Military review and politics. Stalin's "St. John's wort": what role did the legendary Soviet self-propelled gun Isu 152 play in the Great Patriotic War

The legendary "St. John's wort" ISU-152

In connection with the adoption in the fall of 1943 of the year by the Red Army of the new heavy tank IS and the removal of the KV-1S from production, it became necessary to create a heavy self-propelled guns already on the basis of a new heavy tank. Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 4043ss of September 4, 1943 ordered 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 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 lead designer. A prototype was made in October. For several weeks, the self-propelled guns were tested at the NIBT Test Site in Kubinka and the Artillery Scientific Testing Test Site (ANIOP) in Gorokhovets. On November 6, 1943, by a decree of the State Defense Committee, the new machine was put into service under the designation ISU-152, and in December its mass 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 front of the hull, combining the control and combat compartments into one volume. The engine compartment was located in the aft part of the hull. The bow part of the hull on the installations of the first releases was made cast, on machines latest releases had a welded structure. The number and placement of crew members were the same as those of the SU-152. If the crew consisted of four people, then the duties of the loader were performed by the castle. For the landing of the crew in the roof of the cabin, there were two round hatches in the front and one rectangular in the stern. All hatches were closed with double-leaf covers, in the upper wings of which MK-4 observation devices were installed. In the frontal sheet of the cabin there was a driver's inspection hatch, which was closed with an armored plug with a glass block and a viewing slot.

The design of the conning tower itself has not undergone fundamental changes. Due to the smaller width of the IS tank, compared to the KV, it was necessary to reduce the slope of the side plates from 250 to 150 to the vertical, and completely eliminate the slope of the stern sheet. The thickness of the armor at the same time increased from 75 to 90 mm at the frontal cutting sheet and from 60 to 75 mm at the side.

The gun mask had a thickness of 60 mm, and was later increased to 100 mm. The roof of the cabin consisted of two parts. The front part of the roof was welded to the front, cheekbone and side sheets. In it, in addition to two round hatches, a hole was made for installing a fighting compartment fan (in the middle), which was closed from the outside with an armor cap, and a hatch was also provided for access to the filler neck of the left front fuel tank (left) and an antenna input hole (right). The rear roof sheet was made removable and bolted. It should be noted that the installation of an exhaust fan has become a significant advantage of the ISU-152, compared to the SU-152, in which there was no forced exhaust ventilation at all, and the crew members during the battle sometimes lost consciousness from the accumulated powder gases. However, according to the recollections of self-propelled gunners, the ventilation on the new machine also left much to be desired - when the shutter was opened after a shot, an avalanche of thick powder smoke, similar to sour cream, flowed from the gun barrel and slowly spread over the floor of the fighting compartment.

The roof over the engine compartment consisted of a removable sheet over the engine, grids over the air intake windows to the engine and armored grilles over the blinds. The removable sheet had a hatch for access to the components and assemblies of the engine, which was closed with a hinged lid. In the back of the sheet there were two hatches for access to the filler necks of the fuel and oil tanks. The middle aft hull plate in the combat position was screwed on with bolts; during repairs, it could be hinged. To access the transmission units, it had two round hatches, closed with hinged armored covers. The bottom of the hull was welded from three armor plates and had hatches and openings that were closed with armor caps and plugs.

152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S model 1937/43 It was mounted in a cast frame, which played the role of the upper machine gun, and was protected by the same 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 an additional pull to the trigger mechanism, the handles of the flywheels of the lifting and turning mechanisms were located at the gunner on the left along the vehicle, the trunnions were moved forward for natural balancing . Vertical angles guidance ranged from -30 to +200, horizontal - in the sector 100. The height of the line of fire was 1800 mm. For direct fire, a ST-10 telescopic sight with a semi-independent aiming line was used; for firing from closed firing positions, a Hertz panorama with an extension cord was used, the lens of which came out of the cabin through the open left upper hatch. When shooting at night, the sight and panorama scales, as well as the aiming and gun arrows, were highlighted electric light bulbs device "Luch 5". The direct fire range was 3800 m, the maximum was 6200 m. The rate of fire was 2-3 rds / min. The gun had electric and mechanical (manual) descents. The electric trigger was located on the handle of the flywheel of the lifting mechanism. On the guns of the first releases, a mechanical (manual) descent was used. Lifting and turning mechanisms of the sector type, mounted on brackets to the left cheek of the frame.

The ammunition consisted of 21 rounds of separate case loading with armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed shells BR-540, high-explosive fragmentation cannon and steel howitzer grenades OF-540 and OF-530, fragmentation howitzer grenades made of steel cast iron 0-530A. Armor-piercing tracer shells were located in the niche of the conning tower on the left side in special frames, high-explosive fragmentation grenades - in the same place, cartridge cases with live charges in the niche of the cabin in special frames and in a collar-type installation. Part of the cartridge cases with live charges was placed on the bottom under the gun. The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 48.78 kg was 600 m / s, at a distance of 1000 m it pierced armor 123 mm thick.

Since October 1944, an anti-aircraft turret with a 12.7-mm machine gun dshk arr. 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 placed 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 V-2IS (V - 2-10) with a power of 520 hp. at 2000 rpm. The cylinders were located U-shaped at an angle of 600. The compression ratio is 14-15. Engine weight 1000 kg. The engine was started by an inertial starter, which had 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. Fuel supply is forced, using a twelve-plunger fuel pump high pressure HK-1.

Lubrication system - circulating, under pressure. A circulation tank was built into the tank of the lubrication system, which provided a quick warm-up of the oil and the ability to use the method of diluting the oil 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 air cleaners of the VT-5 brand of the “multicyclone” type were installed on the ACS. Injectors and glow plugs were built into the air cleaner heads to heat the intake air in winter. In addition, wick heaters were used to heat the coolant in the engine cooling system, which worked on diesel fuel. The same heaters also provided heating for the fighting compartment of the vehicle during long-term parking.

The ACS transmission included a multi-plate dry friction main clutch (ferrodo steel), a four-speed eight-speed gearbox with a demultiplier, two-stage planetary turning mechanisms with a multi-plate locking clutch and two-stage final drives with a planetary gear set.

The undercarriage of the self-propelled guns in relation to one side consisted of six double cast road wheels with a diameter of 550 mm and three support rollers. The rear drive wheels had two removable gear rims with 14 teeth each. The guide wheels are cast, with a crank mechanism for tensioning the tracks, interchangeable with the track rollers. Suspension individual torsion bar. Caterpillars are steel, small-linked, of 86 single-ridge tracks each. The tracks are stamped, 650 mm wide and 162 mm pitch. Pin engagement.

For external radio communications, radio stations 10R or 10RK were installed on the machines, for internal radio communication, the TPU-4-bisF intercom was installed. To communicate with the landing force, there was an audible alarm button at the stern.

Already at the beginning of 1944, the release of the ISU-152 began to be constrained by the lack of ML-20 guns. Anticipating such a situation, at the artillery plant number 9 in Sverdlovsk, they put the barrel of the 122-mm A-19 corps gun on the cradle of the ML-20S gun and as a result received a heavy self-propelled gun ISU-122 "object 242"). A prototype installation in December 1943 was tested at the Gorohovets training ground. By a 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.

The ISU-122 was a variant of the ISU-152 self-propelled guns, in which the 152 mm ML-20S howitzer gun was replaced by a 122 mm A-19 gun mod. 1931/37. At the same time, the movable armor of the gun had to be somewhat 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 issued ones. The upgraded gun received the name "122-mm self-propelled gun mod. 1931/44 Both guns had a piston valve. The barrel length was 46.3 calibers. The device of the A-19 gun was in many ways the same as the ML-20S. It differed from the last barrel of a smaller caliber with a length increased by 730 mm, the absence of a muzzle brake and fewer rifling. To aim the gun, a sector-type lifting mechanism and a screw-type rotary mechanism were used. The vertical aiming angles ranged from -30 to +220, horizontally - in the sector 100. To protect the lifting mechanism from inertial loads, a transfer link was introduced into its design in the form of a conical friction clutch placed between the worm wheel and the gear of the lifting mechanism. When firing, they used the telescopic target ST-18, which differed from the target ST-10 only by cutting scales, and the panoramic target with a semi-independent or independent line of sight (Hertz's panorama). The direct fire range was 5000 m, the maximum - 14300 m. Rate of fire - 2 - 3 rds / min.

The ammunition of the installation included 30 rounds of separate - case loading with an armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed projectile BR-471 and an armor-piercing tracer with a ballistic tip BR-47 1 B, as well as high-explosive fragmentation cannon grenades: one-piece short OF-471N, with a screw head and a long - OF-471. The initial speed 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 disks) and 25 F-1 hand grenades were placed in the fighting compartment.

Since October 1944, a DShK anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 rounds of ammunition was installed on some vehicles.

In April 1944, the ISU-122S self-propelled artillery mount (ISU-122-2, "object 249"), which was a modernized version of the ISU-122, was created in the Design Bureau of Plant No. 100. In June, the mount was tested at the ANIOP in Gorokhovets, and August 22, 1944 was put into service. In the same month, its mass production at ChKZ began in parallel with the ISU-122 and ISU-152, which continued until September 1945.

The ISU-122S was created on the basis of the ISU-122 and differed from it by installing the D-25S gun mod. 1944 with a horizontal wedge semi-automatic breech 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 aiming angles ranged from -30 to +200, horizontally - in the 100 sector (70 to the right and 30 to the left). Gun sights - telescopic TSh-17 and Hertz's panorama. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - up to 15000 m. Ammunition - the same as that of the A-19 gun. Externally, the SU-122S differed from the SU-122 in the gun barrel and a new cast mask 120-150 mm thick. From 1944 to 1947, 2790 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 manufactured heavy IS tanks - 4499 units. It should be noted that, as in the case of the IS-2, the Leningrad Kirov Plant was to be connected to 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 axle only at the LKZ.

Since the spring of 1944, heavy self-propelled artillery regiments SU-152 were re-equipped with ISU-152 and ISU-122 installations. They were transferred to new states and all were given the title of guards. In total, 56 such regiments were formed before the end of the war, each with 21 ISU-152 or ISU-122 vehicles (some of these regiments were of mixed composition). On March 1, 1945, the 143rd separate tank Nevel brigade in the Belarusian-Lithuanian military district was reorganized into the 66th guards Nevel heavy self-propelled artillery brigade of the RVGK of three regiments (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, the self-propelled guns destroyed the enemy's firing points and provided the 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 a number of cases, they had to move ahead of the battle formations of their troops and take a hit on themselves, thereby ensuring freedom of maneuver for the supported tanks.

So, for example, on January 15, 1945, in East Prussia, in the Borovo region, the Germans, with the strength of up to one regiment of motorized infantry, supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, counterattacked the battle formations of our advancing infantry, along with which the 390th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment operated. The infantry, under pressure from superior enemy forces, withdrew behind the combat formations of self-propelled gunners, who met the German strike with concentrated fire and covered the supported units. The counterattack was repulsed, and the infantry again got the opportunity to continue their offensive.

Heavy self-propelled guns were sometimes involved in artillery preparation. At the same time, the fire was conducted both by 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 at a strong point and four enemy artillery and mortar batteries for 107 minutes. Having fired 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 in advance of the attack.

Very effectively, heavy self-propelled guns were used in the fight 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 took possession of one of the groves east of Lichtenberg, where they entrenched themselves. The next day, the enemy, with a strength of up to one infantry regiment, supported by 15 tanks, began to counterattack. When repelling attacks during the day, heavy self-propelled guns destroyed 10 German tanks and up to 300 soldiers and officers.

In the battles on the Zemland Peninsula during the East Prussian operation, the 378th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, when repulsing counterattacks, successfully used the formation of the battle formation of the regiment with a fan. This provided the regiment with shelling in the 1800 sector, which made it easier to fight enemy tanks attacking from different directions. One of the ISU-152 batteries, having built its battle formation like 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 has not suffered any losses. Only two cars received minor damage to the chassis.

At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War characteristic feature the use of self-propelled artillery began fighting in large settlements, including well-fortified ones. As is known, an offensive against a large populated area is a very complex form of combat and differs in many respects from offensive combat under normal conditions. fighting in the city they were almost always divided into a number 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.

Assault detachments and assault groups were the basis of the battle 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 completely or partially attached to rifle regiments, in which they were used to reinforce assault squads and groups.

The assault groups included self-propelled artillery batteries and separate installations (usually two). The self-propelled guns, which were part of the assault groups, had the tasks of directly escorting infantry and tanks, repelling counterattacks by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, and securing them on occupied targets. Accompanying infantry, self-propelled guns with direct fire from a place, less often from short stops, destroyed firing points and anti-tank guns of the enemy, his tanks and self-propelled guns, destroyed blockages, barricades and houses adapted for defense, and thereby ensured the advance of troops. Sometimes used to demolish buildings. 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 along with the infantry. The advancement of self-propelled artillery installations for operations ahead 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, two or three ISU-1s of the 52nd 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 8th, 9th and 10th quarters of the city, immediately 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. He approached the houses and point-blank destroyed the German firing points placed in the windows, basements and other places of the buildings, and also made holes in the walls of the buildings for the passage of their infantry. When operating along the streets, self-propelled guns moved, clinging to 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. Forward, self-propelled artillery mounts moved 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.

Back in December 1943, given that in the future the enemy may have new tanks with more powerful armor, the State Defense Committee ordered by a special decree to design and manufacture self-propelled artillery mounts with increased power guns by April 1944:

With a 122-mm cannon, having an initial speed of 1000 m / s with a projectile mass of 25 kg;
with a 130 mm cannon having an initial velocity of 900 m/s with a projectile mass of 33.4 kg;
with a 152-mm cannon, having an initial speed of 880 m / s with a projectile mass of 43.5 kg.
All these guns penetrated 200 mm thick armor at a distance of 1500 - 2000 m.

In the course of implementing this decree, artillery self-propelled guns were created and tested in 1944-1945: ISU-122-1 (“object 243”) with a 122-mm gun BL-9, ISU-122 - 3 (“object 251”) with 122 - mm gun C-26-1, ISU-130 ("object 250") with 130-mm gun S-26; ISU-152-1 ("object 246") with 152 mm BL-8 gun and ISU-152-2 ("object 247") with 152 mm BL-10 gun.

The BL-8, BL-9 and BL-10 cannons were developed by OKB-172 (not to be confused with Factory No. 172), all of whose designers were prisoners. Hence the decoding of the letter abbreviation in the indices of installations: "BL" - "Beria Lavrenty".

The BL-9 gun (OBM-50) was designed under the direction of I.I. Ivanova. It had a piston valve and was equipped with a system for purging the bore with compressed air. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -20 to + 18 ° 30 \ ", horizontally - in the sector 9 ° 30 \" (right 70, left 2 ° 30 \ "). When firing, the ST-18 telescopic sight and the Hertz panorama were used. Drives gun guidance is the same as for self-propelled unit ISU-122. The balancing of the swinging part relative to the axis of the trunnions was carried out with the help of weights attached to the fixed part of the gun guard. The ammunition of the installation included 21 shots of separate-sleeve loading with armor-piercing shells. The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 11.9 kg was 1007 m/s and was 200 m/s higher than that of the 122 mm D-25 gun. The design of the hull and armored cabin, power point, transmission, chassis and electrical equipment of the machine were borrowed from the ISU-122 self-propelled gun. The 10-RK-26 radio station was used for external communications, and the TPU-4BIS-F tank intercom was used for internal communications.

The first prototype of the BL-9 cannon was manufactured in May 1944 at factory No. 172, and in June it was installed on the ISU-122-1. This car was presented for field testing on July 7th, 1944. The installation did not pass the preliminary tests in Gorokhovets in August 1944 due to the low survivability of the barrel. The new barrel was made 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, the barrel ruptured during firing due to metal defects. After that, further work on ISU-122-1 was stopped.

The self-propelled gun ISU-152-1 (ISU-152 BM) was created in April 1944 in the Design Bureau of Plant No. 100, on the initiative of OKB-172, which proposed to place in the SU-152 unit the 152-mm gun BL-7 developed by them, which had ballistics of the Br-2 gun.

Modification of the gun for installation in the ACS received the index BL-8 (OBM-43). It had a piston lock, a muzzle brake of the original design and a system for purging the bore with compressed air from cylinders. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -3°10\" to + 17°45\", horizontal - in the 8°30\" sector (to the right 6°30\", to the left 2°). The height of the line of fire is 1655 mm. When firing, the ST-10 telescopic sight and the 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-sleeve loading. The initial speed of the armor-piercing projectile reached 850 m/s. In connection with the installation of a new gun, the design of the armored mantlet of the gun was somewhat changed.

When testing the BL-8 gun, "unsatisfactory performance in terms of the action of shells", the unreliability of the muzzle brake and piston valve, as well as poor working conditions for the calculation, were revealed. The large reach 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 the BL-10 gun with a semi-automatic wedge breech.

In December 1944, the ISU-152-2 self-propelled gun with the BL-10 gun was tested at the Leningrad ANIOP. She could not stand them because of the unsatisfactory survivability of the gun barrel and the small angle of horizontal guidance. The gun was sent for revision to the factory number 172, however, until the end of the war, its fine-tuning was not completed.

The S-26 and S-26-1 guns were designed at the TsAKB under the direction of V.G. Grabin. The 130 mm S-26 gun had ballistics and ammunition from the B-13 naval gun, but had a number of fundamental design differences, as it was equipped with a muzzle brake, a horizontal wedge breech, etc. The length of the gun barrel was 54.7 calibers. Direct fire range - 5000 m, rate of fire -2 rds / min. The gun ammunition consisted of 25 rounds of separate-sleeve loading with armor-piercing shells.

The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 33.4 kg is 900 m / s. The S-26-1 gun had the same ballistics as the 122-mm BL-9 gun, and differed from it in the presence of a horizontal wedge gate and a modified design of individual components. Barrel length - 59.5 caliber. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - 16000 m. Rate of fire - 1.5 - 1.8 rds. /min The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile weighing 25 kg is 1000 m/s.

The ISU-130 and ISU-122-3 self-propelled guns were manufactured at factory No. 100 in the fall of 1944. The 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 - field tests. Based on their results, it was decided to send the gun to the TsAKB for revision, which dragged on until the end of the war. Sea and artillery tests of the ISU-130 ended only in June 1945, when the adoption of this self-propelled guns into service lost its meaning.

A prototype ACS ISU-122-3 passed field tests in November 1944 and did not pass them due to the unsatisfactory survivability of the barrel. The completion of the barrel was completed only in June 1945.

Self-propelled guns with prototype guns had 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 shoot at moving targets; low combat rate of fire due to relatively small size fighting compartment; a large mass of shots; separate-sleeve loading and the presence of a piston breech in a number of guns; poor visibility from cars; small ammunition and the difficulty of replenishing it during the battle.

At the same time, the good projectile resistance of 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 quite effectively hit any targets.

Self-propelled guns with more powerful guns were also designed on the basis of the IS. So, at the beginning of 1944, the S-51 self-propelled gun project was transferred to the chassis of the IS tank. However, due to the lack of the required number of 203 mm B-4 howitzers, the production of which had already been completed, a decision was made to create a self-propelled version of the high-powered 152 mm Br-2 gun.

By the summer of 1944, the new self-propelled guns, which received the S-59 index, were manufactured and entered for field tests. The design of the S-59 was generally similar to the S-51, but was based on the chassis of the IS-85 tank. When testing at the ANIOP, the same shortcomings were revealed as when testing 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 gun was greater than when firing from a 203-mm howitzer. Did the artillery designers really not know this? 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 technical department of the NKV an advanced project of a special power self-propelled gun - a 210-mm Br-17 gun or a 305-mm Br-18 howitzer on the twin chassis of the T-34 tank. Since the TsAKB branch did not manage to produce the necessary draft design documentation by the required deadline, the project was archived.

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 guns intended for counter-battery combat 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 due to 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 122-mm guns have separate loading. As a result, they failed to mechanize this process. In 1945, the self-propelled guns were designed already with guns placed on the sides of the vehicle to facilitate manual loading. A year later, its wooden model was made, but the self-propelled gun was not made in metal.

Self-propelled artillery installations ISU-122 and ISU-152 were in service with the Soviet Army and in post-war years. Both of them have been upgraded. So, for example, since 1958, regular radio stations and TPU on ISU-122 were replaced by radio stations "Granat" and TPU R-120.

After the ISU-152 was adopted as the standard self-propelled guns at the end of the 1950s, the ISU-122 self-propelled guns began to be disarmed and converted into tractors. The ISU-T tractor was an ordinary self-propelled gun with a dismantled gun and a welded loophole.

On November 16, 1962, the BTT heavy evacuation tractor was put into service. It existed in two modifications - BTT-1 and BTT-1T. The body of the BTT-1 machine 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 cabin 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) with a power take-off mechanism from the engine was placed. The winch was controlled by the 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 - an arrow with a lifting capacity of 3 tons with a manual drive. On the roof of the power compartment was a cargo platform, designed to carry up to 3 tons of cargo. The towing device of the tractor was equipped with suspension with two-way shock absorption and a rigid hitch. The car was equipped with a B-54-IST engine. Its feature was a crankshaft borrowed from the B-12-5 engine. For driving 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 pulling force of 15 tf.

As for the ISU-152, these vehicles were in service with the Soviet Army until the 1970s, until the new generation of self-propelled guns began to enter the troops. At the same time, the ISU-152 was modernized twice. The first time was in 1956, when the ACS received the designation ISU-152K. On the roof of the cabin, a commander's cupola with a TPKU device and seven TNP observation blocks was installed; the ammunition load of the ML-20S howitzer gun was increased to 30 rounds, which required a change in the location of the internal equipment of the fighting compartment and additional ammunition racks; instead of the sight and the ST-10, an improved telescopic sight was installed with the PS-10 intact. All vehicles were fitted with a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 300 rounds of ammunition. A B-54K engine with a power of 520 hp was installed on the self-propelled guns. with ejection cooling system. The capacity of the fuel tanks was increased to 1280 liters. The lubrication system was improved, the design of the radiators became different. In connection with the ejection engine cooling system, the fastening of external fuel tanks was also changed. The machines were equipped with radio stations 10-RT and TPU-47. The mass of self-propelled guns increased to 47.2 tons, but the dynamic characteristics remained the same. The power reserve has increased to 360 km.

SU-152 is a heavy Soviet self-propelled artillery mount (ACS) of the Great Patriotic War, built on the basis of the KV-1s heavy tank and armed with a powerful 152-mm ML-20S howitzer-gun. According to its combat mission, the SU-152 was a heavy assault gun; limitedly could perform the functions of a self-propelled howitzer. The construction of the first SU-152 prototype called Object 236 (also KV-14 or SU-14) was completed at the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ) on January 24, 1943, and serial production began the following month.

SAU SU-152 St. John's wort - video

In connection with the discontinuation of the KV-1s SU-152 base tank in December 1943, they were replaced in production with the equivalent in armament and better armored ISU-152, in total 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 of Kursk, where it proved to be an effective destroyer of new heavy German tanks and self-propelled guns. The most active SU-152s were used in the second half of 1943 and early 1944, later their number in the troops steadily decreased due to combat losses and wear and tear of the undercarriage and engine-transmission group. The failed SU-152 was replaced by the more advanced ISU-152 in Soviet self-propelled artillery units. A small number of vehicles fought until the end of the war and were in service with the Soviet army in the postwar years. After decommissioning, the remaining SU-152s were almost all disposed of for metal, and so far only a few self-propelled guns of this type have survived.

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 desire 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 action of the 76-mm tank gun projectile in medium tanks T-34 and heavy KV-1 is not sufficient against powerful wooden and earthen fortifications, not to mention long-term reinforced concrete. Since the winter campaign of 1941-1942 ended on an optimistic note for the USSR (the Wehrmacht was defeated near Moscow, Rostov-on-Don was liberated, a number of important bridgeheads were captured in the vicinity of the lost Kharkov), the Soviet military leadership planned to further develop these successes. Accordingly, in the course of the proposed offensive operations, a meeting with the enemy’s long-term fortifications was expected and the need arose for a powerful fire support vehicle for their destruction - the “bunker fighter”. Before the start of World War II, the Red Army received such a specialized vehicle - heavy tank KV-2 armed with a 152 mm M-10 howitzer. However, the production of the KV-2 was discontinued in July 1941, the 152-mm M-10 howitzer was also taken out of production a little later, and the losses of already produced vehicles were such that by the beginning of 1942 only a few units of the KV-2 had survived. In addition, the KV-2 had a number of serious design flaws, the low reliability of its components and assemblies (especially transmissions) and was overloaded - even in the Winter War, it was noted that KV tanks got stuck in deep snow. As a result, the need for a new machine of this class was not in doubt.

However, at the end of 1941, the issue of arming a heavy fire support vehicle remained not fully clarified. Famous Soviet designer N.V. Kurin continued work on the KV-9 tank, armed with a 122-mm howitzer in a rotating turret. In fact, this machine was a lightweight analogue of the KV-2, both in terms of mass and firepower. Another area of ​​work was to increase the power of fire by installing several guns of small or medium caliber 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 guns in a frame mount in a fixed armored cabin instead of a rotating turret. It was assumed that such a large number of weapons would allow its flexible use - 45-mm guns against weakly armored targets, 76-mm guns against enemy tanks with powerful armor, and a volley from any combination of guns against especially heavily protected targets. But this idea actually collapsed - firing in 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 ranges of a direct shot, not to mention firing at distances exceeding them. Also, due to the location of the 45-mm guns not on the axis of rotation of the entire built-in installation, when fired from any of them, a turning moment of force arose, which knocked down the aiming of all guns. The second version of the KV-7 was armed with two 76 mm cannons, which made it possible to eliminate the first drawback, but the point that knocked down the aiming when fired still remained. 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 more 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 the fear 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 experienced 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 fixed armored cabin, in order to ensure mass 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 questions regarding the design and construction of the "bunker fighter" were discussed. Immediately after the plenum, the well-known 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 its 152-mm howitzer -gun 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 ACS chassis using components and assemblies of light tanks. As a result, this work was entrusted jointly to the Ural Heavy Engineering Plant (UZTM, Uralmash) in Sverdlovsk and the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ). Designers G. N. Rybin and K. N. Ilyin developed a draft design for the U-18 installation of the ML-20 howitzer-gun, but it was not quickly refined and implemented in metal.

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 Wehrmacht Army 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 reached Stalingrad and disabled all the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the USSR located there. Therefore, in summer and early autumn 1942 of the year, all official work at UZTM and ChKZ on “bunker destroyers” and self-propelled artillery in general is 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-34, T-60 tanks and T-70. To avoid this, it was decided to launch the production of the T-34 medium tank at UZTM and ChKZ, all available personnel were thrown into mastering its mass production. In this situation, the development of a heavy assault self-propelled artillery mount continued only at the level of preliminary studies. In particular, at UZTM, in parallel with the U-18, work was carried out on the order of the Main Artillery Directorate on the U-19 203-mm self-propelled guns project, but such a vehicle turned out to be excessively 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 implemented in the 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 self-propelled guns SU-122, and ChKZ was still mastering the serial production of the T-34, continuing their work to improve heavy tanks.

Creation

The immediate stimulus for the resumption of work on the "bunker fighters" was again the changed situation at the front. On November 19, 1942, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). Along its course, the 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 defense also included well-fortified city buildings, difficult to destroy by small and medium caliber guns. The 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 cannon artillery weapons at that time were towed and their mobility was severely limited by the lack of a developed road network, the presence of deep snow cover and a small number of tractors available. 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 calculations, since in winter conditions the horses were quickly exhausted. Reality has shown once again that the Red Army urgently 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 for the Tank Industry (NKTP), designers and engineers N.V. Kurin, G.N. K. N. Ilyin and V. A. Vishnyakov. All of them already had experience in quickly creating another self-propelled artillery mount, the SU-122. GKO Decree No. 2692 of January 4, 1943 ordered the NKTP and the People's Commissariat for Armaments (NKV) represented by ChKZ and Pilot Plant No. 100 from the first side and Plants No. 9 and 172 from the second side in 25 days to complete the design of a heavy 152-mm self-propelled guns, build its prototype and submit it for testing. At that time, three alternatives were considered in detail: the U-18, the projects of Lev Sergeevich Troyanov and Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin. Fedor Fedorovich Petrov, the designer of the main armament of the future machine - the ML-20 howitzer-gun, insisted on its modernization. However, the very short time allotted for the task, naturally forced the designers to settle on the option with the least number of modifications to the tank base and guns. The project of Zh. Ya. Kotin satisfied these requirements, and it was he who was accepted for implementation.

On January 17, 1943, a model of the future self-propelled gun was made, which received approval from above. The car 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 guns designed by P. N. Syachintov based on the components and assemblies of the T-28 and T-35 tanks). On January 19, on the undercarriage of the KV-1s, they began assembling the semi-finished products of the armored cabin received from factory No. 200, by the morning of January 23, only the gun was missing to complete the work on this prototype. It was delivered late in the evening, and it did not fit under the embrasure in an armored mask, so they walked all night necessary work for its installation in the ACS. This gun was somewhat different from the serial ML-20 howitzer guns - all control flywheels were transferred to it. left side barrel for greater convenience of the gunner 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 car, which received the designation Object 236, independently went to the Chebarkul test site, where it successfully passed factory and subsequently state tests. On February 9, 1943, the GKO, by decree No. 2859, adopted a new self-propelled gun into service with the Red Army under the name SU-152.

Mass production

In contrast to the light SU-76 and medium SU-122, which were quickly put into series and already in February 1943 took part in their first battle, the organization of production of the SU-152 at ChKZ was slow. The plant was loaded with simultaneous production of both the KV-1s heavy tank and the T-34 medium tank, and preparations for the planned transition to the production of a new heavy tank model required a lot of time and personnel. Therefore, the pace of mastering the SU-152 in the series was not as high as that of 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 were put into planned work. In April, production began to gain momentum, in May the materiel for the first heavy self-propelled artillery regiment (12 vehicles) was handed over to the customer.

Being in serial production of the SU-152 was not long. Already at the end of 1942, it became clear that the base tank KV-1s for this self-propelled gun did not meet the increased requirements for a heavy breakthrough tank, work was underway to create a new vehicle, 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 (somewhat later it was called 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 based on it in September 1943, so a temporary decision was made to install the tower from the IS-85 on the KV-1s chassis (this is how the KV-85 tank turned out) and continue produced by SU-152. But by the end of October 1943, work on the transfer of 152-mm self-propelled guns to a new base was generally successfully completed, and on November 6, an order was issued to stop the production of the SU-152. But since serial production is a rather inertial process, the assembly of already produced SU-152 hulls continued as early as December 1943, and the last two vehicles were delivered 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-1 heavy tank with the promising IS-85 breakthrough tank also required the transfer of the SU-152 to a promising base. But this work on improving the ACS was not limited. 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 seconded to it was N. V. Kurin, who has extensive experience in creating self-propelled artillery installations. Together with the customer, extended tactical and technical requirements were developed for a modernized sample of heavy self-propelled guns, which at that time was designated in the documents as SU-152-M. According to primary sources, they included the following:

The development of the heavy self-propelled gun SU-152-M is being carried out to replace the self-propelled gun KV-14.

1) for self-propelled use the chassis and logistics of the tank "Object 237";
2) keep the main armament in the form of a 152-mm self-propelled gun ML-20S mod. 1942, which has the internal ballistics of a howitzer-cannon of the specified caliber mod. 37;
3) it is necessary to supplement the cannon armament of a heavy self-propelled gun with a defensive circular firing machine gun of 7.62 mm caliber or an anti-aircraft machine gun of 12.7 mm caliber;
4) increase the thickness of the frontal hull armor 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 blowing the gun barrel after firing.

The completion of the project was planned by July 1, 1943, but the group completed the task ahead of schedule, at the end of July the construction of a prototype was started, called the IS-152.
However, in the future, ambiguity sets in - the new tanks IS-85, KV-85 and self-propelled guns IS-152 were shown in the Kremlin to the country's leadership headed by I.V. exact list of those present. The day is called July 31, 1943, but according to ChKZ documents, then the KV-85 and IS-85 tanks were being tested. Historian M. N. Svirin suggests holding the show on August 31, and a group of authors of numerous publications on armored topics under the leadership of Colonel I. G. Zheltov - on September 8. It is also not clear which ACS was shown to the management. It is assumed that it was an experimental self-propelled gun IS-152, but there is a photograph showing I.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 the improvements intended for implementation on the IS-152 were tested.

One way or another, but by the above-mentioned GKO resolution No. 4043ss of September 4, 1943, it was the IS-152 self-propelled guns that were 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 self-propelled guns was improved, a second prototype was built: Object 241 based on the IS tank, which turned out to be 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.

Design Description

The SU-152 self-propelled artillery mount had the same layout as all other serial Soviet self-propelled guns of the Great Patriotic War period, with the exception of the SU-76. The fully armored hull was divided into two parts. The crew, gun and ammunition were placed in front in the armored cabin, which combined the fighting compartment and the control compartment. The engine and transmission were installed in the stern of the car. 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 - on the right. One fuel tank was located in the engine compartment, and the other two were in the combat, that is, in the habitable space of the vehicle. The latter had a negative impact on the explosion safety and crew survival in the event of an ACS being hit by an enemy projectile.

Commander of the self-propelled guns SU-152 Lieutenant I.V. Vyugov fires at a closed target. Oryol-Kursk direction. In the foreground is a massive breech of a 152-mm ML-20 howitzer gun with an open piston breech. Behind her, at his workplace, is the commander of the vehicle, in front of whose open landing hatch a panorama of the PTK-4 is installed.

Armored hull and wheelhouse

The armored hull and cabin of the self-propelled unit were welded from rolled armor plates 75, 60, 30 and 20 mm thick. Armor protection is differentiated, anti-ballistic. Armored cutting plates were installed at rational angles of inclination. For ease of maintenance, the over-engine armor plates, as well as the cabin roof, were made removable. Enough was cut into the hull a large number of hatches and openings for loading ammunition, firing from personal weapons, installing suspension torsion bars, antenna input, fuel tank necks, viewing devices and sights, draining fuel and oil. A number of them were closed 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 a hole 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 for access to transmission mechanisms.

The crew was completely located in the armored cabin, which combined the fighting compartment and the control compartment. The cabin was separated from the engine compartment by a partition, in which there were gates necessary for ventilation of the fighting compartment. With the dampers open, the running engine created the air draft needed to renew the air in the habitable space of the machine. For the landing and disembarkation of the crew, the right round single-leaf hatch on the roof of the cabin and the rectangular double-leaf hatch at the junction of the roof and rear armor plates of the cabin were intended. The round hatch to the left of the gun was not intended for the landing and exit of the crew, it was required to bring the extension of the panoramic sight out; but in an emergency it could also be used to evacuate the crew. Another escape hatch for leaving the car was located at 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 cabin. The recoil devices of the gun were protected by a fixed cast armor casing and a movable cast spherical armored mask, which also served as a balancing element.

Handrails for tank assault were welded to the armored cabin and hull, as well as bonks 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 the fenders or in the fighting compartment of the self-propelled gun.

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 determined 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 for horizontal and vertical aiming in the ML-20S were located to the left of the barrel (whereas 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 howitzer-gun ML-20S had a barrel length of 29 calibers, the direct fire 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-cannon is mechanical manual.

The ammunition load of the gun was 20 rounds of separate-sleeve loading. Shells and propellant charges in cartridge cases were placed 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 composition of the ammunition could include almost all 152-mm cannon and howitzer shells, but in practice only a limited subset of them were used.

The nomenclature of propellant 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-style ”(Zh-544, ZhN-544, ZhN-544U) for other types of shells. At the same time, firing with a full charge was prohibited.

For self-defense, the crew was equipped with two PPSh submachine guns with 18 discs (1278 rounds) and 25 F-1 hand grenades. Later, the ammunition for submachine guns was increased to 22 discs (1562 rounds). In some cases, a pistol for firing flares was added to this weapon.

Also for the SU-152, a turret was developed for an anti-aircraft heavy-caliber 12.7 mm DShK machine gun with collimator sight K-8T 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 produced self-propelled guns, but there are references that a small number of SU-152s received the installation of a DShK during the overhaul in 1944-1945.

Engine

SU-152 was equipped with a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine liquid-cooled V-2K with a capacity of 600 liters. 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 to 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 self-propelled artillery mount SU-152 was equipped with a mechanical transmission, which included:

Multi-disc main friction clutch of dry friction "steel according to Ferodo";
- four-speed gearbox with demultiplier (8 gears forward and 2 reverse);
- two multi-disc side clutches with steel-on-steel friction and floating ferodo band linings;
- two onboard planetary gears.

All transmission control drives are mechanical, the driver controlled the turning and braking of the self-propelled guns 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 M.P. Prokhorov, sets the task for the battery commanders. 2nd Baltic Front, spring 1944. In the background is a SU-152 with tail number 186 (ASKM).

Chassis

The undercarriage of the SU-152 was identical to the base tank KV-1s. Suspension of the machine - individual torsion bar for each of the 6 solid-cast gable road wheels of small diameter (600 mm) on each side. Opposite each track roller, suspension balancers were welded to the armored hull. Drive wheels with removable lantern gears were located at the rear, and sloths with a screw track tension mechanism were located at the front. The upper branch of the caterpillar was supported by three small cast support rollers on each side. Each caterpillar consisted of 86-90 single-ridge tracks 608 mm wide.
Fire-fighting equipment

The self-propelled artillery mount was equipped with a tetrachlorine portable fire extinguisher, standard for Soviet armored vehicles. Extinguishing a fire in a car was required to be carried out in gas masks - when carbon tetrachloride got on hot surfaces, chemical reaction partial replacement of chlorine by atmospheric oxygen with the formation of phosgene, a potent toxic suffocating substance.

Means of observation and sights

SU-152 had a fairly large number of means of monitoring the battlefield. Three prismatic viewing devices with protective armored covers were installed on the roof of the fighting compartment, two more such devices were placed on the left round hatch and the upper wing of a rectangular double hatch. Workplace the commander of the vehicle was equipped with a PTK-4 periscope. The driver in battle conducted observation through a viewing device with a triplex, which was protected by an armored flap. This viewing device was installed in an armored plug hatch on the frontal armor plate to the left of the gun. In a calm environment, this plug hatch 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. The ST-10 telescopic sight was calibrated for aimed fire at a distance of up to 900 m. However, the firing 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 I had to use a second, panoramic sight. To provide a view through the upper left round hatch in the cabin 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 RPA-24 relay-regulator with a power of 1 kW and four parallel-series connected batteries of the 6-STE-128 or 6-STE-144 brand with a total capacity of 256 or 288 A h respectively. Electricity consumers included:

External and internal lighting of the machine, illumination devices for sights and scales of measuring instruments;
- external sound signal;
- instrumentation (ammeter and voltmeter);
- means of communication - a radio station and a tank intercom;
- electrician of the motor group - starter ST-700, starting relay RS-371 or RS-400, etc.

Means of communication

The means of communication included a radio station 9R (or 10R, 10RK-26) and an intercom TPU-4-Bis for 4 subscribers.

Radio stations of types 9P, 10P or 10RK were a set of a transmitter, receiver and umformers (single-arm motor-generators) for their power supply, connected to the on-board electrical network with a voltage of 24 V.

The 9P radio station was a simplex tube shortwave 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 reception - 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 range of 4-5.625 MHz was intended for two-way communication "SAU - SAU", and the extended range of the receiver was used for one-way communication "headquarters - SAU". 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 tube shortwave radio operating in the frequency range from 3.75 to 6 MHz. In the parking lot, the communication range in telephone mode was similar to the 9P radio station, but unlike it, a greater communication range could be obtained in telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by telegraph key in Morse code or another discrete coding system. Frequency stabilization was carried out 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 10R model, it became easier and cheaper to manufacture. This model 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.

The TPU-4-Bis tank intercom made it possible to negotiate between tank crew members even in a very noisy environment and connect a headset (headphones and throat phones) 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 structures, for example, the barrel group of a howitzer-cannon. Also, on the basis of a photograph of I.V. Stalin in the Kremlin on a self-propelled gun with the appearance of the SU-152 and recorded by the accompanying persons of his conversation with the driver of this machine, we can assume the presence of 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 “Object 236” mentioned above and the transitional option shown to I.V. Stalin. Also, sometimes in the popular Soviet literature of the 1980s, the SU-152 index means the self-propelled howitzer 2S3 "Acacia" developed a decade later and completely unrelated in design to the machine of the same name during the Great Patriotic War. SU-152 had some differences in design depending on the production batch, this was not an official modification (a new index was not assigned), however:

The upper part of the movable armor of the gun could have 3 options: without additional armor, with an additional 30 mm plate with 2 cutouts in the lower part, for the gun and sight, with 60 mm armor plate welded from two 30 mm with cutouts located symmetrically in the upper part.
- An additional handrail was welded on the right side of the movable gun armor.
- The presence / absence of brackets on the 3rd and 5th corner of the fenders.
- Location of fans on the roof of the cabin BO. the first production samples were with one or without fans, after Stalin examined 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. 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, larger front sloths. ISU-152 - from IS-2, smaller rollers without pronounced beams, sloth with smaller cutouts, sprockets with oval caps.
- Cabin. The SU-152 has a cabin with flat hatches for the KV sample. There is no anti-aircraft machine gun, there are no mounts either. 5 periscopes on the wheelhouse. 4 handrails along the sides of the cabin, behind - one to the right of the hatch.
- The shape of the felling. The SU-152 has a lower hull cutaway. The vertical junction of the side armor plates is located almost in the middle of the cabin side, while in the ISU-152 this junction is shifted forward.
- Wings. The SU-152 is of the KV type, with triangular reinforcement scarves 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 the VLD and NLD. Crescent-shaped plate under the mantlet of the gun to protect the junction of the mantlet and the hull with a hole for water discharge.
- MTO. The SU-152 is similar to the KV-1S. With 2 grilles with curved louvre protection, 2 round-shaped hatches at the rear, 4 landing rails along the entire length. 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 punch and stopper mechanism (V-shaped design).
- NKD. The SU-152 has a C-shaped rounded shape, at the junction of the EVA and NKD - an engine ventilation grille with a gas fender with 4 brackets along the entire length.
- The SU-152 has tracks from the KV-1S. The SU-152 has dirt cleaners of the KV type, not the IS.
- SU-152s were never upgraded 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, but the importance of their presence is not in doubt. They were used to a greater extent as tank destroyers, since only they, one of the existing samples of Soviet armored vehicles, could effectively deal with new and modernized German tanks and self-propelled guns at almost any combat distance. It is worth noting that most of the German armored vehicles on the Kursk Bulge were modernized PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV (out of the well-known new German models of "Tigers", there were about 150 vehicles, including command vehicles; "Panthers" - 200; "Ferdinands" - about 90). Nevertheless, medium German tanks were formidable opponents, since frontal armor brought to 70-80 mm at a distance of more than 300 meters was practically impenetrable for 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 - due to their unfavorable “coil” shape from the point of view of aerodynamics, they quickly lost speed. Any 152-mm SU-152 shells, due to their large mass and kinetic energy, had a high destructive potential, and the consequences of their direct hit on an armored object were very serious. Since in 1943 there was a shortage of armor-piercing shells BR-540, naval semi-armor-piercing mod. 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 gap damaged the gun, sights, and chassis of enemy vehicles. Moreover, to disable an enemy tank or self-propelled guns, a close hit of a high-explosive fragmentation projectile in the vicinity of the target was enough. The crew of Major Sankovsky, the commander of one of the SU-152 batteries and one of the aces of World War II, disabled 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 battalion near the village of Tyoploye, 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 very often called "Ferdinand", and screened versions of the PzKpfw IV, which greatly changed their appearance, were taken for the "Tiger". However, the effectiveness of the use of the SU-152 against enemy armored targets was relatively high, and the nickname of the self-propelled gun "St. importance to raise the morale of the troops who suffered heavy losses in battle and, to some extent, fell victim to the “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 subordinate to the 201st separate tank brigade, equipped with British tanks "Valentine" and "Matilda". The regiment's SU-152s were 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 firing at enemy tanks with direct fire. A typical example of the regiment's combat work is given in the regiment's operational summary for July 8, 1943:

... During the day, the regiment fired: 07/08/1943 at 16.00 on the battery of assault guns on the southern outskirts of the temporary warehouse. "Glade". 7 self-propelled guns were knocked out and burned and 2 bunkers were destroyed, the consumption of 12 HE grenades. At 17.00 on enemy tanks (up to 10 units), which came out on the grader road 2 km south-west of the temporary storage warehouse. "Batratskaya Dacha". Direct fire from the SU-152 of the 3rd battery 2 tanks were set on fire and 2 were knocked out, one of them was a T-6. Consumption of 15 HE grenades. At 18.00, the 3rd battery was visited by the commander of the 7th Guards. And Lieutenant General Shumilov expressed gratitude to the crews for the excellent shooting at the tanks. At 19.00, a column of motor vehicles and carts with infantry was fired on the road south of the temporary storage warehouse. "Polyana", 2 cars, 6 wagons with infantry were broken. Up to an infantry company scattered and partially destroyed. Consumption of 6 HE grenades.

Later, the regiment was withdrawn from subordination of the 201st brigade 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 starting positions only by 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-152 also performed well as mobile heavy artillery to reinforce tank and rifle units of the Red Army. Often they 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 use 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 1452nd TSAP entered the liberated Sevastopol. But a 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 left; 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 from brief description were published in the illustrated magazine "Die Wehrmacht", she also received a mention in the illustrated humorous manual for the combat use of the "Panther" "Pantherfibel", published in 1944 with the sanction of Heinz Guderian.

The surviving SU-152s were also in service with the Soviet army in postwar period until at least 1958.

Myths about SU-152

A common myth about the history of the creation of the SU-152 is the assertion that the SU-152 was created as a response to the enemy's new heavy tank "Tiger". Although the good anti-tank capabilities of the 152-mm heavy self-propelled guns due to the high muzzle velocity and 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 kind 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 he could not have any influence on the development of the SU-152. It is also interesting that at a joint meeting dedicated to the appearance of Tiger tanks in the enemy’s possession, neither the SU-152 nor the ML-20 towed howitzer gun were considered as possible means of solving the problem, rather the opposite - ideas were expressed for arming the KV-self-propelled guns. 14 122 mm A-19 guns and an increase in the production 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 quantities (that is, the battle on the Kursk Bulge), in order to increase the morale of the troops, the SU-152 was widely involved in leaflets, films and demonstrative executions of captured equipment. Moreover, the personnel of the Red Army in their mass did not see either of these vehicles before the battle (and during the Battle of Kursk, only about one and a half hundred "Tigers" and 24 SU-152 were involved, which, against the background of thousands of other armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, was small share). 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 isolated place - as the most successful multi-purpose vehicle, suitable for performing all the tasks it faces. Other self-propelled guns - SU-76, SU-122 and SU-85 - only partially met the expectations placed on them. It turned out to be very difficult to use the SU-122 against tanks due to the low level of fire of its guns; the power of fire of the SU-76 and SU-85 on unarmored targets was in some cases insufficient, in addition, the SU-76 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 high firepower, the SU-152 was used as an assault gun, as a tank destroyer, and as a self-propelled howitzer. 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 low elevation angle, together with the closed fighting compartment, did not favor the use of the SU-152 for firing from closed positions. In addition to these shortcomings, which were due to the armament and layout of the vehicle, the SU-152 had a number of its own - the lack of forced ventilation of the fighting compartment (especially manifested when the engine was turned off, there were even cases of crews dying when firing) and a defensive machine gun, insufficient for 1943 frontal booking, cramped 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 ISU-152, while maintaining the main armament and layout of the vehicle, which were recognized as adequate for the conditions not only of the Second World War, but also of the post-war period.

Among foreign machines, the SU-152 had no direct and close in time creation of analogues in its category in terms of mass. Armed with long-barreled guns of 150-155 mm caliber, 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 heavy tanks "Ferdinand" and "Jagdpanther" were specialized tank destroyers (the first one also had one of its official designations "assault gun" and more than one and a half times the weight of the SU-152) . The armor penetration of their guns and 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" ("Brummber"), built on the basis of a 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. With a slightly lower mass of a high-explosive fragmentation grenade, the Brummbär featured much more powerful frontal armor (up to 100 mm with some slope) and was also very effective against fortifications and unarmored goals. Like the SU-152, the German self-propelled guns could be used for firing from closed positions, and due to the high elevation angle of the gun, mounted firing was possible, but due to the low muzzle velocity of the projectile, the Brummbär lost to the SU-152 in the maximum range of its fire. The 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 pierced 170-200 mm of armor. However, the advantage of the SU-152 in shooting at armored targets over the German self-propelled guns was the high initial speed of its shells - that is, a greater flatness of the trajectory and a direct shot range, 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
- Number of issued, pcs.: 670

Crew: 5 people

Weight ACS SU-152

Combat weight, t: 45.5

Overall dimensions of ACS SU-152

Case length, mm: 6750
- Length with gun forward, mm: 8950
- Width, mm: 3250
- Height, mm: 2450
- Clearance, mm: 440

Reservation of self-propelled guns SU-152

Armor type: homogeneous rolled surface hardened
- Forehead of the hull (top), mm/deg.: 60/70°
- Forehead of the hull (bottom), mm/deg.: 60/20°
- Hull board, mm / city: 60
- Hull feed, mm / city: 60
- Bottom, mm: 30 front, 20 rear
- Hull roof, mm: 30
- Forehead felling, mm/deg.: 75/30°
- Gun mask, mm/deg.: 60-65
- Cutting board, mm/deg.: 60/25°
- Cutting feed, mm / city: 60
- Cabin roof, mm / city: 20

Armament of the self-propelled guns SU-152

Gun caliber and make: 152 mm ML-20S mod. 1943
- Type of gun: rifled howitzer gun
- Barrel length, calibers: 27.9
- Gun ammunition: 20
- Angles HV, degrees: −3…+20°
- GN angles, degrees: 12°

Firing range of self-propelled guns 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 disks) and 25 F-1 grenades were placed in the fighting compartment, later the ammunition load for the PPSh was increased to 1562 rounds (22 disks)

Engine SAU SU-152

Engine type: V-shaped 12-cylinder liquid-cooled diesel
- Engine power, l. p.: 600

Speed ​​of self-propelled guns SU-152

Highway speed, km/h: 43
- Cross-country speed, km / h: 30

Range on the highway, km: 330
- Power reserve over rough terrain, km: 165

Specific power, l. s./t: 13.2
- suspension type: individual torsion bar

Climbability, degrees: 36°
- overcome wall, m: 1.2
- Crossable ditch, m: 2.5
- Crossable 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 year by the Red Army of the new heavy tank IS and the removal of the KV-1S from production, it became necessary to create a heavy self-propelled guns already on the basis of a new heavy tank. Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 4043ss of September 4, 1943 ordered 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 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 lead designer. A prototype was made in October. For several weeks, the self-propelled guns were tested at the NIBT Test Site in Kubinka and the Artillery Scientific Testing Test Site (ANIOP) in Gorokhovets. On November 6, 1943, by a decree of the State Defense Committee, the new machine was put into service under the designation ISU-152, and in December its mass 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 front of the hull, combining the control and combat compartments into one volume. The engine compartment was located in the aft part of the hull. The bow part of the hull on the installations of the first releases was made of cast, on the machines of the latest releases it had a welded structure. The number and placement of crew members were the same as those of the SU-152. If the crew consisted of four people, then the duties of the loader were performed by the castle. For the landing of the crew in the roof of the cabin, there were two round hatches in the front and one rectangular in the stern. All hatches were closed with double-leaf covers, in the upper wings of which MK-4 observation devices were installed. In the frontal sheet of the cabin there was a driver's inspection hatch, which was closed with an armored plug with a glass block and a viewing slot.

The design of the conning tower itself has not undergone fundamental changes. Due to the smaller width of the IS tank, compared to the KV, it was necessary to reduce the slope of the side plates from 250 to 150 to the vertical, and completely eliminate the slope of the stern sheet. The thickness of the armor at the same time increased from 75 to 90 mm at the frontal cutting sheet and from 60 to 75 mm at the side.

The gun mask had a thickness of 60 mm, and was later increased to 100 mm. The roof of the cabin consisted of two parts. The front part of the roof was welded to the front, cheekbone and side sheets. In it, in addition to two round hatches, a hole was made for installing a fighting compartment fan (in the middle), which was closed from the outside with an armor cap, and a hatch was also provided for access to the filler neck of the left front fuel tank (left) and an antenna input hole (right). The rear roof sheet was made removable and bolted. It should be noted that the installation of an exhaust fan has become a significant advantage of the ISU-152, compared to the SU-152, in which there was no forced exhaust ventilation at all, and the crew members during the battle sometimes lost consciousness from the accumulated powder gases. However, according to the recollections of self-propelled gunners, the ventilation on the new machine also left much to be desired - when the shutter was opened after a shot, an avalanche of thick powder smoke, similar to sour cream, flowed from the gun barrel and slowly spread over the floor of the fighting compartment.

The roof over the engine compartment consisted of a removable sheet over the engine, grids over the air intake windows to the engine and armored grilles over the blinds. The removable sheet had a hatch for access to the components and assemblies of the engine, which was closed with a hinged lid. In the back of the sheet there were two hatches for access to the filler necks of the fuel and oil tanks. The middle aft hull plate in the combat position was screwed on with bolts; during repairs, it could be hinged. To access the transmission units, it had two round hatches, closed with hinged armored covers. The bottom of the hull was welded from three armor plates and had hatches and openings that were closed with armor caps and plugs.

152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20S model 1937/43 It was mounted in a cast frame, which played the role of the upper machine gun, and was protected by the same 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 an additional pull to the trigger mechanism, the handles of the flywheels of the lifting and turning mechanisms were located at the gunner on the left along the vehicle, the trunnions were moved forward for natural balancing . Vertical pointing angles ranged from -30 to +200, horizontal - in the sector 100. The height of the line of fire was 1800 mm. For direct fire, a ST-10 telescopic sight with a semi-independent aiming line was used; for firing from closed firing positions, a Hertz panorama with an extension cord was used, the lens of which came out of the cabin 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 direct fire range was 3800 m, the maximum was 6200 m. The rate of fire was 2-3 rds / min. The gun had electric and mechanical (manual) descents. The electric trigger was located on the handle of the flywheel of the lifting mechanism. On the guns of the first releases, a mechanical (manual) descent was used. Lifting and turning mechanisms of the sector type, mounted on brackets to the left cheek of the frame.

The ammunition consisted of 21 rounds of separate case loading with armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed shells BR-540, high-explosive fragmentation cannon and steel howitzer grenades OF-540 and OF-530, fragmentation howitzer grenades made of steel cast iron 0-530A. Armor-piercing tracer shells were located in the niche of the conning tower on the left side in special frames, high-explosive fragmentation grenades - in the same place, cartridge cases with live charges in the niche of the cabin in special frames and in a collar-type installation. Part of the cartridge cases with live charges was placed on the bottom under the gun. The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 48.78 kg was 600 m / s, at a distance of 1000 m it pierced armor 123 mm thick.

Since October 1944, an anti-aircraft turret with a 12.7-mm machine gun dshk arr. 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 placed 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 V-2IS (V - 2-10) with a power of 520 hp. at 2000 rpm. The cylinders were located U-shaped at an angle of 600. The compression ratio is 14-15. Engine weight 1000 kg. The engine was started by an inertial starter, which had 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, using a twelve-plunger high-pressure fuel pump HK-1.

Lubrication system - circulating, under pressure. A circulation tank was built into the tank of the lubrication system, which provided a quick warm-up of the oil and the ability to use the method of diluting the oil 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 air cleaners of the VT-5 brand of the “multicyclone” type were installed on the ACS. Injectors and glow plugs were built into the air cleaner heads to heat the intake air in winter. In addition, wick heaters powered by diesel fuel were used to heat the coolant in the engine cooling system. The same heaters also provided heating for the fighting compartment of the vehicle during long-term parking.

The ACS transmission included a multi-plate dry friction main clutch (ferrodo steel), a four-speed eight-speed gearbox with a demultiplier, two-stage planetary turning mechanisms with a multi-plate locking clutch and two-stage final drives with a planetary gear set.

The undercarriage of the self-propelled guns in relation to one side consisted of six double cast road wheels with a diameter of 550 mm and three support rollers. The rear drive wheels had two removable gear rims with 14 teeth each. The guide wheels are cast, with a crank mechanism for tensioning the tracks, interchangeable with the track rollers. Suspension individual torsion bar. Caterpillars are steel, small-linked, of 86 single-ridge tracks each. The tracks are stamped, 650 mm wide and 162 mm pitch. Pin engagement.

For external radio communications, radio stations 10R or 10RK were installed on the machines, for internal radio communication, the TPU-4-bisF intercom was installed. To communicate with the landing force, there was an audible alarm button at the stern.

Already at the beginning of 1944, the release of the ISU-152 began to be constrained by the lack of ML-20 guns. Anticipating such a situation, at the artillery plant number 9 in Sverdlovsk, they put the barrel of the 122-mm A-19 corps gun on the cradle of the ML-20S gun and as a result received a heavy self-propelled gun ISU-122 "object 242"). A prototype installation in December 1943 was tested at the Gorohovets training ground. By a 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.

The ISU-122 was a variant of the ISU-152 self-propelled guns, in which the 152 mm ML-20S howitzer gun was replaced by a 122 mm A-19 gun mod. 1931/37. At the same time, the movable armor of the gun had to be somewhat 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 issued ones. The upgraded gun received the name "122-mm self-propelled gun mod. 1931/44 Both guns had a piston valve. The barrel length was 46.3 calibers. The device of the A-19 gun was in many ways the same as the ML-20S. It differed from the last barrel of a smaller caliber with a length increased by 730 mm, the absence of a muzzle brake and fewer rifling. To aim the gun, a sector-type lifting mechanism and a screw-type rotary mechanism were used. The vertical aiming angles ranged from -30 to +220, horizontally - in the sector 100. To protect the lifting mechanism from inertial loads, a transfer link was introduced into its design in the form of a conical friction clutch placed between the worm wheel and the gear of the lifting mechanism. When firing, they used the telescopic target ST-18, which differed from the target ST-10 only by cutting scales, and the panoramic target with a semi-independent or independent line of sight (Hertz's panorama). The direct fire range was 5000 m, the maximum - 14300 m. Rate of fire - 2 - 3 rds / min.

The ammunition of the installation included 30 rounds of separate - case loading with an armor-piercing tracer sharp-headed projectile BR-471 and an armor-piercing tracer with a ballistic tip BR-47 1 B, as well as high-explosive fragmentation cannon grenades: one-piece short OF-471N, with a screw head and a long - OF-471. The initial speed 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 disks) and 25 F-1 hand grenades were placed in the fighting compartment.

Since October 1944, a DShK anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 rounds of ammunition was installed on some vehicles.

In April 1944, the ISU-122S self-propelled artillery mount (ISU-122-2, "object 249"), which was a modernized version of the ISU-122, was created in the Design Bureau of Plant No. 100. In June, the mount was tested at the ANIOP in Gorokhovets, and August 22, 1944 was put into service. In the same month, its mass production at ChKZ began in parallel with the ISU-122 and ISU-152, which continued until September 1945.

The ISU-122S was created on the basis of the ISU-122 and differed from it by installing the D-25S gun mod. 1944 with a horizontal wedge semi-automatic breech 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 aiming angles ranged from -30 to +200, horizontally - in the 100 sector (70 to the right and 30 to the left). Gun sights - telescopic TSh-17 and Hertz's panorama. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - up to 15000 m. Ammunition - the same as that of the A-19 gun. Externally, the SU-122S differed from the SU-122 in the gun barrel and a new cast mask 120-150 mm thick. From 1944 to 1947, 2790 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 manufactured heavy IS tanks - 4499 units. It should be noted that, as in the case of the IS-2, the Leningrad Kirov Plant was to be connected to 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 axle only at the LKZ.

Combat operations involving self-propelled guns ISU-152 and ISU-122

Since the spring of 1944, heavy self-propelled artillery regiments SU-152 were re-equipped with ISU-152 and ISU-122 installations. They were transferred to new states and all were given the title of guards. In total, 56 such regiments were formed before the end of the war, each with 21 ISU-152 or ISU-122 vehicles (some of these regiments were of mixed composition). On March 1, 1945, the 143rd separate tank Nevel brigade in the Belarusian-Lithuanian military district was reorganized into the 66th guards Nevel heavy self-propelled artillery brigade of the RVGK of three regiments (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, the self-propelled guns destroyed the enemy's firing points and provided the 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 a number of cases, they had to move ahead of the battle formations of their troops and take a hit on themselves, thereby ensuring freedom of maneuver for the supported tanks.

So, for example, on January 15, 1945, in East Prussia, in the Borovo region, the Germans, with the strength of up to one regiment of motorized infantry, supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, counterattacked the battle formations of our advancing infantry, along with which the 390th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment operated. The infantry, under pressure from superior enemy forces, withdrew behind the combat formations of self-propelled gunners, who met the German strike with concentrated fire and covered the supported units. The counterattack was repulsed, and the infantry again got the opportunity to continue their offensive.

Heavy self-propelled guns were sometimes involved in artillery preparation. At the same time, the fire was conducted both by 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 at a strong point and four enemy artillery and mortar batteries for 107 minutes. Having fired 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 in advance of the attack.

Very effectively, heavy self-propelled guns were used in the fight against enemy tanks. For example, in the Berlin operation on April 19, the 360th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment supported the advance of the 388th Rifle Division. Parts of the division took possession of one of the groves east of Lichtenberg, where they entrenched themselves. The next day, the enemy, with a strength of up to one infantry regiment, supported by 15 tanks, began to counterattack. When repelling attacks during the day, heavy self-propelled guns destroyed 10 German tanks and up to 300 soldiers and officers.

In the battles on the Zemland Peninsula during the East Prussian operation, the 378th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, when repulsing counterattacks, successfully used the formation of the battle formation of the regiment with a fan. This provided the regiment with shelling in the 1800 sector, which made it easier to fight enemy tanks attacking from different directions. One of the ISU-152 batteries, having built its battle formation like 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 has not suffered any losses. Only two cars 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 is known, an offensive against a large populated area is a very complex form of combat and differs in many respects from offensive combat under normal conditions. The fighting in the city was almost always divided into a number of separate local battles for separate objects and nodes 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 battle 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 completely or partially attached to rifle regiments, in which they were used to reinforce assault squads and groups.

The assault groups included self-propelled artillery batteries and separate installations (usually two). The self-propelled guns, which were part of the assault groups, had the tasks of directly escorting infantry and tanks, repelling counterattacks by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, and securing them on occupied targets. Accompanying infantry, self-propelled guns with direct fire from a place, less often from short stops, destroyed firing points and anti-tank guns of the enemy, his tanks and self-propelled guns, destroyed blockages, barricades and houses adapted for defense, and thereby ensured the advance of troops. To destroy buildings, salvo fire was sometimes used, 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 along with the infantry. The advancement of self-propelled artillery installations for operations ahead 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, two or three ISU-1s of the 52nd 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 8th, 9th and 10th quarters of the city, immediately 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. He approached the houses and point-blank destroyed the German firing points placed in the windows, basements and other places of the buildings, and also made holes in the walls of the buildings for the passage of their infantry. When operating along the streets, self-propelled guns moved, clinging to 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. Forward, self-propelled artillery mounts moved 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 may have new tanks with more powerful armor, the State Defense Committee ordered by a special decree to design and manufacture self-propelled artillery mounts with increased power guns by April 1944:

With a 122-mm cannon, having an initial speed of 1000 m / s with a projectile mass of 25 kg;
with a 130 mm cannon having an initial velocity of 900 m/s with a projectile mass of 33.4 kg;
with a 152-mm cannon, having an initial speed of 880 m / s with a projectile mass of 43.5 kg.
All these guns penetrated 200 mm thick armor at a distance of 1500 - 2000 m.

In the course of implementing this decree, artillery self-propelled guns were created and tested in 1944-1945: ISU-122-1 (“object 243”) with a 122-mm gun BL-9, ISU-122 - 3 (“object 251”) with 122 - mm gun C-26-1, ISU-130 ("object 250") with 130-mm gun S-26; ISU-152-1 ("object 246") with 152 mm BL-8 gun and ISU-152-2 ("object 247") with 152 mm BL-10 gun.

The BL-8, BL-9 and BL-10 cannons were developed by OKB-172 (not to be confused with Factory No. 172), all of whose designers were prisoners. Hence the decoding of the letter abbreviation in the indices of installations: "BL" - "Beria Lavrenty".

The BL-9 gun (OBM-50) was designed under the direction of I.I. Ivanova. It had a piston valve and was equipped with a system for purging the bore with compressed air. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -20 to + 18 ° 30 \ ", horizontally - in the sector 9 ° 30 \" (right 70, left 2 ° 30 \ "). When firing, the ST-18 telescopic sight and the Hertz panorama were used. Drives gun guidance is the same as that of the self-propelled gun ISU-122. The oscillating part was balanced relative to the axis of the trunnions with the help of weights attached to the fixed part of the cannon fence. The ammunition load of the installation included 21 rounds of separate-sleeve loading with armor-piercing projectiles. The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile at weight 11.9 kg was 1007 m / s and 200 m / s exceeded that of the 122 mm D-25 gun. 122. The 10-RK-26 radio station was used for external communications, and the TPU-4BIS-F tank intercom was used for internal communications.

The first prototype of the BL-9 cannon was manufactured in May 1944 at factory No. 172, and in June it was installed on the ISU-122-1. This car was presented for field testing on July 7th, 1944. The installation did not pass the preliminary tests in Gorokhovets in August 1944 due to the low survivability of the barrel. The new barrel was made 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, the barrel ruptured during firing due to metal defects. After that, further work on ISU-122-1 was stopped.

The self-propelled gun ISU-152-1 (ISU-152 BM) was created in April 1944 in the Design Bureau of Plant No. 100, on the initiative of OKB-172, which proposed to place in the SU-152 unit the 152-mm gun BL-7 developed by them, which had ballistics of the Br-2 gun.

Modification of the gun for installation in the ACS received the index BL-8 (OBM-43). It had a piston lock, a muzzle brake of the original design and a system for purging the bore with compressed air from cylinders. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -3°10\" to + 17°45\", horizontal - in the 8°30\" sector (to the right 6°30\", to the left 2°). The height of the line of fire is 1655 mm. When firing, the ST-10 telescopic sight and the 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-sleeve loading. The initial speed of the armor-piercing projectile reached 850 m/s. In connection with the installation of a new gun, the design of the armored mantlet of the gun was somewhat changed.

When testing the BL-8 gun, "unsatisfactory performance in terms of the action of shells", the unreliability of the muzzle brake and piston valve, as well as poor working conditions for the calculation, were revealed. The large reach 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 the BL-10 gun with a semi-automatic wedge breech.

In December 1944, the ISU-152-2 self-propelled gun with the BL-10 gun was tested at the Leningrad ANIOP. She could not stand them because of the unsatisfactory survivability of the gun barrel and the small angle of horizontal guidance. The gun was sent for revision to the factory number 172, however, until the end of the war, its fine-tuning was not completed.

The S-26 and S-26-1 guns were designed at the TsAKB under the direction of V.G. Grabin. The 130 mm S-26 gun had ballistics and ammunition from the B-13 naval gun, but had a number of fundamental design differences, as it was equipped with a muzzle brake, a horizontal wedge breech, etc. The length of the gun barrel was 54.7 calibers. Direct fire range - 5000 m, rate of fire -2 rds / min. The gun ammunition consisted of 25 rounds of separate-sleeve loading with armor-piercing shells.

The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 33.4 kg is 900 m / s. The S-26-1 gun had the same ballistics as the 122-mm BL-9 gun, and differed from it in the presence of a horizontal wedge gate and a modified design of individual components. Barrel length - 59.5 caliber. Direct fire range - 5000 m, maximum - 16000 m. Rate of fire - 1.5 - 1.8 rds. /min The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile weighing 25 kg is 1000 m/s.

The ISU-130 and ISU-122-3 self-propelled guns were manufactured at factory No. 100 in the fall of 1944. The 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 - field tests. Based on their results, it was decided to send the gun to the TsAKB for revision, which dragged on until the end of the war. Sea and artillery tests of the ISU-130 ended only in June 1945, when the adoption of this self-propelled guns into service lost its meaning.

A prototype ACS ISU-122-3 passed field tests in November 1944 and did not pass them due to the unsatisfactory survivability of the barrel. The completion of the barrel was completed only in June 1945.

Self-propelled guns with prototype guns had 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 shoot at moving targets; low combat rate of fire due to the relatively small size of the fighting compartment; a large mass of shots; separate-sleeve loading and the presence of a piston breech in a number of guns; poor visibility from cars; small ammunition and the difficulty of replenishing it during the battle.

At the same time, the good projectile resistance of 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 quite effectively hit any targets.

Self-propelled guns with more powerful guns were also designed on the basis of the IS. So, at the beginning of 1944, the S-51 self-propelled gun project was transferred to the chassis of the IS tank. However, due to the lack of the required number of 203 mm B-4 howitzers, the production of which had already been completed, a decision was made to create a self-propelled version of the high-powered 152 mm Br-2 gun.

By the summer of 1944, the new self-propelled guns, which received the S-59 index, were manufactured and entered for field tests. The design of the S-59 was generally similar to the S-51, but was based on the chassis of the IS-85 tank. When testing at the ANIOP, the same shortcomings were revealed as when testing 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 gun was greater than when firing from a 203-mm howitzer. Did the artillery designers really not know this? 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 technical department of the NKV an advanced project of a special power self-propelled gun - a 210-mm Br-17 gun or a 305-mm Br-18 howitzer on the twin chassis of the T-34 tank. Since the TsAKB branch did not manage to produce the necessary draft design documentation by the required deadline, the project was archived.

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 guns intended for counter-battery combat 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 due to 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 122-mm guns have separate loading. As a result, they failed to mechanize this process. In 1945, the self-propelled guns were designed already with guns placed on the sides of the vehicle to facilitate manual loading. A year later, its wooden model was made, but the self-propelled gun was not made in metal.

Self-propelled artillery installations ISU-122 and ISU-152 were in service with the Soviet Army in the post-war years. Both of them have been upgraded. So, for example, since 1958, regular radio stations and TPU on ISU-122 were replaced by radio stations "Granat" and TPU R-120.

After the ISU-152 was adopted as the standard self-propelled guns at the end of the 1950s, the ISU-122 self-propelled guns began to be disarmed and converted into tractors. The ISU-T tractor was an ordinary self-propelled gun with a dismantled gun and a welded loophole.

On November 16, 1962, the BTT heavy evacuation tractor was put into service. It existed in two modifications - BTT-1 and BTT-1T. The body of the BTT-1 machine 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 cabin 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) with a power take-off mechanism from the engine was placed. The winch was controlled by the 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 - an arrow with a lifting capacity of 3 tons with a manual drive. On the roof of the power compartment was a cargo platform, designed to carry up to 3 tons of cargo. The towing device of the tractor was equipped with suspension with two-way shock absorption and a rigid hitch. The car was equipped with a B-54-IST engine. Its feature was a crankshaft borrowed from the B-12-5 engine. For driving 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 pulling force of 15 tf.

In addition to the Soviet Army, the BTT-1 tractors were also 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 vehicles were in service with the Soviet Army until the 1970s, until the new generation of self-propelled guns began to enter the troops. At the same time, the ISU-152 was modernized twice. The first time was in 1956, when the ACS received the designation ISU-152K. On the roof of the cabin, a commander's cupola with a TPKU device and seven TNP observation blocks was installed; the ammunition load of the ML-20S howitzer gun was increased to 30 rounds, which required a change in the location of the internal equipment of the fighting compartment and additional ammunition racks; instead of the sight and the ST-10, an improved telescopic sight was installed with the PS-10 intact. All vehicles were fitted with a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 300 rounds of ammunition. A B-54K engine with a power of 520 hp was installed on the self-propelled guns. with ejection cooling system. The capacity of the fuel tanks was increased to 1280 liters. The lubrication system was improved, the design of the radiators became different. In connection with the ejection engine cooling system, the fastening of external fuel tanks was also changed. The machines were equipped with radio stations 10-RT and TPU-47. The mass of self-propelled guns increased to 47.2 tons, but the dynamic characteristics remained the same. The power reserve has increased to 360 km.

The second upgrade option was designated ISU-152M. Modified units of the IS-2M tank, a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 rounds of ammunition and night vision devices were installed on the vehicle.

During the overhaul, self-propelled guns ISU-122 were also subjected to some alterations. So, since 1958, regular radio stations and TPU were replaced by radio stations "Granat" and TPU R-120.

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 regiments of self-propelled artillery, they took part in the final battles of 1945.

Soon after the war, the Czechoslovak People's Army also received the 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 the positions of Israeli troops.

On initial stage During the Great Patriotic War, the heavy tank was a formidable opponent for the armored forces of the Wehrmacht. However, he had practically no potential for modernization, so by 1943 they were going to stop producing KV. 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 was in dire need of. In June 1943, the design bureau of the Chelyabinsk plant began work on the creation of a new self-propelled guns. The development was led by Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin.

The IS-1 tank quite naturally became the basis for the new self-propelled gun. The technical requirements for the vehicle included an increase in frontal armor to 100 mm, the retention of a 152 mm gun, the addition of cannon armament to machine guns, and improved visibility and ventilation. The work had to be completed by the beginning of July 1943, but the designers managed to do it earlier. They spent a few weeks on the creation of working drawings and in early July they already began to build a prototype. At this stage, the self-propelled gun received the index IS-152.

According to various researchers, the first demonstration of prototypes took place on July 31 or August 31, 1943 on Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. Stalin, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov came to get acquainted with the new technology. To ensure the safety of such significant people, the NKVD decided to replace all crew members with employees of the bodies, except for the drivers. Stalin, who was very interested in the new self-propelled gun, decided to take a closer look at the car. Looking into the fighting compartment, Iosif Vissarionovich asked if the problem with poor ventilation was solved on the IS-152. Naturally, the NKVD workers could not answer, since they did not understand the operation of armored vehicles. The mechanic driver intervened in time, who reported to Stalin that the design of the self-propelled guns provided for an additional fan in the fighting compartment. After inspecting the car, Iosif Vissarionovich approved it, and in November 1943 the State Defense Committee issued a decree on adoption.

By this time, the first prototype of the self-propelled unit, which bore the working title "Object 241", had already passed the factory and field trials. It was he who became the standard for the production of serial self-propelled guns. The new combat vehicle entered service under the symbol ISU-152. From the design point of view, the self-propelled gun was the sum of decisions on the IS-1 tank and the SU-152 self-propelled guns.

The ISU-152 borrowed a running gear from the ISU-152 tank: the same six twin 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 ammunition load of the 152-mm guns included armor-piercing and high-explosive shells. If necessary, part of the shots was replaced by concrete-piercing charges used to destroy enemy pillboxes. The work of the ISU-152 loader was very difficult, as he had to move 40-kilogram shells alone.

A V-2-IS diesel engine with a capacity of 520 hp was installed on the self-propelled gun. With. He allowed the car to reach speeds of up to 35 km / h on the highway. Over rough terrain, the ISU-152 traveled much more slowly - only 10-15 km / h. However, she did not need to set speed records, because this car was not intended for rapid throws.

Production of the ISU-152 began in November 1943. The new ACS 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 for the new self-propelled guns exceeded the capabilities of gunsmiths to produce the ML-20S howitzer. Understaffed vehicles decided to equip with a 122-mm gun. So another heavy self-propelled unit appeared - ISU-122.

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 gun to support tanks and infantry, and as an enemy tank destroyer. In combat reports, one 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 on hinged trajectories with high steepness. Secondly, she had a very low loading speed of shells and a small ammunition load (only 21 rounds). I had to stack 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 any real benefit.

In general, separate loading of the gun was a serious drawback, due to which the self-propelled gun could not become a full-fledged means of destroying enemy tanks. Although the ISU-152 has earned a reputation as a formidable enemy of armored vehicles. In the Soviet troops, she was even nicknamed "St. John's wort", and in German - "Dosenöffner" (can opener).

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, surrounding Katukov's troops. In order to prevent this, the ISU-152 regiment took up a height in the most tank-dangerous direction and fought off the advancing Nazis for several hours. The Germans eventually withdrew after losing about 30 tanks.

Self-propelled guns of this type performed very well 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 who had settled in the houses with just one shot. To protect vehicles from soldiers armed with faustpatrons, self-propelled guns were used as part of assault groups along with infantry cover.

But for all its merits, the ISU-152 had a number of drawbacks. The installation of an additional fan (the one that was reported to Stalin) did not eliminate the problem of excessive gas contamination of the fighting compartment. During intense firing inside the car, there was literally nothing to breathe from 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, it was difficult for the gunner to ensure effective hitting of targets at a distance of more than 900 meters. Fuel tanks located inside the hull created a risk for the crew to burn alive if they were damaged and increased the likelihood of complete destruction of the self-propelled guns as a result of detonation of fuel vapors. Burning diesel fuel could also spill onto the floor of the fighting compartment. Fortunately, as noted in the documents, fires on the ISU-152 were extinguished relatively easily.

But even the combination of all these shortcomings could not outweigh the positive qualities of self-propelled guns. 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 insurgents did not show themselves with better side, which led to the loss of about a dozen ISU-152s, mainly from Molotov cocktails. The exact numbers of losses have not yet been established. After the events in Hungary, self-propelled guns of this type no longer participated in battles, but were often involved in exercises and maneuvers.

The last ISU-152s were taken out of service by the Soviet Army in 1972.

You can discuss the material.

Renders of this machine in all resolutions are .

POWERFUL SELF-PROPELLED INSTALLATION ISU-152 (SU-152)

SELF-PROPELLED INSTALLATION ISU-152 (SU-152) NAMED

SELF-PROPELLED INSTALLATION ISU-152 (SU-152) NAMED

Introduction

When I was preparing an article about my beloved, it suddenly turned out that almost everyone was interested in ONLY ISU-152 (SU-152). Moreover, the requests are made not technical, but emotional - be sure to tell me about a POWERFUL self-propelled unit. And be sure to voice the legend about the fact that the soldiers called her the St. John's wort, because the towers of tigers and panthers torn off by her shells flew over the battlefield and eclipsed the sun. Examples of such requests are given at the very beginning of the article.
At first I was surprised, but then I realized that these were apparently apologists for one very popular game in which tanks stupidly fight tanks.
For those who are not aware of the basics of tactics, I inform you. Air combat is normal - some fly to bomb, others destroy them. Even the battle of a fighter against a fighter is normal - the more we shoot down strangers (and not so much planes as pilots) now, the calmer our bombers will be in the future.
But if there was a battle between tanks, then one hundred percent that at least one of the commanders is a fool who does not understand tactics. Why? Read the articles - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DARK GERMAN GENIUS AFTER THE WINTER OF '41? and T-44 THE BEST TANK OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR.

Well, as for the lovers of one tank game, they exclusively love everything very BIG AND POWERFUL, therefore they are looking for an exceptionally POWERFUL self-propelled gun SU-152 (SU-152), forgetting to indicate that it was not only self-propelled but also ARTILLERY.

Here's what they think something noteworthy looks like.
It's a shame that there are almost no requests for the SU-76 self-propelled artillery mount, although it had a more modern layout and was released in the amount of twelve thousand against six hundred SU-152 and one and a half thousand ISU-152. Well, what can you do, because she was not POWERFUL and was called not St. John's wort, but a bitch.
The most important thing is that many people confuse these two artillery installations. And this is not surprising. Both have the same armament - howitzer gun ML-20 caliber one hundred and fifty-two millimeters. These figures are naturally included in the names of both self-propelled units. The conning tower of both self-propelled guns resembles an armored box. And the box is also in Africa a box.
Well, let's not talk about sad things. Let's just look at the device of the ISU-152 (SU-152) self-propelled gun and try to determine who has more chances for a tiger or a hunter.

Self-propelled unit ISU-152 and (SU-152)

I have read articles in the top ten. Here the authors have porridge in their heads. One mixed up the description of the SU-152 and the modern AKATSIYA howitzer, giving her both a rotating turret and an electric gun drive and a wedge instead of a piston one. Another, his article in photographs, voiced a legend that goes something like this. The self-propelled unit was created on the basis of the KV tank in the spring of forty-three. She defeated everyone on the Kursk Bulge. And of course, about the flying towers of panthers and tigers. Below I will explain why this is not possible in principle. Another author confused effective range action of a telescopic optical SIGHT with a DIRECT SHOT range of the gun and voiced fantastic figures exceeding three kilometers.
Unfortunately, he is not the only one. Now every day on TV they tell how Bandera's DIRECT FIRE fire at Donetsk, Luhansk, further down the list, from MORTARs. In general, for the completely illiterate, I explain - A DIRECT SHOT is when the trajectory of the projectile does not EXCEED THE HEIGHT OF THE TARGET.

A mortar, by definition, cannot fire direct fire, because any trajectory for it exceeds the height of the target.
And the distance of a direct shot also depends on the height of the target. If the person in the bottom photo gets down on all fours, then the distance of a direct shot will be reduced from six hundred to three hundred meters. When referring to the range of a direct shot for tank guns, the height of the target is usually taken to be two meters.

Let's clarify. By the summer of forty-three, literally a few SU-152s based on the KV tank were produced, and they may have participated in battle of Kursk. Then they stopped producing the KV tank, replacing it with a tank of the series - Joseph Stalin. Accordingly, the history of the self-propelled artillery mount SU-152 ended there. By this time, just over six hundred of them had been released. Much later, the same gun and almost the same conning tower were put on the new chassis of the IS-2 tank, and legally the new self-propelled unit should be called ISU-152. But few people know these details and the name ISU-152 did not stick. Hence the mess in the minds of many authors.

Self-propelled unit ISU-152 has a simple box-shaped body. Based on the IS-2 tank. The tank had a modern undercarriage with a torsion bar suspension and an engine from the T-34, allegedly forced.

Accordingly, all this was inherited by the ISU-152 self-propelled artillery mount.
The layout of the self-propelled gun was the most primitive - a fixed cabin with a cannon was simply placed on the tank hull. Moreover, the conning tower was located in front of the hull. The designers had before their eyes both German samples and their own developments with a more rational layout. But there was neither time nor opportunity to produce a self-propelled unit of a different layout.

The photographs show that our designers had an idea of ​​rational layouts. In both cases, the fixed conning tower is located at the rear of the hull.
The gun was chosen powerful enough to destroy field fortifications. The tiger was the last thing on their minds. What is my belief based on? There was simply a special anti-tank version with a powerful 122 mm gun, but it was not put into production. Apparently, at the end of the war, the tigers did not really bother us.

Anti-tank version of a self-propelled gun based on the IS-2 tank. True, there were cases when, instead of the howitzer of the ML-20 gun, they put a gun of 122 mm caliber, but this happened because the ML-20 barrels were sorely lacking.

The barrel with a primitive neck muzzle brake and no less primitive piston breech was taken from the ML-20 long-range howitzer

This is an outstanding gun, its barrel was used on many post-war systems.

The D-20 gun and the AKACIA self-propelled howitzer with an ancient barrel from the ML-20. The history of this barrel can be read in the article THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GUN.

The shutter with recoil devices occupied most of the fighting compartment. A heavy projectile and a primitive piston valve did not allow more than two aimed shots in a minute. The barrel could deviate twelve degrees in both directions horizontally and eighteen degrees up and five down. This limited the firing range to six kilometers, the ML-20 howitzer, without such restrictions on vertical aiming, fired at eighteen kilometers. Ammunition was only twenty shells.

Combat use of the ISU-152 self-propelled gun

I do not know if self-propelled self-propelled guns SU-152 met with tigers on the Kursk Bulge, there were very few of them.
In the future, mainly self-propelled guns ISU-152 and SU-152 were used against field fortifications. There were cases of its use in battles in the city. True, in the city, along with the ISU-152, there was always an infantry assault group that tried to protect combat vehicle from grenade launchers. The main advantage of the self-propelled unit was a powerful projectile, which made it possible to bring down half of the house or make a passage in the blockage blocking the street.
But what about the towers of tigers flying through the air and blocking the sun? The self-propelled unit appeared at the front in the summer of 1944, when massive tank battles remained in the past and encounters with tigers were the exception rather than the rule. But of course there were meetings, what chances did the opposing sides have to win?

St John's wort vs tiger

First, let's go over the terms. The real distance of the fire is the distance at which the hit was meaningful and not accidental. For that time it was about one thousand eight hundred meters.
So, at a distance of real fire, the tiger cannon easily pierced the sixty-millimeter armor of the SU-152. The self-propelled gun even more easily pierced the tiger's 100 mm frontal armor. So both the tiger and St. John's wort were completely naked for each other. The main thing was to get there first. And here the tiger had a HUGE advantage. First, aim. Zeiss even now surpasses the sights of the VOLOGDA OPTICAL PLANT, but there is nothing to say about those times. I read about the moral anguish of the commander of St. John's wort who knocked out several tanks from a distance of two kilometers, and then drove for a whole kilometer and thought they would reward him or shoot him. The poor quality of the optics did not allow him to identify the panthers he knocked out or the T-34.
Both guns had a muzzle brake that directed powder gases to the sides and made it difficult to observe the tracer of an armor-piercing projectile. Our muzzle brake still managed to throw dirt from the ground onto optical sight. Here the caliber and power of the gun affected. When firing in the city at a distance of fifty meters from the muzzle brake, all window panes were guaranteed to fly out.
The second moment is the rate of fire - two shots of St. John's wort against at least six aimed shots from a tiger. It's even worse at close range. The ISU-152 self-propelled gun had a low initial velocity of the projectile and, accordingly, a short range of a direct shot. Many articles indicate a direct fire range of 3800 meters, but this is from illiteracy. This refers to what range the TELESCOPIC SIGHT allowed to shoot. And direct fire assumes that the trajectory of the projectile does not exceed the height of the target. For long-range shooting, the HERTZ PANORAMA was used.
True, sometimes it helped. The crew of the tiger tried to block the forest road and violated the main rule of defense - you can not take up defense along the border of the forest, since the forest is an excellent guide for artillery. Moreover, the tiger itself was placed as a stern to the pine tree. Our crew hid the self-propelled gun behind a tiny mound and fired pointing at the pine trunk without seeing the enemy tank. Due to the steep trajectory of the projectile, the tiger managed to get it.
Well, the last - the tiger's gun was in a rotating turret with a wonderful electric drive, we have a gun looking straight ahead. And the number of shells is ninety for the tiger and twenty for the ISU-152.
In general, if we take an open field, then St. John's wort against a tiger had chances, but very small.

Why tiger towers couldn't fly over the battlefield

It's all about the damned laws of physics. If the turret does not fly off when fired from the tank, then the turret should not fly off when the projectile hits. It may be objected to me that the ISU-152 self-propelled gun did not have a turret and the gun was very powerful.

Here is a photo of a modern self-propelled artillery mount. Moreover, for the purity of the experiment, it was made on the basis of a tank. The gun is twice as powerful as that of the ISU-152 with the same caliber. The tower has practically no armor. That is, by definition, it is lighter than a tiger tower. And when fired, it does not fly anywhere. Why does the turret have to fly away when hit by a projectile? If I have not convinced you, then try to knock out the window frame yourself by hitting the glass with a hammer. The example is of course a bit exaggerated, but it illustrates the physical meaning of the phenomenon.
But what about the numerous photographs of torn down tank turrets, you ask? It's just that the towers break down after the explosion of ammunition.