Brief Operational History

In the 1930's the Red Army had begun work on a new type of tank known as the Artillery Tank.  This new class of armored vehicle was typically armed with very heavy guns that would be used to pin down or eliminate anti-tank positions and fortifications.  The KV-2 artillery tank (essentially a self propelled gun with a full turret) was the high point of this armored design.

The KV-2 heavy tank was a development of the KV-1 heavy tank.  It was identical to the KV-1 except for the different turret and main gun.  The turret was much larger than that of the earlier vehicle and the cannon was a M1938/40 152mm howitzer.  This massive gun was placed within a 1.4 meter high turret that weighed 12 tons and often had difficulty traversing if the tank wasn't on level ground.  Four of the tank's six crewmen worked within this huge turret.

The main gun used two part artillery style ammunition.  This was very effective at demolishing targets, but was much slower to load and fire than conventional cartridge ammunition.  It's main gun was aimed using a drum sight with a shortened aiming scope and had a maximum range of some 5,000 meters.

Very few of these tanks were manufactured in the early 1940's.  Like many of the KV series it was unpopular with the troops and was notoriously unreliable.  Its powerplant had a typical service life of 100 hours, with exceptional models lasting up to 300 hours.  During the opening days of the Patriotic War many KV-2's suffered mechanical problems and had to be abandoned on the way to the front.  Those that did make it to face the Germans were highly effective.

Production of the KV-2 ended in 1941 when it was decided that a KV series tank with an 85mm high velocity cannon would better suit the needs of the Red Army.  Even so, the KV-2 tanks served until the end of the war when they were fully replaced by the KV-85 and Stalin series tanks.

Tactical Use and Limitations

The KV-2 was a type of tank known in Soviet thought as an 'artillery tank'.  This meant that it would be used to pin down and eliminate anti-tank guns and fortified strong points.  When combined with medium tanks, the KV-2 would be used to punch through the enemy line so that the smaller tanks could exploit the breach.

It was very heavily armored.  German reports claimed that their 3.7cm and 5cm anti-tank guns were ineffective against it.  They also claimed that the 5cm and 7.5cm guns of their medium tanks also were of little use.  Only the powerful 8.8cm cannon could reliably penetrate the tank's armor.

The KV-2 suffered from a number of disadvantages as well.  The first was that it was slow and heavy.  It could only cross obstacles with difficulty and  would even cause damage to light bridges as it crossed over them.  The tank's heavy main gun was slow to fire since it used two part artillery style ammunition.  It could not fire unless it stood still.  These weaknesses made it highly unpopular, especially as the KV-85 came into service.

Deployment Chronology

The KV-2 was an attempt to give the infantry and light tanks better artillery support.  Improved technology soon made the tank obsolete.  Here you can see what vehicles the KV-2 replaced and tanks eventually replaced it.  You will be able to find more about each vehicle if we have them on our site by clicking on the links below.

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.

• Russian Tanks and Armored Vehicles 1917-1945, by Wolfgang Fleischer, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 1999

• The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, edited by Chris Bishop, published by Barnes and Noble Inc., 1998