Since the size of the main gun (and its accompanying breech) meant that it was to be slightly offset-right from centerline, the driver's position was left of it. The gunner and ammunition loader had positions behind the driver along the left side of the hull superstructure with quick access to ready-to-fire 155mm projectiles. The vehicle commander, as well as the breech operator, were positioned to the right of the hull superstructure. All told, the fighting compartment was a cramped, crude workspace with few creature comforts for the crew.
By this time, the German Army had begun fielding its mighty "Tiger" heavy tanks in greater numbers along the East Front and this terrorizing vehicle was both well-protected and well-armed, the latter through the classic "German 88" - a proven 88mm armor-defeating weapon that began its service career as an Anti-Aircraft (AA) weapon. Armor protection on these machines reached 100mm but the series proved itself mechanically unreliable and was not available in the numbers ultimately required to change German fortunes.
With the arrival of the SU-152, the Soviet Army finally had a weapon system capable of leveling the playing field for its 155mm gun could also fire an effective Armor-Piercing (AP) round to defeat the Tiger's stout armor at range. In some instances, the Tiger's turret was completely blown off by the massive 107lb round. The SU-152 crew could hope to reach a rate-of-fire of about 1.5 rounds-per-minute, such was the size of these projectiles and, beyond its armor-defeating value, the weapon could still operate as a howitzer to render lighter-armored vehicles and fortified positions useless even with near-misses from High-Explosive (HE) shells.
Despite its successes on the battlefield, it was clear that there was room for improvement in the SU-152. The KV-1 chassis was well on its way out of the picture and a more modern solution was in order so this came in the form of a revised version of the gun-howitzer weapon being fitted to the chassis of the new "IS" ("Josef Stalin") heavy tanks coming online. The SU-152 was already under consideration for replacement as soon as mid-1943 when development began on this new form and the pilot vehicle, once it had its issues ironed out from testing that occurred in September-November 1943, was adopted as the "ISU-152". Production then began before the end of the year. This vehicle is detailed elsewhere on this site.
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