Steven’s SU-122 Battery – 3rd Battery of the 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment

I’m very interested in the fighting around Ponyri front on the northern flank of the Battle of Kursk. As it happens Vasiliy Krysov was at Ponyri. He commanded an SU-122 platoon within the 3rd Battery of the 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment within the 13th Army. I fancied some SU-122s anyway, and reading about Krysov was sufficient excuse, so I purchased 3rd battery in 15mm scale.

Vasiliy Krysov

Krysov commanded various types of vehicle during the war – KV-1S, SU-122, SU-85 and T-34 – and fought at Stalingrad, Kursk and Königsberg. His kill tally at the end of the war was 19 tanks destroyed, including 8 “Tigers” and one “Panther”. His vehicle was destroyed two times and he was injured twice. His decorations included the Order of the Patriotic War (both 1st and 2nd degree), three Orders of the Red Star and more than 20 medals, including “For the defence of Stalingrad”, “For Military Merit”.

Krysov’s memoirs – “Panzer Destroyer” – is a great read and gives a fantastic insight into the reality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front. Highly recommended.

The book is available from Amazon USA, UK, and Canada:

Krysov, V. (2010). Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander. Pen & Sword Military.

1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment

Based on the details in Krysov (2010) the 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, when at Kursk, seems to be using the April 1943 TO&E for a Medium Assault Gun Regiment (TO 10/192) (Zaloga & Ness, 1998). However, Krysov makes it clear the batteries had five vehicles – like the Light Assault Gun Regiments and the medium regiments of February 1944- not the four of the medium regiments of mid 1943.

1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment (Major Samyko)

  • 1 x Regiment Headquarters
    • 1 x T-34 Regiment Commander (Major Samyko)
    • 1 x Command Platoon (Lieutenant Matveev)
    • 1 x BA-64 Armoured Car (Sergeant Major Martynenko)
    • Scouts (Soldatov)
    • 1 x Submachine gun company
    • 1 x Sapper Platoon (Sergeant Major Vorontsov)
  • 1st Battery (Polivoda)1
  • 2nd Battery1
  • 3rd Battery (Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Stepanovich Shevchenko)1
    • 1 x SU-122 of Battery Commander (Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Stepanovich Shevchenko)
    • 1st Platoon (Lieutenant Fomichev)
      • 1 x SU-122 Platoon Commander (Fomichev)
      • 1 x SU-122 (Junior Lieutenant Porfiriy Gorshkov)
    • 2nd Platoon (Lieutenant Vasiliy Krysov)
      • 1 x SU-122 Platoon Commander (Lieutenant Vasiliy Krysov 2)
      • 1 x SU-122 (Junior Lieutenant Ivan Petrovich Levanov)
  • 4th Battery (Vasya Porshnev)1

Notes:
(1) All batteries had five SU-122s. The battery commanders and two in each of the two platoons.
(2) the crew was Vasiliy Krysov: Commander; Viktor Oleinik: Driver; Vasiliy Plaksin: Gunloader; Valeriy Korolev: Gunlayer; Emelyan Ivanovich Besschetnov: Breech operator.

Steven’s SU-122s

I asked Simon Field to paint my version of the 3rd Battery of the 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment. The models are all Flames of War Code SU122 – SU-122 Assault Gun. The normal resin and metal combination.

3rd Battery 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment - 1
3rd Battery 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment – 1

I asked Simon to make the five vehicles in the battery identifiable:

  • battery commander – ID = “620” with commander (Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Stepanovich Shevchenko)
  • 1st platoon commander – ID = “631” with commander (Lieutenant Fomichev)
  • 1st platoon other vehicle – ID = “632” with no commander
  • 2nd platoon commander – ID = “641” with commander (Vasiliy Krysov)
  • 2nd platoon other vehicle – ID = “642” with no commander

The IDs are entirely made up but help identify each vehicle on table. I wanted the commanders to highlight the hierarchy in the battery. Unfortunately Simon left Lieutenant Fomichev out of the mix but his vehicle is still identifiable. And at least our hero, Vasiliy Krysov, is shown.

3rd Battery 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment - 2
3rd Battery 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment – 2

They are standard green Soviet vehicles. I asked for no slogans, no stars, no camouflage and no winter coat. My armies all summer and markings on Soviet origin vehicles were rare.

Disclaimer: Some of the links contained within this page have my referral ID (e.g., Amazon), which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Thank you for your support

References

Krysov, V. (2010). Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander. Pen & Sword Military.

Zaloga, S. J. and Ness, L. S. (1998). Red Army Handbook 1939-1945. Sutton Publishing.

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