What is the code designation who got IS-3 first?

[saukopf]

I think no doubt IS-3 didn't take part in eastern front, but on wiki and battlefield.ru I got this informations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iosif_Stalin_tank#IS-3

The IS-3 came too late to see action in World War II. Though some older sources claim that the tank saw action at the end of the war in Europe, there are no official reports to confirm this. The tank saw no action against the Germans, although one regiment may have been deployed against the Japanese in Manchuria.

http://www.battlefield.ru/en/tank-development/28-heavy-tanks/38-js3.html

The first test group of JS-3's left the factory gates in mid-May 1945. Despite western opinion (usually I hear about JS-3's seen on the streets of Vienna), JS-3 tanks weren't involved in battles on the Eastern Front. The participation of JS-3's in Far Eastern Front battles (in August 1945) is still unverified: at least one tank regiment of JS-3 tanks was sent, but Soviet combat records don't confirm any actual combat.

So it seems like this "IS-3 regiment" maybe doesn't exist. I'm wondering, which soviet troop equiped IS-3 first? And what is the code designation of the IS-3 troop in Berlin parade? Thanks!

[Mr.ious.Q]

So be gone the IS-3 ??

[Blackbishop]

I wouldn't believe what says wikipedia about those delicate affairs .

You can be sure soviets hide/erase well those records and nonone knows about them nowadays. There is a book from a former soviet tank driver on WW2 that wrote he used a JS3 on the streets of Hungary (thanks to @neosdark).

Don't you think that could be a chance that were used? Because were built in numbers six months before the fall of the 3rd. recih . There's no country that wouldn't like to use experimental stuff on a war, without exceptions.

You can check the history about the T-43 tank, IMO it could be similar to what happened to JS-3. As there are no "official" testimony of them being used (at least for now), you can say they don't see action in WW2.

@Mr.Q
Historic aside, the IS-3 is cool and it won't be removed, you can say it's like an IS-2 ace . Besides he's not asking for that ¬¬.

[neosdark]

You can be sure soviets hide/erase well those records and nonone knows about them nowadays. There is a book from a former soviet tank driver on WW2 that wrote he used a JS3 on the streets of Hungary (thanks to @neosdark).

Hmm was that me? I'm pretty sure that it was somebody else (I do have that book though)
Anyway, the IS-3, we have few real records on concerning the WW2 use. I'm definite that they used them in operation August Storm, cause my neighbor's grandpa was a Japanese junior sergeant who saw one of those things firing on the Barracks they had just evacuated.

[Sommarkatze]

Fascinating. I would like to see a movie / game about August storm. Would be cool ^^

[Otto Halfhand]

The best information I have found on the unit designation for IS3's in Manchuria is 6th Guards Tank Army, 5th Guards Tank Corps, (Division).  The 5th consisted of the 108th Tank Regiment, the 140th Guards Tank Regiment and the 160th Tank Regiment. My guess is the 108th Tank Regiment. The parent unit for this formation is the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps, It has a Ukranian association.

[neosdark]

Fascinating. I would like to see a movie / game about August storm. Would be cool ^^

Would be cool, but ask the Japanese to make it and they will put too much propaganda about how they were betrayed, ask the Americans they will portray the Russians as Merciless murderers, ask the Russians to make it and it will look like propaganda. HMMMM

Get the British to make it, they don't have a particularly pathological hatred of Soviets

[saukopf]

I found something more:

The Osprey published 《IS-2 Heavy Tank 1944-73》,page 15,the note said "Although it has long been claimed that IS-3 saw combat in the Berlin campaogn,recently declassified Russian accounts dispute this."

On Axis History Forum

It is a subject that has been discussed more than once, but without any conclusive evidence. They did not see combat in the European theatre, but they where according to some "deployed" at the victory-parade in Berlin.
You would think, as I do, that the Soviet Union would take the opportunity to battle-test them in Manchuria, but I've never found any evidence, one way or another. So if anybody can come up with any conclusive information, I, too, would be happy.

From battlefield.ru I fond the code designation IS-3 tank regiment, 71th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment,

On September 7, 1945, a united Allied military parade was held in Berlin. The parade began with infantry columns: Soviet soldiers of the 9th Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army, then soldiers of the French 2nd Infantry Division, Alpine troops, and Zoaves. There was a brilliant display by the British 131st Infantry Brigade. Paratroopers of the US 82nd Airborne Division brought up the rear. After a short break, a continuous mechanized column started.
The first vehicles were 32 M24 «General Chaffe» tanks and sixteen M8 APC's from the US 705th Armored Battalion, and then tanks and armored cars from the French 1st Tank Division. After that, 24 «Comet» tanks and 30 armored cars from the British 7th Armored Division. And after that... rolled 52 of the newest JS-3's! That was a complete shock for all the Allies! A combined regiment of JS-3's was formed, based on the 71st Guards Heavy Tank Regiment (this unit is remembered as having fought with first King Tigers on the Eastern Front).

This document, page 28, show me its 71th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, under 2nd Guards Tank Army command

http://www.google.com.hk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=33&ved=0CCkQFjACOB4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alternatehistory.com%2Fdiscussion%2Fattachment.php%3Fattachmentid%3D132947%26d%3D1299433745&rct=j&q=71th%20Independent%20Guard%20Heavy%20Tank%20Regiment%20IS-3&ei=EsxWToLqNq73mAXA3cihDA&usg=AFQjCNFsvub75MVMf6ipYes_BdEPRZvJUQ&cad=rjt


Then from the Soviet order in Berlin Battle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_order_of_battle_for_Battle_in_Berlin
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_berlin.html#app1

I found 2nd Guards Tank Army, but no 71th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, only the 79th GHT Reg.,so now I think I can confirm this.

[HyperSniper999]

Why would the Soviets cover up clear combat usage of the tank? Was Stalin already planning out the Cold War between the US and USSR after the war ended?

[neosdark]

Its possible, want me to tell you something of interest?

The Soviets considered this the Great Patriotic War, a war so important that their life depended on it. Victory Day, you would imagine would be the most important Soviet holiday, especially under Stalin, the man who lead his people to victory over the Fascists. Well, as we all know a holiday (an important one such as this especially) is a day or sometimes 2 of from work. But on Victory Day, there was never a day off until the reign of Comrade Brezhnev (which is a good while after Stalin, in the 1970s).

Now this might all seem not to add up, but the fact of the matter is, Stalin didn't win WW2, at least not in his own eyes. Its a very well known fact that Stalin considered WW2 to be a technical loss, not because of the loss of manpower and machines, but because he failed to accomplish what he and Lenin (yes, Lenin way back in the 20s forsaw this) both saw as a necessity, the global spread of Communism. He failed because he didn't gain all of Europe, but only a mere half of it. He failed because the Germans preemptively attacked him and he wasn't willing to believe (he had hundreds of spys telling him that the Germans were going to attack him, but he didn't listen to any of them) of a German invasion. WW2 was a loss, so he needed to plan WW3, but he died a tad early (for better or worse I haven't the fogiest but i can imagine a life under him as horrid).