SU-76P [T-26]

Pictures of – and information on – this vehicle is scarce. The SU-76P (sometimes referred to as the SU-26, SU-T-26 or the Leningrad self-propelled gun) was based on the T-26 chassis. It was built in Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad and involved removing the turret from the T-26 and mounting a 76 mm regimental gun M1927 on the engine deck together with a gunshield to protect the rather exposed gun-crew.

In the autumn 1941 the Leningrad front was poorly supplied with explosive 45-mm shells. Therefore the light tanks could not be used against German fortifications and infantery. At the request of Military Advice of Leningrad's Front OGK, NKTP offered re-armed tanks T-26 and BT by a short-barrel gun of calibre 76-mm. These guns were demounted in 1937-38 from T-28 tanks and were stored in warehouses of Leningrad.

The SU-76P consisted of a 76 mm regimental field gun installed on a T-26 chassis with a circular field of fire, and it had no protection for the crew other than the gun's shield. But this vehicle was merely another stop-gap measure, as the besieged city had to make do with whatever equipment it had remaining inside the encirclement. In October 1941, the first SP gun on the chassis T-26, armed by short-barrel 76-mm gun KT on a curbstone with a armor shield was tested. The decision of Military Advice of Leningrad's Front began its manufacture in shops of Factory #174.

The SP gun received the name SU-76. In 1943, that there was some confusion with the new machine with the same name, this SP gun in the documents have begun to name SU-76P ("polrovaya" - regimental). The gun on the SU-76P unlike the SU-76 was traversable and as such can be regarded as a turret-mounted gun.