Soviet Mechanized Firepower, 1941-1945 (Military Vehicles Fotofax).pdf

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SOVIET
MECHANIZED
FIREPOWER
Steven
J.
Zaloga and
J.
Magnuski
1941-1945
Front cover illustration:
An
ISU-122 heavy assault
gun
currently
preserved in
Poznan,
Poland.
Back cover illustrations:
Top:
An SU-76M
light assault
gun currently preserved
at
the
Polish
Army
Museum in
Warsaw.
Below:
An
ISU-152 currently
preserved at the Red Anny
Museum in Leningrad. (Esa
Muikku)
I
INTRODUC TION
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.cstrations
by Janusz
uring the Second World War the Red Army was slow to adopt self-propelled
artillery. Although small numbers of artillery support vehicles were in
service in 1941, these were mainly assault tanks, not true mechanized
artillery. The Russians noted the extensive German use of assault guns, like
the ubiquitous StuG.III, and began to follow suit in 1942. Soviet wartime assault gun
development is frequently misunderstood, often being labelled self-propelled artillery.
Although the weapons on the vehicle may very well have been derived from artillery
weapons, the resulting vehicles were not used by artillery troops. Assault guns were
manned by troops trained by the Red Army's tank force, not artillery force, and used
modified tank tactics. They were primarily used for direct fire, and many of the
vehicles had no provision for the more traditional artillery indirect fire role. Soviet
assault guns were used to supplement tanks, not towed artillery.
The light SU-76 assault gun was adopted as an infantry support vehicle, replacing
the pre-war T-26 tank. It served either in the tank-destroyer role, or for direct gunfire
support.
It
was far from adequate in the tank-destroyer role during the later years of
the war, but the automotive factories which produced it were not capable of building
heavier tracked vehicles. Its lack of overhead protection and thin armour were not
popular, but it was better than nothing! This highlights the main attraction of assault
guns. They were capable of carrying a larger weapon than the turreted tank from
which they were derived. The T-70 had a 45mm gun, while its assault gun derivative,
the SU-76, had a 76mm gun.
The medium assault guns, like the SU-85 and SU-100, were conceived purely as
tank-destroyers. They were armed with larger guns than the medium tanks they were
derived from, and so restored a measure of balance in the fighting against the thickly
armoured German tanks of 1944-5. The heavy assault guns such as the SU-152,
ISU-122 and ISU-152 were intended for both tank hunting and direct fire support.
Soviet assault guns amounted to about 20 per cent of total wartime armoured vehicle
production. They did not see extensive service until the winter of 1942-3 when the
first experimental units were deployed on the Leningrad Front. At first, these were
mixed SU-76 and SU-122 units. The mixture proved unsuccessful, leading to the
formation of units with only a single type of assault gun. This set the pattern for later
assault gun formations. Although called regiments, the assault gun units were quite
small, with only 12-16 vehicles during the period 1943---4. These formations were
usually under army control (equivalent of US or British corps), and were doled out to
support rifle or tank divisions as circumstances demanded. In 1944, the first tank­
destroyer battalions were formed, usually with 21 SU-85 or SU-100. The largest
assault gun formations were the special Guards Brigades, frequently called
breakthrough brigades. These were equipped with the heavy ISU-122 or ISU-152 and
saw considerable combat in 1945 during the final months of the war.
Some of the wartime assault guns such as the SU-100 and ISU-152 remained in
service with the Soviet Army or Warsaw Pact armies well into the 1960s. The Soviet
Army largely dropped the assault gun concept by this time. In their place came a new
generation of true artillery vehicles, such as the 2S1 and 2S3 in the early 1970s. These
are covered in a companion volume in this series entitled
Soviet Mechanized
Firepower Today.
1.
The YaG-lO heavy lorry was
modified
in
the late 1930s to
mount
a
76.2mm Model 1931
anti-aircraft
gun. During the
fighting in 1941, it was used
as
often
in
the improvised anti-tank
role
as for
air defence.
SOV IET
,
MECHANIZED
FIREPOW-ER
1941-1945
Steven
J.
Zaloga and
J.
Magnuski
1.-­
ARMS AND
ARMOUR
...

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