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IS-2 hull MG left out of CMBB


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Zaloga said the following of THE IS-2 hull mg in one of his books (IS-2 New vanguard page 46-47) "The IS-2 adopted a hull configuration which remained standard until the 1960's. THe previous KV heavy tank series had two crewmen in the front of the hull, a driver and a machine gunner/radio operator. The radio was moved to the commanders station in the turret and the hull machine gun was made fixed and operated by the driver. Although a fixed MG might not seem very accurate, tankers who have used it insist that that they could easily hit a target the size of a fuel drum in a single burst."

You can find a good photograph (albeit small) of the IS-2 hull MG in Micheal Green's book Tiger Tanks on the lower right hand corner of page 65. Additionally the weapon is barely visible on the cover of Tim Beans Russian Tanks of World War Two

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Krazy we had bucket loads of discussion about this 3 or 4 weeks ago - should I suggest you do a search?? lol

Actually the discussion was on the CMBO list - and you can see it HERE.

There are lots of photos about of the mounting for the fixed hull MG in IS-2's currently in Museums, the MG is shown in this cut-away drawing - just in front of 3 yellow cylinders on the right side of the hull, plus have a look at the references in the old thread.

those WW2 photos that show the right hand side of the hull front almsot always either show the mounting, or are indistinct - ie there appears to be something there but you can't tell what. Unfortunately all teh photos of hte IS-2 in action on the russian battlefield are indistinct, however those of the development of the IS-1 and -2 invariably show the MG fitting.

However here's a IS-2 destroyed in Berlin 1945- a great top shot clearly showing the exterior MG fitting.

[ September 24, 2002, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: Mike ]

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I'd guess they didn't aim them much at all - rathe they'd be for suppressive fire - load it with tracer and try to "drive" it onto the target.

Fixed MG's weer fitted to other, post war, Soviet vehicels - the BMD & T54/55 had them that I know of off the top of my head (1 in each front corner for the BMD). someone in the CMBO thread mentioned a few otehr types that had similar arrangements.

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