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152-mm howitzer-gun model 1937 - Soviet howitzer-gun during the Second World War. This gun was mass-produced from 1937 to 1946, was or is still in service with the armies of many countries of the world, was used in almost all significant wars and armed conflicts of the middle and late XX century. The most powerful Soviet self-propelled artillery mounts of the Great Patriotic War - SU-152 and ISU-152 - were armed with this gun. According to some artillery experts, the ML-20 is one of the best barreled artillery designs for the entire period of its existence. Even more conservative assessments recognize the outstanding role of the ML-20 in the combat use and development of Soviet artillery in the mid-20th century. In the design bureau of plant No. 172, two cannon howitzers were designed - ML-15 and ML-20. A group of engineers worked on the design of the ML-20 under the leadership of the famous Soviet weapons designer , and initially work on this weapon was carried out on an initiative basis. In April 1936, the first model of the ML-15 was sent for field tests, but they did not pass and was sent for revision. In March 1937, the ML-15 entered repeated field tests, which passed without comment. ML-20 entered field tests on December 25, 1936, and the next year - for military tests. Based on the results of these tests, the ML-20, after eliminating the shortcomings, mainly related to the gun carriage, was recommended for adoption. On September 22, 1937, the ML-20 was put into service under the official name “152-mm Howitzer-Cannon Model 1937“. For the transportation of the ML-20 heavy tracked artillery tractors Voroshilovets and Komintern were used, which were produced by the Kharkov Steam Locomotive Plant - the developer and the first manufacturer of the famous T-34 tank. “Voroshilovets“ was equipped with the same V-2 engine as the “thirty-four“. S-65 “Stalinets“, ATS-712, ATS-59, ATS-59G, URAL-4320, were also used to transport ML-20. The production of ML-20 was carried out only at the plant number 172 in Perm from 1937 to 1946. In addition to the release of towed guns, about 4,000 ML-20S gun mounts were produced for mounting on self-propelled artillery mounts (SAU) SU-152 and ISU-152. The successor to the ML-20 was the 152-mm howitzer-gun D-20, which has been in serial production since 1956. This gun had ballistics identical to the ML-20. In addition to rifle and mechanized formations, the ML-20 was in service with purely artillery brigades and reserve regiments of the Supreme High Command. The RVGK cannon regiment had 24 ML-20 units. Since 1943, artillery brigades of the RVGK have been formed. The cannon brigades of the RVGK could be part of larger artillery formations - artillery breakthrough divisions and cannon artillery divisions. ML-20 was used for firing both direct fire and from closed positions at entrenched and openly located enemy manpower, his artillery, fortifications and barriers, important objects in his near rear. When installing the fuse of an OF-540 high-explosive fragmentation grenade with a mass of kg for fragmentation, it inflicts damage with fragments along the front at 40 m and a depth of 8 when firing cannon shells, the number of fragments and their dispersion is significantly less than that of a howitzer grenades of the same caliber, the fragments themselves are more massive and are capable of penetrating armor up to 20-30 mm thick. Therefore, the defensive fire of the ML-20 battery with high-explosive fragmentation shells posed a great threat not only to manpower, batteries and fortifications of the enemy, but also to his armored vehicles. Shrapnel pierced the armor of armored personnel carriers, the sides of light and medium tanks. In heavily armored vehicles, they disabled the elements of the chassis, weapons, sights. Sometimes the concussion from the close burst of the projectile was enough to break components and assemblies inside the tank or self-propelled guns with impenetrable armor. For the first time, the ML-20 was used in small quantities during the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River, while the gun did not suffer losses. The gun was actively used in the Soviet-Finnish war, where it was, among other things, successfully used to destroy bunkers and bunkers on the Mannerheim line (for the confident destruction of a bunker, 3-4 hits of 152-mm shells were required). Losses during the Soviet-Finnish war amounted to 22 guns of this type. ML-20 participated in all major operations of the Great Patriotic War, in particular, its participation in the Battle of Kursk is known, where the gun, among other things, played the role of an anti-tank gun unusual for it, being one of the few guns capable of effectively fighting new well-armored German tanks and self-propelled artillery installations. It is known that the first cannon shot at the territory of Germany in the second half of the Great Patriotic War was fired by the ML-20 # 3922 howitzer-gu
