26th of May 1942, 'Dva', SVT-40 the Red Army's Semi-Automatic Rifle.
The 26th of May 1942, Tula, 7,6°C, 4 pm Moscow Time,
From 'Dva' to 'Odin'
The Tula Arsenal, newly retooled for the production of SVT-40s.
Today, production of the SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle has started. The final design was presented to Party officials, Bureaucrats, and even Comrade Secretary General himself, at the Tula arsenal. It's essentially a redesign of the SVT-38, but it's also more than that, it represents the end of a contest that started all the way back in 1936. The story of the Red Army's next great standard issue Rifle is one of the rivalry between two talented designers, but also that of an Army that needs to be able to face today's challenges, not those of the 19th century.
Up to 1936, the only rifles that were used by the Red Army in significant numbers were Mosin-Nagant 1891/30's. These bolt action weapons, based on a 1891 design, can only be improved upon so much. They are excellent bolt-action rifles, very reliable and easy to use. It is a proven weapon, the workhorse of the Imperial Russian Army in the First Great War, and the rifle of choice for both Red and White Russian forces in the civil war that ensued. Many are still in use with second line units, police forces, and as the Red Army's main sniper rifle.
In 1935, under the impulsion of Comrade Secretary General Iosif Stalin, started to seriously consider the idea of a new standard rifle, a Semi-Automatic, or even a fully automatic Rifle. Tests in 1936 revealed only two serious contestants. Both offerings are gas-operated, both use the standard 7.62 x 54mm R bullets. They are significantly different:
The first was Simonov's revolutionary fully automatic AVS-36 design. It was all very promising. The AVS-36 is capable of both semi-automatic and automatic fire, achieving 800 rounds/minute in it's automatic setting, and up to 25 rounds/minute in semi-automatic. It holds a 15-round detachable magazine, allowing for more than a second of fully automatic fire. Revolutionary as it is, the action is quite complicated, using a vertical sliding locking block, with locking flappers. As I understand it, the cartridges take a relatively long and steep path between the magazine and the chamber, something that turned out to be the source of many blockages and firing delays, especially if the rifle was not spotless.
Tokarev proposed a design in 1936, but the Army turned it down in favour of Simonov's more innovative design. Tokarev got his revenge in 1938 when his improved Semi-automatic SVT-38 was retained for testing, instead of an improved version of the AVS-36. The SVT-38, and the new SVT-40 have a simpler tilting bolt action. It holds a 10-round magazine, still a twofold increase over the 5-round stripper clips used on the Mosin-Nagant. While it is still more complex than the Mosin-Nagant, it is easier to maintain, and much less vulnerable to dirt and sand than the AVS. Despite the smaller magazine, it's rate of fire is surprisingly similar to the AVS in semi-automatic up to 25 rounds/minute. The SVT does contain more parts, so is slightly more time-consuming to manufacture, and slightly heavier, though still below the 4kg mark.
This rivalry has had it's ups and downs, with Simonov getting a head start as the AVS-36 started limited mass-production in 1936, while the SVT was merely a gun on paper. However, once the gun started to reach active units, the AVS-36s flaws became apparent in larger scale training, and thus production remained relatively low. Reliability was shown to be quite lacklustre. The overly complex action seems to suck in any sand or dust in the air around it when fired in the wild. This would have not have been such a big problem if it wasn't for the fact that the gun would jam when a few grains of sand made their way into the action. In the end, 65.000 AVS-36s were produced before production was stopped.
In 1938, instead of the AVS-36, a new version of the Mosin-Nagant, the M1938 Carabine was brought forward into production for widespread distribution. Simonov tried to submit incremental improvements to the AVS in an attempt to remedy it's shortcomings, and Tokarev finally presented his fully fleshed out SVT-38 semi-automatic design. Until the Finnish winter war, the Red Army was uncertain about which way they would go. Only one semi-automatic rifle would make it to production. Prototypes of both improved AVS-36s and SVT-38s were comprehensively tested to try and avoid a repeat of the fiasco that was the roll-out of the AVS-36. In the end, the Finnish Winter War provided the deciding testing ground. Limited production of the SVT-38 was started, and existing AVS-36s, improved following Simonov's guidelines, were transported to the 1st Army Group.
During the conflict, both guns were deployed in limited numbers, and both had problems. For starters, troops used to the Mosin-Nagant complained that both rifles were difficult to maintain, but that was to be expected. In the intense cold, the metal of some crucial parts of the AVS-36 became very brittle. Firing pins, and a spring in the feeding mechanism were particularly affected, and breakages were commonplace. On the SVT-38 it was found that the magazine has a tendency to fall out. Another, less common, issue was that the light Arctic Birch stock would crack in the wrist due to recoil. An easy fix for this issue was to drill a horizontal hole through the stock between the wrist and the receiver, an to thread an industrial bolt through it to make keep the stock in one piece, as soon as a crack appears. The manufacture of an SVT-38 also proved to be more time-consuming than that of an AVS-36.
Having run out of patience for the fundamental flaws in the AVS-36 design to be resolved, Iosif Stalin, and the Red Army decided that, despite it's flaws, the SVT platform was the way forward, and the AVS-36 was permanently out of the running.
There were probably other factors at play, besides the quality of the guns. With potentially a large scale conflict on the horizon, Stalin, and some Generals in the Red Army were concerned about the amount of ammunition soldiers with AVS-36s would use in automatic mode. If one considers that the ubiquitous use of fully automatic rifle would be too much of a drain on the supply chain for too little gain, then the AVS-36s greatest asset starts working against it.
With much of the world on the brink of war, the introduction of large numbers of semi-automatic rifles into the Red Army was considered very urgent, and thus production of the SVT-38 was increased significantly with the initial goal of replacing a third of all the rifles in the Red Army's Rifle Regiments with SVT-38s. Meanwhile Tokarev was given the resources he needed to attempt to remedy the SVT-38s flaws. The result, is the SVT-40, which addresses most of the issues with the SVT-38, or at least attempts to do so.
The rifle's manufacture and maintenance was somewhat simplified by removing unnecessary complexity in a few places, something that, incidentally, also made the weapon a bit lighter. The new one-piece handguard instead of the SVT-38s 2-piece one is the most visible simplification. The cleaning rod is housed under the barrel on the SVT-40, an added bit of functionality. The magazine release has been modified, the new folding release on the SVT-40 looks much sturdier than the SVT-38s release, which has a tendency to fail and drop the magazine. In testing, no magazines fell off any of the prototypes when they weren't meant to.
Of course, Tokarev tried to outdo Simonov at his own game by also proposing a fully automatic version, the so-called AVT-40, with a heavier, sturdier, stock to handle the force of full-auto fire. The prototype achieved an impressive 750 rounds per minute, and surprisingly the action handled automatic fire well. Otherwise the AVT-40 is rife with problems. Fully automatic fire is uncontrollable at best, and in continuous full auto fire, the barrel's rifling wears down at an alarming rate, to the point where the inside of the barrel becomes almost smooth after a mere 200-250 rounds. None of this is surprising when one considers that the weapon was designed as a semi-automatic weapon from the start, and it would thus be pointless to produce the AVT-40 only to prohibit it from being fired in full auto to avoid a ridiculously short service life.
With production cheaper, and the rifle sturdier, production of the SVT-40 will now start in Tula Arsenal, replacing the SVT-38 on their production line. Once other Arsenals have completed the Red Army's orders for SVT-38s, and Mosin-Nagant M38 Carabines, they too will be retooled, and eventually all SVT-38s currently in service will be replaced by SVT-40s. SVT-38s with cracked stocks, and other significant damage, will be removed entirely, to be stored somewhere, in case we ever lack rifles. SVT-38s in good condition will be improved by the replacement of the magazine release and put back into circulation, most likely with second-line units. The official aim now, is to have half of all Rifles in the Red Army be semi-automatic, while the rest will remain, for now, Mosin-Nagant variants.
Of course, for many elite units, which often already operate more SVT-38s and AVS-36s than the average rifle Division, 90% or more of their rifles will be replaced with SVT-40s. Guards Rifle units (motorised and non-motorised), Armoured Cavalry units and Amur Tiger Cavalry units will be fitted out with almost exclusively SVT-40s. Airborne and Mountain Rifle units probably won't use many SVT-40s. These two unit types place a higher importance on the weight and the length of the weapon, preferring the lightest, shortest weapon that can get the job done, even at the cost of some firepower.
Paratroopers will continue to use their new purpose-built PPS-42 submachine guns in large numbers, as well as a lighter version of the Mosin-Nagant M38 Carabine.
The M38 Carabine has been a favourite of the Mountain Rifleman ever since it's introduction. It's relatively short length and lightness makes climbing mountains, with it on your back, just a bit faster and easier. (3,4kg, 1.000mm over 400g lighter, and 213mm shorter than an SVT-40)
The last item of the presentation was the presentation of the prototype SVT-40 sniper rifle. Currently virtually all of the sniper rifles in the Red Army are Mosin-Nagants. The SVT-38 was proposed as a sniper rifle, but it never really got off the ground due to the above-mentioned issues. It was also discovered that the SVT-38s often suffer from vertical shot dispersion. The extent of the dispersion is small enough for it to be a non-issue at regular combat distances, but for long range shots, it is a significant problem. In the end, only a few hundred of SVT-38 sniper rifles were produced.
The AVS-36 sniper rifle was even shorter lived. The action, ejecting cartridges upwards, makes it impossible to mount a scope directly above the chamber. After some experimenting with side-mounted scopes it was determined that this was impractical, and that a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle, with it's scope directly above the chamber, was significantly more accurate in practice, when looking through the scope. Only a few prototypes were produced.
Tokarev seems confident that the SVT-40 is the next great sniper rifle. He believes that a redesigned muzzle brake, and a marginally stronger stock are enough for it to have significantly better long-range accuracy than the SVT-38. That's probably true, but will it be better, or at least close to that of Mosin-Nagant sniper rifles? For the SVT-40 to be properly tested as a long range sniper rifle, we'll have to wait for these theories to be put to the test by some real marksmen.
On another note, now that Simonov is done tinkering with his AVS-36, maybe he'll come up with something even better, something that reliably works. I guess we'll have to wait a few years for that one.
I'll see you in Vologda,
Until next time,
'Dva'
The Tula Arsenal, newly retooled for the production of SVT-40s.
Today, production of the SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle has started. The final design was presented to Party officials, Bureaucrats, and even Comrade Secretary General himself, at the Tula arsenal. It's essentially a redesign of the SVT-38, but it's also more than that, it represents the end of a contest that started all the way back in 1936. The story of the Red Army's next great standard issue Rifle is one of the rivalry between two talented designers, but also that of an Army that needs to be able to face today's challenges, not those of the 19th century.
Up to 1936, the only rifles that were used by the Red Army in significant numbers were Mosin-Nagant 1891/30's. These bolt action weapons, based on a 1891 design, can only be improved upon so much. They are excellent bolt-action rifles, very reliable and easy to use. It is a proven weapon, the workhorse of the Imperial Russian Army in the First Great War, and the rifle of choice for both Red and White Russian forces in the civil war that ensued. Many are still in use with second line units, police forces, and as the Red Army's main sniper rifle.
In 1935, under the impulsion of Comrade Secretary General Iosif Stalin, started to seriously consider the idea of a new standard rifle, a Semi-Automatic, or even a fully automatic Rifle. Tests in 1936 revealed only two serious contestants. Both offerings are gas-operated, both use the standard 7.62 x 54mm R bullets. They are significantly different:
The first was Simonov's revolutionary fully automatic AVS-36 design. It was all very promising. The AVS-36 is capable of both semi-automatic and automatic fire, achieving 800 rounds/minute in it's automatic setting, and up to 25 rounds/minute in semi-automatic. It holds a 15-round detachable magazine, allowing for more than a second of fully automatic fire. Revolutionary as it is, the action is quite complicated, using a vertical sliding locking block, with locking flappers. As I understand it, the cartridges take a relatively long and steep path between the magazine and the chamber, something that turned out to be the source of many blockages and firing delays, especially if the rifle was not spotless.
Tokarev proposed a design in 1936, but the Army turned it down in favour of Simonov's more innovative design. Tokarev got his revenge in 1938 when his improved Semi-automatic SVT-38 was retained for testing, instead of an improved version of the AVS-36. The SVT-38, and the new SVT-40 have a simpler tilting bolt action. It holds a 10-round magazine, still a twofold increase over the 5-round stripper clips used on the Mosin-Nagant. While it is still more complex than the Mosin-Nagant, it is easier to maintain, and much less vulnerable to dirt and sand than the AVS. Despite the smaller magazine, it's rate of fire is surprisingly similar to the AVS in semi-automatic up to 25 rounds/minute. The SVT does contain more parts, so is slightly more time-consuming to manufacture, and slightly heavier, though still below the 4kg mark.
This rivalry has had it's ups and downs, with Simonov getting a head start as the AVS-36 started limited mass-production in 1936, while the SVT was merely a gun on paper. However, once the gun started to reach active units, the AVS-36s flaws became apparent in larger scale training, and thus production remained relatively low. Reliability was shown to be quite lacklustre. The overly complex action seems to suck in any sand or dust in the air around it when fired in the wild. This would have not have been such a big problem if it wasn't for the fact that the gun would jam when a few grains of sand made their way into the action. In the end, 65.000 AVS-36s were produced before production was stopped.
In 1938, instead of the AVS-36, a new version of the Mosin-Nagant, the M1938 Carabine was brought forward into production for widespread distribution. Simonov tried to submit incremental improvements to the AVS in an attempt to remedy it's shortcomings, and Tokarev finally presented his fully fleshed out SVT-38 semi-automatic design. Until the Finnish winter war, the Red Army was uncertain about which way they would go. Only one semi-automatic rifle would make it to production. Prototypes of both improved AVS-36s and SVT-38s were comprehensively tested to try and avoid a repeat of the fiasco that was the roll-out of the AVS-36. In the end, the Finnish Winter War provided the deciding testing ground. Limited production of the SVT-38 was started, and existing AVS-36s, improved following Simonov's guidelines, were transported to the 1st Army Group.
During the conflict, both guns were deployed in limited numbers, and both had problems. For starters, troops used to the Mosin-Nagant complained that both rifles were difficult to maintain, but that was to be expected. In the intense cold, the metal of some crucial parts of the AVS-36 became very brittle. Firing pins, and a spring in the feeding mechanism were particularly affected, and breakages were commonplace. On the SVT-38 it was found that the magazine has a tendency to fall out. Another, less common, issue was that the light Arctic Birch stock would crack in the wrist due to recoil. An easy fix for this issue was to drill a horizontal hole through the stock between the wrist and the receiver, an to thread an industrial bolt through it to make keep the stock in one piece, as soon as a crack appears. The manufacture of an SVT-38 also proved to be more time-consuming than that of an AVS-36.
Having run out of patience for the fundamental flaws in the AVS-36 design to be resolved, Iosif Stalin, and the Red Army decided that, despite it's flaws, the SVT platform was the way forward, and the AVS-36 was permanently out of the running.
There were probably other factors at play, besides the quality of the guns. With potentially a large scale conflict on the horizon, Stalin, and some Generals in the Red Army were concerned about the amount of ammunition soldiers with AVS-36s would use in automatic mode. If one considers that the ubiquitous use of fully automatic rifle would be too much of a drain on the supply chain for too little gain, then the AVS-36s greatest asset starts working against it.
With much of the world on the brink of war, the introduction of large numbers of semi-automatic rifles into the Red Army was considered very urgent, and thus production of the SVT-38 was increased significantly with the initial goal of replacing a third of all the rifles in the Red Army's Rifle Regiments with SVT-38s. Meanwhile Tokarev was given the resources he needed to attempt to remedy the SVT-38s flaws. The result, is the SVT-40, which addresses most of the issues with the SVT-38, or at least attempts to do so.
The rifle's manufacture and maintenance was somewhat simplified by removing unnecessary complexity in a few places, something that, incidentally, also made the weapon a bit lighter. The new one-piece handguard instead of the SVT-38s 2-piece one is the most visible simplification. The cleaning rod is housed under the barrel on the SVT-40, an added bit of functionality. The magazine release has been modified, the new folding release on the SVT-40 looks much sturdier than the SVT-38s release, which has a tendency to fail and drop the magazine. In testing, no magazines fell off any of the prototypes when they weren't meant to.
Of course, Tokarev tried to outdo Simonov at his own game by also proposing a fully automatic version, the so-called AVT-40, with a heavier, sturdier, stock to handle the force of full-auto fire. The prototype achieved an impressive 750 rounds per minute, and surprisingly the action handled automatic fire well. Otherwise the AVT-40 is rife with problems. Fully automatic fire is uncontrollable at best, and in continuous full auto fire, the barrel's rifling wears down at an alarming rate, to the point where the inside of the barrel becomes almost smooth after a mere 200-250 rounds. None of this is surprising when one considers that the weapon was designed as a semi-automatic weapon from the start, and it would thus be pointless to produce the AVT-40 only to prohibit it from being fired in full auto to avoid a ridiculously short service life.
With production cheaper, and the rifle sturdier, production of the SVT-40 will now start in Tula Arsenal, replacing the SVT-38 on their production line. Once other Arsenals have completed the Red Army's orders for SVT-38s, and Mosin-Nagant M38 Carabines, they too will be retooled, and eventually all SVT-38s currently in service will be replaced by SVT-40s. SVT-38s with cracked stocks, and other significant damage, will be removed entirely, to be stored somewhere, in case we ever lack rifles. SVT-38s in good condition will be improved by the replacement of the magazine release and put back into circulation, most likely with second-line units. The official aim now, is to have half of all Rifles in the Red Army be semi-automatic, while the rest will remain, for now, Mosin-Nagant variants.
Of course, for many elite units, which often already operate more SVT-38s and AVS-36s than the average rifle Division, 90% or more of their rifles will be replaced with SVT-40s. Guards Rifle units (motorised and non-motorised), Armoured Cavalry units and Amur Tiger Cavalry units will be fitted out with almost exclusively SVT-40s. Airborne and Mountain Rifle units probably won't use many SVT-40s. These two unit types place a higher importance on the weight and the length of the weapon, preferring the lightest, shortest weapon that can get the job done, even at the cost of some firepower.
Paratroopers will continue to use their new purpose-built PPS-42 submachine guns in large numbers, as well as a lighter version of the Mosin-Nagant M38 Carabine.
The M38 Carabine has been a favourite of the Mountain Rifleman ever since it's introduction. It's relatively short length and lightness makes climbing mountains, with it on your back, just a bit faster and easier. (3,4kg, 1.000mm over 400g lighter, and 213mm shorter than an SVT-40)
The last item of the presentation was the presentation of the prototype SVT-40 sniper rifle. Currently virtually all of the sniper rifles in the Red Army are Mosin-Nagants. The SVT-38 was proposed as a sniper rifle, but it never really got off the ground due to the above-mentioned issues. It was also discovered that the SVT-38s often suffer from vertical shot dispersion. The extent of the dispersion is small enough for it to be a non-issue at regular combat distances, but for long range shots, it is a significant problem. In the end, only a few hundred of SVT-38 sniper rifles were produced.
The AVS-36 sniper rifle was even shorter lived. The action, ejecting cartridges upwards, makes it impossible to mount a scope directly above the chamber. After some experimenting with side-mounted scopes it was determined that this was impractical, and that a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle, with it's scope directly above the chamber, was significantly more accurate in practice, when looking through the scope. Only a few prototypes were produced.
Tokarev seems confident that the SVT-40 is the next great sniper rifle. He believes that a redesigned muzzle brake, and a marginally stronger stock are enough for it to have significantly better long-range accuracy than the SVT-38. That's probably true, but will it be better, or at least close to that of Mosin-Nagant sniper rifles? For the SVT-40 to be properly tested as a long range sniper rifle, we'll have to wait for these theories to be put to the test by some real marksmen.
On another note, now that Simonov is done tinkering with his AVS-36, maybe he'll come up with something even better, something that reliably works. I guess we'll have to wait a few years for that one.
I'll see you in Vologda,
Until next time,
'Dva'