The Soviet self-propelled artillery unit SU-76 is one of the most recognizable weapons in its class on the eastern front during World War II. The SU was developed in an accelerated manner at the beginning of the war. The self-propelled gun was intended to support the Soviet infantry. The Red Army, like all soldiers, were inclined to invent nicknames for the most successful or unsuccessful weapons at the front. So the SU-76 has received a not flattering nickname - "mass grave".
Every war is terrible. Total war, of which there have been only two in the history of mankind today, is a projection of hell on earth, no matter how pathetic it sounds. In the conditions of total war, the slogan: "Everything for the front, everything for victory" is by no means Soviet. It appeared during the First World War and not at all in Russia. It is important to understand this when trying to comprehend why certain things in war conditions were done exactly this way, and not otherwise. First of all, all this concerns the production of weapons. The maximum simplification and reduction in the cost of weapons was characteristic of all parties to the conflict, and not only for the USSR.
Some types of weapons were even developed by the countries participating in the Second World War in an accelerated manner. in the face of severe restrictions as a swift response to an unexpected new challenge to front. The history of the development of the SU-76 is one of the textbook examples in this area. A self-propelled gun was created in haste in 1942. The design assignment was "simple enough": it was necessary to quickly create a cheap and easy-to-manufacture self-propelled gun with a powerful enough weapon to support the infantry formations of the Red Army.
Subsequently, other self-propelled guns will be widely used in the USSR: these are the ISU-152, the SU-100, and the SU-85. However, it is the SU-76 that will become the most massive self-propelled gun of the entire war. It will be released in the amount of 14 thousand copies. It was developed in just a few months based on the chassis of the T-70 tank and the 76-mm artillery gun. A characteristic feature of the 76th was an open-top crew compartment. It is noteworthy that in the initial project it was closed, but it very quickly became clear that the roof prevents the crew from effectively shooting, and also makes it difficult to interact with the infantry supporting SU-76. So the self-propelled gun was turned into a "convertible".
Actually, it is precisely because of the characteristic shape of the crew compartment that the Soviet soldiers called this SU the "mass grave". The similarities between the cadaver pit and the space for the SS crew are especially noticeable when you look at both from above. In addition, the 76th was equipped only with bulletproof armor, which did not protect against shells and even some fragments. In urban battles, the main problem of the SU-76 was that the entire crew could be destroyed with a single grenade successfully thrown inside the installation.
However, all these shortcomings were largely leveled out by the specifics of using the SU-76 and the support of the infantry. Of course, to create a bad name around the self-propelled gun, several bright and sad precedents were enough, which in the soldier's environment were also embellished with rumors, as is often the case. As a rule, the crews of the SU-76 died not from successfully abandoned grenades, but from losses in "artillery duels" and from the fire of German tanks that broke through.
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At the same time, the self-propelled gun had many advantages. Cheapness and ease of production are not the only ones here. The ease of installation allowed her to move quickly over rough terrain and easily change her position. The SU-76 showed excellent cross-country ability, including on soft ground. In addition, the installation could easily be transported across the river on a raft during the formation of a water barrier. Finally, the 76mm cannon was able to deal with most German tanks at the time of 1942 and 1943. And most importantly, mobile artillery provided sufficient cover for the infantry and nullified the inability to use small-caliber field artillery. Undoubtedly, the SU-76 broke its teeth against the German Panthers and Tigers, but do not forget that the most the mass tank of the Wehrmacht was still the medium Panzerkampfwagen IV with much less solid armor.
If you want to know even more interesting things about the war, then you should read about if PPS-43 is considered the best Soviet assault rifle of warwhy it was produced less than PPSh-41.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/090121/57346/
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