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TACAM R-2

1944 WORLD WAR 2

History

This ingenuity was in full swing during World War II (1939-1945), when countless obsolete vehicle designs found new life as entirely new battlefield systems. This is the case for Romania with several systems that it has to develop due to ongoing demand.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, it was a neutral party, and due to the internal and external situation, it officially joined the Axis powers in November of the following year. It devoted more soul to the Eastern Front than any other non-German participant, and was a vital oil supplier to the German war machine.

While progress along the Eastern Front initially benefited the Axis, Soviet winter and tight supply lines halted the advance long enough to allow the enemy to recover and rearm. This led to many operations to retake lost territories for the Soviet Union, ultimately losing the advantage the Axis powers once had.

By the end of 1942, the Romanian army lacked significant firepower to counter the rise of better armed and armored Soviet tank systems - namely the classic T-34 medium tank and IS-2 Josef Stalin heavy tank. described on this page).

The origin of the R-2 is evident in the overall appearance of the landing gear layout and fuselage lines, with the only design exceptions being the new gun and crew mounts. The crew consists of three people and the armor protection thickness reaches 25 mm. A 7.92mm ZB-53 machine gun can be mounted for local defense. From the design phase in 1943, a pilot vehicle was produced for testing, the tank went into production in 1944, followed by 20 examples (although 40 were originally planned, the new Soviet armor ended the anticipation of a new car range).

Before the vehicles came to the front, they were upgraded to carry the more powerful ZiS-3 series AT cannons, another Soviet 76.2mm weapon system available to the Romanians.

In August 1944, the Romanians turned to the Allies, and these new tank destroyers experienced the baptism of firepower when they attacked the German-Hungarian army. These models remained in service with the local army until Romania declared no Axis presence at the end of October.

Almost all of the TACAM R-2 tank destroyers - except one, which became a museum exhibit - were lost or scrapped before the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.

The Romanian tank program achieved 20 production examples and the only pilot vehicle.