January 5th, 1943
Moscow
On the production of a prototype of the 152 mm SPG on the KV-1S chassis
In order to carry out order #2692ss of the State Committee of Defense issued on January 4th, 1943, I order:
- The director of the Kirov factory comrade Goreglyad, director of factory #200 comrade Sherbakov, and the chief designer of the NKTP comrade Kotin to produce a prototype of a 152 mm model 1937 howitzer (ML-20) on the KV-1S chassis and deliver it for trials by January 31st, 1943.
- The project should have the following tentative characteristics:
- Mass with ammunition, fuel, and crew must be no more than 45.5 tons.
- The vehicle must carry no less than 20 shells.
- The side armour must be no less than 50 mm thick.
- The front armour must be 60-75 mm thick.
- The height of the fighting compartment must be no less than 1700 mm.
- The rate of fire must be 3-4 RPM.
- To guarantee the arrival of the SPG prototype at the proving grounds by January 31st:
- Chief designer comrade Kotin must receive blueprints by January 10th.
- Factory #200 director comrade Sherbakov must provide the armoured hull by January 18th.
- Kirov factory director comrade Goreglyad must finish the assembly of the SPG by January 25th and perform mobility and gunnery trials jointly with factory #100, finishing on January 29th.
- Comrade Goreglyad, comrade Sherbakov, and comrade Kotin should consider that the State Committee of Defense has ordered:
- The People's Commissar of Armament (comrade Ustinov), factory #172 director (comrade Bykhovskiy), chief designer of factory #172 (comrade Gurenko), and chief designer of factory #9 (comrade Petrov) to produce and deliver a 152 mm gun-howitzer to the Kirov factory modified for installation on a KV-1S tank by January 23rd, 1943.
- The design of the project, calculation of changes required in the ML-20 gun-howitzer for installation in an SPG, and distribution of parts orders among factories is to be done at the Kirov factory by engineers from the People's Commissariats of Tank Production and Armament, as well as GAU engineers Engineer-Major Komarov and Engineer-Colonel Solomonov.
- GAU chief comrade Yakovlev must provide final technical requirements to the People's Commissariat of Tank Production by January 6th, 1943.
- GAU, GUKART, and GABTU must organize and perform trials of the SPG at proving grounds near Chelyabinsk within 7 days of the SPG's arrival.
- USG chief comrade Kormilitsin must supply the proving grounds with fuel to perform trials.
- Results of trials must be sent to GOKO within 3 days of their completion.
- Consider that the decree of the State Committee of Defense orders to begin development immediately, with the aim of producing the SPG immediately after completion of trials.
Comrade Goreglyad and comrade Makhonin should immediately prepare for production of the SPG in order to satisfy the above condition and begin production immediately after approval.
Comrade Goreglyad, comrade Makhonin, comrade Kotin and comrade Sherbakov should be aware of the exceptional nature of this assignment. It is suggested that they take any measures necessary to complete this assignment completely by the provided deadline.
People's Commissar of Tank Production, I. Zaltsmann"
holly shit, just 26 days to make trial ready prototype ?
ReplyDeleteis there any info about when precisely the prototype was ready ?