The 76-mm Divisional Gun Model 1942 (ZIS-3) is a Soviet artillery piece that was adopted for service on February 12, 1942, and produced in series until the early 1950s. It was the most widely produced artillery piece of World War II: 48,016 units were manufactured during the Great Patriotic War.[2] The main production site was Artillery Plant No. 92 in Gorky (now the Nizhny Novgorod Machine-Building Plant), where the ZIS-3 became the first gun in the world to be put into flow-line production with conveyor assembly.[2]

History of development

At the start of the war, the backbone of Soviet divisional artillery consisted of 76-mm guns of the 1902/30, 1936, and 1939 models. Combat experience exposed their shortcomings: narrow horizontal traverse angles, a heavy carriage, and complicated manufacture. In July 1941, the designer Vasily Grabin proposed combining the barrel, with the ballistics of the 76-mm F-22 USV gun, with the light carriage of the 57-mm ZIS-2 antitank gun, which was already mastered in production, and adding a muzzle brake that absorbed up to a third of the recoil energy.[1] By September 1941, an experimental batch had received authorization for manufacture, and the first 50 guns went to the front in December 1941, even before official adoption into service, so acute was the army's need for the new gun.[1] By a decree of the State Defense Committee of February 12, 1942, the gun was officially adopted under the designation "76-mm Divisional Gun Model 1942."[2]

Design and specifications

The ZIS-3 consists of two main parts: the barrel with breech mechanism and the carriage. The carriage includes the cradle, recoil mechanisms, upper and lower carriage, aiming mechanisms, a suspension-sprung wheeled undercarriage, and sighting devices. The gun had an extendable tubular trail spade and a long barrel (3.24 m); its overall length in the traveling position is 6.095 m.[1]

Main technical and tactical specifications:[2]

  • Caliber: 76.2 mm
  • Weight in firing position: 1,200 kg
  • Rate of fire: up to 25 rounds per minute
  • Muzzle velocity: 680 m/s
  • Maximum range: 13,290 m
  • Direct-fire range: 820 m
  • Projectile weight: 6.3 kg
  • Barrel elevation: up to 37°; horizontal traverse: 54°
  • Crew: 6 people

The gun was designed to destroy enemy personnel, machine-gun and artillery positions, to knock out tanks and armored vehicles, and to demolish long-term fortified emplacements.[2] Compared with its predecessor, the F-22 USV, it was roughly half as expensive and noticeably lighter, which made it possible to produce it on less sophisticated machine tools with less skilled labor.[1] The same ZIS-3 gun was mounted on the SU-76 self-propelled gun — the most widely produced Soviet self-propelled gun of the war.[1]

Production at the Gorky Machine-Building Plant

The main producer of the ZIS-3 was Artillery Plant No. 92 in Gorky — an enterprise founded in 1932 as a full-cycle artillery manufacturing facility.[2] It was here that the gun was first put on an assembly line anywhere in the world.[2] Over the five years of the war the plant turned out more than 100,000 guns — more than all the countries of the Hitlerite coalition combined. For its wartime services the enterprise was awarded five orders; the Challenge Red Banner of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was awarded to it 33 times, and on May 16, 1946, the banner was presented to the plant's workforce in perpetuity.[2]

Assessments and legacy

Joseph Stalin described the gun as "a masterpiece in the design of artillery systems."[2] Professor Wolf, the former head of the artillery design department at the Krupp firm, called the ZIS-3 "the best 76-mm gun of the Second World War" and "one of the most ingenious designs in the history of barrel artillery."[2] Production of the gun continued until the early 1950s; it was widely exported and remained in service in a number of countries for many years after the war.[2] ZIS-3 guns are on display in Patriot Park and in Nizhny Novgorod's Victory Park.[1][2]

Sources

  1. parkpatriot.ru — ZIS-3 — "The Gun of Victory," The Most Widely Produced Gun in History, ZIS-3 — the Backbone of Divisional Artillery, ZIS-3 — a Symbol of the Soviet Victory — Patriot Park
  2. park-pobeda-nn.ru — 76-mm Divisional Gun Model 1942 ZIS-3 — Victory Park Nizhny Novgorod