SU-152/ ISU-152 vs Tiger – Eastern Front 1943-45, David Greentree

SU-152/ ISU-152 vs Tiger – Eastern Front 1943-45, David Greentree

This book focuses on the period when the Tiger I and SU-152/ ISU-152 most often met in combat, roughly from the middle of 1943, when both were being introduced, to the end of 1944, when the Tiger was being replaced by the Tiger II and the ISU-152 withdraw from anti-tank units and used in urban battles instead.

We start with a look at the development of the Soviet armoured forces, and the desire for heavy self propelled guns. We then move onto the development of the SU-152/ISU-152 and the Tiger, followed by a section on their technical specifications. These sections alternate between the Soviet and German sections, and for me would be somewhat improved if we had all of the Soviet material then all of the German.

The section on the combatants looks at how the two sides organised their vehicles, what training went on, and has some nice material on complaints made by the vehicle’s crews.

The largest chapter covers the combat record of these vehicles, and provides short accounts of a large number of encounters (rather more than is normal in this series). The biggest problem here must have been finding battles that definitely involved both of these vehicles, and for which good records have survived from both sides – both sides were prone to over-claiming successes and minimising their own setbacks, so the author has done well to pick cases where both sides accounts can be compared.

This book is a useful reminder that tanks didn’t just have to deal with other tanks, a common flaw in the writing on armoured warfare. Instead both of these vehicles had to cope with all of the threats present on the Second World War battlefield, from infantry anti-tank weapons to aircraft, as well as rival armoured vehicles. The choice of combat examples where we have accounts from both sides is also of great value, showing how differently the two sides could see the same battle.

Chapters
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Combatants
Combat
Analysis
Bibliography
Acronyms

Author: David Greentree
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 80
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2022


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