John Kettler Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 (edited) This is a great account by a vet who had quite a few jobs in the Red Army but ultimately wound up as driver-mechanic in an SU-76 and worked his way up from there. His account gives a superb picture of serving in them, operating them, life in the crew, including combat, killing the foe and being killed by the foe, too. He was wounded, became a Su-76 commander and had quite the unexpected end to his war, too. One of the things which really stands out is how stealthy the critter was in first gear--practically noiseless, whereas he says the clattering T-34s could be heard from 3 kilometers away. Battery frontage in the defense was a kilometer.http://english.battlefield.ru/memoirs/65-rem-ulanov-su-76m-commander.html Regards, John Kettler Edited May 14, 2020 by John Kettler 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 Some good stuff: "...we were instructed how to engage Tigers. 2 SPs work together. One SP opens fire, and, backing up, serves as bait for a Tiger. When the Tiger has his side exposed, the second SP opens on him at 300m or less. The trick was so simple!" 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combatintman Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 23 minutes ago, Erwin said: Some good stuff: "...we were instructed how to engage Tigers. 2 SPs work together. One SP opens fire, and, backing up, serves as bait for a Tiger. When the Tiger has his side exposed, the second SP opens on him at 300m or less. The trick was so simple!" No need for those big maps then eh … 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 When I read the story I thought 300m seemed short range for the Russian steppes... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Normal open fire ranges for ATGs were 500 meters for the 45 mm guns 53-K and M-42 and 750 for the 76.2 mm ZIS-3 DP used as an ATG. I wouldn't give up on big maps just because of this tactic, not least because it's difficult to implement on the open steppe. Essentially, the tactic is a compressed version of the "L" shaped towed ATG battery deployment, which had three guns abreast 250-300 meters apart and a flan gun right or left about (working from memory) 100 meters forward of the gun line. The flank gun would open fire, trying to lure the galled Panzers into turning, thus exposing their flanks to fire from the gun line, but flank guns tended not to last long, whether from counter fire or from being crunched by overrunning Panzers. In his excellent Destroying the Myth, Zamulin repeatedly comments on the deadly accuracy of German tank fire, thanks to superior optics, and from ranges where the Russian tanks and antitank guns couldn't fight effectively. He says that frequently, the Russian gun got off when shot before being destroyed. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Did you like the flan gun--operated by the little known (okay, unknown) Mexican contingent known as the Contra Capitalistas? Might've been a typo, though. In any event, the open fire ranges were taken from Artem Drabkin's excellent and altogether too short Panzer Killers. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 On 5/17/2020 at 10:33 PM, John Kettler said: Normal open fire ranges for ATGs were 500 meters for the 45 mm guns 53-K and M-42 and 750 for the 76.2 mm ZIS-3 DP used as an ATG. I wouldn't give up on big maps just because of this tactic, not least because it's difficult to implement on the open steppe. Essentially, the tactic is a compressed version of the "L" shaped towed ATG battery deployment, which had three guns abreast 250-300 meters apart and a flan gun right or left about (working from memory) 100 meters forward of the gun line. The flank gun would open fire, trying to lure the galled Panzers into turning, thus exposing their flanks to fire from the gun line, but flank guns tended not to last long, whether from counter fire or from being crunched by overrunning Panzers. In his excellent Destroying the Myth, Zamulin repeatedly comments on the deadly accuracy of German tank fire, thanks to superior optics, and from ranges where the Russian tanks and antitank guns couldn't fight effectively. He says that frequently, the Russian gun got off when shot before being destroyed. Regards, John Kettler Sigh. Frequently, the Russian gun got off one shot before being destroyed. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 This should be of keen interest, since it is a set of highly detailed Front-level orders on use of SU-76 in battle, both offensively and defensively. Two key points from a CM perspective are: 1) Scale of issue is one 4-gun Battery supports an Infantry Battalion, and 2) "the Battery is indivisible". A third item is that the Battery is either in or 100 meters behind the infantry.https://www.tankarchives.ca/2015/07/su-76-manual.html Regards, John Kettler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM Stuff Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, John Kettler said: This should be of keen interest, since it is a set of highly detailed Front-level orders on use of SU-76 in battle, both offensively and defensively. Two key points from a CM perspective are: 1) Scale of issue is one 4-gun Battery supports an Infantry Battalion, and 2) "the Battery is indivisible". A third item is that the Battery is either in or 100 meters behind the infantry.https://www.tankarchives.ca/2015/07/su-76-manual.html Regards, John Kettler Thanks you John for this BLog Archive, with lot of interresting links. Edited June 1, 2020 by 3j2m7 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.