World War II Database

Country of Origin	Russia
Type	Field Gun
Caliber	76.200 mm
Weight	1116.000 kg
Ammunition Weight	6.20 kg
Rate of Fire	25 rounds/min
Range	13.290 km
Muzzle Velocity	680 m/s

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseWhat would later come to be known as the 76-millimeter Divisional Gun M1942 (ZiS-3) weapons were designed by the No. 92 Artillery Factory "Zavod imeni Stalina" under chief engineer V. G. Grabin, who went ahead with this project starting in 1940 without government authorization. The first gun was built in 1941 in secret. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union later in the year, many of the previously-deployed 76-mm guns were destroyed or captured, and Soviet leadership called for factories to build replacement 76-mm guns. With the ZiS-3 design still in secret, the chiefs of No. 92 Artillery Factory nevertheless decided to produce them. When the first batch was ready to be delivered, the unauthorized design was discovered, and initially Soviet Army representatives rejected delivery; it was only the demands of war and Grabin's personal guarantee that saw the acceptance of these new guns. The new ZiS-3 field guns soon proved to be better than the pre-war 76-mm gun designs and, with Joseph Stalin's full support, became the standard divisional field guns after a series of tests in Feb 1942. Each of the ZiS-3 guns required a crew of seven to operate, and a typical battery after 1942 consisted of four ZiS-3 guns. While they were effective as anti-tank guns against German medium tanks, their greatest capability was perhaps in the design, which simplified the production, allowing a lower-skilled workforce to achieve a higher quantities of guns. When the European War ended, more than 103,000 guns were built.

During the war, Finnish forces captured 12 ZiS-3 guns; they were pressed into service with the designation 76 K 42.

Although 76-millimeter Divisional Gun M1942 (ZiS-3) weapons were replaced by D-44 guns in the Soviet forces shortly after WW2, they remained in service in forces friendly with the Soviet Union, some until this date.

Source: Wikipedia ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Feb 2012

76 mm Divisional Gun M1942 (ZiS-3) Field Gun Interactive Map

Photographs

See all 8 photographs of 76 mm Divisional Gun M1942 (ZiS-3) Field Gun

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