IS 2 - Soviet main and heavy tank during the Great Patriotic Sowjetischer Haupt- und schwerer Panzer

IS-2 (Object 240) - Soviet main and heavy tank during the Great Patriotic War, was the most powerful and most heavily armored of the Soviet and allied serial tanks of the war period, and one of the strongest main tanks at that time in the world. The abbreviation IS means “Joseph Stalin“ - the official name of the serial Soviet heavy tanks produced in 1943-1953; index 2 corresponds to the second production tank model of this family. During the Great Patriotic War, together with the designation IS-2, the name IS-122 was used on equal terms, in this case the number 122 means the caliber of the gun - the main armament of the combat vehicle. The Germans called him in their documents KV-00 (IS). Tanks of this type played an important role in the battles of 1944-1945, especially distinguished themselves during the storming of cities. After the end of the war, the IS-2s were modernized and were in service with the Soviet Army of the Armed Forces of the USSR and subsequently the Armed Forces of Russia until 1993. Also, IS-2 tanks were supplied to a number of states and participated in some armed conflicts after 1945. The IS-2 was the most powerful Soviet tank that took part in the Great Patriotic War, and one of the strongest machines in the world of its time, both in the 40-50 t weight category and in the heavy tank class. However, the assessment of this machine is greatly complicated by the propaganda of both sides involved in the war and a large number of post-war myths, one way or another connected with the ideological struggle of the Soviet Union or against it. In terms of the aggregate power of weapons and armor protection, the IS-2 surpassed all tanks of the Second World War, inferior to others in various individual indicators (for example, in terms of rate of fire it was inferior to the T-6 “Tiger“, in frontal armor to the Tiger-2 “Royal Tiger“). Cast body parts on all machines - turret and turret platform. With a shortage of rolled armor, both frontal parts and a number of others were made of cast armor according to simple technical conditions by unskilled workers with simple means, which increased the real possibilities for the production of vehicles in war conditions [27]. Such armor often had defects and often a rough surface, which additionally led to deviations from the calculated thickness of the armor in both directions. IS-2s covered 1,000 km without breakdowns, and, for example, the Panthers suffered huge non-combat losses (tens of%) for technical reasons (at much higher production and repair costs), and not only during the Battle of Kursk. The decisive factor for the choice of the 122 mm D-25T cannon was probably that by the beginning of the selection of the artillery system for the IS-2 armament in September 1943, there were no 100-mm guns suitable for installation in it, and the other presented options were 107-mm the cannon and howitzers of different calibers were obviously inferior to the 122 mm cannon. The 100-mm S-34 cannon repeatedly failed to withstand state tests and by February 1944 was still not ready for adoption. The D-10T, which appeared later, after repeated modifications, was put into service only on July 3, 1944, while the production of armor-piercing shells for it began only in November of the same year. In addition, the high-explosive and fragmentation power of the 122-mm projectile was significantly stronger than that of the 100-mm. As an assessment of the security of the IS-2, we can cite a somewhat emotional judgment that the IS-2 was the only large-scale tank of the anti-Hitler coalition, whose booking provided some protection against the famous 88-mm cannons and long-barreled 75-mm guns, while all the others (with the exception of later modifications of the British Churchills) “provided their crew with no more protection than a cardboard box.“ Based on these premises, it can be argued that the IS-2 was the only Soviet heavy tank, which, in terms of the totality of its combat and operational properties, could satisfy the requirements of the Red Army in the second half of the war for conducting offensive operations with overcoming a powerful and deeply echeloned defense. To adequately counter the IS-2 to the enemy, heavy anti-tank weapons were required, which, as a rule, were expensive, difficult to replace and not always available in a specific place at the right time. The same thing happened in reverse order earlier in 1943 with the massive use by the Germans of heavy Tiger tanks, which was taken into account by the Soviet command when developing tactics for the use of heavy tanks. IS-2（オブジェクト240）-大祖国戦争中のソビエトの主戦車と重戦車は、戦時中のソビエトと連合国の連続戦車の中で最も強力で最も重装甲であり、当時の最強の主戦車の1つでした。世界。 略語ISは、「Joseph Stalin」を意味します。これは、1943年から1953年に製造されたソビエトの連続重戦車の正式名称です。インデックス2は、このファミリの2番目の生産タンクモデルに対応します。大祖国戦争中、IS-2という名称とともに、IS-122という名前が同じ意味で使用されました。この場合、番号122は、戦闘車両の主砲である銃の口径を意味します。ドイツ人は彼らの文書KV-00（IS）で彼を呼んだ。このタイプの戦車は、1944年から1945年の戦闘で重要な役割を果たし、特に都市の襲撃時に際立っていました。戦争の終結後、IS-2は近代化され、ソ