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B**.
Outstanding! Describes guns, ammunition, tracked prime movers. Great photo collection.
This is a simply outstanding book on the 203 mm L/25 B-4, 152 mm L/47 BR-2, and 280 mm L/17 BR-5 guns. Most of the book describes the 203 mm B-4 if only because so many were manufactured -- more than 1 000. By way of comparison, apparently only 39 152 mm BR-2s were produced and only 48 280 mm BR-5 mortars. All the guns were mounted on the same tracked chassis. The text includes tabulations of dimensions, weights, and performance characteristics of the guns and ammunition.There is also a short chapter (five pages) on the various prototypes for a self-propelled 203 mm B-4: the SU-14 based on the T-35 tank chassis, the S-51 based on the KV-1 heavy tank chassis, and the S-59 based on the IS-85 heavy tank chassis. Production never ensued because they all had significant mechanical problems.Another chapter (11 pages) discusses the tracked prime movers or tractors used to move the weapons: the 60 - 90 horsepower "Kommunar," the 131 horsepower "Komintern," the 60 horsepower "Stalinetz S-60," the 65 horsepower "Stalinetz S-65," the 115 horsepower "Stalinetz S-2," the 52 horsepower "STZ-3," the 52 horsepower "STZ-5," the 375 horsepower "Voroshilovetz," assorted American Caterpillar, International Harvester, and Allis-Chalmers tracked tractors supplied as part of Lend-Lease, the post WW II 80 horsepower "S-80" and finally the post-war 415 horsepower AT-T based on the T-54 medium tank chassis.The book contains an enormous number of photos. It is well worth taking the time to read the photo captions as they frequently offer much information on the weapons.Another excellent book on a related subject is "World of Tanks: the SU-152 and Related Vehicles" by Pasholok (2013). It describes in detail the design history of the prototype S-51 self-propelled version of the 203 mm B-4 as well as other attempts at self-propelled versions.
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