R-2 TACAM "ROMANIAN TANK DESTROYER"

The TACAM R-2 is a Romanian tank destroyer from the Second World War. The first prototypes of this car were made in 1943 or 1944, and serial production was carried out in 1944-1945. In total, about 20 vehicles of this type were built. The drive was provided by a single Skoda T11 / 0 engine with 125 hp. The wagon's hull was 5 meters long, with a width of about 2.1 meters. The weight of the vehicle was up to 12 tons, and the operating range was approx. 140-150 kilometers. The main armament was the 76.2 mm ZIS-3 gun, and the secondary armament consisted of a single 7.92 mm ZB53 machine gun. The TACAM R-2 tank destroyer was developed for the needs of the Romanian armed forces, for which it was clear from the turn of 1941/1942 that the R-2 light tanks used by them did not meet the standards of the Eastern Front battlefield and could not engage in combat with T-34 or KW-1. For this reason, following the example of German solutions, it was decided to rebuild some of the R-2 tanks into tank destroyers, which turned out to be the path leading to the creation of the TACAM R-2 vehicle. Compared to its predecessor (the R-2 tank), it had a combat compartment with a ZIS-3 gun, instead of a rotating turret, while the hull and suspension were basically the same. TACAM R-2 vehicles took part in the fighting in 1944-1945 in Transylvania and later Czechoslovakia.