S-51 SOVIET WWII SELF PROPELLED GUN

Description

The S-51 is a Soviet self-propelled gun developed by the Grabin Central Artillery Design Bureau in the fall of 1943. The S-51 passed trials successfully in the spring of 1944, but never entered mass production. S-51 was based on the KV1S chassis and mounted a 203mm howitzer. The first prototype of the S-51 entered factory tests in February 1944, conducted under the reduced program. However, interest in high powered artillery was so great that it the unfinished project was transferred to ANIOP. Here, all of the major disadvantages of the S-51 were revealed. Because of the high line-of-fire when firing, the self-propelled chassis was strongly swayed by inertia and would move to a lateral displacement. The elevation angle was relatively small, and the recoil was so strong that the crew could be able to stay in their seats. The severe recoil, large size and weight of its projectiles, and the extreme discomfort for the crew would require the installation of a rammer/loader mechanism. In addition, the chassis of the KV-1S proved it was clearly not a good platform on which to install guns of this calibre. After comparing all the data obtained it was felt that the S-51 still be sent to production, but to no success. First of all, the issue of using KV-1S chassis was resolved in December 1942: the required amount of modifications for heavy self-propelled guns was only possible with the serious alteration of serial machines. Another important reason was the lack of the B-4 howitzer, which was not in production-scale numbers. (Scale : 1/35e)