The jacket of the senior lieutenant of the IPTA rifle regiment of the sample of 1943

An original and very rare jacket in good collector's condition. Woolen jacket, crimson edging (the collar is moth-damaged). The jacket is equipped with original shoulder straps with the insignia of a senior lieutenant of infantry and artillery emblems, which indicates that the owner of the jacket served as the commander of a battery of anti-tank guns of a rifle regiment. The IPTA sign of the 1942 model is installed on the sleeve (the option of applying crossed guns with paint, which was a common practice for an officer, since it was almost impossible to find silk-embroidered emblems in front conditions). On the chest there is a patch for 2 light wounds and a badge of the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree (the order is not for sale). Size 48-50. Guarantee of authenticity.

The structure and material part of the anti-tank units were continuously improved during the fighting. Until the autumn of 1940, anti-tank guns were part of rifle, mountain rifle, motorized rifle, motorized and cavalry battalions, regiments and divisions. Anti-tank batteries, platoons and divisions were thus embedded in the organizational structure of the formations, being an integral part of them. The rifle battalion of the rifle regiment of the pre-war state had a platoon of 45-mm guns (two guns). The rifle regiment and the motorized rifle regiment had a battery of 45-mm guns (six guns). In the first case, the means of traction were horses, in the second — specialized tracked armored tractors "Komsomolets". The rifle division and the motorized division included a separate anti-tank division of eighteen 45-mm guns. For the first time, an anti-tank division was introduced into the staff of the Soviet rifle division in 1938. However, maneuvering with anti-tank guns was possible at that time only within the division, and not on the scale of the corps or army. The command had very limited opportunities to strengthen anti-tank defense in tank-dangerous areas.

Shortly before the war, the formation of anti-tank artillery brigades of the RGK began. According to the staff, each brigade was to have forty-eight 76-mm guns, forty-eight 85-mm anti-aircraft guns, twenty-four 107-mm guns, sixteen 37-mm anti-aircraft guns. The full-time strength of the brigade was 5,322 people. By the beginning of the war, the formation of brigades was not completed. Organizational difficulties and the general unfavorable course of hostilities did not allow the first anti-tank brigades to fully realize their potential. However, already in the first battles, the brigades demonstrated the broad capabilities of an independent anti-tank unit.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the anti-tank capabilities of the Soviet troops were severely tested. First, most often rifle divisions had to fight, occupying a defense front that exceeded the statutory standards. Secondly, the Soviet troops had to face the German tactics of the "tank wedge". It consisted in the fact that the tank regiment of the Wehrmacht panzer division was striking at a very narrow area of defense. At the same time, the density of attacking tanks was 50-60 vehicles per kilometer of the front. Such a number of tanks on a narrow section of the front inevitably saturated the anti-tank defense.

Heavy losses of anti-tank guns at the beginning of the war led to a decrease in the number of anti-tank guns in the rifle division. The rifle division of the state of July 1941 had only eighteen 45-mm anti-tank guns instead of fifty-four according to the pre-war state. According to the July state, a platoon of 45-mm guns from a rifle battalion and a separate anti-tank division were completely excluded. The latter was restored to the staff of the rifle division in December 1941. The shortage of anti-tank guns was to some extent made up for by the recently adopted anti-tank guns. In December 1941, a PTR platoon was introduced at the regimental level in the rifle division. In total, there were 89 PTRS in the division by state.