Sources: wikipedia, rcforum, dzen

Vladimir Mgebrov :

Vladimir Mgebrov himself was born in 1886 in Moscow .

He served in the Training Automobile Company, at the head of two platoons of which on December 12, 1911 he was sent to Persia , where he performed the tasks of transporting goods and maintaining communications in conditions as close as possible to combat.

By the beginning of the First World War (June 1914 ), he served in the Automobile Training Company, which was soon reorganized into the Military Driving School. Subsequently transferred to the 1st spare automobile company.

In 1915, Mgebrov, on his own initiative, developed a number of armored car projects , which were distinguished by extreme innovation. In particular, Mgebrov was one of the first designers of armored vehicles in the world who proposed the installation of armor plates at large angles of inclination to increase the bullet resistance of the hull. In total, in 1915-1916, according to the projects of Mgebrov, about 16 vehicles were armored, which were actively used in the battles of the First World War and the Civil War.

In addition to the development of armored vehicles, Mgebrov carried out successful work on the creation of bulletproof glasses for viewing devices of armored vehicles and rifle grenades, which he intended to use against enemy armored vehicles. On August 21, 1915, Vladimir Mgebrov was present at front-line tests of his rifle grenades. The unexpected attack of the enemy took parts of the Russian unit by surprise and forced it to retreat. Staff Captain Mgebrov led a counterattack, during which the situation on this sector of the front was restored, but he himself was seriously injured. He died the same day.

The Mgebrov system :

The tower had a complex design. The tower system rested on the hull frame through a circular plate and could rotate around a vertical axis. On the turret itself, there were fixed machine-gun turrets and a commander’s turret, which together formed a structure somewhat similar in plan to a drawing of a heart (viewed from above). The turret system was connected with racks to the crew compartment floor, which in turn rested on four rotating cast-iron rollers. The mass of the combat module with weapons and crew was slightly less than 2 tons. There were three crew members in the module. The commander sat at the back and had his own commander’s turret, he only could turn the entire « module » towards the enemy with the help of a steering wheel through a gear transmission. Armament was installed in two semi-turrets. Machine guns were mounted on special brackets with a firing sector of 90 degrees. As a result, the commander directed the turret towards the enemy, and the machine guns shot through a sector of 180 degrees, being able to individually select targets.