Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Joe
I would normally have tried google, but it's more fun here!
|
Oh alright then.
It came about as a response to the lack of mobile artillery support in the Russo-Finnish conflict. Two dedicated attempts at mounting massive guns were discarded when the expediency of mounting a 152mm gun on existing KV chassis was tried, and took only 2 weeks to complete.
The sheer weight of the thing limited it's role combined with other flaws (all the deficiencies of the KV's drivetrain exacerbated by extra weight, huge Silhouette etc. & apparently the turret couldn't be traversed if not on level ground!) but it definitely had it's moments when the circumstances were right.
Some nice quotes about KV1&2's from Bean & Fowlers' 'Stalin's armoured might':
Rokossovsky:
Quote:
|
The KV tanks literally stunned the enemy, they withstood the fire of every type of gun the German tanks were armed with, but what a sight they were returning from combat. Their armour pockmarked all over and the barrels sometimes pierced.
|
1st Panzer Division:
Quote:
|
Our companies opened fire from 700 metres. We got closer and closer... soon we were only 50-100 metres from each other. A fantastic engagement opened up - without any German progress. The Soviet tanks continued their advance and our ap projectiles simply bounced off. The soviet tanks withstood point-blank fire from both our 50mm and 75mm guns. A KV2 was hit more than 70 times and not a single round penetrated. A very few soviet tanks were immobilized and eventually destroyed as we managed to shoot off their tracks, brought up artillery to hammer them at close range and then attacked them on foot with satchel charges.
|
Nice shot of one under new management from the excellent
Beutepanzers site:
One is reputed to have been used in defence of the Krupp plant at war's end, it's unconfirmed but there does appear to have been a runner there. There's also a shot on that site of one
allegedly being prepared for a German assault plan on Malta where they were envisioned as a way of getting pillboxes right onto the beach.
Cheers,
Adam.