IS-2 Heavy Tank - Armor
As an assessment of the security of the IS-2, it is possible to cite several emotional judgments from the monograph “Tanks of the IS” that the IS-2 tank was the only large-scale tank of the anti-Hitler coalition, whose armor provided some protection against the famous 88-mm guns and long-barreled 75-mm guns, then like everyone else (with the exception of the later modifications of the British Churchill) "provided their crew with no more protection than a cardboard box."
IS-2 had a differentiated counter armor armor protection. The armored hull of the tank (except for the frontal part of a part of the machines) was welded from rolled armored plates 90, 60, 30 and 20 mm thick. The design of the frontal parts varied depending on the modification of the machine: IS-2 arr. 1943 had a cast frontal detail of a streamlined "stepped" shape, in different parts of its thickness varied from 60 to 120 mm.
IS-2 arr. 1944, in order to increase the front end armor resistance, it was equipped with an improved “straight” design of this part. Instead of a streamlined stepped end of a complex geometric shape of the forehead of the IS-2 arr. 1944 was formed by two flat armored plates, the upper of which had the shape of a trapezoid tapering to the top of the tank and a slope to the normal of 60°. Part of the issued IP-2 arr. 1944 equipped with a molded frontal part, the thickness of the armor which reached 120 mm; since the second half of 1944, as the presence of high-hardness rolled armor, the frontal part of the steel began to be welded from 90-mm armor plates.
With the rest of the details, the frontal part was welded. The streamlined turret was an armored casting of complex geometric shape; its sides, 90 mm thick, were positioned at an angle to the vertical to increase projectile resistance. The frontal part of the turret with an embrasure for the gun, formed by the intersection of four spheres, was cast separately and welded with the rest of the turret’s armored brackets. The gun mask was a cylindrical segment of a bent rolled armored plate and had three openings - for a gun, a paired machine gun and a sight.
From the point of view of armor protection, 53% of the total mass of the IS-2 accounted for the armor of the hull and turret, whereas in PzKpfw VI Ausf H Tiger I this indicator was 46.3%, and in PzKpfw V Panther - 38 five %. Of the German tanks, the best indicator (54.7%) had only PzKpfw VI Ausf B “Tiger II”, but this was achieved at the cost of a significant increase in the mass of the entire machine as a whole, with all the ensuing consequences.
The protection of the armored hull was significantly improved by replacing the “stepped” upper frontal part with its rectified configuration. There have been cases when the upper frontal part did not penetrate even one of the most powerful 88-mm Pak 43 anti-tank cannon. However, the lower frontal part remained vulnerable. The thickness of the frontal armor reached 120 mm, onboard - 90 mm, but the frontal armor detail of some tanks was cast, not rolled (the latter, with an equal thickness, provides the best protection against penetration).
The frontal armor of the IS-2 was quite well opposed to German shells: the upper part of the “stepped nose” was penetrated by caliber armor-piercing shells of the 88-mm KwK 36 cannon from 1000-1200 m, the 75-mm KwK 42 cannon - from 800-900 m, the 75-mm Pak gun 40 - from 400 m. But for 1944 it was already considered to be clearly insufficient, therefore, as a result of intensive work, the protection of the forehead of the IS-2 body was greatly improved. "Straightened" upper frontal detail 75-mm armor-piercing and sub-caliber shells pierced at short distances; 88 mm (KwK 36 L / 56) armor-piercing for cast nose 120 mm thick - did not pierce to the stop, for rolled 90 mm thick - punched from 450 m.
It was not possible to achieve protection from the Pak 43 gun at medium and long distances. However, it should be borne in mind that to achieve such a result, a molded nose should be of good quality, without friability and voids, which was not always the case. The lower part of the frontal part was punched by a 75-mm projectile from a distance of 785 m, the mask of a gun with a thickness of 100 mm was also penetrated by the German 88-mm projectile KwK 36 cannons from a distance of about 1000 m. for rolled with a thickness of 90 mm - it was punched from 450 m.
In 1945, special tests of the IS-2 were carried out at the Kubinka proving ground with a straightened upper frontal detail from a trophy German early modification of the ACS Hornisse armed with the powerful 88-mm panzerj Panzerjägerkanone 8.8 cm long system barrel caliber 71. As in the case of the 88-mm KwK 36 cannon, the upper frontal detail of the IS-2 was never pierced with a caliber armor-piercing projectile, but, as was to be expected, the effective range of the less protected areas of the tank significantly increased compared to the KwK 36.
In parallel with the work to increase reliability, research was conducted to strengthen the IS-2 armor protection. After analyzing the damage, the ChKZ designers came to the conclusion that strengthening the armor protection of the turret was no longer possible without a radical reworking of the whole structure, which was impossible in the harsh conditions of mass production.
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