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    Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front: German and Russian Artillery in WWII
    Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front: German and Russian Artillery in WWII
    Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front: German and Russian Artillery in WWII
    Ebook378 pages38 minutes

    Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front: German and Russian Artillery in WWII

    By Stackpole Books and Michael Olive

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Visual history of the artillery used by both sides on the Eastern Front in World War II.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStackpole Books
    Release dateNov 15, 2014
    ISBN9780811749961
    Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front: German and Russian Artillery in WWII

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      Book preview

      Steel Thunder on the Eastern Front - Stackpole Books

      Acknowledgments

      INTRODUCTION

      Artillery: the king of battle, the most lethal killing instrument on the battlefield. Artillery fire is estimated to be responsible for 70 percent of the infantry casualties in World War II. By contrast, small-arms fire caused only about 1 percent of total casualties.

      Both the fragmentation and blast effect of high-explosive shells are lethal to unprotected infantry. Even deep entrenchments and reinforced bunkers are vulnerable to the variety of specialized shells employed.

      The science of artillery—both the weapons themselves and the way they were employed—improved markedly during World War I, due to the massive artillery duels taking place primarily on the Western Front. The caliber of the weapons increased and artillery tactics became far more sophisticated.

      Initially, barrages before offensives were massive, with hundreds of thousands of rounds fired over several days. Later in the war, artillery became less of a blunt instrument and was used with more precision and finesse. Creeping barrages protected advancing infantry and counter-battery artillery duels were common, with ranging and identification of enemy batteries becoming increasingly effective.

      The end of the war saw both Germany and Russia economically ruined and in a state of political upheaval. The Treaty of Versailles imposed severe restrictions on the size of the German Army, both in terms of numbers of troops and in the type, number, and size of weapons allowed.

      The armaments industry was also thrown into disarray with the two principal manufacturers of artillery, Krupp and Rheinmetall, limited in the types of guns they could produce. Krupp was restricted to weapons above 17cm caliber and Rheinmetall to weapons below 17cm. In addition, only a small number of guns of the permitted calibers were allowed to be produced.

      These restrictions were avoided when Krupp came to an arrangement with Bofors of Sweden, and Rheinmetall set up a company in Switzerland called Waffenfabrik Solothurn AG. Bofors acquired all of the foreign rights to Krupp-designed guns and Krupp sent a number of its designers to work in the Bofors factory. Rheinmetall designs originating in the design office based in Germany were manufactured in Sweden and marketed as Solothurn weapons.

      When the National Socialist Party came to power in Germany in 1933, this pretense was immediately dropped. Soon the great factories in the Ruhr were churning out masses of weapons once more.

      In the interwar years, all nations were looking for basically the same thing when it came to artillery: effective, robust, and standardizedweapons. In the case of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the war, artillery equipment was standardized on a few calibers, and the guns were well designed and reliable, having been tested extensively. The standard army field artillery were in 10.5cm, 15cm, and 21cm calibers. In order to simplify production, maintenance, and supply, a gun of a particular caliber and a howitzer (designed with a higher elevation) of the next higher caliber had interchangeable gun carriages. Antiaircraft defense relied on the 2cm and 3.7cm light guns, the 8.8cm medium gun, and the 10.5cm heavy gun. The standard antitank gun was the 3.7cm and the 7.92mm antitank rifle was provided for infantry use.

      However, the experience of combat soon disrupted this tidy arrangement. Initially, the campaigns in Poland, France, and Greece did nothing to challenge the German belief that their artillery was the best in the world, although the effectiveness of the 3.7cm PaK 36 against heavy French and British tanks was soon called into question. With the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, this illusion was shattered.

      The Soviet Army Command decided on 76mm as the caliber of the light divisional gun, 122mm for the heavy divisional gun, and 152mm for the heavy howitzer (primarily a corps or army asset). Antiaircraft guns were of 76mm and 85mm calibers. The antitank guns were of 45mm and 57mm calibers. All of these guns were well designed, robust, and offered a good ballistic performance.

      To their consternation, the Germans soon came to realize that Red Army artillery weapons were not only in no way inferior to their German counterparts but also in most cases more lightweight with longer ranges. Although the standard Soviet divisional guns fired a lighter round than their German equivalents, this was not as disadvantageous as some might assume.

      Fortunately for the Germans, huge numbers of Soviet artillery pieces were captured in the first six months of the war and eagerly accepted into the German inventory. Soon entire Wehrmacht artillery regiments were equipped with captured weapons. There was usually enough captured ammunition to meet requirements, but in the case of the excellent 122mm M-1938 gun, the Germans produced over 1 million shells.

      In response to perceived shortcomings, the German High Command demanded new guns with increased range and reduced weight. However, in assuming the war would be of short duration many promising artillery designs were abandoned, as they could not be brought into service within a year. This was a serious error as it required substantial resources and effort to try to make up for the time lost.

      A good case in point was the shock caused by the appearance of the T-34 and KV-1 tanks. The standard German 3.7mm PaK 36 antitank gun was completely useless against these vehicles. The 50mm PaK 38 was just coming into service but was only capable of destroying

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