A Soviet GAZ-MM 4 x 2 cargo truck drives past a line
of ISU-152 assault guns in Lvov, in the Ukraine, in July 1944. The
photograph gives a good view of the chassis' running gear, with
KV-l's spoked wheels rather than the disc wheels used on the T-34
and its variants.
The ISU-122 and ISU-152 were used in Independent Heavy
Self-Propelled Artillery Regiments, which were awarded the Guards
honorific after December 1944. By the end of the war there were 56
such units. Generally attached to the tank corps, they were
deployed in the second echelon of an assault, providing long-range
direct, and on occasion indirect, fire support to tanks in the
first echelon, targeting German strongpoints and armoured vehicles.
They were also vital in providing defensive antitank and artillery
support for infantry.
The dual role of the ISU-152 is demonstrated by fighting on
15-16 January 1945 in the area of the Polish village of Borowe.
Elements of Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky's 2nd Byelorussian Front were
vigorously counterattacked by the Panzergrenadier Division
Grossdeutschland. The initial German assault proved very effective,
driving the Soviets back. As elements of the spearhead 2nd Fusilier
Battalion consolidated their gains, the 3rd Fusilier Battalion
moved through them towards Soviet positions around Borowe. Both
battalions soon came under high explosive and armour piercing fire
from SU-152s of the 390th Guards Independent Heavy Artillery
Regiment. The 3rd Fusilier Battalion and its supporting armour did
manage to secure the town on 16 January under intense antitank fire
from SU-152 guns supported by rocket artillery. But success was
short-lived, as Soviet success in other areas collapsed the front,
forcing a withdrawal. Even so, as one soldier of the 2nd Battalion
starkly described, being under fire from 'Black Pigs' was
harrowing:
Black detonations in front of us, behind us, beside us - and
we lay on the frozen ground with no possibility of crawling into it
... Now and then someone raised his face a little beneath his steel
helmet to see if the other was alive. For an hour there was nothing
but the sound of incoming and exploding shells.
During the 1st Ukrainian Front's breakout from the Sandomierz
bridgehead over the river Vistula in central Poland, Marshal I. S.
Konev used several ISU-equipped regiments to enhance the
devastating opening barrage of 450 medium- and heavy field guns per
kilometre of front. When the assault troops moved forwards, poor
weather and lack of visibility in the harsh winter conditions made
it difficult to operate with air and artillery support.
However, the momentum of the attack was maintained through the
close fire support provided by ISU-122 and ISU-152s operating
alongside the infantry. The result was an advance of 12km (7.45
miles) on the first day, carrying Soviet forces through the forward
German tactical defences and creating the conditions for the
release of the second echelon tank armies with their fast medium
T-34s to exploit deep into the enemy's operational rear. This
pattern of attack was a thorough vindication of pre-war Soviet
ideas about the interaction of heavy and medium armour in carrying
out the deep battle and deep operation respectively.
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