Tank Destroyer Tacam R-2

Infobox Weapon
name= Tank Destroyer Tacam R-2
origin= Romania
type= Tank Destroyer
is_vehicle=yes
service= 1943 - 1945
used by= Romania
wars= World War II
designer= Ministry of Army Endowment
design Date= 1943
manufacturer=General Constantin Pantazi
production_Date= 1943 - 1945
number= 20 - 40
length= 5 m
width= 2.064 m
height= 2.32 m
crew= 3
weight= 12 tons
armour= -
primary_armament= 1 x 76.2 mm ZIS-3 L/42 Gun
secondary_armament= 1 x 7.92 mm ZB-53 MG
engine= Skoda T11, water cooled
engine_power=
vehicle_range= 160 km
speed= 30 km/h

Czechoslovakia exported 126 LT vz 35 units to Romania. Twenty R-2s were fitted with the Soviet 76.2 mm AT Gun. These were used as tank destroyers. The R-2 is the Romanian term for the Skoda S.IIa (LT vz 35).The 1st served at Stalingrad and was practically wiped out. In early 1943 Germany re-equipped the formation with 50 PzKpfw 38(t).

History

Military officials decided that forty R-2 tanks to be converted in TACAMs. The only modification made to the prototype's blueprint was the mounting of the Soviet 76.2 mm ZIS-3 gun model 1942 instead of the F-22 gun. Twenty R-2 tanks were withdrawn from service and were modified at Leonida Works between February and June 1944. In July, a number of 7 TACAMs were tested at Dadilov. Firing tests against a captured T-34 revealed a gun effectiveness within 500 meters using Costinescu armour-piercing rounds. However, the gun handling was difficult and the optics were inadequate. On July 22nd 1944 the High Command of Motomechanized Troops suspended the production of the other twenty TACAMs, resulting a total of twenty-one produced together with the prototype. In July 1944, the TACAM R-2s were distributed to the 1st Tank Regiment were they formed the 63th Tank-destroyer Company. They were used in the liberation of Romanian territory, by September 1944 only six serviceable TACAM R-2s remaining. After the 1st Tank Regiment was disbanded at Soviet order, the six TACAMs entered the composition of the 2nd Tank Regiment and took part in the operations in Austria and Moravia, at the end of the war only one surviving.