family without its own grief? - Pierre said, turning to Natasha. – You know that it was on the very day we were released. I saw him. What a lovely boy he was. Natasha looked at him, and in response to his words, her eyes only opened more and lit up. – What can you say or think for consolation? - said Pierre. - Nothing. Why did such a nice boy, full of life, die? “Yes, in our time it would be difficult to live without faith...” said Princess Marya. - Yes Yes. “This is the true truth,” Pierre hastily interrupted. - From what? – Natasha asked, looking carefully into Pierre’s eyes. - How why? - said Princess Marya. - Just a thought about what awaits there... Natasha, without listening to Princess Marya, again looked questioningly at Pierre. “And because,” Pierre continued, “only that person who believes that there is a God who controls us can endure such a loss as hers and ... yours,” said Pierre. Natasha opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but suddenly stopped. Pierre hastened to turn away from her and turned again to Princess Marya with a question about the last days of his friend’s life. Pierre's embarrassment had now almost disappeared; but at the same time he felt that all his former freedom had disappeared. He felt that over his every word and action there was now a judge, a court that was dearer to him than the court of all people in the world. He spoke now and, along with his words, reflected on the impression that his words made on Natasha. He did not deliberately say anything that might please her; but, no matter what he said, he judged himself from her point of view. Princess Marya reluctantly, as always happens, began to talk about the situation in which she found Prince Andrei. But Pierre's questions, his animatedly restless gaze, his face trembling with excitement little by little forced her to go into details that she was afraid to recreate for herself in her imagination. “Yes, yes, so, so...” said Pierre, bending forward with his whole body over Princess Marya and eagerly listening to her story. - Yes Yes; so has he calmed down? softened? He always sought one thing with all the strength of his soul; be quite good that he could not be afraid of death. The shortcomings that were in him - if there were any - did not come from him. So has he relented? - said Pierre. “What a blessing that he met you,” he said to Natasha, suddenly turning to her and looking at her with eyes full of tears. Natasha's face trembled. She frowned and lowered her eyes for a moment. She hesitated for a minute: to speak or not to speak? “Yes, it was happiness,” she said in a quiet chesty voice, “for me it was probably happiness.” – She paused. “And he... he... he said that he wanted this, the minute I came to him...” Natasha’s voice broke off. She blushed, clasped her hands on her knees and suddenly, apparently making an effort on herself, raised her head and quickly began to say: “We didn’t know anything when we drove from Moscow.” I didn't dare ask about him. And suddenly Sonya told me that he was with us. I didn’t think anything, I couldn’t imagine what position he was in; I just needed to see him, to be with him,” she said, trembling and gasping for breath. And, not allowing herself to be interrupted, she told what she had never told anyone before: everything that she experienced in those three weeks of their journey and life in Yaroslavl. Pierre listened to her with his mouth open and without taking his eyes off her, full of tears. Listening to her, he did not think about Prince Andrei, or about death, or about what she was telling. He listened to her and only pitied her for the suffering she was now experiencing as she spoke. The princess, wincing with the desire to hold back tears, sat next to Natasha and listened for the first time to the story of these last days of love between her brother and Natasha. This painful and joyful story was apparently necessary for Natasha. She spoke, mixing the most insignificant details with the most intimate secrets, and it seemed that she could never finish. She repeated the same thing several times. Behind the door, Desalles' voice was heard asking if Nikolushka could come in to say goodbye. “Yes, that’s all, that’s all...” said Natasha. She quickly stood up just as Nikolushka was entering, and almost ran to the door, hit her head on the door covered with a curtain, and with a groan of either pain or sadness burst out of the room. Pierre looked at the door through which she went out and did not understand why he was suddenly left alone in the whole world. Princess Marya called him out of his absent-mindedness, drawing his attention to his nephew, who entered the room. Nikolushka’s face, similar to his father, in the moment of spiritual softening in which Pierre was now, had such an effect on him that he, having kissed Nikolushka, hastily stood up and, taking out a handkerchief, went to the window. He wanted to say goodbye to Princess Marya, but she held him back. – No, Natasha and I sometimes don’t sleep until three o’clock; please sit. I'll give you dinner. Go down; we'll be there now. Before Pierre left, the princess told him: “This is the first time she spoke about him like that.” Pierre was led into the large, illuminated dining room; a few minutes later steps were heard, and the princess and Natasha entered the room. Natasha was calm, although a stern, without a smile, expression was now again established on her face. Princess Marya, Natasha and Pierre equally experienced that feeling of awkwardness that usually follows the end of a serious and intimate conversation. It is impossible to continue the same conversation; It’s shameful to talk about trifles, but it’s unpleasant to remain silent, because you want to talk, but with this silence you seem to be pretending. They silently approached the table. The waiters pushed back and pulled up chairs. Pierre unfolded the cold napkin and, deciding to break the silence, looked at Natasha and Princess Marya. Both, obviously, at the same time decided to do the same: contentment with life and recognition that, in addition to grief, there are also joys, shone in their eyes. - Do you drink vodka, Count? - said Princess Marya, and these words suddenly dispersed the shadows of the past. “Tell me about yourself,” said Princess Marya. “They tell such incredible miracles about you.” “Yes,” Pierre answered with his now familiar smile of gentle mockery. “They even tell me about such miracles as I have never seen in my dreams.” Marya Abramovna invited me to her place and kept telling me what had happened to me, or was about to happen. Stepan Stepanych also taught me how to tell things. In general, I noticed that it is very peaceful to be an interesting person (I am an interesting person now); they call me and they tell me. Natasha smiled and wanted to say something. “We were told,” Princess Marya interrupted her, “that you lost two million in Moscow.” Is this true? “And I became three times richer,” said Pierre. Pierre, despite the fact that his wife’s debts and the need for buildings changed his affairs, continued to say that he had become three times richer. “What I have undoubtedly won,” he said, “is freedom...” he began seriously; but decided against continuing, noticing that this was too selfish a subject of conversation. -Are you building? - Yes, Savelich orders. – Tell me, did you not know about the death of the Countess when you stayed in Moscow? - said Princess Marya and immediately blushed, noticing that by making this question after his words that he was free, she ascribed to his words a meaning that they, perhaps, did not have. “No,” answered Pierre, obviously not finding the interpretation that Princess Marya gave to his mention of her freedom awkward. “I learned this in Orel, and you can’t imagine how it struck me.” We were not exemplary spouses,” he said quickly, looking at Natasha and noticing in her face the curiosity about how he would respond to his wife. “But this death struck me terribly.” When two people quarrel, both are always to blame. And one’s own guilt suddenly becomes terribly heavy in front of a person who no longer exists. And then such death... without friends, without consolation. “I’m very, very sorry for her,” he finished and was pleased to notice the joyful approval on Natasha’s face. “Yes, here you are again, a bachelor and a groom,” said Princess Marya. Pierre suddenly blushed crimson and tried for a long time not to look at Natasha. When he decided to look at her, her face was cold, stern and even contemptuous, as it seemed to him. – But did you really see and talk with Napoleon, as we were told? - said Princess Marya. Pierre laughed. - Never, never. It always seems to everyone that being a prisoner means being a guest of Napoleon. Not only have I not seen him, but I have also not heard of him. I was in much worse company. Dinner ended, and Pierre, who at first refused to talk about his captivity, gradually became involved in this story. - But is it true that you stayed to kill Napoleon? – Natasha asked him, smiling slightly. “I guessed it when we met you at the Sukharev Tower; remember? Pierre admitted that this was the truth, and from this question, gradually guided by the questions of Princess Marya and especially Natasha, he became involved in a detailed story about his adventures. At first he spoke with that mocking, meek look that he now had at people and especially at himself; but then, when he came to the story of the horrors and suffering that he had seen, he, without noticing it, became carried away and began to speak with the restrained excitement of a person experiencing strong impressions in his memory. Princess Marya looked at Pierre and Natasha with a gentle smile. In this whole story she saw only Pierre and his kindness. Natasha, leaning on her arm, with a constantly changing expression on her face, along with the story, watched, without looking away for a minute, Pierre, apparently experiencing with him what he was telling. Not only her look, but the exclamations and short questions she made showed Pierre that from what he was telling, she understood exactly what he wanted to convey. It was clear that she understood not only what he was saying, but also what he would like and could not express in words. Pierre told about his episode with a child and a woman, for whose protection he was taken, in the following way: “It was a terrible sight, children were abandoned, some were on fire... In front of me they pulled out a child... women, from whom they pulled things off, tore out earrings... Pierre blushed and hesitated. “Then a patrol arrived, and all those who were not robbed, all the men were taken away. And me. – You probably don’t tell everything; “You must have done something…” Natasha said and paused, “good.” Pierre continued to talk further. When he talked about the execution, he wanted to avoid the terrible details; but Natasha demanded that he not miss anything. Pierre started to talk about Karataev (he had already gotten up from the table and was walking around, Natasha was watching him with her eyes) and stopped. - No, you cannot understand what I learned from this illiterate man - a fool. “No, no, speak up,” said Natasha. - Where is he? “He was killed almost in front of me.” - And Pierre began to tell the last time of their retreat, Karataev’s illness (his voice trembled incessantly) and his death. Pierre told his adventures as he had never told them to anyone before, as he had never recalled them to himself. He now saw, as it were, a new meaning in everything that he had experienced. Now, when he was telling all this to Natasha, he was experiencing that rare pleasure that women give when listening to a man - not smart women who, while listening, try to either remember what they are told in order to enrich their minds and, on occasion, retell it or adapt what is being told to your own and quickly communicate your clever speeches, developed in your small mental economy; but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to select and absorb into themselves all the best that exists in the manifestations of a man. Natasha, without knowing it herself, was all attention: she did not miss a word, a hesitation in her voice, a glance, a twitch of a facial muscle, or a gesture from Pierre. She caught the unspoken word on the fly and brought it directly into her open heart, guessing the secret meaning of all Pierre’s spiritual work.