PTRD-41


The PTRD-41 is an anti-tank rifle that was produced and used from 1941 by the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It is a single-shot weapon which fires the 14.5×114 mm round, which was able to penetrate German tanks such as the Panzer III and early models of the Panzer IV. Although unable to penetrate the frontal armor of late-war German tanks, it could penetrate their thinner side and top armor at close ranges as well as thinly armored self-propelled guns and half-tracks.

History

In 1939, during the Soviet invasion of Poland, the USSR captured several hundred Polish kb ppanc wz. 35 anti-tank rifles, which had proved effective against German tanks during the September Campaign. A Russian engineer Vasily Degtyaryov copied its lock and several features of the German Panzerbüchse 38 when hasty construction of an anti-tank rifle was ordered in July 1941.
The PTRD and the similar but semi-automatic PTRS-41 were the only individual anti-tank weapons available to the Red Army in numbers upon the outbreak of the war with Germany. The 14.5 mm armor-piercing bullet had a muzzle velocity of. The bullet had a steel core and could penetrate around of armor at, and of armor at. During the initial invasion, and indeed throughout the war, most German tanks had side armor thinner than .
Guns captured by the Germans were given the designation 14.5 mm PzB 783.
After World War II the PTRD was also used extensively by North Korean and Chinese armed forces in the Korean War. During this war, William Brophy, a US Army Ordnance officer, mounted a.50 BMG barrel to a captured PTRD to examine the effectiveness of long-range shooting. Furthermore, the US also captured a number of PTRDs in the Vietnam War. The weapon proved effective out to.

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