Weighty caliber. The weapon that challenged the heavy tanks of the Wehrmacht

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Seventy-five years ago, at the beginning of August 1943, the State Defense Committee of the USSR decided to adopt four iconic types of military equipment at once for the Red Army.

The troops went to the heavy tank IS-1, 152-mm howitzer D-1, self-propelled guns SU-122 and SU-152. These weapons weakened the armor and range advantage of the German Tigers, Panthers and Ferdinands, and allowed Soviet tankers to fight the best Panzerwaffe vehicles on equal terms. About the features of the "magnificent four" - in the material RIA Novosti.

IS-1

The IS-1 (another name - the IS-85, in terms of gun caliber) is, in fact, a deep modernization of the KV-1 and KV-1S heavy tanks, which are practically impenetrable for German anti-tank artillery at the beginning of the war. Tests of the machine were carried out from March 22 to April 19, 1943 and ended successfully. The commission concluded that the IS-1 tanks, with a lower mass, significantly exceeded their predecessors in terms of armor strength and speed. The main armament of the tank was the D-5T 85mm cannon. In January-March 1944, the same gun began to be installed on the serial medium T-34-85 - vehicles that are considered by many military specialists, including in the West, to be the best tanks of the Second World War.

© Photo: Public domain

Tank prototype IS-1

It is worth noting that the IS-1, although it founded a dynasty of new Soviet armored vehicles, was not supplied to the troops in large quantities. In total, about 130 tanks of this type were manufactured, which took part in the battles for the liberation of Ukraine in the winter and spring of 1944. The IS-1 kept hits from the 88-millimeter cannons of the "tigers" well and inflicted serious damage on the enemy. However, armor protection and firepower were still lacking. Therefore, back in November 1943, the IS-1's "ideological successor", the IS-2, with the 122mm D-25T gun, was adopted. This tank fought on equal terms with the "royal tigers" ("tiger-II") and significantly surpassed in combat capabilities all other tanks of a similar weight category of the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition countries.

D-1

The powerful and mobile 152-mm D-1 howitzer was adopted as a replacement for the well-proven, but outdated and overly heavy M-10 model of 1938, which was discontinued in the fall of 1941. First, the gun carriage was too complex. Secondly, the Red Army experienced an acute shortage of tractors capable of towing a 4.5-ton gun quickly enough on country roads. In this respect, the D-1 was significantly different from its predecessor and was almost a ton lighter.

© RIA Novosti / Emmanuel Evzerikhin

A battery of 152-mm D-1 howitzers of the 1943 model fires at the defending German forces. 3rd Belorussian Front

New weapons were actively used at the final stage of the war in 1944-1945. They were beaten from closed positions at the entrenched and openly located enemy manpower, fortifications and barriers. D-1 participated in counter-battery combat and the destruction of important objects in the enemy's near rear. To defeat enemy tanks and self-propelled guns in self-defense, the artillerymen loaded a concrete-piercing shell into the howitzer and fired direct fire. The Soviet artillerymen appreciated the accurate, reliable and easy-to-use weapon. And not only Soviet ones. D-1 howitzers were in service with a dozen countries. Moreover, about 700 guns are in storage depots in Russia today. The fact is that the 53-OF-530 high-explosive fragmentation shells of 152 mm, developed back in the 1930s, can also be fired by modern howitzers of the same caliber. And if there are few of them, veteran cannons will go into battle, since there is enough ammunition.

SU-122

Formally, the SU-122 self-propelled artillery mount was put into service in August 1943, but it was put into mass production back in December 1942. The car was improved for a long time and numerous shortcomings were eliminated. The SU-122 is one of the first anti-tank self-propelled guns developed in the USSR, adopted in large-scale production, so it had to be brought to mind. This technique was used most massively in offensive campaigns in the second half of 1943, but then self-propelled guns were actively and successfully used in battles until the end of the Great Patriotic War. Only one copy of the SU-122 has survived - in the Armored Museum in Kubinka.

CC BY 3.0 / Mike1979 Russia /

Self-propelled gun SU-122 at the Central Museum of Armored Weapons and Equipment in Kubinka

The main armament of the self-propelled gun was the M-30S gun - a modification of the M-30 rifled 122-mm divisional howitzer of the 1938 model. The firing range of direct fire reached 3.6 kilometers, this was enough to fire at the enemy's heavy armored vehicles without entering its engagement zone. The standard BP-460A cumulative projectile pierced armor more than 100 millimeters thick at right angles. That is, even a "tiger" could have been hit in the forehead, naturally, with the proper skill and composure of the crew, since the armor of the SU-122 itself did not always withstand a retaliatory strike.

SU-152

The heavy self-propelled artillery unit SU-152, built on the basis of the KV-1S tank and equipped with a powerful 152-mm howitzer ML-20S, was more of an assault weapon than an anti-tank weapon in its combat function. Nevertheless, this self-propelled gun received the nickname "St. John's Wort" for a reason. Its debut took place before the official adoption into service - in the summer of 1943 at the Kursk Bulge. Only 24 SU-152s took part in the battles, but they showed themselves more than worthy. Of the available samples of Soviet armored vehicles, only the SU-152 could effectively deal with new and modernized German tanks and self-propelled guns at almost any combat distance.

CC BY 3.0 / Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-154-1964-28 / Dreyer /

Self-propelled artillery mount SU-152, August-September 1943

Thus, the crew of Major Sankovsky, the commander of one of the SU-152 batteries, disabled ten enemy tanks in a day. During the entire Kursk battle, heavy self-propelled guns destroyed and damaged 12 "tigers". It should be noted that standard armor-piercing shells did not always penetrate the steel of German heavy vehicles. But even a close hit of a 152 mm high-explosive fragmentation ammunition was often enough to cause serious damage to enemy equipment. The SU-152s that survived the war years were in service with the Soviet army in the post-war period, at least until 1958.