The Soviet Arsenal
The Mosin rifle was the main arm of the Soviet Union in the Second World War. A bolt action rifle feeding from a 5 round single stack magazine, it fired the powerful 7.62 by 54 millimeter rimmed cartridge.
The rifle was designed by a commission of Russian arsenal designers, with principal work being contributed by Sergei Mosin. The design for the magazine came from a competing rifle submitted by Leon Nagant, and featured an interruptor to allow the reliable feeding of rimmed ammunition.
The Mosin would prove to be durable enough for combat on the eastern front of both World Wars, though the operating surfaces of the bolt were vulnerable to mud. While not exactly cheap to manufacture, the Soviet Union could field tens of millions numbers of the rifle due to their build-up of tooling machinery.
The original mass-produced variant of the Mosin which served primarily in the First World War, the M91 was the longest of all the Mosins. Its rear sight was rushed into production following a change to spitzer ammunition in the early 1900s, and was somewhat vulnerable to damage.
The Mosin rifle was updated in form factor in the years preceding the Second World War. The handier 1891 dragoon model was chosen as the basis of the 91/30, being a couple inches shorter than the original infantry model. The rear sight was also improved, and other than a few minor changes the rest of the rifle remained the same.
An even shorter version of the Mosin, the M38 Carbine was used by engineers, artillery crews, and other troops whose primary duties did not involve frontline combat. Lighter in weight but firing the same ammunition as its full-size brethren, the M38's recoil was correspondingly higher.
The scoped variant of the M91/30, the sniper variant, had a scope mount on the side of the receiver which accepted either PEM or PU scopes. The bolt handle was bent 90 degrees to clear the scope. They were generally made with tighter tolerances, and were capable of higher precision compared to a standard 91/30. Discerning snipers could attempt to obtain ranging PZ ammunition, which would explode on impact with the target.
The SVT-40 was a Soviet semi-automatic rifle used extensively in World War 2. A short-stroke piston design, the SVT was one of the earliest self-loading rifles fielded in a significant quantity by a major army. It fed from a 10 round magazine and could be loaded with standard stripper clips.
Although reasonably rugged, it was necessarily more complex than traditional bolt-action rifles. Troops in the field complained that it was difficult to maintain and susceptible to mud.
The large mass of moving parts in the forend of the rifle and the poorly bedded barrel caused it to bounce when fired, negatively affecting accuracy. PU scopes were mounted to SVTs, though the bedding issue would stop production of these marksman's SVTs by mid-war.
The SVT was intended to be mass issued in large numbers. However the high casualties and equipment losses early in the war forced the rapid refitting of the Red Army, something the simpler Mosin was more suited to. The SVT would serve in a gradually diminishing capacity until production stopped in early 1945. The additional firepower provided was not seen to be worth the additional complexity at the time.
Onwards to the free weekend!
That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!
It's going to be a busy weekend on the battlefields of Hell Let Loose and we hope you all have an awesome one!
Once again welcome to all our new players and also thank you to our existing community for being so welcoming - you rock!
We'll see you on the frontline.