Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red Steamroller

Although Soviet armoured fighting vehicle production exceeded that of Germany, few realize that it essentially hit its ceiling in late 1942–early 1943. Afterwards, the introduction of any new design such as the T-34/85 and IS-2 significantly impacted production. The NKO was considering an upgraded version of the T-34 tank and was interested in a new heavy tank to replace the KV-1, but was unwilling to divert resources to these efforts while the Germans were still reeling from the Stalingrad debacle. The one area where the NKO gave Salzman some leeway was on the SU programme, since it wanted to replace the T-70 light tank with a better-armed vehicle. Salzman put one of his engineers from the old OKMO design bureau, Semyon A. Ginzburg, in charge of developing the SU-76 self-propelled gun. General-polkovnik Nikolai D. Yakovlev’s Main Artillery Directorate provided the 76.2mm ZIS-3 gun for the new vehicle. Using a lengthened T-70 chassis, Ginzburg designed a lightly-armoured housing for the ZIS-3 gun atop the hull and had a prototype ready in December 1942. Salzman approved the prototype for limited production without trials and the first SU-76 were built before the end of 1942. In January 1943, a few of these SU-76 were sent to the Volkhov Front, where they proved to be a complete failure. The T-70’s two GAZ-202 truck engines had been adequate to move the T-70 light tank, but the addition of an extra ton of weight was too much and the SU-76 was difficult to steer and its transmission was inadequate. A clear sign that the vehicle was underpowered was the high number of final drive failures. Salzmann and Ginzburg tried to fix the design problems of the SU-76, but this caused production to cease in April 1943.

Unlike Hitler, Stalin did not tolerate engineering failure and after six months of Ginzburg’s fumbling with the SU-76 project, Stalin issued GKO Decree 3530ss on 7 June 1943, which stated that:

The State Committee of Defence [GKO] decrees that the SU-76 self-propelled guns, designed by comrade Ginzburg of the People’s Commissariat of Tank Production [NKTP], and accepted by GOKO decree No.2559 on December 2, 1942, turned out to be of unsatisfactory quality. Furthermore, the NKTP (comrade Saltzman) and GAU KA (comrade Yakovlev) did not carry out trials with due diligence before accepting the SU-76 for production. The modifications proposed by the NKTP (comrade Saltzman) and GAU KA (comrade Yakovlev), confirmed by GOKO decree #3184ss on April 14, 1943, did not result in serious improvements and did not increase the quality of the SU-76 to satisfactory levels, which also suggests that the NKTP and GAU KA trials were executed poorly.

The State Committee of Defence decrees that:

Production of SU-76 SPGs at factory #38 must cease immediately.

The People’s Commissar of Tank Production, comrade Saltzman, must be made aware of his mistakes regarding production of SU-76 SPGs at factory #38.The designer of the SU-76 SPG, comrade Ginzburg, must be removed from work at the NKTP, and not allowed to participate in NKTP projects further. He is to be transferred to the NKO for assignment to less critical work in the Acting Army. The NKTP (comrade Saltzman) and GAU KA (comrade Yakovlev) must find and punish guilty workers in the NKTP and GAU KA, which carelessly performed trials of the SU-76 SPG.