1945 In April, the last struggle of Nazi Germany-the Battle of Berlin started, and the Soviet Union mobilized millions of troops to attack the city. Before the attack, the Soviet air force and artillery bombed Berlin for five days, blowing the city into ruins.

After the Soviets struggled to enter the center of Berlin, the SS relied on the reinforced parliament building to fight against the Soviets. Facing the thick concrete wall, Soviet tanks and engineers could do nothing.

Finally, zhukov ordered a big killer to rush to the front. The big killer collapsed the walls of the parliament building and killed German soldiers in the walls, so the Soviet army was successfully killed in the building.

This big killer is the B-4 heavy howitzer, the king of Soviet siege in World War II.

Speaking of the B-4 heavy howitzer, many people are still unfamiliar, but many people may have heard of its nickname "Stalin's Hammer".

As the top heavy artillery of the Soviet army during World War II, the "Stalin's Hammer" helped the Soviet army from the Volga River to Berlin, invincible along the way, and was the guardian of the Soviet infantry.

It is precisely because of its existence that Soviet infantry did not have to carry explosives to replace those heavy cement fortresses.

In the Battle of Berlin, 90 B-4 heavy howitzers brought the final sanction to Germany. The Germans shivering in the bunker of parliament building thought they could save their lives without outcrop, but they were finally killed by 203mm shells in the fortifications.

So, how did the B-4 heavy howitzer come into being? How did this weapon perform in World War II?

Why was such a powerful weapon abandoned after the end of World War II?

A and B-4 howitzers, siege artifacts that were almost destroyed.

After World War I, Europeans started an arms race again and continued to study artillery. Due to the huge size of artillery, all countries began to give up, and finally the caliber of artillery was weakened to 200 mm.

At that time, the new Soviet Union had just finished its civil war. In the war with the "White Army" and the "imperialist intervention army", the Red Army grew rapidly and became a powerful people's army.

The cadres of the Red Army are all trained from the battlefield. Among them, cavalry and artillery are the signature arms of the Red Army. Cavalry has a weak demand for equipment and mainly studies tactics. Red Army artillery needs high-performance artillery.

1926, the general artillery bureau of the red army began to study new artillery to build the main battle weapon for the red army in the next 20 years.

At that time, 203mm gun was the mainstream gun caliber in Europe. The artillery general administration thought that this weapon would come in handy in the war, so it ordered the Perm Arsenal to start design and construction.

The biggest problem with heavy artillery is that it is too cumbersome to deploy. During World War I, the artillery regiments of the participating countries all had their own "Lama Regiment", and hundreds of horses moved with artillery. Once it rains or is attacked by the enemy, the whole scene is in chaos.

Considering this situation, Soviet designers installed tank tracks on the new artillery, which has stronger off-road ability and can be upgraded to self-propelled artillery in the future, which is convenient for deployment at any time.

1927, the crawler assault gun designed by perm arsenal was released, "code 15 172".

Although the material problem and design details had not been decided at that time, the design was approved by the Artillery Bureau of the Red Army, and it began to be promoted and manufactured in the factory on 1928.

But at this moment, the then Soviet artillery commander and later Soviet marshal Grigori Kulik stopped the project.

Culic is not a passerby. His nickname is "tsaritsyn Gun King" and he is the spiritual leader of Soviet artillery.

Coolidge stopped the design of the 203mm assault gun for his own reasons. He believes that the present situation of the Soviet Union and the domestic geographical situation are completely unsuitable for mechanized troops. What kind of tank clusters and crawler-type heavy artillery are all chicken ribs, which are cumbersome and inefficient.

As for the so-called vital task, can't the plane do it?

He advocated that the Soviet Union should adjust measures to local conditions and take small-caliber flexible artillery as the main force. Therefore, he strongly advocated that the 152mm gun was strong and light, with dozens and hundreds of doors at a time, and no one could hold it.

Fortunately, Comrade Stalin persisted in this attack, and his father, who was relatively simple in military thinking, believed in the future of large-caliber artillery.

So in the next three years, Soviet military designers studied and revised "15 172", took out the model at 1930, and began to assemble a small number of troops at 193 1.

Second, the philosophy of Stalin's hammer: one force will bring down ten meetings.

In 1930s, Britain, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union and other countries were studying the 203mm howitzer. The United States has M 1 15 howitzers, Britain has M 19 17 howitzers, and Germany directly moved the SK C/34 203mm naval gun to the train.

The 203mm gun installed by the Soviet Union at 193 1 was the B-4 heavy howitzer that later became Megatron in Europe.

The overall weight of the gun exceeds 15 tons, and the barrel of the rifled gun is 5 meters long and weighs 5 tons. The actual weight of the shell of this gun exceeds 100 kg, which cannot be carried by manpower and can only be loaded by crane.

A B-4 needs an artillery squad of 15 people to operate, and it can fire a shell at the farthest 17 km, and the fastest firing rate 1 round/minute.

1933, the red army also produced a self-propelled B-4 with an engine, but the weight exceeded 26 tons, and later it had to be changed back to the unpowered version.

B-4 heavy howitzer is not only heavy, but also very expensive, so it has never been down to the front line since it was manufactured, and it just came out when the Red Army paraded.

Even then, the B-4 heavy artillery was suspected by the army. Many people think that this kind of weapon is flashy and a monster born to please leaders.

But soon, the Sufen War of 1939 proved the value of B-4 heavy artillery.

Finland was originally a part of Russia. 19 17 independence during the first world war. After independence, Finland was very wary of the Soviet government and built military facilities in karelian isthmus in the southeast as a defense.

Previously, the Russian capital Petrograd was bordered by Finland. For the sake of safety, Soviet Russia chose to move its capital to Moscow.

Although the Soviet Union moved its capital, it still felt that karelian isthmus was too close to Leningrad and felt insecure.

So 1939, the Soviets attacked Finland and competed for karelian isthmus.

However, as soon as the Soviet troops crossed the border, they were blocked by the Finns in the "Mannheim Line", which was built for 20 years and spread all over the cement bunkers, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

In addition, the local terrain is broken, lakes and forests are densely covered, and it is very difficult to bypass. Soviet troops can only attack head-on.

Soviet tanks and artillery bombarded the "Mannheim defense line" indiscriminately, but these semi-bunker-style cement piers were almost unscathed under the artillery bombardment of 120mm and 155mm, and the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties because of the sneak attack and night attack by Finnish troops.

Finally, Tymoshenko transferred the B-4 heavy howitzer, a powerful weapon that taught the Soviet Union and the Finnish army a lesson.

At that time, B-4 heavy howitzers came to the front, loaded with high-explosive bombs, and one or two shells could blow up the Finnish army's bunkers. Even if it is not completely destroyed, the huge shock wave of the shell explosion can kill the defenders inside.

Two days after hundreds of B-4s came to the front, the Soviet army soon found that all the artillery in the fortifications were misfiring, and the Finnish army retreated for fear of giant artillery.

1940, 65438+ 10, the Soviet army crossed the "Mannheim Line" and made great strides. Two months later, Finland surrendered. Although the Soviet Union paid a huge price in this war, it still laughed at the end with its magnificent B-4 heavy artillery.

Since then, the B-4 heavy artillery has attracted the attention of the Soviet Union, and the weapons factory in Leningrad began to produce this kind of artillery at a rate of 5- 10 per month.

But just one year later, the Soviet Union faced another challenge.

194 1 In the summer of, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In the first year of the war, the Soviet Union failed to fight effectively and lost a lot of eastern land and more than 4 million soldiers.

B-4 heavy artillery was dismantled by front-line artillery, packed and transported to the rear, and there was not much room for the next two years.

The German attack on the Soviet Union went smoothly before the end of 1942, and it was not until the victory of Stalingrad in June 1943 that the Soviet Union launched a counterattack.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/943, Soviet troops advanced from Volga River to Kursk. In this great war, the Soviet army defeated the Germans with absolute superiority in numbers and weapons, and then began to turn the tide.

In eastern Ukraine and Belarus, Soviet troops began to compete with German troops for cities, factories and villages. At this time, the Germans were not thugs who were forcibly recruited later, but elites who fought on the Eastern Front for two years, and their fighting capacity was very strong.

The Germans built fortifications and Soviet street battles in various cities, and a city often changed hands many times without results.

Since then, the Soviet B-4 heavy artillery has come in handy again. As long as the aim is accurate, a shell can blow up the bunker when it is loaded with high-explosive bombs.

German soldiers are suffering from this kind of weapon. Later, the Germans saw through the telescope that the truck pulled the B-4 to the front, and the rear began to prepare for retreat. As soon as the shelling was over, the Soviets fought in the street after entering the city.

After 1944, the morale of German recruits was low, and they often abandoned the city after seeing B-4.

It was also during this period that the nickname "Stalin's Hammer" spread like wildfire, and the whole German army on the Eastern Front did not want to see this weapon.

Third, the end of heavy artillery: great benefits, but also difficulties.

Throughout World War II, the Soviet Union produced hundreds of B-4s. In the Battle of Berlin, the "Hammer of Stalin" carried out a crucial task. Hundreds of B-4s spewed revenge pellets everywhere, destroying the ruins and burying the Germans alive.

However, after the end of World War II, B-4 lost its status and was largely sealed.

After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union entered the Cold War, and the two countries kept expanding the muzzle in a short time. In the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union launched the first generation of heavy-duty self-propelled artillery after the war.

The caliber of the American M65 self-propelled gun is 280mm, and the caliber of the Soviet Union 2B 1 Odin River is even more exaggerated, which is 420mm. However, the production of these two weapons has only one purpose-to launch a nuclear bomb.

The United States and the Soviet Union really thought about launching nuclear bombs at the beginning of the Cold War, and they really took out small nuclear bombs for experiments.

These heavy cannons are expensive, bulky and easy to wear. For example, an "Odin River" weighs about 55 tons, and the barrel is 20 meters long, exceeding the height of 5 floors. Traffic is a big problem, and it is difficult to turn in the city.

In addition, the nuclear shell was too dangerous to ensure the safety of the launch vehicle and was later abandoned.

At that time, missile technology advanced by leaps and bounds Compared with these huge and bulky cannons, missiles are smaller, faster and more powerful. Soon, both the United States and the Soviet Union stopped the production of super-large caliber heavy guns and concentrated on missile research.

In the mid-20th century, large caliber guns were basically retired, and the mainstream guns in various countries ranged from 120mm to 155mm.

Because of the progress of gunpowder technology, the range and lethality of these caliber guns have been greatly improved, and there is a perfect balance between flexibility and lethality, firing rate and loss.

However, the Soviet army, which has always loved the "giant gun", still retained the only seedling of the "attack gun". The USSR "Tulip" 2S4 self-propelled mortar with a caliber of 240mm is the most powerful attack weapon in the world at present, and it is still used by Russian troops.

In today's Russian-Ukrainian war, "Tulip" also plays an important role in the tough battle. It is said that a high-explosive bomb can make the enemy lose its combat effectiveness, which has the shadow of Stalin's hammer.