Top Heavy

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update.

Today we are showing off one of the more iconic Soviet vehicles of the Second World War: the lumber behemoth that was the KV-2.

The fortifications of the Mannerheim Line had proven to be a big headache for the Red Army to deal with. An immediate requirement for a heavily armoured assault gun was issued. While there were a couple of ideas floated about, the winning design took just two weeks to come up with. Featuring a 152 mm M-10 howitzer in a large heavily armoured turret sat upon an unmodified KV-1 chassis, the first few prototypes saw very limited field use at the end of the Winter War.

The first design of turret had a sloped front and was found to be rather cramped inside. The more common second turret was roomier and the rear hatch allowed better access for resupplying shells. Both made the tank nearly 5 metres tall and strained the already overworked drivetrain of the KV to near breaking point by increasing the weight to over 50 tonnes. 203 of these tanks were produced before production was halted in 1941. The Red Army was not satisfied with their poor handling and would not have continued production even if the German invasion had not happened.

In combat the KV-2 proved itself to be a near impregnable obstacle to the German guns and a total disaster of reliability - with most tanks being lost to breakdowns long before they could find the enemy. The Germans would capture a large number of them and put several back into use, mostly as artillery observation vehicles taking advantage of their immense height. Our KV-2 was made by Seth Soldier, who modified it from Toddel's KV-1S.

That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our Discord, our public forums, our Twitter, our subreddit, and/or Facebook pages to discuss this update and other news.