[Wolfshook]

Hans:

Most scholars agree that the JS3 never saw combat. Russian propaganda says it fought in a few battles, but there are no reports from any German records, of them ever encountering the tank. That is why most agree that it never was able to get to the front fast enough, before the war ended. A tank that is produced but never sees battle, cannot be commented on, because their is no data to show how good it was in combat. It never saw combat, as far as 99% of historians are concerned. There is no data, so how can you comment on it? That's my point.

Let's compare the JS2 to the Tiger2:

First drawback of large heavy tanks are their slow speed. The JS2 has a road speed of 37km/hr...pretty slow, even for as heavy tank. The Tiger2 has a road speed of 40km/hr. In comparison, the Panther has a road speed of 46 km/hr. So, the JS2 just like every other heavy tank is slow...in fact, it's slower than most. It's turret traverse and acceleration was no better than any other heavy tank of the time, either. Road speed is what is the worst for both tanks, right around 20km/hr.

Another drawback is a large profile, easily seen by enemy tanks, infantry, AT guns, and enemy fighter bombers/bombers. The JS2 has a length of 9.83 meters, height of 2.73 meters, and width of 3.07 meters. The Tiger2 has a lenth of 8.45 meters (smaller), height of 2.93 meters (taller), and a width of 3.7 meters (wider). So as you can see, the JS2 and Tiger 2 are very comparable in size, and both tanks are massive, and very easily seen from long distances.

The JS2 really can't be compared to the Tiger. Only by 1943 had 100 been built. At that same time 649 Tigers had been built. The Tiger was made long before it, and it was put into service long before the JS2 ever was. Comparing the Tiger2 and JS2 is a better example. And if you compare the two, the Tiger2 would win any such encounter one on one.


Most would agree, however, that even the Tiger1 could take on the JS2. The 8.8cm KWK used on both the Tiger1 and Tiger2 had extremely high penetration. Add to that the specialized armor piercing ammunition employed with these tanks, and the penetration jumps even higher.

The JS line was a good heavy tank. It caused the German army a lot of problems, however, I believe, because Russia was able to produce a lot of them. The Germans had heavy tanks to combat the Russian heavies, it was just a matter of not being able to produce as many, as the Russians could.

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34th SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Landstorm Nederland

"Meine Ehre heißt Treue"

[This message has been edited by Wolfshook (edited August 14, 2001).]