Photos of the tank is 2. Surveillance equipment and sights

Developer: KB ChKZ
Started work: 1943
Year of production of the first prototype: 1944
Remained in service with the Armed Forces of the USSR and Russia until 1995 inclusive.

While the experimental IS-85 tanks were being tested in August 1943, the chief designer of plant No. 100 Zh.Ya. Kotin began to develop a more powerful combat vehicle. As the battles on the Kursk Bulge showed, guns of 122-mm and 152-mm caliber fought best against the German “menagerie”. Of similar artillery systems in better side the hull 122-mm cannon A-19 of the 1931 \ 1937 model was distinguished, the shells of which pierced the frontal armor of the "tigers" and "panthers" at a distance of up to 1000 meters. In this regard, the engineers of plant No. 9 developed a “hybrid” D-2 gun, consisting of a barrel with A-19 ballistics and a carriage of a 122-mm M-30 howitzer, intended primarily for fighting tanks. This, in turn, prompted the idea of ​​installing such an artillery system on a heavy tank. This proposal was considered, but in order to install such a large gun in a tank turret, it was necessary to use a new round cradle, recoil devices and a lifting mechanism from an experienced U-11 122-mm tank howitzer, as well as a muzzle brake.

At this time, on September 4, 1943, by GKO resolution No. 4043ss, the IS-85 tank was adopted by the Red Army and at the same time, plant No. 100, together with the TU GBTU, until October 15, had to manufacture and test the IS tank armed with a 122-mm gun and an artillery self-propelled gun on its base with a 152-mm gun. The state commission working in parallel proposed to make a number of improvements to the design of the tank. In particular, it was proposed to develop a hydraulic mechanism for turning the turret, a turret anti-aircraft machine gun installation (although this was more like a return to the Voroshilov machine gun), and also consider installing a 50-mm turret mortar for self-defense and launch signal rockets.

This time, the work on installing the gun moved much faster. Having received the necessary documentation from plant No. 100, the design bureau of plant No. 9 quickly completed a draft design for installing a new 122-mm gun in the IS-85 turret. This option was to the liking of the people's commissar of the tank industry V.A. Malyshev and was approved by I.V. Stalin. without waiting for the completion of the tests of the first prototype, GKO Decree No. 4479ss of October 31, 1943, the IS tank with a 122-mm gun was put into service. Plant No. 9, in turn, received the task of building a tank version of the A-19 with wedge and piston valves.
The first prototype of the IS-122 tank (Object 240) went through a test cycle in the autumn - winter of 1943. A prototype of the A-19 tank gun was installed on it, which was a D-2 gun barrel with additional turning and a muzzle brake, installed in a cradle from D-5T. Experienced firing was successful, except for the rupture of the same muzzle brake, which was urgently replaced with a two-chamber, “German” type.

The design of the IS-122 tank, compared to the IS-85, has not changed much. The hull was welded from armor plates and plates of differentiated thickness. The early series of tanks received a "stepped" frontal part of the hull, where the thickness of the armor plates varied as follows: the bottom - 100 mm, the upper inclined sheet - 60 mm, the frontal - 120 mm. The sides had a thickness of 90 mm. The roof of the hull was made of 30 mm armor plates, the lower part of the superstructure - 20 mm, the bottom - 20 mm. Two stern armor plates, connected at a large angle of inclination, had a thickness of 60 mm. Later versions of the IS-122 (IS-2) were equipped with a straightened frontal armor plate 100 mm thick, set at an angle of 60.

The hull layout was classic. In front of the control compartment was located, where the driver's seat and controls were installed along the longitudinal axis. On the roof of the fighting compartment, located in the central part of the hull, a triple tower was installed, the design of which, with minor changes, was transferred from the IS-85 (IS-1) tank. The thickness of the side and stern armor was 90 mm, the forehead of the tower was protected by 100 mm armor. The shoulder strap of the tower with a diameter of 1800 mm made it possible to place inside the place for the tank commander, gunner and infector. At the same time, the layout of the tank turned out to be more “shortened” and did not allow placing the fifth member of the crew inside - the gunner-radio operator. Thus, the duty of the shooter (firing from a rigidly fixed course machine gun) was performed by the driver, and the commander worked with the radio station. Surveillance devices and a commander's turret with a wall thickness of 82 mm and a roof thickness of 20 mm were mounted on the roof of the tower.

In the aft part of the hull there was a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder V-2-IS diesel engine with an HP 520 power. The engine start was provided by an inertial starter with manual and electric drives or compressed air from two tanks in the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The electric drive of the inertial starter was an auxiliary electric motor with a power of 0.88 kW. Diesel V-2-IS was equipped with a fuel pump high pressure NK-1 with an all-mode regulator RNA-1 and a fuel supply corrector. To clean the air entering the engine, a Multicyclone type filter was used. Also, heating devices were installed in the engine compartment to facilitate starting the engine in the cold season. They could also be used to heat the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The IS-2 had three fuel tanks, two of which were located in the fighting compartment, and one in the engine compartment. The tank was also equipped with four external auxiliary fuel tanks with a capacity of 360 l, not connected to the engine fuel system.

The undercarriage of the IS-122 tank, both externally and in design, practically corresponded to the KV-85. As applied to one side, there were 6 twin cast road wheels with a diameter of 550 mm, suspended on lalancers, which, in turn, were attached to the side of the hull. Suspension remained torsion, individual type. The rear wheels were driven, equipped with removable rims, with lantern gearing. The guide wheels were in front and fully corresponded to the road wheels. The upper branch of the caterpillar was supported by three small-diameter wheels on each side. Each caterpillar consisted of 86 single-ridge tracks 650 mm wide.

The transmission of the IS-122 tank with mechanical control consisted of the following components:

- multi-plate main friction clutch of dry friction "steel according to Ferodo";

- a four-speed gearbox with a demultiplier (8 gears forward and 2 reverse; a second reverse gear can only be obtained theoretically, it is not available in a real car);

- two on-board two-stage planetary turning mechanisms with a multi-plate dry friction locking friction "steel on steel" and band brakes;

- two double-row combined final drives.

Serial production of heavy tanks IS-122 began in November 1943 and for some time took place together with the assembly of IS-85 and KV-85. Only from February 1944, when the last (107th) IS-85 tank was assembled, the plant completely switched to the production of vehicles with large-caliber guns. It was easier to do this, because structurally this tank almost completely corresponded to the IS-85.

Serial IS-122s were equipped with a D-25T cannon with a semi-automatic wedge breech, thanks to which the rate of fire was increased to 1.5-2 rounds per minute. In March, the “German” muzzle brake was replaced with a domestic one, designed by TsAKB. At the same time, the IS-85 tanks were renamed IS-1, and the IS-122 - IS-2. However, the beginning of the IS-2's combat career was not entirely successful. During the first collisions with heavy German tanks, it turned out that the BR-471 armor-piercing projectile could not penetrate the frontal armor of the "panthers" at a distance exceeding 700 meters, while the armor of the "tiger" made its way at a distance of up to 1200 meters. Things were better with the OF-471 high-explosive fragmentation grenade, but in general the situation remained the same. The solution was found only at the end of the war, after the appearance of the improved ammunition BR-471, but here the Germans themselves came to the rescue.

Since 1944, the German tank industry began to experience an acute shortage of manganese, and high-carbon steel, which had increased fragility, had to be used in the manufacture of armor. In a number of cases, penetration of the armor of the “panthers” was noted from a distance of about 2500 meters, so at the end of the war the issue with armor penetration was temporarily resolved by itself.

At the same time, the booking of the first serial IS-2s deserved an extremely low rating. For example, when a tank was fired from a 76.2-mm ZiS-6 cannon, the IS armor broke through from all sides, but a large mass of shells did not pierce it, but caused a lot of secondary fragments. This led to a redesign of the frontal part of the hull, which began in February 1944. Together with specialists from TsNII-48, tank builders developed a new form of armor plates, the manufacturing technology of which also underwent changes. While maintaining the previous thickness of the armor from the front sheet, the driver's hatch plug was dismantled, and the sheet itself was placed at an angle of 60 °. This guaranteed its increased resistance to being hit by shells from the 88 mm KwK 36 tank gun at angles from -30° to +30° when fired at point-blank range. The lower front plate and the turret were left unchanged, since their modernization would entail a significant alteration of the control compartment and the fighting compartment. New hulls began to be produced in the spring of 1944, and from June 15, in order to strengthen the protection of the lower frontal plate, caterpillar tracks began to be laid on it. However, both types of cases were in production for several more months.

The operational reliability of the tanks also gradually improved. If the first vehicles did not work out the guaranteed 1000 km mileage, then at the beginning of 1945 the commander of the armored forces of the 1st Belorussian Front reported that “heavy tanks worked well and far exceeded the warranty period (by 1.5 - 2 times) as by engine hours , as well as mileage.

In search of ways to improve the design of the IS-2, in February 1944, intensive work began on the design of its new modifications, which received the designations IS-3 (Object 244), IS-4 and IS-5 (IS-100). First of all, on these experimental machines, the possibility of installing more powerful guns of a smaller caliber was investigated. The experimental IS-3, which was a serial IS-1, received the D-5T-85BM gun with an initial projectile velocity of 900 m / s with a “breaking” PT-8 periscope sight and a number of changes in the design of the engine and transmission. The tank passed the sea trials, but the firing revealed insufficient barrel strength, so the IS-3 remained only in the form of a prototype.

The IS-4 (Object 245) and IS-5 tanks were distinguished by the installation of a 100-mm S-34 gun designed by TsAKB, which had the ballistics of a B-34 naval gun. Actually, this is where their second designation IS-100 came from. To install a new artillery system, it was necessary to completely reconfigure the fighting compartment, which was sharply opposed by the military. Then an attempt was made to install a 100-mm D-10T gun, developed by the Design Bureau of Plant No. 9, on the tank, which later found application on the SU-100 self-propelled gun.

The prototype IS-4, which passed state field tests from March 12 to April 6, 1944, was returned to the plant for improvements. Obviously, the S-34 did not meet the requirements for it, since instead of it the D-10T was installed on the tank and a number of minor technical changes were made. The ammunition load was increased to 30 shots with armor-piercing and high-explosive fragmentation shells weighing 15.6 kg.

The layout of the IS-5 tank (Object 248) was somewhat changed compared to the original. Due to the need to place the gunner on the right side of the tank, an inverted mask mount was used. The commander's cupola was also moved to the right side. It was planned to use a mechanical rammer and a sight stabilizer in the new turret, but they were installed only by October. The ammunition load of the IS-5 was 39 rounds.

Comparative tests of both samples were carried out from June 1 to June 6, 1944, and the IS-5 had clear advantages. However, one of these vehicles did not become serial - then it was considered that the production of heavy tanks with a 100-mm gun would be impractical.

At the end of 1943, another interesting version of the tank was developed, which received the design designation IS-2M. Unlike the serial IS-2, this machine had a very original layout. The fighting compartment, turret and transmission were located in the aft part of the tank, the engine compartment - in the middle, and the control compartment - in the front. The undercarriage has also been redesigned, using large diameter road wheels without carrier rollers. Work on the IS-2M was interrupted in the early summer of 1944, after the development of the design of experimental IS-6 tanks, and the designation subsequently switched to serial tanks, which were modernized in the mid-1950s.

The production of IS-2 tanks was discontinued at the end of 1945, but even after the appearance of more modern vehicles, it was left in service. One of the reasons for this step was the numerous design flaws that plagued the IS-3 and IS-4 tanks, which led to their withdrawal to the second line already 10 years after the start of operation. At the same time, it was proposed to modernize the existing IS-2, since in terms of its combat qualities and operational reliability, this machine fully met the requirements of the army. This decision was made by the GBTU in 1957, although some modifications had been carried out since 1954. The tanks were equipped with a V-54K-IS engine with an electric starter, a NIKS-1 nozzle heater, an MZN-2 electric oil pump, and a VTI-2 air cleaner with dust extraction from bunkers. The installation of a new engine entailed changes in the lubrication and cooling system. External fuel tanks were included in the tank power system in the same way as on the IS-3 tank. A gearbox with an oil pump and an oil cooling system was installed, and its rigid mounting on the rear support was introduced. Planetary turning mechanisms began to be connected to the bearing disks of final drives using a semi-rigid connection. In the chassis, new road wheels and guide wheels with non-adjustable bearings were installed.

A reinforced sub-engine pedestal and new gearbox supports were installed in the hull. The slotted device of the driver was replaced with a prismatic one, borrowed from the T-54. In addition, the tank was equipped with "Angle" and night vision device TVN-2 or BVN.

The IS-2 tower has undergone minimal changes. The aft machine gun was removed from it, in place of which an additional fan was installed. A reinforced stop was also introduced, like the T-54, and a cannon lifting mechanism with a donating link. Ammunition was now 35 rounds.

In addition, the tank received four batteries instead of two, a R-113 radio station, R-120 intercoms, new wings with IS-3 type bunkers that played the role of anti-cumulative screens, electric fuses and electric discharges for BDSH smoke bombs, a second headlight with a blackout device , changed the composition and layout of the SPTA. After all the improvements, the tank received the designation IS-2M, and gradually all the remaining production vehicles were brought up to this standard.

Based on the IS-2M in 1956-1959. there were self-propelled launch units 8U-218 (object 803) for the operational-tactical missile system 8K11 and 2P19 for the 8K14 complex. From these machines, the tower and part of the tank equipment were dismantled, instead of which the necessary equipment of the missile forces was installed. The mass of self-propelled guns decreased to 40 km, and the cruising range was about 300 km.

In addition, many IS-2s were converted into ARVs, and there were two variants in service, the later of which differed only in the installed commander's cupola in place of the dismantled main tower.

The combat use of the IS-2 began in the spring of 1944 during the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine. Here the 11th and 72nd OGvTTP received their baptism of fire, and the actions of the second of them deserved high praise. During April 20 - May 10, IS-2 tanks destroyed 41 "Tiger" and "Ferdinand" (possibly, modernized medium Pz.IVs were included in their number), as well as 3 armored vehicles with ammunition and 10 anti-tank guns. Own losses amounted to only 8 vehicles, and each of them failed only after several (from 2 to 7) hits, mainly on the side of the hull. The frontal armor of the IS-2, as practice has shown, is not penetrated by an armor-piercing projectile of the 88-mm KwK 36 cannon at distances of more than 1000 meters. Subsequently, until the end of May 1944, the 72nd regiment acted at the disposal of the 18th Army, repulsing enemy attacks near the city of Stanislav, and from June until the end of the war it became part of the 4th Tank Army.

For the first time, the Germans managed to get acquainted with the new technology only in May 1944, when one of the ISs, damaged in battle near the village of Tirgu Frumos, was captured by German waxes and subsequently towed to the rear for inspection and testing. Based on the data received, the inspector general of the tank forces of the Wehrmacht G. Guderian made the following conclusion:

“In no case should you get involved in a duel with the Stalins without having an overwhelming numerical superiority in combat strength. I believe that for every "Stalin" there should be a platoon of "Tigers". Attempts by the "Tiger" to fight "Stalin" one on one can only lead to a senseless loss of a combat vehicle ...
The following tactic of dealing with the Stalins seems to be the most successful: you should surround them from the flanks or from the rear and shoot them with powerful aimed fire.

In other words, the German tankers were asked to fight the new German tanks from ambushes and fortified positions, although this was not always possible. An example is the battle on the Sandomierz bridgehead, where the Germans launched a massive offensive using a new type of tank. The defensive operation dragged on for several weeks, but it was August 13 that became one of the most significant days in the career of the IS-2. Early in the morning, the crews of the 71st OgvTTP, equipped with IS-2 tanks of the first production series, successfully supported the attack of an infantry regiment that attacked and captured the city of Oglendow. Here, the IS-2s first met the “Royal Tigers” (Pz.Kpfw.VIB “Koenigtiger”), knocking out one of them. At this time, the Germans themselves launched an attack on the Soviet positions, but well-placed Soviet tanks opened fire on them from pre-prepared positions, destroying two more “tigers”. After that, the enemy chose to retreat and regroup the remaining forces. In total, from 14 to 31 August, the regiment destroyed four "tigers" and "royal tigers", three "panthers" and one self-propelled 128-mm gun, not counting other padded equipment. The irretrievable losses of the 71st regiment amounted to 3 tanks and another 7 were damaged and needed to be repaired.

In the process of combat operation, in addition to the insufficient strength of the armor, a lot of criticism was caused by the artillery system. The tankers liked the D-25 gun itself, but its maintenance and ammunition supply system caused completely the opposite feeling. Under the conditions of the battle, the Soviet crews needed about 20-30 seconds to reload the gun - during this time the same “panther” managed to fire 6-7 shots, since its ammunition load consisted of unitary shots, while the IS-2 had separate loading. In addition, the ammunition load of 26 rounds was considered insufficient. True, in 1945 all these shortcomings receded into the background.

As the tank troops were equipped with new equipment, ISs were equipped with the 26th and 27th OGvTTP, which since May 1944 took part in the battles on the Leningrad Front. A little later, they were joined by the 3rd, 15th, 31st, 32nd, 35th, 64th, 75th and 81st and 76th OGvTTP, which were sent to the Baltic states and participated in the liberation of many Latvian and Estonian cities. The battles in the direction of Tallinn were especially heavy. So, for example, the 36th regiment lost three of its tanks burnt out and 10 knocked out, destroying 3 enemy vehicles during the same time and suppressing several fortified anti-tank positions.

No less fierce was the battle in East Prussia, where the terrain is replete with swamps, rivers and other natural barriers, allowing the Germans to create a defense in depth here. One of the first to bear the brunt of these battles was the 81st OGvTTP, advancing on Klein Dregesen. Buried in the ground and camouflaged "tigers" fired from well-sighted positions, hitting our tanks at a distance of 600 to 1200 meters. In a series of small skirmishes, the regiment lost 6 vehicles, each of which received from 12 to 18 hits, some of which were through.

Further, on October 17-18, the 81st OGvTTP fought in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe town of Kibartai and the city of Eidtkunen, as a result of which 3 heavy tanks were destroyed, 2 medium tanks were destroyed, 5 anti-tank and 22 artillery guns were destroyed, two "Tigers" were captured. The regiment lost two IS-2 tanks burnt out and two knocked out. Two days later, on October 20, 1944, another tank battle took place near the town of Kibartai and the city of Eidtkunen, during which the Soviet side lost eight tanks (7 burned down), and the German side lost 3 “tigers” and several anti-tank guns. The regiment suffered such heavy losses as a result of a frontal attack on well-fortified German positions with tanks buried in the ground.

Until October 31, the total losses of the 81st regiment amounted to 10 tanks destroyed and 14 wrecked, of which 8 were restored by field repair teams.
The 79th OGvTTP operated more successfully, holding the defense on the Narew River and repelling the attacks of German tank units for two days. The most fierce battle took place on October 14, 1944, when the IS-2s were thrown into the attack against a numerically superior enemy, destroying 6 German tanks while losing two of their own (one burned down).

No less fierce were the battles on the territory of Hungary, where a very strong group of German troops was stationed, equipped with the most modern weapons. The 78th OGvTTP advancing on Debrecen met strong resistance here - the Germans often used the tactics of fortified strongholds here, digging in tanks and setting up ambushes. During October 6 to 31, 1944, the regiment destroyed 6 "tigers", 30 "panthers", 10 tanks Pz.IV, 1 self-propelled guns "Ferdinand", 24 self-propelled guns of various calibers, 109 guns, 38 armored personnel carriers, 60 machine gun points, 2 warehouses with ammunition and 12 aircraft at the airfield. One of the most difficult battles was held by the IS-2 near the city of Kanyar, where the Germans tried to defend themselves using 10 "panthers". During the battle, the Soviet side lost 3 tanks, the German side - 7. The total irretrievable losses of the regiment amounted to only two IS-2s, burned out from faustpatrons, and 16 tanks were sent for repairs.

In February 1945, the 81st OGvTTP distinguished itself during the capture of the city of Nemeritten, but already on the morning of February 16, the crews of the ISs were forced to engage in an unequal battle with superior German forces near the city of Kukenen. main role this was played by the incorrect assessment of the commander of the 144th division, who believed that heavy tanks had strong enough armor and weapons to protect themselves. In the very first attack, the infantry accompanying the ISs went down and the tankers had to attack alone. During the first minutes of the battle, the regiment lost two tanks burned out and two knocked out, which forced the rest to return and then continue to attack the enemy fortifications again. After several hours of bloody battle, the command ordered the surviving IS-2s to be withdrawn to the Wilmsdorf area.

The 80th OGvTTP operated much more successfully during the Vistula-Oder operation. From January 14 to January 31, 1945, this regiment destroyed 19 tanks and self-propelled guns, 41 guns, 15 machine-gun points, 10 mortars and 12 enemy dugouts, without irretrievably losing a single of its own tanks. The 33rd OGvTTP operating nearby lost only three vehicles, but on the very first day of the operation, the tanks managed to break through two lines of defense of the 9th German Army, advancing 22 km in a day, and by February 3, the advanced units of the regiment reached the Oder River.

Before the Berlin operation, the Soviet command concentrated significant forces in this direction, including the 7th separate guards (104.105 and 106th tank regiments with IS-2) and the 11th heavy tank brigades, 334th regiment (47th army), 351st Regiment (3rd Shock Army), 396th Regiment - 5th Shock Army, 394th Regiment - 8th Shock Army, 362nd and 399th Regiments - 1st Guards Tank Army, 347th - 2nd Guards Tank Army (all - 1st Belorussian Front), 383rd and 384th regiments - as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army (1st Ukrainian Front).

The need for the storming of the city itself is now being questioned, but then the defeated capital of Nazi Germany had a great psychological and political effect. To break through the German defenses and clean up city blocks, assault groups were used, which included a company of heavy tanks of five vehicles and a company of machine gunners. Some units had sapper squads and flamethrowers.

The 105th and 106th OGvTTP attacking on the flanks suffered heavy losses (10 and 6 tanks burned down, respectively), but at the same time the German defense was broken through, and the Soviet tankers were able to destroy two heavy tanks Pz.VI and Pz.V, two medium tanks Pz.IV, five self-propelled guns, 21 field guns, 4 anti-tank guns, 8 mortars and up to 30 machine guns. The tanks of the 104th Regiment entered into battle in a joint offensive impulse went to the Fliss River, where they were met by concentrated fire from anti-tank guns and camouflaged tanks. The surviving crews retreated and then took part in the battles on the Seelow Heights.

Since the new armored vehicles in Berlin were a bit of the main enemy of Soviet tanks, they became “: Wehrmacht and Volksturm soldiers armed with Faustpatrons (Faustpatrone), Panzerfausts (Panzerfaust) and Panzerschrecks (Panzerschreck), as well as grenades and bottles with combustible mixture. Of the more than 300 destroyed tanks, about 70% became their victims. Often, the infantry had to defend their “wards” vehicles, fighting defensive battles. In the fight against grenade launchers, the DShK anti-aircraft machine guns performed well, although their trunks pulled up (in the stowed position) often clung to all street wires, and in some cases they were dismantled.

During the participation in the Berlin operation (from April 16 to May 2, 1945), the 7th OGvTTBr lost 67 tanks: 28 burned down from artillery and tank fire, 11 from fausts, 28 tanks were knocked out, but later restored. During the same time, the 67th OGvTTBr lost 12 IS-2 IS-2s from the fire of artillery and enemy tanks, 18 were destroyed by “faustniks” and 41 more damaged tanks were later repaired. In total, these brigades destroyed 53 enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as 111 guns.

More details about the combat use and features of operation can be found in the article. "Combat use of IS tanks in the Great Patriotic War".

After the war, most of the IS-2s remained in the first tier for at least 15 years. After that, the ISs served only in the rear units, where, over time, they planned to replace them with heavy T-10 tanks and their modifications. End-of-life cars were sent to warehouses or used as visual aids. Others were sent to the Soviet-Chinese border, to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, where the IS-2Ms were partially dismantled and turned into pillboxes. To date, none of these bunkers has been preserved in working condition. Nevertheless, the IS-2Ms that remained in service were from time to time involved in various range maneuvers - apparently, the last major exercises with their participation took place in 1982 in the Odessa Military District. After that, the tanks were put into long-term storage and then gradually began to be cut into scrap metal. According to the latest data, the IS-2Ms that remained after the collapse of the USSR were withdrawn from service in 1992 and finally decommissioned in 1995. It is hardly possible to establish the exact number of tanks that have survived by this time, but there is reason to believe that they remained at least 100.

As for other countries former USSR, then IS-2M were available in them only as monuments or teaching aids, and here are the nearest neighbors Soviet Union received a lot of tanks of this type.

During the war, only units of the Polish Army were equipped with IS-2 tanks, the 4th and 5th tank regiments of which received 71 vehicles. The Poles distinguished themselves during the battles in Pomerania, destroying 31 enemy tanks while losing 14 of their own, and then took part in the Battle of Berlin. At the end of the war, it was supposed to equip the 6th and 7th tank regiments with ISs, but after the surrender of Germany, this decision was quickly abandoned. Of the 26 surviving tanks, 21 were returned to the Soviet Union, and the remaining 5 became part of the 7th regiment.

In the post-war period, the Chinese People's Army received the greatest support, pushing the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's troops into Taiwan by the end of 1949. In addition to the widespread T-34-85, the Chinese got a few dozen IS-2s. There is no exact information about the details of their combat use. However, in the early 1950s several heavy tanks were handed over to Vietnamese troops who were fighting a war of liberation against colonial French forces. There is information that the French transferred one of the surviving Panthers to Vietnam to test its combat properties. Probably, the data obtained was supposed to be used in the creation of new French tanks (in particular, the AMX-50), the development of which was based on the experience of German designers.

A small number of IS-2s went to another eastern neighbor, North Korea. These tanks, apparently former Chinese, were transferred to the North Korean army to make up for the losses suffered by it in the autumn of 1950. next year two more separate tank regiments were formed.

At the final stage of the war, Korean tanks almost did not take part, which made it possible to “save” 278 T-34-85, 38 IS-2, 27 SU-122 and 48 SAU-76. On the other hand, both warring parties failed to verify which of the tanks is stronger: the IS-2, M26 "Pershing" or A41 "Centurion". According to American data, four separate tank regiments manned by Chinese volunteers took part in the Korean War, each of which had three companies of T-34-85 and one company of IS-2.

The last country where the IS-2 went was Cuba, which received in the early 1960s. within the framework of military assistance from the USSR, two tank regiments fully equipped with this type of vehicles. The service in the first line units turned out to be quite short for them - a few years later, outdated ISs began to be transferred to coastal defense units, where they were converted into long-term firing points. By the beginning of the 1990s. there were at least 15 such bunkers.

Sources:
"Domestic armored vehicles 1941-1945". Volume II. Publishing Center "Exprint". 2005
M. Svirin "Heavy IS tanks". Publishing Center "Exprint". 2004
I. Zheltov, I. Pavlov, M. Pavlov, A. Sergeev "IS tanks in battles." (Tankmaster, special issue, 2002)
M. Baryatinsky "Heavy Tank IS". (Armored Collection No. 3, 1998)
Igor Zheltov, Ivan Pavlov, Mikhail Pavlov, Alexander Sergeev. "IS Tanks in Battle" ("Tankmaster", special issue, 2002)

PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HEAVY TANK
IS-2 model 1944

COMBAT WEIGHT	44000 kg
CREW, pers.	4
DIMENSIONS
Length, mm	6770
Width, mm	3070
Height, mm	2730
Clearance, mm	?
WEAPONS	one 122 mm D-25T cannon and three 7.62 mm DT machine guns (one 12.7 mm DShK anti-aircraft machine gun can be installed)
AMMUNITION	28 shells and 2331 rounds
AIMING DEVICES	viewing devices such as "triplex" and MK-4 / td>
BOOKING	hull forehead - 120 mm tower forehead - 100 mm board - 100 mm feed - 60 mm bottom - 20 mm
ENGINE	V-2-10, diesel, 520 hp
TRANSMISSION	mechanical type
CHASSIS	(on one side) 6 dual track rollers with independent torsion bar suspension, 3 supporting rollers, front guide and rear drive wheel, large-section caterpillar
SPEED	40 km/h
HIGHWAY RANGE	180 km
OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME
Climb angle, deg.	?
Wall height, m	1,00
Ford depth, m	1,30
Ditch width, m	2,50
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION	radio station 10R or 10RK intercom TPU-4BIS-F

IS-2 what is it - a Soviet heavy tank of the period of the Great Patriotic War. The abbreviation IS means "Joseph Stalin" - the official name of the serial Soviet heavy tanks produced in 1943-1953. Index 2 corresponds to the second serial model of the tank of this family.

Tank Is-2 - video

During the Great Patriotic War, along with the designation IS-2, the name IS-122 was used on an equal footing, in this case, the index 122 means the caliber of the main armament of the vehicle.

The IS-2 was the most powerful and most heavily armored of the Soviet and allied mass-produced tanks of the war period, and one of the strongest tanks in the world at that time. Tanks of this type played a big role in the battles of 1944-1945, especially distinguishing themselves during the storming of cities. After the end of the war, the IS-2s were modernized and were in service with the Soviet and Russian armies until 1995. Also, IS-2 tanks were supplied to a number of countries and participated in some post-war armed conflicts.

History of creation

Heavy tanks IS-2, IS-85 (IS-1) and KV-85 are descended from the heavy tank KV-1/KV-1c.

The IS-85 (IS-1) and KV-85 were put into service in September 1943, but by the end of 1943 it became clear that they had insufficient armament for a heavy tank. The experience of combat use of the 85-mm D-5 gun on the SU-85 self-propelled artillery mount and experienced shooting at captured heavy German tanks showed that the D-5 gun does not allow achieving decisive superiority over the armament of German tanks, moreover, in terms of its armor penetration it inferior to the German 88 mm tank guns and the 75 mm KwK 42 L70 gun mounted on the Panther tank. It should also be noted that the 85-mm D-5T cannon at a distance of 500-1000 m with a caliber armor-piercing projectile could pierce the forehead of the German Tiger I heavy tank only when it hit close to normal; the upper frontal part of the "Panther" did not break through at all. This put the new Soviet heavy tank at a disadvantage against the ever-increasing numbers of Panthers on the Eastern Front.

Since the main use of heavy tanks was to break through heavily fortified enemy defense lines saturated with long-term and field fortifications, the high-explosive fragmentation action of shells played just as (if not more) important role as armor-piercing. 85-mm shells, borrowed from the 52-K anti-aircraft gun, did not have a high-explosive variant at all (they were fragmentation); although with some types of fuses they could be used as high-explosive ones, their action was only slightly better than that of 76 mm ammunition. This fact was also verified by self-propelled artillery - to combat bunkers and strong bunkers, Soviet commanders preferred the SU-122 rather than the SU-85. However, the turret and gun mounting structure of the IS tank had a significant reserve for installing more powerful artillery systems.

The choice of weapons

In September 1943, the famous Soviet artillery designer F.F. Petrov sent a letter to the chief designer of ChKZ and Pilot Plant No. 100 Zh.Ya. Zh. Ya. Kotin chose the 122-mm A-19 gun to reinforce the armament of the IS tank. After agreeing on the technical details, he received personal consent from I.V. Stalin to install the A-19 gun in the IS tank. In the design bureau of plant No. 9, under the leadership of F.F. Petrov, the A-19 was finalized for installation in a tank - it was equipped with a muzzle brake to mitigate significant recoil, more compact recoil devices, and the controls were moved to one side for the convenience of the gunner in a cramped fighting compartment tank. This modified version of the A-19 was named D-25T, and its mass production was launched at the plant number 9 immediately. At first, there were difficulties in mastering it, so the question of installing the A-19 gun directly in the IS was worked out. However, they were overcome, and further installation of the A-19 in the tank was not required.

Tests

At Pilot Plant No. 100, a prototype of the D-25 gun was installed on the former "Object 237" No. 2 - an experimental version of the IS-1 with a D-5T gun. This experimental machine received the designation "Object 240". In October - November, it was tested by mileage and shooting at the Chebarkulsky training ground. Initially, the D-25 was equipped with a T-shaped muzzle brake, which exploded during test firing. Some sources claim that Marshal Voroshilov, who was present at the tests, was almost killed at the same time. Subsequently, a German-type two-chamber muzzle brake was installed on the IS, and then plant No. 9 developed its own design of a two-chamber muzzle brake, which began to be installed on serial machines.

The IS-2 was adopted by the armored forces of the USSR in accordance with GKO Decree No. 4479 of October 31, 1943. After successful testing of the "Object 240", an order was received to immediately put it into mass production at ChKZ. In November 1943, the assembly of the first mass-produced vehicles began. The new modification of the tank received the index IS-2 (during the war years, the designation IS-122 was used on an equal footing with it, the first samples were sometimes also referred to in units as KV-122). Production continued from December 1943 to June 1945, several machines of this brand were also produced by the Leningrad Kirov Plant.

The baptism of fire of the IS-2 was accepted at the beginning of 1944, and it was forced, interrupting the planned thorough training of crews for the new machine. The high fighting qualities demonstrated in battle immediately led to an order to maximize the production of the IS-2. At the same time, test work was interrupted, as a result of which a lot of unfinished vehicles went to the front, and their failures caused a large number of complaints from the troops. To ensure the quality of serial IS-2s and their improvement, at the beginning of 1944, Zh. Ya. Kotin and a number of his employees were removed from design work on new machines in order to eliminate defects in the IS-2 design. The refinement of the machine was difficult: for example, in April 1944, military acceptance reported that there was no significant improvement in the quality of the IS-2 tanks and self-propelled guns produced at ChKZ. However, in the summer of 1944, the ongoing work to improve the quality bore its first fruits - about a third of the produced tanks were able to be accepted the first time, and from November 1944 the quality of the received tanks was officially recognized as satisfactory - Zh. Ya. Kotin was returned to the post of head of the ChKZ Design Bureau and pilot plant number 100. In the winter of 1944/1945. reports from the troops testified that the IS-2 covered the guaranteed mileage of 1000 km with trouble-free operation. The well-established production mechanism for the production of the IS-2 led to the fact that the machines of 1945 were considered quite reliable and undemanding in operation.

Strengthening tank protection

In parallel with work to increase reliability, research was carried out to strengthen the armor protection of the IS-2. The first version, although it was the best in terms of armor protection among all Soviet tanks, was relatively easily hit by 88-mm tank and anti-tank guns of the Wehrmacht. 75-mm long-barreled guns also posed a significant threat to him. After analyzing the damage, the ChKZ designers came to the conclusion that strengthening the armor protection of the turret was no longer possible without a radical redesign of the entire structure, which was impossible in the harsh conditions of mass production. The installation of the 122 mm gun made the turret heavier and disturbed its balance - the center of mass did not lie on the axis of rotation of the turret, which was designed and balanced for the 85 mm D-5 gun. Additional booking, in addition to the general weighting of the machine, would lead to the impossibility of manually turning the tower with any significant roll of the machine and required a much more powerful electric motor to drive the turn. Therefore, the tower was left unchanged. The protection of the armored hull was significantly improved by replacing the "stepped" upper frontal part with a straightened one. There were cases when the upper frontal part did not break through even from the most powerful 88 mm Pak 43 anti-tank gun. However, the lower frontal part still remained vulnerable. The thickness of the frontal armor reached 120 mm, the side armor - 90 mm, but the frontal armored part of some of the tanks was cast, not rolled (the latter, with equal thickness, provides better protection against penetration).

Further work

Further work on strengthening the security of heavy tanks was carried out in parallel by two teams - engineers from ChKZ and Pilot Plant No. 100. Interestingly, the head of both design bureaus was Zh. Ya. Kotin. Each of the teams promoted their projects, but in 1945, under the IS-3 index, the combined version of the Object 703 went into production, which, in fact, was the IS-2 with radically redesigned armor protection, taking into account the experience of the Great Patriotic War.

Design

Layout

The IS-2, in its essence, was a further improvement of the IS-1 tank, which, in turn, was a deep modernization of the previous model of the KV-1 heavy tank. Compared to the IS-1, the armament was more than significantly strengthened, and on modifications mod. 1944 with straightened frontal armor, the protection against enemy fire in the frontal sector was also increased. Like all other Soviet serial heavy and medium tanks of that time, the IS-2 had a classic layout. The armored hull from bow to stern was successively divided into the control compartment, the fighting compartment and the engine-transmission compartment. The driver was located in the control compartment, three other crew members had jobs in the fighting compartment, which combined the middle part of the armored hull and the turret. The gun, ammunition for it and part of the fuel tanks were also located there. The engine and transmission were installed in the stern of the car.

The desire of ChKZ designers to obtain maximum armor with a relatively moderate weight and dimensions of the entire tank led to both positive and negative consequences. The positive side was the efficiency and relatively low material consumption of the IS-2 as a whole - with the same mass of 46 tons, the Soviet tank was much more protected than the Panther, surpassed the 55-ton Tiger I in this parameter and was slightly inferior to the 68-ton "Tiger II". The cons were a logical continuation of this approach - due to the dense layout, the driver's hatch had to be abandoned and part of the fuel tanks should be placed in the fighting compartment. As a result, when the IS-2 was hit, there was a significant chance of igniting diesel fuel and getting it on tankers. In German tanks, gas tanks were located outside the habitable places of the car (although they also had a number of units with flammable liquids). The lack of a driver's hatch more than once led to the fact that a wounded tanker could not quickly leave a burning car (it was necessary to get out through the tower after other crew members) and died from flame or suffocation. Not so significant disadvantages include the placement of the tower in the bow of the hull due to the layout. Together with a long cannon, this made it difficult to overcome obstacles such as ditches and counterscarps. Some of them could be forced only by turning the turret with the cannon back, that is, in combat conditions with the presence of such obstacles, the IS-2 lost its firepower. All German heavy tanks had a turret in the center of the armored hull, and the long reach of the gun barrels made it less difficult to overcome obstacles.

Armored corps and turret

IS-2 has a differentiated anti-ballistic armor protection. The armored hull of the tank (except for the front part of some vehicles) was welded from rolled armor plates 90, 60, 30 and 20 mm thick. The design of the frontal part varied depending on the modification of the machine:

IS-2 arr. 1943 had a cast frontal part of a streamlined "stepped" shape, in various parts its thickness varied from 60 to 120 mm.
- IS-2 arr. 1944 was equipped with an improved "straight" design of this part to increase the projectile resistance of the frontal armor. Instead of a streamlined stepped tip of a complex geometric shape, the forehead of the IS-2 arr. 1944 was formed by two flat armor plates, the upper of which had the shape of a trapezoid tapering towards the top of the tank and an inclination of 60 ° to the normal. Part of the released IS-2 arr. 1944 were equipped with a cast frontal part, the armor thickness of which reached 120 mm; starting from the second half of 1944, as rolled armor of high hardness became available, the frontal part was made welded from 90 mm armor plates.

The frontal part was connected with the rest of the parts by welding. The streamlined turret was an armor casting of a complex geometric shape, its 90 mm thick sides were located at an angle to the vertical to increase projectile resistance. The frontal part of the turret with an embrasure for the gun, formed by the intersection of four spheres, was cast separately and welded with the rest of the turret armor. The gun mask was a cylindrical segment of bent rolled armor plates and had three holes - for a cannon, a coaxial machine gun and a sight. The tower was mounted on a shoulder strap with a diameter of 1800 mm in the armored roof of the fighting compartment and was fixed with grips to avoid stalling in case of a strong roll or overturning of the tank. The surface of the "contact" of the lower shoulder strap of the tower and the upper shoulder strap of the armored hull was somewhat recessed into the roof of the fighting compartment, which excluded the jamming of the tower during shelling. The shoulder strap of the tower was marked in thousandths for firing from closed positions. For convenience in the repair and maintenance of units of the engine-transmission group, the roof of the engine-transmission compartment was made removable, and the upper aft armor plate could be hinged.

The driver was located in the center in front of the armored hull of the tank. Compared to the KV-1s tank, the dense layout of the habitable space of the IS tank did not allow it to accommodate the fifth crew member - the gunner-radio operator. Its functions were distributed between the commander and the driver: the first worked with the radio station, and the second fired unaimed fire from the course machine gun by pressing the trigger of the electric trigger on one of the control levers. The course machine gun itself was located to the right of the driver and was rigidly fastened in a special armored pipe, which was welded to the front armor of the tank. Subsequently, due to the low effectiveness of indirect fire and the weakening of frontal armor, the course machine gun was completely abandoned. Three crew members were located in the tower: to the left of the gun were the jobs of the gunner and tank commander, and to the right - the loader. The vehicle commander had a cast observation turret with vertical armor up to 82 mm thick. The landing and exit of the crew was carried out through the hatches in the tower: a round double hatch of the commander's cupola and a round single hatch of the loader. The hull also had a bottom hatch for emergency escape by the crew of the tank and a number of hatches, hatches and technological openings for loading ammunition, access to fuel tank fillers, other units and assemblies of the vehicle.

A number of parts were welded to the armored hull - balancers and torsion bar suspension brackets, bolts for support rollers and dirt cleaners, a stopper for mounting the track tensioning mechanism.

security

As an assessment of the security of the IS-2, one can cite a somewhat emotional judgment from the monograph "Tanks of the IS" that the IS-2 tank was the only large-scale tank of the anti-Hitler coalition, whose armor provided some protection from the famous 88-mm cannons and long-barreled 75-mm guns, then like everyone else (with the exception of late modifications of the British Churchills) "provided their crew with no more protection than a cardboard box."

In terms of armor protection, 53% of the total mass of the IS-2 accounted for the armor of the hull and turret, while for the PzKpfw VI Ausf H "Tiger I" this figure was 46.3%, and for the PzKpfw V "Panther" - 38, 5 %. Of the German tanks, only the PzKpfw VI Ausf B Tiger II had the best indicator (54.7%), but this was achieved at the cost of a significant increase in the mass of the entire vehicle as a whole, with all the ensuing consequences. The frontal armor of the IS-2 resisted German shells quite well: the upper part of the "stepped nose" was penetrated by 88-mm KwK 36 guns from 1000-1200 m, 75-mm KwK 42 guns - from 800-900 m, 75-mm Pak guns 40 - from 400 m. But for 1944, this was already considered clearly insufficient, therefore, as a result of intensive work, the forehead protection of the IS-2 hull was greatly improved. The “straightened” upper frontal part of 75-mm armor-piercing and sub-caliber shells was pierced at close range; 88-mm (KwK 36 L / 56) armor-piercing for a cast nose with a thickness of 120 mm - they did not pierce point-blank, for a rolled nose 90 mm thick - they pierced from 450 m. It was not possible to achieve protection from the Pak 43 gun at medium and long-range combat distances . However, it should be borne in mind that in order to achieve this result, the cast nose must be good quality, without looseness and voids, which was far from always the case. The lower frontal part was penetrated by a 75 mm projectile from a distance of 785 m, the 100 mm thick cannon mantlet was also penetrated by German 88 mm KwK 36 cannon shells from a distance of about 1000 m.

In 1945, at the Kubinka training ground, special tests were carried out by shelling the IS-2 with a straightened upper frontal part from the captured German early modification of the Hornisse self-propelled guns, armed with a powerful 88-mm Panzerjägerkanone 8.8 cm Pak 43/1 L / 71 artillery system with a length barrel 71 gauge. As in the case of the 88-mm KwK 36 cannon, the upper frontal part of the IS-2 was never penetrated by a caliber armor-piercing projectile, but, as expected, the range of actual destruction of the less protected areas of the tank increased significantly compared to the KwK 36.

Sleeves and shells of the D-25T tank gun. From left to right: an armor-piercing shot shell, a high-explosive fragmentation shell, the OF-471 high-explosive fragmentation cannon grenade, the BR-471 sharp-headed armor-piercing tracer, and the BR-471B blunt-headed armor-piercing projectile with a ballistic tip. All shells are shown from two sides

Armament

The main armament of the IS-2 was the D-25T 122 mm cannon. The gun was mounted on trunnions in the turret and was fully balanced. However, in general, the tower with the D-25T gun was not balanced: its center of mass was not located on the geometric axis of rotation, which made it difficult to turn it when the vehicle rolled. This negative circumstance was a consequence of the fact that the turret was designed and balanced for the 85 mm D-5T gun, which was the original armament for the IS tanks. The installation of the D-25T gun with a much longer and more massive barrel violated the calculated distribution of masses around the axis of rotation of the turret. The D-25T cannon had vertical aiming angles from −3 to +20°; with a fixed position of the turret, it could be aimed in a small sector of horizontal aiming (the so-called "jewelry" aiming). The shot was fired by means of an electric or manual mechanical trigger.

The ammunition load of the gun was 28 rounds of separate loading. Shells and propellant charges for them were placed in the tower and along both sides of the fighting compartment. Compared to a wide range of ammunition for the 122 mm A-19 gun, the ancestor of the D-25T gun, the IS-2's ammunition load was significantly less diverse. It included:

Sharp-headed armor-piercing tracer BR-471 weighing 25 kg (mass of explosive (TNT) - 156 g).
- blunt-headed armor-piercing projectile with a ballistic tip BR-471B weighing 25 kg (mass of explosive (A-IX-2) -? g); It was developed in 1944, but appeared in mass quantities in the troops in the very final phase of the war - in the spring of 1945.
- high-explosive fragmentation cannon grenade OF-471 weighing 25 kg (explosive mass - TNT or ammotol - 3 kg).

All types of projectiles were fired at the full charge of Zh-471, which gave them an initial speed of 792-800 m/s.

Three 7.62-mm DT machine guns were installed on the IS-2 tank: a fixed course gun, coaxial with a gun, and a stern machine gun in a ball mount at high tide on the back of the turret. Ammunition for all diesel engines was 2520 rounds in discs. These machine guns were mounted in such a way that, if necessary, they could be removed from the mounts and used outside the tank. Starting in January 1945, a large-caliber 12.7 mm DShK anti-aircraft machine gun with a K-8T collimator sight was installed on the IS-2. Ammunition for the DShK was 250 rounds in tapes in a box attached to the machine gun. Also, for self-defense, the crew had several F-1 hand grenades and was sometimes equipped with a pistol for firing flares.

Firepower

The 122-mm tank gun was a modification of the 1931/1937 A-19 corps gun, received the D-25T index, was the largest-caliber serial tank gun of the Second World War - its muzzle energy was 820 t m, while the 88- mm cannon KwK 43 of the German heavy tank PzKpfw VI Ausf B "Tiger II" it was equal to 520 t m. The KwK 36 and KwK 42 cannons of the heavy tank PzKpfw VI Ausf H "Tiger I" and the medium tank PzKpfw V "Panther" had an energy of 368 t m and 205 t m, respectively. At the same time, it should be noted that the quality of manufacturing armor-piercing shells among the Germans was significantly better, and their range included sub-caliber and cumulative options, while until 1945 the only armor-piercing sharp-headed projectile BR-471 was produced for the D-25T. Whenever possible, it was inferior to German tank guns to fight heavy armored vehicles and was mainly used as an assault gun.

The practical results of firing from the D-25T and A-19 cannons at the firing range at German captured tanks with the blunt-headed BR-471B projectile from a range of 1400 m showed the following results (there are doubts about some of them - due to confusion in the ChKZ documents - which tank and on which distances fired):

- Tank PzKpfw IV Ausf H was pierced right through the frontal and stern armor plates.

-Tank PzKpfw V "Panther" when it hit the upper frontal part of the armored hull, it received a hole 150 × 230 mm with a crack along the weld; when it hit the side of the tower, a hole of 130 × 130 mm was formed, the opposite side of the tower was also pierced and it was torn off along the weld. When hit in the forehead of the tower, a hole of 180 × 240 mm was formed, the tower was torn off the shoulder strap and displaced by 500 mm from the axis of rotation.

- Tank PzKpfw VI Ausf H "Tiger I" when a 122-mm projectile hit an already existing hole from an 85-mm projectile in the frontal armor plate, it was left without an 82-mm aft armor plate torn out along the welds, the projectile passed through all the internal equipment of the tank. When it hit the roof of the tower (thickness 40 mm, angle of inclination 80 ° to the normal), a dent with a crack from a ricocheted projectile remained; when hit in the forehead of the tower, a hole of 580 × 130 mm was formed, the tower itself was torn off the shoulder strap and displaced by 540 mm from the axis of rotation.

- SAU JagdPz "Ferdinand" did not penetrate the forehead - a 122-mm projectile pierced the first frontal 100-mm armor plate with the formation of a hole 120 × 150 mm, but reflected from the second, when it hit the wheelhouse, a dent 100 mm deep remained in the armor plate.

Satisfactory results in armor penetration were achieved only due to the large mass of the projectile, which ultimately greatly reduced the rate of fire of the gun and reduced the tank's ammunition load in comparison with the armed 85-mm IS-2 gun by more than two times, to 28 shells. In early November 1944, a captured heavy tank PzKpfw VI Ausf B Tiger II was fired at at the Kubinka training ground. A 122-mm sharp-headed projectile pierced the upper frontal part (along the joints of armor plates) from 600 m, the own 88-mm cannon of the Tiger II KwK 43 coped with this armored barrier from 400 m, and the 75-mm gun of the Panther pierced the forehead of the Tiger II » from 100 m.

The high power of the high-explosive 122 mm made it possible to achieve positive results when firing at enemy armor targets. It is worth noting that the destructive effect of a high-explosive projectile is enhanced when it hits at an angle compared to a normal hit. So, the OF-471 high-explosive fragmentation grenade, when installed on a high-explosive action when firing at Kubinka at the Tiger II, when hit, disabled the transmission elements of the latter and tore the welds of the frontal part. According to the purely high-explosive action of a 122-mm 25-kg projectile with 3 kg of ammotol, the projectile was 3 times superior to the same type German 88-mm high-explosive fragmentation projectile weighing 9.5 kg with 1 kg of ammotol (the dependence of the mass of the projectile on the caliber is cubic, because the projectile has three dimensions , that is, the quotient of the calibers must be raised to the third power: 122 mm / 88 mm \u003d 1.386; 1.386³ \u003d 2.66 times more).

The biggest and most insurmountable drawback of the D-25T gun was its low rate of fire compared to the 75mm and 88mm cannons of German tanks, which could withstand the IS-2. Such a rate of fire was due to the large mass of the projectile and the difficult working conditions of a single loader. In this case, the sequence of operations with a piston shutter was as follows: opening the shutter, lowering the tray, laying a 25-kg projectile in the tray, sending it “with a ringing” into the chamber with a rammer, preparing the sleeve, inserting it into the chamber, closing the shutter. In this case, one should take into account the fact that the loader performed most of these operations with his left hand. The wedge gate only facilitated the work of the loader and slightly increased the rate of fire, which in the most best conditions did not exceed 3 shots per minute. In reality, this figure was much lower (which is true not only for the IS-2, but for all tanks in general), during tests in Kubinka, when moving at a speed of 12 km / h, the combat rate of fire was 1.35 rounds per minute. There is an opinion that the low rate of fire was associated with the separate loading of the D-25T gun, however, the results of testing the 122-mm D-25-44 gun using a unitary projectile at the test site do not confirm this.

The accuracy of the battle of the 122-mm D-25T cannon was at least as good as foreign guns - the average deviation of a 122-mm armor-piercing projectile from the aiming point when firing from a standstill at a distance of 1 km was 170 mm vertically and 270 mm horizontally. Soviet tests of the 88 mm KwK 43 cannon under the same conditions gave a deviation of 200 mm vertically and 180 mm horizontally. The IS-2 showed good results when firing on the move. During tests in Kubinka at a distance of 700 m, the IS-2 hit four out of five hits on the Panther tank and two out of three hits on the PzKpfw III tank.

The speed of rotation of the IS-2 turret was 13-16 ° per second, that is, it took 22-28 s for a full turn of the turret. The electric drive made it possible to turn the turret with the engine turned off and the machine rolled up to 15 °. The manual drive made it possible to turn the tower with a roll of 8.3 ° with a force of 16 kgf. For comparison: German heavy tanks had a hydraulic or manual turret drive. The speed of rotation of the tower hydraulically depended on the number of revolutions of the engine (that is, when the engine was idle, the hydraulic drive was useless), being in the range from 5 to 19 ° per second. Reports on studies of German heavy tanks in Kubinka state that the hydraulic drive is complex and cumbersome, and its control is inconvenient.

It can also be said that the powerful weapons of the IS-2 indirectly increased its security, forcing enemy tanks and self-propelled guns to open fire on the IS-2 from longer distances compared to a battle with any other Soviet tank.

Excerpt from the "Report of the Directorate of self-propelled artillery of the spacecraft about the work during the Great Patriotic War" testifies:

... the installation of 122-mm cannons on IS tanks returned to our tanks the superiority over the enemy in the artillery armament of heavy tanks that had been lost for a while. In terms of the power of its shot, the 122-mm D-25 gun left far behind the 88-mm guns of German tanks.

The combat operations of the IS tanks showed that 122-mm guns are the most effective means of fighting against enemy heavy and medium tanks, ensuring penetration of their armor from a distance of 2500 m ...

Excerpt from the "Report on the combat operations of the 71st OGvTTP from 14.07.44 to 31.08.44":

... The fire armament of the IS-122 tanks is the most powerful of all existing types tanks. The 122-mm projectile has a high penetrating power, which determines the quality of these tanks as the best tool in the fight against enemy heavy tanks ...

Engine

The IS-2 was equipped with a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder V-2-IS diesel engine with an HP 520 power. With. The engine start was provided by an inertial starter with manual and electric drives or compressed air from two tanks in the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The electric drive of the inertial starter was an auxiliary electric motor with a power of 0.88 kW. The V-2-IS diesel engine was equipped with an NK-1 high-pressure fuel pump with an RNA-1 all-mode regulator and a fuel supply corrector. To clean the air entering the engine, a Multicyclone type filter was used. Also, heating devices were installed in the engine compartment to facilitate starting the engine in the cold season. They could also be used to heat the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The IS-2 had three fuel tanks, two of which were located in the fighting compartment, and one in the engine compartment. The tank was also equipped with four external auxiliary fuel tanks with a capacity of 360 l, not connected to the engine fuel system.

Transmission

The IS-2 tank was equipped with a mechanical transmission, which included:

Multi-disc main friction clutch of dry friction "steel according to Ferodo";
- a four-speed gearbox with a demultiplier (8 gears forward and 2 reverse; the second reverse gear can only be obtained theoretically, it is absent in a real car);
- two on-board two-stage planetary turning mechanisms with a multi-plate dry friction locking friction "steel on steel" and band brakes;
- two double-row combined final drives.

All transmission control drives are mechanical. Compared to the previous model of the KV-85 heavy tank, planetary slewing mechanisms were a new transmission element. The use of this unit made it possible to increase the overall reliability of the transmission as a whole, which was just the most significant drawback of the undercarriage of the KV series tanks and vehicles based on it.

Chassis

The IS-2 has an individual torsion bar suspension for each of the 6 solid-cast gable road wheels of small diameter (550 mm) on each side. Opposite each track roller, suspension balancers were welded to the armored hull. The drive wheels with removable lantern gears were located at the rear, and the sloths were identical to the road wheels. The upper branch of the caterpillar was supported by three small cast support rollers on each side; these rollers were borrowed from the design of the KV-85 tank. Caterpillar tension mechanism - screw; each caterpillar consisted of 86 single-ridge tracks 650 mm wide.

Mobility

The IS-2 heavy tank was regarded by representatives of the Red Army as quite satisfactory in terms of its mobility, although with a 520-horsepower diesel engine and a mass of 46 tons, its specific power-to-weight ratio was the lowest among Soviet large-scale medium and heavy tanks. The specific pressure on the ground was about 0.8 kg / cm², which was much higher than that of German heavy and medium tanks. The maximum speed did not exceed 35 km / h, but for a heavy breakthrough tank this characteristic was not decisive, since the main tactical use was combat in the same formation with infantry, and more mobile T-34s were intended to develop a breakthrough. In the event of weak or no enemy resistance, the IS-2 could be used to a limited extent to deepen the breakthrough, but its mobility characteristics did not favor such use.

Compared to German heavy tanks (according to the Soviet classification), the IS-2 occupies an intermediate position between the Panther and Tigers of both modifications. The Panther, with its 700-horsepower Maybach HL 230 engine, has the best power-to-weight ratio, maximum and average speeds. However, it should be borne in mind that the Panther was not a breakthrough tank and was intended to solve other combat missions, where speed and operational-tactical mobility were among the determining parameters. The 55-ton "Tiger I" had a specific power comparable to the IS-2, and the 68-ton "Tiger II" lost to the IS-2 in this parameter. It should also be noted that all three types of German tanks differed from the IS-2 in a higher specific pressure on the ground, which left a certain imprint on their tactical use. In particular, in order to save the expensive and difficult-to-repair equipment of the German heavy tank battalions, they were rarely used off-road (the engine and transmission were overloaded, the chance of the tank getting stuck increased), while the IS-2 was more adapted to off-road. It should also be noted that in Germany and Western Europe with a developed road network, this lack of German cars was practically insignificant. On the other hand, "ironing" the trenches of the "lunar surface" of the leading edge for the "Tigers" was fraught with transmission failure, while the IS-2 was quite suitable for this purpose.

Front-line cameraman Roman Lazarevich Karmen (1906-1978) filming next to an IS-2 tank of the 7th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade near the Brandenburg Gate. The tactical number of the vehicle "414" is printed on the frontal hull plate.

electrical equipment

The electrical wiring in the IS-2 tank was single-wire, the armored hull of the vehicle served as the second wire. The sources of electricity (operating voltages 12 and 24 V) were a GT-4563A generator with a RRA-24F relay-regulator with a power of 1 kW and two 6-STE-128 batteries connected in series with a total capacity of 128 Ah. Electricity consumers included:

Turret slewing electric motor;
- external and internal lighting of the machine, illumination devices for sights and scales of measuring instruments;
- an external sound signal and an alarm circuit from the landing force to the crew of the vehicle;
- instrumentation (ammeter and voltmeter);
- electric trigger guns and machine guns;
- means of communication - a radio station and a tank intercom;
- electrics of the motor group - an electric motor of an inertial starter, spools of candles for winter starting the engine, etc.

Means of observation and sights

Commander's hatch and workplace loaders were equipped with Mk IV periscopes to monitor the environment from inside the vehicle. The commander's turret had six viewing slots with protective glasses. Driver IS-2 arr. 1943 in battle conducted observation through a viewing device with a triplex, which was protected by an armored shutter. This viewing device was installed in an armored plug hatch on the frontal armor plate along the longitudinal centerline of the vehicle. In a calm environment, this plug hatch could be pushed forward, providing the driver with a more convenient direct view from his workplace. In the later modification with straightened armor, the manhole plug was eliminated, and the driver watched the situation through a gap in the frontal armor plate using a viewing device with a glass block. The viewing slot and the device were protected from the outside by a flat armored cap welded to the tank hull.

For firing, the IS-2 was equipped with a telescopic breaking gun sight TSh-17 for direct fire. Early series vehicles were also equipped with a PT4-17 periscope sight, but this was later removed and another Mk IV device was installed in its place. This improved visibility for the gunner, but the lack of a periscope sight made it difficult for possible self-firing from covered positions. To ensure the possibility of fire in the dark, the scales of the sights had a backlight device. The aft machine gun DT could be equipped with a PU sight from a sniper rifle with a threefold increase. The DShK anti-aircraft machine gun was equipped with a K-8T collimator sight.

Destroyed Soviet heavy tank IS-2 on Beuthstraße in Berlin after the end of the war. In the background, a war invalid is walking along the road.

Means of communication

The means of communication included a radio station 10R (or 10RK-26) and an intercom TPU-4-Bis for 4 subscribers. Radio stations 10R or 10RK were a set of transmitter, receiver and umformers (single-arm motor-generators) for their power supply, connected to the 24 V on-board electrical network.

10P was a simplex tube shortwave radio station operating in the frequency range from 3.75 to 6 MHz (respectively, wavelengths from 50 to 80 m). In the parking lot, the communication range in the telephone (voice) mode reached 20-25 km, while on the move it somewhat decreased. A longer communication range could be obtained in telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by telegraph key in Morse code or another discrete coding system. Frequency stabilization was carried out by a removable quartz resonator, there was no smooth frequency adjustment. 10P allowed communication on two fixed frequencies; to change them, another quartz resonator of 15 pairs was used in the radio set.

The 10RK radio station was a technological improvement of the previous 10R model, it became easier and cheaper to manufacture. This model has the ability to smoothly select the operating frequency, the number of quartz resonators has been reduced to 16. The characteristics of the communication range have not undergone significant changes. The TPU-4-Bis tank intercom made it possible to negotiate between tank crew members even in a very noisy environment and connect a headset (headphones and throat phones) to a radio station for external communication.

Modifications

In popular wartime literature, the IS-2 is usually divided into two modifications - arr. 1943 (with a stepped upper frontal detail) and arr. 1944 (with a straightened upper frontal detail); however, the well-known military historian Colonel I. G. Zheltov in his monograph "Tanks of the IS" distinguishes six variants of the serial IS-2.

In the post-war period, the IS-2s were modernized with the replacement of the engine, the installation of night vision devices, and overwings of the caterpillar mover. This variant was designated IS-2M.

Machines based on the IS-2

On the basis of the IS-2, since April 1944, the ISU-122 heavy tank destroyer was produced, armed with the 122-mm A-19S cannon (which is identical in ballistics to the D-25T, but has larger recoil devices and is not equipped with a muzzle brake). Since September of the same year, on the basis of the IS-2, in parallel with the ISU-122, a new version of the self-propelled gun with a long-barreled 122-mm gun, the ISU-122S, was launched into mass production. Its armament was a self-propelled version of the D-25S gun, which had noticeable design differences from the tank version of the D-25T.

It would be somewhat illegal to consider the earlier ISU-152 self-propelled gun as a vehicle based on the IS-2, although their chassis were almost identical. The prototype ISU-152 "Object 241" was built in October 1943, when the IS-2 itself existed only at the prototype stage, and the chassis for both experimental vehicles (almost completely from the IS-2, to a lesser extent from the ISU-152) was borrowed from the previous model of the heavy tank IS-1 (IS-85).

Organizational structure

The IS-2, like the KV-85 or IS-1, entered service with individual guards heavy breakthrough tank regiments (OGvTTP). Each OGvTTP had 21 tanks, consisting of 4 companies of 5 vehicles each, plus the regiment commander's tank. The regiment commander usually had the rank of colonel or lieutenant colonel, company commanders - the rank of captain or senior lieutenant. Tank commanders, as a rule, were lieutenants, and driver-mechanics were sergeants (often technicians - junior lieutenants). The rest of the crew members were regulars according to the staffing table. The OGvTTP usually had several unarmored support and support vehicles - trucks, jeeps or motorcycles, the number of personnel of the regiment in the state was 214 people.

Also, in addition to individual tank regiments, heavy tank brigades of three regiments with a staff strength of 65 vehicles each were armed with IS-2 heavy tanks.

Combat use

The first battle of the IS-2 with the "Tigers" took place in April 1944 near the city of Ternopil. The vehicles of the 11th Separate Guards Heavy Tank Regiment participated in this battle. Separate guards heavy tank regiments (OGvTTP), armed with IS-2 tanks, took an active part in the hostilities of 1944-1945. In general, the new tank fully justified the expectations of the command as a means of qualitatively strengthening units and subunits designed to break through well-fortified enemy lines in advance, as well as storm cities.

The following combat episodes with their participation can be cited as examples of completely different results of the combat use of IS-2 tanks:

During the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, an episode is known when two IS-2 tanks of the 57th Guards Separate Tank Regiment, hiding in an ambush, stopped the tank forces of a significantly superior enemy force. In two days, the crews of two Soviet heavy tanks destroyed a total of 17 German tanks and self-propelled guns, eliminating the threat of liquidating the bridgehead on the Vistula. Of these, 9 on the account of Lyakhov and 8 on the account of Lukanin.

In August 1944, the 71st OGvTTP participated in the defeat of the Royal Tigers battalion at the Sandomierz bridgehead. During this battle, IS-2 tanks knocked out six "Royal Tigers". For a month and a half of fighting, this regiment knocked out and destroyed 17 German tanks, 2 self-propelled guns and 3 armored personnel carriers. Losses amounted to 3 tanks burned out and 7 wrecked.

In October 1944, the 79th OGvTTP held the Serotsky bridgehead on the Narew River north of the city of Serotsk. The enemy, having a total of over 200 tanks, tried to eliminate the bridgehead. On October 4, 1944, by 19:00, the position of the Soviet troops became threatening. At 21:00, the tankers, together with the 44th Guards Rifle Division of the 105th Rifle Corps, went on the attack. Advancing under heavy fire, they collided with heavy enemy tanks. Six German T-V and T-VI tanks were hit and destroyed. Losses in this case amounted to one IS-2 tank burned out and one lined. By October 6, 4 more Soviet, 3 German tanks and 2 German armored personnel carriers were lost. From October 6 to 9, the regiment, having skillfully created a defense, did not lose a single tank, while burning 11 heavy enemy vehicles. During these battles, the crew of the IS-2 tank under the command of Lieutenant Ivan Khitsenko of the 30th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade also distinguished themselves. His tank platoon was given the task of holding the defense on the right flank. The platoon attacked the column of the Nazis. Khitsenko's tank in this battle knocked out seven enemy Tiger tanks with cannon fire and rammed one before it burned down. The Germans were unable to break through on the right flank.

The 78th OGvTTP, advancing on Debrecen in Hungary, from October 6 to October 31 destroyed 46 tanks (including 6 Tigers), 25 self-propelled guns, 109 guns, 38 armored personnel carriers, 60 machine-gun points, 2 ammunition depots and 12 aircraft on airfield. The losses of the regiment amounted to two IS-2 burnt out from the faustpatrons, another 16 tanks received varying degrees of damage.

On the territory of the Reich, the fighting was especially stubborn. The 70th OGvTTP, having crossed the Vistula River on the move and covered over 300 km, reached the city of Schneidemühl at the end of January. Its siege took two weeks and cost the regiment nine damaged vehicles. The 82nd OGvTTP on February 8 at 11.00 angled forward with the 1st and 4th tank companies launched an attack in the area of ​​​​the city of Kreuzburg. At 13:00, up to 11 enemy tanks, accompanied by "artillery assaults", counterattacked the units of the regiment, but, having suffered losses, retreated. By 20:00 Kreuzburg was taken. During the day of hostilities, the regiment destroyed 4 tanks, 4 self-propelled guns, 6 guns and 10 machine gun points. The losses of the regiment during the day of the battle also turned out to be considerable: 11 tanks were knocked out, one got stuck.

In the Vistula-Oder operation, the 80th OGvTTP from January 14 to January 31, 1945 destroyed 19 enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, 41 artillery pieces, 15 machine-gun nests, 10 mortars and 12 dugouts. Of the 23 vehicles involved in the battles, not one was irretrievably lost.

The 81st OGvTTP attacked Kukenen at 3.30 on February 16, 1945, consisting of 16 tanks. The commander of the 144th Rifle Division, to which the regiment was attached, considered that the IS-2s were capable of doing everything themselves. The IS-2s that went on the attack were met with flank fire from the Germans, who burned two IS-2s and knocked out two more. The 4th tank company covered the exit of three IS-2s of the second tank company to the outskirts locality Nemretten, but without the cut off infantry it was not possible to develop success. Two IS-2s were shot down in this phase of the battle. For three hours, the tankers fought with enemy infantry, tanks and anti-tank guns, losing nine more IS-2s knocked out. Attempts to captivate their infantry were not successful. As a result, on February 16, Kukenen was never taken, and the regiment was withdrawn from the battle to restore and maintain materiel. Of the 15 IS-2s listed as of February 17, 1945, seven were combat-ready, two needed medium repairs, three were not evacuated from the battlefield, and three were to be written off (that is, they can be included in irretrievable losses). Apparently, the German side did not suffer serious damage in this battle, since the regiment's successes for February 15–27, 1945 included 4 tanks, 4 armored personnel carriers, 17 guns and one captured assault gun destroyed. According to the documents, these successes were achieved during the battle on February 15 and February 19-27, when the regiment recovered from losses inflicted on February 16 near Kukenen.

In the battles in March 1945 on the territory of Poland, the commander of the IS-2 tank, Mikhail Alekseevich Fedotov, especially distinguished himself. Only in the first two and a half months of 1945, his tank destroyed 6 German tanks and self-propelled guns, 11 artillery pieces, 2 mortar batteries, 3 armored personnel carriers and several vehicles.

A huge role in the rapid restoration of the combat capability of Soviet tank units was played by the high survivability and maintainability of ISs and self-propelled guns created on their basis. It was not uncommon for a regiment, which had lost most of its vehicles the day before, to be ready for battle again in a day or two. So, in the 88th OGvTTP by January 25 there were only two serviceable tanks, others were either knocked out or out of order for technical and other reasons (including two drowned in the river). However, by February 1, 15 restored and combat-ready vehicles returned to service.

The 88th and 89th OGvTTP regiments were the first to storm the German positions from the Kustrinsky bridgehead in the light of searchlights on the first day of the Berlin operation.

Storms of cities

Together with self-propelled guns based on it, the IS-2 was actively used for assault operations on fortified cities such as Budapest, Breslau, and Berlin. The tactics of operations in such conditions included the actions of the OGvTTP by assault groups of 1-2 tanks, accompanied by an infantry squad of several submachine gunners, a sniper or a well-aimed marksman, and sometimes a knapsack flamethrower. In the event of weak resistance, tanks with assault groups on armor at full speed broke through the streets to squares, squares, parks, where it was possible to take up all-round defense. In the presence of heavy fire, the fighters of the assault groups dismounted, and the tanks fired longitudinally and crosswise along the streets, covering the advance of the infantry. The main task of the fighters of the assault groups was the destruction of enemy grenade launchers (“faustnikov”) and the calculations of towed anti-tank guns, while the IS-2 destroyed machine-gun nests with powerful fire, fired at identified sniper positions, destroyed armored caps and pillboxes. In the event of counterattacks, tanks or assault guns, the IS-2s transferred the weight of their fire to them, protecting their infantry. When detecting barricades, ditches, blockages, the IS-2 destroyed them with their own fire, or provided fire cover for sappers who eliminated the obstacle. Instructions for tankers and self-propelled gunners paid special attention to maneuver even in cramped conditions of urban combat, actions on the principle of "left cover, fired, went into cover."

In these battles, the IS-2s suffered significant losses, with popular opinion attributing them to the exceptional effectiveness of the German Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck anti-tank grenade launchers. However, the statistics of lost Soviet tanks in the Berlin operation does not support this version. More than 85% of the disabled tanks accounted for barreled tank and anti-tank German artillery, and the cases of massive destruction of the IS-2 by cumulative grenades are mainly due to gross violations of the tactics of urban combat by the commanders of the Red Army, when the tanks rushed forward without proper infantry cover. Unfortunately for the Soviet side, in many cases, attempts to take the city from a raid without using the tactics of assault groups led to more than serious losses.

The intensity of the fighting is evidenced by the fact that the crews of the IS-2 in urban battles (for example, the storming of Berlin) spent two to three ammunition per day, sometimes somehow finding a place in the tank for additional shells (up to 42) instead of 28 standard ones. As an illustration, we can cite an episode involving the IS-2 of the 34th OGvTTP on April 27, 1945. An assault group consisting of IS-2 and eight riflemen broke through to the church on Kurfürstenstrasse, but ran into a strong stronghold held by over a hundred SS soldiers. The tank was blown up by a mine, the loader and gunner died in it, then the Germans cut off the infantrymen from the IS-2 with their fire, creating favorable conditions for the Faustniks. The commander was killed by a cumulative grenade, only the driver, Sergeant German Shashkov, survived. The second hit of the IS-2 faustpatron set fire to the engine compartment, but the sergeant managed to turn the tank around in such a way as to bring down the nearby wall and knock down the flames with its debris. Then, among the bodies of his dead comrades, he stood behind the gun and machine guns and fired until the ammunition was completely depleted, after which, having opened the hatch, he continued to fight back with grenades. According to the monograph "IS Tanks in Battles", after the Soviet soldiers approached the tank, the bloodied Shashkov was found lying on the bottom with a knife in his hands. In his memoirs, V. I. Chuikov adds that the brave tanker rejected the enemy’s proposals to surrender and died shortly after his approach, and more than three dozen dead SS men lay around the damaged IS-2. Refinement: Gv. Sergeant German Shashkov died three months earlier, during the assault on the city of Poznan in January 1945, by the Decree of the PVS on March 23, 1945, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

IS-2 tanks provided fire support for the assault on the Reichstag:

On April 30, the fighting came close to the walls of the Reichstag. In the morning, the 88th heavy tank regiment, having crossed the Spree along the Moltke bridge, took up firing positions on the Kronprinzenufer embankment. At 11.30, units of the 79th Rifle Corps went on the offensive and crossed the ditch at Königsplatz in front of the Reichstag. At 13.00, the tanks of the regiment, participating in the general artillery preparation preceding the assault, opened fire at direct fire on the Reichstag. At 18.30, the regiment supported the second assault on the Reichstag with its fire, and only with the start of the battle inside the building did the tanks stop shelling it.

Collisions with the "Tigers"

The issue of combat episodes involving the IS-2 and the German heavy tanks "Tiger I" or "Tiger II" is one of the most hotly discussed on military or computer-game forums. The intensity of the arguing is constantly supported by references to documents of various units of the Red Army or the Wehrmacht, as well as memoirs of prominent military leaders and tankers of that era. As a rule, they include dozens and hundreds of destroyed or knocked out IS-2s and Tigers. However, one should take into account the fact that on both sides there were numerous additions and errors in determining the type of enemy equipment; moreover, the place, time and units that participated in the battle often do not converge. Therefore, the most reliable sources are not reports on the number of enemy equipment knocked out and destroyed, but reports on the available materiel and reports from captured teams. It should also be noted that often the decommissioning of destroyed vehicles officially occurs later than the battle in which it was lost, and damaged tanks sent for repair may not be considered as irretrievable losses, and this introduces additional difficulties in accurately recording the outcome of a particular battle. Based on the results of their analysis of documents, well-known historians M. Baryatinsky and M. Svirin argue about quite a few episodes of confrontation between the Tigers and the IS-2. This is not surprising, since heavy breakthrough tanks are not generally designed to fight heavy tanks. The most famous episodes with the proven participation of these tanks are the battles of the 71st OGvTTP with the "Tigers II" of the 501st heavy tank battalion near Oglenduv and the clash near Lisow. In both cases, both sides suffered heavy losses, for example, the commander of the 71st OGvTTP Guards, Lieutenant Colonel Yudin, was killed near Oglenduv, and his regiment lost 3 IS-2s burned out and another 7 wrecked (of which 4 were repaired by the regiment's own forces). In the battle near Lisuv, the commander of the 424th heavy tank battalion, Major Samish, was killed, and the battalion itself lost almost all materiel, on the Soviet side, the commander of the 61st tank brigade, N. G. Zhukov, also died. It is also worth noting that the well-known shortcoming of the IS-2 - low rate of fire - in the real situation of the battle turned out to be not so influencing its outcome: lieutenants Klimenkov, Belyakov and Udalov knocked out and destroyed several Tigers II, and to disable the latter it took multiple hits.

From the memoirs of Fadin Alexander Mikhailovich (Artyom Drabkin - “I fought on the T-34”):

We stood in caponiers dug on the slope of the vineyard. A kilometer ahead of us was a monastery. Suddenly, a "Tiger" crawls out from behind the stone wall of the fence. Has stopped. Behind him, another, then another. Ten of them came out. Well, we think - Khan, they will get us. Fear always has big eyes. Out of nowhere, two of our IS-2s are coming. I saw them for the first time. Lined up with us, stood up. Two "Tigers" separate and go a little forward, sort of like a duel. Ours preempted them with a shot and demolished both towers. And the rest - once, once and beyond the wall.

Causes of losses

The report on the combat operations of the 72nd OGvTTP from April 20 to May 10, 1944 is quite informative, which details the reasons for the irretrievable losses of the IS-2 in battles:

Tank No. 40247 on April 20 in the Gerasimów area came under artillery fire from the Ferdinand self-propelled guns from a distance of 1500-1200 m. The crew was able to respond with one shot, as the gun trigger mechanism failed. Leaving from under the fire of the self-propelled guns, the IS-2 received 5 hits in the frontal part of the hull, which did not harm it. At this time, another self-propelled gun "Ferdinand" imperceptibly approached from the flank at a distance of 600-700 m and pierced the starboard side of the tank near the engine with an armor-piercing projectile. The crew left the stopped car, which soon caught fire.

Tank No. 40255 from a distance of 1000-1100 m received a direct hit by an 88-mm projectile from the Tiger tank on the lower front inclined armor plate, as a result of which the left fuel tank was pierced, the driver was injured by armor fragments, and the rest of the crew received minor burns . The tank burned out.

Tank No. 4032, after withstanding three hits from the Tiger tank into the hull from the front from a distance of 1500–1000 m, was destroyed by fire from another Tiger from a distance of 500–400 m. An 88-mm armor-piercing projectile pierced the lower frontal sheet, the gunpowder of the sleeve ignited, and then the fuel. The tankers, having left the car, carried the wounded driver to the rear.

Tank No. 40260 burned down when an 88-mm projectile from the Tiger tank hit the left side of the flank from a distance of 500 m. The projectile destroyed the engine, the tank caught fire, the tank commander and gunner were injured.

Tank No. 40244 received a direct hit by an armor-piercing projectile from the Tiger tank from a distance of 800-1000 m on the starboard side of the hull. The driver was killed, and diesel fuel caught fire in the tank, pouring out of the destroyed right fuel tank. The tank was evacuated and then blown up by sappers.

Tank No. 40263 burned down from two shells hitting the side.

Tank No. 40273... received two direct hits: the first hit the turret, and immediately after it the second hit the side plate in the engine compartment area. The combat crew in the tower died, and the driver was wounded. The tank was left on enemy territory.

Tank number 40254 was hit by fire from the Ferdinand self-propelled guns, which was in ambush. The first shell of the turret box did not penetrate, but the second shell pierced the side of the hull and disabled the engine. The crew was evacuated, and the car burned down.

Thus, this document confirms that the fire safety of the IS-2 was worsened by the above-mentioned placement of fuel tanks in the inhabited areas of the vehicle, which was partly offset by the worse flammability of diesel fuel compared to gasoline. Also, reports from the front-line units indicate that the IS-2s set on fire were successfully extinguished by their own crews using a regular tetrachlorine fire extinguisher. At the same time, it should be noted that the extinguishing had to be carried out in gas masks - getting on hot surfaces, carbon tetrachloride was partially oxidized to phosgene, which is a potent toxic suffocating substance. Already at that time, safer carbon dioxide fire extinguishers began to be used on tanks of other countries. Like other tanks of that time (with rare exceptions), the IS-2 was not explosion-proof due to the location of the ammunition in the fighting compartment: the explosion of the ammunition rack was guaranteed to destroy the tank with the entire crew.

IS-2 in Polish and Czechoslovak units

The Army of the Polish Army received 71 IS-2s to form the 4th and 5th regiments of heavy tanks. During the fighting in Pomerania, the 4th regiment destroyed 31 enemy tanks, while losing 14 of its own. Both regiments took part in the Berlin operation. After the war, the Poles had 26 tanks left (with 21 vehicles returned to the Red Army).

Czechoslovak units received several IS-2s in the spring of 1945.

Project evaluation

The IS-2 was the most powerful Soviet tank that took part in the Great Patriotic War, and one of the strongest vehicles in the world of its time, both in the 40-50 t weight category and in the class of heavy breakthrough tanks. However, the assessment of this machine is greatly complicated by the propaganda of both sides participating in the war and a large number of post-war myths, one way or another connected with the ideological struggle of the Soviet Union or against it.

In terms of the total power of weapons and armor protection, the IS-2 surpassed all tanks of the Second World War (NTV TV channel "Voyennoye delo"), yielding to many different others in various individual indicators (for example, it was inferior to the T-6 in terms of rate of fire, in terms of frontal armor Tiger-2). Cast hull parts on all vehicles - turret and turret box. With a shortage of rolled armor, both frontal parts and a number of others were made of cast armor in simple technical conditions by low-skilled workers with the simplest means, which of course increased the real possibilities for the production of vehicles in war conditions. Such armor often had defects and often a rough surface, which additionally led to deviations from the calculated armor thickness in both directions. IS-2s covered 1000 km without breakdowns, while, for example, the Panthers suffered huge non-combat losses (tens of%) for technical reasons (at much higher production and repair costs), and not only during the Battle of Kursk.

With all the wide popularity of the IS-2, its place among Soviet vehicles is often questioned from different sides. From the very beginning, the IS-2 was to some extent considered by the ChKZ leadership as a machine imposed from above, especially since the turret with a 122-mm gun was completely placed on the basis of the KV-85 debugged in production (an experimental version of the KV-122). Despite the fact that Zh. Ya. Kotin was one of the leaders of ChKZ, the IS tank, developed under his leadership at Pilot Plant No. 100, was perceived at ChKZ as a foreign machine. As a result, at ChKZ, in secrecy, parallel work was carried out to create “their own” heavy tank, which, on the whole, were promising and not unsuccessful; but two big problems arose from this: every now and then, projects and prototypes of heavy tanks more perfect on paper than the IS-2 appeared, and the refinement of the latter went “with a creak”. To remedy the situation, the People's Commissar of Tank Building V. A. Malyshev had to use all his administrative power to bring the production and quality of the IS-2 supplied to the troops to a decent level.

Soviet tankers of the 62nd Guards Heavy Tank Regiment in a street fight in Danzig. The DShK heavy machine gun mounted on the IS-2 tank is used to destroy enemy soldiers armed with anti-tank grenade launchers.

The second aspect of the "early" doubts about the correctness of the path chosen for the heavy breakthrough tank is the existence of prototypes of the IS tank with 100-mm guns. Despite the higher theoretical rate of fire, the 100 mm gun in 1944 could not compete with the 122 mm D-25T gun. Military historian M.N. Svirin gives the following reasons for choosing a 122-mm gun:

He calls the decisive factor for choosing the D-25T that by the beginning of the selection of the artillery system for arming the IS-2 in September 1943, there were no 100-mm guns suitable for installation in it, and the other options presented were the 107-mm gun and howitzers of various calibers were clearly inferior to the 122-mm gun. The 100-mm S-34 cannon repeatedly failed state tests and by February 1944 was still not ready for adoption. The D-10T, which appeared later, after repeated modifications, was put into service only on July 3, 1944, moreover, the production of armor-piercing shells for it began only in November of the same year.

In a tank of dense layout, which was the IS, separate loading of the gun made it possible to place more ammunition than unitary shells of a smaller caliber, paradoxically. The unitary cartridge was long compared to a separate projectile and cartridge case, the maximum that could be done with it was to place 36 100-mm cartridges, of which 6 could hardly be delivered to the gun (they were stored next to the driver's seat). The ammunition load of the 122-mm gun was 28 shots and in some cases was brought up to 42.

The second seeming paradox of the 100 mm unitary cartridge - almost the same rate of fire as with 122 mm separate loading - is a consequence of the same large length of the cartridge and the tightness of the fighting compartment. In the parking lot in a calm environment, he really won in loading speed, but in the turmoil of battle, loading was carried out in the movement of the tank with significant shaking, and under such conditions, tests showed that the gain in loading speed was insignificant.

Frequent statements that the armor penetration of a 100-mm gun is higher than that of a 122-mm D-25T are based on firing tables of the mid-1950s, and in 1944, according to this parameter, the guns were equivalent when acting on Soviet armor, and when shelling German tanks with armor of increased fragility, the 122-mm projectile in terms of effective penetration range of 85-mm sloping armor (the upper frontal part of the Panther) was almost twice as large as the 100-mm due to the greater mass and kinetic energy (in passing, it can be noted that the German 75- mm and 88-mm shells had an even worse effect on German armor, that is, even in the absence of alloying elements, German metallurgists managed to achieve decent armor resistance against medium-caliber armor-piercing shells). In addition, the high-explosive and fragmentation power of the 122-mm projectile was significantly stronger than that of the 100-mm one.

Based on these prerequisites, it can be argued that the IS-2 was the only Soviet heavy tank that, in combination with its combat and operational properties, could satisfy the requirements of the Red Army in the second half of the war to conduct offensive operations with overcoming powerful and defense in depth. To adequately counter the IS-2, the enemy needed heavy anti-tank weapons, which, as a rule, were expensive, difficult to replenish and not always available in a particular place at the right time. The same thing happened in reverse order earlier in 1943 with the massive use of heavy tanks "Tiger" by the Germans, which was taken into account by the Soviet command when developing tactics for the use of heavy tanks.

A Soviet officer inspects a German self-propelled gun "Jagdpanther" (Sd.Kfz.173 Jagdpanther) shot down in East Prussia. On the right is a staff vehicle near an artillery truck with a 122-mm howitzer model 1910/30, in the background a wrecked Soviet IS-2 tank.

Production

In addition to production at ChKZ, in March 1945, 5 IS-2s were assembled by the LKZ restored in Leningrad, and it delivered the last 5 tanks in June. A total of 3385 IS-2 tanks were produced during the period from December 1943 to June 1945.

Post-war fate of the IS-2

IS-2s participated in the Korean War - there are references to the use of the IS-2 by the People's Liberation Army of China, but without any details. According to Russian researcher Mikhail Baryatinsky, the Chinese handed over a number of IS-2s to the troops of the Vietnam People's Army (VNA), who used them during the Indochina War. However, Western sources note that the VNA did not use armored vehicles during this war. The official history of the VNA does not mention tanks in the list of weapons and equipment available by the end of the war, and there are no armored tanks in the list of military units and subunits that existed in the same period. According to official Vietnamese data, the armored forces of the VNA were created in 1959, and they received their “baptism of fire” in 1968.

IS-2M

In 1957, the Soviet IS-2 underwent a major overhaul and modernization in order to bring its operational characteristics up to a level corresponding to peacetime service. Modernization works included the following:

The V-2-IS engine was replaced by the V-54K-IS;
- installed a new transmission;
- replaced track rollers and guide wheels;
- an additional fuel tank has been introduced;
- Ammunition increased to 35 shells;
- the design of the turret has been changed - in particular, a fan has been installed instead of the rear machine gun;
- replaced the lifting mechanism of the gun;
- installed a new radio station;
- new fire-fighting equipment was installed, wings of a different shape, a number of other minor changes were made.

In the early 1960s, two regiments of IS-2Ms were delivered to Cuba; by the end of the 1990s, they were still used in the coastal defense of this country. At the same time, North Korea received two regiments of IS-2M.

In the USSR IS-2M for a long time were in service, since the 1960s mostly in reserve. A significant number of these tanks were installed on the border with China. People's Republic as stationary long-term cannon firing points (a legacy of the German experience of the Second World War). Some of the tanks were used in the same place as mobile firing points - the vehicles were in the parks, and on alarm they had to advance into specially built tank trenches. Nevertheless, the IS-2 tank officially continued to be among the active models of armored vehicles, from time to time vehicles of this type were involved in exercises (in particular, in 1982 in the Odessa Military District). The official order to withdraw the IS-2M from service with the Russian army was issued only in 1995. By the early 2000s, the surviving IS-2 tanks - firing points in the fortified areas on the Russian-Chinese border - also began to be cut into metal.

Surviving copies

Many IS-2s have become museum exhibits. The IS-2 is an exhibit of the Armored Museum in Kubinka, presented in the expositions of the Museum-panorama "Battle of Stalingrad" in Volgograd, in the museum-diorama "Fiery Arc" in Belgorod, in the Museum of the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol on Sapun Mountain in Sevastopol, the Museum of Combat glory of Omsk citizens of Omsk, in the Museum of National Military History of the Istra district of the Moscow region and a number of other museums.

Soviet tank IS-2 No. 537 Lieutenant B.I. Degtyarev from the 87th Separate Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, shot down at Striegauer Platz in the German city of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). The tank is known from the photograph of Anatoly Yegorov "Musical moment". From April 1 to April 7, the regiment, consisting of 5 IS-2 tanks, supported the infantry of the 112th and 359th rifle divisions in the southwestern part of the city. For 7 days of fighting, Soviet troops advanced only a few blocks. More active action the tank regiment did not lead. The IS-2 in the photo is from the first issues, with a viewing "hatch-plug" of the driver.

The performance characteristics of the IS-2

Crew, people: 4
Years of production: 1943-1945
Years of operation: 1944-1995
Number of issued, pcs.: 3395
Layout scheme: classic

Weight IS-2

IS-2 dimensions

Case length, mm: 6770
- Length with gun forward, mm: 9830
- Hull width, mm: 3070
- Height, mm: 2630
- Clearance, mm: 420

Armor IS-2

Armor type: high hardness rolled, medium hardness cast
- Forehead of the hull (top), mm / city: 120 / 60 °
- Forehead of the hull (bottom), mm / city: 100 / −30 °
- Hull board (top), mm/deg.: 90-120 / 15°
- Hull board (bottom), mm/deg.: 90 / 0°
- Hull feed (top), mm / city: 60 / 49 °
- Hull feed (bottom), mm / city: 60 / −41 °
- Bottom, mm: 20
- Hull roof, mm: 30
- Tower forehead, mm / city: 100
- Gun mask, mm / city: 100
- Tower side, mm/deg.: 100 / 20°
- Feed tower, mm/deg.: 100 / 30°
- Tower roof, mm: 30

Armament IS-2

Gun caliber and brand: 122 mm D-25T
- Type of gun: rifled tank gun
- Barrel length, calibers: 48
- Gun ammunition: 28
- Firing range, km: ~ 4
- Sights: TSh-17
- Machine guns: 3 × 7.62 mm DT, 1 × 12.7 mm DShK (since 1944)

Engine IS-2

Engine type: V-shaped 4-stroke 12-cylinder diesel V-2IS
- Engine power, l. p.: 520

IS-2 speed

Highway speed, km/h: 37
- Cross-country speed, km / h: 10-15

Range on the highway, km: 240
- Power reserve over rough terrain, km: 160
- Specific power, l. s./t: 11.3
- Suspension type: individual torsion bar
- Specific ground pressure, kg/cm²: 0.8
- Climbability, degrees: 36°
- overcome wall, m: 1
- Crossable ditch, m: 2.5
- Crossable ford, m: 1.3

Photo IS-2

Films about tanks where there is still no alternative to this type of armament of the ground forces. The tank was and probably will remain a modern weapon for a long time due to the ability to combine such seemingly contradictory qualities as high mobility, powerful weapons and reliable crew protection. These unique qualities of tanks continue to be constantly improved, and the experience and technologies accumulated over decades predetermine new frontiers of combat properties and military-technical achievements. In the age-old confrontation "projectile - armor", as practice shows, protection from a projectile is being improved more and more, acquiring new qualities: activity, multi-layeredness, self-defense. At the same time, the projectile becomes more accurate and powerful.

Russian tanks are specific in that they allow you to destroy the enemy from a safe distance, have the ability to perform quick maneuvers on impassable roads, contaminated terrain, can “walk” through the territory occupied by the enemy, seize a decisive bridgehead, induce panic in the rear and suppress the enemy with fire and caterpillars . The war of 1939-1945 became the most difficult test for all mankind, since almost all countries of the world were involved in it. It was the battle of the titans - the most unique period that theorists argued about in the early 1930s and during which tanks were used in large numbers by almost all the warring parties. At this time, a "check for lice" and a deep reform of the first theories of the use of tank troops took place. And it is the Soviet tank troops that are most affected by all this.

Tanks in battle that became a symbol of the past war, the backbone of the Soviet armored forces? Who created them and under what conditions? How did the USSR, having lost most of its European territories and having difficulty recruiting tanks for the defense of Moscow, be able to launch powerful tank formations on the battlefield already in 1943? This book, which tells about the development of Soviet tanks "in the days of testing ", from 1937 to the beginning of 1943. When writing the book, materials from the archives of Russia and private collections of tank builders were used. There was a period in our history that was deposited in my memory with some depressing feeling. It began with the return of our first military advisers from Spain, and stopped only at the beginning of forty-third, - said the former general designer of self-propelled guns L. Gorlitsky, - there was some kind of pre-stormy state.

Tanks of the Second World War, it was M. Koshkin, almost underground (but, of course, with the support of "the wisest of the wise leader of all peoples"), who was able to create the tank that, a few years later, would shock German tank generals. And what’s more, he didn’t just create it, the designer managed to prove to these stupid military men that it was his T-34 that they needed, and not just another wheeled-tracked “highway”. The author is in slightly different positions that he formed after meeting with the pre-war documents of the RGVA and RGAE. Therefore, working on this segment of the history of the Soviet tank, the author will inevitably contradict something "generally accepted". This work describes the history of Soviet tank building in the most difficult years - from the beginning of a radical restructuring of all the activities of design bureaus and people's commissariats in general, during a frantic race to equip new tank formations of the Red Army, the transfer of industry to wartime rails and evacuation.

Tanks Wikipedia the author wants to express his special gratitude for the help in the selection and processing of materials to M. Kolomiyets, and also to thank A. Solyankin, I. Zheltov and M. Pavlov, the authors of the reference publication "Domestic armored vehicles. XX century. 1905 - 1941" because this book helped to understand the fate of some projects, unclear before. I would also like to recall with gratitude those conversations with Lev Izraelevich Gorlitsky, the former Chief Designer of UZTM, which helped to take a fresh look at the entire history of the Soviet tank during the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. Today, for some reason, it is customary to talk about 1937-1938 in our country. only in terms of repression, but few people remember that it was during this period that those tanks were born that became legends military time... "From the memoirs of L.I. Gorlinky.

Soviet tanks, a detailed assessment of them at that time sounded from many lips. Many old people recalled that it was from the events in Spain that it became clear to everyone that the war was getting closer to the threshold and it was Hitler who would have to fight. In 1937, mass purges and repressions began in the USSR, and against the backdrop of these difficult events, the Soviet tank began to turn from a "mechanized cavalry" (in which one of its combat qualities protruded by reducing others) into a balanced combat vehicle, which simultaneously had powerful weapons, sufficient to suppress most targets, good cross-country ability and mobility with armor protection, capable of maintaining its combat effectiveness when shelling a potential enemy with the most massive anti-tank weapons.

It was recommended that large tanks be introduced into the composition in addition only special tanks - floating, chemical. The brigade now had 4 separate battalions of 54 tanks each and was reinforced by the transition from three-tank platoons to five-tank ones. In addition, D. Pavlov justified the refusal to form in 1938 to the four existing mechanized corps three more additionally, believing that these formations are immobile and difficult to control, and most importantly, they require a different organization of the rear. The tactical and technical requirements for promising tanks, as expected, have been adjusted. In particular, in a letter dated December 23 to the head of the design bureau of plant No. 185 named after. CM. Kirov, the new chief demanded to strengthen the armor of new tanks so that at a distance of 600-800 meters (effective range).

The latest tanks in the world when designing new tanks, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of increasing the level of armor protection during modernization by at least one step ... "This problem could be solved in two ways. Firstly, by increasing the thickness of the armor plates and, secondly," by using increased armor resistance". It is easy to guess that the second way was considered more promising, since the use of specially hardened armor plates, or even two-layer armor, could, while maintaining the same thickness (and the mass of the tank as a whole), increase its durability by 1.2-1.5 It was this path (the use of specially hardened armor) that was chosen at that moment to create new types of tanks.

Tanks of the USSR at the dawn of tank production, armor was most massively used, the properties of which were identical in all directions. Such armor was called homogeneous (homogeneous), and from the very beginning of the armor business, the craftsmen strove to create just such armor, because uniformity ensured stability of characteristics and simplified processing. However, at the end of the 19th century, it was noticed that when the surface of the armor plate was saturated (to a depth of several tenths to several millimeters) with carbon and silicon, its surface strength increased sharply, while the rest of the plate remained viscous. So heterogeneous (heterogeneous) armor came into use.

In military tanks, the use of heterogeneous armor was very important, since an increase in the hardness of the entire thickness of the armor plate led to a decrease in its elasticity and (as a result) to an increase in brittleness. Thus, the most durable armor, other things being equal, turned out to be very fragile and often pricked even from bursts of high-explosive fragmentation shells. Therefore, at the dawn of armor production in the manufacture of homogeneous sheets, the task of the metallurgist was to achieve the highest possible hardness of the armor, but at the same time not to lose its elasticity. Surface-hardened by saturation with carbon and silicon armor was called cemented (cemented) and was considered at that time a panacea for many ills. But cementation is a complex, harmful process (for example, processing a hot plate with a jet of lighting gas) and relatively expensive, and therefore its development in a series required high costs and an increase in production culture.

Tank of the war years, even in operation, these hulls were less successful than homogeneous ones, since for no apparent reason cracks formed in them (mainly in loaded seams), and it was very difficult to put patches on holes in cemented slabs during repairs. But it was still expected that a tank protected by 15-20 mm cemented armor would be equivalent in terms of protection to the same, but covered with 22-30 mm sheets, without a significant increase in mass.
Also, by the mid-1930s, in tank building, they learned how to harden the surface of relatively thin armor plates by uneven hardening, known since the end of the 19th century in shipbuilding as the "Krupp method". Surface hardening led to a significant increase in the hardness of the front side of the sheet, leaving the main thickness of the armor viscous.

How tanks shoot videos up to half the thickness of the plate, which, of course, was worse than carburizing, since despite the fact that the hardness of the surface layer was higher than during carburizing, the elasticity of the hull sheets was significantly reduced. So the "Krupp method" in tank building made it possible to increase the strength of armor even somewhat more than carburizing. But the hardening technology that was used for sea armor of large thicknesses was no longer suitable for relatively thin tank armor. Before the war, this method was almost never used in our serial tank building due to technological difficulties and relatively high cost.

Combat use of tanks The most developed for tanks was the 45-mm tank gun mod 1932/34. (20K), and before the event in Spain, it was believed that its power was enough to perform most tank tasks. But the battles in Spain showed that the 45-mm gun could only satisfy the task of fighting enemy tanks, since even the shelling of manpower in the mountains and forests turned out to be ineffective, and it was only possible to disable a dug-in enemy firing point in the event of a direct hit . Shooting at shelters and bunkers was ineffective due to the small high-explosive action of a projectile weighing only about two kg.

Types of tanks photo so that even one hit of a projectile reliably disables an anti-tank gun or machine gun; and thirdly, to increase the penetrating effect of a tank gun on the armor of a potential enemy, since, using the example of French tanks (already having an armor thickness of the order of 40-42 mm), it became clear that the armor protection of foreign combat vehicles tends to be significantly increased. There was a right way to do this - increasing the caliber of tank guns and simultaneously increasing the length of their barrel, since a long gun of a larger caliber fires heavier projectiles at a higher muzzle velocity over a greater distance without correcting the pickup.

The best tanks in the world had a large caliber gun, also has big sizes breech, significantly more weight and increased recoil reaction. And this required an increase in the mass of the entire tank as a whole. In addition, the placement of large shots in the closed volume of the tank led to a decrease in the ammunition load.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that at the beginning of 1938 it suddenly turned out that there was simply no one to give an order for the design of a new, more powerful tank gun. P. Syachintov and his entire design team were repressed, as well as the core of the Bolshevik Design Bureau under the leadership of G. Magdesiev. Only the group of S. Makhanov remained at liberty, who from the beginning of 1935 tried to bring his new 76.2-mm semi-automatic single gun L-10, and the team of plant No. 8 slowly brought the "forty-five".

Photos of tanks with names The number of developments is large, but in mass production in the period 1933-1937. not a single one was accepted ... "In fact, none of the five air-cooled tank diesel engines, which were worked on in 1933-1937 in the engine department of plant No. 185, was brought to the series. Moreover, despite the decisions on the highest levels of the transition in tank building exclusively to diesel engines, this process was held back by a number of factors.Of course, diesel had significant efficiency.It consumed less fuel per unit of power per hour.Diesel fuel is less prone to ignition, since the flash point of its vapors was very high.

Even the most finished of them, the MT-5 tank engine, required reorganization of engine production for serial production, which was expressed in the construction of new workshops, the supply of advanced foreign equipment (there were no machine tools of the required accuracy yet), financial investments and strengthening personnel. It was planned that in 1939 this diesel engine with a capacity of 180 hp. will go to serial tanks and artillery tractors, but because of investigative work to find out the causes of tank engine accidents, which lasted from April to November 1938, these plans were not fulfilled. The development of a slightly increased six-cylinder gasoline engine No. 745 with a power of 130-150 hp was also started.

Tank brands specific indicators, which suited the tank builders quite well. Tank tests were carried out according to a new methodology, specially developed at the insistence of the new head of the ABTU D. Pavlov in relation to combat service in wartime. The basis of the tests was a run of 3-4 days (at least 10-12 hours of daily non-stop traffic) with a one-day break for technical inspection and restoration work. Moreover, repairs were allowed to be carried out only by field workshops without the involvement of factory specialists. This was followed by a "platform" with obstacles, "bathing" in the water with an additional load, simulating an infantry landing, after which the tank was sent for examination.

Super tanks online after the improvement work seemed to remove all claims from the tanks. And the general course of the tests confirmed the fundamental correctness of the main design changes - an increase in displacement by 450-600 kg, the use of the GAZ-M1 engine, as well as the Komsomolets transmission and suspension. But during the tests, numerous minor defects again appeared in the tanks. The chief designer N. Astrov was suspended from work and was under arrest and investigation for several months. In addition, the tank received a new improved protection turret. The modified layout made it possible to place on the tank a larger ammunition load for a machine gun and two small fire extinguishers (before there were no fire extinguishers on small tanks of the Red Army).

US tanks as part of modernization work, on one serial model of the tank in 1938-1939. the torsion bar suspension developed by the designer of the Design Bureau of Plant No. 185 V. Kulikov was tested. It was distinguished by the design of a composite short coaxial torsion bar (long monotorsion bars could not be used coaxially). However, such a short torsion bar did not show good enough results in tests, and therefore the torsion bar suspension did not immediately pave its way in the course of further work. Obstacles to be overcome: rises not less than 40 degrees, vertical wall 0.7 m, overlapping ditch 2-2.5 m.

Youtube about tanks work on the production of prototypes of D-180 and D-200 engines for reconnaissance tanks is not being carried out, jeopardizing the production of prototypes. 10-1), as well as the amphibious tank version (factory designation 102 or 10-2), are a compromise solution, since it is not possible to fully meet the requirements of the ABTU.Variant 101 was a tank weighing 7.5 tons with a hull according to the type of hull, but with vertical side sheets of case-hardened armor 10-13 mm thick, because: "Sloped sides, causing serious weighting of the suspension and hull, require a significant (up to 300 mm) broadening of the hull, not to mention the complication of the tank.

Video reviews of tanks in which the power unit of the tank was planned to be based on the 250-horsepower MG-31F aircraft engine, which was mastered by the industry for agricultural aircraft and gyroplanes. Gasoline of the 1st grade was placed in a tank under the floor of the fighting compartment and in additional onboard gas tanks. The armament fully met the task and consisted of coaxial machine guns DK caliber 12.7 mm and DT (in the second version of the project even ShKAS appears) caliber 7.62 mm. The combat weight of a tank with a torsion bar suspension was 5.2 tons, with a spring suspension - 5.26 tons. The tests were carried out from July 9 to August 21 according to the methodology approved in 1938, with special attention paid to tanks.

The use of IS-2 tanks is one of the most interesting topics in the history of the Great Patriotic War. But it has not yet been studied very thoroughly.

The IS-2 was the most massive heavy tank of World War II and a milestone vehicle for Soviet and world tank building. A real "universal soldier", capable of solving a very wide range of combat missions, having proven itself equally well both in battles in open areas and in cities, he has been in service with different countries for more than half a century.

Hero portrait

In the spring of 1942, the Main Armored Directorate (GABTU) launched a program to create a heavy tank weighing 30 tons. The work was carried out by Chelyabinsk engineers. The machine received the factory index KV-13, but almost at the same time the design bureau began to use the name IS-1. Despite the KV index, the new tank had very little in common with the serial Klim Voroshilov heavy tank.

In the fall of 1942, the first sample of the KV-13 showed an excellent speed of 56 km / h in tests, and at the same time - many design defects. The process of improvements began, during which the mass of the tank increased to 38 tons, and the crew increased to four people. By the spring of next year, the IS-1 index had already been officially assigned to the car. The abbreviation stood for "Joseph Stalin".

Prototype IS-122 on trials.
October 1943

The IS-1 was equipped with an 85 mm gun. But few tanks with such a gun were built, because at the same time, artillery designers under the leadership of F.F. Petrov were working on another topic that was to become crucial for the IS heavy tank. We are talking about a 122-mm tank gun. The draft design of its installation in the IS was ready in the summer of 1943, in the autumn a prototype was built and sea and fire tests were carried out. In December, the first 35 IS-2s with a 122-mm cannon rolled off the assembly lines. In total, during the war, such tanks, with some structural modifications, were built 3385.

The vast majority of the IS-2 entered service with the Guards Heavy Breakthrough Regiments. And in total, 25 units of the Red Army were equipped with the new tank.

Against "Tigers" of all stripes

In terms of its tasks, the new Soviet heavy tank to some extent echoed the German Tiger. IS regiments served to reinforce tank formations. With the "Tigers", contrary to popular belief, the IS-2 met on the battlefield quite often and, as a rule, with a sad result for the Germans. And although there was no direct order forbidding German tankers to fight with ISs, Soviet reports from the second half of 1944 until the end of the Great Patriotic War increasingly stated that the enemy avoided direct contact with Soviet heavy tanks.

IS-2 on the attack. Autumn-winter 1944

A typical example of the use of the IS-2 in the battles of 1944 can be considered the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. The 29th Heavy Regiment irrevocably destroyed 23 Tigers and Panthers between July 16 and 19. The regiment's own losses were three burned-out tanks and eight wrecked, of which five were restored. In total, during the operation, the 29th regiment chalked up 38 destroyed German tanks and self-propelled guns - with four burned-out ISs and five requiring overhaul.

The 71st Guards Heavy Tank Regiment worked well in the same operation. At first, the fighting was unsuccessful for the regiment: he was ambushed, lost three tanks burned out and three knocked out, and the regiment commander was mortally wounded. With return fire, the guards destroyed the "Tiger", "Ferdinand" and knocked out two "Panthers". After the battle, 18 non-penetrations from 75-mm shells were counted on the armor of one of the ISs.

The tank of the Guards, junior lieutenant Neyelov, damaged during the battles for Rausen, March 1945. The tank received 16 hits, but was never penetrated.

Two days later, near the town of Mageruv, the regiment was again ambushed, but this time the Germans were not lucky. The regiment, without losing a single vehicle, went around the dangerous area, and the only remaining tank of the guard, Lieutenant B. Slyunyaev, destroyed the Ferdinand, two anti-tank guns and the same number of armored personnel carriers. Then the regiment crossed the San River and ended up outside the pre-war territory of the USSR.

Already in Poland, the regiment encountered the "King Tigers" - the latest German heavy tanks. The episode in which Lieutenant A. Oskin knocked out three tanks of this type on a T-34-85 is well known. But along with Oskin, everyone who could shoot. But the nearby IS-2s fought with the "Royal Tigers" almost one on one. In the battle near the village of Oglendow, the soldiers of the 71st Heavy Guards Regiment won with a score of 6:0.

"Draft horse" of the Red Army

In addition to the heavy breakthrough regiments, the IS-2 entered service with the guards tank brigades. Their composition of equipment was, unlike the regiments, heterogeneous. For example, the 57th Guards Tank Brigade received ten ISs in March 1945 in addition to the thirty-fours.

The tactics of their use as part of the brigade corresponded to the use of breakthrough regiments. The ISs followed the battle formations of the T-34-85 and cleared the way for medium tanks, shooting enemy tanks and self-propelled guns from long distances.

In nine days of fighting, the 57th Guards Brigade destroyed 19 German tanks and 12 self-propelled guns, losing only four IS-2s. One of the heavy tanks under the command of junior lieutenant Neyelov in one battle dealt with three German tanks, two self-propelled guns, seven guns and about a hundred German soldiers. After the battle, 16 hits were counted on the armor, all without breaking through.

In urban combat, IS-2s fought as part of assault groups. Their powerful gun was an excellent means of destroying German fortifications and firing points in houses.

IS-2 in the battles for Berlin

Regardless of the sector of the front and the terrain, the IS-2 acted at the forefront of events. Unfortunately, there is still no major work on the combat use of these heavy tanks. But starting from the spring of 1944, it is difficult to find documents about at least one major battle in which volleys of their 122-mm guns did not thunder.

More photos of IS-2

The material was republished from the worldoftanks.ru portal as part of a partnership.

Sources:

1. Documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
2. Author's personal photo archive.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

Its origin is from the K8-1 and KB-13 tanks. At the end of 1943, the 85 mm cannon was also installed on the T-34, but the heavy tank needed to be armed with a more powerful artillery system. Back in August 1942, the Germans used their first "Tigers" near Leningrad, which got stuck in a swampy area, and their attack failed. In January 1943, our troops on the Volkhov front captured the wrecked "Tiger", at the same time all their weak points were studied and identified.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

Of course, the "Tiger" turned out to be a strong adversary with a highly effective 88-mm semi-automatic anti-aircraft gun, equipped with a barrel purging system after a shot and an electric trigger. The armor-piercing projectile of the cannon pierced 115 mm armor from a distance of 1000 meters, and the sub-caliber could hit almost 180 mm armor. In addition to the gun, there were also two machine guns. The thickness of the armor was 80 mm in the frontal part, even more - 100 mm. In imitation of our thirty-fours and KB "Tigers", for better cross-country ability, they began to supply wider 72-mm tracks.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

But still, the "Tiger" had serious drawbacks. The large mass of the structure limited its mobility, especially in off-road conditions, even on the highway its speed was no higher than 40 km / h. And the armor, although it was thick enough, was inferior in quality to the Soviet metal The undercarriage was also not reliable enough.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

When our T-34-85 and IS-2 tanks appeared on the battlefields, the superiority of German tanks, especially in armament, was put to an end.

At the end of November 1943, the Kirov Plant received a prototype of a powerful 122 mm tank gun with a muzzle brake designed by F.F. Petrov. The design bureau team worked for several weeks to adapt the hull-mounted 122-mm cannon with a slightly shortened barrel for the IS tank. At the same time, to increase the rate of fire, the piston lock of the gun was replaced with a wedge. A new tank semi-automatic cannon that outnumbered the KB-1 cannon by 5 times.

It was adopted for armed by a GKO decree of December 31, 1943, and they immediately began to install it on tanks. To combat enemy attack aircraft, a large-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun was installed on the tower. Although the thickness of the armor and the caliber of the gun became larger, in general the tank turned out to be light and fast and received the name IS-2.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

State tests near Moscow, where they fired at the captured "Panther", showed the effectiveness of the tank: the projectile, breaking through the frontal armor, hit the opposite sheet, tore it off by welding and threw it a few meters. During the tests, the rezorValo gun had a T-shaped muzzle brake. After that, it was replaced by a two-chamber, German type, and from March 1944 - a more efficient TsAKB design.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

This is how the strongest tank of the Second World War appeared, reliable in operation and easy to repair. Thanks to well-thought-out design solutions, the size and weight of the new tank did not increase compared to the KB, but speed and maneuverability increased. The muzzle energy of his gun turned out to be one and a half times greater than that of the 88-mm gun "Tiger". A 25 kg projectile had an initial speed of 790 m / s. At the same time, the rate of fire due to separate loading was small - 2-3 rounds per minute .

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

The first serial IS-2 vehicles were manufactured already at the end of 1943 and in February 1944 they received a baptism of fire near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. The battles showed that such powerful weapons as the IS-2 did not have on any foreign tank during the Second World War.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

Being the first representative of a new generation of domestic heavy tanks, the IS-2 was significantly different from the KV tank in terms of armor protection and armament. The front part of the hull and the turret were cast and had a different shape. The sides, stern, bottom and roof were made of rolled armor plates. In front of the car housed the control compartment with access to it through the hatch. The driver watched the area through the hatch, which was closed with a retractable armored cover with glass block.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

A cannon with a coaxial machine gun was installed in the tower. The second machine gun was placed in a ball bearing in the stern, the third - course - in the hull to the right of the driver, who fired from it. A fixed commander's turret with a loader's hatch was installed on the roof of the turret. It had viewing slots and a periscope observation device. The guns and coaxial machine gun were also equipped with telescopic and periscope sights.

The turret rotation mechanism had electric and manual drives, the engine system underwent significant changes. Special devices were installed to heat the air entering the engine in winter. The electric inertia starter allowed the engine to be started from a manual drive. The tank was equipped with a radio station and an internal intercom.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

The power transmission is mechanical, the main friction clutch is dry friction. Eight-speed gearbox with demultiplier. The hinged sheet of the body provided access to the power transmission units. The final drives are two-stage with a planetary gear set. Drive wheels with removable rims, torsion bar suspension. Support and supporting rollers are all-metal. The caterpillar is a small metal caterpillar.
The electrical equipment system is single-wire with a voltage of 24 and 12 V. Power supply sources are two batteries and a 1000 W generator.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

Subsequently, many changes were made to the IS-2 device, including armament. The military was not satisfied with the low rate of fire, small ammunition load. In addition, after the first collisions with heavy German tanks, it turned out that a regular 122-mm sharp-headed armor-piercing projectile is capable of penetrating the Panther's frontal armor only from a distance of 600-700 m.

The weaker armor of the "Tiger" made its way from a distance of 1200 m, but it was difficult to hit a German tank from such a distance. When firing powerful high-explosive fragmentation grenades, cracking of the welds and even separation of the frontal sheet by welding took place, the armor of the frontal part of the hull was insufficient. Thus, this forced designers to look for ways to solve these problems.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

TANK IS-2 1944 RELEASE

In 1944, the IS-2 was upgraded. They tried to increase the armor resistance of the hull by hardening it to a very high hardness, but this led to a sharp increase in the mass of body parts.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

In February 1944, a study was carried out on the armor resistance of a heavy IS tank, which showed that with existing form frontal part of the hull of 75- and 88-mm German shells will not be able to penetrate it only with a thickness of 145-150 mm, i.e. 20-30 mm more than standard. On the recommendation of TsNII-48, which conducted the research, the hardening modes were changed, as well as the design of the frontal part of the hull. The new hull with the so-called straight nose retained the same armor thickness. The driver's hatch plug was removed from the front sheet, which significantly reduced its strength. The sheet was placed at an angle of 60 degrees to the vertical, as a result, at a course angle of fire of ± 30 ", the German 88-mm cannon could not penetrate it even when firing point-blank.

The armor protection of the gun was increased, a large-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun was installed. Armament made it possible to fight with the enemy at a distance of two or more kilometers.

During the production process, the appearance of the tower has changed significantly. If the tanks of the first production series had turrets with a narrow embrasure, then from May 1944 they began to manufacture turrets with an expanded embrasure, which made it possible to shift the telescopic sight to the left and increase ease of use
The armor protection of the installation mask was also increased. increased thickness of the lower part of the sides. The commander's cupola was shifted to the left and an anti-aircraft heavy machine gun was placed on it. The PT4-17 periscope sight was removed from it and a surveillance device was installed in its place.
And until the end of the war, the tower of the IS heavy tank did not undergo any significant changes.

Soviet heavy tank IS-2

These tanks, like the IS-1, received their baptism of fire at the final stage of the liberation of right-bank Ukraine. It should be emphasized that the IS-2 was first used during the Proskurov-Chernivtsi and Uman-Botoshansk operations.

Collisions between the IS-2 and the Tigers were quite rare. In any case, in the descriptions of the combat path of the German heavy tank battalions, no more than ten such facts are found, and with the participation of the "Tiger" II. Worthy of mention is the battle in Hungary, near Budapest in November 1944 with the tanks of the 503rd battalion.

The heavy tank "IS-2" was a further successful development of the line of Soviet heavy breakthrough tanks. It retained all the strengths of the IS-1 and at the same time had more impressive firepower due to the installation of a new 122-mm D-25T gun. These combat vehicles, unlike the IS-1, were produced much more, and as a result, the IS-2 became the main tank for breaking through well-fortified enemy positions by the end of the war. Its appearance finally put an end to the short-lived superiority of the German heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther" in armament and armor over Soviet combat vehicles.

Description

"IS-2" was a further development of a series of tanks "IS". Its main and main difference from the "IS-1" was the armament. Since the design of the tank turret initially made it possible to install a more powerful gun in it than the 85-mm cannon installed on the first "IS", this idea was almost immediately expressed by several leading Soviet designers, including Zh.Ya. Kotin. A sketch of a project for installing a 122-mm gun on the tank, with which it was planned to arm the IS, was completed as soon as possible. At the end of October 1943, this option was approved and adopted by the Red Army. The tank was named "IS-2". The tests were a great success - at one of the training grounds near Moscow, in the presence of a GKO member Voroshilov, an IS-2 fired at a captured German Panther from a distance of 1500m. The shell hit the side of the tower, broke it, and hitting the other wall from the inside, completely tore it out.
During the tests, which ended successfully on the whole, problems appeared with the muzzle brake of the gun, which had to be replaced. Already in December 1943, they began to produce a new tank. In real combat conditions, it turned out that the upper inclined armor plate of the Panther, the 122-mm D-25T gun mounted on the IS-2, pierced only from a distance of 600-700m, the frontal armor of the Tiger succumbed from 1200m. However, already in 1944, due to the decline in the quality of German armor due to a shortage of manganese, the IS-2 gun began to cope perfectly with all types of German tanks, including Tigers and Panthers. There were cases when the German "Panthers" were put out of action when they were hit from huge distances - about 2500m. The 122 mm tank gun had high precision both when shooting from a place, and when shooting on the move. "IS-2" could conduct effective aimed fire from a distance of about 1 km. This was facilitated by excellent observation and aiming devices with a fourfold increase. He became the last Soviet heavy tank who massively took part in the Great Patriotic War. Its armor was similar to the "IS-1" and was 120mm in the upper frontal projection at an angle of 60 degrees. The speed and mobility of the IS-2 made it difficult for the enemy to aim. Such tanks could quickly break into the enemy's defenses, suppressing his firing points and manpower with powerful high-explosive fragmentation shells from their 122-mm guns. Of the German armored vehicles, only the German anti-tank self-propelled guns "Jagdtigr" and "Jagdpanther" could really effectively resist them, which, due to a powerful gun with a high initial velocity of the projectile, could hit the "IS-2" from almost any combat distance. But the German army had very few of these self-propelled guns and, in fact, the enemy did not have equipment capable of really effectively hitting the IS-2. The Soviet tank is often called an analogue of the German "Tiger" and the performance characteristics of the tanks are compared with each other, giving the palm to one or another vehicle, but it is still difficult to say unequivocally which of the tanks was better, or rather, it would be to say that they were quite comparable with each other (See "IS-2 vs. Tiger").
As for the shortcomings of the Soviet heavy tank, the military, first of all, was not satisfied with the small ammunition load of the vehicle and the low rate of fire, which is why at close range the tank was very vulnerable in battles with the same Tigers, whose guns were reloaded much faster. At the last stages of the war, Soviet tanks, including the IS-2, began to suffer heavy losses from the fire of the German infantry, massively armed with fauspatrons. But in the end, neither the "Tigers", nor the "Panthers", nor the crowds of soldiers from the Volkssturm with fauspatrons saved the German eastern front from the unstoppable onslaught of the Soviet tank armies at the end of the war. The high level of organization and order that the Red Army acquired in the second half of the war, plus the best tanks in the world, did their job. The German front was bursting at the seams from powerful tank strikes. "IS-2" became the last massive heavy tank of the Soviet army in this terrible war, and many veterans remember these formidable fighting vehicles. They certainly deserve no less glory than the legendary T-34 and will forever remain one of the symbols of our victory in that terrible war.