ISU-152 (241 object)

1


In connection with the adoption in the fall of 1943 of the arsenal of the Red Army a new heavy tank IS and discontinuation of the KV-1C, 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 the 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-1 artillery ship based on the IS tank until November 1943, 152.
During the development, the plant received the factory designation “241 object”. G.N.Moskvin was appointed the lead designer. The prototype was made in October. For several weeks, the ACS was tested at the NIBTPolygon in Kubinka and ANIOP in Gorokhovets. 6 November 1943, according to the resolution of the State Defense Committee, adopted a new car under the designation JSU-152, and in December its mass production began.

The layout of ISU-152 was not different. The conning tower, made of rolled armor plates, was installed in the front of the hull, combining the control and combat compartments into one volume. The engine compartment was located in the stern of the hull. The nose of the hull on the installations of the first releases was made of cast, on the machines of the latest edition had a welded structure. The number and accommodation of the crew members were the same as those of the SU-152. If the crew consisted of four people, then the loader performed the castle duties. For landing crew in the roof of the cabin there were two round hatches in the front part and one rectangular in the aft. All hatches were closed with double-wing covers, in the upper doors of which MK-4 surveillance devices were installed. In the front cabin cutting room there was a viewing hatch of the driver, which was closed by an armored stopper with a glass block and a viewing slot.
The construction of the conning tower itself has not undergone fundamental changes. Due to the smaller width of the tank IC, compared with KB, it was necessary to reduce the slope of the side plates from 25 ° to 15 ° to the vertical, and eliminate the slope of the stern sheet. At the same time, the thickness of the armor increased from 75 to 90 mm in frontal cutting and from 60 to 75 mm in airborne. The gun mask had a thickness of 60 mm, and was subsequently brought to 100 mm.

The cabin roof consisted of two parts. The front part of the roof was welded to the front, zygomatic and side sheets. It, in addition to two round hatches, made a hole for installing the combat compartment fan (in the middle), which was closed from the outside with an armor cap, and also provided a hatch for access to the filler neck of the left front fuel tank (left) and the antenna input hole (right). The rear sheet of the roof was removable and bolted. It should be noted that the installation of an exhaust fan has become a significant advantage of ISU-152, compared with the SU-152, in which exhaust forced ventilation was not at all and crew members sometimes lost consciousness from the accumulated powder gases during the battle.

ISU-152 (241 object)

One of the first serial MIS-152 on the landfill. 1944 year.

However, according to the memories of samokhodchiki, and the ventilation on the new car left much to be desired
the best - when opening the bolt after a shot, an avalanche of thick powder smoke, similar to sour cream, flowed from the barrel of the gun and slowly spread over the floor of the fighting compartment.

The roof above the engine compartment consisted of a removable sheet above the engine, nets above the windows of the air intake to the engine and armored grilles above the blinds. In the removable sheet there was a hatch for access to the components and assemblies of the engine, closed with a hinged lid. In the back of the sheet there were two hatches for access to the fuel filler and oil tank filling ports. The average hull stern sheet was bolted in the fighting position, it could be hinged when repairing. To access the transmission units, it had two round hatches that were closed with hinged armored covers. The bottom of the hull was welded from three armor plates and had hatches and openings closed with armor caps and traffic jams.

152-mm howitzer gun ML-20C arr. 1937 / 43 was mounted in a cast frame, which played the role of the upper machine tool, and was protected by a cast armor mask borrowed from the SU-152. The swinging part of the self-propelled howitzer-gun had minor differences compared to the field: a folding tray was installed to facilitate loading and additional thrust to the trigger mechanism, the handles of the flywheels of the lifting and turning mechanisms were at the gunner left along the car, the trunnions were moved forward for natural balancing . Vertical guidance angles ranged from -3 ° to + 20 °, horizontal - in the sector 10 °. The height of the line of fire was 1800 mm. For direct fire shooting, a CT-10 telescopic sight with a semi-independent line of aiming was used, for firing from closed firing positions, Hertz's panorama with an extension was used, the lens of which emerged from the wheelhouse through the open left upper hatch. When firing at night, the scale of the sight and panorama, as well as the aiming and gunner arrows were illuminated with electric bulbs of the 5 Beam device. Direct firing range was 3800 m, the greatest - 6200 m. Rate of fire - 2 - 3 shots / min. The gun had electrical and mechanical (manual) descents. The electric trigger switch was located on the handle of the lifting mechanism flywheel. On the guns of the first issues used mechanical (manual) descent. The lifting and turning mechanisms of the sector type were mounted on brackets to the left cheek frame.

Ammunition 21 was a shot of a separate sleeve loading with armored-piercing tracer shells of the BR-540 with the MD-7 bottom fuse with tracer, high-explosive fragmentation guns and steel howitzers GF-540 and OF-XNM-CHI -CH-CHI -CH-CHI -CHN-CHI -MNI-CHI-CHN-CHI -MNIX-CHI -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNIX -MnMX -MnIX -MNIX -MNIX -MNMX. -530), O-2A steel howl iron-shaped howitzers, which were located in the fighting compartment. armor-piercing tracer shells were in a niche of armor cutting on the left side of the cabin in special frames, high-explosive fragmentation grenades — in the same place, shells with warheads in a niche of armor cutting in special frames and clodding. Part of the warhead shells was placed on the bottom under the gun. Shoots were completed with the following charges: № 1-530 ZH1 variables, variables reduced F-11U or DGP-545U full variable LS-545 ZH545 or without one equilibrium beam LS and special-545B or F-545B under armor-tracer. The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile with a mass of 545 kg was 545 m / s, and high-explosive fragmentation with a mass of 48,78 kg - 600 m / s. An armor-piercing projectile at a distance of 43,56 m punched armor with a thickness of 600 mm.

From October 1944 of the year, on the rotating chase of the commander's hatch, an anti-aircraft turret began to be mounted with an 12,7-mm DShK machine-gun mod. 1938 g. Ammunition to the machine gun was 250 cartridges. In addition, two PPSh submachine guns (later - PPS) with an 1491 ammunition cartridge and an 20 F-1 hand grenade were placed in the fighting compartment.

The power plant and transmission were borrowed from the tank EC-1 (EC-2). The ISU-152 was fitted with a 12-cylinder four-stroke diesel В-2IS (В-2-10) hp 520. at 2000 rpm The cylinders were located V-shaped at an angle 60 °. Compression ratio 14 - 15. Engine weight 1000 kg.


Heavy self-propelled artillery installation ISU-152 in the courtyard of the Kirov Chelyabinsk plant.
Spring 1944 of the year.


The total capacity of the three fuel tanks was 520 l. Another 300 l was transported in three external tanks that are not connected to the power system. The fuel supply is forced, using a twelve-plunger fuel pump HK1.

Lubrication system - circulating, under pressure. A circulation tank is built into the tank, which provided a quick warm-up of the oil and the ability to use the oil dilution method with gasoline.

Cooling system - liquid, closed, with forced circulation. Radiators - two, lamellar-tubular, horseshoe-shaped, mounted above the centrifugal fan.

To clean the air entering the engine cylinders, two multi-cyclone type BT-5 air cleaners were installed on the tank. Nozzles and glow plugs were built into the heads of air cleaners to heat the intake air in winter. In addition, for the heating of the coolant in the engine cooling system used wick heaters that run on diesel fuel. The same heaters provided heating for the fighting compartment of the car on long stops. The engine was started by an inertial starter, which had manual and electric drives, or with the help of cylinders with compressed air.

The ACS transmission included a multi-plate main friction clutch for dry friction (steel on ferrodo), a four-stage eight-speed gearbox with a multi-speed multiplexer, two-stage planetary rotation mechanisms with a multi-plate locking friction clutch and a two-stage side gears with a planetary row.

The chassis of the ACS in relation to one side consisted of six twin cast support rollers with a diameter of 550 mm and three supporting rollers. The rear wheel drive wheels had two detachable gear rims with 14 teeth each. The directing wheels - cast, with the crank mechanism of a tension of caterpillars, interchanged with basic skating rinks. Suspension - individual torsion bar. Caterpillars are steel, fine-molded, of single-ridge tracks from 86 each. Stamping tracks, 650 mm width and 162 mm pitch. Pinch gear.

For external radio communications, a radio station 10Р or 10РК was installed on the machines, for an internal radio, a TPU-4-bisF intercom. To communicate with the landing on the stern there was a beep button.

From 1944 to 1947, the 2790 self-propelled rifle system JSU-152 was manufactured. It should be noted that, as in the case of the EC-2, the Leningrad Kirov Plant should be connected to the production of self-propelled guns at its base. Before 9 in May, the first five ISU-1945 were collected there, and by the end of the year - another hundred. In 152 and 1946, production of MIS-1947 was carried out only at LKZ.

Combat application

Since the spring of 1944, the SU-152 heavy self-propelled artillery regiments were reequipped with the ISU-152 and ISU-122 installations. They were transferred to new states and were given the title of Guards to everyone. In total, until the end of the war, 56 of such regiments was formed, each had an 21 machine ISU-152 or ISU-122 (some of these regiments were of mixed composition). 1 March 1945 of the year The 143-I separate tank tank of the Nevelsky brigade in the Belarusian-Lithuanian military district was reorganized into the 66-th Guards Nevelsky heavy self-propelled artillery brigade of the RVGK of three-regimental personnel (1804 man, 65 ISU -NNXX -NNXX -NNX man, -NNXX -NNX man, 122 man -NoNNXX -NNX man, 3 man -NoNNXX -NNX man, 76 ISU -NNX man, XNUMX -NNXX -NNX man, XNUMX ISN -NNX man, XNUMX ISN -NNX man, XNUMX man -NoNNXX -NNX man, XNUMX man -ZN-XNNX man-XNUMX man ZNGM-ZNGX -NGX-ZNXX-ZNXX

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 firing points and ensured successful advance for the infantry and tanks. In this phase of the offensive ACS became one of the main means of repelling tank counterattacks. In a number of cases, they had to push forward the combat formations of their troops and take a hit, thereby ensuring the freedom of maneuver of supported tanks.

For example, 15 in January 1945 of the year in East Prussia, in the Borov area, the Germans used up to one motorized infantry regiment with the support of tanks and self-propelled guns to counterattack the battle formations of our advancing infantry, with which the 390 Guards heavy self-propelled artillery regiment operated.
The infantry, under pressure from superior enemy forces, retreated to the battle formations of the self-propelled guns, who were hit by the Germans with concentrated fire and covered the supported units. The counterattack was repulsed, and the infantry again had the opportunity to continue their offensive.


MIS-152 used as a fixed firing point. West Bank of the Suez Canal, Genifian Hills, south of the city of Ismaylia. 1973 year.

Heavy SPGs were sometimes involved in artillery preparation. At the same time, the fire was conducted both in direct fire and from closed positions. In particular, on January 12, 1945, during the Sandomierz-Silesian operation, the 368 Guards regiment of the ISU-152 1-th Ukrainian Front fired for 107 minutes on the enemy's four artillery and mortar batteries. After releasing 980 shells, the regiment put down two mortar batteries, destroyed eight guns and up to one battalion of enemy soldiers and officers. It is interesting to note that the additional ammunition was laid out in advance at the firing positions, however, primarily the shells used in combat vehicles were spent, otherwise the rate of fire would be significantly reduced. For the subsequent replenishment of heavy SAU shells needed up to 40 minutes, so they stopped firing in advance of the attack.

Very effectively heavy SPGs were used in the fight against enemy tanks. For example, in the Berlin operation 19 on April, the 360 th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment supported the offensive of the 388 Rifle Division. Part of the division captured one of the groves east of Lichtenberg, where they entrenched themselves. The next day, with the support of 15 tanks, the enemy began to counterattack with up to one infantry regiment. When repelling attacks during the day, 10 of German tanks and up to 300 soldiers and officers were destroyed by heavy SAU fire.
During the East Prussian operation, the 378 th guards heavy self-propelled artillery regiment successfully used the formation of the battle order of the regiment in the battles on the Zemland peninsula during the East Prussian operation. This provided the regiment with shelling in the 180 ° sector, which made it easier to fight enemy tanks attacking from different directions. One of the ISU-152 batteries, having built its battle formation with a fan on the front with a length of 250 m, successfully repulsed 7 on April 1945, a counter attack of 30 enemy tanks, knocking out six of them. Battery loss is not suffered. Only two cars received minor damage to the chassis.
At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, fighting in large settlements, including well-fortified ones, became a characteristic feature of the use of self-propelled artillery. As is known, an attack on a large population center is a very complex form of combat and, by its nature, differs in many respects from offensive combat in normal conditions. The fighting in the city almost always broke up into a number of separate local battles for separate objects and resistance centers. This forced the advancing troops to fight in the city to create special assault troops and groups that had great independence. The assault detachments and assault groups were the basis of the combat formations of the formations and units leading the battle for the city.

Self-propelled artillery regiments and brigades were attached to rifle divisions and corps, in the latter they were given in whole or in part to rifle regiments in which they were used to reinforce assault detachments and groups. The assault groups included self-propelled artillery batteries and separate installations (usually two). The ACS, which were part of the assault groups, had the task of directly escorting infantry and tanks, repelling enemy counterattacks and self-propelled guns, and fixing them on occupied targets. Accompanying the infantry, self-propelled guns direct fire from a place less often from short stops
destroyed the enemy’s gun emplacements and anti-tank guns, his tanks and self-propelled guns, destroyed ruins, barricades and houses adapted for defense, and thereby ensured the advancement of troops. A volley fire was sometimes used to destroy buildings, which gave very good results. In combat formations of assault groups, self-propelled artillery mounts usually moved together with tanks under the cover of infantry, and if there were no tanks, they moved along with infantry. The advancement of self-propelled artillery mounts for action ahead of the infantry proved unjustified, as they suffered heavy losses from the enemy’s fire.

In the 8 Guards Army of the 1 Belorussian Front, two or three IKU-74 152 Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment were included in the assault groups of the 394 Guards Rifle Division in the battles for the city of Poznan. February 20 1945 in battles for 8, 9 and 10 blocks of the city, directly adjacent to the southern part of the fortress citadel, assault group consisting of a platoon of infantry, three ISU-152 and two T-34 tanks cleared the enemy from the quarter No. 10. Another group of an infantry platoon, two ISU-152 self-propelled artillery mounts, and three flamethrower TO-34 stormed 8 and 9 quarters. In these battles SAU acted quickly and decisively. They were approaching the houses and at close range they destroyed German firing points placed in windows, basements and other places of buildings, and also made holes in the walls of buildings for the passage of their infantry. During the actions along the streets, the self-propelled guns moved, clinging to the walls of the houses and destroying the enemy’s fire weapons located in the buildings on the opposite side. With their fire, the installations mutually covered each other and ensured the advancement of infantry and tanks. Forward, the self-propelled artillery installations advanced alternately between shoals, as the infantry and tanks advanced. As a result, the quarters were quickly occupied by our infantry, and the Germans with great losses retreated to the citadel.

ISU-152 was in service with the Soviet Army until the 1970-ies, until the beginning of the entry into the SAU of the new generation. At the same time, the ISU-152 was upgraded twice. The first time in 1956 was when ACS received the designation IMS-152K. On the roof of the cabin, a commander's tower was installed with a TPKU device and seven observation units of the TNP; the ammunition of the howitzer gun ML-20C increased to 30 shots, which required a change in the location of the internal equipment of the fighting compartment and additional ammunition; instead of the ST-10 sight, the PS-10 advanced telescopic sight was installed. All machines mounted anti-aircraft machine gun DShKM with 300 ammunition ammunition. On the ACS, the B-54K engine was installed with the HP 520 power. with ejection cooling system. The capacity of the fuel tanks increased to 1280 l. The lubrication system was improved, the design of radiators became different. In connection with the ejection cooling system of the engine, the mounting of the external fuel tanks was also changed. Machines were equipped with radio stations 10-РТ and ТПУ-47. The mass of self-propelled guns increased to 47,2 t, but the dynamic characteristics remained the same. Power reserve increased to 360 km.

The second version of the modernization had the designation ISU-152M. The machine was equipped with modified units of the IS-2М tank, a DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun with 250 ammunition ammunition and night vision devices.

In addition to the Soviet Army, the ISU-152 was in service with the Polish Army. As part of the 13 and 25 regiments of self-propelled artillery, they took part in the final battles of 1945. Soon after the war, the Czechoslovak People's Army received ISU-152. At the beginning of the 1960, one regiment of the Egyptian army also had ISU-152 in service. In the 1973 year, they were used as fixed firing points on the banks of the Suez Canal and fired on Israeli positions.
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  1. kov
    kov
    0
    20 September 2012 20: 51
    As the men started the ISU =)

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