|
Weapons Used by Soviet
Snipers
|
HISTORY
ARMOUR (21/25) 1998
|
Illustration 1 Soviet sniper with sniper rifle model 1891/30 with telescopic sight PE (1934)
WEAPONS
USED BY SOVIET SNIPERS
SERGEY
MONETCHIKOV
Translated by Paul Tamony
After the First World War sniping
became an integral part of army life, forming an essential part of
military training for marksmen selected from the ranks. However, in
our country serious interest in what a sniper could do had to wait
until the end of the twenties, interesting not so much the higher
military command but the chiefs of the all-powerful OGPU-NKVD. Close
military technical co-operation between the Soviet Union and the
Weimar Republic of Germany ensured the delivery of the latest
military equipment and weapons to our country during that period
together with weapon production technology. At that time too the
first factories producing telescopic sights appeared in the USSR.
This very fact, combined with the start on improving the basic
infantry rifle the Mosin three line, led to the production of the
first Soviet type of sniper rifle in 1927-28 modelled on the dragoon
rifle type 1891.
Illustration
2 Section of the type 1891/30 sniper rifle with VP (view from
left) telescopic sight.
Illustration
3 Securing the VP telescopic sight to the 1891/30 type sniper
rifle.
THE NEW sniper variant of the old rifle was
fitted with a D III («Dynamo», model 3) 4-magnitude telescopic
sight. The first national telescopic sight D III was a copy of the
German «Zeiss» sight and was designed for accurate fire at small
targets appearing briefly in the marksman's angle of fire. It was an
optical image amplification device fitted with an elevation adjuster
and lateral deflection recorder. The top part of the eyepiece had a
micrometer with range drum and graduation scale from 1 to 10
(through D every 100 m) and on the left it had a horizontal scale
lateral deflection drum. The sight device consisted of a vertical
hairline with a sharp extremity (the sight stub) and horizontal
hairlines placed at right angles to the stub. The upper edge of the
horizontal hairlines was level with the sharp end of the stub
forming a sight crosshairs. As long as the aiming device and the
target image were within the focal plane of the sight lens, the
rifle was aimed by lining up the point of the crosshairs with the
target image.
 |
Illustration
4 Section of sniper rifle type 1891/30 with PU telescopic sight
(view from left)
Aimed fire could be carried out
with the sniper rifle fitted with a telescopic sight from 100 to
1000 ms, and a distance of 600 m with an open tangent sight
(without removing the telescopic sight). The new weapon fitted with
our sights proved to be very efficient. So much so that when firing
off a 10-shot ripple fire over a distance of 100 m the dispersion
pattern was 3.5 cm, over 200 7.5, over 400 18.0 and over 600
35.0. Sniper rifles had already become part of the armament of the
escort guards and border troops of the OGPU-NKVD. The Soviet Armed
Forces brought in an analogous weapon two years later in 1930.
Whilst the designers at the design bureau of the Tula ordnance plant
were carrying out detailed work on improving the standard weapon,
they developed a special sniper rifle, the 1891/30 type 7.62-mm
rifle, which differed from the standard model by having a telescopic
sight, a high-quality barrel, a bolt cylinder handle bent downwards
to facilitate loading, no bayonet, a foresight raised by 1 mm and
trigger pressure reduced to 2 2.4 kg.
Illustration
5 Securing the VP telescopic sight to the 1891/30 type sniper
rifle.
The
basic ballistic features of the sniper rifle (without bayonet) were
analogous to those mass-produced rifles, but the purpose-built rifle
was more accurate. It was selected from the weapons showing the best
firing results and was specially produced with a more finely
finished bore surface and reduced tolerances.
Illustration
6 Section of the SVT-40 sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight
(view from left).
The combat stability
of sniper rifles was considerably greater than that of mass-produced
products, due to the stock being more carefully adjusted to the
breech. The stock was generally made from high quality material
namely walnut wood. Because the sight setting overlapped the
cartridge clip slot in the breech, sniper rifles could not be loaded
with standard five-round clips. They could only be loaded with one
cartridge, which greatly reduced their efficiency in combat.
Illustration 7 Sniper I. Antonov,
a naval rating from the Baltic Fleet, in ambush. During the Great
Patriotic War this expert marksman killed more than 300 fascists.
At first, the 4-magnitude sight
mark PT of the 1930 model was adopted for the army sniper rifle, but
once its defects had become apparent, an improved modification, the
VP optical sight model of 193I appeared the following year. But even
in the case of this sight Model, our designers could not achieve a
completely airtight eyepiece due to a poorly designed dioptric ring.
Both the PT and the VP sights, as well as the D III sight were
mounted on a bracket designed by A. A. Smirsky. The base of this
mounting bracket was firmly secured by a guard with six screws to
the front part of the breech, although such a sight arrangement made
it difficult to load the weapon. Consequently an improved
4-magnitude type PE sight replaced the VP telescopic sight in
1936-1937. Weighing 0.62 g, it was designed to fire over a range of
up to 1400 m. The reliable "Seso" bracket construction with sight
fixed to the side greatly influenced the precision of aim during
firing, and also allowed the use of an open ramp sight in case of
damage during action.
Illustration 8 The
PU
The VP
In the nineteen thirties the "Voroshilov
marksmen" achieved great prominence throughout the Soviet Union.
Training in aimed fire assumed great importance. A large-scale
network of indoor ranges developed and young people learned to shoot
on numerous courses and in the Osoaviachim schools. The sniper
weapon went through its first great baptism of fire during the
Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40, when the excellent qualities of our
rifles fitted with the VP, PT and PE sights were demonstrated in
combat.
Illustration 9 The 1891/30-type
sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight and the SVT-40 sniper rifle
with PU telescopic sight.
The reliance placed by the higher
military command before the war on the large-scale use of automatic
weapons by the infantry led to the plan started in 1937 to replace
the 1891/30 sniper rifle with the 7.62 mm automatic sniper rifle
that used the S. G. Simonov (AVS) of 1936. However, the high
dispersion factor even during single shot fire resulted in only a
small batch of Simonov sniper rifles being produced. Three years
later in 1940 the 1891/30 7.62 mm sniper rifle was replaced by the
new 7.62 mm self-loading sniper rifle that used the Tokarev (SVT)
system. This differed from the basic SVT-40 standard model by not
only having a new general-purpose 3.5 magnitude PU telescopic sight
(the universal sight), but also by its precision made bore that
enhanced its accuracy.
Illustration 10 The 1891/30 sniper rifle with PU telescopic
sight.
The 1891/30
sniper rifle with VP telescopic sight.
Illustration
11 1891/30 sniper rifles with the VP telescopic sight and the
SVT-40 sniper rifle with the PU telescopic sight.
The PU sight weighing 0.27 kg was
a lot lighter than its predecessors. Fixing the PU sight with a
bracket above the breech according to the Tokarev system enabled the
rifle to be fired over a range of up to 600 m with an open ramp
sight. The great success of the new sniper self-loading SVT rifle
compared with the Mosin magazine rifle was its elevated rate of fire
from 25 to 40 aimed shots a minute. The SVT-40 sniper rifles were
widely used essentially for shooting at different targets appearing
in the field of view for only a short time. However, the hard
reality of fighting at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War
clearly indicated that the SVT-40 sniper rifle, despite its many
fine qualities, was considerably inferior to its predecessor with
respect to the main feature regarding this weapon consistent
grouping. At the same time, the SVT sniper rifle had a wide range of
other faults. According to front-line soldiers who used this weapon,
it was considerably inferior to the 1891/30 rifle when it came to
accuracy over a range of more than 200 m. Its pronounced muzzle
flash during firing gave away the position of the sniper (caused by
the fact that the SVT's barrel was 100 mm shorter than that of the
Mosin rifle). When fired the SVT had time lags, which made it
impossible for the sniper to fire the second shot at the target. The
numerous complaints about the SVT sniper rifles from the front
forced the Soviet military command to recall once again the
undeservedly forgotten old 1891/30-sniper rifle. The sniper SVT-40
was withdrawn from production in October 1941. However, not all of
our warriors were so solidly set against the weapon. For instance,
Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the
renowned sniper from the 54'" rife regiment of the 25 rifle
division, killed 309 fascists with her SVT-40 sniper rifle in the
fighting that took place around Odessa and Sebastopol.
Illustration 12 Hero of the
Soviet Union Ivan Mrkulov knows that his invisible hat can be found
anywhere. Fighting is going on in the marshes the experienced
sniper is camouflaged with sedge and reeds.
At the beginning of 1942 the Izhevsk
machine factory restored production of the 1891/30 sniper rifles.
But even this rifle had certain shortcomings. First of all, the
front-line troops did not like its weight or its inordinate length
since working with it for long periods proved to be tiring for the
sniper. Its low rate of fire 10-12 aimed shots a minute also
failed to fully meet the requirements of modern mobile fast moving
combat.
Illustration
13 Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Hero of the Soviet Union, in the
forefront of defence.
Its
non-adjustable trigger action gave rise to strong complaints since
its stiff trigger could not guarantee accurate aiming. The move to
more simple technology and cheaper production resulted in stocks,
made from birch wood since 1942, often becoming distorted and
warped, which never happened to weapons with high-quality walnut
stocks. Some snipers commented on the poor quality of the optics,
particularly of the PU sights produced in 1943-1944. Furthermore,
front-line fighters discovered that when zeroing the rifle, the
setting on the micrometer scale for vertical sight corrections did
not always correspond to the actual distances and frequent
adjustments of the vertical corrections led to horizontal
deflection.
Illustration 14 Ivan Merkulov
shows his young trainee Zolotoy how he should dress "to go hunting"
Attention was drawn
to the poor positioning of the PU telescope sight on the rifle. It
was noted in particular that the sight was placed far from the eye
of the marksman which meant that when the sniper was taking up
position to aim he had to move his cheek away from the rifle butt up
to 3 cm and stretch his neck (to be able to observe the entire field
of view without having lunar-shaped shadows halo effects - along
the edges). Because the marksman's head was in the wrong position
his eye would be drawn away from the optical axis of the sight
causing him to aim badly.
Illustration 15 drawn by sniper
sergeant Nikolay Sokolov.
Apart from the telescopic sight, field glasses of
6-(8) magnitude and the TR observer tubes for observing the battle
area formed part of our snipers' weapons during the war. The
experience of war convincingly proved that a sniper, in addition to
his basic weapon The sniper rifle also needs additional weapons
to deal with the enemy in close combat. Many of our snipers going
into the field took with them 2-3 hand grenades, pistols, Finnish
hunting knives or the 1940-type scout knives. When working in pairs,
snipers also took along machine pistols. These weapons were needed
by snipers who often had to go beyond the forward edge of the battle
area where they could easily stumble upon an ambush or an enemy
reconnaissance patrol. The following ammunition was used by Soviet
snipers during the Great Patriotic War: 7.62 mm rifle cartridges
with light, heavy, armour-piercing (B-30), armour-piercing
incendiary (B-32), ranging adjustment incendiary (PZ) and tracer
(T-46) bullets. Cartridges with light and heavy bullets, as a rule,
were used for firing at enemy personnel; armour-piercing and
armour-piercing incendiary rounds for destroying machine-gun
crews, guns (particularly direct laying guns) and PTR (RPG), and
also for firing at the firing ports of firing positions (DOTs) and
earth and timber strongholds (DZOTs), stereoscopic telescopes, motor
transport and diving aircraft. Incendiary bullet cartridges were
used for setting fire to installations, buildings and targets
hindering the observation and bombardment of hidden enemy snipers,
as well as enemy earth and timber pillboxes. Tracer bullet rounds
for target indication (when advancing). Ranging adjustment
(explosive)) bullets used for firing at highly inflammable targets
and for correcting fire directed at moving and stationary targets
were generally not used by Soviet snipers at all during the war. The
individual reserve (first line scale) of rounds depended on the task
to be carried out by the sniper and on the type of battle (offensive
or defensive). Most of our snipers usually took along 120 rifle
cartridges of which 60% were cartridges of light or heavy bullets
(usually of one batch), 25% armour-piercing incendiary rounds and
about 15% of incendiary and tracer bullets.
Illustration 16
1. Sniper's dugout.
The sniper-fighter fires. The sniper-observer looks for the target
after inserting his periscope into a hollowed-out cross.
2. The most vigilant
enemy sniper would not spot the marksman hiding at the bottom of
this dugout.
3. This rick in
which the sniper has concealed himself looks just like any other.
4. When
fighting takes place in rocky mountains, the best camouflage for the
sniper is artificial stone.
The constant increase in sniper
activity in the Red Army demanded a considerable increase in the
production of special arms. Between 1941-43 alone the factory "Izmash"
sent to the front more than 330 000-sniper rifles of type 1891/30.
War experience showed that this rifle fitted with the PU telescopic
sight was one of the best in its class and was superior to the
analogous weapon of our enemy (the 7.92-mm German sniper carbine Z.f.
Kar. 98k). In capable hands the 1891/30-type sniper rifle was a
formidable weapon. During the Great Patriotic War many Soviet
snipers killed with their accurate fire several hundred Nazi
soldiers each. For example, it is recorded in the service record
book of the renowned sniper of the 169' rifle regiment of the 86
rifle division belonging to the 2nd Shock Army, staff sergeant N. F.
Semyonov, who fought on the approaches to Leningrad from 29 August
1941 to 10 June 1943, that he killed 218 fascists. Furthermore, he
taught and trained an additional 94 sniper fighters who, in turn,
added a further 580 enemy soldiers and officers to this list.
This article has used illustrations from the book "Sharpshooters" by
T. Grits. |
