Lend-Lease Artillery

The Soviets were not interested in Allied field artillery as they needed AA and AT guns most urgently. They were not satisfied with the quality of the anti­tank guns and did not request any after 1942. On the other hand they were quite happy with Allied anti-aircraft guns and continued to request them throughout the war. The table below shows what was sent by the Allies, but only covers AA and AT guns dispatched:

Lend-Lease Artillery Shipments
Type	Shipped	Arrived
American
37mm AT	63	35
37mm AA	424	340
40mm AA	5595	5399
57mm AT	400	?
90mm AA	270	241
British
2-pdr AT	636	548
6-pdr AT	96	?

Notes: Weapons sent for evaluation purposes are not shown. 88 2­pdr guns were lost during shipment by July 1942. More may have been lost subsequently. The data is incomplete and contradictory; the numbers given above should he regarded as only approximate.

As you can see the AA guns were useful, but not vital and the AT guns rather less so.

Mortars

The Soviet deployed mortars at three echelons. The 50mm at company level, the 82mm at battalion, and the 120mm at regiment. Very few armies used mortars the size of the 120mm, but the Soviets appreciated its virtues of mobility and high rate of fire and its ease of manufacture. The German, Italian, and American armies used infantry guns and short-barreled howitzers to give the regimental commander equivalent organic indirect firepower.

The 50mm mortar was quickly phased out after combat experience showed that it was ineffective because its bomb was too small to carry a decent amount of explosives in relation to the weight of the mortar. It was replaced by the 82mm mortar.

The 120mm mortar was an excellent design that was actually copied and placed into production by the Germans where it replaced the 150mm sIG 33 infantry gun in most units.

As previously mentioned the 120mm was produced at Zavod Nr. 4 and at the Barrikady Factory in Stalingrad before it was overrun by the Germans.

Aside from the ZiS-2 the only brand-new artillery piece placed into production during the entire war was the 1.60mm mortar. It fired a round containing more explosive than the 152mm howitzer though to less than half the distance, but weighed only a third as much. Its mobility was very handy to an army always short of prime movers. It was field-tested at Kursk and was in general service by early 1944. it was deployed as part of artillery divisions and with independent heavy mortar brigades.

Mortar Production 1941-1945
Type	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
All types	42,300	229,900	69,500	7100	2600
82mm+	19,100	125,570	38,800+	?	-

Note: Figures for 1941 are for the second half only.

Rocket Artillery

The famed Katyusha rocket launcher was merely a ground mounted launcher for the aerial RS-132 rocket. Tests had begun in 1939, but by the outbreak of the war only 40 launchers for the 132mm rockets had been completed. They were first committed to battle on 7 July near Orsha.

The BM- 13 launcher with 16 rails was adaptable to just about any chassis, to include the KV- I tank. It was mounted on both Soviet and Lend-Lease trucks with a cargo capacity over a ton and a half .

A BM-8 launcher for the 82mm RS-82 aerial rocket was designed after the initial success of the BM-13 in August 1941. BM-8s were also mounted on a variety of smaller chassis, including T-40 and T-60 light tanks. 8 rail launchers were even mounted on the GAZ-67 jeep. Larger trucks could carry 48 rail launchers.

A version of the M-13 rocket was developed with a larger warhead as the M­30. Initially these were fired from the ground on frames that also served as the packing crate, much like the German schweres Wurfgerdt 40 and 41. Also like them a mobile version was developed as the BM-31 in 1944.

Little production data is available for rocket launchers aside from the figure of 3237 made in 1942. The only factory that I can confirm produced rockets was Zavod Nr. 13 at Ust-Katav. I suspect that production was extremely decentralized due to the ease that the launchers could be made.

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