SU-152 - fighter of the Nazi menagerie

In the Second World War, the Wehrmacht entered, armed only with light tanks. They were quite sufficient to produce rapid breakthroughs and bypass maneuvers, characteristic of the lightning wars of 1939, 1940 and 1941. The armies of the countries that fell victim to Hitler's aggression were armed with machines of the same class, and often the worst.

The Germans crossed the border of the USSR with the same arsenal consisting of tankers, TI, T-II and T-III tanks. TI was armed only with a machine gun, other types of armored vehicles had small-caliber guns.

What the Wehrmacht soldiers had occasion to meet in the first tank engagements on Soviet territory was very puzzling. Captured samples of "Thirty" and KV significantly exceeded everything that the forces of the Panzerwaffe had and had at their disposal. Urgent work began on the accelerated development of self-propelled guns and heavy tanks that could withstand Soviet medium-weight machines, armed with long-barreled 75-caliber weapons.

The history of the SU-152 became part of the general arms race that had been going on throughout the war years. This battle was invisible, it was led by the engineers of the belligerent countries, standing behind the culms, conducting calculations on the logarithmic rulers.

Within two years the Germans created a whole "zoo" consisting of "tigers", "elephants", "panthers" and even "mice", however, very large. With all their design flaws, and sometimes vices, these heavyweights had a significant advantage: they could from the distant distances accurately hit armored targets.

The State Committee of Defense set up a concrete task for Soviet designers: to create a self-propelled gun capable of destroying enemy equipment, which possessed a powerful armor and did not let our tanks close to us. The case was assigned to TsKB-2 (Central Design Bureau), which was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Kotin. A certain reserve of the engineering team was already, the whole of 1942 they were working on a new tank project, and the running gear as a whole was already ready. The only thing left was to install a 152.4 mm ML-20 howitzer on it. In honor of this gun, and received its modest name Soviet SU-152 self-propelled gun. The assignment was completed in 25 days.

Soviet technology frightened the enemy not with a loud name, but with its terrible work. Almost half-centered projectile left the muzzle of the trunk at a monstrous speed of 600 m / s, sending it to a distance of 2 km. The howitzer could shoot not only with armor-piercing but also high-explosive fragmentation and concrete ammunition, which was very important for use in offensive military operations. It was necessary to free the enemy-occupied territories, to break through fortified lines, to destroy the pillboxes, to suppress artillery batteries, and for this the self-propelled SU-152 was very useful.

The first major battle, in which "St. John's wort" took part, was the Battle of Kursk. In addition to its official designation, the machine still received a nickname, though unofficial. It was well deserved, the Nazi menagerie very quickly felt the presence of new Soviet technology, as they say, in their shoes.

As a destroyer of tanks SU-152 proved to be very good. Hit in the "Tiger" or "Panther" did not leave the chances of survival either by technology or by crews - heavy armored towers simply flew for tens of meters. The problems were, nevertheless, mainly because of the insufficient quality of domestic optics. The sights did not provide the required accuracy for a guaranteed hit.

Support for offensive operations did not require high accuracy of the fire, and with this task the Soviet self-propelled gun SU-152 coped perfectly. Its rate of fire may seem low (only two rounds per minute), but one should take into account the peculiarity of the howitzer gun with separate supply of a shell and projectile.

Heavy guns could not be installed in the turntable, however, the angle of turn (12 ° in each direction) was sufficient for guidance from both closed and open positions.

SU-152 self-propelled guns took part in the assault on Berlin. Although they were not created for street fighting, their caliber became a very strong argument in favor of capitulation.