Self-propelled SU-85B in war and game

Computer games, in which young people and representatives of the older generation like to "cut", may not have such patriotic and educational significance as "Zarnitsa" of the last decades, but carry an important information component. Many combat vehicles, rare and produced in small quantities, are now available for analysis. An example is the light self-propelled installation SU-85B. "World Of Tanks" - a popular game, it presents the tanks of all belligerent countries. Every gamer can try his hand at running this machine and shooting from her gun. In real life, this is already impossible. What was it like for our soldiers who fell to fighting this weapon? The question requires a detailed answer.

Ancestor - SU-76

The review of the SU-85B should begin with a full analysis of its direct ancestor, SU-76, which appeared in the second half of 1942 in the combat units of the Red Army. At this stage of the war our troops had to use everything that could shoot at the enemy, so the history of creating a self-propelled gun is full of drama. Design Bureau No. 38 was tasked with designing a military machine capable of destroying any German tank on the basis of units and assemblies produced by Soviet industry in sufficient quantities. Chief Designer SA Ginsburg was put in difficult conditions. In the presence there was an ordinary motor GAZ-202 (70 hp), which clearly was not enough to drive the car, weighing, according to the most modest calculations, more than a dozen tons. The engine worked, of course, on gasoline, but German armored vehicles used the same type of fuel, so fire risk was not taken into account. The necessary torque was achieved by putting in parallel two GAZ-22 engines and installing them in the bow of the car. 320 pieces of SU-76 were produced; at the front (Volkhov, Kursk), design flaws were immediately revealed. The People's Commissar of the Tank Industry IM Saltsman, who was biased towards Ginsburg, accused him of failure, as a result of which the talented engineer was sent to the front line, where he soon died.

The summer of 1943, SU-76M

The production was suspended, but the idea itself was not abandoned. It was supported by the new People's Commissar of the tank industry VA. Malyshev, however, with certain reservations. First, the designers removed the top armory of the combat compartment, which reduced the overall weight. Secondly, they installed new GAZ-203 engines, previously used for T-70 tanks, and instead of the parallel scheme they were switched on sequentially on the common shaft.

There were built about 14 thousand such machines, of which more than 9,100 were produced by the Gorky Automobile Plant.

Our response to the appearance of heavy armored vehicles

In the second half of the war, the general tendency of the development of enemy armored vehicles can be briefly described as "thickening of the shell and stretching of the trunk". The Germans strengthened the defense, despite the fact that the weighting had a detrimental effect on driving performance, and the trunks were lengthened to shoot as far as possible from a greater distance. 76-mm cannon for confident defeat of heavy "Tigers" and "Panthers" was not enough, the army demanded a tower artillery, capable of hitting any German tank. SU-85B became such a car.

The answer was asymmetric. The new self-propelled gun remained light, but was seriously armed, and under certain conditions it could easily defeat a heavy, armored and formidable enemy, just as the horsemen of the Golden Horde defeated the Teutonic Knights, encased in armor, in a maneuver and secretiveness.

Development and testing

SU-85B appeared at the front late in order to fully demonstrate their dignity. The prototype was tested at the Kubinka training ground in January 1945, and then a number of changes were promptly made to the design, corresponding to the remarks of Major General Romanov. Evaluating the machine as a whole in a positive way, the commission noted the insufficient protection of the commander's and driver's observation slots, the strong impact of the recoil on the ergonomics of the combat guns (gunner, to put it more simply, hit the head of the head of the scope with each shot). As a result of eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks (installing a muzzle brake and additional mobile booking), the SU-85B self-propelled gun appeared.

After the war

So, at the end of the war this self-propelled gun reached the peak of the possibilities of its scheme. The power of the propulsion system was brought to 160 hp, the speed of the road increased to 40 km / h (on a country road - 19 km / h), the reservation was strengthened, the accuracy of the shooting was increased. All these tactical and technical data allowed to consider the car as an effective means of "finishing off" practically defeated Nazi Germany. Wehrmacht tanks did not have enough fuel, they were not enough.

Almost immediately after the Victory, the SU-85B was withdrawn from production. Created from what was available, by the end of the great battle, this self-propelled gun looked more than modest against the backdrop of the ISI, the ISU and the same "thirty-fours", which the Soviet defense industry, spinning its flywheel to incredible speed, could produce thousands.

The need for an armed with 85-mm gun, but a slow-moving, slightly armored car with a low-power twin-engine petrol engine, has disappeared.

Perhaps today few people would remember about SU-85B, except for those who are interested in military history, if not for the computer game "The World of Tanks".