MANUFACTURER – Voskov Instrument factory, Sestroretsk, Russia later moved to Leningrad
STATUS – Obsolete
SERVICE – Limited Soviet military service
This design came about as an attempt to produce an improved weapon from the PPSh-41, which was expensive to manufacture in terms of machine time and materials. A request had been put forward for a more compact weapon than the PPSh-41 for use by tank crews and in places where the long wooden stock of the PPSH simply got in the way. The accepted weapon was designed by Aleksey I. Sudaev and manufactured as the PPS. The simplified submachinegun was capable of being manufactured with the very limited resources available in Leningrad while it was under an evolving siege by German forces at the time. Where the PPSh-41 required 7.3 machine-hours and 13.9 kg (30 lbs 10 oz) of raw materials to make a single weapon, the PPS-42 needed only 2.7 machine-hours and 6.2 kg (13 lbs 11 oz) of steel to manufacture a single specimen.
Production of the PPS-42 began in Leningrad in 1942 and ended the following year. The weapon proved itself well in the hands of Soviet troops during the Leningrad break-out. The basic design of the PPS-42 was a simple stamped-metal design using a minimum of machined parts. Welding and riveting were the main techniques used to assemble the weapon. The folding stock swung over the top of the weapon, ending just behind and surrounding the ejection port on the upper part of the receiver. The perforated handguard around the barrel incorporated a very simple muzzle brake consisting of a curved piece of sheet metal welded to the end of the barrel jacket and having a hole for the bullet to pass through.
In spite of the original Soviet intention to concentrate manufacture on one submachinegun design, the demands of the war resulted in the PPS-42 coming on line. Over 46,000 weapons were produced, though the design never went into the massive mass production of the PPSh-41.
