The video tells about the use of the legendary IS-2 heavy tanks in the Battle of Berlin. The memoirs of the participants in the events and descriptions of some episodes of the IS-2's combat use are presented. I accompanied the narration with appropriate photographs and chronicles. Some photos are hand colored.
At the final stage of the war, each tank corps was assigned at least one IS-2 tank regiment, a role that cannot be overestimated during the storming of heavily fortified settlements in Germany and East Prussia. The 122-mm cannon was the best suited for destroying long-term firing points. With one high-explosive projectile, the IS-2 broke through the machine-gun armored cannon, which was invulnerable to the 85-mm cannon, and smashed to smithereens the capital brickwork of old buildings. At the same time, the main enemy of our tanks was an infantryman armed with a "Faustpatrone", "Panzerfaust"or "panzerschreck". The Red Army men, who did not understand the intricacies of German names, called all types of these weapons "faustpatrones", or in short - "Faust", and the soldiers who used them - "faustic". During the battles in the cities, the "faust cartridges" accounted for up to 70% of all destroyed tanks. As a protection against them, at the beginning of 1945, combat vehicles began to be equipped with anti-cumulative screens, which were manufactured and installed by the forces of tank repair units from thin metal sheets, mesh and even Bruno's spirals flattened by tank tracks. The cumulative grenade of the "faustpatron", exploding on the screen, blew it to shreds, but on the main armor left only a melted funnel, which the tankers, with the black humor of people looking into the eyes of death every minute, called the "sucking witch."
Unfortunately, the explosions of shells and stone debris of buildings often ripped or deformed the screens. V. Mindlin, a participant in the storming of Berlin, a guard lieutenant colonel, commander of the 11th separate guards heavy tank regiment, told in his memoir story "The last battle is the most difficult one" "Here is a tank with tightly battened hatches, the screeching of the rotating umformer of the radio station is heard through the armor. But the crew is silent ... Does not respond to knocks or radio. In the turret - a small, a penny in diameter, melted hole - the little finger will not pass. And this is "Faust", his work! The screen in this place is torn off, a concentrated explosion hit the armor ... Welding splashes with bluish lights: this is the only way to open the hatch battened down from the inside. We take out four dead tankers from the turret. Young, more recently cheerful strong guys. They should live and live. The cumulative grenade burned through the steel of the armor, burst into the car like a whirlwind of fire. A splash of molten steel struck everyone to death ... Neither ammo rack, nor fuel tanks, nor mechanisms were affected. Only people were killed, and now, as if in the last ranks, they, the tankers, lie at the tracks of their combat vehicle.
And the tank - alive - stands in the middle of the street, lowering the cannon low to the pavement, as if mourning for the dead crew.
And people are gone.
Whoever saw a tank battle knows how terribly tankers die.
If a projectile or "Faust" hit the ammo rack, fuel tanks, the tank dies instantly - it explodes, and nothing alive in it does not remain near the tank either. The crew dies without suffering."
However, it also happens: a shell or "faust" pierced the armor, all crew members are seriously wounded, and the car burns, the fire goes to the ammo rack, to the fuel tanks, but the crew is not able to extinguish it. We must leave the tank and run away before the explosion to a safe distance. But the wounded tankers no longer have the strength to open the hatches and open them. And you hear the screams of people burning alive. You cannot help them: the hatches are closed from the inside, you can, I repeat, only open them by welding. There is no more brutal battle than a tank battle. There is no more terrible death than death in a burning tank. " It was impossible to conduct a street battle with open tower hatches: a hand grenade could fly out of any window. Therefore, the crews received an order to close the hatches, but not batten them down. As a result, the irrecoverable losses of personnel are several decreased.
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