LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2) (USA)

▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2)

▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2)

USA

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.3	2.3

Class:

Tank destroyer

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

Show in game

MARKET

Description

The ▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2) is a gift rank II American tank destroyer with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai" in the winter holiday event of 2016.

Being based off the LVT(A)(1) with the difference of a new turret that hosts a Soviet ZIS gun, offering much more firepower compared to its counterpart.

General info

Survivability and armour

Its large and spacious hull might seem hard to knock out all of its crew, but that's only true when you are getting shot from the side. From your side, there is a huge empty area between the driving compartment and the fighting compartment that will absorb any shell, regardless of their explosive fillers. However an experienced player will know to shoot at these two compartments and avoid the empty space. From the front, the spacious hull does not help to keep the crew safe as a penetrating shell will travel through the empty space and hit any crew at the back, so you could die sooner than you expected. Avoid tanks with solid shots, for example British/Swedish tanks.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet, Machine gun shield)

Armour	Front (Slope angle°)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	12.7 mm (31°) Front plate 6.35 mm (83-84°) Upper glacis 6.35 mm (41-81°) Lower glacis	6.35 mm (11-51°) Top 6.35 + 6.35 mm Bottom	6.35 mm (0-62°)	6.35 mm
Turret	38 mm (10°) Turret front 5 mm (1-81°) Gun mantlet	25 mm	25 mm	N/A

Notes:

• Suspension wheels and tracks are 15 mm thick.
• Front hull has flat armour area where driver & co-driver sits.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	44	6	18.3	355	477	19.4	26.07
Realistic	40	5		221	250	12.08	13.66

Armaments

Main armament

57 mm ZIS-2					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	76	-5°/+15°	±25°	N/A	10.6	14.6	17.8	19.6	20.9	8.7	7.7	7.1	6.7
Realistic					7.1	8.4	10.2	11.3	12.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
BR-271	APHEBC	145	143	132	119	108	98
BR-271K	APHE	145	143	132	119	108	98
O-271	HE	5	5	5	5	5	5

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Normalisation at 30° from horizontal	Ricochet
								0%	50%	100%
BR-271	APHEBC	990	3.14	1.2	9.0	21.56	+4.0°	48°	63°	71°
BR-271K	APHE	990	3.14	1.2	9.0	27.72	-1.0°	47°	60°	65°
O-271	HE	700	3.72	0.4	0.01	220	+0.0°	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the LVT(A)(4) ZIS-2.

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
76	71 (+5)	65 (+11)	49 (+27)	33 (+43)	17 (+59)	1 (+75)	No

Machine guns

7.62 mm M1919A4
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Hull	3,000 (250)	500	-10°/+20°	±15°

Usage in battles

LVT(A)(4) ZIS-2 is a fragile tank with a strong bite. The main gun is a very powerful Soviet 57 mm ZIS-2 that has no problem penetrating through the hardest of enemies at its BR. Being such a large tank it has amazing manoeuvrability that works on most terrain. Its high profile makes it an easy target for the enemy to spot from afar and behind objects, fences and hills. Since the LVT(A)(4) has such thin hull armour, it is vulnerable to machine gun and autocannon fire. This makes Self Propelled Anti-Air vehicles and vehicles with 20 mm automatic cannons a lethal enemy, but that is not all the worries, large-calibre guns with HEAT and HE can penetrate with ease and cause detonation on the soft armour of the LVT(A)(4).

LVT(A)(4) ZIS-2 has decent speed and is manoeuvrable enough to handle close combat even lacking a full 360° turret. But, to best counter the most dangerous of enemies, utilize the long gun to its advantage.

You should memorise certain spots on different maps to make the most out of your amazing firepower. Pick spots that:

• Overlook a key passageway / street
• Is not too close or too far from the frontline
• Have hard covers / slopes around
• Is overall flat (as your gun depression is bad and gun is mounted very tall)
• Have some vegetations, if possible

This way you can sit at a comfortable spot, stay away from most dangers and target opponents that appear. The rather flat trajectory of your gun does not require as much elevation when shooting at distant targets which is beginner friendly, however the shell velocity is not fast, so you have to lead more than you think for moving targets. Because this is a sniper's tactic, if you are to bush up for better concealment, it is recommended to stack all bushes onto the upper front of the LVT. This is because you will mostly face targets from one direction only (your front) so you just have to cover up the front. The lower glacis does not need as much bush as it will usually get blocked by vegetations on the ground, acting as natural camouflage.

Enemies worth noting:

M4A3 (105) (France): this low-tier Sherman is one tough tank to destroy, but luckily your LVT is one of the few that can destroy it with ease (most of the time). Within 500 m, your default shell can easily penetrate its frontal/side armour with an appropriate angle. You can also penetrate its turret between the edge of the gun mantlet and the gun barrel. A penetrating shell is very likely to knock out most of its crew. However, when it's angling, hull down, or >500 m away, either aim really carefully at the turret or wait until it reveals other weakspots (eg. side). Note that you will be hull-broken easily by its HEAT so avoid getting hit by it.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire	BR-271K
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Very powerful cannon for its BR: 145 mm penetration can effectively go through any tank frontally, even in an uptier; upon penetration the 20 g TNT does a great job at finishing off most, if not all the crew
• Good speed and manoeuvrability
• Five crew members with huge space between them increases survivability, especially when most guns it faces have small calibre and little explosive filler (eg. the Stuarts' 37 mm)
• Decent horizontal gun traverse of 50° for a turretless design
• Well-angled turret can lead to some shells bouncing
• Is amphibious, meaning it can launch surprise attacks using rivers

Cons:

• Huge and tall hull makes it easy to be seen/shot at
• Very thin armour, can be penetrated by any cannon/heavy MG
• Easily hull broken by large calibre HEAT, such as the Chi-Ha's 57 mm HEAT
• Below-average 5° gun depression plus the tall hull makes it quite difficult to fight in hilly terrain
• The crew in the open topped turret are very close together, meaning they can be taken out in a single shot or by aircraft
• Turretless, meaning it cannot respond to flankers in time
• Poor zoom of the gunsight makes it hard to see and aim at distant targets

History

The LVT series of tracked amphibious vehicles originated from a pre-war civilian design, the Alligator hurricane rescue vehicle which had been designed by Donald Roebling (1908-1959) in 1935. An article on a further development of this vehicle in 1937 caught the attention of the US Marine Corps, but initially the proposal of militarising the Alligator met resistance both from the US Navy, who felt conventional landing craft could do the job just as well, and from Roebling himself, who disliked the idea of his vehicle being used for military purposes. The outbreak of war in Europe persuaded Roebling into building it anyway, and by May of 1940 he had completed a militarised prototype, which was tested in November 1940 and subsequently approved for production.

Even before the first prototype had been tested, Roebling had started designing a turret-equipped armed version of his LVT, intended for providing fire support for landings. Originally the design languished, but in June of 1941 the USMC recommended the development of a fire support version of the LVT. Development of this variant was slow, as the entire LVT had to be redesigned: light armour was added to the hull and a 37 mm armed turret similar to that of the M3 Stuart light tank was mounted on top, resulting in the initial fire support variant, the LVT(A)(1).

Combat experience with the LVT(A)(1) soon showed that the 37 mm gun was insufficient for fire support purposes, so the original M3 Stuart turret was replaced by that of a 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8, creating the LVT(A)(4) variant, of which 1890 were built. Of these, several dozen were delivered to Nationalist China under the Lend-Lease Agreement.

In KMT service, the LVT(A)(4) ended up being used both against the Japanese forces during World War II, as well as against the PLA during the ensuing civil war. Most of them eventually fell into PLA hands. The lack of western supplies meant that ammo soon became sparse for the 75 mm M3 Howitzer gun mounted by the LVT(A)(4); to keep them useful as well as to bolster the number of available armoured vehicles in the PLA inventory, the LVT(A)(4)s were locally converted to either accept the 37 mm M6 tank gun - essentially retrofitting them to LVT(A)(1) status - or the 57 mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun - identical to the gun used on the ZiS-30 tank destroyer, and technically similar to the ZiS-4 gun used on both the T-34-57 and the SU-57B.

The haphazard way in which these conversions took place, as well as the lack of official documents on them, make it unclear how many LVT(A)(4)s were converted. The lack of available spares for their automotive components makes it unlikely that they were used for long, and it is likely they were withdrawn from frontline use as soon as Soviet deliveries of tanks and armoured vehicles started in the early 1950s.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.

USA tank destroyers
M10	M10 GMC
M36	M36 GMC · M36B2
T95	T28 · T95
M109	M109A1
ATGM	LOSAT · M901
Wheeled	M3 GMC · T55E1
Other	M8 HMC · M50 · M56
China	▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2)

Winter events
2022	Winter Quest
Pilot stars	Late 298D · ◄Tornado IDS MFG
Tanker stars	T-80UM2
Sailor stars	USS Newport News
2021	Operation W.I.N.T.E.R.
Pilot stars	C. 202D · ◊MiG-23MF
Tanker stars	A.C.I · AGS
Sailor stars	IJN Hayanami · MPK Pr.201K
2020	Operation W.I.N.T.E.R.
Pilot stars	Ro.57 Quadriarma · MiG-21PFM
Tanker stars	E.B.R. (1954) · Class 3 (P)
Sailor stars	Type K-8 No.13 · USS Baltimore
2019	Operation F.R.O.S.T.
Pilot stars	TIS MA · J6K1
Tanker stars	QF 3.7 Ram · ▃Merkava Mk.2B
Sailor stars	PT-811 · Jaguar
2018	Festive Quest
Pilot stars	M.B.152C1 · Fw 190 C
Tanker stars	SU-85A · T30
Christmas Lights	P-43A-1 · Comet I "Iron Duke IV"
2017	Festive Quest
Pilot christmas toys	P-40C · NC.900
Tanker christmas toys	AEC Mk II · Ersatz M10
Christmas Lights	Fw 189 A-1 · KV-2 (1940)
2016	Winter Holiday
Pilot stages	Ki-21-I hei · Me 262 A-2a
Tanker stages	▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2) · ▂Type 62
2015	War Thunder Fulfills Your Wishes!
Pilot reward	▂P-63C-5
Tanker reward	VK 45.01 (P)
2014	Holiday War Thunder Marathon!
Pilot reward	I-301
Tanker reward	M8A1 GMC