From a couple of referance I read I understand Kursk saw the first use of the SU-152. Does any one know
1) What unit they served in?
2)What sector they where in?
3) What German units saw them?
4) Any one of any photos of them showing any markings?
I thought it would make a cooll dio to have run driving past a Ferdinand if the 2 would have seen each other.

Some 24 KV-14 ( by then already classified as SU-152) in 2 Special Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery regiments saw action on Kursk salient. They were deployed on positions where panzerwaffe was expected to deploy heavy armor for defence line breakthrough. The most interesting choice of marking, IMHO, would be major Sankovski's unit that destroyed 10 panzers in a single day (don't know if they engaged Ferdinand/Elefant SPG). EE kit should have marking for his unit.

The ISU-152 killed at least 7 Ferdianand at Kursk. I have been able to fine out part of them where with the 13th Russian Army. I have not been able to locate them yet. I am not using the EE kit so if anyone has a scan of what the decals look like I would like to see them.

The northern 'face' of the salient is where both the ferdinands and the SU-152 were deployed. The German attack zones in the north were mostly in the Soviet 13th Army sector. Ironically, one of the mistakes the Red Army staff made in planning the battle is that they expected th emain German effort to be in the north. The 13th Army had three times the density of AT guns as their neighbors and twice the density as the units deployed in the south face. It makes sense that they also would have gotten the latest self-propelled guns.

So yes, the two vehicles definitely were deployed in the same region and could have engaged each other.

My su-152
Tank from EE
PE from Lionroar
The gun and gate from Dragon's JSU-152
Trumpeter KV-1's wheel and track .

You don't want to use KV-1 wheels - they were different from the SU-152's wheels. The SU-152 was built on the KV-1S chassis, which had lightened wheels. The idler and sprocket should be OK but not the road wheels.

The road wheels in the SU152 kit are not all that bad. Are there any photos of the Ferdinands after being hit by the SU152? That 152mm round would have done some real damage, particularly to the tracks and suspension. I do not remember seeing any, and if the weapon was used on the Ferdinands I would expect the Soviets would have made a big deal about it. The SU152 was incredibly cramped even by Soviet standards. There are some nice interior views in one of the Osprey books as I recall. One of the Tiger I books has some pictures taken of a destroyed SU152 with the roof blown off. The gun literally fills up the fighting compartment.

Good luck with the project. One day will we see a SU152 with the crew thumbing theirs noses as a derelict Ferdinand?

Unfortunately, Trumpeter's track is also incorrect for a KV-1S or an SU-152, which used the narrower tracks later seen on the Stalin series. Eastern Express includes the correct track design, but it is rather poorly detailed and stiff, and most examples have a lot of flash on the vinyl.

They did. They called the SU-152 "Zvierboi" (animal hunter) because it could easily kill any of the German Tigers, Panthers and Elefants and allegedly that's what it did at Kursk (though obviously we all know the Panthers were deployed with the southern pincer and such an encounter would have been impossible.)

The "Military Chronicle" special about Kursk (1-2004) has some very nice pictures I was unfamiliar with. Unfortunately I don't read Russian, but the photo captions are also in English. Major Sankovskij's SU-152 unit was the 1541st Heavy Self-propelled Artillery Guard Regiment.
Photo #119 in the book shows a destroyed Elefant (markings illegible) with a rather large penetration hole (I'd say about 5 inches in diameter) in the rear of the superstructure, no doubt the handywork of an SU-152 (what else could have done that?) Photos #123 and 124 show another badly destroyed Elefant (marking: 502), although the entry hole(s) is not visible. Maybe on the other side? This also looks like a victim of "Zvierboi"... Photo #135 shows a destroyed Brummbaer of Abt.216 (marking: 55), with a large gaping hole on the left side. Allegedly also killed by an SU-152. Photos 80 thru 82 show another Brummbaer that received a hit from a large caliber gun. Finally, the book cover shows a famous propaganda photo depicting a Soviet soldier about to throw a hand grenade at an Elefant (...rolling eyes...), but if you take a good look at this shot, you'll notice that this particular Elefant too shows a large and very clean penetration hole (definitely of a much larger diameter than 76.2mm) in the rear of the casemate. Markings on the vehicles are illegible. By the way, the book has three pictures of SU-152's deployed at Kursk (#35~37) but unfortunately no markings are visible, as the vehicles are entirely covered in vegetation, except for the gun.

Are any of the photos in the article on this page?

http://grayknight.narod.ru/Ferds_Kursk_43/Ferds_Kursk_43.htm

David

Yes, excellent find!! This goes straight into my favorites.

This page has some pictures that are not in the MC special I mentioned before and that I had not seen before, though the book also has some that are not here. Anyhow, even from these photos you can see that most of the penetration holes are considerably larger than 76.2mm. Look at Ferdinand #122, it's probably the clearest example, as it has both smaller and larger holes, most likely 76.2mm and 152mm (I doubt a 45mm shell would penetrate the Ferdinand armor, even from a close distance.) Yes, it's true that the 152mm hits in theory could have come from a towed howitzer (the same weapon used in the SU-152), but then again it was against Soviet doctrine to use standard towed artillery against tanks, simply because divisional artillery would never get close to enemy tanks.

[quote]

Not to pick nits, but the nickname (if it was indeed coined during the Kursk engagement) would have applied solely to the destruction of Tigers, as the Ferdinand didn't become the Elefant until 1944.

Good point, but from what I've read, the nickname was actually coined much after the Kursk battles, and that makes sense because otherwise they would have called it "tiger hunter" ;-)

Navigate back to the home page and there are a couple of pages of T-35 photos too, as well as a page of Elefants in Italy

http://grayknight.narod.ru/index.html

David

34-85 do you have a link?

Charlie

http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?MCS-024

Well worth the price...