Red Machines 2: SU-100 Self-Propelled Gun

Red Machines 2: SU-100 Self-Propelled Gun book

The Red Machines Series is devoted to the hardware of the Red Army. Each book offers in-depth information, much of it new to the west, as well as a large number of photos, of which most are unpublished. Each book includes blueprints, drawings, colour profiles and data tables, to describe the development and production variants of each vehicle.

The SU-100 was the Red Army’s most powerful medium tank destroyer of World War 2 and was developed for anti-tank fire support to the T-34-85 in the same way as the SU-85 had complemented the original T-34. As with the SU-85 before it, the SU-100 was delayed in entering service.

Although introduced late in the war, the SU-100 was heavily engaged in the final push into the Axis countries, with major combat engagements in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and in the assault on Berlin. The SU-100 proved a particularly potent “Zveroboi” or “animal hunter” in that it could easily dispatch Tiger, King Tiger and Panther tanks at medium range. The vehicle had no secondary armament, however, and proved vulnerable when engaged in close fighting without infantry support, as occurred during some of these late war battles.

Post-war, the SU-100 remained in Soviet Army service for many years, being subject to several capital repair upgrades over the decades. The SU-100 was also exported in large numbers, particularly to the Middle East, and was produced under licence in Czechoslovakia as the SD-100.

Book Data

Authors: James Kinnear & Nikolai Polikarpov
ISBN: 9789198477580
Language: English
Pages: 176
Photos: 300+
Colour Profiles: 6
Physical: Hardcover, 280x210mm, portrait

Contents

1. The Ural Heavy Machine-Building Plant (UZTM)
2. SU-100 Prototypes
3. Design Changes during SU-100 Series Production at UZTM
4. SU-100 Self-Propelled Gun Production at Omsk Plant No174
5. Post-War SU-100 Modernisation
6. Operational Service
7. SU-100 Description
8. The Next Generation SU-100
9. SU-100 Walkaround
10. Preserved SU-100s

About the Authors

James Kinnear was born in the UK in 1959. James researched Russian military hardware following his first visit to the Soviet Union in 1973. Since then, he has written hundreds of articles on Soviet and Russian military technology. A Russian speaker, he has studied the subject from within the military-intelligence community and as a civilian author.

Nikolai Polikarpov is the chief editor of “M-Hobby”, the first and only Russian monthly magazine for military modellers, which has been in publication since 1993. The founding of the magazine was a natural extension of his hobby of building scale models. The desire to build models which were an exact replica of the original full-scale prototypes naturally led to the study of the development and operational history of military vehicles during World War Two, including archive research and the measurement of preserved museums examples. This led to the publication of numerous reference articles in “M-Hobby”, and also a series of Russian books and monographs regarding the history of Soviet combat and transport vehicles. The publishing of books and articles led to membership of the Union of Journalists of Russia and ongoing work in popularizing military history in various publications.