Anti-tank rifle PTRS (Simonova) was adopted by the summer of 1941. It was intended to attack medium and light tanks, aircraft, as well as armored vehicles at a distance of up to 500 meters. In addition, from the gun it was possible to withstand bunkers, bunkers and enemy firing points covered by armor from a distance of up to 800 meters. The gun played a crucial role on the battlefield of World War II. The article will consider the history of its creation and application, as well as tactical and technical characteristics.
Historical reference
Anti-tank rifle (PTR) is a hand-held small arms capable of withstanding the enemy’s 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 a bullet is achieved, allowing to hit the armor. PTRs from the Second World War were able to penetrate 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 Germans first prototypes of PTR appeared at the end of the First World War. They compensated for the lack of efficiency with high mobility, convenient camouflage and low cost. The Second World War became a real finest hour for the PTR, because this type of weapon was massively used by absolutely all participants in the conflict.
The Second World War was the first large-scale conflict in the history of mankind, which perfectly fits the definition of “war of motors”. Tanks and other types of armored vehicles became the basis of shock force. It was 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 combat enemy armored vehicles. They needed a simple and maneuverable tool that could withstand heavy vehicles. That is how the anti-tank gun became. In 1941, two samples of such weapons were immediately adopted: Degtyarev's gun and Simonov's gun. The general public is much better acquainted with the PTRD. Movies and books contributed to this. But PTRS-41 is known much worse, and it was not produced in such volumes. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to belittle the merits of this gun.
The first attempt to introduce PTR
In the Soviet Union, the creation of an anti-tank gun has been actively worked since the 40s of the last century. Especially for the promising PTR model, a powerful cartridge of 14.5 mm caliber was developed. In 1939, several PTR models from Soviet engineers were tested at once. The competition was won by the anti-tank rifle of the Rukavishnikov system, but its production was never adjusted. The Soviet military leadership believed that in the future armored vehicles would be protected with at least 50 mm armor, and the use of anti-tank rifles would be inappropriate.
PTRS development
The leadership’s assumption turned out to be completely wrong: all types of armored vehicles used by the Wehrmacht in the early days of the war could be hit from anti-tank rifles, even when shooting in frontal projection. July 8, 1941, the military leadership decided to establish mass production of PTR. Rukavishnikov’s model was recognized as complicated and too expensive for the then conditions. A new competition was announced to create a suitable PTR, in which two engineers took part: Vasily Degtyarev and Sergey Simonov. Literally after 22 days, the designers presented the prototypes of their guns. Stalin liked both samples, and soon they were put into series.
Exploitation
Already in October 1941 anti-tank rifle PTRS (Simonova) began to enter the army. In the first cases of use, it has demonstrated its high efficiency. In 1941, the Nazis did not have such armored vehicles that could resist the fire of Simonov’s gun. The weapon was very easy to use and did not need 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, a weak armor-like effect of a 14.5-mm cartridge was noted more than once: some enemy vehicles lined from the PTR had more than a dozen holes.
German generals have repeatedly noted the effectiveness of PTRS-41. According to them, Soviet anti-tank rifles were significantly 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 importance of the PTR as the main means of fighting tanks began to decrease. However, even in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, armor-piercers more than once glorified these weapons.
Production decline
Since it was more difficult and more expensive to produce an anti-tank self-loading rifle of the Simonov system than PTR Degtyarev, it was produced in much smaller quantities. By 1943, the Germans began to strengthen 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 completely stopped. Attempts to modernize the gun and increase its armor penetration were undertaken by various talented designers in 1942-1943, however, all of them were unsuccessful. Modifications created by S. Rashkov, S. Ermolaev, M. Blum and V. Sluhotsky better penetrated armor, but were less mobile and larger than full-time PTRS and PTRD. In 1945, it became completely clear that as a means of fighting tanks, an anti-tank self-loading rifle had exhausted itself.
In the last years of World War II, when it was already pointless to attack tanks with PTR, armor-piercers began to use them to destroy armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery installations, long-term firing points and low-flying air targets.
In 1941, 77 copies of PTRS were produced, and the next year - 63.3 thousand. In total, about 190 thousand guns left the assembly line by the end of World War II. Some of them found application in the Korean War.
Features of use
From a distance of 100 meters, an anti-tank gun PTRS (Simonova) 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 effect. So in military practice they call the effectiveness of a bullet after penetrating armor. To get into the tank and break through it in most cases was not enough, it was necessary to hit the tanker or some important machine unit.
The operational efficiency of the PRTS and PTRD decreased significantly when the Germans began to increase the armor protection of their equipment. As a result, it was 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 firing an anti-tank rifle, large clouds of dust rose around him, giving out the firing position of the shooter. Enemy machine gunners, snipers and infantry escorting the tank led a real hunt for fighters armed with anti-tank guns. It often happened that after repulsing a tank offensive, not a single surviving fighter remained in the armor-piercing company.
Design
Gun automation provides for the partial removal of powder gases from the barrel. To control this process, a three-way regulator is installed, dosing the amount of gases discharged to the piston, depending on the conditions of use. The 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 shutter remains in the open position. The design uses a flag type fuse.
The barrel has eight right-handed rifling and is equipped with a muzzle brake. Thanks to the brake-compensator, the recoil of the gun was significantly reduced. The butt plate is equipped with a shock absorber (pillow). The stationary store has a hinged bottom cover and a lever feeder. Charging is carried out from below, using a metal pack of five cartridges stacked in a checkerboard pattern. Six of these packs came complete with PTRS. The firing range with a high probability of an effective hit was 800 meters. As sights, an open sector-type sight was used, operating in the range of 100-1500 meters. The shotgun that Sergey Simonov created was structurally harder and heavier than the Degtyarev shotgun, but it won 5 rounds per minute in rate of fire.
PTRS was serviced by a crew of two fighters. In battle, a gun could carry one calculation number or two. Handles for transportation were mounted on the butt and barrel. In the stowed position, the PTR could be disassembled into two parts: a receiver with a butt and a barrel with a bipod.
Under the caliber PTRS developed a cartridge that could be equipped with two types of bullets :
- B-32. A simple armor-piercing incendiary bullet with a hardened steel core.
- BS-41. Differs from B-32 with a ceramic-metal core.
PTRS: characteristics
Summarizing all of the above, we give the main characteristics of the gun:
- Caliber - 14.5 mm.
- Weight - 20.9 kg.
- Length - 2108 mm.
- Rate of fire - 15 rounds per minute.
- The speed of the bullet at the exit from the barrel is 1012 m / s.
- Bullet weight - 64 g.
- Muzzle energy - 3320 kgm.
- Armor-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 were afraid. It was trouble-free, unpretentious, very maneuverable and quite effective. Simonov’s anti-tank self-loading rifle exceeded all foreign counterparts in its operational and combat characteristics. But most importantly, it was this type of weapon that helped the Soviet troops overcome the so-called tank fear.