Russian weapons v4

[badger45]

Hi,

may be I can help with some info on SU-122.

Bronetankovaya tekhnika SSSR 1939-45, page 22: "Self-propelled gun SU-122. Self-propelled gun for infantry support. Based on chassi of medium tank T-34 with 122mm howitzer M-30. Accepted for service on December 2, 1942. Serial production in UZTM (Sverdlovsk). From December 1942 to August 1943 built 638 pieces."

According to polish "monography" on SU-85/100/122 states, that there were 637 pieces. Other modifications of SU-122, though built in as much as 10 machines, were not accepted for service. Since August 1943 thus there were no serial SU-122 in production, until 1955. During 1955 and 1956 there was a small scale prodcution of about 95 SU-122-54, which are a completely different vehicle, than the old venerable SU-122.

About the new SU-122-54:
"Self-propelled gun SU-122 (object 600). The last soviet self-propelled gun for special purposes based on tank chassis, that was in serial production. Developed since 1949 as a tank destroyer. Accepted for service in 1954. Serial production ran in small series in 1955 and 1956.

SU-122 (sometimes designated in literature as SU-122-54) was quite modern self-propelled gun, measured by standards of fifties. Powerful gun, strong armor protection and not bad speed guaranteed it good fighting qualities.

It is not possible to determine the number of manufactured machines, but it is known, that factory No. 221 "Barricades" manufactured 65 guns D-49 in 1955 and additional 30 in 1956. In 1957 there was no production. Evidently accepting for service of first generation ATGM, which were much more effective anti-tank weapons, have made further production of SU-122 superfluous.

In the middle of sixties it became clear, that blunt nose projectile Br-471B does not penetrate either turret or hull front of American M60 or British Chieftain at any distance. It did not even penetrate front turret of American M48A2, and it came through hull front only under 100 meters..." (Bronetankovaya tekhnika SSSR 1945-95, part 2, page 15)

The main gun of these new SU-122 was D-49. As the same text states elsewhere "inner construction of gun barrel, ballistics and ammunition - the same as for D-25T."

To summarize - 637 SU-122 based on T-34 had M-30 and were in service from 1943 on (end date not known to me, as well as number that actually survived the war, if any). They were not modernized in any way, AFAIK.
95 new SU-122 based on T-54 had D-49 (essentially the same gun as D-25T) and were in service from 1955 on (end date 1970 or earlier - vehicles were disarmed and used as MTP-3 and other auxiliary machines).

Hope that helps a bit. I may look for further details, but I guess there is not much surprise waiting.

Regards,
badger45

BTW - many many thanks for continuous upgrades and patches. Unbelievable!

[KraMax]

badger45
---------------
thanx for help.

[DRG]

badger45 said:To summarize - 637 SU-122 based on T-34 had M-30 and were in service from 1943 on (end date not known to me, as well as number that actually survived the war, if any). They were not modernized in any way, AFAIK.
95 new SU-122 based on T-54 had D-49 (essentially the same gun as D-25T) and were in service from 1955 on (end date 1970 or earlier - vehicles were disarmed and used as MTP-3 and other auxiliary machines).

Thank you. That is exactly what I suspected. There was no modernization of the older SU-122's or their original M30 L22 gun. The only upgrade was in 1955 with the new T-54 based machines. The SU-122-54's are now on the list and new Icons have been created for them. NO change to the older M30 based units


Don

[KraMax]

Here the reference to history of creation and history of war of this gun - SU-122:

http://www.bronetehnika.narod.ru/su122/su122.html
http://armour.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/SU122/su122.html

In the end of this history it is written (machine translator):

"...
However howitzer SU-122 still remained on arms of samohodno-artillery regiments. In such to a regiment was available 16 SU-122 which up to the beginning of 1944 continued to be used for support of infantry and tanks. However its such application was insufficiently effective because of small initial speed of a shell - 515 km/s - and, hence, small indirect its trajectories. Arriving since August, 1943 in much considerable quantities in armies new SU-85 has quickly replaced the predecessor in the field of fight and nevertheless it is necessary to notice, that capacity of 85-mm of fragmentation shells was insufficient for breaking up of strips of defence of the opponent. Therefore, for example, armoured management of 4th guards tank army in April, 1944 persistently asked the higher organisations to find at least 20 SU-122 as SU-85 were unsuitable for struggle against the strengthened machine-gun points.
... "

I suggest to clean this gun # 030 - 122mm M30 L22 from game and SU-122 before occurrence SU-122-54.

[DRG]

You can do whatever you like with your OOB. In the games OOB the SU-122 with the M30 L22 stays in until the SU-122-54 enters service. What you offer here says NOTHING about it being removed from service after the war and only reinforces it's value in dealing with strong points.


Don