World War II Database

Country of Origin	Russia
Type	Field Gun
Caliber	152.400 mm
Weight	4165.000 kg
Ammunition Weight	40.00 kg
Rate of Fire	3 rounds/min
Range	12.400 km
Muzzle Velocity	508 m/s

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe 152 mm Howitzer M1938 (M-10) weapons were developed by F. F. Petrov's team at the Motovilikha Ordnance Plant in Perm, Russia. The design was submitted to the Artillery Directorate on 1 Aug 1937, and the first prototype was completed on 2 Nov. During the trials in Oct 1938, several serious issues were found, but they were nevertheless accepted into service on 29 Sep 1939. A second series of testing was conducted between 22 Dec 1939 and 10 Jan 1940, shortly after mass production began (4 howitzers had been produced by that time). In 1940, 685 more were built, followed by 833 in 1941, the final production year. They were built by Plant no. 172. About 340 barrels were also manufactured to equip KV-2 heavy tanks and other vehicles. Production ended at the early stages of the Russo-German war largely because there was a general shortage of tractors required to tow these heavy weapons, and production priority was given to others.

152 mm Howitzer M1938 (M-10) crews typically gave good reviews of these weapons. The modern split trail carriages provided great traverse especially considering the lack of such with contemporary Soviet artillery pieces, while these carriages also allowed a faster transportation speed. Despite having more than 1,000 of them in service at the onset of the German invasion, however, the Soviet Army actually only operated a fraction of that number. A great number of them were captured or destroyed in the first few months of the war when Soviet lines crumbled repeatedly. Those that were captured by the Germans were pressed into service under the designation 15.2 cm sFH 443(r), while the Finnish Army operated 102 of them (45 captured, 57 purchased from the Germans in 1944) under the designation 152 H 38. Both German and Finnish crews liked the guns as well, but complained of their excessive weight.

After the war, the Soviet Army kept 152 mm Howitzer M1938 (M-10) howitzers in service until the 1950s. Finnish Army kept these weapons in active service until the 1980s and kept them in depots until 2000.

Source: Wikipedia. ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Aug 2010

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