Anti-tank rifle PTRS (Simonov): characteristics, caliber

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The PTRS (Simonov) anti-tank rifle was put into service in the summer of 1941. It was intended to attack medium and light tanks, aircraft, and armored vehicles at a distance of up to 500 meters. In addition, from a gun it was possible to resist bunkers, bunkers and enemy firing points, covered with armor, from a distance of up to 800 meters. The shotgun played a crucial role on the battlefield of World War II. The article will consider the history of its creation and use, as well as performance characteristics.

Historical background

An anti-tank rifle (ATR) is a hand-held small arms weapon capable of resisting enemy armored vehicles. PTR is also used to attack fortifications and low-flying air targets. Thanks to a powerful cartridge and a long barrel, a high muzzle energy of the bullet is achieved, which makes it possible to hit the armor. World War II anti-tank guns were capable of penetrating armor up to 30 mm thick and were a very effective means of fighting tanks. Some models had a large mass and were, in fact, small-caliber guns.

The first prototypes of the PTR appeared among the Germans already at the end of the First World War. Lack of Efficiencythey compensated for their high mobility, ease of camouflage, and low cost. The Second World War became a real finest hour for the PTR, because absolutely all participants in the conflict used this type of weapon en masse.

The Second World War was the first large-scale conflict in the history of mankind, which perfectly fits the definition of "war of engines". Tanks and other types of armored vehicles became the basis of the strike force. It was the tank wedges that became the determining factor in the implementation of the Nazi Blitzkrieg tactics.

After the catastrophic defeats at the beginning of the war, Soviet troops were in dire need of funds to fight enemy armored vehicles. They needed a simple and maneuverable tool that could withstand heavy vehicles. This is exactly what the anti-tank gun became. In 1941, two samples of such weapons entered service at once: the Degtyarev gun and the Simonov gun. The general public is much better acquainted with the PTRD. Films and books contributed to this. But the PTRS-41 is known much worse, and it was not produced in such volumes. Still, it would be unfair to detract from the merits of this gun.

First attempt to introduce PTR

In the Soviet Union, they have been actively working on the creation of an anti-tank rifle since the 40s of the last century. Especially for the promising PTR model, a powerful cartridge with a caliber of 14.5 mm was developed. In 1939, several PTR samples from Soviet engineers were tested at once. The anti-tank rifle of the Rukavishnikov system won the competition, but its production was neverestablished. The Soviet military leadership believed that in the future, armored vehicles would be protected by at least 50 mm armor, and the use of anti-tank rifles would be impractical.

Development of PTSD

The leadership's assumption turned out to be completely wrong: all types of armored vehicles used by the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the war could be hit with anti-tank rifles, even when firing in frontal projection. On July 8, 1941, the military leadership decided to start mass production of anti-tank rifles. Rukavishnikov's model was recognized as complicated and too expensive for the then conditions. A new competition was announced for the creation of a suitable PTR, in which two engineers took part: Vasily Degtyarev and Sergey Simonov. Just 22 days later, the designers presented prototypes of their guns. Stalin liked both models, and soon they were put into production.

Operation

Already in October 1941, the anti-tank rifle PTRS (Simonov) began to enter the troops. In the very first cases of use, it demonstrated its high efficiency. In 1941, the Nazis did not have such armored vehicles that could withstand the fire of Simonov's gun. The weapon was very easy to use and did not require a high level of training of the fighter. Convenient sights made it possible to confidently hit the enemy in the most uncomfortable conditions. At the same time, the weak armor effect of the 14.5-mm cartridge was noted more than once: some enemy vehicles knocked out of the PTR hadmore than a dozen holes.

German generals have repeatedly noted the effectiveness of the PTRS-41. According to them, Soviet anti-tank rifles were largely superior to their German counterparts. When the Germans managed to get PTRS as a trophy, they willingly used it in their attacks.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, the value of anti-tank rifles as the main means for fighting tanks began to decrease. However, even in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, armor-piercers glorified this weapon more than once.

Production downturn

Since it was more difficult and expensive to produce an anti-tank self-loading rifle of the Simonov system than the Degtyarev PTR, it was produced in much smaller quantities. By 1943, the Germans began to increase the armor protection of their equipment, and the effectiveness of the use of anti-tank rifles began to decline sharply. Based on this, their production began to decline sharply, and soon stopped altogether. Attempts to modernize the gun and increase its armor penetration were made by various talented designers in 1942-1943, but all of them were unsuccessful. Modifications created by S. Rashkov, S. Ermolaev, M. Blum and V. Slukhotsky better penetrated armor, but were less mobile and larger than standard PTRS and PTRD. In 1945, it became quite clear that the self-loading anti-tank rifle had exhausted itself as a means of fighting tanks.

In the last years of the Second World War, when it was already pointless to attack tanks with anti-tank missiles, armor-piercers began to use them to destroyarmored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery mounts, long-term firing points and low-flying air targets.

In 1941, 77 copies of the PTRS were produced, and the following year - 63.3 thousand. In total, by the end of World War II, about 190 thousand guns rolled off the assembly line. Some of them found use in the Korean War.

Features of use

From a distance of 100 meters, the anti-tank rifle PTRS (Simonov) could penetrate 50 mm armor, and from a distance of 300 meters - 40 mm. In this case, the gun had a good accuracy of fire. But he also had a weak point - a low armor action. So in military practice they call the effectiveness of a bullet after breaking through the armor. Hitting a tank and punching it in most cases was not enough, it was necessary to hit the tanker or some important vehicle unit.

The effectiveness of the operation of the PRTS and PTRD significantly decreased when the Germans began to increase the armor protection of their equipment. As a result, it became almost impossible to hit her with guns. To do this, the shooters had to work at close range, which is extremely difficult, primarily from a psychological point of view. When an anti-tank rifle was fired, large clouds of dust rose around him, betraying the firing position of the shooter. Enemy machine gunners, snipers and infantry escorting the tank led a real hunt for the fighters armed with anti-tank guns. It often happened that after repelling a tank offensive, not a single one remained in the armor-piercing company.survivor.

Design

Automatic gun provides for partial removal of powder gases from the barrel. To control this process, a three-way regulator is installed, which doses the amount of gases discharged to the piston, depending on the conditions of use. The barrel bore was locked due to the skew of the shutter. Directly above the barrel was a gas piston.

The trigger mechanism allows you to fire only single shots. When the cartridges run out, the bolt remains in the open position. The design uses a flag-type fuse.

The barrel has eight right-hand rifling and is equipped with a muzzle brake. Thanks to the brake compensator, the recoil of the gun was significantly reduced. The butt pad is equipped with a shock absorber (cushion). The stationary store has a hinged bottom cover and a lever feeder. Loading is carried out from below, using a metal pack of five cartridges stacked in a checkerboard pattern. Six of these packs came with PTRS. The range of a gun with a high probability of an effective hit was 800 meters. As sighting devices, an open sector-type sight was used, operating in the range of 100-1500 meters. The gun, which was created by Sergei Simonov, was structurally more complex and heavier than Degtyarev's gun, but it won in terms of rate of fire by 5 rounds per minute. PTRS was served by a crew of two fighters. In battle, one calculation number or two could carry a gun. Handles for transportation were attached to the butt andtrunk. In the stowed position, the PTR could be disassembled into two parts: a receiver with a butt and a barrel with a bipod.

A cartridge was developed for the PTRS caliber, which could be equipped with two types of bullets:

1. B-32. A simple armor-piercing incendiary bullet with a hardened steel core.
2. BS-41. Differs from B-32 in cermet core.

PTRS characteristics

Summarizing all of the above, here are the main characteristics of the gun:

1. Caliber - 14.5 mm.
2. Weight - 20.9 kg.
3. Length - 2108 mm.
4. Rate of fire - 15 rounds per minute.
5. The speed of the bullet exiting the barrel is 1012 m/s.
6. Bullet weight - 64 g.
7. Muzzle energy - 3320 kGm.
8. Armour-piercing: from 100 m - 50 mm, from 300 m - 40 mm.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the PTRS (Simonov) anti-tank rifle had some drawbacks, Soviet soldiers loved this weapon, and the enemies feared it. It was trouble-free, unpretentious, very maneuverable and quite effective. In terms of its operational and combat characteristics, Simonov's anti-tank self-loading rifle surpassed all foreign counterparts. But most importantly, it was this type of weapon that helped the Soviet troops overcome the so-called tank fear.