The 57 mm Anti-Tank Gun Model 1941 (ZIS-2) was a Soviet anti-tank gun developed in 1940 at Gorky Plant No. 92 (now the Nizhny Novgorod Machine-Building Plant) under the direction of V. G. Grabin and adopted into service in March 1941.[1] The gun saw action in the Great Patriotic War; after the war's end it was supplied to a number of foreign countries, and in some armies it remained in service as late as the early 21st century.[1]
History of Development and Production
The assignment to design a new anti-tank gun was issued to Plant No. 92 in June 1940; the weapon was initially given the factory designation F-31. A prototype was built in October 1940, but factory trials revealed poor accuracy of fire caused by an incorrect twist rate of the barrel rifling. After the barrel was reworked, the gun passed its trials successfully, was recommended for series production in early 1941 under the designation ZIS-2 ("Stalin Plant"), and was officially adopted into service in March 1941.[1]
Mastering production of the ZIS-2 came with great difficulty for the plant, hampered by the low skill of the workers and an insufficient culture of production. The first guns reached the troops in the summer of 1941, but as early as November of that year production was halted in favor of more manufacturable designs: at that point the gun had virtually no worthy targets among enemy armor.[1]
The situation changed in January 1943, when a heavy German T-VI tank (the "Tiger") was captured near Leningrad. Test firing at the captured vehicle at the Kubinka proving ground showed that neither the standard 45 mm nor the 76 mm guns of the Red Army could penetrate it at realistic combat ranges, whereas the ZIS-2 could do the job. In June 1943 the gun was accepted into service again, under the designation "57 mm Anti-Tank Gun Model 1943." The new version featured a more manufacturable design. The first batch for trials left Plant No. 92 in May 1943, and series production was established by October 1943.[1]
Design and Specifications
The gun is built on the classic layout and consists of two main parts: the barrel with breech and the carriage. The carriage includes the cradle, the upper traversing mount, the aiming and balancing mechanisms, the suspension, the lower fixed mount with spreading trails, the shield, and the sighting devices. The recoil system consists of a hydraulic recoil brake (under the barrel) and a hydropneumatic recuperator (above the barrel). The spreading trails on the Model 1941 gun are box-section; on guns of both models, tubular ones were also produced. The spring-type balancing mechanism is mounted in two cylinders on the upper mount. The 6 mm-thick shield consists of a main upper plate, a movable middle plate, and a folding lower plate; on the Model 1943, additional armor for the recuperator was fitted.[1]
Main tactical and technical characteristics: caliber — 57 mm; combat weight — 1,050 kg, traveling weight — 1,900 kg; length of the gun — 7.03 m, of the barrel — 4,160 mm (73 calibers); height of the line of fire — 853 mm; elevation from −5° to +25°, traverse — 56°; rate of fire — up to 25 rounds per minute; direct-fire range — 1,000 m; towing speed — up to 60 km/h; crew — 5 men.[1]
The Nizhny Novgorod Connection
Plant No. 92 in Gorky (now the Nizhny Novgorod Machine-Building Plant) was the only enterprise where the ZIS-2 was developed and produced: the prototype was created here under the direction of V. G. Grabin in 1940, and series production of the gun was established here in 1941 and then again in 1943.[1] A ZIS-2 gun is on display in Nizhny Novgorod's Victory Park.[1]
Sources
- park-pobeda-nn.ru — Anti-Tank Gun ZIS — Victory Park Nizhny Novgorod