GREAT INCREASE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1943, Page 4

GREAT INCREASE

IN MANUFACTURE OF GUNS IN RUSSIA. DESPITE LOSS OF MANY FACTORIES. (By Dmitri Ustinov, People's Commissar for Armaments, Hero of Socialist Labour, in Soviet War News.” Since the outbreak of war, Soviet production of guns, especially for divisinal artillery, has increased many times over.

This result has been achieved despite the evacuation of many ordnance plants to the rear. Extensive work was accomplished in modernising many types of guns which are now in serial production. All th'e needs of tank and aircraft factories have been fully met.

In conformity with the requirements of the Red Army and Navy, Soviet ordnance works rapidly reorganised the entire process of manufacturing gun parts and assembling guns. More effective technical processes were introduced, resulting in a continual growth of output. One factory, directed by Yelyan, turned out in 1942 eleven times as many guns as before the war, while its output at the end of 1942 was two and a-half times that of January of the same year. In February the plant achieved fresh successes.

Another factory, where Bykhovsky is director, increased its output of guns tenfold compared with the prewar period. In 1942 this factory supplied 40 regiments with guns in excess of plan. In January it supplied artillery arms to 15 regiments in excess of its plan. The inventive spirit of the workers in Soviet ordnance factories has been reflected in the large number of rationalisation suggestions put forward and adopted. Designers and technical experts have been very successful in simplifying gun designs. In particular a group of constructors headed by Hero of Socialist Labour, Grabin, have done much to modernise our field artillery. The power of our anti-tank guns has been increased and improvements arc constantly being introduced in the design of aircraft guns. The designers Sinelshchikokv and Petrov, both of whom have won Stalin prizes, have created a new powerful type of gun. Soviet ordnance plants are fully equipped for a steady increase in the output of arms, especially since during the war the supply of steel and other metals has been considerably extended. The workers of the Soviet ordnance industry will supply the Red Army with sufficient quantities of arms to achieve the complete defeat of the enemy.