37mm automatic anti-aircraft gun M1939 (61-K)

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37mm automatic anti-aircraft gun M1939 (61-K)


The M1939 anti-aircraft gun in the St. Petersburg Artillery Museum

General Information
Military designation: 37-мм автоматическая зенитная
пушка образца 1939 года (61-К)
37-mm anti-aircraft gun M1939
Manufacturer designation: 61-K
Manufacturer country: Soviet Union
Developer / Manufacturer: ZAKB NII-58 /
plants 4, 8
Development year: 1944
Start of production: 1950
Number of pieces: 9152 (USSR only)
Weapon Category: Anti-aircraft gun
Team: 6th
Technical specifications
Overall length: 6.1 m
Pipe length: 2315 mm (62 caliber)
Caliber :

37 mm

Cadence : 60 (practical) rounds / min
Elevation range: −5 ° to + 85 ° angular degrees
Side straightening area: 360 °
Furnishing
Sighting device : Reflex sight
Charging principle: Loading machine
Ammunition supply: Loading strip with 5 grenade cartridges

The 37-mm anti-aircraft guns M1939 was an anti-aircraft gun of caliber 37 mm of Soviet production. The Russian designation is 37-мм автоматическая зенитная пушка образца 1939 года (61-К) and means 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun model year 1939 (61-K) .

Development of the weapon began in the mid-1930s. The weapon was used by Red Army units during the Second World War. In the post-war period, the anti-aircraft gun found widespread use in the member states of the Eastern Bloc and the Warsaw Pact, as well as in countries of the Third World, and some are still in use today. License versions were produced in Poland , North Korea and the People's Republic of China .

development

As technical developments progressed, the threat to ground troops from aircraft increased from the 1920s onwards. It was therefore imperative to develop a weapon system that could be used successfully against the aircraft available at the time, but that was also agile enough to follow the units of the land forces on the battlefield. The development of such a weapon began in the Soviet Union in the mid-1930s. In 1936 a weapon was introduced with the 21-K that reached a muzzle velocity of almost 1000 m / s. In March 1938, a gas pressure charger was tested with the 100-K . However, both weapon systems could not convince overall and were not transferred to series production.

The development of an anti-aircraft gun of caliber 37 mm began in Plant No. 8 . The basis for the development was the 40 mm Bofors L / 60 model 1936 flak , on the basis of which the Soviet 49-K ( ZIK-45 ) was initially created. In the opinion of the Soviet army command, however, the 45 mm caliber was too large and the resulting weapon too heavy for use on the battlefield. In 1938, the development of a 37 mm variant was therefore ordered. The project was initially referred to as ZIK-37 and the company's own index was 61-K . The project was developed by Michael Loginow and Lew Loktew , who were later also involved in the development of the successor model S-60 . Trials were completed at the end of 1938, after which series production began the following year. Production of the 49-K , which began in the same year, was discontinued after only 190 copies. Plant No. 4 took over the production of the gun from 1942.

construction

Closing part and straightening drives

gun

The gun was largely conventional. It had a one-piece pipe and a pipe brake arranged below the pipe. The ammunition was supplied via loading strips that took five grenade cartridges. This reduced the time for reloading to four to eight seconds. The cartridge feed, the opening and closing of the breech, the release of the shot and the case ejection were controlled by an automatic loading machine. The aiming of the gun was done manually.

Visor

The AZP-37-1 reflex sight was used for the fight against air targets . This was a new type of construction for Soviet weapon systems. The scaling of the sight made it possible to quickly determine the starting points for shooting.

Mount

61-K in combat position, pipe in maximum elevation
61-K with protective shield

The gun was placed on a four-wheeled cross-shaped mount . This enabled a lateral directional range of 360 °. In the event of a battle, the side bars were swiveled out, the support plates under the bars manually extended and the wheels lifted from the ground until the carriage was horizontal. The transition from march to combat situation took one minute, and from combat to march position two minutes. In exceptional cases, it was also possible to fire directly from the marching position, i.e. without folding down the bars and extending the support plates, but the probability of hits was lower.

The wheels of the carriage were filled with foam. With acceptable driving behavior, this resulted in a high level of bullet resistance. A stub axle steering was used for the carriage construction. This enabled the lower mount to be positioned low, but the driveability of the rifled gun was unsatisfactory at high speeds.

Since the weapon was also used against earth targets in war, a light protective shield was introduced; it was attached to the upper carriage and swiveled with the weapon. In practice, however, it was rarely used.

variants

Already during the Second World War it became clear that under certain conditions a towed anti-aircraft gun could hardly follow the motorized units on the battlefield. Improvements therefore focused on improving mobility. The troops temporarily placed the 61-K on the chassis of the ZIS-5 and GAZ-AAA trucks . Starting in 1943, the 61-K was mounted on the chassis of the ZIS-5 truck and the ZIS-42 half-track vehicle in the Gorkowski Avtomobilny Sawod . This created the first serial Soviet anti-aircraft SFL.

SU-72

The SU-72 ( СУ-72 ) was a self-propelled gun. A 61-K was mounted on a chain chassis. The weapon was tested in 1941/42, but was not included in the armament.

ZSU-37

The ZSU-37 ( ЗСУ-37 ) was created on the basis of the chassis of the light self-propelled gun SU-76 . Production began in 1944, but the 70 pieces produced by the end of the war were no longer used at the front. After the end of the war, production continued until 1946, even after the SU-76 was discontinued.

W-47

The W-47 ( В-47 ) was a twin flak developed in Plant No. 4 based on the 61-K . The gun was produced from 1945 to 1949 in a number of about 150 pieces.

70-K

70-K on the Soviet cruiser Krasni Kawkas

The 70-K (also 70K, W70K) is the marine version of the 61-K . Production began before the outbreak of World War II and continued until 1955. A total of 3113 units were built and used on a large number of Soviet warships. The pipe length was significantly shorter at 2.3 m. In practice, the low cadence of the gun resulting from the design of the loading machine was criticized.

W-11K

The W-11K ( В-11K ) is a water-cooled twin version of the 70-K . The construction was introduced because with the 70-K the barrel had to be changed after every 100 shots. The service life of the pipe was extended by the water cooling. Due to the twin design, the cadence of the weapon could be increased while maintaining the construction of the loading machine. 1872 units were built between 1946 and 1957.

Type-55

The Type-55 is the Chinese replica of the original 61-K .

Type-63

The Type-63 is a Chinese self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. A 37 mm twin gun was placed on the chassis of a T-34 battle tank .

Type-65

Chinese Type-65

The Type-65 is the Chinese replica of the Soviet twin version W-47 .

Type-74

The Type-74 is a further development of the Type-65 .

Type-88

The Type-88 is a Chinese self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. A 37 mm twin gun was placed on the chassis of a T-55 main battle tank or the Chinese Type-59 version.

JP113

The JP113 is a twin gun on a towed two-axle carriage. Similar to the 40 mm Flak Breda 40 / L / 70 , the gun is located in a turret that is closed on all sides.

commitment

Countries of operation

The 61-K was exported to the following countries:

The export to Cuba and Vietnam did not take place until the 1960s, long after the weapon was no longer in production. In addition, numerous Soviet 61-Ks made their way to many African countries from the 1960s onwards.

Chinese versions were used in the following countries:

Use in the GDR

The weapon was introduced in the GDR in the so-called S-5 units of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP). In terms of size and structure, these units were in principle anti-aircraft divisions or anti-aircraft regiments. The weapons taken over by the Soviet Army were used specimens that had already been used in World War II. Only the single-barrel 61-K was used , other versions were not introduced.

After the founding of the National People's Army , the 61-K was used in the units of air defense and air defense. The two flak regiments of the 1st Flak Division (air defense) and the two flak regiments of the military districts (FR-3 and FR-5, air defense) should each consist of two departments of 85 mm anti-aircraft guns and one department of 37 mm anti-aircraft guns. In practice, however, the successor S-60 was introduced in 1956, the year of the planned conversion , so that this structure was no longer adopted.

The 61-K was used in the air defense as so-called replacement armament. The AA batteries of the tank regiments were to be equipped with the ZSU-57-2 , those of the motorized rifle regiments with the 14.5 mm Fla-MG ZPU-2 (twin) or ZPU-4 (quadruple). Since these weapons were slow to arrive, the 61-K was introduced as a replacement for the structurally intended armament. Since the S-60 was also not procured in the intended number, the 61-K was also used in the anti-aircraft regiments of the motorized rifle divisions. The use of this weapon in the air defense did not end until 1962.

In the Volksmarine , the 70-K version was used on the training ship Ernst Thälmann (1952–1961) and the mine laying and clearing ships of the Habicht class (from 1952, used until 1970). The successor model W-11-M was used on the ships of the Riga class (from 1952, used in the Volksmarine until 1977). Since targets were also optically recorded with this weapon and the gun had to be aimed manually, it actually no longer met the requirements for combating modern jet aircraft as early as the mid-1960s.

Use in wars and armed conflicts

Second World War

61-K on the Eastern Front, March 1944

During the Second World War , the Soviet front-line formations in particular were equipped with this weapon. The light and manoeuvrable gun proved to be successful in use. A disadvantage was the small number of about 700 copies available at the beginning of the war. The relocation of production to Plant No. 4 led to a drop in production that could only be overcome from mid-1942. From mid-1943 over 6,500 guns were available, this number remained almost constant until the end of the war. In the first phase of the war, the 61-K was also used successfully as an anti-tank weapon. The shell penetrated 40 mm of armored steel at a distance of 500 m, which made it possible to combat the German tanks Panzerkampfwagen II and Panzerkampfwagen III as well as the Czech and French tank types used by the German side.

German troops used captured 61-K under the designation 3.7 cm Flak M39A (r) as an anti-aircraft gun. In March 1944 there were twelve batteries with 138 guns; a total of 652 cannons are said to have been captured and used.

Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War , North Vietnamese troops used both Soviet and Chinese versions of the weapon. In addition to the rifled variants as a single-barreled weapon and twin, Chinese Type-63 flak tanks were also used. The weapon proved to be quite effective when used against air targets at low altitudes.

Gulf Wars

Iraq used the weapon system in both the First and Second Gulf Wars . Chinese Type-55 and Type-65/73 were used here .

Afghanistan

During the war in Afghanistan , Chinese and Soviet versions were or are still in the holdings of various Afghan groups.

literature

  • В.Н. Шунков: Оружие Красной Армии. Мн .: Харвест, 1999, ISBN 985-433-469-4 (Russian).
  • Hans Mehl, Kurt Schäfer: The other German Navy. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1995
  • Janes: Ammunition handbook. 2003-2004.
  • Janes: Land Based Air Defense. 2005-2006.

Web links

Commons : 37mm Automatic Anti-Aircraft Gun M1939 (61-K)  - Image Collection

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Different information is possible depending on the country of deployment and the literature