{"id":3911,"date":"2021-03-30T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2021-11-18T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T10:48:34","slug":"76-2mm-divisional-field-gun-model-1942-ussr-and-the-peoples-republic-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/76-2mm-divisional-field-gun-model-1942-ussr-and-the-peoples-republic-of-china\/","title":{"rendered":"76.2mm DIVISIONAL FIELD GUN MODEL 1942 (USSR AND THE PEOPLE`S REPUBLIC OF CHINA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Tobolo, Curator, DITSONG: National Museum of Military History<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"Figure 1:<\/strong>An example of the field gun on display.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Figure 2:<\/strong> Field gun in the DNMMH Workshop.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 76 mm Divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) was a Soviet 76.2 mm Divisional gun used during the Second World War. ZiS was a factory designation and stood for Zavod imeni Stalin (named after Stalin). That was the honorific title of Artillery Factory \u2116 92 which first constructed this gun[vc_empty_space height=”18px”]<\/p>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the end of 1940 the Soviet Artillery factory \u2116 92 began to design the ZiS-3 (Zavod imeni Stalina: named after Stalin) combining the light carriage from 57mm ZiS-2 anti-tank gun and the 7.62mm barrel from F22USV which was the previous divisional gun. In December 1941 Vasiliy Grabin who was the Soviet artillery designer put ZiS-3 into mass production at factory \udb40\uddb5\u2116 92.<\/p>\n

ZiS-3 stockpile grew but went unused as the Red Army refused to accept the guns without the usual acceptance trial. In February 1942, the ZiS-3 underwent an official five-day trial and it was then accepted into service as The Divisional Field Gun Model 1942.<\/p>\n

The tactical characteristics of the M1942 are the high rate of fire, good muzzle velocity, great manoeuvrability, it`s good anti-armour capabilities and ability to penetrate 92mm of armour at 500m[vc_empty_space height=”18px”]<\/p>\n

Combat history<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Soviet soldiers liked the ZiS-3 for its extreme reliability, durability and accuracy. It was also easy to maintain and use by novice crews.<\/p>\n

It was quite popular with the German Wehrmacht and introduced to German service as a Kanone 7.62 cm(r). German factories retooled to produce ammunition for it.<\/p>\n

During the Korean War (1950-1953) the North Korean forces used it in combat services. From 1975 it was also deployed by the People`s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), the South African border war in Angola, and the Tanzanian People`s Defence Force during the Uganda \u2013 Tanzania war in 1978 to 1979.<\/p>\n

The ZiS-3 was exported to the Soviet allies during the Cold War who in turn exported it to the third world countries. In 1955, Austria purchased 36 ZiS-3 and kept them in service until 1991.<\/p>\n

The gun remained in service in at least six sovereign states up until 2016. It has continued to be used during ceremonial occasions to fire gun salutes by a number of nations including Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

South African forces captured the gun on display from MPLA forces in 1984.<\/p>\n

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Operators<\/b><\/p>\n

CURRENT OPERATORS<\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

FORMER OPERATORS<\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Cambodia<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

Afghanistan<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Mozambique<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

Algeria<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Namibia <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

Angola<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Sudan<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

Republic of Congo<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Tanzania<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

Croatia<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr>

Zimbabwe<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td>

North Korea<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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AMMUNITION DATA<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Calibre: 2mm<\/li>\n
  • Maximum range: 13 300m<\/li>\n
  • Armour penetration: 92mm at 500m<\/li>\n
  • Shell: 2mm \u00d7 385mm<\/li>\n
  • Breech: semi-automatic vertical sliding<\/li>\n
  • Recoil: Hydro pneumatic<\/li>\n
  • Carriage: Split trail<\/li>\n
  • Elevation: -5o to +37o<\/li>\n
  • Rate of fire: 25 rounds per minute<\/li>\n
  • Crew: 7 Artillery man<\/li>\n
  • Width and height: 1.6mm and 1.37mm<\/li>\n
  • Barrel length and mass: 3.4m and 2.460lbs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Shunnkov V.N The weapons of the red army.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Harvest 1999(\u0428ykOB B.H.- Op\u04ddue kpacho\u1e7b APMUU\u2014M\u043d.: Xap\u0299ec\udb40\udd61\u1d1b, 1999.) ISBN 9778-985-433-469-1.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The 76 mm Divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) was a Soviet 76.2 mm Divisional gun used during the Second World War. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[109,179,26,107,173,108],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ditsong","tag-field-gun-model","tag-history","tag-military","tag-military-history","tag-museum","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 10:13:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}