The ZIS-3 in an Antitank Role
2006-12-16
Posted by: badanov
Look at the total package.
In the role of divisional artillery support, it could lob a shell seven miles down range, making it an excellent means of general support as well as direct support.
The Germans named it the Crash-Boom because that is what this piece sounded like in the anti-tank role.
This gun was the same as the main gun in the T-34/76 and the SU76 AFVs. The charge in the shell compared to the German 75mm Pak38 was far weaker, but when the Russians deployed it as a antitank towed gun, they expected to get in close.
Soviet Antitank battalions regiments and brigades were typically filled out with 45mm and later 57mm antitank guns. Not that those could stop a Panther or either of the Tigers tanks. They were so cheap that Soviet rifle units could afford to mass these in sufficient numbers that a Panther company even in a successful operation would return from battle with ringing headaches from being hit so much by these guns.
In Combat Mission, these guns have a 25 percent rarity tag as support weapons, probably to the horrific losses inflected on the Red Army during the maneuver battles of the summer of 1941.
These guns are also very useful because the German Army was still deploying older light tanks as their MBT, such as the Czech38 and the PzIII series.
The ZIS-3 can knock out any of these tanks in a direct frontal shot. On the defense, these guns are invaluable in stopping German armor attacks.
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