SU-76M (China)
Contents
Description
The ␗SU-76M is a rank I Chinese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 2.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".
General info
Survivability and armour
The SU-76M shares a similar hull armour profile with the T-70 light tank on which it is based, but has a lightly armoured open-topped superstructure to accommodate the 76 mm gun. With a maximum thickness of only 25 mm, it will not stop much more than heavy machine gun fire. The open top also makes the SU-76M very vulnerable to aircraft. strafing runs
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25 mm (60°) Front glacis
30 mm (30°) Lower glacis 25 mm (35-89°) Driver's hatch |
15 mm | 15 mm (1°) Top
15 mm (32°) Lower |
7 mm |
| Superstructure | 25 mm (27°) | 10 mm (21-24°) Left
10 mm (18-19°) Right |
15 mm (1°) | N/A |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.
- Belly armour is 7 mm thick.
- The rear superstructure does not cover the entire crew compartment.
- A 25 mm plate of armour separates the driver's and engine compartment to the rear fighting compartment.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 34 | 6 | 10.5 | 199 | 267 | 18.95 | 25.43 |
| Realistic | 31 | 6 | 124 | 140 | 11.81 | 13.33 | |
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 33 | 5 | 10.5 | 199 | 267 | 18.95 | 25.43 |
| Realistic | 30 | 5 | 124 | 140 | 11.81 | 13.33 | |
The SU-76M has a very low top speed of only about 30 km/h, considering how lightly armoured it is. It also has a poor reverse speed of only 5 km/h. It does have a good power/weight ratio, however, and accelerates and turns fairly quickly.
Armaments
Main armament
Main article: ZiS-3 (76 mm)
The SU-76M is armed with the 76 mm ZiS-3 field gun, a versatile artillery piece that is also capable of performing in the anti-tank role. It has a decent rate-of-fire and a wide traverse arc, but the mounting has very poor gun depression due to the rearward placement of the superstructure.
It has a very wide-selection of ammunition, though only a few are worth using regularly. The stock BR-350A APHEBC shell is adequate enough for most purposes, although it will struggle against heavy tanks like the Churchill at long ranges. The BR-350B APHEBC shell is arguably the best all-round projectile available, combining decent penetration with excellent lethality. Against particularly heavy armour, the BR-350P APCR shot is available, though its poor lethality and performance against sloped armour will tend to disappoint. The BR-350SP APBC shot is a solid shot round with no filler, but it creates more spalling than the APCR and is somewhat more lethal. The BP-350A HEAT round is occasionally useful for long-range fighting since it does not lose penetration with distance, but the Soviet 76 mm guns generally do not perform very well at long range, and work better at medium to close range. The Sh-354T shrapnel round creates a lot of fragments when it penetrates, but is only effective against lighter vehicles.
| 76 mm ZiS-3 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical
guidance |
Horizontal
guidance |
Stabilizer | ||
| 60 | -3°/+25° | ±15° | N/A | ||
| Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
| Arcade | 4.20 | 5.80 | _.__ | __._ | __._ |
| Realistic | 4.20 | 4.90 | _.__ | __._ | __._ |
| Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||
| Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
| 9.0 | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ | ||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of
warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 90° | |||||
| 10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
| BR-350A | APHEBC | 87 | 85 | 76 | 67 | 59 | 52 |
| BR-350SP | APBC | 102 | 100 | 91 | 81 | 72 | 64 |
| BR-350P | APCR | 125 | 119 | 92 | 68 | 50 | 36 |
| BP-350A | HEAT | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| BR-350B | APHEBC | 94 | 92 | 83 | 73 | 65 | 57 |
| OF-350M | HE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Sh-354T | Shrapnel | 37 | 35 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 17 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of
warhead |
Velocity
in m/s |
Projectile
Mass in kg |
Fuse delay
in m: |
Fuse sensitivity
in mm: |
Explosive Mass in g(TNT equivalent): | Normalization At 30°from horizontal: | Ricochet: | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||
| BR-350A | APHEBC | 662 | 6.3 | 1.2 | 14 | 150 | +4° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| BR-350SP | APBC | 655 | 6.78 | N/A | N/A | N/A | +4° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| BR-350P | APCR | 950 | 3.02 | N/A | N/A | N/A | +1.5° | 66° | 70° | 72° |
| BP-350A | HEAT | 355 | 5.3 | N/A | 0.1 | 959.42 | +0° | 62° | 69° | 73° |
| BR-350B | APHEBC | 655 | 6.3 | 0.9 | 14 | 98.56 | +1.5° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| OF-350M | HE | 680 | 6.2 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 621 | +0° | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| Sh-354T | Shrapnel | 680 | 6.2 | 0.5 | 8 | 85 | +0° | 62° | 69° | 73° |
| Smoke characteristic | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity
in m/s |
Projectile
Mass in kg |
Screen radiusin m | Screen timein s | Screen hold timein s: | Explosive Mass in g(TNT equivalent): |
| D-350A | 680 | 6.45 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full
ammo |
1st
rack empty |
2nd
rack empty |
3rd
rack empty |
4th
rack empty |
Visual
discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 44 (+16) | 37 (+23) | 30 (+30) | 1 (+59) | no |
Usage in battles
Like most turretless tank destroyers, the SU-76M needs to be handled with care. Not only does it not have a rotating turret, it is also lightly armoured, has an open top, and practically no protection from behind. The crew is quite exposed to air and rear attacks, which can disable them with even machine gun fire.
The SU-76M lacks the speed to perform daring flanking maneuvers or quickly take control of key locations. Unlike the high penetration 57 mm ZiS-2 gun on the preceding LVT(A)(4), the 76 mm ZiS-3 tends to struggle at long range, but it far outperforms the 57 mm gun in terms of lethality when using the APHEBC rounds, capable of creating havoc on the battlefield, the SU-76M needs to be handled with care.
Not only does it not have a rotating turret, it has an open top and practically no protection from behind. Therefore, when an engagement's complexity evolves and the Su-76 is surrounded, there is little that can be done to survive. One well placed hit to its rear will knock out a good part of the exposed crew, even machine guns can do the job of eliminating both loader and gunner.
It is crucial to remain at a distance from the enemy, perhaps even seek the cover of trees for protection against low-level attack aircraft, and to only ever give the front side to an enemy. The fact that this vehicle does not have a turret not only means that it is not effective when fighting more mobile enemies attempting to flank, it also means that placing the armour at an angle is not a viable strategy to increase relative armour thickness and stay more protected, since the gun's limits for horizontal traverse mean that any significant angle of the hull towards an enemy will make make it harder to keep the enemy in sight. What can be done is to fire a shot and, immediately after, angle the hull whilst reloading, to then return to facing the enemy to fire another shot. However, hiding whilst reloading is the most sensible choice.
Unfortunately, the SU-76 has low mobility, handling, and a vastly different gun. However, the gun on the SU-76 is definitely more powerful than the 57 mm. The sheer force of the 76 mm shells will cause huge amounts of trauma to a target upon penetration. Given its poor gun depression and velocity, the SU-76 should be used as a mobile brawler and ambusher. It is well suited to performing ambushes in urban areas. The high HE filler of the 76mm shell makes it capable of OHK'ing nearly all enemy armour at its 2.3 BR. A minor issue with the SU-76 is that it has no defensive machine gun, meaning that responding quickly to SPAA is difficult.
The gun in itself is what makes the SU-76M a good vehicle, all its other characteristics are less than impressive. The variety of ammunition is a definite pro for this SPG, its APCR and HEAT shells being effective even at higher ranks, giving this humble tank destroyer the ability to down hightier tanks like the Tiger H1. Recently, the much more effective late-war BR-350B ammunition has been added to the SU-76M's ammunition options. It features noticeably more penetration and a better fuze in exchange for somewhat less explosive mass. Despite this, the SU-76M will often destroy most enemies in one shot when the shells penetrate. Once unlocked, the SU-76 is quite capable of dealing with any tank it is likely to see from the front, though there may be a need to swap ammunition often to deal with different targets.
Pros and cons
Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in a bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".
Pros:
- Decent horizontal gun traverse of 30 degrees.
- Great cannon, its deadly APHEBC packs a heavy blow for common opponents like the Pz.IIIs, Crusaders and Stuarts
- Offers a wide range of ammo to deal with various opponents: APHEBC for normal targets, HE / shrapnel for soft targets and APCR for the hard ones.
- Small profile makes it easy to hide and set up ambushes.
- Adequate acceleration and hull traverse
- Carries up to 60 rounds of ammo which is plenty even for a long battle.
Cons:
- Open topped, very vulnerable to strafing aircraft
- Thin armor struggles to protect the crew from even .50 cal.
- -3 degrees of gun depression isn't enough for hill combat, and this flaw is sometimes fatal.
- No MG, so killing vehicles with light armor / exposed crew is rather ineffective, for example SPAAs.
- Poor reverse speed of only 5 km/h might get the player killed.
- Cannon penetrates poorly at more than 700m. Will struggle to pen hard targets like the Matildas, early Churchills and Shermans
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the tank;
- other literature.
| China tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| PLA | |
| Gun vehicles | PLZ83 · PLZ83-130 · PTZ89 |
| Missile vehicles | AFT09 |
| ROC | |
| Missile vehicles | CM25 |
| USA | |
| Gun vehicles | ␗M8 HMC · LVT(A)(4) (ZiS-2) · ␗M10 GMC · ␗M36 GMC |
| Missile vehicles | ␗M113A1 (TOW) |
| USSR | |
| Gun vehicles | ␗SU-76M · ␗ISU-152 · ␗ISU-122 · ␗SU-100 |
