WW2 Russian self-propelled howitzers

1942, Summer. Almost a year the Leningrad siege is following. A number of months the Red Army assertively tried to break the ring. The heaviest clashes happened near Mga railway station, where the German echelon with a new Wehrmacht weapon was arrived. They were heavy Tiger's tanks.

Archive Document: "September, 3 for the Army Group 'North' Chief Commander army gen. Rider won-Loeb. Confidential. I delegate you a special mission, you are authorized to test our last generation tanks in battle. Remember: they are our chance for quick and successful outcome of this war. No one of those tanks would be captured by the Russians. Reich's- Chancellor Adolph Hitler".

The information about new Germany tanks appearance near Leningrad worried Stalin. He remembered very well the first months of war, when the Red Army lacked enough equipment to counter the Germans' breakthrough. Then too high price was paid to stop the invaders. Stalin personally authorized the manager of 'Uralmash' facility for emergency work: the development of new high caliber self-propelled gun, capable to successfully fight the new German tank. For the desk-drafting work only 8 days were given. No one SPH before was developed by so short time. The brigade of designers was headed by Lev Gorlitzky, the tank gun specialist, that was evacuated to Sverdlovsk from Leningrad. The team made an impossible: already at December, 1942 new 122 mm SU-122 SPH was over all the states testing. This event was so important, that the top state leaders came to accept the tests personally.

Yuri Tomashov, former chief (1978-2001) of the design house TsKB 'Transmash' (Ural region): "The howitzer was examined by Stalin, Voroshilov and the high-ranking mil. Officers. They were satisfied..."

In January, 1943 the newest vehicles were sent to the most 'hellish' site of the war: on the Leningrad front. That time the Soviet high ranking Command made the one of its attempts to break the siege. January, 13 the Germans set the attack of their new weapon: tanks 'Tiger'. They easy breached a number of defense lines and destroyed some anti-tank towed guns, but suddenly a number of SU-122's have appeared.

Yuri Bukreyev, former vice-chief of Russian General Staff, (1998-2001): " A 122 mm gun has good potential by itself, of course the Tigers' armor couldn't resist such a capability".

One of the shells hit the turret of the leading Tiger and it was simply cut-off for pieces. The crew of the second tank was run even forgetting to switch the engine off... Therefore, the undamaged sample of secret German weapon have appeared in Russian hands.

Yuri Tomashov, former chief (1978-2001) of the design house TsKB 'Transmash' (Ural region): "Its incident curbed mass production of new heavy tanks in Germany, because the Germans didn't expect, their most heavy and best armored tank was bitten".

Specification: SU-122 SPH. Mass -- 30900 kg. Crew -- 5. Gun -- M-30 howitzer. Caliber -- 121.9 mm.

1943, Summer. The bloody fighting near Kursk disclosed that the new anti-tank SPHs with their entire advance had insufficient rapidity of fire. In parallel Lev Gorlitzky worked on another anti-tank SPG. It adopted the name SU-100.
Yuri Tomashov, former chief (1978-2001) of the design house TsKB 'Transmash' (Ural region): 'It was rather horrible weapon, which could penetrate the most defended German tanks. Those self-propelled guns also became to undisputed good support for infantry, while the need to suppress the enemy fortified position was emerged".

With the SU-100 appearance on the battlefield, the dominance of the heavy German tanks ended. The Russian SPH's reached Berlin and then became one of the most prominent symbols of Soviet victory in WW2.