76 mm air defense gun M1938 (Russian: 76-мм зенитная пушка обр. 1938 г.) was 76.2 mm (3 inch) Soviet air defense gun, created by the famous Soviet artillery designer M.N.Loginov. This gun was a modernized version of the 76.2 mm air defense gun model 1931, with a slightly modernized barrel and a completely new two-axle carriage ZU-8. This carriage was also used for the more powerful 85 mm 52-K air defense gun, developed in 1939.
The 85 mm gun was chosen for mass production by the Soviet authorities and tooling was switched from the 76.2 mm AD guns, to the 85 mm gun. As a result of this decision, the total number of M1938 AD guns, delivered to the Red Army, was relatively small. These guns were used in the first stages of the German-Soviet War and were gradually replaced by the more powerful 52-Ks. The muzzle velocity of the 6.5 kg (14.33 lb) projectile was 816 m/s (2,677 ft/s) and this allowed the shell to reach a 9,250 m (30,347 ft) maximum altitude.
The external appearance of the 76 mm and 85 mm AD guns is very close; the two types can be differentiated by their muzzle brake, the larger gun possessing the larger muzzle brake.
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“The thundering line of battle stands,
And in the air Death moans and sings:
But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,
And Night shall fold him in soft wings.”
—Julian Grenfell (1888–1915)
“The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people’s identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)