PTRD (weapon)
| PTRD | |
|---|---|
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| general information | |
| Civil name: | Degtyaryov anti-tank rifle |
| Military designation: | PTRD, Degtjarjow anti-tank rifle model 1941, anti-tank rifle 783 (r) (Wehrmacht designation) |
| Country of operation: | Soviet Union |
| Developer / Manufacturer: |
Wassili Alexejewitsch Degtjarjow , Instrument Factory No. 2 in Kovrov |
| Manufacturer country: | Soviet Union |
| Production time: | 1941 to 1945 |
| Weapon Category: | Anti-tank rifle |
| Furnishing | |
| Overall length: | 2020 mm |
| Weight: (unloaded) | 16.30 kg |
| Barrel length : | 1350 mm |
| Technical specifications | |
| Caliber : | 14.5 x 114 mm |
| Cadence : | 6-8 rounds / min |
| Fire types: | Single fire |
| Visor : | Folding rear sight and front sight |
| Closure : | Cylinder lock |
| Charging principle: | Single loader with automatic case ejection |
| Lists on the subject | |
The PTRD was a Soviet anti-tank rifle that was used by the Red Army during World War II . The abbreviation stands for P rotiwo t ankowoje R uschjo D egtjarjowa ( Cyrillic П ротиво E button анковое р ужьё urn егтярёва ; German Degtyaryov-tank gun ).
origin
When the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 , it initially made enormous gains. The infantry units of the Red Army had little to counter the massive advances by German tanks. One of the many wrong decisions that the leadership of the Soviet armed forces made in the run-up to the war was the neglect of arming the infantry with anti-tank weapons. The existing field artillery was not up to the concentrated tank advances in the style of the Blitzkrieg . At the beginning of July 1941, Vasili Degtjarjow and Sergej Gawrilowitsch Simonow, two respected weapons designers, were commissioned to develop 14.5 × 114 mm anti- tank rifles for the front troops as quickly as possible . Simonov's design was the PTRS-41 gas pressure loader , Degtjarjow developed the PTRD single loader. By the end of 1941, Instrument Factory No. 2 in Kowrow had delivered over 16,000 PTRDs to the Red Army.
technology
Degtjarjow's design was a single loader with a cylinder lock . The rifle was equipped with a muzzle brake that absorbed a third of the recoil . The barrel was not rigidly mounted, but slid back on the buttstock after the shot, which absorbed another third of the recoil. During the return movement, the chamber stem meets an externally attached control cam which pushes it upwards and thereby unlocks the lock. The slide then slides back further due to its inertia, pulls the case out of the chamber and ejects it. The barrel was pushed forward again by a spring, the breech remaining open and having to be closed by hand after inserting a new cartridge. When closing the firing pin is cocked. The shutter can also be operated manually in the normal way (for the first shot or a malfunction).
The bullets weighed 63 grams ( B-32 bullet ) and 64.4 grams ( BS-41 bullet), respectively . At 300 m the B-32 penetrated 35 mm armor, the BS-41 penetrated 40 mm at the same distance.
The buttstock had padding which, together with the muzzle brake and the recoil, reduced the recoil of the weapon and also made it less abrupt for the shooter. This was also necessary because the powerful 14.5 mm ammunition accelerated the projectiles to a muzzle velocity of more than 1000 m / s.
The folding rear sight has two settings: “6” for 600 m and “4” for 400 m; the line of sight is offset to the left.
Advantages and disadvantages
The greatest assets of the PTRD were its reliability and precision. The penetration effect was still sufficient at the beginning of the war, with the increasing thickness of the armor of German combat vehicles, the importance of the model as an anti-tank weapon decreased. Instead, it was used as a long-range precision rifle against machine gun nests, bunkers and troop transports. One disadvantage was the low rate of fire of the single shot, another was the strong muzzle flash that revealed the position of the shooter. Despite these disadvantages, the PTRD was a coveted weapon of prey in the Wehrmacht : If one could get hold of it, the specimens were immediately given to their own troops, where they were officially listed as the Panzerbüchse 783 (r) .
Web links
- www.antitank.co.uk: PTRD 1941 (engl.)