MajorBooBoo

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They were in a state of expansion. That could mean that there were new 45mm plants coming on line and grasping with QC issues. Hence a difference in performance of product. Its certainly interesting information non-the-less. Did the germans capture whole plants capable of manufacturing ammo for 76mm field guns, 120mm mortars, etc.? I recall that the ammo dumps were very close to the front, so by retreating, the russians really got a double whammy. Losing ammo dumps and factories.

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 consumed. 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 gun 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. http://members.tripod.com/~Sturmvogel/SovWarProd.html 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 imbecilic chief of artillery, Marshall Kulik. Kulik had convinced himself, based on sketchy intelligence reports, 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. It would seem that the soviets could have lost some tech know-how after the start of the war when the ammunition factories were overun.