The PTRD-41 () is an

anti-tank rifle An anti-tank rifle is an anti-materiel rifle designed to penetrate the vehicle armor, armor of armored fighting vehicles, most commonly tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. The term is usually used for weapons that ca ...

that was produced and used from 1941 by the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 The ''Panzerkampfwagen III (Pz.Kpfw. III)'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Nazi Germany, Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was List of Sd.K ...

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 gun Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

s and

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. A half-track combines the soft-ground traction of a tank with the Car handl ...

History

RIAN archive 4408 Armor piercers on the Kursk Bulge

In 1939, during the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

, 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 Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

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 ( Panzer I and Panzer II: ,

and Panzer IV series: , Panzer V Panther (combat debut mid-1943): ). Guns captured by the Germans were given the designation 14.5 mm PzB 783(r). After World War II the PTRD was also used extensively by

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

n and Chinese armed forces in the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. During this war, William Brophy, a US Army Ordnance officer, mounted a .50 BMG (12.7 mm) 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 .

Users

Current

PTRD rifle at Great Patriotic War museum in Smolensk

Soviet soldiers with PTRD-41 defending Moscow

*: Used by militiamen in 2014. * : Limited use in the Syrian civil war * : Limited use in the war in Donbas

Former

* : Equipped with 300 items (both PTRD & PTRS) by Soviet Union between 1944 and 1945, seen in combat operations. * : Used in Chinese Civil War, later by People's Volunteer Army during Korean War. * : Used by 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR. * : Captured and used by Wehrmacht under the title Panzerbüchse 783(r). * : Equipped by the USSR, saw extensive combat in Korean War against M24 light tanks. * : Used by 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division in 1943 then by other Polish divisions. * : In stockpile, used by Viet Cong in Vietnam War. * : Largely used in Eastern Front by the Red Army.

References

External links