Sharp, Charles C. Soviet Order of Battle World War II, volume XII: Red Hammers: Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery and Lend Lease Armor, 1941-1945. West Chester, OH: George F. Nafziger, 1998

No ISBN
131 pages

Glossary; Bibliography; Index

This addition to Charles Sharp's excellent series of Soviet OB booklets, published by George Nafziger, adds complete information for self-propelled artillery brigades and regiments.

The structure and contents of the booklet closely resemble the other titles in the series.

The first short chapters provide an overview:

Development of Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery
Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery Tactics
Self-Propelled Artillery Losses
Production and Types of Self-Propelled Artillery

An additional half-page table, "Technical Characteristics of the Principle [sic] Wartime SU Artillery", gives for the SU-76M, SU-122, SU-85, SU-100, SU-152, ISU-122S, and ISU-152 data such as weight, crew, main armament, rounds carried, machine guns, speed, off-road speed, engines, radio type, and armor thickness.

The next four and a half pages comprise a chronological listing of the formation dates of all the self-propelled artillery regiments and brigades by month with unit identification and type of equipment.

The heart of the book is given over to unit-by-unit histories. These are organized according to unit ID (first all the brigades, then all the regiments) and provide formation date, location when formed, combat record, and more.

334th Guards SU Regiment: Formed in the Moscow Military District from February to June 1944 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Pavlovich Tatarenko and equipped as a heavy SU regiment. When the Belorussian Offensive Operation started on 22 June 1944, the 334th Guards was assigned to the 49th Army, which it supported in making an assault crossing of the upper Dnepr River on 27 June. For this action, the regiment received the honorific title "Verkhnednedprovskikh" ("Upper Dnepr"). By the end of July the regiment was temporarily transferred to the STAVKA reserves, but from October 1944 until the end of the war it served as a support unit in the 47th Army in the 1st Belorussian Front. By the time of the East Pomeranian Offensive in January - February 1945 the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fedor Aleksandrovich Garashchenko. It participated in the liberation of Pila, Poland on 14 February. During the Berlin Operation the regiment was credited with supporting the liberation of Rorbekk, Elstal, Brandenburg, and Berlin between 24 April and 2 May 1945.

The unit histories are followed by a section of tables of organization and equipment for the different types of self-propelled artillery units. These show organization, numbers of officers and men, vehicles and equipment, etc including numbers of AFVs, trucks, tractors, and less exalted items such as field kitchen trailers.

Similar kinds of information are presented for "Lend Lease and Captured Equipment in the Soviet Tank and Mechanized Forces" with a general overview, numbers of Lend Lease vehicles (which equipped more than a third of Soviet tank regiments in October 1944), Soviet nomenclature for Lend Lease armor, and histories of units equipped with Lend Lease armor plus notes on captured German armor and the three Soviet units equipped with that captured armor.

Quite a thorough documentation of Soviet self-propelled artillery. Recommended to all order of battle enthusiasts.

Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Nafziger.

Thanks to Nafziger for providing this review copy.