Isu 152 shells. Military review and politics. Serial and upgraded options
At the initial stage of World War II, the heavy tank was a formidable enemy for the armored forces of the Wehrmacht. However, it had practically no potential for modernization, so by 1943 the production of KV was going to be stopped. A tank was supposed to replace him. However, there was one problem: on the basis of the KV, a heavy self-propelled gun was produced, which the army desperately needed. In June 1943, the design bureau of the Chelyabinsk plant began work on the creation of a new ACS. The development was led by Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin.
The base for the new self-propelled gun quite naturally became the IS-1 tank. The technical requirements for the vehicle included an increase in frontal armor up to 100 mm, retaining a 152-mm gun in service, adding machine gun armament to cannon armament, and improving visibility and ventilation. The work had to be completed by the beginning of July 1943, but the designers had time earlier. They spent a few weeks on the creation of working drawings, and at the beginning of July they already began to build a prototype. At this stage, the self-propelled gun received the IS-152 index.
According to various researchers, the first demonstration of prototypes took place on July 31 or August 31, 1943 on the Ivanovskaya Square of the Kremlin. Meet to new technology came Stalin, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov. To ensure the safety of such significant persons, the NKVD decided to replace all crew members with employees of the organs, except for the driver mechanics. Stalin, greatly interested in the new self-propelled gun, decided to inspect the car more closely. Looking into the fighting compartment, Iosif Vissarionovich asked if the IS-152 had solved the problem with poor ventilation. Naturally, the employees of the NKVD could not answer, since they did not understand the issues of operation. armored vehicles... The mechanic driver intervened in time and reported to Stalin that an additional fan of the fighting compartment was provided for in the design of the ACS. After inspecting the car, Joseph Vissarionovich approved it, and in November 1943 the State Defense Committee issued a decree on adoption.
By this time, the first SPG prototype, which bore the working title "Object 241", had already passed factory and field tests. It was he who became the standard for the production of serial self-propelled guns. New fighting machine entered service under the designation ISU-152. In terms of design, the self-propelled gun was a sum of solutions for the IS-1 tank and the SU-152 self-propelled gun.
The chassis was borrowed from the ISU-152 tank: the same six double rollers, a rear drive wheel and an independent torsion bar suspension. And from the SU-152, the new self-propelled guns got the ML-20S howitzer of the 1937/43 model. The 152-mm gun ammunition included armor-piercing and high-explosive shells. If necessary, some of the shots were replaced with concrete-piercing charges, which were used to destroy enemy pillboxes. The work of the ISU-152 loader was very difficult, since he had to move 40-kilogram shells alone.
The self-propelled gun was equipped with a V-2-IS diesel engine with a capacity of 520 liters. with. It allowed the car to reach speeds of up to 35 km / h on the highway. On rough terrain, the ISU-152 drove much slower - only 10-15 km / h. However, she did not need to set speed records, because this machine was not intended for rapid throws.
ISU-152 production began in November 1943. The new SPG was extremely similar to its predecessor, the SU-152. Thanks to this, the pace of construction was so high that a month later it was possible to start forming the first heavy self-propelled regiment equipped with these self-propelled guns. Moreover, by the spring of 1944, the production of armored hulls of the new self-propelled guns exceeded the ability of gunsmiths to produce the ML-20S howitzer. It was decided to arm the understaffed vehicles with a 122 mm gun. This is how another heavy self-propelled unit, the ISU-122, appeared.
Starting their combat path in the spring of 1944, the ISU-152 proved to be effective and versatile combat vehicles. They were used both as an assault weapon to support tanks and infantry, and as a destroyer of enemy tanks. In combat reports, you can also find evidence of the use of the ISU-152 for firing from closed firing positions. The latter tactic was not widely used for two reasons. Firstly, the ISU-152 had an insufficient gun elevation angle. Because of this, the self-propelled gun could not shoot along hinged trajectories with high steepness. Secondly, it had a very low shell loading speed and a small ammunition load (only 21 shots). I had to lay ammunition next to the self-propelled gun, shoot the shells inside, and then either interrupt the fire for almost an hour, or feed the shells to the loader one at a time. This reduced the already low rate of fire, so that the ISU-152 could no longer bring real benefits.
In general, the separate loading of the gun was a serious drawback, because of which the self-propelled gun was never able to become a full-fledged means of destroying enemy tanks. Although the ISU-152 armored vehicles have earned the reputation of a formidable enemy. In the Soviet troops she was even nicknamed "St. John's wort", and in the German - "Dosenöffner" (opener of cans).
An example of how effectively the ISU-152 is capable of fighting enemy tanks is the battle of the 1st Guards Army of Katukov near the town of Nizhnyuv in Transcarpathia. The Nazis with the help of 40 tanks "" broke through the battle formations of Soviet soldiers and threatened to go to the city of Chernivtsi, encircling Katukov's troops. In order to prevent this, the ISU-152 regiment occupied a height in the most tank-hazardous direction and fought off the advancing Nazis for several hours. Ultimately, the Germans withdrew, losing about 30 tanks.
Self-propelled guns of this type proved to be very good in urban battles. The most powerful high-explosive fragmentation shells of 152-mm howitzers often made it possible to literally eliminate the resistance of the enemy entrenched in houses with just one shot. To protect vehicles from soldiers armed with faust cartridges, self-propelled guns were used as part of assault groups along with infantry cover.
But with all its advantages, the ISU-152 had a number of disadvantages. The installation of an additional fan (the one that was reported to Stalin) did not eliminate the problem of excessive gas pollution in the fighting compartment. During intensive firing inside the car, there was literally nothing to breathe from the powder gases.
As already mentioned, the work of the loader was difficult, who had to feed heavy shells manually in conditions of extreme constraint. Due to the inconvenience of the panoramic sight, the gunner found it difficult to effectively engage targets at a distance of over 900 meters. The fuel tanks located inside the hull created a risk for the crew to burn alive if damaged and increased the likelihood of complete destruction of the ACS as a result of detonation of fuel vapors. Burning diesel fuel could also spill on the floor of the fighting compartment. Fortunately, as noted in the documents, fires on the ISU-152 were extinguished relatively easily.
But even the totality of all these shortcomings could not outweigh the positive qualities of the self-propelled gun. The ISU-152 was in service with the USSR army for a very long time. The last episode of the combat use of this machine was the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956. It is worth noting that the Soviet commanders at the first stage of the fight against the rebels showed themselves not on the best side, which led to the loss of about a dozen ISU-152s, mainly from Molotov cocktails. The exact figures of the losses have not yet been established. After the events in Hungary, SPGs of this type no longer took part in battles, but were often involved in exercises and maneuvers.
The last ISU-152s were removed from service Soviet army in 1972.
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The Great Patriotic War, as well as the Second World War in general, is often called the war of engines. Indeed, the appearance in the troops of a huge number of motorized equipment radically changed the tactics and strategy of the war. One of the classes new technology there was a tank. The appearance of more powerful engines allowed the tank designers to launch a real arms race: already in the middle of World War II, no one had any doubts that the cornerstone of the practical application of the tank was the confrontation between the gun and the armor. So the thickness of the armor plates and the caliber of the guns were increased.
Perhaps the most effective self-propelled domestic means of fighting enemy tanks was the ISU-152 self-propelled gun. The 152-mm ML-20S gun made it possible to reliably hit enemy armored vehicles at such ranges from which the Tigers or Panthers simply could not respond. In the army, this self-propelled gun was even nicknamed "St. John's Wort" for the effective destruction of German "cats". Well, stories about how a German tank tore off a tower after being hit will excite the imagination of people for a long time and cause a lot of controversy. At the same time, the ML-20S gun was essentially a howitzer cannon and, as a result, had a medium-length barrel and a relatively low muzzle velocity. The increase in barrel length could significantly increase the combat performance of self-propelled guns. For this reason, at the very beginning of 1944, the design bureau of plant No. 100 under the leadership of J.Ya. Kotina takes the initiative to create updated version ISU-152. As a new six-inch gun, OKB-172 (chief designer I.I.Ivanov) proposed its new development - the BL-8 cannon. This gun was created on the basis of the pre-war BL-7 and was originally designed taking into account the features of the installation on self-propelled guns. Kotin was satisfied with the proposal and the ISU-152-1 project (the designation consists of the caliber and number of the experimental modernization of the original ACS) began to be created specifically for this gun.
The Great Patriotic War, among other things, was remembered for the emergency pace of work. ISU-152-1 also suffered such a “fate”. The first prototype of this self-propelled gun mount was sent to the test site in July. Outwardly, the new car turned out to be formidable. A long barrel with a huge muzzle brake was added to the harsh appearance of the original ISU-152. Most of design passed the experienced self-propelled gun practically unchanged. Therefore, the armored hull, as on the original ISU-152, was divided into two compartments - engine-transmission and combat. The power plant still consisted of a V-2-IS 12-cylinder V-shaped diesel engine (520 hp), a multi-plate main clutch and a four-speed gearbox. The chassis was also completely borrowed from the ISU-152.
The main, and in principle, the only difference between the ISU-152-1 and the ISU-152 lay in the new weapon. The BL-8 cannon was mounted in a frame on the frontal armor plate. The attachment point allowed aiming the gun within the range from -3 ° 10 'to + 17 ° 45' vertically and from 2 ° (left) to 6 ° 30 '(right) horizontally. The difference in the horizontal guidance angles is explained by the peculiarities of the installation of the gun: it was not mounted in the center of the frontal plate, which became the reason for the restrictions due to the movement of the breech in the wheelhouse. The 152-mm BL-8 cannon had a piston bolt and a barrel blowing device after firing. We should also dwell on the muzzle brake of the gun. As you can see from its design, it works in an interesting way. When fired, the powder gases hit the front glass and create a forward impulse. After the impact, the gases under pressure follow back, where some of them are thrown out through the side windows, and the remaining flow is redirected to the sides by the rear brake disc. Thus, it was possible to significantly reduce the amount of powder gases going towards the ACS cabin without any significant loss in brake efficiency. The gun ammunition consisted of 21 rounds of separate loading of various types. Shells and casings were placed in the same way as on the original ISU-152, along the sides and at the rear wall of the wheelhouse. The ammunition nomenclature has not changed either. These were armor-piercing tracer shells 53-BR-540 and high-explosive fragmentation 53-OF-540. For self-defense of the crew, it was supposed to equip the self-propelled gun with two PPSh or PPS submachine guns with ammunition and a set of grenades. Also, in the future, it was planned to install a large-caliber machine gun DShK on the tower. However, the ISU-152-1 never received additional weapons.
The ISU-152 crew of five - the commander, driver, gunner, loader and lock - also survived on the ISU-152-1.
In July 1944, a prototype of the ISU-152-1 under the name "Object 246" was delivered to the Rzhevsky test site. Already the first shooting and trips around the range left an ambiguous impression. The longer barrel of the gun significantly increased the muzzle velocity of the projectile. So, the armor-piercing 53-BR-540 had an initial speed of 850 m / s versus 600 m / s for the ML-20S howitzer cannon. As a result, the shelling of armor plates of various thicknesses made a splash among the testers. From a kilometer range, the experienced self-propelled gun was guaranteed to penetrate the armor of any German tanks even if hit at small angles. As an experiment, the thickness of the armored plate on which the fire was fired was gradually increased. 150 millimeters - pierced. 180 - pierced. Finally, 203. Even such armor could be penetrated along the normal.
BL-8 based on ISU-152 (photo http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com)
On the other hand, the updated self-propelled gun had enough problems. The muzzle brake of the new design did not show the design characteristics, and the barrel turned out to be less tenacious than required. In addition, its length made it difficult to move normally over rough terrain. The five-meter "pipe", coupled with small vertical guidance angles and the absence of a rotating tower, very often literally rested on the ground and needed help from the side. Finally, the new gun was heavier than the ML-20S and increased the load on the front of the chassis. Deteriorated maneuverability and cross-country ability.
The experience with the ISU-152-1 was recognized as partially successful, but requiring serious improvements. Ideally, to bring the new self-propelled gun into a normal form, a new engine of greater power was required, a new design of the suspension of the gun with large vertical guidance angles, which ultimately would require re-arranging the entire armored chamber and even changing its dimensions. The gain in combat characteristics was considered insufficient reason for such a serious revision. However, the only experienced self-propelled gun ISU-152-1 did not disappear and became the basis for the next modernization.
As a last chance to upgrade the ISU-152, the designers of plant No. 100 and OKB-172 were allowed to modify the gun and test the self-propelled gun equipped with it. By the end of the 44th year, the design team of I.I. Ivanov reduced the length of the barrel of the BL-8 cannon, modified the breech and the design of the mountings to the frontal armor plate of the self-propelled carrier. The resulting BL-10 gun was installed on the "object 246" instead of the BL-8, which was recognized as unsuccessful. The second version of the modernization of the ISU-152 was named ISU-152-2 or "object 247". The tests of "object 247" that began in December 1944, oddly enough, showed no improvement in the situation in any area. The maneuverability and maneuverability remained the same as that of the ISU-152-1, and the armor penetration indicators, in turn, dropped slightly.
ISU-152 with BL-10
By the time the ISU-152-2 tests were completed, it became clear that such modernizations of the Hypericum were no longer of practical value. Self-propelled guns with ML-20S cannons were already enough, and the combat characteristics allowed them to completely calmly carry out their tasks until the end of the war. And the post-war prospects of such a machine were seen as very vague. Cold war it was not even in the air yet, and the main problem of Soviet industry was bringing the Great Patriotic War to a victorious end. Bringing the BL-10 cannon was considered unnecessary and stopped, and the only built copy of the ISU-152-2, previously the former ISU-152-1, was sent for storage. Today it can be seen in the Armored Museum in Kubinka.
The ISU-152 heavy self-propelled artillery unit was created on the basis of the IS heavy tank. For successes in the fight against the German armored "menagerie" Soviet soldiers gave the heavy self-propelled guns the respectful nickname "St. John's wort".
In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, heavy self-propelled artillery installations were designed and created on the basis of the KV heavy tank.
It goes without saying that the military wanted to have a similar self-propelled gun based on a new heavy tank, especially since the KV-1 was removed from production. Resolution State Committee The defense of September 4, 1943 ordered the Experimental Plant No. 100 in Chelyabinsk together with technical management Of the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army until November 1, 1943, to design, manufacture and test the IS-152 artillery self-propelled gun based on the IS tank.
CREATION
During development, the installation received the factory designation "object 241". G.N. Moskvin was appointed the leading designer. The prototype was made in October. For several weeks, the ACS was tested at the NIBT proving grounds in Kubinka and the Artillery Scientific Testing Experimental Range (ANIOP) in Gorokhovets. On November 6, 1943, by a GKO decree, the new vehicle was accepted into service under the designation ISU-152, and in December its serial production began.
Already at the beginning of 1944, the release of the ISU-152 was constrained by the lack of ML-20 guns. Anticipating such a situation, at the artillery plant No. 9 in Sverdlovsk, the barrel of a 122-mm corps cannon A-19 was placed on the cradle of the ML-20S gun, and as a result, a heavy artillery self-propelled gun ISU-122 ("object 242") was obtained. A prototype of the installation in December 1943 was tested at the Gorokhovets test site. By the GKO decree of March 12, 1944, the ISU-122 was adopted by the Red Army. Serial production of the machine began at ChKZ in April 1944 and continued until September 1945.
MODIFICATIONS
The ISU-122 was a variant of the ISU-152 self-propelled guns, in which the 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S was replaced by the 122-mm cannon A-19 mod. 1931/37 At the same time, the movable armor of the gun had to be slightly changed. The height of the line of fire was 1790 mm. In May 1944, changes were made to the design of the A-19 gun barrel, which violated the interchangeability of new barrels with previously released ones. The upgraded gun was named 122 mm self-propelled gun mod. 1931/44 ". Both guns had a piston bolt. Barrel length was 46.3 caliber. The device of the A-19 cannon was in many ways the same as the ML-20S. It differed from the latter with a smaller caliber barrel with a length increased by 730 mm, no muzzle brake and fewer grooves. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -3 ° to + 22 °, horizontally - in the 10 ° sector.
In April 1944, the ISU-122S self-propelled artillery unit (ISU-122-2, "object 249") was created in the design bureau of plant No. 100, which was a modernized version of the ISU-122.
In June, the installation was tested in Gorokhovets, and on August 22, 1944, it was put into service. In the same month, its mass production began at ChKZ in parallel with the ISU-122 and ISU-152, which lasted until September 1945. The ISU-122S was created on the basis of the ISU-122 and differed from it in the installation of the D-25S arr. 1944 with a horizontal wedge semiautomatic breechblock and muzzle brake. The height of the line of fire was 1795 mm. Barrel length - 48 calibers. Due to more compact recoil devices and the breech of the gun, it was possible to increase the rate of fire to 6 rds / min. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -3 ° to + 20 °, horizontally - in the 10 ° sector (7 ° to the right and 3 ° to the left). Externally, the SU-122S differed from the SU-122 in the gun barrel and a new molded mask 120-150 mm thick.
From 1944 to 1947, 2,790 self-propelled guns ISU-152, 1735 - ISU-122 and 675 - ISU-122S were manufactured. Thus, the total production of heavy artillery self-propelled guns is 5200 units. - exceeded the number of manufactured heavy tanks IS - 4499 units. It should be noted that, as in the case of the IS-2, the Leningrad Kirovsky Plant was supposed to join the production of self-propelled guns on its basis. Until May 9, 1945, the first five ISU-152s were assembled there, and by the end of the year - another hundred. In 1946 and 1947, the production of the ISU-152 was carried out only at the LKZ.
APPLICATION AND SERVICE
Since the spring of 1944, heavy self-propelled artillery regiments were re-equipped with ISU-152 and ISU-122 installations.
At the same time, the regiments were transferred to new states and everyone was given the rank of guards. In total, by the end of the war, 56 such regiments were formed, each had 21 ISU-152 or ISU-122 vehicles (some of these regiments were of mixed composition). On March 1, 1945, the 143rd separate tank Nevelsk brigade in the Belarusian-Lithuanian military district was reorganized into the 66th Guards Nevelsk heavy self-propelled artillery brigade of the RVGK three-regiment composition (1804 people, 65 ISU-122 and three SU-76).
SUPPORT FOR INFANTRY AND TANKS
Heavy self-propelled artillery regiments attached to tank and rifle units and formations were primarily used to support infantry and tanks in the offensive. Following in their battle formations, self-propelled guns destroyed enemy firing points and provided infantry and tanks with a successful advance. In this phase of the offensive, self-propelled guns became one of the main means of repelling tank counterattacks. In some cases, they had to move forward in the battle formations of their troops and take the blow, thereby ensuring the freedom of maneuver of the supported tanks.
So, for example, on January 15, 1945 in East Prussia In the Borove region, the Germans, up to one regiment of motorized infantry, with the support of tanks and self-propelled guns, counterattacked the battle formations of our advancing infantry, with which the 390th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment operated. The infantry, under pressure from superior enemy forces, retreated behind the combat formations of the self-propelled gunners, who met the German blow with concentrated fire and covered the supported units. The counterattack was repulsed, and the infantry again got the opportunity to continue their offensive.
ART PREPARATIONS
Heavy SPGs were sometimes involved in artillery barrage. At the same time, the fire was conducted both with direct fire and from closed positions. In particular, on January 12, 1945, during the Sandomierz-Silesian operation, the 368th ISU-152 Guards Regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Front fired for 107 minutes at the enemy stronghold and four artillery and mortar batteries. Firing 980 shells, the regiment suppressed two mortar batteries, destroyed eight guns and up to one battalion of enemy soldiers and officers. It is interesting to note that additional ammunition was laid out in advance at firing positions, but first of all, the shells that were in combat vehicles were spent, otherwise the rate of fire would have been significantly reduced. For the subsequent replenishment of heavy self-propelled guns with shells, it took up to 40 minutes, so they stopped firing well before the start of the attack.
AGAINST GERMAN TANKS
The heavy self-propelled guns were used very effectively against enemy tanks. For example, in the Berlin operation on April 19, the 360th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment supported the offensive of the 388th rifle division... Parts of the division captured one of the groves east of Lichtenberg, where they were entrenched. The next day, the enemy, with a force of up to one infantry regiment, supported by 15 tanks, began to counterattack. While repelling attacks during the day, 10 German tanks and up to 300 soldiers and officers were destroyed by the fire of heavy self-propelled guns. In the battles on the Zemland Peninsula during the East Prussian operation, the 378th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment successfully used fan formation of the regiment's battle formation in repelling counterattacks. This provided the regiment with shelling in the 180 ° sector, which facilitated the fight against enemy tanks attacking from different directions. One of the ISU-152 batteries, having built its battle formation in a fan on a front with a length of 250 m, successfully repelled a counterattack of 30 enemy tanks on April 7, 1945, knocking out six of them. The battery did not suffer losses. Only two vehicles received minor damage to the chassis.
IN URBAN BATTLES
At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, a characteristic feature of the use self-propelled artillery battles began in large settlements, including well-fortified ones. As you know, an attack on a large settlement is a very complex form of battle and by its nature differs in many respects from an offensive battle in normal conditions. Fighting in the city they were almost always dismembered into a series of separate local battles for separate objects and centers of resistance. This forced the advancing troops to create special assault detachments and groups with great independence to conduct battle in the city. The assault groups included self-propelled artillery batteries and separate installations (usually two). The self-propelled guns that were part of the assault groups had the task of directly escorting infantry and tanks, repelling counterattacks by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, and securing them on occupied targets.
Accompanying the infantry, self-propelled guns with direct fire from a spot, less often from short stops destroyed firing points and anti-tank guns the enemy, his tanks and self-propelled guns, destroyed rubble, barricades and houses adapted for defense, and thereby ensured the advance of troops.
To destroy buildings, it was sometimes used volley fire which gave very good results. In the combat formations of assault groups, self-propelled artillery installations usually moved together with tanks under the cover of infantry, but if there were no tanks, then they moved with the infantry. In the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, in the battles for the Polish city of Poznan, two or three ISU-152 of the 394th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment were included in the assault groups of the 74th Guards Rifle Division. On February 20, 1945, in the battles for the 8, 9th and 10th quarters of the city, directly adjacent to the southern part of the fortress citadel, an assault group consisting of an infantry platoon, three ISU-152 and two T-34 tanks cleared quarter 10 from the enemy ...
Another group, consisting of an infantry platoon, two ISU-152 self-propelled artillery mounts and three TO-34 flamethrowers, stormed the 8th and 9th quarters. In these battles, the self-propelled guns acted quickly and decisively. They approached the houses and at close range destroyed the German firing points placed in the windows, basements and other places of buildings, and also made gaps in the walls of buildings for the passage of their infantry. When operating along the streets, self-propelled guns moved, pressing against the walls of houses and destroying enemy fire weapons located in buildings on the opposite side. With their fire, the installations mutually covered each other and ensured the advancement of infantry and tanks. The self-propelled artillery mounts moved forward alternately in rolls as the infantry and tanks advanced. As a result, the quarters were quickly occupied by our infantry and the Germans retreated to the citadel with heavy losses.
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SU-152 is a heavy Soviet self-propelled artillery unit (ACS) of the Great Patriotic War, built on the basis of the KV-1S heavy tank and armed with a powerful 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S. According to its combat mission, the SU-152 was a heavy assault weapon; to a limited extent, it could perform the functions of a self-propelled howitzer. The construction of the first prototype SU-152 called Object 236 (also KV-14 or SU-14) was completed at the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ) on January 24, 1943, and its serial production began the following month.
ACS SU-152 St. John's wort - video
In connection with the withdrawal from production of the KV-1s SU-152 base tank in December 1943, they were replaced in production with an equivalent in armament and better armored ISU-152, a total of 670 self-propelled artillery installations of this type were built.
The combat debut of the SU-152 took place in the summer of 1943 in the battle on Kursk Bulge, where she proved to be an effective fighter of new heavy German tanks and self-propelled guns. The SU-152s were most actively used in the second half of 1943 and early 1944, later their number in the troops steadily decreased due to combat losses and wear of the chassis and engine-transmission group. The more advanced ISU-152 became the replacement for the failed SU-152 in units of the Soviet self-propelled artillery. A small number of vehicles fought until the end of the war and were in service with the Soviet army in the post-war years. After decommissioning, the remaining SU-152s were practically all scrapped and only a few SPGs of this type have survived to date.
Prerequisites
At the very end of 1941, the Red Army successfully carried out several large-scale offensive operations. Based on the results of the analysis of these hostilities, Soviet commanders repeatedly expressed their wishes to have in their hands a powerful and mobile means of fire support for advancing tanks and infantry. It turned out that the high-explosive effect of a 76-mm tank gun shell on T-34 medium tanks and KV-1 heavy tanks is not sufficient against powerful wooden-earth fortifications, not to mention long-term reinforced concrete ones. Since the winter campaign of 1941-1942 ended for the USSR on an optimistic note (the Wehrmacht was defeated near Moscow, it was possible to liberate Rostov-on-Don, to capture a number of important bridgeheads in the vicinity of the lost Kharkov), the Soviet military leadership planned the further development of these successes. Accordingly, in the course of the proposed offensive operations, a meeting with long-term fortifications of the enemy was expected and a need arose for a powerful fire support vehicle for their destruction - a "bunker fighter". Before the start of World War II, the Red Army received such a specialized vehicle - a KV-2 heavy tank armed with a 152-mm M-10 howitzer. However, the production of the KV-2 was discontinued in July 1941, and the 152 mm M-10 howitzer was discontinued a little later, and the losses of the already produced vehicles were such that by the beginning of 1942 only a few KV-2 units survived. In addition, the KV-2 had a number of serious design flaws, low reliability of its components and assemblies (especially the transmission) and was overloaded - even in the Winter War it was noted that KV tanks were stuck in deep snow. As a result, the need for a new car of this class was not in doubt.
However, at the end of 1941, the issue of arming the heavy fire support vehicle remained unclear. The famous Soviet designer N.V. Kurin continued work on the KV-9 tank, armed with a 122mm howitzer in a rotating turret. In fact, this machine was a lightweight analogue of the KV-2, both in weight and in firepower. Another area of work was to increase the power of fire by installing several small or medium-caliber cannons on one machine. At the beginning of 1942, the KV-7 "artillery tank" was tested with armament from one 76-mm and two 45-mm cannons in a frame mount in a fixed armored wheelhouse instead of a rotating turret. It was assumed that such a large number of weapons would allow its flexible use - a 45-mm cannon against lightly armored targets, a 76-mm cannon against enemy tanks with powerful armor, and a volley from any combination of weapons against particularly heavily protected targets. But this idea actually collapsed - firing a volley from guns with different ballistics, with the exception of point-blank fire, turned out to be extremely ineffective - 76-mm and 45-mm shells had different direct firing ranges, not to mention firing at distances exceeding them. Also, due to the location of 45-mm guns not on the axis of rotation of the entire structured installation, when fired from any of them, a turning moment of force arose, knocking down the aiming of all guns. The second version of the KV-7 was armed with two 76 mm cannons, which eliminated the first drawback, but the moment when firing was still knocking down the aiming point. The KV-9 had great prospects, however, compared to the KV-1 base tank, it was more massive, and therefore its engine and transmission were heavily loaded. By the beginning of 1942, the quality of manufacturing of the KV transmission units had fallen so much that it was precisely because of fears of its breakdowns on the overloaded KV-9 that this project was closed. But the idea of such a tank did not die - in particular, the experimental tank IS No. 2 or Object 234 was armed with a turret directly borrowed from the KV-9.
As a result of these works, the direction of development of a heavy fire support vehicle was determined - the installation of a single large-caliber gun in a stationary armored wheelhouse, in order to thereby ensure weight savings for an acceptable MTBF of the engine and transmission units. On April 14-15, 1942, a plenum of the artillery committee was held, at which issues related to the design and construction of the "bunker fighter" were discussed. Immediately after the plenum, the famous Soviet designer S.A. Ginzburg, who at that time was the head of the self-propelled artillery bureau, sent a letter to the State Defense Committee (GKO) about the possibility of quickly creating a heavily armored assault self-propelled gun based on the KV-1 armed with a 152-mm howitzer -cannon ML-20. However, the bureau of self-propelled artillery at that time could not complete the project of such a machine, since it was engaged in the creation of an self-propelled artillery chassis using components and assemblies of light tanks. As a result, this work was assigned jointly to the Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant (UZTM, Uralmash) in Sverdlovsk and the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ). Designers G.N. Rybin and K.N.
The reason was the reality of the summer of 1942, which turned out to be different from what the Soviet top military leadership had planned. The successfully launched offensive of the Red Army in the area of the Barvenkovsky ledge ended in disaster - the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht under the command of Friedrich Paulus successfully surrounded and destroyed the core of the armies of the Southwestern and Southern fronts, and then with a powerful blow in the interfluve of the Don and Volga came to Stalingrad and put out of action all the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the USSR located there. Therefore, in the summer and early autumn of 1942, all official work at UZTM and ChKZ on "bunker fighters" and self-propelled artillery in general either suspended or significantly slowed down - due to the loss of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and plant No. 264 in Sarepta, there was a serious threat of failure in the production of T-tanks. 34, T-60 and T-70. To avoid this, it was decided to deploy the T-34 medium tank at UZTM and ChKZ, all available personnel were sent to master its serial production. In this situation, the development of a heavy assault self-propelled artillery unit continued only at the level of preliminary studies. In particular, at UZTM, in parallel with the U-18, work was carried out by order of the Main Artillery Directorate on the U-19 203-mm self-propelled guns project, but such a machine turned out to be overweight. A number of other design teams also presented their research on the topic during this period, for example, the research department of the Stalin Military Academy of Motorization and Mechanization was working in this direction. But nothing was realized in metal at that time - after mastering the serial production of the T-34 at Uralmash, its design personnel in October - November 1942 were busy working on the future ACS SU-122, and ChKZ was still mastering the serial production of the T-34, continuing their work on improving heavy tanks.
Creation
The immediate impetus for the resumption of work on "bunker fighters" was again the changed situation at the front. On November 19, 1942, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). Along its course Soviet troops had to overcome the enemy's fortifications (some of them were captured by the Germans and their allies during the summer battles, there are also references to the remains of fortifications from the times Civil War). In Stalingrad itself, the enemy's defense also included well-fortified city buildings that were difficult to destroy by fire from small and medium-caliber guns. Direct support of the advancing units by artillery and combat engineers played an important role in the success of both Operation Uranus and subsequent operations in the final stages. Battle of Stalingrad... However, all fire weapons barrel artillery at that time they were towed and their mobility was strongly limited by the lack of a developed road network, the presence of deep snow cover and the small number of available tractors. The towed guns, their tractors and draft horses on the march were highly vulnerable to any kind of enemy attack. There were cases when the guns were moved only by the forces of their crews, since in winter conditions the horses were quickly depleted. Reality has shown once again that the Red Army desperately needs mobile heavy artillery, both for direct support of tanks and infantry, and for firing from closed positions.
This state of affairs did not satisfy the Soviet military leadership. To speed up the creation of a heavy self-propelled gun with a 152-mm gun, a special group was organized at the ChKZ design bureau, where by order No. 764 of the People's Commissariat of Tank Industry (NKTP) designers and engineers N.V. Kurin, G.N. Rybin were transferred from UZTM. K. N. Ilyin and V. A. Vishnyakov. All of them already had experience in the rapid creation of another self-propelled artillery installation, the SU-122. GKO decree No. 2692 of January 4, 1943 ordered the NKTP and the People's Commissariat of Arms (NKV) represented by ChKZ and experimental plant No. 100 from the first and factories No. 9 and 172 from the second to complete the design of a heavy 152-mm self-propelled gun in 25 days, build its prototype and submit it for testing. At that time, three alternatives were considered in detail: U-18, projects by Lev Sergeevich Troyanov and Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin. Fedor Fedorovich Petrov, the designer of the main armament of the future vehicle - the ML-20 howitzer-gun, insisted on its modernization. However, the very short time allowed for the assignment naturally forced the designers to stop at the option with the least number of alterations to the tank base and guns. Such requirements were met by the project of Zh. Ya. Kotin, and it was he who was accepted for implementation.
On January 17, 1943, a mock-up of the future self-propelled gun was made, which received approval from above. The machine in business correspondence and documents of the NKTP received the designation KV-14 or SU-14 (not to be confused with the pre-war heavy self-propelled gun designed by P.N.Syachintov based on the components and assemblies of the T-28 and T-35 tanks). On January 19, on the KV-1s undercarriage, they began assembling the semi-finished armored cabinets received from plant No. 200; by the morning of January 23, only a gun was lacking to complete the work on this prototype. It was delivered late in the evening, and it did not fit under the embrasure in the armored mask, so the necessary work was going on all night to install it in the SPG. This gun was somewhat different from the serial ML-20 howitzer-guns - all the control flywheels were moved to the left side of the barrel for greater convenience of the gunner's work in the cramped fighting compartment of the vehicle. Muzzle velocity and other external ballistic data remained unchanged compared to the base case. The next morning, the vehicle, designated Object 236, independently went to the Chebarkul test site, where it successfully passed the factory and subsequently state tests. On February 9, 1943, GKO decree # 2859 adopted a new self-propelled gun into service with the Red Army under the name SU-152.
Mass production
Unlike the light SU-76s and medium SU-122s, which were quickly put into production and took part in their first battle in February 1943, the organization of production of the SU-152 at ChKZ proceeded slowly. The plant was loaded with the simultaneous production of both the KV-1S heavy tank and the T-34 medium tank; preparation for the planned transition to the production of a new model of a heavy tank required a lot of time and personnel. Therefore, the pace of development of the SU-152 in the series was not as high as in other models of Soviet self-propelled guns of that period. March 1943 went to the technological component of the production process; by the end of this month, more than 80% of the necessary fixtures and tools had been put into planned work. In April, production began to gain momentum, in May the material part for the first heavy self-propelled artillery regiment (12 vehicles) was handed over to the customer.
The SU-152 was not in serial production for a long time. Already at the end of 1942, it became clear that the KV-1s base tank for this self-propelled gun did not meet the increased requirements for a heavy breakthrough tank, work was actively underway to create a new machine, the prototype of which Object 237 was built and tested in July - August 1943. On September 4, 1943, by GKO decree No. 4043ss, it was adopted by the Red Army as the IS-85 (a little later it began to be called the IS-1 in parallel) and the production of the KV-1s was finally completed. However, it was not possible to deploy the serial production of the IS-85 and 152-mm heavy self-propelled guns on its basis in September 1943, so a temporary decision was made to install a turret from the IS-85 on the KV-1s chassis (this is how the KV-85 tank turned out) and continue production of SU-152. But by the end of October 1943, work on transferring the 152-mm self-propelled guns to a new base was generally completed, and on November 6, an order was issued to stop the production of the SU-152. But since mass production is a rather inertial process, the assembly of the already produced SU-152 hulls continued in December 1943, and the last two vehicles were commissioned in January 1944. In total, ChKZ built 670 SU-152 self-propelled guns (including one experimental one).
Deep modernization
The planned replacement of the KV-1s heavy tank with the promising IS-85 breakthrough tank also required the transfer of the SU-152 to a promising base. But the work on improving the ACS was not limited to this. Even before the combat debut of the SU-152, it had a number of serious shortcomings. In this regard, on May 25, 1943, by order of the plant number 100, the design group of self-propelled artillery began to modernize the machine. The group was headed by G. N. Moskvin, and N. V. Kurin attached to it, who has extensive experience in the creation of self-propelled artillery installations. Together with the customer, extended tactical and technical requirements were developed for a modernized heavy self-propelled gun, which at that time was designated in the documents as SU-152-M. According to primary sources, they included the following:
The heavy self-propelled SU-152-M is being developed to replace the KV-14 self-propelled gun.
1) for self-propelled vehicles, use the chassis and MTO of the tank "Object 237";
2) keep the main armament in the form of a 152-mm ML-20S self-propelled gun mod. 1942, which has the internal ballistics of a howitzer-gun of the specified caliber mod. 37 g .;
3) it is necessary to supplement the cannon armament of a heavy self-propelled gun with a defensive machine gun of a circular fire of a 7.62-mm caliber or an anti-aircraft machine gun of a 12.7 mm caliber;
4) increase the thickness of the armor of the frontal hull plate to 90-100 mm;
5) increase visibility by using several viewing devices of the Mk-IV type on a swivel base;
6) improve the ventilation of the fighting compartment by introducing an additional fan or provide for the purge of the gun barrel after the shot.
Completion of the project was planned for July 1, 1943, but the group coped with the task ahead of time, at the end of July, the construction of a prototype was started, called the IS-152.
However, in the future, ambiguity ensues - the new tanks IS-85, KV-85 and ACS IS-152 were shown in the Kremlin to the country's leadership, headed by I.V. archival documents there is no exact date for this review and an exact list of those present. The day is called July 31, 1943, but according to the ChKZ documents, then the KV-85 and IS-85 tanks were being tested. The historian M.N.Svirin assumes a show on August 31, and a group of authors of numerous publications on armored topics under the leadership of Colonel I. G. Zheltov - September 8. It is also not clear which SPG was shown to the management. It is assumed that it was an experienced IS-152 self-propelled gun, but there is a photograph of J.V. Stalin in the Kremlin on a self-propelled gun, outwardly identical to the SU-152. It is possible that the management was shown a modernized sample of the SU-152, on which they tested the improvements expected to be introduced on the IS-152.
One way or another, but by the above-mentioned GKO decree # 4043ss of September 4, 1943, it was the IS-152 SPG that was put into service along with the KV-85 and IS-85, but according to ChKZ documents it turned out to be much more expensive than the serial SU-152. During September - October 1943, the design of the IS-152 ACS was improved, a second prototype was built: Object 241 based on the IS tank, which was comparable in cost to the serial SU-152. It was accepted for serial production on November 6, 1943 as the ISU-152 and already in January 1944 completely replaced the SU-152 on the ChKZ assembly lines.
Description of construction
The SU-152 self-propelled artillery mount had the same layout as all other serial Soviet self-propelled guns during the Great Patriotic War, with the exception of the SU-76. The fully armored hull was split in two. The crew, gun and ammunition were located in front of the armored wheelhouse, which combined the fighting compartment and the control compartment. The engine and transmission were installed in the rear of the vehicle. Three crew members were to the left of the gun: in front of the driver, then the gunner, and behind the loader, and the other two - the vehicle commander and the castle commander - to the right. One fuel tank was located in the engine compartment, and the other two - in the combat, that is, in the habitable space of the vehicle. The latter had a negative impact on the explosion safety and survival of the crew in the event of an SPG hit by an enemy projectile.
The commander of the SAU SU-152 Lieutenant I.V. Vyugov fires at a closed target. Oryol-Kursk direction. In the foreground is the massive breech section of the 152-mm ML-20 howitzer cannon with an open piston bolt. Behind her, at his workplace, is the commander of the vehicle, in front of whose open landing hatch a PTK-4 panorama is installed.
Armored hull and wheelhouse
The armored hull and wheelhouse of the self-propelled unit were welded from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 75, 60, 30 and 20 mm. Differentiated armor protection, cannon-proof. The armored plates of the cabin were installed at rational angles of inclination. For ease of maintenance, the over-engine armor plates, as well as the deckhouse roof, were made removable. A sufficiently large number of hatches and holes were cut in the hull for loading ammunition, firing personal weapons, installing suspension torsion bars, antenna input, fuel tank necks, viewing devices and sights, draining fuel and oil. A number of them were covered with armored covers, plugs or visors. To provide access to the components and assemblies of the engine on the roof of the engine compartment there was a large rectangular hatch with a stamping and an opening for pouring water into the cooling system of the power plant. In the armor plate above the transmission compartment, there were two more round hatches with hinged hinged covers. They were intended to provide access to the transmission mechanisms.
The crew was completely located in the armored wheelhouse, which united the fighting compartment and the control compartment. The wheelhouse was separated from the engine compartment by a partition, in which there were gates necessary for ventilation of the fighting compartment. With the gates open, the running engine created the air draft necessary to renew the air in the vehicle's habitable space. For embarkation and disembarkation of the crew, the right round single-leaf hatch on the wheelhouse roof and a rectangular double-wing hatch at the junction of the roof and rear armor plates of the wheelhouse were intended. The round hatch to the left of the gun was not intended for boarding and exiting the crew; it was required to bring out the extension of the panoramic sight; but in an emergency it could also be used to evacuate the crew. Another escape hatch for leaving the car was located in the bottom, behind the driver's seat. The main armament - a 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S - was mounted in a frame-type installation to the right of the center line of the vehicle on the frontal armor plate of the wheelhouse. The recoil devices of the gun were protected by a fixed cast armored casing and a movable cast spherical armored mask, which also served as a balancing element.
Handrails for tank assault forces were welded to the armored wheelhouse and hull, as well as brackets and brackets for attaching additional fuel tanks and some elements of a set of spare parts, inventory and accessories to the vehicle. Its other components were placed on fenders or in the fighting compartment of self-propelled guns.
Armament
The main armament of the SU-152 was a modification of the ML-20S rifled 152-mm howitzer-gun mod. 1937 (ML-20). The differences between the swinging parts of the self-propelled and towed versions were dictated by the need to ensure the convenience of the loader and gunner in the cramped fighting compartment of the self-propelled gun. In particular, the flywheels of horizontal and vertical guidance in the ML-20S were located to the left of the barrel (while in the ML-20 - on both sides) and the self-propelled version of the gun was additionally equipped with a charging tray. The gun was installed in a frame-type gimbal mount, allowing elevation angles from −5 to + 18 ° and a horizontal firing sector of 12 °. The ML-20S howitzer-gun had a barrel with a length of 29 calibers, the direct-fire firing range reached 3.8 km, the maximum possible - about 13 km. Both rotary mechanisms of the gun are manual, sector-type with flywheels to the left of the barrel, served by the gunner of the self-propelled guns. The descent of the howitzer-gun is mechanical manual.
The ammunition load of the gun was 20 rounds of separate-case loading. Shells and propelling charges in the casings were laid along the sides and rear wall of the self-propelled gun's fighting compartment. The rate of fire of the gun is 1-2 rounds per minute. The ammunition load could include almost all 152-mm cannon and howitzer shells, but in practice only a limited subset of them was used.
The range of propelling charges was also significantly reduced - it included a special charge Zh-545B for an armor-piercing projectile, variable charges and reduced variable charges of the "new model" (Zh-545, ZhN-545, Zh-545U, ZhN-545U) and " old model "(Zh-544, ZhN-544, ZhN-544U) for other types of shells. At the same time, shooting with a full charge was prohibited.
For self-defense, the crew was supplied with two PPSh submachine guns with 18 disks (1278 rounds) and 25 F-1 hand grenades. Later, the ammunition for the submachine guns was increased to 22 disks (1562 rounds). In some cases, a pistol for firing signal flares was added to these weapons.
Also for the SU-152, a turret mount was developed for a large-caliber anti-aircraft 12.7-mm machine gun DShK with a K-8T collimator sight on the right round hatch of the vehicle commander. Ammunition for the DShK was 250 rounds. At the plant, this machine gun was not installed on newly released self-propelled guns, but there are references to the fact that a small number of SU-152s received the DShK installation during a major overhaul in 1944-1945.
Engine
The SU-152 was equipped with a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder liquid-cooled diesel engine V-2K with a capacity of 600 hp. with. (441 kW). The engine was started by an ST-700 starter with a power of 11 kW (15 hp) or compressed air from two 5-liter tanks in the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The SU-152 had a dense layout, in which the main fuel tanks with a volume of 600-615 liters were located both in the combat and in the engine compartment. Also, the SU-152 was equipped with four external additional cylindrical fuel tanks, two along the sides of the engine compartment and not connected with the engine fuel system. Each of them had a capacity of 90 liters of fuel. The fuel supply in the internal tanks was enough for 330 km of travel on the highway.
Transmission
The SU-152 self-propelled artillery mount was equipped with a mechanical transmission, which included:
Multi-disc main clutch of dry friction "steel according to ferodo";
- four-speed gearbox with a range multiplier (8 gears forward and 2 reverse);
- two multi-disc side clutches with steel-on-steel friction and floating ferodo belt pads;
- two onboard planetary gearboxes.
All transmission control drives are mechanical, the driver controlled the rotation and braking of the ACS with two levers under both hands on both sides of his workplace.
The commander of the 1539th heavy self-propelled artillery regiment of the guard, Major MP Prokhorov, sets a task for the battery commanders. 2nd Baltic Front, spring 1944. In the background SU-152 with tail number 186 (ASKM).
Chassis
The chassis of the SU-152 was identical to the KV-1s base tank. The machine has an individual torsion bar suspension for each of the 6 solid gable road wheels of small diameter (600 mm) on each side. Opposite each road roller, the travel stops of the suspension balancers were welded to the armored hull. Driving wheels with removable pinion gear rims were located at the rear, and sloths with a screw track tensioning mechanism were located at the front. The upper branch of the track was supported by three small one-piece support rollers on each side. Each track consisted of 86-90 single-ridged tracks 608 mm wide.
Fire-fighting equipment
The self-propelled artillery mount was equipped with a tetrachloride portable fire extinguisher, standard for Soviet armored vehicles. Extinguishing a fire in a car had to be carried out in gas masks - when carbon tetrachloride hit hot surfaces, a chemical reaction of partial replacement of chlorine with atmospheric oxygen took place with the formation of phosgene, a potent poisonous substance with a suffocating effect.
Surveillance equipment and sights
The SU-152 had a fairly large number of battlefield surveillance equipment. Three prismatic viewing devices with protective armor covers were installed on the roof of the fighting compartment, two more such devices were installed on the left round hatch and the upper flap of the rectangular double-leaf hatch. Workplace the commander of the vehicle was equipped with a PTK-4 periscope. The driver-mechanic in battle conducted observation through a viewing device with a triplex, which was protected by an armored flap. This observation device was installed in an armored cork hatch on the frontal armor plate to the left of the gun. In a relaxed environment, this plug could be pushed forward, providing the driver with a more convenient direct view from his workplace.
For firing, the SU-152 was equipped with two gun sights - a telescopic ST-10 for direct fire and a Hertz panorama for firing from closed positions. Telescopic sight ST-10 was graduated to aimed shooting at a distance of up to 900 m. However, the range of the ML-20S howitzer-gun was up to 13 km, and for firing at a distance of over 900 m (both direct fire and from closed positions), the gunner had to use a second, panoramic sight. To provide visibility through the upper left round hatch in the wheelhouse roof, the panoramic sight was equipped with a special extension cord. To ensure the possibility of fire in the dark, the scales of the sights had illumination devices.
Electrician
The electrical wiring in the SU-152 self-propelled gun was single-wire, the armored hull of the vehicle served as the second wire. The exception was the emergency lighting circuit, which was two-wire. The sources of electricity (operating voltage 24 V) were a GT-4563A generator with a 1 kW RRA-24 relay-regulator and four 6-STE-128 or 6-STE-144 batteries connected in parallel in series with a total capacity of 256 or 288 A h, respectively. Electricity consumers included:
External and internal lighting of the car, illuminating devices for sights and scales of measuring instruments;
- external sound signal;
- instrumentation (ammeter and voltmeter);
- communication equipment - radio station and tank intercom;
- electrician of the motor group - starter ST-700, starting relay RS-371 or RS-400, etc.
Means of communication
Communication facilities included a 9P radio station (or 10P, 10RK-26) and an intercom TPU-4-Bis for 4 subscribers.
Radio stations of types 9Р, 10Р or 10РК were a set of a transmitter, a receiver and umformers (single-armature motor-generators) for their power supply, connected to the on-board power supply network with a voltage of 24 V.
The 9P radio station was a simplex lamp short-wave radio station with an output power of 20 W, operating for transmission in the frequency range from 4 to 5.625 MHz (respectively, wavelengths from 53.3 to 75 m), and for receiving - from 3.75 to 6 MHz (wavelengths from 50 to 80 m). The different range of the transmitter and receiver was explained by the fact that the 4-5.625 MHz range was intended for two-way communication "ACS - ACS", and the extended range of the receiver was used for one-way communication "headquarters - ACS". In the parking lot, the communication range in the telephone mode (voice, amplitude modulation of the carrier) in the absence of interference reached 15-25 km, while in motion it slightly decreased. The 9P radio station did not have a telegraph mode for transmitting information.
10P was a simplex shortwave tube radio station operating in the frequency range from 3.75 to 6 MHz. In the parking lot, the communication range in the telephone mode was similar to that of the 9P radio station, but in contrast to it, a greater communication range could be obtained in the telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by a telegraph key in Morse code or another discrete coding system. The frequency was stabilized by a removable quartz resonator; there was no smooth frequency adjustment. 10P made it possible to communicate at two fixed frequencies; to change them, another quartz resonator of 15 pairs was used in the radio set.
The 10RK radio station was a technological improvement of the previous 10P model, it became simpler and cheaper to manufacture. This model now has the ability to smoothly select the operating frequency, the number of quartz resonators has been reduced to 16. The characteristics of the communication range have not undergone significant changes.
Tank intercom TPU-4-Bis made it possible to negotiate between tank crew members even in a very noisy environment and to connect a headset (headphones and laryngophones) to a radio station for external communication.
Modifications
The SU-152 self-propelled artillery mount was produced in a single modification, although in the course of mass production, minor changes were made to its design aimed at improving its manufacturing technology. It was in this respect that the serial machines differed from the prototype "Object 236", during the construction of which it was necessary to resort to fitting work "in place" to install a number of important elements designs, for example, the barrel group of a howitzer-gun. Also, based on the photograph of I.V. Stalin in the Kremlin on an ACS with the external appearance of the SU-152 and the conversation recorded by the accompanying persons with the driver of this vehicle, it can be assumed that there is a transitional version from the SU-152 to the future ISU-152, when the first a number of components and assemblies of the new self-propelled gun were installed. There were no other experimental and production vehicles based on the SU-152, with the exception of the aforementioned Object 236 and the transitional version shown to JV Stalin. Also, sometimes in the popular Soviet literature of the 1980s, the index SU-152 means the self-propelled howitzer 2S3 "Akatsia", developed a decade later and completely unrelated in design to the vehicle of the same name during the Great Patriotic War. The SU-152 had some design differences depending on the production batch, this was not an official modification (a new index was not assigned), however:
The upper part of the gun's movable armor could be 3 options: without additional armor, with an additional 30 mm plate having 2 cutouts in the lower part, for the gun and sight, with 60 mm armor plate welded from two 30 mm with notches located symmetrically in the upper part.
- An additional handrail was welded on the right side of the gun's movable armor.
- Presence / absence of brackets on the 3rd and 5th corner of the fenders attachment.
- Location of fans on the roof of the BO wheelhouse. the first production samples were with one or without fans; after Stalin's inspection of the first production samples, the ventilation system was improved.
Differences between ISU-152 and SU-152
The SU-152 is often confused with the ISU-152. The machines are clearly distinguished by the following characteristic features:
Chassis. The SU-152 has rollers from the KV-1S (eight-beam, serial), sprockets with a flat cover, and larger front sloths. ISU-152 - from IS-2, smaller rollers without pronounced rays, sloth with smaller cutouts, stars with oval caps.
- The cabin. The SU-152 has a wheelhouse with flat hatches for the KV sample. There is no anti-aircraft machine gun, no mounts either. 5 periscopes in the wheelhouse. 4 handrails on the sides of the wheelhouse, behind - one to the right of the hatch.
- The shape of the felling. The SU-152 has a lower hull cabin. The vertical joint of the side armor plates is located almost in the middle of the wheelhouse side, while in the ISU-152 this joint is shifted forward.
- Wings. The SU-152 is of the KV type, with triangular gussets of reinforcement 2 and 3, the corners have triangular holes, the fuel tanks are attached to the edges of the shelves.
- VLD. The SU-152 has a reinforcement plate welded on at the junction of VLD and NLD. Crescent-shaped plate under the mask of the gun to protect the joint between the mask and the body with a hole for water discharge.
- MTO. The SU-152 is similar to the KV-1S. With 2 curved louvers, 2 round hatches at the back, 4 full-length landing handrails. The branch pipes are located under the armored caps in the middle of the junction of 2 MTO plates. Larger engine access hatch with round stamping and locking mechanism (V-shaped design).
- NKD. The SU-152 has a C-shaped rounded shape, at the junction of the EVA and NKD there is an engine ventilation grill with a gas baffle with 4 brackets along its entire length.
- The SU-152 has tracks from the KV-1S. The SU-152 has KV-type mud cleaners, not ISs.
- SU-152s have never been modernized after the war. Accordingly, there can be no wings and spare parts of the IS-2M type.
Combat use
The combat debut of the SU-152 was the battle on the Kursk Bulge, where there were two TSAPs (1540 and 1541 TSAP) with a total of 24 vehicles of this type. Due to the small number, they did not play a significant role on the scale of the entire battle, however, the importance of their presence is not questioned. They were used to a greater extent as tank destroyers, since only they are one of the available samples of Soviet armored vehicles that could effectively deal with new and modernized German tanks and self-propelled guns at almost any distance of battle. It is worth noting that most of the German armored vehicles at the Kursk Bulge were modernized PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV (of the well-known new German models of "Tigers", there were about 150 machines, including the commander's; "Panthers" - 200; "Ferdinands" - about 90). Nevertheless, medium German tanks were formidable opponents, since the frontal armor brought to 70-80 mm at a distance of over 300 meters was practically impenetrable for the caliber armor-piercing shells of Soviet 45-mm and 76-mm tank guns. More effective sub-caliber ones were available in very small quantities and at distances over 500 m they were also ineffective - because of their unprofitable "coil" shape from the aerodynamic point of view, they quickly lost speed. Any 152-mm SU-152 projectiles, due to their large mass and kinetic energy, had a high destructive potential and the consequences of their direct hit on an armored vehicle were very serious. Since there was a shortage of BR-540 armor-piercing shells in 1943, semi-armor-piercing naval arr. 1915/28, and concrete-piercing, and often high-explosive fragmentation shells. The latter also had a good effect on armor targets - although they did not penetrate thick armor, their break damaged the gun, sights, and chassis of enemy vehicles. Moreover, to disable an enemy tank or self-propelled guns, a close hit was enough high-explosive fragmentation projectile in the vicinity of the target. The crew of Major Sankovsky, commander of one of the SU-152 batteries and one of the aces of the Second World War, knocked out 10 enemy tanks in one day and received two Orders of the Red Banner (August 19, 1943, September 20, 1943) (some sources say, that this success applied to his entire battery). The number of enemy vehicles destroyed and damaged by SU-152 fire varies greatly among different authors, for example, 12 Tigers and 7 Ferdinands are mentioned, or 4 Ferdinands of the 653rd heavy anti-tank destroyer battalion near the village of Tyoploy, not counting other models German armored vehicles. However, it should be borne in mind that in the Red Army any German self-propelled guns were often called "Ferdinand", and shielded versions of the PzKpfw IV, which greatly changed their appearance, were taken for "Tiger". However, the effectiveness of using the SU-152 against enemy armored targets was relatively high, and the nickname of the self-propelled gun “St. victims of "tiger" and "ferdinand fear".
Before the start of the Battle of Kursk, the Voronezh Front had one heavy self-propelled artillery regiment with SU-152, 1529 TSAP. This regiment was part of the 7th Guards Army under the command of Lieutenant General M.S.Shumilov. Tactically, the regiment was subordinated to the 201st separate tank brigade, equipped with British tanks "Valentine" and "Matilda". The SU-152 regiment was actively used in battles with German troops belonging to the Kempf group. Mainly, self-propelled guns were used for firing from closed firing positions, but there were also cases of direct fire at enemy tanks. A typical example of a regiment's combat work is given in the regiment's operational summary for July 8, 1943:
... During the day, the regiment fired: July 8, 1943 at 16.00 at the battery of assault guns on the southern outskirts of the farm. "Polyana". 7 self-propelled guns were knocked out and burned and 2 bunkers were destroyed, consumption of 12 HE grenades. At 17.00 on enemy tanks (up to 10 units), which entered the grader road 2 km south-west of the farm. "Batratskaya Dacha". Direct fire of the SU-152 of the 3rd battery, 2 tanks were lit and 2 knocked out, one of them T-6. Consumption of 15 RP grenades. At 18.00, the commander of the 7th Guards visited the 3rd battery. And Lieutenant General Shumilov expressed gratitude to the crews for excellent shooting at tanks. At 19.00, a convoy of vehicles and carts with infantry on the road south of the farm was fired upon. "Polyana", 2 cars, 6 carts with infantry were wrecked. Up to the infantry company scattered and partially destroyed. Consumption of 6 RP grenades.
Later, the regiment was withdrawn from subordination 201 otts and reassigned to the 5th Guards tank army... It was planned to take part in the well-known counterattack near Prokhorovka, but the regiment arrived at its initial positions only in the evening of July 12 and without shells, and therefore did not take part in the battles that day.
During the offensive phase of the Battle of Kursk, the SU-152s also performed well as mobile heavy artillery for reinforcing the tank and rifle units of the Red Army. They often fought in the first lines of the advancing forces, but there is also evidence that they were often used as originally planned - as a means of fire support in the second line, and therefore the survival rate of the crews was higher. The geography of the SU-152 in the second half of 1943 and the first half of 1944 was very wide - from Leningrad to the Crimea, for example, on May 9, 1944, the only surviving SU-152 (together with the KV-85) of the 1452 TSAP entered the liberated Sevastopol. But the relatively small number of vehicles produced, along with combat and non-combat losses, led to the fact that from the second half of 1944 there were already few of them, in TSAP (which became Guards OTSAP) they were replaced during their reorganization with ISU-152 and ISU-122, the remaining self-propelled guns fought as part of various units and formations, including the formation of the Polish Army in the USSR.
In the summer of 1943, the Wehrmacht managed to capture at least one SU-152 and examine the vehicle in detail. Photos of captured self-propelled guns with brief description were published in the illustrated magazine "Die Wehrmacht", she also received a mention in the illustrated humorous guide to combat use"Panthers" "Pantherfibel", published in 1944 with the approval of Heinz Guderian.
The surviving SU-152s were also in service with the Soviet army in the post-war period, at least until 1958.
Myths about the SU-152
A common myth about the history of the SU-152 is the assertion that the SU-152 was created as a response to the appearance of the enemy's new heavy tank "Tiger". Although the good anti-tank capabilities of the 152-mm heavy self-propelled guns, thanks to the high muzzle velocity and the large mass of shells for the ML-20, were noted by the Soviet military at the stage of preliminary development in the first half of 1942, the main purpose of this type of vehicle was artillery support for tank and mechanized units of the Red Army ... The first heavy tank PzKpfw VI Ausf. H "Tiger" was captured near Leningrad in January 1943 and tested by shelling even later, so it could not have any influence on the development of the SU-152. It is also interesting that at a joint meeting devoted to the appearance of the enemy Tiger tanks, neither the SU-152, nor the ML-20 towed howitzer-gun were considered as possible means of solving the problem, rather, on the contrary, ideas on arming the KV ACS were expressed. 14 122 mm gun A-19 and an increase in the output of towed 122 mm guns due to a slight decrease in the production volume of the ML-20. However, even before the appearance of the "Tigers" on the battlefield in significant numbers (that is, the battle on the Kursk Bulge), in order to increase the morale of the troops, the SU-152 was widely used in leaflets, films and demonstrative shootings of captured equipment. Moreover, the personnel of the Red Army in its mass did not see either those or other vehicles before the battle (and during the Battle of Kursk, only about one and a half hundred "Tigers" and 24 SU-152s were involved, which, against the background of thousands of other armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, was a small fraction). These propaganda activities formed the basis of the belief.
Project evaluation
Among the serial Soviet self-propelled artillery installations of the first generation, the SU-152 occupies a somewhat separate place - as the most successful multi-purpose vehicle, suitable for performing all the tasks facing it. Other SPGs - SU-76, SU-122 and SU-85 - only partially met their expectations. It turned out to be very difficult to use the SU-122 against tanks due to the low flatness of its gun fire; the fire power of the SU-76 and SU-85 against unarmored targets was in some cases insufficient, in addition, the SU-76s of the first modifications were equipped with an unsuccessful power plant, which forced it to be radically reworked later. Due to the combination of mobility and great firepower, the SU-152s were used as an assault gun, as a tank destroyer, and as self-propelled howitzers. However, the low rate of fire of the gun, due to the large mass of shells, significantly reduced the quality of the vehicle as a tank destroyer, and the small elevation angle, together with the closed fighting compartment, did not favor the use of the SU-152 for firing from closed positions. To these shortcomings, which were due to the armament and layout of the vehicle, the SU-152 also had a number of its own - the lack of forced ventilation of the fighting compartment (especially when the engine was turned off, there were even cases of crew burnout during firing) and a defensive machine gun, which was insufficient for 1943 frontal booking, close fighting compartment. Almost all of the SU-152's own shortcomings were, if not eliminated, then at least smoothed out in the design of its successor, the ISU-152, while maintaining the main armament and layout of the vehicle, which were recognized as adequate to the conditions not only of World War II, but also of the post-war period.
Among foreign aircraft, the SU-152 had no direct and close-to-date counterparts in its weight category. Armed with long-barreled 150-155 mm guns, the German self-propelled guns Hummel ("Hummel") and the American Gun Motor Carriage M12 were lightly armored. self-propelled howitzers with a semi-open or open installation of the main armament based on medium tanks. Armed with 88-mm StuK 43 cannons, German self-propelled guns based on the Ferdinand and Jagdpanther heavy tanks were specialized tank destroyers (the former also had one of its official designations “assault gun” and was more than one and a half times larger than the SU-152 in mass) ... The armor penetration of their guns and the frontal armor protection significantly exceeded these parameters of the SU-152. The closest analogue of the Soviet self-propelled guns was the so-called "assault tank" Sturmpanzer IV "Brummbär", built on the basis of the medium tank PzKpfw IV and armed with a short-barreled 150-mm howitzer StuH 43, a modification of the well-known infantry gun sIG 33 The lower mass of the Brummbär high-explosive fragmentation grenade was distinguished by much more powerful frontal armor (up to 100 mm with some inclination) and was also very effective against fortifications and unarmored targets. Like the SU-152, the German self-propelled gun could be used for firing from closed positions, moreover, due to the large elevation angle of the gun, hinged firing was possible, but due to the low initial velocity of the projectile, the Brummbär lost out to the SU-152 at the maximum range of its fire. Brummbär could also be successfully used against tanks, since in addition to the already destructive 150-mm high-explosive fragmentation grenade, its ammunition load also included a cumulative projectile that penetrated 170-200 mm of armor. However, the advantage of the SU-152 in firing at armored targets over the German self-propelled guns was the high muzzle velocity of its shells - that is, a greater flatness of the trajectory and range of a direct shot, less difficulty in aiming at a moving target.
The performance characteristics of the SU-152 St. John's wort
Years of production: 1943
- years of operation: 1943-1945
- The number of issued, pcs .: 670
Crew: 5 people
Weight SAU SU-152
Combat weight, t: 45.5
Overall dimensions SAU SU-152
Body length, mm: 6750
- Length with gun forward, mm: 8950
- Width, mm: 3250
- Height, mm: 2450
- Clearance, mm: 440
Reservation ACS SU-152
Armor type: homogeneous rolled surface hardened
- housing forehead (top), mm / city .: 60/70 °
- housing forehead (bottom), mm / city .: 60/20 °
- body board, mm / city .: 60
- housing feed, mm / city .: 60
- Bottom, mm: 30 in front, 20 behind
- body roof, mm: 30
- cutting forehead, mm / city .: 75/30 °
- gun mask, mm / city .: 60-65
- Cutting board, mm / city .: 60/25 °
- felling feed, mm / city .: 60
- the roof of the cabin, mm / city .: 20
Armament ACS SU-152
Caliber and brand of the gun: 152 mm ML-20S mod. 1943 g.
- Cannon type: rifled howitzer-gun
- barrel length, calibers: 27.9
- gun ammunition: 20
- Angles VN, city .: −3 ... + 20 °
- Angles GN, city .: 12 °
Firing range ACS SU-152
3800 m (direct fire), maximum 6200 m
- sights: telescopic ST-10, Hertz panorama
- Other weapons: two 7.62 mm PPSh submachine guns with an ammunition load of 1278 rounds (18 discs) and 25 F-1 grenades were stored in the fighting compartment, later the ammunition load for the PPSh was increased to 1562 rounds (22 discs)
SAU SU-152 engine
Engine type: V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel liquid cooling
- Engine power, l. from .: 600
SPG SU-152 speed
Speed on the highway, km / h: 43
- Speed over rough terrain, kmh: 30
Cruising on the highway, km: 330
- Cruising cross country, km: 165
Specific power, hp s./t .: 13.2
- Suspension type: individual torsion bar
Gradeability, city .: 36 °
- Overcoming wall, m: 1.2
- Passable moat, m: 2.5
- Overcome ford, m: 0.9
Photo SU-152 St. John's wort
Epic self-propelled gun
In connection with the adoption in the fall of 1943 of the new heavy tank IS for the Red Army and the withdrawal from production of the KV-1S, it became necessary to create a heavy self-propelled gun on the basis of a new heavy tank. Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 4043ss of September 4, 1943 ordered the Experimental Plant No. 100 in Chelyabinsk, together with the technical department of the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army, to design, manufacture and test the IS-152 artillery self-propelled gun based on the IS tank until November 1, 1943.
During development, the installation received the factory designation "object 241". G.N. Moskvin was appointed the leading designer. The prototype was made in October. For several weeks, the ACS was tested at the NIBT proving grounds in Kubinka and the Artillery Scientific Testing Experimental Range (ANIOP) in Gorokhovets. On November 6, 1943, by a GKO decree, the new vehicle was accepted into service under the designation ISU-152, and in December its serial production began.
The layout of the ISU-152 did not differ in fundamental innovations. The conning tower, made of rolled armor plates, was installed in the front of the hull, combining the control compartment and the combat compartment into one volume. The engine compartment was located in the rear of the hull. The nose part of the hull on the installations of the first releases was made cast, on the machines of the latest releases it had a welded structure. The number and placement of crew members were the same as that of the SU-152. If the crew consisted of four people, then the loader's duties were performed by the lock. For the landing of the crew in the roof of the wheelhouse there were two round hatches in the front and one rectangular in the aft. All hatches were closed with double-leaf covers, in the upper doors of which MK-4 observation devices were installed. In the frontal leaf of the cabin there was an inspection hatch for the driver, which was closed by an armored stopper with a glass block and a viewing slot.
The conning tower itself has not undergone fundamental changes. Due to the smaller width of the IS tank, in comparison with the KV, it was necessary to reduce the inclination of the side plates from 250 to 150 to the vertical, and eliminate the inclination of the stern plate altogether. At the same time, the thickness of the armor increased from 75 to 90 mm at the frontal leaf of the casemate and from 60 to 75 mm at the side ones.
The gun mask had a thickness of 60 mm, and was subsequently increased to 100 mm. The deckhouse roof consisted of two parts. The front part of the roof was welded to the front, cheekbone and side plates. In it, in addition to two round hatches, a hole was made to install the fan of the fighting compartment (in the middle), which was closed from the outside with an armored cap, and a hatch was also provided for access to the filler neck of the left front fuel tank (on the left) and an antenna input hole (on the right). The rear roof sheet was removable and bolted. It should be noted that the installation of an exhaust fan became a significant advantage of the ISU-152, compared to the SU-152, in which there was no forced ventilation at all, and the crew members sometimes fainted from the accumulated powder gases during the battle. However, according to the recollections of the self-propelled gunners, the ventilation left much to be desired on the new car - when the shutter was opened after a shot, an avalanche of thick powder smoke, similar to sour cream, streamed from the gun barrel and slowly spread across the floor of the fighting compartment.
The roof over the engine compartment consisted of a removable sheet over the engine, nets over the air intake windows to the engine, and armored grilles over the louvers. The removable sheet had a hatch for access to the engine components and assemblies, which was closed by a hinged cover. At the rear of the sheet there were two hatches for access to the filler neck of the fuel and oil tanks. The middle rear hull sheet in the combat position was screwed on with bolts; during repairs, it could be folded back on hinges. For access to the transmission units, it had two round hatches, which were closed by hinged armored covers. The bottom of the hull was welded from three armor plates and had hatches and holes that were closed by armor covers and plugs.
152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S arr. 1937/43 It was mounted in a cast frame, which played the role of the upper machine tool of the gun, and was protected by a cast armor mask borrowed from the SU-152. The swinging part of the self-propelled howitzer-gun had minor differences compared to the field one: a folding tray was installed to facilitate loading and additional thrust to the trigger mechanism, the handles of the flywheels of the lifting and turning mechanisms were at the gunner's left in the direction of the machine, the trunnions were moved forward for natural balancing ... Vertical guidance angles ranged from -30 to +200, horizontal - in sector 100. The height of the line of fire was 1800 mm. For direct fire, the ST-10 telescopic sight with a semi-independent line of sight was used, for firing from closed firing positions, a Hertz panorama with an extension cord was used, the lens of which exited the wheelhouse through the open left upper hatch. When shooting at night, the sight and panorama scales, as well as the aiming and gun arrows, were illuminated by electric bulbs of the Luch 5 device. The firing range of direct fire was 3800 m, the highest - 6200 m. The rate of fire was 2-3 rds / min. The gun had electrical and mechanical (manual) descents. The electric trigger was located on the flywheel handle of the lifting mechanism. On the guns of the first releases, a mechanical (manual) escapement was used. Lifting and turning mechanisms of a sector type, attached to brackets to the left cheek of the frame.
Ammunition consisted of 21 rounds of separate cartridge case loading with BR-540 armor-piercing tracer shells, high-explosive fragmentation cannon and steel howitzer grenades ОФ-540 and ОФ-530, fragmentation howitzer grenades made of steel cast iron 0-530А. Armor-piercing tracer shells were in the conning tower niche on the left side in special frames, high-explosive fragmentation grenades - in the same place, cartridges with warheads in the wheelhouse niche in special frames and in a clamp packing. Some of the shells with warheads were placed on the bottom under the gun. The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 48.78 kg was 600 m / s, at a distance of 1000 m it pierced 123 mm thick armor.
Since October 1944, an anti-aircraft turret with a 12.7-mm DShK machine gun mod. 1938. Ammunition for the machine gun was 250 rounds. In addition, two PPSh submachine guns (later - PPS) with 1491 rounds of ammunition and 20 F-1 hand grenades were stored in the fighting compartment.
The power plant and transmission were borrowed from the IS-1 (IS-2) tank. The ISU-152 was equipped with a 12-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine V-2IS (V-2-10) with a capacity of 520 hp. at 2000 rpm. The cylinders were arranged in a Y-shape at an angle of 600. Compression ratio 14-15. Engine weight 1000 kg. The engine was started by an inertial starter with manual and electric drives, or using compressed air cylinders.
The total capacity of the three fuel tanks was 520 liters. Another 300 liters were transported in three external tanks, not connected to the power system. The fuel supply is forced by means of a HK-1 twelve-piston high-pressure fuel pump.
The lubrication system is circulating, under pressure. A circulating tank was built into the lubrication system tank, which provided quick heating of the oil and the ability to use the oil dilution method with gasoline.
Cooling system - liquid closed, with forced circulation. Radiators - two, plate-tubular, horseshoe-shaped, installed above the centrifugal fan.
To clean the air entering the engine cylinders, two VT-5 air cleaners of the "multicyclone" type were installed on the ACS. The air cleaner heads were fitted with nozzles and glow plugs for heating the intake air in winter. In addition, diesel wick heaters were used to heat the coolant in the engine cooling system. The same heaters also provided heating for the fighting compartment of the vehicle in long-term parking.
The ACS transmission consisted of a dry-friction multi-plate main clutch (ferrodo steel), a four-stage eight-speed gearbox with a range multiplier, two-stage planetary swing mechanisms with a multi-plate locking clutch and two-stage final drives with a planetary row.
The chassis of the ACS, applied to one side, consisted of six twin cast road wheels with a diameter of 550 mm and three support rollers. The rear drive wheels had two removable toothed rims with 14 teeth each. Idler wheels - cast, with a crank track tensioning mechanism, interchangeable with road wheels. Individual torsion bar suspension. Tracks are steel, fine-link, each of 86 single-ridged tracks. Stamped tracks, 650 mm wide and 162 mm pitch. The gearing is pinned.
For external radio communication, 10P or 10RK radio stations were installed on the machines, for internal - an intercom TPU-4-bisF. For communication with the landing party, there was a sound signaling button at the stern.
Already at the beginning of 1944, the release of the ISU-152 was constrained by the lack of ml-20 guns. Anticipating such a situation, at the artillery plant No. 9 in Sverdlovsk, the barrel of a 122-mm corps cannon A-19 was placed on the cradle of the ML-20S gun and as a result they received a heavy artillery self-propelled gun ISU-122 "object 242"). A prototype of the installation in December 1943 was tested at the Gorokhovets test site. By the GKO decree of March 12, 1944, the ISU-122 was adopted by the Red Army. Serial production of the machine began at ChKZ in April 1944 and lasted until September 1945.
The ISU-122 was a variant of the ISU-152 SPG, in which the 152mm ML-20S howitzer-gun was replaced with the 122mm A-19 arr. 1931/37 cannon. At the same time, the movable armor of the gun had to be slightly changed. The height of the line of fire was 1790 mm. In May 1944, changes were made to the design of the A-19 gun barrel, which violated the interchangeability of new barrels with previously released ones. The upgraded gun was named 122 mm self-propelled gun mod. 1931/44 Both guns had a piston bolt. Barrel length was 46.3 caliber. The device of the A-19 cannon was in many ways the same as the ML-20S. It differed from the latter with a smaller caliber barrel with a length increased by 730 mm, no muzzle brake and fewer grooves. To guide the gun, a sector-type lifting mechanism and a screw-type rotary mechanism were used. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -30 to +220, horizontally - in sector 100. To protect the lifting mechanism from inertial loads, a delivery link in the form of a conical friction clutch, placed between the worm wheel and the lifting gear gear, was introduced into its design. When firing, the telescopic CT-18 was used, which differed from the CT-10 only by the cutting of the scales, and the panoramic one with a semi-independent or independent aiming line (Hertz panorama). The firing range of direct fire was 5000 m, the highest - 14300 m. The rate of fire was 2 - 3 rds / min.
The installation's ammunition consisted of 30 rounds separately - cartridge case loading with an armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed projectile BR-471 and an armor-piercing tracer projectile with a ballistic tip BR-47 1 B, as well as high-explosive fragmentation cannon grenades: a one-piece long head 1N with a short HE-471 - OF-471. The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 25 kg was 800 m / s. Additionally, two PPSh (PPS) submachine guns with 1491 rounds of ammunition (21 discs) and 25 F-1 hand grenades were stored in the fighting compartment.
Since October 1944, the DShK anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 rounds of ammunition was installed on parts of the machines.
In April 1944, a self-propelled artillery installation ISU-122S (ISU-122-2, "object 249") was created in the design bureau of plant No. 100, which was a modernized version of the ISU-122. In June, the installation was tested at ANIOP in Gorokhovets, and It was put into service on August 22, 1944. In the same month, its mass production began at ChKZ in parallel with the ISU-122 and ISU-152, which lasted until September 1945.
The ISU-122S was created on the basis of the ISU-122 and differed from it in the installation of the D-25S arr. 1944 with a horizontal wedge semiautomatic breechblock and muzzle brake. The height of the line of fire was 1795 mm. Barrel length - 48 calibers. Due to more compact recoil devices and the breech of the gun, it was possible to increase the rate of fire to 6 rds / min. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -30 to +200, horizontally - in sector 100 (70 to the right and 30 to the left). The gun sights are telescopic TSh-17 and Hertz panorama. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - up to 15000 m. Ammunition - the same as that of the A-19 cannon. Externally, the SU-122S differed from the SU-122 with a gun barrel and a new molded mask 120-150 mm thick. From 1944 to 1947, 2,790 ISU-152 self-propelled guns were manufactured, 1735 - ISU-122 and 675 - ISU-122s. Thus, the total production of heavy artillery self-propelled guns - 5200 units - exceeded the number of heavy IS tanks manufactured - 4499 units. It should be noted that, as in the case of the IS-2, the Leningrad Kirovsky Plant was supposed to join the production of self-propelled guns on its basis. Until May 9, 1945, the first five ISU-152s were assembled there, and by the end of the year - another hundred. In 1946 and 1947, the production of the ISU-152 was carried out by the axis only at the LKZ.
Combat operations involving ACS ISU-152 and ISU-122
Since the spring of 1944, the SU-152 heavy self-propelled artillery regiments were rearmed with the ISU-152 and ISU-122 installations. They were transferred to new states and all were given the rank of guards. In total, by the end of the war, 56 such regiments were formed, each had 21 ISU-152 or ISU-122 vehicles (some of these regiments were of mixed composition). On March 1, 1945, the 143rd separate tank Nevelsk brigade in the Belarusian-Lithuanian military district was reorganized into the 66th Guards Nevelsk heavy self-propelled artillery brigade of the RVGK three-regiment composition (1804 people, 65 ISU-122 and three SU-76). Heavy self-propelled artillery regiments attached to tank and rifle units and formations were primarily used to support infantry and tanks in the offensive. Following in their battle formations, self-propelled guns destroyed enemy firing points and provided infantry and tanks with a successful advance. In this phase of the offensive, self-propelled guns became one of the main means of repelling tank counterattacks. In some cases, they had to move forward in the battle formations of their troops and take the blow, thereby ensuring the freedom of maneuver of the supported tanks.
So, for example, on January 15, 1945 in East Prussia, in the Borove region, the Germans, up to one regiment of motorized infantry with the support of tanks and self-propelled guns, counterattacked the battle formations of our advancing infantry, with which the 390th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment operated. The infantry, under pressure from superior enemy forces, retreated behind the combat formations of the self-propelled gunners, who met the German blow with concentrated fire and covered the supported units. The counterattack was repulsed, and the infantry again got the opportunity to continue their offensive.
Heavy SPGs were sometimes involved in artillery barrage. At the same time, the fire was conducted both with direct fire and from closed positions. In particular, on January 12, 1945, during the Sandomierz-Silesian operation, the 368th ISU-152 Guards Regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Front fired for 107 minutes at the enemy stronghold and four artillery and mortar batteries. Firing 980 shells, the regiment suppressed two mortar batteries, destroyed eight guns and up to one battalion of enemy soldiers and officers. It is interesting to note that additional ammunition was laid out in advance at firing positions, but first of all, the shells that were in combat vehicles were spent, otherwise the rate of fire would have been significantly reduced. For the subsequent replenishment of heavy self-propelled guns with shells, it took up to 40 minutes, so they stopped firing well before the start of the attack.
The heavy self-propelled guns were used very effectively against enemy tanks. For example, in the Berlin operation on April 19, the 360th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment supported the offensive of the 388th Infantry Division. Parts of the division captured one of the groves east of Lichtenberg, where they were entrenched. The next day, the enemy, with a force of up to one infantry regiment, supported by 15 tanks, began to counterattack. While repelling attacks during the day, 10 German tanks and up to 300 soldiers and officers were destroyed by the fire of heavy self-propelled guns.
In the battles on the Zemland Peninsula during the East Prussian operation, the 378th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment successfully used fan formation of the regiment's battle formation in repelling counterattacks. This provided the regiment with shelling in sector 1800, which facilitated the fight against enemy tanks attacking from different directions. One of the ISU-152 batteries, having built its battle formation in a fan on a front with a length of 250 m, successfully repelled a counterattack of 30 enemy tanks on April 7, 1945, knocking out six of them. The battery did not suffer losses. Only two vehicles received minor damage to the chassis.
At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, battles in large settlements, including well-fortified ones, became a characteristic feature of the use of self-propelled artillery. As you know, an attack on a large settlement is a very complex form of combat and by its nature differs in many respects from an offensive battle under normal conditions. Military operations in the city were almost always divided into a series of separate local battles for separate targets and centers of resistance. This forced the advancing troops to create special assault detachments and groups with great independence to conduct battle in the city.
Assault detachments and assault groups were the basis of the combat formations of formations and units fighting for the city. Self-propelled artillery regiments and brigades were attached to rifle divisions and corps, in the latter they were attached in whole or in parts to rifle regiments, in which they were used to reinforce assault detachments and groups.
The assault groups included self-propelled artillery batteries and separate installations (usually two). The self-propelled guns that were part of the assault groups had the task of directly escorting infantry and tanks, repelling counterattacks by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, and securing them on occupied targets. Accompanying the infantry, self-propelled guns with direct fire from a spot, less often from short stops, destroyed firing points and anti-tank weapons of the enemy, his tanks and self-propelled guns, destroyed rubble, barricades and houses adapted for defense, and thereby ensured the advance of troops. Volley fire was sometimes used to destroy buildings, with very good results. In the combat formations of assault groups, self-propelled artillery installations usually moved together with tanks under the cover of infantry, but if there were no tanks, then they moved with the infantry. The advancement of self-propelled artillery installations for actions in front of the infantry turned out to be unjustified, since they suffered heavy losses from enemy fire.
In the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front in the battles for the Polish city of Poznan, the assault groups of the 74th Guards Rifle Division included two or three ISU-1 of the 52,394th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment. On February 20, 1945, in the battles for the 8th, 9th and 10th quarters of the city directly adjacent to the southern part of the fortress citadel, an assault group consisting of an infantry platoon, three ISU-152 and two T-34 tanks cleared the quarter from the enemy No. 10. Another group consisting of an infantry platoon, two ISU-152 self-propelled artillery mounts and three TO-34 flamethrowers stormed the 8th and 9th quarters. In these battles, the self-propelled guns acted quickly and decisively. They both approached the houses and at close range destroyed the German firing points placed in the windows, basements and other places of buildings, and also made gaps in the walls of buildings for the passage of their infantry. When operating along the streets, self-propelled guns moved, pressing against the walls of houses and destroying enemy fire weapons located in buildings on the opposite side. With their fire, the installations mutually covered each other and ensured the advancement of infantry and tanks. The self-propelled artillery mounts moved forward alternately in rolls, as the infantry and tanks advanced. As a result, the quarters were quickly occupied by our infantry and the Germans retreated to the citadel with heavy losses.
Modifications and technical solutions.
Back in December 1943, given that in the future the enemy might have new tanks with more powerful armor, the State Defense Committee ordered by a special decree to design and manufacture by April 1944 self-propelled artillery mounts with high-powered guns:
With a 122 mm cannon with an initial velocity of 1000 m / s and a projectile mass of 25 kg;
with a 130 mm cannon with an initial velocity of 900 m / s with a projectile mass of 33.4 kg;
with a 152-mm cannon with an initial velocity of 880 m / s with a projectile mass of 43.5 kg.
All these guns pierced 200 mm thick armor at a distance of 1500 - 2000 m.
In the course of the implementation of this decree, self-propelled guns were created and in 1944 - 1945 were tested: ISU-122-1 ("object 243") with a 122-mm cannon BL-9, ISU-122 - 3 ("object 251") with 122 - mm cannon C-26-1, ISU-130 ("object 250") with 130-mm cannon S-26; ISU-152-1 ("object 246") with a 152-mm cannon BL-8 and ISU-152-2 ("object 247") with a 152-mm cannon BL-10.
The BL-8, BL-9 and BL-10 cannons were developed by OKB-172 (not to be confused with plant number 172), all of whose designers were prisoners. Hence the decoding of the letter abbreviation in the installation indices: "BL" - "Beria Lavrenty".
The BL-9 cannon (OBM-50) was designed under the direction of I.I. Ivanova. She had a piston valve and was equipped with a compressed air blowing system. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -20 to + 18 ° 30 \ ", horizontally - in the 9 ° 30 \" sector (70 to the right, 2 ° 30 \ "to the left). When firing, the telescopic sight CT-18 and Hertz panorama were used. gun guidance is the same as that of the ISU-122 self-propelled gun. Balancing the swinging part relative to the axle of the trunnions was carried out using weights attached to the fixed part of the cannon guard. weight 11, 9 kg was 1007 m / s and by 200 m / s exceeded the same indicator of 122 mm D-25 cannon. 122. The radio station 10-RK-26 was used for external communication, and the tank intercom TPU-4BIS-F was used for internal communication.
The first prototype of the BL-9 cannon was manufactured in May 1944 at Plant No. 172, and in June it was installed on the ISU-122-1. This car was presented for field tests on July 7, 1944. The installation did not withstand preliminary tests in Gorokhovets in August 1944 due to the low survivability of the barrel. The new barrel was manufactured by the beginning of February 1945, and after its installation, the self-propelled gun again entered the tests, which took place in May 1945. On the latter, when firing, the barrel ruptured due to metal defects. After that, further work on the ISU-122-1 was stopped.
The self-propelled gun ISU-152-1 (ISU-152 BM) was created in April 1944 at the design bureau of plant No. 100, on the initiative of OKB-172, who proposed to place in the SU-152 the 152-mm cannon BL-7 developed by them, which had ballistics of the Br-2 cannon.
The modification of the gun for mounting in the ACS received the BL-8 (OBM-43) index. It had a piston bolt, a muzzle brake of an original design and a system for blowing out the barrel bore with compressed air from cylinders. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -3 ° 10 \ "to + 17 ° 45 \", horizontal - in the 8 ° 30 \ "sector (6 ° 30 \" to the right, 2 ° to the left). The height of the line of fire is 1655 mm. When firing, a telescopic sight ST-10 and a Hertz panorama were used. The firing range was 18,500 m. The guidance drives remained unchanged compared to the ISU-122 installation. Ammunition included 21 rounds of separate-case loading. The muzzle velocity of the armor-piercing projectile reached 850 m / s. In connection with the installation of a new gun, the design of the armor mask of the gun was slightly changed.
During the tests of the BL-8 cannon, "unsatisfactory performance in terms of the action of projectiles", the unreliability of the muzzle brake and piston bolt, as well as poor working conditions of the calculation were revealed. The long overhang of the barrel (the total length of the installation was 12.05 m) limited the maneuverability of the machine. According to the test results, the BL-8 was replaced by a BL-10 cannon with a wedge-shaped semi-automatic shutter.
In December 1944, the ISU-152-2 self-propelled gun with a BL-10 cannon was tested at the Leningrad ANIOP. She could not stand them due to the unsatisfactory survivability of the gun barrel and the small angle of horizontal guidance. The gun was sent for revision to factory number 172, however, until the end of the war, its refinement was not completed.
The S-26 and S-26-1 cannons were designed at TsAKB under the leadership of V.G. Grabin. The S-26 cannon of 130 mm caliber had ballistics and ammunition from the B-13 naval cannon, but had a number of fundamental structural differences, as it was equipped with a muzzle brake, a horizontal wedge gate, etc. The barrel length of the gun was 54.7 caliber. Direct fire range - 5000 m, rate of fire -2 rds / min. The gun ammunition consisted of 25 rounds of separate-case loading with armor-piercing shells.
The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 33.4 kg is 900 m / s. The S-26-1 cannon had the same ballistics as the 122-mm BL-9 cannon, and differed from it in the presence of a horizontal wedge gate and a modified design of individual units. Barrel length - 59.5 caliber. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - 16000 m. Rate of fire - 1.5 - 1.8 rds. / min. The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile weighing 25 kg is 1000 m / s.
Self-propelled guns ISU-130 and ISU-122-3 were manufactured at Plant No. 100 in the fall of 1944. ACS ISU-122S was used as a base for their creation. In October 1944, the ISU-130 passed factory tests, and in November - December of the same year, it was tested at the test site. Based on their results, it was decided to send the gun to TsAKB for revision, which dragged on until the end of the war. The running and artillery tests of the ISU-130 ended only in June 1945, when the adoption of this self-propelled gun into service lost its meaning.
The prototype ACS ISU-122-3 passed field tests in November 1944 and could not stand them due to unsatisfactory barrel survivability. The barrel was finalized only in June 1945.
Self-propelled guns with prototypes of guns were characterized by the same disadvantages as the rest of the self-propelled guns on the chassis of the IS tank: a large forward reach of the barrel, which reduced maneuverability in narrow passages, small angles of horizontal guidance of the gun and the complexity of the guidance itself, which made it difficult to fire at moving targets; low combat rate of fire due to the relatively small size of the fighting compartment; large mass of shots; separate-sleeve loading and the presence of a piston bolt in a number of guns; poor visibility from cars; small ammunition and the difficulty of replenishing it during the battle.
However, good projectile resistance the hull and cabin of these self-propelled guns, achieved by installing powerful armor plates at rational angles of inclination, made it possible to use them at a direct shot distance and effectively hit any targets.
Self-propelled guns with more powerful guns were designed on the basis of IS. So, at the beginning of 1944, the S-51 ACS project was transferred to the IS tank chassis. However, due to the lack of the required number of 203-mm B-4 howitzers, the production of which had already been completed, they decided to create a self-propelled version of the 152-mm high-power cannon Br-2.
By the summer of 1944, a new self-propelled gun, indexed C-59, was manufactured and entered for field trials. The design of the S-59 was generally similar to the S-51, but based on the chassis of the IS-85 tank. During the tests at ANIOP, the same shortcomings were revealed as during the tests of the S-51. And no wonder - despite the already existing negative experience, the installation was again not equipped with a coulter! And this despite the fact that the recoil when firing a full charge from a 152-mm cannon was greater than when firing from a 203-mm howitzer. Didn't the artillery designers know that? However, soon work on this type of ACS was stopped.
In July 1944, the head of the Leningrad branch of the TsAKB I.I. Ivanov sent to the NKV technical department a preliminary design of a self-propelled unit of special power - a 210-mm Br-17 cannon or a 305-mm Br-18 howitzer on the twin chassis of a T-34 tank. Since the TsAKB branch did not have time to prepare the necessary project of design documentation for the right time, the project was handed over to the archive.
At the end of the war, Experimental Plant No. 100, Uralmashzavod and Artillery Plant No. 9, within the framework of the "Bear" theme, developed a long-range rapid-fire self-propelled gun intended for counter-battery warfare and artillery raids. It was supposed to create a double-barreled 122-mm artillery system, in which the loading of one barrel would be carried out at the expense of the energy of a shot from the second. The layout of the installation with 76-mm guns worked fine, but for some reason the artillery designers did not take into account that the 122-mm guns have separate loading. As a result, they failed to mechanize this process. In 1945, an ACS was designed with guns placed on the sides of the vehicle to facilitate manual loading. A year later, a wooden model of it was made, but the self-propelled gun was not made in metal.
Self-propelled artillery mounts ISU-122 and ISU-152 were in service with the Soviet Army in the post-war years. Both those and others were modernized. So, for example, since 1958, the standard radio stations and TPUs on the ISU-122 have been replaced by the Granat and TPU R-120 radio stations.
After the ISU-152 was adopted as a standard SPG in the late 1950s, the ISU-122 SPGs began to be disarmed and converted into tractors. The ISU-T tractor was a conventional self-propelled gun with a dismantled cannon and a welded embrasure.
On November 16, 1962, the BTT heavy evacuation tractor was adopted. It existed in two modifications - BTT-1 and BTT-1T. The body of the BTT-1 vehicle has undergone changes, mainly in the frontal part. Two box-shaped damper stops were welded to the lower front plate for pushing tanks with a log. The roof of the wheelhouse was also changed, to which a beam with struts was welded to increase rigidity. In the engine room, located in the middle part of the hull, a winch (pulling force 25 tf, working cable length 200 m) was placed with a power take-off mechanism from the engine. The winch was controlled by a driver from the engine room, which had a second seat and two control levers for this purpose. In the aft part of the machine there was a coulter device for resting on the ground. A collapsible crane was installed on the tractor - a boom with a lifting capacity of 3 tons with a manual drive. On the roof of the power compartment there was a cargo platform designed to carry up to 3 tons of cargo. The towing device of the tractor was equipped with suspension with double-sided shock absorption and a rigid hitch. The machine was equipped with a B-54-IST engine. Its feature was the crankshaft borrowed from the B-12-5 engine. For movement at night, the driver had a BVN night device. The mass of the tractor was 46 tons. The crew included two people. On the BTT-1T tractor, instead of a traction winch, a service or modernized set of rigging equipment was installed, designed for a traction force of 15 tf.
In addition to the Soviet Army, BTT-1 tractors were in service abroad, in particular, in Egypt. Several of these vehicles were captured by Israel during the 1967 and 1973 wars.
As for the ISU-152, these machines were in service with the Soviet Army until the 1970s, right up to the beginning of the arrival of the new generation of self-propelled guns in the troops. At the same time, the ISU-152 was upgraded twice. The first time was in 1956, when the self-propelled guns received the designation ISU-152K. A commander's cupola with a TPKU device and seven viewing blocks of the TNP were installed on the roof of the cabin; the ML-20S howitzer-gun ammunition was increased to 30 rounds, which required a change in the location of the internal equipment of the fighting compartment and additional ammunition stowage; instead of the ST-10 sight, an improved telescopic PS-10 was installed. All machines were equipped with a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 300 rounds of ammunition. The ACS was equipped with a V-54K engine with a power of 520 hp. with an ejection cooling system. The capacity of the fuel tanks was increased to 1280 liters. The lubrication system has been improved, the design of the radiators has changed. In connection with the ejection cooling system of the engine, the fastening of the external fuel tanks was also changed. The vehicles were equipped with 10-RT and TPU-47 radio stations. The mass of the self-propelled gun increased to 47.2 tons, but the dynamic characteristics remained the same. The power reserve increased to 360 km.
The second upgrade option was designated ISU-152M. The vehicle was equipped with modified units of the IS-2M tank, a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 rounds of ammunition and night vision devices.
During the overhaul, the ISU-122 self-propelled guns were also subjected to some alterations. So, since 1958, the standard radio stations and TPUs were replaced by the Granat and TPU R-120 radio stations.
In addition to the Soviet Army, ISU-152 and ISU-122 were in service with the Polish Army. As part of the 13th and 25th self-propelled artillery regiments, they took part in the final battles of 1945.
Soon after the war, the Czechoslovak People's Army also received ISU-152. In the early 1960s, one regiment of the Egyptian army was also armed with the ISU-152. In 1973, they were used as fixed firing points on the banks of the Suez Canal and fired at Israeli positions.
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