Ya, I caught that as well. My best guess they emplaced the captured guns alongside a existing battery a organized some skeleton crews to supplement the 76mm fire till the ammo ran out. The trick is being able to translate the German firing tables into something the RKKA artillery men can use. The RKKA often used area fire techniques to harrass German artillery and support units or reserves, so pinpoint accuracy would not be required.

The US Army often laid tank destroyers and tanks of the independant battalions attched to the infantry divsions alongside the divsion artillery to supplement its fires. The TD or tank company would be laid on a preplanned target and blow off a couple truck loads of ammo to supplement the fires of the howitzer battalions. The TD & tank people hated it as they claimed a single mission like this could put a years worth of ordinary wear on the recoil system of the tank or TD. I dont know what the truth is there, but the field artillery logistics people of the Fifth Army in Italy found the Effective Round Count per cannon to exceed estimates by a factor of three or four. In 1943 the artillery commanders were restricting the shots per day of the heavy 8" or 203mm cannon until parts like breach seals and recoil mechanisms were brought into the threatre in suffcient quantity.

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