By the beginning of World War II, no army in the world was armed with heavy tanks. With one exception. The Red Army had them.
Why heavy tanks are needed
War is, first of all, work, hard, dirty and very dangerous. A soldier spends most of his time digging the ground. The more he extracts the soil, the higher his chances of surviving. There are other types of work that are no less laborious, and each of them requires its own tool. A heavy bomber is not suitable for bombing individual point targets - an attack aircraft is needed. To destroy the industrial potential of the enemy, a fighter should not be used, strategic bombers are required here, and there should be a lot of them. Light tanks are needed for deep and rapid raids, bypassing enemy defenses and creating “cauldrons” in which significant military formations, deprived of supplies and communications, will not be able to survive for a long time. If we draw analogies with a working tool, then they perform the functions of a blade, flexible and convenient. But there are situations when something more powerful is required, but sharpness does not matter much (a cleaver, for example, oraxe). Heavy tanks are needed when it is impossible to take or bypass fortified positions with a quick swoop, and a methodical breach is required, a strong frontal blow, all-destroying and merciless.
In December 1939, there were heavy and bloody battles in Karelia. Terrible crackling frost, waist-deep snow, swamps under it, and not freezing. If we add mines to the weather conditions, the detection of which is very problematic; the work of snipers; unexpectedly emerging secret firing points, protected by thick reinforced concrete; the polar night, which has a depressing effect on the psyche; the inability to make a fire and generally keep warm; boulders hidden, again, under the snow, and much, much more, it becomes clear "why it took so long to fiddle with some little Finland there." For the first time, heavy tanks played an important role in the difficult task of breaking through the Mannerheim Line. The USSR, represented by the Stalinist leadership, decided to create a super-powerful armored fist before other countries. Experimental models, in particular the QMS, took part in the Finnish War. On December 17, trying to overcome the Hottinen fortified area, one of them, at the disposal of the 20th brigade, was blown up by an anti-tank mine. The crew suffered no losses, but was forced to leave the car. It was one of the first uses of the new weapon.
Heavy tank as a reflection of the Soviet military doctrine
In the military industry, nothing is done just like that. It is difficult to imagine a situation in which I. V. Stalin calls the designers of armored vehicles and, puffing on his pipe,tells them: “Make me a heavy tank. I really want this. I have such a whim … . In this case, no state will have enough funds to carry out the most urgent tasks of protecting its borders. No, all the tasks that the Kremlin assigned to specialists were justified.
The design of a combat vehicle that meets modern requirements for assault weapons began at the beginning of 1939, following the decision of the State Defense Committee adopted in December 1938. According to the military doctrine of the USSR, combat operations in the event of a probable (and expected) war were to be deployed on the territory of the enemy in the face of his stubborn opposition at the initial stage. This nature of the conflict required certain technical means, in connection with this, the designers were given the appropriate technical specifications. It was understood that through wide gaps in the defensive lines, large formations would move forward, equipped with light, high-speed tanks of the BT class, capable of moving along roads at high speed. In this likely scenario, assuming complete air supremacy, victory was guaranteed with minimal casu alties.
Beginning of design work
Led the design of the SMK tank Zh. Ya. Kotin, general designer of the Leningrad plant named after Kirov. The name immortalizes the memory of the recently murdered leader, the head of the party organization "cradle of the revolution". Another machine was developed under the leadership of A. S. Ermolaev at the neighboring plant number 185, it was called the T-100. The design idea of those years was multidirectional, in particular, one of the main directions was considered a multi-tower scheme, in which the sector of fire could be circular. The QMS turned out to be too heavy, and instead of three towers, they decided to install two on it in order to improve driving performance and armor.
However, soon after the start of design work, a group of graduate trainees VAMM (Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization) named after. Stalin, led by N. F. Shashmurin, proposed to go further: remove another tower (which young specialists considered redundant), install a diesel engine instead of a carburetor engine and reduce the undercarriage by two rollers. In fact, the team intuitively came to a scheme that became classic for many decades, ahead of all foreign colleagues who accepted this idea only in the fifties.
So the Soviet KV-1 tank was born.
From blueprints to metal
The leading designer N. L. Dukhov was instructed to finish the single-turret tank. Today, no one needs to be reminded that it was dangerous to procrastinate in the Stalin years. Any delay could cause a job change to a less prestigious one, in a padded jacket and with a saw or an ax. The chief designer of the KV tank, comrade Dukhov, coped with the task. By August, heavy tanks KV and SMK were ready and presented to the state commission, and in September, the Kubinka training ground shook from the roar of engines during the demonstration of new models. Their acceptance into service took place just as quickly, a “liberation campaign” against Finland was already underway, and this equipment was urgently needed. The designers were interestedeffectiveness of the application of developments. Tank "Klim Voroshilov" went into battle.
How the KV-2 appeared
The Mannerheim Line was heavily fortified. Unlike the French Maginot, it rested on the edges of the coast (in the west to the Gulf of Finland, in the east to Ladoga), and it was impossible to bypass it. The fortifications were built competently, with a high degree of autonomy and all the infrastructure necessary for defense. In general, the heavy KV tank performed well, but the 76 mm guns were clearly not enough to destroy reinforced concrete structures covered with a layer of soil. Something more efficient was needed, for example, a 152-mm howitzer, which was already in service, although a powerful tractor tractor was needed to transport it. Leningrad designers were given a new task: to combine two important elements, a huge cannon and a tracked undercarriage, and at the same time provide reliable protection for the crew with gun crew. This is how the KV-2 was born, a hammer tank designed to destroy any fortifications.
In the interwar period
The Finnish war, although it was bloody, ended quickly, but despite this, the production of heavy vehicles, including the siege type, continued. Since February 1940, the Klim Voroshilov tank in two versions has been put into production at the LKZ (Leningrad Kirov Plant), and since June at the ChTZ (Chelyabinsk Plant, called the Tractor Plant). Enthusiasm in those years was extremely high, the first HF of the Ural assembly left the shop soon, and to increase capacitya separate building, the dimensions of which implied very large possibilities. The design teams did not stop work either, continuing to improve technical indicators and eliminate the shortcomings identified during the hostilities. In the autumn of 1940, two new samples were to appear with armor reinforced to 90 mm with more powerful artillery weapons (85 mm, a caliber that tankers from other countries of the world could not even dream of). By the end of the year, another giant was planned, this time with 100 mm protection. These machines were secret developments, they were called objects 220, 221 and 222. So that no one would know…
Comparison with a potential adversary
In 1941, it was planned to produce 1200 heavy vehicles, in particular KV-1 - 400, KV-2 - 100 (it had a very specific function, and the need for it was lower), and KV-3 - as many as 500 things. And this is only in Leningrad! ChTZ was supposed to give another 200 units. In 1949, the KV-1 heavy tank and the KV-2 super-heavy tank were also produced, and in considerable numbers (243). In total, there were 636 of them in service with the Red Army. Is this a lot or a little? Soviet historians, explaining the causes of the disaster in the summer of 1941, expressed the opinion that we did not have enough modern tanks. At the same time, they forgot to mention that the Wehrmacht crossed the border of the USSR, having at its disposal a little more than three thousand tanks, and all of them, without exception, were light. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to call them new. The European blitzkrieg was, of course, a fun ride, but the engine does not care, it wears out even withdriving on a very good autobahn. The vehicles captured in France and Czechoslovakia also could not be compared even with our light BTs. Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany, even had Renault-17s in service (17 is the year of manufacture, 1917), in the USSR there were 2 of these, they were in museums.
And yet, it's time to remember that not only heavy tanks were produced in the Soviet Union. There were also medium, T-34, the best in the world, and they were built very actively. And light, they were produced in unprecedented numbers. And in terms of armament, and in terms of armor protection, and in terms of the characteristics of engines (mainly, by the way, diesel, V-2, which no one else in the world could repeat during the entire war), they surpassed Wehrmacht equipment. The Soviet KV tank, as of mid-1941, had no analogues at all.
Design
At the time of the creation of the first prototypes, the capabilities of Soviet tank factories made it possible to use the most advanced technologies. There was no talk of any riveted joints, the hull was made by welding. The same applied to the gun turret, which was further improved using the all-cast method. The thickness of the armor plates was 75 mm. The modification capabilities of the design made it possible to further increase the protection to 105 mm due to the installation of additional armor screens on the bolts, but in 1941, not a single German side gun could hit the KV-1 tank without it.
The general scheme was classic for Soviet armored vehicles of the second half of the thirties (lateradopted as a model by engineers all over the world): a rear transmission that excludes a cardan shaft, inclined armor, a powerful diesel engine and a 76 mm caliber gun (L-11, F-32, and later ZIS-5).
Chassis
The V-2K engine was the heart of this machine, producing 500 horsepower at 1800 rpm. The multi-plate friction transmission had design flaws, it often failed, because it was not designed for the efforts required to change the speed of such a heavy vehicle as the KV tank (its mass exceeded 47 tons), especially in the first two gears (there were 5 in total).
The basis of the running gear was a torsion individual suspension of relatively small road wheels (there were six of them on each side). The sagging of the tracks was eliminated by additional supporting rollers, three for each. Until 1942, they were covered with rubber to reduce noise, but due to a shortage of materials, this "luxury" had to be abandoned. The tracks were made wide (700 mm) to reduce the specific load on the ground.
Armaments
The experience of action against a desperate enemy, ready to go against a tank with a bottle of Molotov cocktail, set a new requirement - the possibility of creating a barrage of fire. To solve this problem, the car was equipped with three machine-gun points, one of which was directed backwards to protect the engine compartment. Another machine gun was a turret, he covered from an attack from the air. The free internal space was ergonomically filled with ammunition, quite sufficient for a long exhausting battle (135 rounds and 2770cartridges). The accuracy of shooting was provided by optical equipment, which consisted of sights (TOD-6 telescopic, PT-6 periscopic). The commander's panorama provided the opportunity for a good overview. According to the combat schedule, there were five people in the tank, they could communicate using an intercom, external communication was provided by a 71-TK-3 or YUR radio.
Almost 48-ton colossus could reach speeds of up to 34 km / h and had a motor resource of 250 km. That's a lot.
At the beginning of the big war
It is common knowledge that the war began in extremely unfavorable conditions for the USSR. On the one hand, various intelligence sources warned about the Nazi strike, on the other hand, it was extremely illogical. If the headquarters knew about the concentration of German troops, it was no secret for it that the Wehrmacht was not ready for military operations against the Soviet Union, which consisted in the absence of warm uniforms and frost-resistant fuel and lubricants. Nevertheless, Hitler gave the order to attack our borders, and a huge amount of Soviet military supplies were destroyed or captured by the aggressor. The KV tank caused a real shock, both among the German command and among the soldiers on the Eastern Front. The very presence of such a monster in the enemy, despite the successful advance deep into the USSR, caused a vague feeling of their own technological backwardness. With amazement, the Germans looked at the huge KV-2 self-propelled howitzers they captured, and learned that in the neighboring areas one KV-1 tank held back the superior forces of the advancing battalions. Anotherthe issue was the weak effectiveness of these monsters in defensive battles. If during an offensive it is necessary to “smoke out” the enemy from the trenches, then the hinged trajectory of the projectile is just what you need. The fire falls on the heads of soldiers sitting in shelters directly from the sky, and there is nowhere to hide. But when repelling an attack, a flat trajectory is needed to mow the advancing chains and smash equipment. Both the light and the heaviest tanks turned out to be useless. The USSR was not ready for defense.
Military specialists of the Wehrmacht, of course, understood what the captured equipment was intended for. Its study, in addition to understanding the power of the Soviet defense industry, made it possible to draw other conclusions. The KV tank also confirmed Stalin's intention to strike at Germany. Photos of damaged armored siege guns were also used by Goebbels propaganda as proof of the aggressive intentions of the Bolsheviks. Some of the captured vehicles were used by the Wehrmacht for their own needs.
Light BTs and other types of offensive equipment were soon taken out of production as unnecessary in the current situation. The same fate befell the armored 152-mm howitzers. It seemed that such a fate would befall all Klima Voroshilovs. But history decreed otherwise. Despite the fact that the tanks of the KV series were inferior to the T-34 in almost all respects, their production continued even in besieged Leningrad. For obvious reasons, it was impossible to restructure the technological cycle here, and the front demanded armored vehicles, so the production of vehicles not onlycurtailed, and even increased by connecting the Metal and Izhora plants. The same was done in "Tankograd" of the city of Chelyabinsk. Difficulties arose with the V-2 engines: the main production facilities were located in Kharkov before the war, and the Nazis occupied it. We got out of this difficulty by installing M-17 gasoline engines, which, of course, reduced the combat capabilities of the equipment.
"C" stands for "fast"
Despite the fact that the modern nature of hostilities meant the abandonment of low-speed armored vehicles, the history of the KV-1 tank did not end. With many shortcomings of this car, it also had obvious advantages, such as good protection and high cross-country ability. The low speed characteristic of siege equipment forced attempts to adapt the characteristics of the Klimov to the conditions of modern maneuverable combat. This is how the KV-1S tank appeared, the mass of which decreased to 42.5 tons. Such “lightness” was achieved by thinning the armor, narrowing the tracks and reducing the ammunition load to 94 shells (later 114). The front-line soldiers' claims to the gearbox were also taken into account, it was replaced with a more advanced one. The medium tank still didn’t work out, the T-34 weighed a little over 30 tons, and with the same power plant it was much more maneuverable. And the letter “C” added to the name meant “high-speed”.
Other modifications
In August 1942, the unit received a new model of armored vehicles, the KV-85 tank. It was a deep modification of the same KV-1S, the difference was in the caliber of the turret gun (for the DT-5 gun, as their names make clear, it was 85mm), reducing the size of the crew to four people (the gunner-radio operator turned out to be unnecessary), cutting the ammunition load while maintaining the same chassis. The tower was made by casting.
There were other attempts to use the good sides of HF. On their basis, self-propelled guns were built, tracked "armored trains" were created, armed with two or more guns of different calibers (KV-7), 122-mm howitzers U-11. After the victory near Moscow, it became clear that a counteroffensive was inevitable, and samples of offensive weapons were again required. The KV-8 tank was outwardly very similar to the prototype, and even its silhouette was imitated by a special decoration depicting an artillery barrel, but it was a flamethrower. A cannon was also installed in the tower, a modest “forty-five” at that time.
And there were other types of auxiliary equipment based on the KV chassis: evacuators from the battlefield of damaged vehicles and tractors.
KV and Tiger
The fate of the KV tank was historically not very successful. In the first half of the war, it was in little demand, a completely different technique was needed, and by the time the Soviet troops went on a decisive offensive, it was outdated. New heavy IS tanks appeared, the characteristics of which were as correlated with the qualities of the KV, just as the political weight of Joseph Stalin surpassed the influence in the Politburo of the "first red officer".
At the turn of 1942 and 1943, the Germans had a "Tiger". This machine was extremely clumsy and heavy, its undercarriage was even less reliable than that of the KV, but the 88-mm gun gave it the ability to hitheavily armored targets at distances that did not allow return fire. In February 1943, 10 KV-1s were killed in one day near Leningrad, at which three Tigers fired with impunity from afar. Since 1943, their production has been curtailed.
KV tanks nevertheless made their contribution to the cause of the Victory, and many monuments erected in honor of our tankers in many cities through which the fiery shaft of battles swept through serve as confirmation of this. The once formidable machines remind of the feat of the home front workers who forged the sword of the victors and selflessly brought our bright holiday closer.
