The DShK was an air-cooled, heavy machine gun that was used by the Soviet Union during World War II.
Description[]
The DShK was capable of firing 12.7x108mm rounds at an effective range of 2,000 meters. Being fed by fifty round belts and having a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, the DShK was a very heavy weapon that was used in a variety of different roles. Largely, it found use as an anti-aircraft weapon on both armored vehicles and defensive installations. For infantry use, the DShK used a wheeled mount similar to that of the PM M1910 Machine Gun.[1]
The total length of the weapon was 162.5 centimeters while the weight of the machine gun itself was 34 kilograms. With the shield and wheeled mount however, the weapon weighed over 157 kilograms.[2] Notably, the DShK used a very large muzzle brake to release the large amount of gases created during normal operation. While the barrel can be removed, it was a very involved process that meant it could not be switched out as easily as the DShK's counterparts. Another defect of the weapon system was that the DShK did not have much accuracy at long range due to an unstable mount.
History[]
The DShK was first developed in 1938 following a 1925 requirement by the Red Army for a new heavy machine gun to supplement the M1910 machine gun commonly in service. The result was a large machine gun created by Vasily Degtyaryov known as the DK. It used thirty round drum magazines that proved to be ineffective in practice. To fix the weapon's issues, weapon designer Georgy Shpagin created a new belt feed design that allowed the DK to pass its trials and become the DShK in 1938. Following its adoption into the Red Army, the DShK became one of the main machine guns used by the Soviet Union during World War II.
References[]
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