In February 2014, the gunshots of The Ukrainian Civil War reignited centuries-old feuds between the country and Russia. In order to defend their own interests, the Ukrainians used all the weapons at their disposal. Many weapons were removed from warehouses and museums, and tanks were repaired and sent from monuments to the front.
The weapons of his grandfathers, who had made great achievements in the anti-Fassi War, are now used in the war between the two former Soviet republics, which cannot help but feel magical and real. After all, the Soviet Union's legacy to Ukraine is not only tanks and machine guns, but also the Great Ukrainian Famine, the Gulag and Chernobyl...
The first to appear was the PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle. The gun was developed by Sergey Simonov on the eve of World War II and was officially equipped with the Red Army in 1941. It used the then large staggering 14.5×114mm armor-piercing cartridges to replace the less powerful 12.7×108mm machine gun cartridges. At a distance of 100m, it is possible to penetrate armor that is 50mm thick.
Such power can also be used against some thin-skinned armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles today. However, with smaller after-effects, it is difficult to effectively destroy enemy vehicles after breakdown.
Coincidentally, the Soviet PTR-41 anti-tank rifle, which was equipped with the PTRS-41, also appeared in the Ukrainian Civil War. The gun also uses 14.5×114mm armor-piercing bullets, which are essentially the same as PTRS-41. Due to the use of a rotating pull-back bolt, the theoretical rate of fire reaches 6-8 rpm. However, the two anti-tank rifles are difficult to effectively damage tanks and armored vehicles unless they kill the occupants through the observation port. As a result, he was quickly demoted to anti-equipment and no longer undertook anti-armor tasks.
The Ukrainian soldier was armed with the PPS-43 7.62mm submachine gun, which was born in the Battle of Leningrad. Engineer Sudaev designed this simple submachine gun to solve the problem of resource shortage, with the idea of making a durable submachine gun with as few raw materials and processes as possible. It is equipped with a 35-round magazine and a theoretical rate of fire of 650 rpm.
The Ukrainian soldier was armed with a PPSh-41, a symbol of the Red Army, the famous Bobosa submachine gun. The gun was produced during World War II, a staggering 6 million. As with the PPS introduced earlier, in addition to the barrel, the gun adopts a large number of stamping processes that are easy to produce, and the rate of fire is as high as 800-1000RPM. At the same time, it was equipped with a large 71-round drum, which had a fairly good firepower consistency, so it was deeply loved by the Red Army and the Nazi German Army in that year.
This DP-28 light machine gun, or Czech Jialyov light machine gun, was also a frequent visitor in the Great Patriotic War. It adopts a unique gill-type latching structure with a rate of fire of 600 RPM. Design began in 1927 by Teggarev and equipped the troops the following year. In addition to participating in the Second World War, it is still used on the battlefields of Syria and Ukraine today, and can be described as a veteran of hundreds of wars.
There is a saying in the military forum: if the old gun does not die, it will be changed by the devil. This old saying was fulfilled on the Dshk heavy machine gun. Also known as the Deshka heavy machine gun, the gun was equipped with the Red Army from 1938 onwards. Designed by the designers of the DP-28, Vasily Teggarev and Georgy Sperkin, it uses 12.7×108mm machine gun cartridges. Since it was originally used as an anti-aircraft machine gun, it was generally equipped with a special tripod.
If the several light weapons introduced earlier can be called veterans, then the Makqin M1910 7.62mm heavy machine gun introduced below has been in service for more than a hundred years! It is based on the Russian version of the product developed by the legendary engineer Hiram Makqin, which participated in two world wars with the bombardment of Russia and the Soviet Union. It adopts a water-cooled structure that has now been extinct, and the theoretical rate of fire is 600 RPM.
In addition to the conventional models with shields and two-wheel frames, the M1910 was derived as an anti-aircraft version of the twin and quadruple. It was also used in the Ukrainian Civil War.
The D-44 85mm anti-tank gun, developed in 1943, was equipped with the Red Army in 1944. Itself derived from the D-5T tank gun of the T-34/85 medium tank. When equipped with BR365-P high-speed armor-piercing bullets, it can penetrate 100mm thick armored steel at 1000m, which is the main soviet anti-tank gun in the late World War II. The full gun is compact, with a total weight of only 1.7 tons, and can be quickly maneuvered by light trucks.
After the introduction of so many Soviet weapons, we must not forget their lifelong enemy - the German MG42 universal machine gun. The gun was dubbed "Hitler's Chainsaw" because of its terrifying rate of fire of 1200 rpm. More than 400,000 were produced during World War II, and a significant portion of them were captured by the Allied and Soviet armies and placed in museums for display. It is not surprising why it appeared on the battlefield of the Ukrainian Civil War.
In addition to a wide variety of light weapons, various tanks left behind in monuments and museums have not escaped the fate of re-service. This T-34/85 medium tank is a typical example of this. It was obviously just activated, and even the livery retained the flavor of the World War II era. As the main tank in the Great Patriotic War, the T-34 series produced more than 50,000 vehicles and lost more than 45,000 vehicles. At the same time, it occupies the two laurels of the largest production and the largest number of losses.
The T-34/85 was demonized by the Ukrainians shortly after waking up. Not only was the armor painted a riotous bright green, but the fenders in front of the tracks were replaced with reinforced armor, and chain armor suspected of being used to defend against armor-breaking shells was hung in front of the hull. Like the T-34/85, this was a rather "nostalgic" defense.
This is the side of the T-34/85 that was modified by the magic. The clever Ukrainians, equipped with the same barrier armor used to defend against armor-breaking shells, had a bit of a wasteland flavor.
The IS-3 heavy tank is probably the biggest antique used by the Ukrainians. The tank debuted at the Great Patriotic War Victory Parade in 1945 and caused panic in the West for its low profile and unusual cluster armor. However, the poor quality of the process caused it to have a large number of quality problems after service and was forced to return to the factory. The vehicle was also exported to Egypt and was severely attacked by the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day War.
1 IS-3 heavy tank that is being test-commissioned on the base of the monument.
It seems that driving a tank from a monument is really not just a joke...