The PTRS-41 or Simonov anti-tank rifle (russian: ПротивоТанковое Ружьё Симонова)
is a World War II-era
semi-automatic anti-tank rifle
An anti-tank rifle is an anti-materiel rifle designed to penetrate the armor of armored fighting vehicles, most commonly tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. The term is usually used for weapons that can be carri ...
firing the
14.5×114mm cartridge.
Design
![SpB-Museum-artillery-108](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/SpB-Museum-artillery-108.jpg)
The PTRS-41 was produced and used by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. In the years between the World Wars, the Soviet Union began experimenting with different types of armour-piercing anti-tank cartridges. Finding the
12.7×108mm
The 12.7×108mm cartridge is a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and anti-materiel rifle cartridge used by the former Soviet Union, the former Warsaw Pact countries, modern Russia, China and other countries. It was invented in 1934 to create a cartrid ...
insufficient, they began development of what became the
14.5×114mm armour-piercing round
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...
. Rukavishnikov developed to use this cartridge, but it was not successful because of some manufacturing issues, a sufficient number of more effective anti-tank guns in the Red Army, and high expectations about new German tank armour.
In 1941, the loss of huge amounts of anti-tank artillery created a need for a stop-gap anti-tank weapon, so famous
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
weapons designers such as
Vasily Degtyaryov
Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov (russian: Васи́лий Алексе́евич Дегтярёв; 2 January 1880, Tula – 16 January 1949, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian engineer who specialized in weapons design. He was awarded the title ...
and
Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov
Sergey Gavrilovich Simonov ( Russian: Сергей Гаврилович Симонов; 9 April 1894 – 6 May 1986) was a soviet weapons designer; he is considered one of the fathers of the modern assault rifle.
Mostly known for the Samozaryad ...
were tasked to design anti-tank rifles. Both were considered simpler and more suitable to wartime production than an updated Rukavishnikov rifle. Simonov used elements of a family of his
7.62x54R self-loading rifles and carbines which he continued to develop after his 1938 design lost to SVT-38 to create a scaled-up self-loading rifle.
The five-round
magazine is loaded into the
receiver and held under pressure by a swing magazine underneath. On firing the last round, the
bolt is held open, and the magazine release catch can be operated only when the bolt is locked back. The gas-operated PTRS has a tendency to jam when dirty, and the 14.5 mm cartridge produces significant residue, blocking the gas port. The 14.5 mm armour-piercing bullet has a muzzle velocity of 1013 m/s and devastating ballistics. It can penetrate an armour plate up to 40 mm thick at a distance of 100 meters.
In 1943 Simonov used a scaled-down PTRS-41 design for the
SKS, that would accommodate the new 1943-designed
7.62×39mm
The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...
cartridge.
History
![PTRS rifle at Great Patriotic War museum in Smolensk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/PTRS_rifle_at_Great_Patriotic_War_museum_in_Smolensk.jpg)
Along with his partner
Vasily Degtyaryov
Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov (russian: Васи́лий Алексе́евич Дегтярёв; 2 January 1880, Tula – 16 January 1949, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian engineer who specialized in weapons design. He was awarded the title ...
,
Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov
Sergey Gavrilovich Simonov ( Russian: Сергей Гаврилович Симонов; 9 April 1894 – 6 May 1986) was a soviet weapons designer; he is considered one of the fathers of the modern assault rifle.
Mostly known for the Samozaryad ...
helped the Soviet Union develop new weapons between the First and Second World War. During this time, Degtyaryov went on to create the
PTRD-41
The PTRD-41 (Shortened from Russian, ''ProtivoTankovoye Ruzhyo Degtyaryova''; ''Противотанковое однозарядное ружьё системы Дегтярёва образца 1941 года''; "Degtyaryov Single Shot Anti-Tank W ...
while Simonov created and designed its cousin rifle, the PTRS-41 in 1938. As one of Simonov's creations, the PTRS-41 was sometimes known as simply the "Simonov" on the battlefield. Although more advanced, the PTRS was harder to use and less reliable than the cheaper PTRD while yielding similar performance, so the PTRD was used more often.
The semi-automatic anti-tank rifle was used extensively on the
Eastern Front in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. It was used successfully by
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...
Sergeant
Yakov Pavlov
Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov (russian: Я́ков Федо́тович Па́влов; 17 October 191728 September 1981) was a Soviet Red Army soldier who became a Hero of the Soviet Union for his role in defending the eponymous "Pavlov's House" duri ...
during the
Battle of Stalingrad when the NCO led the defence of
Pavlov's House
Pavlov's House (russian: дом Павлова tr. ''Dom Pavlova'') was a fortified apartment building which Red Army defenders held for 60 days against the ''Wehrmacht'' offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad. The siege lasted from 27 Septe ...
in the city after he mounted rifles on the building's roof. Because the rifles were effective against thin armour at close range, they were able to destroy numerous German Panzers that came into range because they could shoot through the thin armour on their turret-roofs. Guns captured by the Germans were given the designation 14.5 mm PzB 784(r).
The AT gun was used again by Communist-backed forces in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
and
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
.
PTRS-41 rifles are still in use by Donbas militiamen in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, during the
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...
, due to their ability to penetrate
APC armour. The ammunition used is actual World War II vintage.
Users
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* : Used by militiamen in 2014 and 2022.
See also
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List of Russian weaponry
The following is a list of modern Russian small arms and light weapons which were in service in 2016:
Handguns
Revolvers
Pistols
Special purpose
Submachine guns
Special purpose
Shotguns
Rifles
Bolt-action
Semi-a ...
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Boys anti-tank rifle
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Lahti L-39
The Lahti L-39 is a Finnish 20 mm anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It had excellent accuracy, penetration and range, but its size made transportation difficult. It was nicknamed "Norsupyssy" ("Elephant Gun"), and as tanks d ...
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Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr
The Mauser 13 mm anti-tank rifle ( ger, Tankgewehr M1918, usually abbreviated ''T-Gewehr'') is the world's first anti-tank rifle—the first rifle designed for the sole purpose of destroying armored targets—and the only anti-tank rifle to s ...
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Panzerbüchse 39
The ''Panzerbüchse'' 39, abbreviated PzB 39, (German: "tank hunting rifle model 39") was a Nazi Germany, German anti-tank rifle used in World War II. It was an improvement of the ''Panzerbüchse'' 38 (PzB 38) rifle.
Development PzB 38
German an ...
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Solothurn S-18/100
The Solothurn S-18/100 20 mm anti-tank cannon was a German and Swiss anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It had a semi-automatic action in a bullpup configuration. As a result of its large, powerful ammunition, the gun had a tr ...
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Type 97 automatic cannon
The is a Japanese anti-tank rifle that began development in the 1930s. It was used by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts and the Pacific War. Ever-greater thicknesses of a ...
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Wz. 35 anti-tank rifle
The Model 35 antitank rifle (''Karabin przeciwpancerny wzór 35'', abbreviated "''kb ppanc wz. 35''") was a Polish 7.9 mm anti-tank rifle used by the Polish Army during the 1939 Invasion of Poland. It was designated model 35 for its desi ...
References
References
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External links
PTRS 14.5mm
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
14.5×114mm anti-materiel rifles
Semi-automatic rifles of the Soviet Union
Anti-tank rifles of the Soviet Union
Short stroke piston firearms
World War II infantry weapons of the Soviet Union
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1941