Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
I'm not wholly certain what the KV series of heavy tanks has to do with the SU/ISU series of assault guns/tank destroyers (which AFAIK initially carried 122mm guns, but...). Weren't the Klim Voroshilovs more the conceptual basis for the Iosif Stalin series of heavy "breakthrough" tanks ?

It's another thing if the SU/ISUs were built on modified KV hulls, though.

Oh yeah, and the Germans get the prize for the most sodding obscenely phallic main gun ever - the 380mm "rocket gun" of the Sturmtiger.
My bad. The various vehicles were related, but there were 2 lines of descent. The Russians played around with the hulls and eventually built the IS tanks and ISU assault guns (different vehicles) on the same hull. The Germans eventually learnt the same trick, but much too late - the Soviets standardised from 1942 onwards, while the Germans only started doing so in 1944.

I read somewhere that some M4s were adapted to fire rockets. It didn't catch on, as they were inaccurate, dangerous to accompanying infantry, and left a lot of smoke and trails behind.