The first samples of heavy self-propelled artillery installations were created in the Soviet Union even before the start of World War II. However, it did not come to their serial production then. The realities of the war, the appearance of new heavy tanks in the ranks of Hitler's Panzerwaffe, forced Soviet designers to return to the development of heavy self-propelled guns. Armed with powerful 152 mm guns, these combat vehicles became the most formidable anti-tank weapon of the Red Army. A shell weighing half a centner tore off the Tiger tower from the shoulder strap, broke through the Panther's armor. It was for successes in the fight against the German armored "menageries" that the Soviet soldiers gave the heavy self-propelled guns the respectful nickname "St. John's Wort."