0:02 The SU152 went from drawing board to
0:05 first prototype in just 25 days. Despite
0:07 never being designed to fight tanks, it
0:08 became the best tank killer the Soviets
0:10 had. But the way it earned its
0:12 reputation was nothing like anyone
0:14 expected. This is the dark story of the
0:16 infamous Soviet heavy self-propelled gun
0:18 and what it did in the horrific combat
0:21 of World War II. Let's
0:23 begin. So, what made the Soviets
0:25 scrambled to create this weapon exactly
0:28 this way and in such a short time?
0:30 Soviets launched operation Uranus and
0:31 encircled the German Sixth Army in
0:34 Stalingrad. After horrific fights in the
0:35 city and encounters with a new zoo of
0:37 German tanks, tigers, panthers, and
0:40 later elephants, Soviets very quickly
0:42 realized they needed a new heavy weapon,
0:44 and they needed it fast. The new German
0:46 heavy tanks were a concerning issue. But
0:47 the assault gun actually came for
0:50 something else entirely. Frontline units
0:51 were severely underpowered and
0:53 illequipped for the new way of combat.
0:55 They had artillery and combat engineers
0:56 of course, but almost all of the Soviet
0:58 guns and howitzers at the time were
1:00 towed either by artillery tractors or
1:03 horses. Early 76 mm guns on tanks didn't
1:04 have enough power to blast
1:07 fortifications. And with combat now in
1:09 cities, they needed such firepower
1:11 beside them. When you add to this deep
1:13 snow, no roads, shattered city streets,
1:15 and counterattacks, vulnerable towed
1:17 guns were becoming increasingly less
1:19 effective. They were often abandoned
1:21 after their crew either died or had to
1:23 retreat in the face of ambush or
1:24 counterattack and leave their weapon
1:27 behind. Soviets already had this issue
1:28 in the winter war when they struggled
1:30 with heavily fortified Finnish bunkers
1:33 and the KV2 with the 152 mm howitzer was
1:35 already built for that purpose. But the
1:37 huge turret with an enormous gun worked
1:40 catastrophically in practice. It made
1:41 the tank too heavy, especially too
1:44 topheavy and too complicated to produce.
1:46 So to solve this issue, the Soviet army
1:48 began to develop a heavy self-propelled
1:51 gun that would carry the powerful 152mm
1:54 ML20 howitzer offer protection for its
1:55 crew and still be quick and simple to
1:58 build. And when we say began developing,
2:00 the first prototype designated as object
2:04 236 or KV14 was built in just 25 days.
2:06 The most simple and cost-effective
2:08 design was chosen using the KV1S
2:10 chassis, slamming the already existing
2:13 gun on an already existing hole. Frantic
2:15 testing began and as the need was so
2:17 critical after just mere weeks the
2:19 design was accepted into service.
2:21 Production began immediately. It's
2:23 really interesting how Soviets went from
2:24 problem to solution and its production
2:27 in such rapid time. Just 4 months from
2:29 brainstorming a new concept to its mass
2:31 production. Maybe we should try some of
2:33 that vodka. Jokes aside, in the next 10
2:36 months they would spit out some 700
2:39 SU152s. Essentially this was a 45ton
2:41 vehicle built around the huge howitzer.
2:43 It fired two-piece ammunition weighing a
2:46 little under 50 kilos, 110 lb. The
2:48 standard high explosive shell had around
2:51 6 kg of TNT, quite enough to obliterate
2:53 a bunker or level a smaller house
2:55 completely with one shot. Because of the
2:57 weight, the two-piece arrangement, and
2:59 the quite cramped loader's position, the
3:01 rate of fire was only about two rounds
3:03 per minute. Also, they could carry only
3:05 20 rounds, but it compensated with
3:07 single hit complete destruction of most
3:10 targets. It wouldn't wait long to see
3:11 combat as the Battle of Kursk
3:13 approached. Today known as history's
3:16 largest tank battle, SU152s were formed
3:17 into independent self-propelled
3:20 artillery regiments with crews hastily
3:21 trained and the first 12 of them were
3:25 sent to Kursk. It was July 6th, 1943
3:27 when a battery of Sus lay an ambush and
3:28 new German heavy tank destroyers
3:31 Ferdinands, later renamed elephants,
3:32 approached. It was among the most
3:34 heavily armored vehicles of the war with
3:37 200 mm of frontal armor and weighing 25
3:40 tons more than the SU. At 800 m, the
3:43 first Ferdinand was hit and set ablaze.
3:45 There was no protection against heavy
3:48 high explosive shells. A 152 mm shell
3:50 would literally blow the tank apart,
3:52 collapsing whole armor plates and taking
3:54 out the crew with the explosive blast
3:56 and spalling without even needing to
3:58 penetrate the tank. There was even a
3:59 recorded instance where it hit and
4:02 flipped over a Panza 4. Later came even
4:04 heavier armor-piercing shells, but not
4:06 for fighting tanks. It's pretty much no
4:09 difference if it gets hit with H or AP.
4:11 It's going to disintegrate anyway. AP
4:13 shells were more like concrete piercing
4:15 for destroying fortifications more
4:16 effectively to go in deep and then
4:19 explode with devastating effect. The
4:20 problem with Ferdinand's, however, was
4:21 that although they were extremely
4:23 heavily armored, a hit with such a
4:25 powerful high explosive shell would most
4:27 often kill the crew with blast and
4:28 spoiling of the armor, but usually not
4:30 completely destroy the vehicle by
4:32 igniting its ammunition and fuel. During
4:34 the night, Germans would recover most of
4:36 their knocked out Ferdinands and put
4:37 them back into action the next day with
4:39 a new crew. Later, Soviets were ordered
4:42 to fire at German tanks until complete
4:44 destruction. A few days later, three
4:46 more Ferdinands were knocked out among
4:48 the new panthers, tigers, and panzer
4:50 fours. Here, after effectively
4:52 destroying German animal name tanks, the
4:55 SU152 got its nickname, Zera Boy,
4:57 meaning beast slayer. However, fighting
4:59 was heavy and chaotic with enormous
5:02 losses on both sides. Su152 was never
5:04 designed as a tank destroyer like the
5:06 Germans did with their self-propelled
5:07 guns, but who would have said that an
5:09 extremely heavy high explosive shell
5:12 would have such a nice side effect.
5:13 After Kusk, they would see much more
5:15 action against German heavy armor as
5:17 their effectiveness was shown. Their
5:19 armor was quite substantial, but soon
5:21 became inadequate as the war progressed.
5:23 The whole front and casemate had between
5:27 65 and 75 mm, sloped at 30°, similar to
5:31 the KV1s protection. Sides were flat at
5:33 60 mm and the rear 30. This meant it was
5:35 protected to some degree from frontal
5:37 hits, but German 88s were still very
5:39 deadly to them, even head-on at long
5:41 ranges. Germans were now fielding
5:43 improved and almost twice as powerful
5:46 L7188s on heavy tank destroyers. They
5:48 were quite a challenge for longrange
5:49 duels because they were much more
5:51 accurate with better optics, quicker to
5:53 reload, and with devastating
5:55 armor-piercing ammunition with explosive
5:57 filler. Su, on the other hand, was much
6:00 slower to engage, slower to aim, not
6:02 very accurate, firing in a high arc, and
6:04 extremely slow to reload and fire again
6:06 with corrections. Although they were
6:07 initially designed to lead the attack
6:09 and support the infantry directly,
6:11 tactics sometimes changed. It turned out
6:13 they were often more valuable staying
6:15 behind, ambushing the enemy or
6:17 supporting the first wave of infantry
6:19 and tanks from about 200 m back. When
6:21 they got held up by fortifications, Sus
6:23 would come and make them not exist
6:25 anymore. In urban combat, they were also
6:27 appreciated. Instead of infantry
6:29 clearing the buildings, SUS would simply
6:30 collapse them together with their
6:32 defenders. At first, it didn't have
6:34 secondary armorament for close
6:36 anti-infantry protection. This was
6:37 expected to be handled by its crew with
6:40 PPSH submachine guns and grenades.
6:44 Later, most of them got a 12.7 mm DSHK
6:45 heavy machine gun on the roof for
6:47 anti-air protection, which they could
6:48 also turn on enemy infantry and lightly
6:51 armored vehicles. It had a 12cylinder
6:53 diesel engine, giving it around 600
6:55 horsepower with wide tracks and quite
6:57 good mobility for a 45ton vehicle. But
6:59 components worked at their limits with
7:00 this weight. The fighting compartment
7:03 was quite cramped with the gun's breach,
7:05 ammo, and internal fuel tanks taking
7:07 most of the space. And yeah, ammo and
7:08 fuel tanks were inside the fighting
7:10 compartment, one beside another. One of
7:12 the fuel tanks was right beside the
7:13 driver, who couldn't quite leave his
7:15 position if the gun was not traversed to
7:16 the left, and the breach cleared his
7:18 way. So, heavens forbid that something
7:20 like a hot piece of metal with explosive
7:22 comes through your armor. Inside were
7:24 five crew members. The driver, gunner,
7:26 and loader sat in line, one behind
7:28 another on the left side of the gun's
7:30 breach. On the other side were the
7:32 breach operator and the commander.
7:34 Firing the gun was a unique but not
7:36 quite pleasant experience. A large
7:37 muzzle brake was added to help with the
7:40 immense recoil. Range was up to 6,000 m,
7:43 but accuracy degraded already after 800.
7:45 However, the SU152 was from the
7:47 beginning intended as a stop gap
7:49 solution. The problem was it was mounted
7:52 on the aging KV1S chassis that was
7:54 already unreliable and underarmed for
7:55 the later stage of the war, but its
7:58 weapon and concept were very effective.
8:00 So, the Soviets now took the new IS
8:01 platform and essentially made the same
8:03 but improved weapon, the
8:05 ISU152. The armor was the biggest
8:08 upgrade with now between 90 and 100 mm
8:10 at the front. It could now approach
8:12 targets directly, well protected, and
8:14 destroy them with the same powerful gun.
8:16 With lessons learned in urban combat,
8:18 they fought alongside infantry squads
8:20 with submachine guns and usually
8:22 followed by one sniper or sometimes a
8:24 flamethrower. This way they provided
8:26 close protection to assault guns against
8:28 German panzerasts and effectively
8:30 cleared heavily defended cities. The
8:32 DSHK anti-aircraft gun also proved handy
8:34 in urban combat for protection from top
8:37 attacks coming from buildings. Although
8:38 high explosive shells were effective
8:40 against tanks, higher velocity guns were
8:42 still better for accuracy at long
8:44 ranges. So by the end of the war,
8:46 Soviets decided to try some of these
8:49 guns on the ISU52 and made variants
8:51 known as BM, standing for high power.
8:52 They used a number of different guns
8:54 with the most impressive probably being
8:57 the Object 246. Armed with the BL8 and
9:00 able to pierce over 200 mm of armor at
9:03 2,000 m. Soviets actually developed an
9:05 entire family of assault guns and tank
9:07 destroyers during the war. Each built
9:09 with a specific purpose in mind. The
9:11 Su76 was the first and most produced
9:13 small and lightly armored self-propelled
9:16 gun, mainly for infantry support, but
9:17 vulnerable to almost everything on the
9:19 battlefield. Crews had a lovely nickname
9:22 for it, Suka. meaning [ __ ] thanks to
9:24 its thin armor, constant breakdowns, and
9:25 tendency to get them killed. Then there
9:29 was the SU85 and later the SU00, both
9:30 designed specifically to deal with
9:32 German tanks. But heavy platforms like
9:36 the SU and ISU 152 were the all-in-one
9:37 vehicle when you wanted something on the
9:40 battlefield to cease to exist. The ISUs
9:42 would gradually replace old SUS by the
9:44 war's end and continued to be produced
9:47 up to 1947 with around 4,000 units made.
9:49 The concept of assault guns ended
9:50 quickly after the war and was replaced
9:52 by the main battle tank. However,
9:54 self-propelled heavy artillery remains
9:56 in use today, but now focused on
9:57 longrange fire support rather than
