Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
The title says it all:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...rtillery-apcs/
As stocks of ATGMs started running low, D44 85mm divisional guns would appear on European battlefields of the Twilight War. Developed during WW2, the D44 was produced between 1944-1953. Clearly, given its use in 2023 Ukraine, 85mm ammo for it is still available from reserve stockpiles.
And, of course, the Ukrainians have mounted some D44s on MTLB armored tractors. According to the Popular Mechanics article, the BTR50 was actually designed with the capability of mounting a D44 field gun in mind.
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They would have appeared well before the stocks of ATGMs started running low. When reunification happened in our timeline, the National People's Army (East Germany) had around 400 D-44/SD-44 as part of their artillery park. Those were somewhat modern for them, given that they also had M-1931 and M-1937 122mm guns and M-1938 howitzers (there was some newer kit as well, like the "M-1974" self-propelled howitzer [2S1 Gvozdika], but there was a lot of old stuff).
Edit: as far as ammunition still being available, Pakistan has a couple hundred of the Chinese clone in service, Armenia and Azerbaijan both have smaller numbers in service, and Bulgaria had over a hundred in storage a few years ago.