152 Mm Howitzer-gun M1937 (ML-20) - Interesting Facts About ML-20

Interesting Facts About ML-20

• On 2 August 1944 the ML-20 howitzer-gun No. 3922 became the first gun to shell German territory in the second half of World War II.
• Loader of the ML-20 had to carry 40 kg shells alone.
• The 41st artillery brigade - one of the first brigades to be equipped with the ML-20 - after a number of reorganizations became a training center for soldiers and sergeants of the Russian Army Missile and Artillery Forces. There is a memorial ML-20 piece in one of the center's parks.
• A small number of operational ML-20 howitzer-guns is still present in the Russian Army ordnance depots.
• 152 mm HE-Frag projectiles OF-540, initially developed for the ML-20, are still in Russian Army service and can be fired from modern 152 mm ordnance pieces.
• ML-20 howitzer-guns were towed by heavy artillery tractors Voroshilovetz and Komintern; these vehicles produced by the same Kharkov locomotive plant that developed the T-34 tank and were equipped with the same V-2 diesel engine.