
The beginning of the great Patriotic war, the worker-peasant Red army came no powerful self-propelled artillery installations (SAU), although the Finnish war showed the urgent need. The absence of such ACS in the ranks of divisions advancing on the positions of the “Mannerheim line”, in an extraordinary way hindered our attack. Particularly affected by difficulties with the suppression of long-term fortifications – these concrete structures, unassailable gun emplacements, often with multiple machine guns and even cannons. From the front to suppress such resistance was virtually impossible to destroy – only after a long artillery bombardment or air bombing. Needed were powerful tools of destruction. Then the military command remembered the self-propelled SU-14, created years earlier for the training program on “Heavy artillery of Special Purpose (TAON)” in the red army.
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