The first tanks appeared a long time ago and, despite their not the best characteristics, they could change the course of the battle only by their presence. They were afraid of tanks, there are many documents that confirm that the soldiers simply scattered at the sight of such military equipment. However, this could not last for a long time and tanks became an integral part of any army, and naturally there were options for weapons to fight with them. Since the armor of tanks for a long time was simply bulletproof, a new class of weapons appeared, namely the anti-tank rifle. Where standard weapons could not cope, punching through it, albeit thin, but still armor, anti-tank guns left excellent holes, hitting the vehicle crew and individual components, disrupting the normal operation of tank mechanisms. Subsequently, the tanks were overgrown with armor and the PTR became practically useless, although they were used to defeat other targets.
The first mass-produced anti-tank gun is considered the Mauser Tankgewehr, which alone was far from the only example of such a weapon at that time. The interest in the PTR was quite great, and Poland was also interested in this weapon, which at that time considered the USSR its probable enemy. In connection with the adoption of the BT and T-26 tanks, a program for arming the Polish army with anti-tank guns was urgently developed, there was only one problem - there were no anti-tank guns themselves. The solution to this problem was the development of a PTR for Uruguay, which was dealt with by Josef Marozhek. As such, there was no order and the weapon was developed entirely on its own initiative, with the expectation that the sample would interest a needy customer. Realizing that even in case of success, a lot of money cannot be obtained from this, and “you need such a cow yourself,” the project changed its goal. This was the beginning of the creation of the wz sample. 35 Ur. A remarkable point was that at the end of the name they decided to leave a mention, albeit abbreviated, about Uruguay, which, in theory, should have confused a potential enemy, since it was impossible to say with certainty for whom the weapon was.
By and large, wz. 35 Ur does not stand out in anything remarkable and is a conventional rifle with a manual reloading, with a three-round magazine and a sliding bolt that locks the bore when turning. All this would be so, if not for a few details and dimensions of the weapon. Since a large "shooter" needed a large cartridge, ammunition was developed along with the weapon, which had the metric designation 7, 92x107. Despite the relatively small caliber for such ammunition, the weight of the bullet itself was 14.5 grams, which accelerated through the bore to a speed of 1275 meters per second. To achieve such a bullet speed, it took 10, 2 grams of gunpowder, which created a sufficiently large pressure in the bore and reduced its survivability. In general, the survivability of the barrel of the weapon was the main problem in the development, and the maximum that was achieved was only 300 shots, although for the MTR this is, albeit a low, but acceptable result. In 1935, the wz. 35 Ur successfully passed tests, and in 1938 it began to be supplied to the troops.
The final version of the weapon had several interesting details. First of all, it is a fairly effective muzzle brake-recoil compensator. But much more interesting was the safety device, which was a ring on the back of the weapon's bolt. When the ring was turned, it was possible to make a smooth descent of the trigger mechanism, after which the weapon became completely safe. For a platoon, it was not necessary to unlock the bore and generally touch the bolt, it was enough just to pull the ring, after which it was possible to shoot. Thus, it was possible to safely carry a cartridge in the chamber, expanding the number of simultaneously loaded cartridges from 3 to 4, although it is debatable to call this an absolute advantage. Sights of weapons are the simplest, they consist of an adjustable rear sight and front sight. For the convenience of firing, there are folding, but not height-adjustable bipods.
One of the most interesting points is that, despite the simplicity of the weapon and the fact that there were more effective models, only officers were allowed to the PTR, and the weapon itself was almost secret. It is difficult to say why the weapons were hidden so much and who was the initiator of this phenomenon, but in August 1939 there were about 3,500 weapons in the army, which did not help in the fight against the Germans. They did not help due to the fact that almost all of them were in boxes in warehouses and were not given to the troops, in fact, in this form, the weapon came to our future enemy. After the capture of captured PTRs, these weapons were adopted by the armies of Italy and Germany. Already under the name PzB 770 (P), the captured weapons were successfully used by the Nazis against our tanks and not only tanks, although German anti-tank rifles showed better results, mainly due to the. In general, 7, 92x107 and 7, 92x94 showed the same results, however, the last German showed a higher percentage of penetration when meeting armor at an angle, at distances of 200 meters and above.
Several units of weapons and cartridges for him and the Soviet troops got it during the Liberation campaign in 1939. However, it was decided to use the obtained samples as the basis for the domestic model of the PTR, the creation of which was entrusted to the Tula gunsmiths Salishchev and Galkin. The result of the work of the designers was a test carried out in 1941, but the test results were not the best and the weapon was abandoned even without any attempts at revision, in addition, there were more promising PTR samples.
Summing up all of the above, one cannot fail to note the short-sightedness of the command of the Polish army, which had a weapon that, although it could not change the course of history, at least somehow could help in the fight against enemy armored vehicles, and instead, the weapon was actually presented to the enemy. It should also be noted that this sample was somewhat delayed, since it was effective against armor 7-12 millimeters thick. Nevertheless, the weapon was made, it was mass-produced, only it did not participate in the war on the side of its creators.
