PPSH-41

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 17:44 Written by Administrator Friday, 03 July 2009 00:09

The PPSh-41 was a submachine gun of Soviet design that was mass-manufactured during the Second World War. In fact, it was one the most mass produced submachine guns of the Second World War with more than 6 million units produced during the war.

The PPSh-41 was designed by Georgi Shpagin as an alternative to the earlier PPD-40 which was expensive to manufacture. The weapon was constructed from stamped-steel parts and was designed from the offset for inexpensive and speed of manufacture. A large number of weapons were needed to arm the Red Army during the Nazi invasion and the PPSh-41 proved to be adequate in its intended purpose.

Though the PPSh-41 was a wartime expedient, it did have some good features like the chrome lined barrel to reduce wear and tear. However, the weapon had few other polished features. When the shortage was very acute, two PPSh-41 barrels could be made by cutting a Mosin-Nagant rifle into two.

The PPSh-41 was chambered for the 7.62x25mm Tokarev round and was accurate up to 200 meters or so. It fed from a 35-round box magazine. A 71-round drum magazine could also be used. The submachine gun worked effectively even in the harshest of the conditions in the field—a legacy that most weapons of Soviet design retain.

Large numbers of the PPSh-41 were used by Russian partisans in Eastern Europe. After the Second World War, the submachine also saw action in the hands of North Koreans in the Korean War and in Vietnam.