In the late thirties the Soviets introduced an entire new generation of artillery that compared very favorably to the guns introduced by the West during the same period. In some ways they were superior as much effort was devoted to weight control, unlike most German guns which were rather heavier.

Some of these guns were either derived from Western guns or license-built. The secret Russo-German cooperation from the late twenties to Hitler's seizure of power allowed the Soviets to copy the German 37mm anti-tank gun as the M-1930 and later to scale it up to 45mm as the M-1932. Examples of the 75mm Flak R AA gun which had been rejected by the Reichswehr and the 75mm leIG 18 and 150mm sIG 33 infantry guns were sold to the Soviets by Rheinmetall. The leIG 18 was not produced as the 76mm M 1927 regimental gun was preferred, but the other two were placed into production. The sIG 33 was adapted in small numbers as the 152mm mortar M1931. The Flak R was produced in large numbers as the 76mm M1931 and was also adapted for naval service.

The Soviets also acquired a number of designs from the Skoda Works. A license to build the SB light bomber was exchanged for a license for the Czech 75mm C5 mountain gun. Many other weapons were evaluated, but only a 210mm cannon and a 305mm howitzer were selected for production. Only blueprints and prototypes were delivered before the German occupation of the rump of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. The Germans promised that the contract would be completed, but procrastinated until Barbarossa made it immaterial.

The German invasion caught a number of Soviet artillery factories in transition between models as Stalin had ordered cessation of 45mm anti-tank and 76mm regimental gun production in January 1941 on the recommendation of his imbecile chief of artillery, Marshall Kulik. It was believed that they were incapable of penetrating the armor on the mythical new generation of German heavy tanks! They were to be replaced with 107mm guns that were capable of penetrating any known tank.

This was exceedingly premature as the Tiger I had not yet even been ordered. Stalin was rather fixated on 107mm guns at the time and must have believed that the Germans were duplicating the recent developments in Soviet heavy tanks. A clear example of mirror ­imaging. There is a story that Soviet officials inspecting a German tank plant repeatedly asked to see the heaviest tank in production as they refused to believe that the Pz IV was indeed the heaviest given that it weighed some 5 tons less than the T-34, the new Soviet medium tank.

At any rate a number of factories were idled or producing at low rates as they awaited new machinery from Germany or to begin production of designs that weren't quite ready. Three factories were to produce the 57mm ZiS-2 AT gun in 1941, but the gun was very inaccurate as the initial calculations of the gun's rifling were botched. A few were manufactured at Zavod (factory) Nr. 92 after new barrels were machined, but production was suspended in favor of the 76mm field guns as they had an adequate AT performance and fired a much more effective HE round.

The Leningrad plants were the first to be effected by the invasion as they switched to producing guns and equipment needed by the isolated forces in the city. They were refurbished after the siege was lifted and were producing 100mm BS-3 field guns in 1944.

Zavod Nr. 13 in Bryansk was evacuated to Ust-Katav under German fire and began producing 82mm mortars and heavy AA gun mounts. Later it made 76 and 85mm tank guns.

The Arsenal plant at Kiev began evacuation in late June, but the last train left on 9 September, narrowly evading the German encirclement. It went to Votkinsk where it was combined with Zavod Nr. 235.

The Kolomna factory was evacuated to Krasnoyarsk where it was combined with a factory from Kaluga to form Zavod Nr. 4 and continued to produce 37mm AA guns. It later produced 120mm mortars.

The other Moscow-area plant, in the suburb of Kaliningrad, was only partially evacuated to Sverdlovsk in late 194 1. Some of its equipment and most of its personnel returned after the threat diminished.

The Novocherkassk plant was able to produce some 107mm guns in the Autumn before being evacuated to Votkinsk as the Germans neared the Rostov area.

Zavod Barrikady in Stalingrad was scheduled to begin production of the Czech siege artillery weapons, but the invasion rendered that plan moot as it commenced production of the 76mm USV field gun instead. It continued production until put out of action by German shelling in August 1942. Only small amounts of equipment were evacuated to Votkinsk before the Germans overran it in September. It had been the scene of heavy fighting during the Stalingrad battle and had to be completely rebuilt before production could resume, but it was turning out ]22mm tank guns by 1945.

The remaining plants dropped production of large-caliber weapons in favor of the smaller caliber guns that were more useful in defensive actions. Production of 152mm weapons wasn't resumed until after Stalingrad. Surviving stocks sufficed until the tide had turned. No tube artillery weapons larger than 152mm were produced until after the war.

Great efforts were made to reduce the amount of time and of materials required to produce the weapons. The 76mm USV divisional gun was redesigned to make it more suitable for antitank use and to simplify its manufacture. The new version was standardized in 1942 as the ZiS-3. The table below illustrates the Soviet accomplishment in the minimization of machine-hours and parts required for manufacture of a variety of 76mm field guns:

Productivity and Component Parts for 76mm Guns

Gun Model	Hours	Parts
M1902	-	3700
M 1936 (F-22)	2034	2080
M 1939 (USV)	1300	1057
ZiS-3 in 1942	1029	719
ZiS-3 in 1943	-	909
ZiS-3 in 1944	-	475

The decline in hours required for the ZiS-3 is a perfect example of the learning curve in manufacturing, though I suspect some of the steep decline in 1944 is attributable to sophisticated machine tools supplied through Lend­Lease.

Rather than add to the logistical burden of the field forces by deploying the 57mm AT gun, despite its excellent armor penetration capabilities, an improved version of the existing 45min AT gun, the M-42, was designed and placed into production by early 1942 at Zavod Nr. 172. A new, longer barrel of 68 calibre was used and the propellant was improved so that it gained an additional I 10 m/sec velocity for a weight penalty of only 65 kg.

The ZiS-2 was later modified by placing on the carriage of the ZiS-3 and was deployed by 1943 to counter the heavier armor of German tanks.

Production of the M-42 was curtailed after the introduction of the ZiS-2 and its carriage was used for a new 76mm regimental gun with a 19 caliber barrel.

Production of the 152mm howitzer itself was revived after Stalingrad with an entirely new barrel of the same dimensions as the M-10 howitzer with a muzzle-brake added and mounted on the carriage of the 122mm howitzer. It saved nearly a metric ton of weight and performed just as well. Proposals in 1941 to field a 85mm AA gun on the same carriage were rejected as production of both urgently needed weapons would have been disrupted.

The 100mm L/56 BS-3 field gun was adapted from a prewar naval gun and had a performance slightly superior to the German 88m L/56 tank and AA guns. Its adoption was forced by the appearance of large numbers of heavy German tanks and first appeared in large numbers in 1944.

German designs of hollow-charge and sub-caliber AT rounds were copied to improve the performance of the Soviet artillery as it often engaged German tanks over open sights. These copies weren't as effective as they could have been due to poor design and manufacturing limitations.

While detailed statistics are unavailable some figures available and the available numbers for Soviet artillery production are shown in the table below, excluding in some 100,000 vehicle guns.

Soviet Artillery Production 1 July 41- 30 June 1945
Year	AT	Field	AA	Total
1941	?	10,813	2412	2
1942	20,099	29,561	6488	56,148
1943	23,200	21,753	10,671	55,624
1944	8510	23,841	10,249	42,600
1945	3700	11,800	2600	18,100
Totals	57,732	97,768	32,600	188,100

[Notes: Numbers in Italics are interpolations. boldface figures are estimates and are less reliable than the interpolations. AT-less than 76mm; Field-76mm+; AA-25-85mm. 56,580 of these were ZiS-3 field guns and 9860 were ZiS2 AT guns.]

Of the roughly 290,000 AA, AT, field and tank guns produced, the majority were in produced in 5 factories. Zavod Nr. 92 made 95,000 while the facilities in Votkinsk produced 52,000. Zavod Nr. 172 turned out 48,600 while Zavod Nr. 9 and Nr. 8 trailed with 30,000 and 20,000 manufactured respectively.

Despite the lack of definitive statistics for either nation it is possible to compare artillery production between Germany and the USSR. A few interesting facts emerge as Germany outproduced the USSR in 1944 in total production and outproduced it in AA guns every year. Two-thirds of German production between 1942 and 1944 was of AA guns while the Soviet figure was only one-sixth. If the Combined Bomber Offensive had no other effect, it diverted much in the way of German armaments production to counter it, constituting, in effect, an economic Second Front. As many of the Luftwaffe Home Defense flak units were manned by students and women, the lack of Allied air activity over the Reich would not have allowed the diversion of all those flak guns to combat theaters because of manpower limitations.

The following tables illustrate the production of both countries:

Production of AA, AT and Field Guns 1942-1944
Year	USSR	Germany
1942	56,148	40,574
1943	55,624	62,088
1944	42,600	90,782
Production of 75mm+ AT and Field Guns
Year	USSR	Germany
1942	29,561	6,562
1943	21,753	16,470
1944	23,841	32,062
Production of 75mm+ Guns of all Types
Year	USSR	Germany
1942	49,100	13,113
1943	48,400	36,326
1944	56,100	62,940
Note: Includes tank guns.

AA Gun Production 1942-1945, gun calibre in mm.
Soviet Union
Year	25mm	37mm	85mm	Total
1942	228	3499	2761	6,488
1943	1486	5472	3713	10,671
1944	2353	5993	1903	10,249

Germany
Year	20mm	37mm	88mm	105	128	Total
1942	22,372	2137	2867	701	65	28,161
1943	31,503	5131	4416	1220	298	42,568
1944	42,688	8304	5933	1131	664	58,720

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