For many, the submachine guns that were used by Soviet soldiers on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War are, first of all, the Shpagin submachine guns - the famous PPSh. However, in the Soviet Union during the war years, other models of automatic weapons were also actively used. First of all, we are talking about submachine guns of the Degtyarev system (PPD) and submachine guns of the Sudaev system (PPS). During the war years, submachine guns were produced in millions of batches, bullets and casings from them still lie on every square kilometer of the liberated territory of the former USSR, as well as the countries of Eastern Europe. Soviet submachine guns with a lead wave washed away the fascists and all their allies from the territories they occupied and put an end to the history of the "thousand-year" Third Reich.
It so happened that the submachine gun very successfully combined both the need to saturate military units with automatic weapons, and the poor technical training of most Soviet infantrymen and the low technological level of most of the Soviet arms factories. It is worth noting that the first attempts to create a submachine gun, which was supposed to become a mass weapon of an infantryman, were made in 1927 by the famous designer Fyodor Tokarev, who presented his "light carbine" to the military. It is possible to note such an interesting fact. In the sector store of his automatic carbine, the designer placed special holes, thanks to which it was very easy to control the number of cartridges remaining in it.
Only after many years (decades have passed) other gunsmiths decided to return to a similar decision. In addition, Tokarev's development was distinguished by the presence of a slide delay, which, by the way, appeared only on the most recent AK modification. However, the submachine gun, which became a real symbol of the entire Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, was the development of the designer Georgy Semenovich Shpagin - the famous PPSh, which was developed by him in 1940 and was in service with the army until the early 1950s, and in some rear units and abroad PPSh could be found almost until the very end of the 20th century.
Degtyarev submachine gun - PPD-34/40
The predecessor of the legendary PPSh was the Degtyarev submachine gun of 1934 design. Unfortunately, due to erroneous assessment and judgments, submachine guns by the then military theorists, who for the most part were former colonels and generals of the tsarist General Staff, were considered a purely auxiliary type of weapon. Therefore, until 1939, negligible enough of these submachine guns were produced - only 5084 copies. And in February 1939, the PPD-34s were not only removed from service by the Red Army, but even withdrawn from the troops.
It took a bitter lesson from the Soviet-Finnish war, when a lot of troubles were brought to the Red Army by Finnish soldiers, who were armed with Suomi submachine guns of the system of designer A. Lahti arr. 1931 year. This model was equipped with magazines for 20 and 71 rounds. As a result, the Degtyarev submachine gun quickly returned to the troops, moreover, its mass production was established in the USSR. In total, 81118 PPD-40 models were manufactured in 1940, which made this modification the most widespread.
The Degtyarev submachine gun (PPD) was developed in the first half of the 1930s. In 1935, he was adopted by the Red Army under the designation PPD-34. This submachine gun was a typical system that can be attributed to the first generation. It had a wooden bed, and metal machining was widely used in its production. Due to the short-sightedness of the command, this development was used mainly in the border units of the NKVD. However, the Finnish conflict changed everything and just before the Great Patriotic War itself, in 1940, the PPD was improved, the new model was designated PPD-40.
The PPD-40 was built on the basis of a free shutter automation. Fire from it is conducted from an open shutter. The barrel of a submachine gun was enclosed in a round steel casing, a wooden bed. On the early samples of 1934 and 1934/38, the stock was solid, on the 1940 sample it was split, with a cutout for the magazine receiver. A submachine gun could use 2 types of stores: drum for 71 rounds or box-type horn for 25 rounds. Drum magazines in the USSR were created based on the experience gained during the Winter War with Finland. This was largely a copy of the shops of the Finnish SuomiM / 31 submachine gun.
Drum magazines for PPD-34 and 34/38 had a protruding neck, which was inserted into the magazine receiver, hidden in a wooden box. At the same time, the drum magazines for the PPD-40 did not have such a feature, which increased the reliability and strength of the cartridge supply unit. All PPDs were equipped with sector sights, on which markings up to 500 meters were applied. The manual safety device was located on the cocking handle and could lock the bolt in the rear (cocked) or forward position. The infantryman also had access to a choice of fire mode (automatic or single shots), which could be carried out using a rotary flag, which was located in front of the trigger guard on the right side.
Degtyarev's submachine guns were used at the beginning of World War II, but by the end of 1941 they began to be replaced in the troops with a more reliable, advanced and much more technologically advanced PPSh in production. The Shpagin submachine gun was originally designed for the possibility of mass production at any industrial enterprise in the country that has even low-power pressing equipment, which turned out to be very useful in the conditions of a big war. The PCA was much easier to manufacture, which predetermined the fate of the PCA.
Specifications:
Caliber: 7.62x25 mm TT;
Weight: 5.45 kg with a loaded magazine for 71 rounds, 3.63 kg. without a store;
Length: 788mm;
Rate of fire: up to 800 rds / min;
Stores: horn-type for 25 rounds and drum for 71 rounds;
Effective firing range: 200 m.
Shpagin submachine gun - PPSh-41
The PPSh-41 machine gun designed by Shpagin was developed in 1941, it was created to replace the PPD-40, which is quite complex and expensive to manufacture. In 1941, the PPSh was adopted by the Red Army. This model was a cheap and easy-to-manufacture small arms that were produced throughout the war. In total, about 6 million pieces of PPSh-41 were produced.
Technically, the PPSh-41 is an automatic weapon built on the principle of a free shutter. The fire was conducted from the rear sear (from an open bolt). The drummer was fixed to the shutter mirror. The fire mode switch (automatic fire / single fire) was located inside the trigger guard, directly in front of the trigger.
The fuse was made in the form of a slider on the bolt cocking handle, it could lock the bolt in the front or rear position. The barrel casing and the bolt box were stamped, made of steel, the front of the barrel casing protruded forward beyond the muzzle cut and was a muzzle brake-compensator. The stock of the submachine gun is wooden, most often made of birch.
Initially, it was believed that the special firepower of the PPSh was given by drum magazines for 71 rounds, which ensured a high density of fire and a rare magazine change. But such stores were distinguished by a complex design, high cost of production and a large number of failures in work, which became the reason that in 1942 the PPSh began to be equipped with sector magazines for 35 rounds, which were similar to those that were previously used on the PPD-40, and in the future and on almost all models of domestic weapons.
The sights of the PPSh initially included a fixed front sight and a sector sight, later - a special overhead L-shaped rear sight with settings at 100 and 200 meters. The indisputable advantages of the PPSh include the simplicity and cheapness of the design, the high effective firing range, the high rate of fire; the disadvantages include the large weight of the model, as well as the tendency to involuntary shots in the event of a submachine gun falling on hard surfaces.
Unlike many models of Allied and Wehrmacht submachine guns, the PPSh used a smaller caliber pistol bullet (7, 62 mm versus 9 mm German). She had a higher initial flight speed, which made it possible to fire at a distance of up to 300 meters in single rounds firing mode, which fully covered the needs of clearing trenches or urban combat.
The low requirements that were imposed on the processing equipment during the production of the PPSh led to the fact that the PPSh-41 was produced even in Soviet partisan detachments. The successful design of this small arms was also noted by the Germans, who carried out the alteration of the captured PPShs under their 9x19 "Parabellum" cartridge. In total, at least 10 thousand of these submachine guns were produced. German-made modifications, as well as captured PPShs, did not hesitate to use soldiers from elite German units, for example, the Waffen-SS. A large number of photographs are known that show German grenadiers armed with Soviet PPShs.
Specifications:
Caliber: 7.62x25 mm TT;
Weight: 3, 63 kg without magazine, 4, 3 kg. with a horn for 35 rounds, 5, 45 kg. with a drum for 71 rounds;
Length: 843 mm;
Rate of fire: up to 900 rds / min;
Magazine capacity: 35 rounds in a horn (box) or 71 rounds in a drum;
Effective firing range: 200 m.
Submachine gun Sudaev - PPS-43
Despite the fact that the PPSh-41 was quite simple to manufacture, its production still required sophisticated metal-cutting equipment. In addition, for all its indisputable advantages, it was too heavy and cumbersome for use in narrow trenches or enclosed spaces. Also, he was not suitable for scouts, paratroopers, tankers. Therefore, already in 1942, the Red Army announced the requirements for a new submachine gun, which was supposed to be smaller and lighter than the PPSh. As a result, the designer Alexei Sudaev developed a submachine gun of the original design PPS-42 in Leningrad besieged by the Nazis. At the end of 1942, this model was put into service.
Technically, Sudaev's submachine gun was a small arms that was built according to a free breechblock scheme and fired from the rear sear (from an open bolt). The firing mode is automatic only. The fuse was located in front of the trigger guard and blocked the trigger pull. The receiver was made by cold stamping from steel and was one piece with the barrel casing. PPS was equipped with a muzzle brake-compensator of the simplest design. For disassembly, the receiver "breaks" forward and down along the axis located in front of the magazine receiver. The sighting device was a reversible rear sight, designed for a range of 100 and 200 meters and a fixed front sight. PPS was equipped with a folding stock, which was made of steel. Box-type sector magazines with a capacity of 35 rounds were used as stores. They were not interchangeable with PPSh stores.
In addition to the ease of manufacture, the PPS also had a folding butt, which made it an indispensable model of small arms for arming scouts and crews of various combat vehicles. In 1943, Sudaev's product was modernized and manufactured in this form until 1945. In total, during the war years, about half a million PPS of both models were produced. After the end of the war, this submachine gun was widely exported to pro-Soviet states and movements (including the PRC and North Korea). Often, it was the PPS-43 that was recognized as the best submachine gun of the Second World War.
Specifications
Caliber: 7.62x25 mm TT;
Weight: 3.04 kg. empty, 3, 67 kg. charged;
Length (stock extended / folded): 820/615 mm;
Rate of fire: up to 700 rds / min;
Magazine: carob magazine for 35 rounds;
Effective firing range: 200 m.
