ZiS-3
Encyclopedia
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
76.2 mm divisional field gun used during World War II. ZiS was a factory designation and stood for Zavod imeni Stalina ("factory named after Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
"), the honorific title of Artillery Factory No. 92, which first constructed this gun.
History
The design works of ZiS-3 started in the end of 1940 on the Artillery Factory No. 92 under supervision of V. G. GrabinVasiliy Grabin
Vasiliy Gavrilovich Grabin was a Soviet artillery designer. He led a design bureau at Joseph Stalin Factory No...
, the chief designer of medium caliber Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
guns. There was no order for this work; moreover, at this time the attitude toward such development programs on the part of artillery commanders, such as Marshal Kulik, the head officer of Soviet artillery, was extremely negative. So the project was run purely on the initiative of Grabin, his design bureau and the Artillery Factory No. 92 head and his deputies. None of them informed state authorities (i.e. Marshal Kulik) about the ZiS-3 project.
The ZiS-3 was a combination of the light carriage from the 57 mm ZiS-2
ZiS-2
The ZiS-2 was a Soviet 57-mm anti-tank gun used during World War II. The ZiS-4 was a version of the gun meant to be installed in tanks. ZiS stands for Zavod imeni Stalina , the official title of Artillery Factory No...
anti-tank gun and a powerful 76.2 mm barrel from the previous divisional field gun F-22USV
F-22USV
76-mm divisional gun M1939 was Soviet 76.2-mm divisional gun, adopted for the Red Army service in 1939 and utilized in the German-Soviet War...
. In order to decrease the gun's recoil a muzzle brake
Muzzle brake
Muzzle brakes and recoil compensators are devices that are fitted to the muzzle of a firearm or cannon to redirect propellant gases with the effect of countering both recoil of the gun and unwanted rising of the barrel during rapid fire...
was installed. This allowed the barrel to be mounted on a relatively light carriage without the risk of mechanical damage when firing. In comparison with the F-22USV gun, the ZiS-3 utilized better production technology. Many parts of the gun were cast, stamped or welded in order to reduce the amount of machine work. As a result, the amount of work required to construct a single ZiS-3 gun was three times less than that of the F-22USV gun. Furthermore, the cost to produce a ZiS-3 gun was only two thirds that of an F-22USV.
After having been built, the first ZiS-3 gun was hidden from the wathchful eyes of state authorities, who continued to ignore the Red Army's need for light and medium field guns. The authorities' main argument was the information that German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
heavy tanks carried exceptionally strong armour. In reality Germany did not have such tanks in early 1941 and this misinformation was the result of successful Nazi propaganda about the Neubaufahrzeug
Neubaufahrzeug
The German Neubaufahrzeug series of tank prototypes were a first attempt to create a heavy tank for the Wehrmacht after Adolf Hitler had come to power. Multi-turreted, heavy and slow, they did not fit in with the Blitzkrieg tactics and therefore only five were made...
multi-turreted prototype tank. Marshal Kulik had believed the propaganda and sent orders to stop the production of light 45 mm anti-tank guns and 76.2 mm divisional field guns.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War showed that German tanks had weaker armour than was anticipated. Some were even vulnerable to large caliber DShK
DShK
The DShK 1938 is a Soviet heavy machine gun firing the 12.7x108mm cartridge. The weapon was also used as a heavy infantry machine gun, in which case it was frequently deployed with a two-wheeled mounting and a single-sheet armour-plate shield...
machine guns. Pre-war models of 76 mm divisional guns penetrated German vehicles with ease, but almost all these guns were lost in battles or captured by Germans in holding facilities. Some of them were later used against Soviet forces as different kinds of Panzerjäger self-propelled gun
Self-propelled gun
A self-propelled gun is form of self-propelled artillery, and in modern use is usually used to refer to artillery pieces such as howitzers....
s. Marshal Kulik ordered that mass production of 76.2 mm divisional field F-22USV guns be relaunched. Grabin and the head staff of Artillery Factory No. 92 decided to organize the mass production of ZiS-3 guns instead of F-22USVs. They succeeded, but ZiS-3 was not officially tested and adopted for Red Army service.
Red Army soldiers were in urgent need of these guns, the guns themselves were fine and numerous due to improved production technology, but all of them were in stock at Artillery Factory No. 92, since the military representatives refused to receive non-official guns. After some internal struggle between Grabin's team and military representatives, ZiS-3 guns were finally transferred to the Red Army under personal responsibility of Grabin and Artillery Factory No. 92 head staff.
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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and thus obtain all needed approval. After the demonstration was over Stalin said: "This gun is a masterpiece of artillery systems design." There was a five-day official state test run in February 1942. The result of this test was quite clear - ZiS-3 was adopted by the Red Army as divisional field gun model 1942 (full official name).
Grabin and his team soon begun to improve on the technology used in the ZiS-3 mass production. Artillery Factory No. 92 was equipped by conveyor assembly lines, which allowed the factory to produce ZiS-3 in even greater numbers with a low qualification workforce but without significant quality loss. Experienced laborers and engineers worked on complicated equipment and served as brigade leaders. Some of the young men who worked on Artillery Factory No. 92 were exempt from conscription. They learned the production process well and became high quality workers and engineers. This was yet another boost for the ZiS-3 production volume. As a result, at the end of World War II, ZiS-3 was the most numerous Soviet Army field gun. The total number of ZiS-3s produced exceeded 103,000 pieces.
An attempt was made to mount the ZiS-3 on a light assault car. The resulting KSP-76
KSP-76
The KSP-76 was a soviet assault car that began development in 1943. It mounted a 76 mm divisional gun M1942 gun on a wheeled chassis in an attempt to provide support for scout and airborne units. The light chassis proved unable to withstand repeated firings of the gun and the project never got...
vehicle never made it beyond the prototype stage.
After the war ZiS-3 mass production ceased. It was replaced by the next model of divisional field gun, D-44
85 mm divisional gun D-44
The 85-mm divisional gun D-44 was a Soviet divisional 85-mm calibre field artillery gun used after World War II. It was designed as the replacement for the 76 mm divisional gun M1942 . The gun is no longer in front-line service with the Russian Ground Forces, although some 200 of the Chinese Type...
, which had a larger caliber (85 mm) and better anti-armour capabilities. But it weighed much more and its mobility was thus inferior to that of the ZiS-3.
The Finns captured 12 units, and designated them 76 K 42.
Ammunition data
| Available ammunition | |||
| Type | Model | Weight, kg | HE weight, g |
| Armour-piercing projectiles (muzzle velocity 700 m/s) | |||
| APHE | BR-350A | 6.3 | 155 |
| AP (solid) | BR-350SP | 6.5 | N/A |
| Composite Armour-piercing projectiles (muzzle velocity up to ? m/s) | |||
| BR-350P | 3.02 | N/A | |
| Developed after World War II | BR-350N | 3.02 | N/A |
| High explosive and fragmentation shells (muzzle velocity 680 m/s) | |||
| HE/Fragmentation steel | OF-350 | 6.2 | 710 |
| HE/Fragmentation steely iron | OF-350A | 6.2 | 640 |
| Fragmentation steely iron | O-350A | 6.21 | 540 |
| HE/Fragmentation | OF-350B | 6.2 | 540 |
| HE/Fragmentation | OF-363 | 6.2 | 540 |
| HE | F-354 | 6.41 | 785 |
| HE | F-354M | 6.1 | 815 |
| HE developed in France | F-354F | 6.41 | 785 |
| Other projectiles (muzzle velocity up to 680 m/s) | |||
| HEAT, developed after World War II | BK-354 | 7 | 740 |
| Shrapnel | Sh-354 | 6.5 | 85 |
| Shrapnel | Sh-354T | 6.66 | 85 |
| Shrapnel | Sh-354G | 6.58 | 85 |
| Shrapnel | Sh-361 | 6.61 | 85 |
| Chemical | OH-350 | 6.25 | |
| Incendiary long-range | Z-350 | 6.24 | 240 |
| Incendiary | Z-354 | 4.65 | 240 |
| Smoke long-range | D-350 | 6.45 | N/A |
| Smoke steely iron | D-350A | 6.45 | N/A |
| Armour penetration table | ||
| AP Projectile BR-350A | ||
| Distance, m | Meet angle 60°, mm | Meet angle 90°, mm |
| 100 | 67 | 82 |
| 500 | 61 | 75 |
| 1000 | 55 | 67 |
| 1500 | 49 | 60 |
| 2000 | 43 | 53 |
| These data were obtained by Soviet methods of armour penetration measurement (penetration probability equals 75%). They are not directly comparable with western data of similar type. | ||
Combat history
Soviet soldiers liked ZiS-3 guns for their extreme reliability, durability, and accuracy. It was easy to maintain these guns and train novice crews with them. Light carriage allowed the ZiS-3 to be towed by trucks and heavy jeeps (such as the American lend-leased Dodge 3/4Dodge WC series
The Dodge WC series was a range of light military trucks produced by Dodge during World War II. The series included weapon carriers, telephone installation trucks, ambulances, reconnaissance vehicles, mobile workshops and command cars. They were replaced after the war by the Dodge M-series...
) or even hauled by the crew.
ZiS-3 had good anti-armour capabilities, it could knock out any German light and medium tank with its armour-piercing round. The appearance of the Tiger I
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
and later the Panther, however, made the lives of ZiS-3 crews much harder.
A battery of ZiS-3 consisted of four guns, with three batteries combined into a division, or battalion. Independent anti-tank regiments consisted of six batteries with no divisions. In addition to the gun batteries there was a staff battery which included a fire control section.
ZiS-3 in our time
In the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
many ZiS-3s were transferred to different Soviet allies. From there ZiS-3s were often resold onto third world countries. Armies of several African and Asian countries have ZiS-3s in active service today. Moreover, these guns are still used in combat during numerous local conflicts and border skirmishes.
Soviet ZiS-3s were officially withdrawn from active service. Some of them were scrapped, some were transferred to holding facilities and others were converted to Great Patriotic War memorial signs. These memorial cannons are quite common in modern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. In Russian Army some ZiS-3s are used as decorations of buildings and gardens in artillery units quarters; another part of survived ZiS-3s is still operable. Sometimes ZiS-3s are used as small salute guns or in history-dedicated military shows.