When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the largely obsolete Soviet tank force was reduced to a fraction of its original size. As one of the desperate stop-gap measures to counter the German tank forces, T-20 "Komsomolets" tracked artillery tractors were converted to tank destroyers.
Straining the chassis to the maximum, the resulting vehicle, the ZiS-30 was armed with the 57 mm ZiS-2. The conversion was made at the Joseph Stalin Factory no. 92 (ZiS), and about 100 were build in total.
The 57 mm ZiS-2 was an excellent anti-tank gun. Its standard APCBC shot (BR-271) was almost equal to the German 7,5 cm Pak 39 L/48, and its APCR shot (BR-271P) was superior to the APCR shot of the Pak 39 up to 1000 metres. Its main weakness was its poor HE capability. A variant of the ZiS-2 was also used on the T-34-57 prototype. The ZiS-30 was marred by very thin armour, however. Few were in service by 1942, and none survived the war.
| ZiS-30 | |
|---|---|
| Crew | |
| Crew |
|
| Physical Characteristics | |
| Weight | 3.46 t |
| Length | 3.45 m |
| Width | 1.86 m |
| Height | 1.58 m |
| Armour | |
| Armour (range) | 7-10 mm |
| Performance | |
| Speed (max) | 40 km/h |
| Engine | |
| Engine | GAZ-M |
| Net h.p. | 50 |
| Cylinders | 4 |
| Armament | |
| Primary weapon | 57 mm ZiS-2 (1) |
| Secondary weapon | 7.62 mm DT (1) |
