Tuesday 22 August 2017

SG-122 Conversion

"To the Chief of the Red Army GAU, Colonel-General comrade Yakovlev

Report on the SG-122 SPGs

In December of 1942, factory #40 produced 20 SG-122 SPGs on the chassis of German PzIII and StuG vehicles. Production was later stopped due to defects of the gun mount.

Of the overall number produced, 12 SG-122s were passed on to equip the 1435th SPG Regiment. During fighting on the Western Front, all 12 SG-122s were disabled: of them, 3 were lost irreparably and 9 need factory repairs. Out of those that need factory repairs, 6 vehicles arrived at factory #37 on February 8th, 1943.

Factory #37 refuses to repair the SPGs, claiming that it will be difficult to produce components and parts for the fighting compartment, as it is different than on the SU-76I.

Considering a number of design defects of the SG-122 SPG, the small number of vehicles in use by the Red Army, and the difficulty of repair, I consider it necessary to convert all SG-122 SPGs that arrive for repairs at the factory by equipping them with 76 mm guns in the same manner as the SU-76I.

GAU UMT and SA Chief, Engineer-Colonel Datsuk."

Via Yuri Pasholok

Yuri Pasholok makes some corrections to the above document. First of all, 21 SG-122s were built, but 20. Second, the real reason it was removed from production was due to a shortage of chassis and reorganization of factory #592 into factory #40.

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