Tuesday 9 January 2018

Ammunition Capacity

No doubt, you've seen the words "ammunition loads" in various combat journals on my blog. You may have asked yourself: how much is an ammunition load, exactly? For tanks, that's pretty easy, it's the amount of ammunition you can carry on board, but what about things like rifles and artillery? Thankfully, the 1st Tank Army has your back, having issued a useful memo on June 24th, 1943.

Ammunition for
Units issued
Sniper rifles and carbines, SVT rifles
100
Revolvers
21
TT pistols
24
PPD and PPSh
300
Light machineguns
800
DT tank machinegun
1000
Maxim or DS machinegun
3500
DA machinegun
3000
Quad Maxim AA mount
6000
12.7 mm DShK
2000
14.5 mm anti-tank rifle
120
50 and 82 mm mortars
120
26 mm signal flares
110
120 mm mortars
80
20 mm ShVAK
750
37 mm mod. 1939 AA gun
200
45 and 57 mm guns
200
Regimental or divisional 76 mm gun
140
85 mm mod. 1939 AA gun
150
122 mm mod. 1930/38 howitzer
80
122 mm mod. 1931/37 howitzer
80
107 mm gun
80
152 mm mod. 1930/38 gun
60
152 mm mod. 1937 field howitzer
60

Tank armament

T-34 
76 mm cannon
100
Rifle caliber ammunition for DT (2)
3600
Hand grenades
25
26 mm signal flares
20
T-70
45 mm cannon
90
Rifle caliber ammunition for DT (1)
1000
Hand grenades
15
26 mm signal flares
15
T-60
20 mm ShVAK
750
Rifle caliber ammunition for DT
1000
Hand grenades
20
26 mm signal flares
15

5 comments:

  1. That is a surprisingly big amount off handgrenades for a tank to cary. I don't understand why you would need so many in a tank.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FWIW, a Sherman had 18.

      If Infantry are near your tank (I mean really close) throwing a few grenades out a small hatch will discourage them. It's also common, however, for another tank to simply hose down a friendly tank with MG fire to get rid of infantry.

      Delete
  2. Signal flares are stated as ammunition, but smoke grenades not? Weird discrimination.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess they'd fall under hand grenades where relevant? Flares to be shot out of guns are a completely different animal after all.

      Delete
  3. For the small arms, is this the load carried on the soldier or with the weapon (носимый боекомплект), or does it include ammunition carried in unit transport? I imagine the latter, as the standard pouches I believe only hold 1 drum of PPSh or 3 drums of DP ammunition, and I thought the standard rifleman's load was 60 rounds.

    ReplyDelete