PTRD-41

Origins

Before the war the Red Army had tested several anti-tank rifles, and a powerful 14.5mm cartridge had already been developed for them. None was in mass production when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, and the infantry had few ways to stop tanks except guns, grenades and bottles of gasoline. In July 1941 the State Defense Committee demanded a simple anti-tank rifle at once. Two leading designers, Vasily Degtyaryov and Sergei Simonov, each produced a working design in about three weeks. Both were adopted on 29 August 1941: Degtyaryov's single-shot PTRD and Simonov's five-shot semi-automatic PTRS. The PTRD was much simpler and cheaper to build, so it reached the troops first and in greater numbers.

Design & Construction

The PTRD is a long, plain weapon about 2 meters (78.7 inches) long and weighing about 17 kilograms (38 pounds). It has a folding bipod, a carrying handle, a padded shoulder stock and a large muzzle brake. It fires one round at a time, but the action is cleverly arranged: the barrel and receiver recoil in the stock, and the bolt handle strikes a cam that unlocks the bolt and lets it fly open, throwing out the empty case. The gunner then only has to load a fresh cartridge and close the bolt. This made a steady rate of fire of perhaps eight to ten rounds a minute possible. The cartridge, later known as 14.5x114mm, fired armor-piercing incendiary bullets, some with hard tungsten carbide cores. At 100 meters they could pierce roughly 35 to 40mm of armor, depending on the bullet and the angle of impact. The rifle was served by a crew of two, the gunner and an assistant who carried ammunition and helped move the weapon.

Combat Use

PTRDs first reached the front in large numbers during the defense of Moscow in the autumn of 1941, where they were effective against the light and medium German tanks of the time. Each rifle regiment gained an anti-tank rifle company, and separate anti-tank rifle battalions were formed. By 1943 German tanks had thicker armor, and the PTRD could not penetrate the front of a Panzer IV, a Panther or a Tiger. It could still hit the thinner sides, tracks and vision slits, and it was deadly to half-tracks, armored cars and light vehicles. At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 anti-tank rifle teams were built into the Soviet strongpoints alongside guns such as the ZiS-3, and they fired at the flanks of passing tanks and at the infantry carriers following them. The Germans fitted thin steel side skirts, called Schürzen, to many of their tanks and assault guns in 1943, partly to defeat Soviet anti-tank rifle fire. Soviet factories made the PTRD and PTRS in the hundreds of thousands during World War II.

Legacy

As tank armor grew thicker, the anti-tank rifle faded, and production was cut back sharply in 1944. Troops still used PTRDs against lightly armored vehicles, bunker slits and even low-flying aircraft. North Korean and Chinese forces used them in the Korean War, and captured examples turned up in later conflicts. The 14.5x114mm cartridge had a longer life than the rifle: after the war it became the round of the KPV heavy machine gun, which armed Soviet armored vehicles and anti-aircraft mountings for decades. The idea of a powerful, man-portable rifle for hitting materiel at long range returned in the form of modern large-caliber sniper rifles.