World War II was a clash of economies, ideologies, armies and entire nations. It was also a clash of military stratagems on both sides. Soviet soldiers sometimes showed exceptional ingenuity. So, for example, after 1943, tank fighters began to hang ordinary buckets on the guns of their metal beasts before the start of the battle. It was put on like a cap on the very edge of the trunk. Surely many will ask: “well, and why ?!”
In 1941, the Soviet Union was armed with very powerful and modern T-34 tanks. The heavy KV-1 was also a big threat to the Germans. However, by 1942 the situation had turned upside down. The Wehrmacht received updated models of tanks Pz. Kpfw. IV, and also for the first time appeared specialized "tank killers" Pz. Kpfw VI Ausf. H, better known simply as the Tiger tank. From that moment until the end of the war, the Soviet Union was in the position of catching up on the issue of tanks. Fundamentally new tanks entered the Red Army only in 1944. They were the long-awaited T-34-85 and, of course, the "high-quality reinforcement tank" IS-2. The latter was developed back in 1943 and was conceived as a competitor to the Tiger on the battlefield.
Actually, the IS-2 tank is what interests us today. What does this combat vehicle have that neither the KV nor the T-34 has? The first thing that catches your eye is the presence of a muzzle brake-compensator. On the guns of most tanks of the initial stage of the war, they were not. The pioneers here were in many ways the Germans. Guns with compensators were not only the "Tiger", but also the "Panther". The Soviet Union had compensators on the IS-2 tanks, the allies on the later tanks "Komet" (Great Britain) and "Sherman: Easy Eight" (USA). And in this regard, the IS-2 stood out against the background of other Soviet tanks. Moreover, it was easily recognizable from afar by its profile, largely due to the presence of a muzzle brake-compensator.
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Actually, for this reason, Soviet tankers began to put buckets on T-34 guns. This was done to mislead German intelligence. From afar, an observer had every chance of mistaking the Soviet medium T-34-85 for a heavy IS-2. Thus, it was possible to deceive, for example, the German "Tigers" about the presence of Soviet heavy tanks (which in fact were not) and thereby lure them into artillery traps. In addition, the allegedly constantly growing number of IS-2 tanks created a depressing psychological effect on the Fritz.
In continuation of the topic, read about Centurion Mk.3: why and how a British tank destroyed its own crew.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/310522/63145/