152 mm gun M1935 (Br-2) was a Soviet 152.4 mm heavy gun, produced in limited numbers by the Barrikady Plant in Stalingrad in the late 1930s. The most unusual feature of the gun was its tracked carriage, shared by a number of Soviet heavy artillery systems of the interwar period. Despite a number of drawbacks, most notably limited mobility and short service life of the barrel, the weapon was employed throughout the German-Soviet War; an upgraded variant with wheeled carriage, Br-2M, remained in service at least until the 1970s.
Br-2 in the Central Museum of Armed Forces, Moscow.
Br-2, rear view.
Br-2, breech and controls.
Br-2, track.
203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4)
203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4) was a 203 mm (8 inch) Soviet high-power heavy howitzer. During the Second World War, it was under the command of the Stavka's strategic reserve. It was nicknamed "Stalin's sledgehammer" by German soldiers. These guns were used with success against Finnish pillboxes at the Mannerheim Line, heavy German fortifications and in urban combat for destroying protected buildings and bunkers. These guns were used until the end of the war in the Battle of Berlin, during which the Red Army used them to smash German fortifications at point blank range with their heavy 203mm shells. In the spring of 1944, a KV-1S tank chassis was used to create a self-propelled variant, the S-51. The heavy recoil from the muzzle blast threw the crew off their seats and damaged the transmission, and so it was cancelled.
203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4) in Great Patriotic War museum, Minsk, Belarus.
A battery in use, 3rd Belorussian front, summer 1944
B-4 howitzers depicted in a USSR stamp commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Red Army.