Stalin’s Heavy Tanks 1941-1945
The KV e IS Heavy Tanks

Recensione del Armor At War Series

The book covers Soviet T-35, KV serie, IS-2 e IS-3 carri armati pesanti in combat tra la seconda guerra mondiale, as well as their assault gun sub-variants. The core of this publication consists of many new photos discovered in archives in Russia e Central Europe. It is a companion book to an earlier publication covering the carri medi sovietici.

72 Pages, Paperback
186 Photos, 16 Colour Illustrations
ISBN: 9623616163
CONCORD PUBLICATIONS COMPANY, 1997

Authors

• Steven J. Zaloga
• Jim Kinnear
• Andrey Aksenov
• Aleksandr Koshchavtsev

Valutazione

The 10-page introduction includes a concise history of the early Soviet carro pesante projects, of which only the KV tank went into series production, followed by the universal tank concept which was given up in favour of an uparmed T-34 e the new carro pesante IS.

The official denominazioni of the main armament mounted in Soviet carri armati pesanti is mentioned in the introduction, except that the calibre lengths have been ommitted. In the case of the 76.2 mm F-32 e F-34 tank guns, the difference in calibre length would have been important to know. What is interesting to note is that the F-34 cannone da carro was designated ZIS-5 when mounted in carri pesanti KV-1.

The organization e tactical deployment del reggimenti carri armati pesante is covered briefly.

Photos e colour illustrations are well layed out, e the captions are most interesting to read. Some caption text is repeated when photos show a previously covered vehicle operated by a particular unit and/or crew.

The photographs show a variety of veicoli con distinct tactical markings, e slogans. Translations of slogans are provided. Several units e capocarri have been identified, making the book a good source of background information for giocatori wargame e dioramisti.

Several photos show the cramped working conditions inside Soviet carri armati pesanti e their assault gun sub-variants. The book briefly mentions the command e control problems associated con the fact that the KV-1 capocarro also served as the caricatore of the main gun. This archaic torretta layout was changed when the new KV-1S was introduced.

The colour illustrations include a captured KV-2 of Panzerkompanie (z.b.V.) 66 con German tropical camouflage, ed a KV-1E in the Finnish tre tone pattern of Moss Green, Earth Brown, ed Army Grey which was adopted in 1944. The employment, e conversion of captured veicoli would make an interesting publication on its own.

The photos show captured T-35 carri armati pesanti con markings of the Slovak army e Ukrainian nationalist forces fighting alongside the Wehrmacht.

Photos e colour plates of the IS-3 e IS-3M extend the usefulness of this publication well into the post-war period. There are even photos of the IS-4 which might have intervened nella Guerra di Corea if Stalin had not been deterred by the possibility of a general war con the nuclear-armed USA.

The colour illustrations would have been even more useful to the modeller if suitable model colour reference numbers had been provided in the captions.

The assault gun sub-variants of the carro pesante KV e IS are covered, but they really deserve a book of their own to capture the important aspects of their design, deployment, and combat experience.

The book is a good source of concise ed easy to read information on the carri pesanti sovietici, it’s an excellent starting position for further study into this subject. The colour plates, e many of the wartime photos are an inspiration for modellers e dioramisti.

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– Pubblicato: 08.02.1998 – Aggiornato: 05.06.2007
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