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SU-100 - Tamer of Cats

On November 11 1943 Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Army proposed to develop an anti-tank high-power gun of calibre 100 mm. In the beginning of December 1943 Design Office of Uralmashzavod offered the project of a new armor cabin of SP with thickness increased up to 75-mm of the frontal armor and intended for installation of guns of large calibre. The project was approved and soon the hull of a new type was tested.

For arms of new machines were prepared 100-mm of a gun S-34 (ZAKB) and D-10 (DB of a factory #9). But for installation of a gun S-34 it was necessary to alter the layout of the SP (gunner should sit from the right side). This caused large difficulties. At the end of February 1944 DB of a factory #9 made a 100-mm gun D-10. On March 3, the SU-100, armed by a gun D-10, left on production tests. The operational development of a gun lasted up to the summer and on July 3 1944 the SU-100 with a gun D-10 was accepted on a service in exchange for the SU-85. The Uralmashzavod was ready to begin serial manufacture of SU-100, but the industry had not had time to prepare for it a 100-mm an armour-piercing round. The manufacture of the new machine was stopped.

Under the offer of the main designer of a Uralmashzavod L.Gorlitski, the manufacturing of hulls SU-85 from July 1944 was stopped, and 85-mm gun D-5S have begun to establish in a huli SU-100, having the thicker armour and more spacious battle branch. This SP gun has received an index SU-85M and was made till December 1944, when on change to it has come SU-100 with new round.

The first SU-100 was accepted in January 1945. The new machines acted for arms of SP brigades (SABr) of the Reserve of a Main head-quarters (RGK). SU-100 up to the end of war were most powerful serial AT SP of the Soviet Army.

The official document for the design of Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 100 - SU-100 - 100-mm guns for tanks and self-propelled guns was signed on November 11, 1943. The initiator of the works was the chief designer of Uralmash LI Gorlitsky. The project was developed with the participation of the leading specialists of the enterprise: NVKurin (chief project engineer), GFKsyunin, AGGaivoronskikh (motor group), ADNekhlyudov (head of the corps work), V.L.Lihomanov (electrical equipment), LA Tsinus, II Emmanuilov, IF Vakhrushev, etc. During the development of the self-propelled plant had an index of "Object 138".

Because the basis was taken well-mastered in the production machine with a draft design problems did not arise. Its display to the NKTP representatives took place already in December 1943, practically in parallel with the deployment of the mass production of the SU-85. The sketch of the self-propelled plant equipped with a 100-mm gun was approved and on December 27, the State Defense Committee, by its resolution No. 481, formally approved the proposed project. Of course, UZTM, which was the initiator of the project, was to implement the installation of the 100-mm gun in the SU-85 case. Without wasting time, literally the next day (December 28), the NKTP issued an order No. 765 in which it was prescribed in stages to do the following.

At the first stage by January 15, 1944, it was necessary to create a medium-sized automatic control system based on the T-34 tank and equip it with a 100 mm C-34 cannon designed by the TsAKB. Hence the question arises: why not D-10? Perhaps it was the desire of the Central Bank to recoup for the obviously unsuccessful previous artillery systems intended for installation on tanks and self-propelled guns. The central design bureau was quite successful in designing field guns, but with the C-18 and C-31 guns, an obvious "puncture" came out.

The second stage was to be completed by February 20 by making a prototype of a self-propelled gun and providing it for factory testing. At the same time, the C-34 gun was to be manufactured at the plant No. 92 by January 25.

The third stage was supposed to start from February 25, when the ACS would enter state tests. As you know, any plan, even the most rigid, was not always fulfilled. The same happened with the self-propelled SU-100.

Gun D-10S, possessing almost the same dimensions as the D-5C, very successfully blended into the body of the self-propelled gun. Minor modifications were required, so at the end of February 1944 the first prototype of a 100-mm self-propelled gun successfully passed factory tests. The car passed 150 km and performed 30 shots without a single significant breakdown.

A few days later, on March 3, 1944, the prototype was handed over to state tests conducted from 9 to 27 March at the Gorokhovets landfill. In less than three weeks, the self-propelled gun passed 864 km and produced 1,040 shots without any serious criticism. After that, on April 14, 1944, the plant management began to prepare for the serial production of the new ACS.

The Military Commission came to the conclusion that the 100 mm self-propelled gun equipped with the D-10S gun is suitable for acceptance by the Red Army under the official SU-100 index, but with a number of improvements and improvements.

From 24 to 28 June, the "standard" SU-100 was tested, during which the self-propelled gun made 923 shots, including shooting on captured tanks and self-propelled guns. Although the main "opponents" were "Tiger", "Panther" and "Ferdinand" the results were very impressive. UBR-412 shot through the frontal armor of the first two tanks at a distance of up to 1500 meters, but with the thick-skinned German self-propelled gun (whose frontal armor thickness was 200 mm), this effect was not achieved. The same ammunition could only be pierced by a 120 mm-thick board, but at a distance of up to 2000 meters. Of course, in combat conditions, such indicators could not be achieved at all. After improvements, by GKO Resolution No. 1631 of July 3, 1944, the self-propelled gun SU-100 was adopted for service. It was decided to deploy the self-propelled guns to UZTM.

In production, 72% of the parts were borrowed from T-34, about 4% from SU-122, 7.5% from SU-85 and only 16.5% of details (associated with the installation of a new gun) were re-designed. However, not everything was so good. If the factory coped with the release of hulls and chassis without problems, then deliveries of D-10S guns were delayed. There was a situation similar to the ISU-152, for which the "self-propelled" guns-howitzers ML-10 lacked. In order not to lose time in the SU-100 corps, 85-mm D-5C guns began to be installed, and the so-called "hybrids" were designated as SU-85M. In addition to the enhanced reservation, the 85th was able to carry an increased ammunition, which now consisted of 60 unitary shots. Production of SU-100 and SU-85M continued in parallel from July to August 1944, inclusive, while UZTM did not switch to manufacturing only "hundred." In total, until March 1946, 3037 self-propelled guns SU-100 were assembled in the Soviet Union.

Armament SU-100 consisted of a 100-mm D-10C gun of the 1944 model with a barrel length of 56 calibers. The total weight was 1435 kg. The gun had horizontal guidance angles within 16° and vertical angles from -3° to + 20°. The maximum length of rollback with a shot did not exceed 570 mm. The main trigger was electric, but there was also a mechanical trigger. In addition to the D-10S gun, a telescopic articulated sight TS-19 (for direct firing) was installed, as well as a lateral level and a panorama (for firing from closed positions). The practical rate of fire is 5-6 rounds per minute. The gun was mounted in the cutout of the frontal armored sheet and protected by fixed armor of a complex shape that was bolted to the body. Outside, the cannon is protected by a mobile armored spherical mask.

In addition, two 7.62 mm submachine guns with a total of 1420 rounds of ammunition (20 disks), 4 anti-tank grenades and 24 hand grenades F-1 were stacked in the fighting compartment. To set up a smokescreen on the battlefield, two smoke bombs were installed on the stern of the machine, the ignition of which was carried out by the loader with the help of the inclusion of two toggle switches on the shield of the MDC mounted on the motor partition.

The ammunition nomenclature for the D-10S was very wide, especially during the war. It included six types of shots: UBR-412 - unitary cartridge with armor-piercing tracer brute-force projectile BR-412 and fuse MD-8 UBR-412B - unitary cartridge with armor-piercing tracer blunt-shell projectile BR-412B and fuse MD-8 UO- 412 - a unitary cartridge with a fragmented sea grenade O-412 and a detonator RGM UOF-412 - a unitary cartridge with high-explosive fragmentation grenade OF-412 and a fuse RGM UOF-412U - a unitary cartridge with high-explosive fragmentation grenade OF-412 with a reduced charge and a fuse RGM UD-412 is a unitary smoke shot weighing 30.1 kg with fuses RGM, RGM-6, B-429 UD-412U - unitary smoke shot with a mass of 30.1 kg with a fuse B-429 UBR-421D - unitary cartridge with armor-piercing tracer projectile with ballistic armor-piercing tip BR-412D UBK9 - unitary cartridge with a cumulative projectile BK5M Unitary cartridge with armor-piercing and sub-caliber projectile.

The last three types of shells appeared in the SU-100 ammunition only after the end of the war, so after 1945 the standard equipment included 16 high-explosive fragmentation, 10 armor-piercing and 7 cumulative shots. Thus, the self-propelled installation SU-100 was more a multi-purpose assault weapon than a specialized anti-tank weapon.

But most importantly, in the ammunition kit of the gun appeared non-rotating in flight armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile 3BM8. His appearance again made the SU-100 a very effective anti-tank weapon. The shell had a 1415-meter initial speed and a direct-fire range of 1660 meters with a target of two meters in height. From a distance of up to 2000 meters, it could hit the forehead of the turret of all the serial western tanks of the 1960s.

In this form, the SU-100 was still in the troops for a long time, took part in the exercises, and, as new self-propelled artillery systems arrived, they were put on long-term storage in parks, where some of them apparently still exist.

The first self-propelled artillery brigades SU-100 were sent to the front in early February 1945: the 207th and 209th - to the 2nd Ukrainian, and the 208th - to the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Most massively, the SU-100 were used during the Balaton operation, when they were used to repulse the counterattack of the 6th Panzer Army SS on March 6-16, 1945.

Production of SU-100 continued until March 1946, during this time, 3,037 self-propelled units were produced. According to some reports, in 1947 the production resumed and released another 198 ACS.

After the end of the Second World War, the SU-100 was used by the Soviet Army for several decades. In 1960, in the course of modernization, they upgraded the B2-34M engine, NK-10 fuel pump, VTI-3 air purifiers, TPKU-2B commander's observation device and the NVN driver's night vision device, 10RT-26E radio and TPU-47 radio. In the second half of the 1960s, the night vision device was replaced by a more advanced one, and the radio station R-113 was delivered. the support rollers of the chassis were borrowed from T-54.

The Su-100s were used by the armies of almost all the Warsaw Treaty countries, as well as Albania, Algeria, Angola, Vietnam, Yemen, the DPRK and Cuba. They were also supplied to China and Vietnam, but the data on their combat use in the Vietnam War are insufficient and contradictory. After 1959, SU-100 was delivered to Cuba, and in 1961 Cuban automatic control systems were used to repel the invasion of the Bay of Pigs . A number of SU-100s were received by Algeria and Morocco, as well as by Angola, where they were used during the civil war. In Czechoslovakia, since 1952, SU-100 was produced under license and supplied to Egypt and Syria. They took part in hostilities during the Arab-Israeli wars of 1956 and 1967. And in the armies of some countries, these automatic control systems are available now.