These new weapons were first used in combat in late November 1941 near the town of Petrino.
Eight of them were sent to soldiers of the 1075th Rifle Regiment, which belongs to the 8th Guards Rifle Division. Soviet infantry used two anti-tank rifles to deal with German armored forces within the range of 150 to 200 meters. Soviet infantry using PTRD paralyzed two armored vehicles during combat.
Although it is certainly possible to damage or even destroy tanks with this weapon, it is not easy because they lack power for medium or large tanks. Both weapons are considered particularly accurate because they are equipped with simple iron sights rather than more expensive and refined optical systems. Nevertheless, the weapon may be effective with enough firepower , skills and luck . This is the solution to the problem that enables infantry to fight tanks, although far from perfect.
Since anti-tank rifles are an imperfect answer, Red Army has developed new tactics and doctrines to improve its effectiveness. The anti-tank rifle requires two crew members composed of gunners and loaders.
Anti-tank rifle crews can put weapons into use faster than cannons and fire bullets faster than cannons. Since the anti-tank rifle is relatively small and low to the ground, the crew can easily hide it. One disadvantage of this low-key low-key is the amount of dust or snow raised by the gun blow. In dry summer conditions in Russia or in snow-covered landscapes in winter, gun blowing can easily expose the gunner's position and cause a fatal counterattack.
To solve this dilemma, soldiers can wet the ground around their locations, or place blankets or ponchos under the muzzle area.
A Russian force reported that they had successfully used a squad of soldiers equipped with three anti-tank rifles
These weapons distanced to 20 yards, , which was enough to prevent them from being collectively knocked down by enemy fire, but were still close enough to allow them to concentrate their firepower in the same part of a single target.
gathered firepower to give these teams a greater chance of paralyzing the tank than a single shooter. Gunners often let the tanks rumble through their positions so that they can aim at the thinner armor behind them.
Russian infantry also use anti-tank rifles in defensive positions. The Red Army provided them with artillery companies, providing them with a weapon that could be quickly repositioned if necessary to resist flanking attacks from enemy armor.
Artillery officers usually try to position them with the best fire field in the direction of the tank attack most likely, such as along roads and open fields. When an anti-tank rifle is placed in a trench system, a circular pit is dug to allow the weapon to move 360 degrees across. Each position is connected to the rifle and machine gun position to provide support for firepower. The remaining dirt will be used to create false locations to disperse enemy fire.
When possible, anti-tank rifles will be bundled with anti-tank mines , obstacles and other weapons to form a layered defense in order to lure German armored vehicles into the kill zone where they can be continuously fixed and destroyed.
Just like in other armies, the Russians published pamphlets containing lessons learned for soldiers. The Allies often exchange techniques to help their respective soldiers improve combat performance.
The Intelligence Bulletin, issued in November 1942, contains a list of key tips for Russian anti-tank riflemen
This list emphasizes teamwork between the gunner and the loader. It also recommends that the crew get enemy tanks close to 200 yards for more effective strikes, and recommends aiming the leading tanks at narrow roads to block the path of subsequent vehicles.
A Soviet anti-tank rifle team including light machine guns advanced cautiously in the battle of Caucasus in 1942. Soviet anti-tanks often let German tanks rumble across their positions so they could aim at thinner armor behind.
further instructions include where to target and how to guide the target. If the tank moves at a speed of 36 miles per hour, this is about the highest speed of many light and medium tanks, the gunner must lead the target by one yard per 100 yards range. 's inspection of German tanks showed that shooting in the center of the rear half of the tank made the shooting more likely to damage the engine, while shooting in the rear of the turret was more likely to hit the tank's ammunition or gunner.
14.5mm bullets are heavy enough that no wind correction is required in the range below 400 yards. Soldiers who understand these details may increase the chance of damaging the armored vehicle.
It turns out that both anti-tank rifles are equally effective in combat, with nearly 250,000
produced in 1942 alone. While it seems that the semi-automatic PTRS is the weapon of choice for both, the PTRD's simpler operation and solid construction make it higher than the more complex brothers. PTRD is also lighter and smaller, making it easier to operate overall. With a trained crew, a single shot can be fired fast enough to get the job done, and 8 to 10 rounds per minute is easy to achieve. Eventually, production was transferred entirely to PTRD, although both weapons were still in service until the end of the war.
As the war progressed, the Russians and Germans began a tank arms race, with both sides competing to build more powerful tanks, thicker armor, and more powerful anti-tank gun to defeat thicker armor. In this round-robin game, the anti-tank rifle gradually became obsolete. New tanks, such as Panzer V "Black Panther" , have thick tilted armor, and most of the various tank destroyers produced by the Germans in 1943 and in the following years were equally well protected.
Red Army had to accept the fact that anti-tank rifles were hopelessly behind the curve.
By the end of 1944, the production of such weapons was completely stopped
Although their use as tank killers had ended, PTRD and PTRS were far from useless on the battlefield. Even if the production line is closed, hundreds of thousands of production lines are still in the hands of soldiers.
Even in the cauldron on the Eastern Front, tanks are not everywhere, but trucks, half-tracks, armored vehicles and tractors are already common enough.
When the opportunity arises, anti-tank rifles are always used to deal with these softer targets, and they continue to play this role. Therefore, they become what is called antimatter rifles in modern military terms. In this way, both designs served until the end of the war. After the Second World War
After the Soviet Union distributed these two weapons to allies around the world. Both North Korean and Chinese armies used them during the Korean War . During this conflict, Captain William Brofee, an enterprising American ordnance officer, wanted to make a long-range sniper rifle.
Brofee is a WWII veteran of Pacific and has been a competitive shooter since the 1930s, so he knows such a rifle is possible. The existing .30-caliber weapons simply weren't enough to meet the distance he envisioned. He picked up the seized PTRD and installed the barrel and scope of the American .50 Caliber machine gun. This weapon worked, and Brofe was able to hit a target of 2,000 yards away. The U.S. Army then tested the hybrid at the Aberdeen Test Ground, Maryland.
Soviet anti-tank rifles seemed to have disappeared from the battlefield, and dominated because of new anti-tank weapons, such as rocket grenades. They can still be seen in museums. Some are in the hands of private collectors, and some are still photographing them.Fast internet searches show videos they were fired, showing noise and gun blasting works well.
The Soviet Union was known for storing old weapons for future needs , PTRD and PTRS are no exception. Stories abound about large warehouses with hundreds of thousands of old small arms, many of which entered the world arms market after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although the authenticity of these stories is controversial, there is no doubt that old Soviet weapons continue to surface. During the Eastern Ukraine War, a video of soldiers inspecting weapons hiding shows machine guns, rifles, RPGs and a worn-out PTRD sitting on an armored vehicle.
anti-tank rifle has a relatively short lifespan in combat because its power is not enough to keep up with the rapidly developing size of the tank itself. There are several other designs that are nothing more than footnotes in military history.
Soviet PTRD and PTRS have longer lifespans than any of these designs.
These ancient anti-tank rifles were in a hurry to design and handed over to the hands of Red Army soldiers to slow down the speed of German Blitz .
(END)
Reference:
"History of World War II Weapons"
"Products of World War II - Anti-tank Rifles"
