Ammunition

The Soviets were in the process of expanding their ammunition production facilities when the Germans attacked. The numerous incidents with neighboring states before the German invasion had revealed that ammunition production was grossly insufficient. Had the invasion been delayed until 1942 the new and expanded facilities would have been on line, alleviating the shortages that plagued the Soviets in the first year of the war as pre-war stockpiles were either overrun or exhausted by the end of the year.

Unlike the artillery factories, Soviet ammunition plants were concentrated in the Donbass Basin and in the Ukraine which were overrun by the Germans during the fall. Some 303 factories were lost with a capacity of over 100 million artillery shells, 32 million mortar shells and 24 million aerial bombs. This produced a huge disparity between artillery production, which was less affected, and ammunition production. The table below shows the increases in production between the second quarter of 1941 and the third quarter of 1942. Note how gun production increased by a factor of six, but ammunition only by a factor of three.

Soviet Artillery and Ammunition Production
Quarter	Guns	Shells
2Q, 1941	100	100
3 Q	228	227
4 Q	279	209
1Q, 1942	396	158
2 Q	490	265
3 Q	633	328

The situation was partially alleviated by the reduction of aerial bomb production and the diversion of the excess situation was explosives to artillery ammunition. Bomb production peaked in 1941 at 16 million.

Powder production in early 1943 was still 9 percent below the 1941 level, while production of shell casings had tripled, but increased enough by the end of the year to meet demand.

Lend-Lease Ammunition and Explosives

Lend-Lease supplied 317,900 tons of explosive materials, equal to over half the Soviet production of approximately 600,000 tons. In addition the Allies supplied 103,293 tons of toluene, the primary ingredient of trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT. Soviet production totaled some 116,000 tons.

Without Lend-Lease the Soviets would have had a serious ammo shortage amongst all their other problems. Allied deliveries of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns were far less critical than the deliveries of explosives and other goods.

The ammunition shortage reinforced the Soviet predilection for direct fire as it was considerably more conservative of shells than indirect fire, albeit at considerable risk to the guns and crew. Another disadvantage was the frequent necessity of moving to engage new targets. The constant shortage of radios and the consequent reliance on field phones and their lack of flexibility exacerbated the situation. Compared to Western armies Soviet artillery fired fewer rounds per gun per day with up to one third of all field pieces using direct fire to engage their targets.

Soviet and German Ammunition Production, 20mm and Larger, in thousands of rounds
Date, Nation	Artillery	%	Mortar	%	Rocket	%	Totals
1940 Soviet	17,168	48.4	18,286	51.5	0	0	35,454
1940 German	106,352	82.4	22,587	17.5	179	0.1	129,118
1941 Soviet	42,234	59.0	24,869	34.8	4397	6.1	71,500
1941 German	104,688	96.4	3312	3.1	557	0.5	108,557
1942 Soviet	73,480	56	53,944	41.1	3876	2.9	131,300
1942 German	193,631	94.6	9672	4.7	1387	0.7	204,690
1943 Soviet	85,800	51.8	75,704	45.7	4120	2.5	165,624
1943 German	217,725	87.4	30,011	12	1389	0.6	249,125
1944 Soviet	94,768	53.2	78,630	44.1	4902	2.7	178,300
1944 German	281,060	86.9	39,495	12.2	2846	0.9	323,401
Note: Excludes ammunition for aircraft guns. Tonnage figures would be far more but the above figures provide a rough useful, guide.

Soviet Artillery Factories
Factory	Name	Location	Evacuated to:	Products on June 22, 1941
-	Arsenal	Kiev (3B:0607)	Votkinsk	107mm mortar, 76mm mtn gun
-	Bolshevik	Leningrad	Votkinsk	Naval guns
-	Kirov	Leningrad (2A:0931 +)	Votkinsk	76mm field and tank guns
Nr. 7	Frunze	Leningrad	Votkinsk	76mm F-22 field gun
Nr. 8	Kalinin	Moscow (2A:3216)	Votkinsk	45mm AT / tank guns, AA guns
Nr. 9	Stalin	Sverdlovsk (29:2309)	Votkinsk	122mm Howitzer M-30
Nr. 13	Kirov	Bryansk (2A:4427)	Ust-Katav	82mm mortar
Nr. 92	Stalin	Gorkiy (2A:3202)	Ust-Katav	57mm AT, 76mm tank guns
Nr. 172	Molotov	Molotov (29:2020)	Ust-Katav	122mm weapons
Nr. 221	Barrikady	Stalingrad (4A:2101)	Ust-Katav	76mm USV field gun
Nr. 235	-	Votkinsk (29:2625)	Ust-Katav	152mm hwtzr, 76mm tank guns
Nr. 352	Budennyi	Novocherkassk (4A:2613)	Votkinsk	122mm A-19 cannon
Nr. 586	Voroshilov	Kolomna (2A:3614)	Krasnoyarsk	37mm AA gun

Notes: Ust-Katav is slightly east of Ufa and Krasnoyarsk is located in Western Siberia.

More Soviet Armaments Factories

Introduction
Tube Artillery
Lend Lease Artillery, Mortars, and Rocket Artillery
Ammunition, Lend Lease Ammunition and Explosives
Armor, Armored Fighting Vehicles and Tank Factories
Lend Lease Armored Fighting Vehicles and Motor Transport
Soviet Factories and Europa