Text taken from the Telegram channel of Russian historian Alexey Isaev
This is an exceedingly rare and welcome glimpse into Soviet artillery use/tactics in the relatively obscure Winter War of 1939.
[ColonelCassad] On today's stream with O.N. Kiselev on Tactics, a question arose about ammunition consumption during the Soviet-Finnish war. I'll give you a little information.
Let's start with the main ridge of the Red Army artillery. During the entire Soviet-Finnish war, 152mm rounds for howitzer-cannons ML-20 model 1937 fired 288,000. How can December 1939 and January-February and half of March 1940 be compared?
I propose in the summer of 1943. Then, too, there was a pause for a month and no longer the shell hunger of the first winter war. The numbers of the fronts roughly corresponded to the group deployed against the Finns.
The Voronezh Front fired 59,700 of the same 152mm rounds for the ML-20 in June-July-August 1943, at the height of the Kursk Bulge, and the Central Front fired 78,500 in the same three months. Even as a duet they don’t live up to the Finnish campaign.
Soviet artillery fired 47,500 203mm rounds, the Voronezh Front for June-August 1943 - 6,800, the Central Front - 7,400. Well, OK, after all, the fortifications in the summer of 1943 were attacked more simply, the field defenses.
In the Finnish war was fired 487,700 pieces of 152mm howitzer rounds of all types, the Voronezh one - 27,600 pieces (due to the gradual disappearance of the artillery systems of this class themselves, and the D-1s were just appearing). The central front fired 67,300 rounds of 152mm howitzers. The difference is impressive.
The Russian D-1 howitzer was the forerunner to the modern Russian D-10 152mm howitzer.
122mm howitzers fired 889,000 units against the Finns, the Central Front during the specified time interval of the summer of 1943 277,300 units, the Voronezh Front 169,800 units.
But in terms of smaller calibers, the fronts of the summer of 1943 covered the Soviet-Finnish sheep like a bull. Soviet artillery fired 881,500 rounds of 76.2 mm divisional guns against the Finns. During the indicated three months, the Central Front fired 1,240,000 rounds to the divisions, the Voronezh Front 975,300.
The Zis-3 76.2mm divisional field gun was the best light field gun of the war in terms of reliability and range.
So the Red Army then, in the “unfamous war,” could more freely use artillery ammunition, especially heavy artillery.
(c) Alexey Isaev