KV-1 is a Soviet heavy tank of the second half of the 30s - early 40s of the last century, which took part in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic War. “KV” - denotes a series of produced vehicles and stands for “Klimenty (Klim) Voroshilov”, 1 is the serial number of the line of modifications of Soviet heavy tanks of the KV series. At the very beginning of the war, the Germans nicknamed the KV-1 Gespenst, which translates as “ghost”.
History and background of creation.
In the second half of the 30s of the last century, the Red Army was in dire need of a heavy tank capable of performing tasks that were beyond the capabilities of the heavy five-turret tank then in service. having enough large mass, did not have reliable armor and was vulnerable to enemy anti-tank artillery. In fact, the initiator of the development and creation of a new heavy tank was the corps commander D. G. Pavlov.
At the end of the 30s, Soviet designers made numerous attempts to create a tank similar to, but with reduced dimensions, while the armor of the tank was significantly increased. The created prototypes were developed according to the multi-turret principle. The most famous of them are SMK (Sergei Mironovich Kirov) and T-100, which had two turrets and were armed with 76 and 45 mm cannons. As a smaller version of the SMK, a prototype with one turret was produced, while the weight and length of the tank were significantly reduced, which increased maneuverability. It is generally accepted that it was this prototype, called the experimental tank, that subsequently served as the prototype of the future KV tank. Produced at the Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) in early August 1939, the single-turret prototype of the SMK tank was equipped with a diesel engine. Subsequently, it received its name KV-1. At the initial stages of developing documentation and assembling the prototype, the leading designer was A. S. Ermolaev, and then N. L. Dukhov.
During the Soviet-Finnish War, all three prototypes of Soviet heavy tanks, SMK and KV-1, were tested in combat conditions. The government commission found the combat testing of the new tank satisfactory and accepted the tank into service with the Red Army on December 19, 1939.
The launch of mass production of the KV-1 tank took place in early February 1940 at the Kirov plant. Also in the same year, tank assembly began at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. In total, during the serial production period, which lasted until mid-1942, more than 2,700 tanks were produced.
Layout.
The KV-1 tank was the first Soviet heavy tank configured according to an innovative design, which later became classic for heavy and medium single-turret tanks. In this case, the armored hull was sequentially divided from bow to stern into three main compartments, which had clear division boundaries. In the bow of the hull there was a control compartment, which housed the driver and gunner-radio operator. In the middle part of the hull and turret there was a fighting compartment, which contained the tank commander, gunner and loader. At the rear of the hull, in the engine and transmission compartment, there was an engine with cooling radiators and part of the fuel tanks.
Armor protection of the hull and turret.
The armor protection of the KV-1 heavy tank was developed according to a differentiated anti-shell principle, which protected the tank and its crew from damage by medium-caliber shells and other anti-tank weapons.
The armored hull of the KV-1 tank was assembled from rolled armor plates by welding them together. The slabs had a thickness of 75, 40, 30 and 20 millimeters, which depended on the direction. For example, in the anti-ballistic direction (top and bottom of the frontal and rear parts of the hull), the armor thickness was 75 millimeters. The aft armor plates were 70 millimeters thick at the bottom and 60 millimeters at the top. The bottom and roof of the hull were assembled from armor plates with a thickness of 20 to 40 millimeters. All armor plates had rational angles of inclination to the vertical, except for the sides of the hull, which increased the armor resistance of the structure.
The mass-produced KV-1 turrets were of three types: a solid cast turret, a welded turret with a developed rectangular niche, and a welded turret with a small rounded niche. The thickness of the all-round armor for welded turrets was 75 millimeters, and for solid cast ones - 95. In the second half of 1941, welded turrets and side parts of the hulls on some tanks began to be reinforced with bolted-on 25-mm screens, which significantly increased armor resistance when tanks were hit. enemy artillery, but this had a detrimental effect on the chassis of the vehicle, and this idea was abandoned.
The connection of the frontal part of the tank with other structural parts was ensured by welding them together. The tank's turret was quite streamlined and was a cast part of a complex three-dimensional shape. Moreover, to increase the stability of the armor when shells hit it, it had a thickness of 90 millimeters and was located at an angle to the vertical normal. The front part of the turret with the opening for the gun mantlet was cast separately and then welded with the rest of the structural parts. The gun mantlet was made in the form of a cylindrical segment of a curved rolled armor plate, in which there were three holes intended for the leads of the gun, sight and coaxial machine gun. The KV-1 turret itself was mounted on a shoulder strap with a diameter of 1800 millimeters in an armored roof fighting compartment. When installing the turret, it was fixed, which prevented the turret from coming off in case of strong roll and overturning of the tank on its side.
The crew was boarded and disembarked through three main hatches: two round ones - in the turret above the tank commander’s position and in the roof of the hull above the gunner-radio operator and a bottom hatch for emergency evacuation in the event of the tank being hit.
Armament.
The main armament of the Soviet KV-1 heavy tank was a 76.2 mm rifled gun. At various stages of the tank's production, various modifications of guns were used to arm it. For all time there were four of them: L-11, F-32, F-34 and ZIS-5. In terms of their characteristics, the first three were almost identical, but the ZIS-5 was significantly superior to them. The ammunition for the gun consisted of 111 rounds of unitary loading, which were placed in a stowage along the sides of the turret, in its aft niche, in cassettes and containers installed on the rotating mechanism floor in the bottom of the hull.
In addition to the cannon, the KV-1 tank was armed with three 7.62-mm DT-29 machine guns. One of them was mated to the gun, the second was a course gun, and the third was installed in the aft niche in ball mounts. The ammunition for the DT machine guns consisted of 2,772 rounds of ammunition, which were loaded into disc magazines.
Some KV-1 units were armed with a DT anti-aircraft machine gun, which was mounted on an anti-aircraft turret and equipped with a collimator sight.
Chassis, engine and transmission.
The KV-1 heavy tank was equipped with a liquid-cooled V-shaped four-stroke twelve-cylinder diesel engine V-2K, which was capable of developing a power of 500 horsepower, which allowed the tank to develop maximum speed when driving on the highway at 34 kilometers per hour. In the second half of 1941, KV-1 tanks began to be equipped with M-17T diesel engines with a capacity of 500 horsepower. This happened due to the loss of Kharkov, where the V-2K engine was produced before the war. The engine and cooling radiators were installed in the rear of the hull. Fuel tanks with a capacity of 600 to 615 liters were located both in the combat and engine compartments.
The KV-1 heavy tank had a mechanical transmission, which consisted of:
main (main) multi-disc clutch, operating on the principle of dry friction “steel on ferodo”;
five-speed tractor-type gearbox;
two onboard multi-disc clutches operating on the principle of “steel on steel” friction;
two planetary final drives;
band floating brakes.
Transmission control drives were mechanical.
The suspension type of the KV-1 heavy tank is individual torsion bar with internal shock absorption for each road wheel. Six small-diameter support rollers were made by stamping and had a gable shape. For each support roller, travel limiters for the suspension balancers were mounted to the armored body by welding. The drive wheels, equipped with removable pinion gears, had a rear location, and the idlers had a front location. The upper part of the caterpillar rested on three small rubberized stamped support rollers along each side. In 1941, support and support rollers began to be produced by casting and without rubber tires, which was explained by the shortage of rubber.
Each caterpillar was assembled from 86-90 single-ridge type tracks, which had a width of 700 millimeters with a pitch of 160 millimeters.
Combat use.
The KV-1 heavy tank received its baptism of fire on December 17, 1940 during the Soviet-Finnish War in an operation to break through the Khottinensky fortified area of the Mannerheim Line. In these battles, the KV-1 tank proved itself to be the best. Not a single enemy anti-tank gun could penetrate its armor; however, the power of the L-11 gun was sometimes not enough to destroy enemy pillboxes, which subsequently prompted the development of one armed with a more powerful gun.
After Germany's attack on the USSR, the KV-1 heavy tank showed its superiority over enemy tanks and self-propelled guns from the first hours of the war. Its thick armor was not penetrated by more than one enemy tank gun, as well as by conventional field anti-tank guns. At that time, it was only possible to hit the KV-1 with an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun or a 105-mm howitzer. Large losses in KV-1 tanks in the initial stages of the Great Patriotic War are explained only by the low training of personnel and the inability to produce quick repair in combat conditions, which led to the abandonment of practically combat-ready vehicles during the retreat.
Heavy KV-1 tanks fought on almost all fronts, but the largest number of them were still used on the Karelian and Leningrad fronts, which is explained by the territorial location of the manufacturer. KV-1 tanks took an active part in the defense of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, where, according to some experts, they made almost a decisive contribution, in the Red Army offensives near Rzhev and in the Battle of Kursk. Gradually, the KV-1s fell out of service due to combat losses and were replaced by newer heavy and medium tanks. The KV-1 ended its combat career where it began, in Finland. During the assault on the Mannerheim Line in 1944, the commander of the Karelian Front, Meretskov, insisted on using exclusively KV-1 tanks, which had to be collected from all fronts, in operations to break through the enemy’s defense line.
In addition to the Red Army, captured KV-1 tanks were used by the armies of Germany and Finland. In the Wehrmacht, several dozen captured KV-1s were called Panzerkampfwagen KV-IA 753(r). In Finland, KV-1 tanks were used by its army until the armistice was concluded, and the surviving copies were in service even until the end of 1958.
In the hands of skilled crews, the KV-1 heavy tank became a menacing and irresistible force for the Germans. The unknown crew of the KV-1 near Raseiniai (Lithuania) held down the action of an entire army group for two days; on the KV-1 tank, senior lieutenant Zinoviy Kolobanov in the battle near Krasnogvardeysk (Gatchina) in August 1941 set a record for destroying enemy tanks in one battle, shooting from an ambush, 22 tanks and two guns, finding themselves in an almost similar situation, in the battles in the Stalingrad direction, Lieutenant Semyon Konovalov, in a damaged KV-1, knocked out 16 tanks and 2 armored vehicles of the Germans. The famous Soviet ace also fought on the KV-1 tank, whose tank in the first hours of the war carried out the first tank ram in its history, overturning a German one. It was Pavel Gudz who, during the defense of Moscow on December 3, 1941, on a KV-1, almost single-handedly recaptured the village of Nefedovo from the Nazis, while destroying 10 enemy tanks and crushing two batteries of anti-tank guns.
According to many experts, the Soviet heavy tank KV-1 was the best tank of the first stage of the Great Patriotic War and lost its ground only when other new tanks with more powerful armor and fire characteristics.
Soviet heavy tank from World War II. Usually called simply “KV”: the tank was created under this name, and only later, after the appearance of the KV-2 tank, the KV of the first model was retrospectively given a digital index. Produced from August 1939 to August 1942. Participated in the war with Finland and the Great Patriotic War.
History of creation
The need to develop and create a heavy tank carrying projectile-proof armor was well understood in the USSR. Based on Russian military theory, such tanks were simply necessary to break through the enemy’s front and ensure a breakthrough or overcome fortified areas. Most armies of the developed countries of the world had their own theories and practices of overcoming powerful fortified enemy positions; experience in this matter was acquired during the First World War. Such modern fortified lines as, for example, the Maginot Line or the Mannerheim Line were considered even theoretically impregnable. There was even a misconception that the KV tank was created during the Finnish campaign specifically to break through Finnish long-term fortifications (the Mannerheim Line). In fact, the tank began to be created at the end of 1938, when it became finally clear that the concept of a multi-turreted heavy tank like the T-35 was a dead end. It was obvious that having a large number of towers was not an advantage. And the gigantic dimensions of the tank only make it heavier and do not allow the use of thick enough armor. The initiator of the design of the tank was the head of the ABTU of the Red Army, corps commander D. G. Pavlov.
At the end of the 1930s, attempts were made to create a tank of reduced size (compared to the T-35), but with thicker armor. However, the designers did not dare to completely abandon the use of several towers: it was assumed that one gun would fight infantry and suppress firing points, and the second must be anti-tank - to combat armored vehicles.
The new tanks designed within the framework of this concept (SMK and T-100) had two turrets, armed with 76 mm and 45 mm guns. And only as an experiment, they also created a smaller version of the QMS - with one tower. Due to this, the length of the machine was reduced (by two road wheels), which had a positive effect on the dynamic characteristics. Unlike its predecessor, the KV (as the experimental tank was called) was equipped with a diesel engine. The first copy of the tank was built at the Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) in August 1939. Initially, the chief designer of the tank was A. S. Ermolaev, then N. L. Dukhov.
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish War began. The military did not miss the chance to test new heavy tanks. The day before the start of the war (November 29, 1939), the SMK, T-100 and KV were sent to the front. They were transferred to the 20th Heavy Tank Brigade, armed with T-28 medium tanks.
The KV tank took on its first battle on December 17 during the breakthrough of the Khottinensky fortified area of the Mannerheim Line.
KV crew in the first battle:
Lieutenant Kachekhin (commander)
-AND. Golovachev military technician 2nd rank (driver mechanic)
- Lieutenant Polyakov (gunner)
-TO. Ladle (driver mechanic, tester at the Kirov plant)
-A. I. Estratov (motor operator/loader, tester at the Kirov plant)
-P. I. Vasiliev (transmission operator/radio operator, tester at the Kirov plant)
The tank passed the battle test with honor: not a single enemy anti-tank gun could hit it. The only thing that upset the military was that the 76-mm L-11 gun was not strong enough to fight the bunkers. For this purpose, it was necessary to design a new KV-2 tank, armed with a 152 mm howitzer.
According to the proposal of the GABTU, by a joint resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated December 19, 1939 (the very day after the tests), the KV tank was adopted for service. As for the SMK and T-100 tanks, they also performed quite well (however, the SMK was blown up by a mine at the very beginning of hostilities), but were never accepted into service, since they were equipped with higher firepower less thick armor, had significant size and weight, as well as worse dynamic characteristics.
Production
Serial production of KV tanks started in February 1940 at the Kirov plant. In accordance with the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated June 19, 1940, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) was also ordered to begin production of HF. On December 31, 1940, the first KV was built at ChTZ. At the same time, the plant began construction of a special building for the assembly of HF.
For 1941, it was planned to produce 1,200 KV tanks of all modifications. Of these, 1000 pieces are at the Kirov plant. (400 KV-1, 100 KV-2, 500 KV-3) and another 200 KV-1 at ChTZ. However, only a few tanks were built at ChTZ before the start of the war. A total of 243 KV-1 and KV-2 were produced in 1940 (including 104 KV-2), and in the first half of 1941 - 393 (including 100 KV-2).
After the outbreak of war and the mobilization of industry, tank production at the Kirov plant increased significantly. The production of KV tanks was given priority, so the Leningrad Izhora and Metal plants, as well as other plants, joined the production of many components and assemblies for heavy tanks.
But already starting in July 1941, the evacuation of the LKZ to Chelyabinsk began. The plant is located on the territory of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. On October 6, 1941, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant was renamed the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant of the People's Commissariat of Tank Industry. This plant, which received the unofficial name "Tankograd", became the main manufacturer of heavy tanks and self-propelled guns during the Great Patriotic War.
Despite the difficulties associated with the evacuation and deployment of the plant in a new location, in the second half of 1941 the front received 933 KV tanks; in 1942, 2,553 of them were produced (including the KV-1s and KV-8).
In addition to this, in besieged Leningrad At plant No. 371 in 1942, at least 67 more KV-1s, armed with both F-32 and ZIS-5 cannons, were built from unused reserves of hulls and turrets and units supplied from ChKZ. Since these vehicles were only supplied for the needs of the Leningrad Front, cut off from the " Mainland", then they were not included in the GABTU reports. The total production of KV tanks, therefore, today can be estimated at 3539 tanks.
Tank design
For 1940, the serial KV-1 was a truly innovative design, embodying the most advanced ideas of the time: an individual torsion bar suspension, reliable ballistic armor, a diesel engine and one powerful universal gun within the framework of a classic layout. Although individual solutions from this set were quite often implemented previously in other foreign and domestic tanks The KV-1 was the first combat vehicle to embody their combination. Some experts consider the KV tank to be a landmark vehicle in world tank construction, which had a significant influence on the design of subsequent heavy tanks in other countries. The classic layout on a serial Soviet heavy tank was used for the first time, which allowed the KV-1 to receive the highest level of security and great modernization potential within the framework of this concept compared to the previous production model of the T-35 heavy tank and the experimental SMK and T-100 vehicles (all - multi-tower type). The basis of the classic layout is the division of the armored hull from bow to stern, successively into a control compartment, a fighting compartment and an engine-transmission compartment. The driver and gunner-radio operator were located in the control compartment, three other crew members were located in the fighting compartment, which combined the middle part of the armored hull and the turret. The gun, its ammunition and part of the fuel tanks were also located there. The engine and transmission were installed in the rear of the vehicle.
Armored hull and turret
The armored body of the tank was welded from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 75, 40, 30 and 20 mm. The armor protection is equally strong (armor plates with a thickness other than 75 mm were used only for horizontal armoring of the vehicle), and is projectile-resistant. The armor plates of the frontal part of the vehicle were mounted at rational angles of inclination. The serial HF turret was produced in three versions: cast, welded with a rectangular niche, and welded with a rounded niche. The thickness of the armor for welded turrets was 75 mm, for cast ones - 95 mm, since cast armor was less durable. In 1941, the welded turrets and side armor plates of some tanks were further strengthened - 25-mm armor screens were bolted onto them, and an air gap remained between the main armor and the screen, that is, this version of the KV-1 in fact received spaced armor. It is not entirely clear why this was done. The Germans began to create heavy tanks only in 1941 (the heavy tank did not find its application in the German blitzkrieg theory), so for 1941 even the standard armor of the KV-1 was, in principle, redundant (the KV armor was not affected by the standard 37-mm and 50-mm anti-tank guns Wehrmacht, but could still be penetrated by 88 mm, 105 mm and 150 mm guns). Some sources erroneously indicate that the tanks were produced with rolled armor 100 mm thick or more - in fact, this figure corresponds to the sum of the thickness of the main armor of the tank and the screens.
The decision to install “screens” was made at the end of June 1941, after the first reports of losses from German anti-aircraft guns, but already in August this program was discontinued, since the chassis could not withstand the weight of the vehicle, which had increased to 50 tons. This problem was later partially solved by installing reinforced cast road wheels. Shielded tanks were used on the North-Western and Leningrad fronts.
The front part of the turret with the embrasure for the gun, formed by the intersection of four spheres, was cast separately and welded with the rest of the armored parts of the turret. The gun mantlet was a cylindrical segment of bent rolled armor plate and had three holes - for a cannon, a coaxial machine gun and a sight. The turret was mounted on a shoulder strap with a diameter of 1535 mm in the armored roof of the fighting compartment and was secured with grips to avoid stalling in the event of a strong roll or overturning of the tank. The turret shoulder straps were marked in thousandths for firing from closed positions.
The driver was located centrally in the front part of the tank's armored hull, and to his left was the radio operator's workplace. Three crew members were located in the turret: to the left of the gun there were workstations for the gunner and loader, and to the right for the tank commander. The crew entered and exited through two round hatches: one in the turret above the commander’s workplace and one on the roof of the hull above the gunner-radio operator’s workplace. The hull was also equipped with a bottom hatch for emergency escape tank crew and a number of hatches, hatches and technological openings for loading ammunition, access to the necks of fuel tanks, other components and assemblies of the vehicle.
Armament
The first production tanks were equipped with a 76.2 mm L-11 cannon with 111 rounds of ammunition (according to other information - 135 or 116). It is interesting that the original project also included a coaxial 45-mm 20K cannon, although the armor penetration of the 76-mm L-11 tank gun was practically in no way inferior to the 20K anti-tank gun. Apparently, strong stereotypes about the need to have a 45-mm anti-tank gun along with a 76-mm were explained by its higher rate of fire and larger ammunition load. But already on the prototype aimed at the Karelian Isthmus, the 45-mm cannon was dismantled and a DT-29 machine gun was installed instead. Subsequently, the L-11 gun was replaced by a 76-mm F-32 gun with similar ballistics, and in the fall of 1941 - by a ZIS-5 gun with a longer barrel length of 41.6 calibers.
The ZIS-5 gun was mounted on axles in the turret and was completely balanced. The turret itself with the ZIS-5 gun was also balanced: its center of mass was located on the geometric axis of rotation. The ZIS-5 gun had vertical aiming angles from -5 to +25 degrees; with a fixed turret position, it could be aimed in a small sector of horizontal aiming (the so-called “jewelry” aiming). The shot was carried out using a manual mechanical trigger.
The gun's ammunition capacity was 111 rounds of unitary loading. The shots were placed in the turret and along both sides of the fighting compartment.
The KV-1 tank was equipped with three 7.62-mm DT-29 machine guns: a coaxial one with a gun, as well as a forward and aft one in ball mounts. The ammunition load for all diesel engines was 2772 rounds. These machine guns were installed in such a way that, if necessary, they could be removed from the mounts and used outside the tank. Also for self-defense, the crew had several F-1 hand grenades and was sometimes equipped with a pistol for firing flares. Every fifth KV was equipped with an anti-aircraft turret for DT, but in practice anti-aircraft machine guns were rarely installed.
Engine
The KV-1 was equipped with a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine V-2K with a power of 500 hp. With. (382 kW) at 1800 rpm, subsequently, due to the general increase in the mass of the tank after installing heavier cast turrets, screens and eliminating the shavings of the edges of the armor plates, the engine power was increased to 600 hp. With. (441 kW). The engine was started by an ST-700 starter with a power of 15 hp. With. (11 kW) or compressed air from two 5-liter tanks in the fighting compartment of the vehicle. The KV-1 had a dense layout, in which the main fuel tanks with a volume of 600-615 liters were located in both the combat and engine compartments. In the second half of 1941, due to a shortage of V-2K diesel engines, which at that time were produced only at plant No. 75 in Kharkov (in the autumn of the same year, the process of evacuating the plant to the Urals began), KV-1 tanks were produced with four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder carburetor M-17T engines with a power of 500 hp. With. In the spring of 1942, a decree was issued to convert all KV-1 tanks in service with M-17T engines back to V-2K diesel engines - the evacuated plant No. 75 established their production in sufficient quantities at the new location.
Transmission
The KV-1 tank was equipped with a mechanical transmission, which included:
Multi-disc main clutch of dry friction “steel on ferodo”;
-five-speed tractor-type gearbox;
- two multi-disc onboard clutches with “steel on steel” friction;
- two onboard planetary gearboxes;
-band floating brakes.
All transmission control drives are mechanical. When used by the troops, the greatest number of criticisms and complaints to the manufacturer were caused by defects and extremely unreliable operation of the transmission group, especially in overloaded wartime KV tanks. Almost all authoritative printed sources recognize that one of the most significant shortcomings of the KV series tanks and vehicles based on it is the low reliability of the transmission as a whole.
Chassis
The vehicle's suspension is individual torsion bar with internal shock absorption for each of the 6 stamped gable support rollers of small diameter on each side. Opposite each road wheel, travel limiters of the suspension balancers were welded to the armored body. The drive wheels with removable pinion gears were located at the rear, and the sloth wheels were located at the front. The upper branch of the caterpillar was supported by three small rubberized stamped support rollers on each side. In 1941, the technology for the production of support and support rollers was transferred to casting; the latter lost rubber tires due to the general shortage of rubber at that time. The caterpillar tension mechanism is screw; each caterpillar consisted of 86-90 single-ridge tracks with a width of 700 mm and a pitch of 160 mm.
Electrical equipment
The electrical wiring in the KV-1 tank was single-wire, the second wire being the armored hull of the vehicle. The exception was the emergency lighting circuit, which was two-wire. The sources of electricity (operating voltage 24 V) were a GT-4563A generator with a RPA-24 relay-regulator with a power of 1 kW and four series-connected 6-STE-128 batteries with a total capacity of 256 Ah. Electricity consumers included:
Electric motor for turning the turret;
-external and internal lighting of the vehicle, illumination devices for sights and scales of measuring instruments;
-outer sound signal and a signaling chain from the landing force to the vehicle crew;
-control and measuring instruments (ammeter and voltmeter);
-communication means - radio station and tank intercom;
- electrics of the motor group - starter ST-700, starting relay RS-371 or RS-400, etc.
Surveillance equipment and sights
The general visibility of the KV-1 tank back in 1940 was assessed in a memo to L. Mehlis from military engineer Kalivoda as extremely unsatisfactory. The vehicle commander had the only viewing device in the turret - the PTK panorama. The driver-mechanic in combat carried out observation through a viewing device with a triplex, which was equipped with an armored shutter. This viewing device was mounted in an armored hatch on the front armor plate along the longitudinal center line of the vehicle. In a quiet environment, this plug hatch moved forward, providing the driver with a more convenient direct view from his workplace.
For firing, the KV-1 was equipped with two gun sights - the telescopic TOD-6 for direct fire and the periscopic PT-6 for firing from closed positions. The head of the periscope sight was protected by a special armored cap. To ensure the possibility of fire in the dark, the sight scales had illumination devices. The forward and stern DT machine guns could be equipped with a PU sight from a sniper rifle with a threefold magnification.
Means of communication
Communications included the radio station 71-TK-3, later 10R or 10RK-26. Due to shortages, a number of tanks were equipped with 9P aviation radio stations. The KV-1 tank was equipped with an internal intercom TPU-4-Bis for 4 subscribers.
Radio stations 10Р or 10РК were a set of a transmitter, receiver and umformers (single-armature motor-generators) for their power supply, connected to an on-board 24 V power supply.
10P simplex tube shortwave radio station operating in the frequency range from 3.75 to 6 MHz (wavelengths from 80 to 50 m, respectively). When parked, the communication range in telephone (voice) mode reached 20-25 km, while on the move it decreased somewhat. A greater communication range could be obtained in telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by a telegraph key using Morse code or another discrete coding system. Frequency stabilization was carried out by a removable quartz resonator; there was no smooth frequency adjustment. 10P allowed communication on two fixed frequencies; to change them, another quartz resonator of 15 pairs was used in the radio set.
The 10RK radio station was a technological improvement of the previous 10P model; it became simpler and cheaper to produce. This model now has the ability to smoothly select the operating frequency; the number of quartz resonators has been reduced to 16. The communication range characteristics have not undergone significant changes.
The TPU-4-Bis tank intercom made it possible to negotiate between members of the tank crew even in a very noisy environment and connect a headset (headphones and laryngophones) to a radio station for external communication.
TTX KV-1 arr. 1940
Classification: heavy tank
-Combat weight, t: 47.5
-Layout diagram: classic
-Crew, people: 5
Dimensions:
Case length, mm: 6675
-Case width, mm: 3320
-Height, mm: 2710
-Clearance, mm: 450
Reservations:
Armor type: rolled homogeneous steel
-Body forehead (top), mm/deg.: 75 / 30 deg.
-Body forehead (middle), mm/deg.: 60 / 70 deg.
-Body forehead (bottom), mm/deg.: 75 / 25 deg.
-Hull side, mm/deg.: 75 / 0 deg.
-Hull stern (top), mm/deg.: 60 / 50 deg.
-Hull stern (bottom), mm/deg.: 75 / 0-90 deg.
-Bottom, mm: 30-40
- Housing roof, mm: 30-40
-Tower forehead, mm/deg.: 75 / 20 deg.
-Gun mask, mm/deg.: 90
-Tower side, mm/deg.: 75 / 15 deg.
- Tower feed, mm/deg.: 75 / 15 deg.
-Tower roof, mm: 40
Weapons:
Caliber and brand of gun: 76 mm L-11, F-32, F-34, ZIS-5
-Gun type: rifled
-Barrel length, calibers: 41.6 (for ZIS-5)
-Cannon ammunition: 90 or 114 (depending on modification)
-VN angles, degrees: ?7…+25 degrees.
-Sights: telescopic TOD-6, periscopic PT-6
-Machine guns: 3 x DT
Mobility:
Engine type: V-shaped 12-cylinder four-stroke diesel liquid cooled
-Engine power, l. pp.: 600
-Highway speed, km/h: 34
-Highway range, km: 150-225
- Cruising range over rough terrain, km: 90-180
-Specific power, l. s./t: 11.6
-Suspension type: torsion bar
-Specific pressure on the ground, kg/sq.cm: 0.77
HISTORY OF CREATION
The KV-1 heavy tank is on display at the military museum at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in the USA.
The history of the creation of the KV heavy tank is not entirely ordinary. Unlike most other combat vehicles, including the same age as the KV - T-34, designed for the military, this tank was developed exclusively on its own initiative. Here is how it was…
In August 1938, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the system tank weapons" This document contained a requirement in less than a year - by July 1939 - to develop new models of tanks whose armament, armor, speed and maneuverability would develop comprehensively and fully meet the conditions future war. Leningrad factories were involved in the creation of heavy tanks - Kirovsky and No. 185 named after. S. M. Kirov. The SMK tank was developed at the first, and the T-100 at the second (see “Armor Collection” No. 1 for 2002). Until August 1938, the factories, having no contracts for the production of new machines, carried out only preliminary design. The work began in full swing only after the adoption of the above-mentioned resolution, since it determined the tactical and technical requirements and set the production time (according to the QMS - by May 1, 1939).
In October 1938, a group of students from the Military Academy of Motorization and Mechanization of the Red Army arrived at SKB-2 of the Kirov Plant to work on their graduation project. As the topic of their diploma, they were tasked with developing a preliminary design for a vehicle with one turret, but within the framework of the TTT for the SMK tank.
The overall design management was headed by SKB-2 engineers L. E. Sychev and A. S. Ermolaev. Some work was led by Slutsman (control drives), K. E. Kuzmin (hull), N. F. Shashmurin (transmission), S. V. Fedorenko (weapons). Responsibilities were distributed among graduate students as follows: the general layout and armament were handled by B.P. Pavlov and V.K. Sinozersky, the chassis by G.A. Turchaninov, the servos and motor group by L.N. Pereverzev, the planetary transmission by S. M. Krasavin and Shpuntov.
The latter, by the way, even had to engage in a kind of industrial espionage during the design process. The fact is that during the work on the planetary transmission it turned out that SKB-2 did not have any initial materials for design. Therefore, in November 1938, Krasavin and Shpuntov were sent to the NIBT Test Site in Kubinka, where at that time the Czechoslovak tank S-II-a (LT-35) was being tested.
With the help of the training ground command and a dedicated group of workers, they secretly familiarized themselves with the combat vehicle while it was parked in the park at night (during the day it was tested with a Czech crew). As a result, when designing a heavy tank, the S-II-a planetary transmission scheme was partially borrowed - a six-speed gearbox with reverse.
On December 9, 1938, at a meeting of the Defense Committee, the design of the SMK tank was considered, which was approved for production in a two-turret version. It was planned to build two copies for testing. But the head of SKB-2, Zh. Ya. Kotin, and the director of the Kirov plant, I. M. Zaltsman, who were present at this meeting, proposed to design and manufacture a single-turret heavy tank instead of the second copy of the SMK. After a comprehensive discussion, they decided to “design and manufacture a single-turret heavy tank, corresponding in terms of tactical and technical characteristics to the double-turret SMK tank.”
A prototype of the SMK heavy tank.
The tactical and technical requirements for the new vehicle and the permit for its production were approved by decision of the Defense Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 45ss dated February 27, 1939.
Compared to the SMK, the new tank was supposed to increase the thickness of the armor on the sides and rear of the hull and turret by reducing the overall length of the vehicle. Design power plant it was supposed to be powered by two types of engines - a gasoline M-17F with a power of 660 hp. and diesel V-2F with a power of 580 hp. The gearbox was also developed in two versions - planetary and conventional. The armament of the new combat vehicle, despite the presence of only one turret, was supposed to be like that of the SMK tank: 76-mm and 45-mm cannons, two DT machine guns and a large-caliber DK.
The Kirov Plant began designing the tank, called the KV (“Klim Voroshilov”), on February 1, 1939, without waiting for TTT approval. N.L. Dukhov was appointed lead designer of the project. In addition to him, the group included design engineers E. P. Dedov, V. A. Kozlovsky, P. S. Tarapatin, V. I. Torotko, A. S. Shneidman. Dukhov’s group completed the technical project within a month, making extensive use of design solutions for the hull, turret, armament, suspension and much more that was included in the diploma project of VAMM students, who, after defending their diploma in March 1939, were sent to work at SKB- 2, where they took an active part in the design of the HF.
In general, the new tank turned out to be shorter than the SMK by 2 m and lower by 0.5 m. According to preliminary calculations, its mass should have been 47 tons, that is, 8 tons less than that of the SMK.
The first prototype of the KV tank before being sent to the NIBT Test Site. September 1939.
The tank hull was developed with the participation of the oldest designer of the Kirov plant K. E. Kuzmin and design engineer S. V. Mitskevich. The body was planned to be welded. In the most important places welds reinforced with goujons.
Particular difficulties were encountered when designing the engine cooling system. I had to turn to the experienced turbine engineer N.M. Sinev, who was in charge of the SKB-1 turbine at the Kirov Plant. Under his leadership, with the participation of engineers E.P. Dedov, G.A. Mikhailov, A.N. Sterkin, a rather successful design of a finned radiator was created. Its production was organized right there, in the pilot workshop.
It was not easy to ensure the necessary traction properties of a heavy tank. Leading designer F.A. Marishkin with a group of engineers, which included N.T. Fedorchuk, A.D. Gladkov, V.A. Kozlovsky, M.I. Kreslavsky, G.A. Turchaninov, managed to short term create a sufficiently efficient transmission. During the design of the most loaded transmission unit - the final drive - A. D. Gladkov used a planetary gear set for the first time in domestic tank construction, ensuring the compactness of this unit and its reliable operation.
The individual torsion bar suspension of the KV, which was developed by the designers G. A. Seregin, N. V. Tseits and L. E. Sychev, was improved in comparison with the SMK tank. In the process of its development, it was possible to solve a number complex problems on the selection of necessary materials and organization technological process production of torsion shafts. If the torsion bars for the SMK tank, for example, were made from forged blanks, then for the KV they were made by rolling.
Thanks to the wide fine-linked track chain, the ground pressure of the heavy KV tank was reduced to 0.77 kgf/cm 2, and it was lower than, for example, that of the BT-7 (0.86) and T-35 (0.83) tanks. .
The weapons group, which included G. N. Moskvin, G. Ya. Andandonsky, F. G. Korobko and A. S. Shneidman, installed a new 76.2 mm L-11 cannon on the tank. A 45-mm 20K cannon was paired with it. Both guns were installed in a common mantlet. As additional weapons, a DT machine gun mounted in a ball joint at the rear of the turret and a DT anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the turret at the base of the turret hatch were used. The vehicle did not have a directional machine gun. The tank's ammunition consisted of 118 76 mm rounds, 50 45 mm rounds and 1008 machine gun rounds.
KV tank manufactured in April 1940 (vehicle No. U-7). Noteworthy are the wings of the so-called “aviation” type and the protective covers over the air intake windows to the engine.
In general, the KV tank was reduced in length by two SMK road wheels with one turret.
Considering high degree Borrowing components and assemblies from SMK, the design of the HF proceeded quite quickly - already on April 7, 1939, the technical design and a full-size wooden model were approved by a commission chaired by the deputy head of the ABTU, military engineer 1st rank B. M. Korobkov. In May, the production of components and parts began at the Kirov plant, and at the Izhora plant - hulls and turrets.
During the production of the first prototype, technologists and production workers began to produce new grades of steel for tracks and complex castings of heavily loaded chassis parts. Metallurgists at the Izhora plant developed a technology for the production of cast armor turrets and other complex parts, and also proposed a new type of high-tempered chromium-nickel-molybdenum armor (instead of high-hardness armor), which had increased resistance to artillery shells.
Tank KV No. U-7. Characteristic features of the pilot batch vehicles were the absence of a ball-mounted machine gun and the presence of a “combat light” headlight on the front hull.
On June 5, 1939, ABTU, taking into account the positive experience of operating V-2 diesel engines on BT-7M tanks, set SKB-2 the task of “installing only the V-2 diesel engine in the tank, and refusing to install the M-17 engine.” This machine also had other deviations from the approved TTT. So, instead of the planetary gearbox recommended by ABTU, a conventional one was installed. I had to refuse heavy machine gun DK - due to the placement of two guns in the turret, there was absolutely no room left for it.
The assembly of the first HF, which received the factory index U-0 (installation batch, zero sample), was completed on the night of August 31 to September 1. In the morning the tank made its first run through the factory yard. And already on September 5, after minor defects were eliminated, a prototype of the KV was sent to Moscow to be shown to members of the government and the command of the Red Army.
The show took place on September 23–25, 1939 at the NIBT Polygon in Kubinka near Moscow in the presence of members government commission chaired by People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov. Among the members of the commission were A. I. Mikoyan, N. A. Voznesensky, A. A. Zhdanov, head of the ABTU corps commander D. G. Pavlov, head of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the ABTU brigade engineer I. A. Lebedev, head of the testing department of the test site E. A. Kulchitsky and others. From the Kirov Plant, director I.M. Zaltsman, chief designer Zh.Ya. Kotin, leading designers A.S. Ermolaev and N.L. Dukhov were invited to the show.
The route along which the experienced cars had to go was quite difficult: wide ditches, scarps, counter-scarps, steep climbs, slopes, descents. Tanks prepared for testing were lined up on the site. The commission members climbed to the observation tower, and the crews, who had previously been standing near the cars, took their places. The roar of starting engines was heard - and the tanks began to move to the starting line.
The first to enter the testing track was the 55-ton double-turret tank SMK. Waddled and swaying with high towers, he headed first towards the obstacles - the scarp. Overcame. Then it passed the ditch just as easily, and lingered a bit on the craters... This machine did not receive a very high score from the commission. KV moved after the SMK. He overcame the ditch much easier and, despite his 47.5 tons, took the next obstacle without visible effort, then easily passed the funnels, which caused approval and even applause from the observation tower.
The driver-mechanic of the KV at this show, P.I. Petrov, recalled:
“On the test track there was a SMK tank ahead of me. First we had to go through an obstacle course. It seemed to me that the SMK, going ahead, overcame these obstacles easily, but I had difficulty passing them on the KV: my car is shorter, and at the moment of overcoming a ditch and other obstacles this matters. And the engine also turned out to be unreliable - its regulator worked intermittently. And when we went across the Moscow River, I was flooded with water through the cracks, but the engine was working, and I managed to get out on the tank to the opposite bank. There, while performing the show program, I broke several pine trees with a tank (I still feel sorry for them) and climbed up the mountain with great difficulty. The engine worked at the limit of its capabilities, gear shifting was not always possible. I climbed ashore on the side clutches, jerkily. Then I walked along the tracks and finally went into the forest.”
Tank KV No. U-3. Kirov plant, February 1940. A cover is mounted on the gun to protect it from bullets and shrapnel getting inside the barrel.
In general, the tank made a favorable impression on the management. On October 8, 1939, the vehicle returned to Leningrad, and on November 10, after eliminating the deficiencies identified during the display and testing at the NIBT Test Site, the KV was transferred to the site for factory testing. During the latter, until the end of November, the tank covered 485 km (260 km on the highway, 100 km on country roads and 125 km on rough terrain). About 20 different defects were identified, mainly in the design of the transmission and engine.
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began. By decision of the military council of the Leningrad military district experienced tanks SMK, T-100 and KV were removed from testing and sent to the front to test them in a real combat situation. From them they formed a company of heavy tanks and included it in the 91st tank battalion of the 20th heavy tank brigade. At the same time, the crews of the vehicles consisted partly of military personnel, and partly of factory specialists.
By this time, it became completely clear that the twin installation of two guns hampered the crew’s actions. Therefore, on the eve of sending the KV to the Karelian Isthmus, the 45-mm cannon was removed from it, and a 7.62-mm DT machine gun was installed instead. The vehicle's ammunition load also changed accordingly - it now consisted of 116 artillery rounds and 1,890 rounds of ammunition.
To test the combat qualities of the new vehicles, a rather difficult section of the front was chosen. The tanks advanced towards it through Terijoki (now Zelenogorsk), then passed Raivola and reached the Boboshino area, not far from the Perkiyarvi station (now Kirillovskoye). The enemy position was between Lake Summayarvi and the ice-free Sunasuo swamp. Finnish pillboxes on high-rise buildings were armed with Swedish 37-mm Bofors anti-tank guns and machine guns. Granite pillars stood in front of them. Heavy tanks were to attack these fortifications.
In its first battle on December 18, 1939, the KV tank performed well. Despite numerous hits, it had no obvious damage to its armor. True, the barrel of a tank gun was shot through by a shot from an anti-tank gun. In addition, traces of 43 shell hits were found on the hull. The fuel pump, secured with two bolts, was disconnected due to the shocks. In general, the tank remained fully operational. The shot through gun was replaced the next day with a new one brought from the Kirov plant. Coincidentally, it was on this day - December 19, 1939 - in Moscow that the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.M. Molotov signed the resolution of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 44Zss, according to which the KV tank was adopted by the Red Army. At the same time, the prototype covered only 550 km, which is negligible for testing the reliability of the new combat vehicle. However, it was believed that some of the components and assemblies of the tank (suspension, chassis, transmission elements, etc.) were tested on the SMK tank.
On December 30, 1939, People's Commissar of Heavy Engineering V.A. Malyshev signed an order that prescribed:
"1. To the director of the Kirov plant, comrade. I.M. Zaltsman organized the production of KV tanks at the Kirov Plant, having previously eliminated all the defects discovered during testing.
The KV prototype was on the front line until early January 1940. True, the tank no longer participated in battles. On January 2, the car was returned to the factory for use as a sample in the production of an installation batch of 20 units. Moreover, the first four vehicles were to be armed with 152-mm howitzers to combat Finnish pillboxes and destroy anti-tank obstacles. This was the demand of the Military Council of the North-Western Front.
Tank KV No. U-3. At the rear of the turret, the armored hatch cover for mounting and dismantling the gun is clearly visible.
The project for installing a 152-mm howitzer in a tank was developed jointly by SKB-2 and the artillery experimental design department - AOKO (plant No. 172 named after Molotov) headed by N.V. Kurin. The leading engineers were N.N. Ilyin and G.N. Rybin. In total this team consisted of about 20 people. They gave me little time to work - only a few days. Therefore, the designers who participated in it were transferred to a barracks position and placed on the fourth floor of the plant administration. Initially, it was planned to install a howitzer of the 1909/30 model in the KV turret. However, preference was given to the more powerful and modern artillery system M-10 - the 152-mm howitzer of the 1938 model. To install it in the tank, it was necessary to develop a new turret, which was done at SKB- 2 according to the sizes issued by the artillerymen. The height of the tower with the periscope was increased to 1790 mm. The tower had inclined frontal and vertical side plates. The rear part of the turret was made of two armor plates welded at an angle to each other; it was equipped with a hatch for mounting and dismantling the howitzer in field conditions, closed with an armored cover fastened with bolts. At the same time, the new turret (together with the gun it received the designation MT-1) had the same ring diameter as the turret with a 76-mm cannon. It should be noted that the designations KV-1 and KV-2 appeared only in 1941, and before that the names “tanks with a small turret” and “tanks with a large turret” were used.
The first MT-1 installation was mounted on the first prototype of the KV U-0 instead of a turret with a 76-mm gun, the second - on the first tank of the U-1 pilot batch. On February 17, both vehicles departed for the Karelian Isthmus. A characteristic feature of the U-1 was the presence of a special cover on the muzzle, protecting the barrel bore from bullets and shrapnel. Before firing, this cover had to be opened using a special rod and then closed again. However, at the very first shot at the shooting range, the cover was torn off, and it was dismantled before being sent to the front. To protect the howitzer barrel from bullets and shrapnel, special armor rings 10 mm thick were put on it (later the gun barrels of all KV-2 tanks were equipped with such rings).
The U-2 tank with the turret of the U-0 vehicle with a 76-mm gun was sent to the front on February 22, and on the 29th the U-3 tank with the MT-1 installation was sent. The U-4 tank with MT-1 was ready by March 13, 1940, but they did not have time to send it to combat positions - the Soviet-Finnish war was over.
At the front, all KVs and a prototype of the T-100 tank were brought together into a separate company, attached to the 13th light tank and 20th heavy tank brigades. True, it was not possible to test the KV in a combat situation by firing at pillboxes: the main line of Finnish defense had already been broken through. Therefore, the tanks were tested by firing at pillboxes and gouges after the end of hostilities. At the same time, we got good results. Recalling these events, the commander of the KV tank “with a big turret,” junior lieutenant Z. F. Glushak from the 20th Tank Brigade, said:
“The obstacles on the Mannerheim Line were made thoroughly. Huge granite pillars stood in three rows. To make a passage 6–8 m wide, we only needed five shots of concrete-piercing shells. While we were breaking into the holes, the enemy was continuously firing at us. We quickly spotted the pillbox, and then completely destroyed it with two shots. When we left the battle, we counted 48 dents on the armor, but not a single hole.”
Mention should be made of two projects based on the KV tank, developed for the needs of the front. The first - object 212 - was a 35-ton tractor for evacuating damaged tanks. Engineer N.V. Halkiopov was appointed lead engineer of the project. At the end of February 1940, the draft tractor and its life-size wooden model were reviewed by representatives of the ABTU. But despite the fact that this car received highly appreciated military, the go-ahead for its production in metal was never received.
Object 218 was a remote installation for detonating mines with high frequency currents. The current generator and other equipment were supposed to be mounted in the body of the KV-2 tank. Field tests of the generator installed on the chassis of the T-28 tank took place in February 1940 and showed good results. At the same time, it became clear that the installation needed improvement.
Layout and operating diagram of the equipment of the minesweeper tank object 218 (left and below).
The design of the “218th” continued until the summer of 1941, but was stopped after the start of the Great Patriotic War.
The remaining six vehicles of the pilot batch (U-5 - U-10) were manufactured in April - May 1940. All of them had turrets with 76 mm cannons. By this time, the original annual production plan for the KV - 50 tanks - had been sharply increased. Starting from July and until the end of the year, the plant was supposed to produce 230 KV tanks, of which 130 with a “small turret” and 100 with a “large turret”. ABTU of the Red Army, concerned that the tank had not undergone field tests, and many defects were found in previously produced vehicles, proposed conducting full-scale tests of the KV. Thus, two vehicles - U-4 and U-7 - arrived at the test site in Kubinka near Moscow in June for testing. However, then the testing was entrusted to the Kirov plant, and both cars were returned. On June 10, 1940, factory tests of the U-1 tank began in the Leningrad area, during which the vehicle covered 2,648 km. In the second half of July, the U-21 tank with a 152 mm howitzer was tested, and in August, the U-7 tank with a 76 mm cannon was tested. The mileage of the U-21 and U-7 was 1631 and 2050 km, respectively. As a result, significant deficiencies were identified in the KV tanks in the transmission, chassis and engine.
U-7 tank with the first sample of the “lowered” turret before testing. September 1940.
There were especially many shortcomings in the design of the transmission, in particular in the gearbox, the reliability of which left much to be desired. During the tests, increased wear of gear teeth and their breakage were observed, and difficulties arose in changing gears while driving. In addition, it turned out that when the tank moved for a long time in fourth gear, it and the second gear associated with it failed. To eliminate this defect, starting with the 31st car, a special lock was introduced into the gearbox design.
In addition, the unreliability of the turret turning mechanism was noted, the design of which was mainly borrowed from the turning mechanism of the large turret of the T-28 tank weighing about 3 tons. The mass of the KV-1 turret was 7 tons, KV-2 - 12 tons, and the towers became more unbalanced. As a result, problems arose related to the large forces on the handles of manual mechanisms, the power of electric motors for turning the turrets, as well as the speed and smoothness of pointing the guns. Thus, when KV tanks moved along slopes, turning the KV-1 turret to the side was practically impossible, not to mention the KV-2 turret.
Based on the test results of the U-1, U-21 and U-7 tanks, the Kirov plant was given a list of changes that needed to be made to the KV design. However, the plant was in no hurry to eliminate the identified deficiencies.
Serial tank KV-2. Autumn 1940.
Outraged by this, the representative of military acceptance at the Kirov plant, military engineer 3rd rank Kalivoda, sent a letter to the People's Commissar of State Control L.Z. Mehlis on August 12, 1940, which, in particular, said:
“I think that the KV machine is unfinished and requires urgent and serious modifications. Most of the alterations cannot be carried out in the process of large-scale production, which is already in full swing at the Kirov plant. Such a situation will delay the development of the machine in production for at least 1.5–2 years and will introduce great confusion, unnecessary costs and will not provide the slightest savings in time. The quality of the produced car will be low within 1.5–2 years. It would be more expedient to reduce the program by the end of 1940 to 5–8 vehicles per month and transfer all factory forces to finalize the vehicle. Currently, the main efforts are devoted to the implementation of the program, and very little is thought about the quality of the machine. I believe that at the moment the vehicle cannot be called combat-ready due to the above-mentioned defects. It can only be sent to the army for training, not combat.”
Serial tank KV-1 produced in October - December 1940 in the courtyard of the Kirov plant.
Serial tank KV-1. The rubberized support rollers typical of pre-war tanks are clearly visible.
The issues raised in this letter were so serious that the People's Commissariat of State Control sent a special commission to the Kirov Plant, which worked at the plant from October 1 to October 10, 1940 and basically confirmed the conclusions of the military representative. On November 1, L. Z. Mehlis sent a letter directly to I. V. Stalin and K. E. Voroshilov:
Serial tank KV-1 produced in 1941 with an F-32 cannon. Judging by the rectangular additional tanks on the fender, this vehicle was manufactured after the start of the war.
KV-1 military release 1941. The applied armor on the front plate of the hull is clearly visible.
Judging by this letter, a paradoxical situation was created: the plant, trying to fulfill the plan, presented tanks that were practically not combat-ready for military acceptance, and the military, well aware of this, accepted them. No corrective measures were taken. SKB-2 was enthusiastically designing new supertanks KV-3, KV-4, KV-5, KV-220 and others. Already in the summer of 1940, the issue of developing tanks with more powerful armor and armament than the KV was discussed. The Kirov plant received the task to produce such tanks in November 1940. Was this before the improvement of serial HFs?
True, in November, a “large lowered turret” for the KV-2 tank was put into production, which differed from the previous one in its smaller dimensions, weight and relative ease of production. At the same time, a reinforced design of the rotating mechanism and a new ammunition rack for artillery rounds and machine gun discs were introduced on all KV tanks. However, the engine and gearbox have not undergone any changes.
In total, by the end of 1940, the Kirov Plant produced 139 KV-1 and 104 KV-2 (24 of them with the MT-1 installation), thus fulfilling the planned target.
The production plan for 1941 provided for the production of 1,200 KV tanks. Of these, 1000 are at the Kirov Plant (400 KV-1, 100 KV-2 and 500 KV-3) and 200 KV-1 are at ChTZ. In the future, it was planned to leave production of only the KV-3 at the Kirov plant, and transfer the KV-1 and KV-2 to ChTZ.
Such an extensive production plan required a radical restructuring and expansion of the production base. At the Kirov plant, new special tank workshops were put into operation - assembly SB-2 and commissioning SD-2. The MX-2 workshop, which was the main one in tank production, was rebuilt. Procurement shops were also expanded - foundry, forging, thermal, cold stamping and others. In February, by order of the People's Commissar of Heavy Engineering A. Efremov, the nearby Molotov Mechanical Plant was transferred to the Kirov Plant.
The main innovation of the vehicles produced in 1941, compared to tanks manufactured in 1940, was their armament with a 76-mm F-32 cannon instead of the L-11. The L-11 gun, developed at the artillery design bureau of the Kirov plant, had a number of design flaws, and its installation in tanks was considered only as a temporary measure. The F-32 gun, created in the design bureau of plant No. 92 (Gorky) under the leadership of V. G. Grabin, differed from the L-11 in its ease of manufacture and reliability in operation. The Kirov plant was supposed to produce a batch of 30 F-32 guns in the first half of 1940 and launch full production of these systems from August 1, 1940.
One of the KV tanks of the pilot batch with an experimental sample of the 76-mm F-27 cannon. Gorky, spring 1941.
But the plant did not comply with this decision, continuing to defend its L-11 gun, trying to improve and simplify its design. In April, the Kirov residents enlisted the support of V. A. Malyshev, who spoke positively about the L-11 in a letter to the chairman of the Defense Committee, but it was all in vain. In May 1940, the head of the ABTU, D. G. Pavlov, reported to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks:
“As a result of testing the F-32 and L-11, it was established that the F-32 in a tank has a number of advantages over the L-11.”
According to the plan, the Kirov Plant was to produce and deliver 130 F-32 guns by the end of the year. However, in 1940, only 50 guns were produced, and they began to be installed in the KV in January 1941.
It should be noted that already in 1940, many military personnel criticized the KV for its insufficiently powerful weapons. After all, the heavy KV-1 and medium T-34 were equipped with the same L-11 guns. And after F-34 guns began to be installed on the T-34 from the beginning of 1941, the KV-1’s armament became weaker than that of a medium tank!
New powerful 85-mm and 95-mm tank guns began to be developed in the summer of 1940 at the design bureau of plant No. 92. In the fall of the same year, they were tested in the turret of the T-28 tank. At the end of 1940, the same design bureau designed a 76-mm F-27 tank gun, which had the ballistics of a 76-mm 3K anti-aircraft gun (initial speed 813 m/s). The F-27 gun successfully passed tests, however, due to the development of work on the KV-3 tank, all work on this artillery system was stopped.
KV-1 tank with an F-32 cannon and armored screens on the turret. Leningrad Front, 1941.
In addition to the modernization of artillery weapons, the work plan for 1941 provided for improving the design of a number of KV components and assemblies. In the documents of the Kirov plant, this project is referred to as object 222. It was a KV-1 tank with 90 mm armor of the hull and turret, a commander’s cupola, a new driver’s viewing device and a turret rotation mechanism, a planetary gearbox, a 10-R radio station and other modernized units. Some of these new products were installed and tested in the standard hull of the KV-1 tank at the end of April 1941. The launch of new units was expected in May - August. But already on May 25, the chief engineer of the Kirov plant reported to the People's Commissariat of Heavy Engineering that “in connection with the transition of tank production ... to a new type of KV-3 vehicle, we ask you to exclude from the defense work plan you proposed for 1941 the following related to the KV tank, which After three months it will be discontinued from production at our plant:
1. commander's observation turret with all-round visibility;
2. viewing device for the driver of the KV tank with a horizontal view of 120° and a vertical view of 250°, with mechanical snow removal;
3. the rotating mechanism of the turret of the KV tank, which ensures rotation of the turret from the motor when the tank rolls up to 20° and rotation by hand with a force of no more than 10 kg. The turret rotation speed is 2 rpm (when rotating from the motor);
4. planetary transmission within the existing dimensions of the tank with a warranty period of up to 3000 km.”
Thus, a month before the start of the war, all work related to eliminating the shortcomings of the KV tanks was curtailed without even starting. This is how the KV-3 supertank, which failed and, by and large, was completely unnecessary for the Red Army, “moved over” the much-needed modernization of serial KVs.
KV-1 tank with a 76-mm F-34 cannon during testing. February 1941.
As for the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, back in June 1940 the Kirov Plant was supposed to transfer there one KV tank and technical documentation for it, and by August - all the technological documentation. In addition, the Kirov residents were obliged to provide assistance with specialists, as well as organize the production of armored hulls at plant No. 78 in Chelyabinsk. All this was completed only by the beginning of October, and therefore the production of HF at ChTZ was not launched until the end of 1940. The first experimental assembly of the KV tank at ChTZ was carried out on December 31 of the same year. At the same time, construction of a special tank workshop began, which was not completed before the start of the war. Largely for this reason, by June 1, 1941, ChTZ had produced only 25 KV tanks. In total, through the efforts of two factories, by this date 423 KV-1 and 213 KV-2 tanks were produced (46 of them with a “big turret”).
Just four days after Germany’s attack on the USSR, on June 26, 1941, order No. 25Zss was issued by the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Engineering, which stated:
Increase the production of tanks and put into effect the mobilization plan for the 2nd half of 1941.
KV tanks will be produced with a screen. The frontal plates of the hull and turret of the KV tank are subject to shielding. The thickness of the screen for the frontal plate of the tank hull is 25 mm, the thickness of the screen for the frontal sheet of the turret is 90–100 mm.
It is allowed to make changes to the drawings to reduce labor intensity without reducing the combat qualities of the tank...
From July 1, preparation for production of the KV-3 at the Kirov plant will be removed and transferred to Chelyabinsk at ChTZ, where a team of designers, technologists, documentation, materials and a sample tank will be sent.
To transfer the Kirov Plant, in accordance with the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, from the People's Commissariat of Heavy Engineering to the People's Commissariat of Medium Engineering as of July 1, 1941."
Tank KV-1 produced in 1941. This vehicle was manufactured at ChTZ, as can be judged, for example, by two cylindrical fuel tanks on the fender.
On July 1, production of the KV-2 tank ceased; in the same month, reinforced road wheels and a simplified turret for the KV-1 went into production. The design of the latter was revised, some of the bent parts were replaced with straight ones, and the overall length of the tower was reduced. Stamped road wheels were replaced with cast ones, and road wheels with internal shock absorption were replaced with solid ones due to an acute shortage of rubber. Torsion shafts were made from rolled billets. The abolition of forging in the production of torsion shafts made it possible to increase their production by 4–5 times using existing equipment.
To staff SKB-2 with engineers, the management of the Kirov Plant transferred to its staff SKB-1 specialists (80 people in total), who before the war were engaged in the design of gas turbines. All this made it possible to solve many problems much faster than in peacetime, and by mid-July to increase the production of KV tanks to 10 vehicles per day.
In July 1941, supplies of the V-2K diesel engine from the Kharkov Engine Plant No. 75, which began evacuation to the Urals, ceased. Over the course of three days, SKB-2 designers worked on the possibility of installing M-17T carburetor engines, which were available in the warehouses of the Leningrad Front, into KV-1 tanks. A prototype of the tank was produced in the MX-2 mechanical assembly shop, which successfully passed factory tests. In September 1941, 37 tanks with carburetor engines were produced at LKZ.
At the end of July and beginning of August 1941, due to severe overload of the plant's forge shops and the impossibility of ensuring the production of a sufficient number of forged tracks, LKZ began work on the production and testing of cast tracks. In October 1941, due to the need to evacuate forging equipment to the Urals, cast tracks for the KV-1 tank were put into mass production.
KV-1 tank with a simplified turret, manufactured at the Kirov plant in Leningrad in the fall of 1941.
In addition to serial production, the plant continued to conduct some experimental work. So, at the end of July, the installation of a flamethrower in the KV tank was designed. This machine was listed in the factory documents as the KV-6. Engineers from Plant No. 174 named after. took part in its development. Voroshilova I. A. Aristov, Elagin and others. The flamethrower on the KV-6 was installed to the right of the driver in the front hull plate in special armor. The range of the jet reached 40–50 m, the number of shots was 10–12. The KV-6 was tested directly on the front line, which by this time had approached the suburbs of Leningrad. The number of tanks produced is unknown; according to various sources, their number ranges from one to several.
Tank KV-1 with a cast turret and hull, produced by plant No. 200. Spring 1942.
After the Germans captured Krasnoe Selo German artillery got the opportunity to fire at the Kirov plant. Artillery raids were carried out regularly on one workshop or another. The enterprise turned into a front plant, only a few kilometers separated it from the front line of German troops. For strategic reasons, tank production was transferred to a safer place - to the Vyborg side, to plant No. 371 named after. Stalin, where repairs and restoration of damaged tanks were carried out. Part of the equipment is also transported there, engineers and tank builders are sent to begin assembling and repairing the vehicles. During the repair, part of the KV-1 was equipped with additional armor plates (or, as they were called at that time, screens). Armor plates 25–35 mm thick were attached to bonks welded on the sides of the hull and turret using bolts.
The production of tanks in Leningrad is becoming increasingly difficult. At the end of September, the Izhora plant stops supplying new armored hulls and turrets, since the front line comes close to the plant’s territory. Plant named after Stalin, as the supply of hulls, turrets and engines was used up, switched only to the repair of combat vehicles. On October 18, the last KV tank was assembled in the city on the Neva. In total, starting from July 1941, 444 KV tanks were manufactured at LKZ.
After Leningrad found itself surrounded by a blockade in early September, a decision was made to speed up the evacuation of the Kirov plant to the Urals. At the beginning of July, all the design and technological documentation was taken there, and a team of designers and technologists headed by N.L. Dukhov was sent there. People believed that they were going on a business trip to help establish the production of heavy tanks and return. They didn’t even take winter clothes, thinking that the enemy would certainly be defeated before the fall. During July - August, 12,313 wagons with machine tools, tools and equipment were sent to the Urals. With the last trains until August 29, when the railway connection with Leningrad was interrupted, 525 machines were sent. Later, the removal of equipment and plant workers was carried out by ships on Lake Ladoga and by plane. Until November, at least 11 thousand people were taken out in this way.
Tank KV-1 with a cast turret manufactured by UZTM. Manezhnaya Square in Moscow. January 1942.
KV-1 tank with KRAST-1 (short tank artillery missile system) installations. Chelyabinsk, plant No. 100, summer 1942. An 82-mm rocket is visible on the guide mounted on the fender.
By Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 734 of October 4, 1941, the Ural Plant for the production of heavy KV tanks was created as part of the People's Commissariat of Tank Industry, which included ChTZ, UZTM, the Ural Turbine Plant and Plant No. 75, evacuated from Kharkov. By the same decree, ChTZ was renamed Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ). However, the name “Ural Plant for the Production of Heavy KV Tanks” did not catch on; soon the huge plant received the unofficial name “Tankograd”.
Assembly shop of the Chelyabinsk Kirov plant, spring 1942. It is clearly visible that in the assembly process there are tanks with both cast turrets and welded turrets of a simplified form. Most vehicles also have a simplified rear part of the hull.
Thanks to the measures taken, in the fall of 1941, Chelyabinsk managed to launch the mass production of KV tanks. At the end of October, due to the lack of F-32 guns, the production of which at the Kirov plant in Leningrad was discontinued, tanks began to be armed with a 76-mm ZIS-5 gun. This was a version of the F-34 cannon, adapted for installation in the KV. The ZIS-5 differed from the F-34 in the design of the cradle elements and the armored mask.
To expand the production of armored hulls for KV tanks, by decree of the State Defense Committee of November 13, 1941, on the basis of the workshops of plant No. 78 named after. Ordzhonikidze in Chelyabinsk, an “armor plant was created, assigned number 200 and included heavy tanks in the plant.” M. Popov, who had previously headed the Izhora plant in Leningrad, was appointed its director. All this made it possible to give the front 110 KV tanks in November, and 213 in December.
In order to save rental costs and reduce welding work, tank turrets, after successful shelling tests on prototypes, began to be made cast. The projectile resistance of such towers was lower than that of welded ones. Therefore, the thickness of the walls of the cast tower was 110 mm, and not 75 mm - like the welded one. Providing combat vehicles with stamped tracks, of which hundreds of thousands were now required, faced enormous difficulties - there were not enough high-power hammers. As a result of studying this problem and conducting tests, it was decided to assemble tracks from two types of tracks - solid with ridges and composite - from two halves, which were installed in each track alternately. Later it was possible to master the production of cast tracks, which were not inferior in quality to stamped ones. Due to the lack of ferodo friction material, steel discs began to be used for the main clutch. Such clutches were not a full-fledged replacement, but, nevertheless, they, albeit with some difficulties, ensured the operation of the tank’s transmission. After measures were taken to organize the production of discs with Ferodo linings, main clutches again began to be produced with these discs instead of steel ones. During the period of mastering the production of the V-2 diesel engine at ChKZ, in November - December 1941, 130 KV-1 tanks with an M-17 carburetor engine were produced.
At the end of 1941, SKB-2, based on the KV-1 tank, developed the KV-8 flamethrower tank, the KV-12 chemical tank, and also, together with the UZTM design bureau, an artillery self-propelled gun KV-7 and KV-9 tank. The KV-8 tank was mass-produced, the KV-12 chemical tank and the KV-7 self-propelled gun remained in prototypes.
Chemical tank KV-12 (object 232). Chelyabinsk, plant number 100, spring 1942. Reservoirs for toxic substances mounted on the fenders are clearly visible.
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In the history of world tank building, various bases have been used to classify combat vehicles. They were divided into groups and types, differing in armament and armor strength, speed and driving characteristics, features born under the influence of state military doctrine and tactics of units and formations.
The most popular classification is based on the combat weight of the tank: light, medium, heavy. The KV-1 tank was the first in a series of mass-produced Soviet heavy tanks.
Historical reference
It is known that the very first tank MK-I (Mark I) appeared on September 15, 1916 in the British Army. France did not lag behind its Entente ally, presenting its combat vehicle a little later. The Renault FT tank turned out to be quite a successful option and a model for many subsequent models.
Following the pioneers, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Japan joined the tank building process.
It is curious, but the countries that are today producers of the best armored vehicles - Russia (USSR), the USA and Germany - entered this process with a certain delay.
The Soviet military command had virtually no experience in the construction and use of tanks.
The use of combat vehicles captured from the interventionists and one and a half dozen tanks manufactured in 1920 by the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, based on a slightly converted Renault (the first was called “Freedom Fighter Comrade Lenin”), was difficult to call an experience.
Therefore, having gone through the stage of finding their way faster than other tank-building countries, the creators of Soviet tanks found a more successful option.
Using the experience of others
During the Soviet period, they tried not to mention this, because the country of the Soviets was the first in everything. This “leavened patriotism” is to the detriment of historical truth. Yes, we didn’t invent the tank... Yes, our designers used the experience of others. And what's wrong with that?
In December 1929, a special commission created by the Department of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army was sent on a business trip abroad to study the production of tanks.
Were purchased:
- Lung sample English tank"Vickers - 6 tons" with a production license.
- 15 MkII tanks, English-made.
- Several Carden-Lloyd MkVI wedges and a license for the production of this model.
- Two TZ tanks without turrets and weapons in the USA from engineer and inventor J.W. Christie is the author of the original chassis for the armored vehicle.
All these acquisitions were used in one way or another in the development of domestic tank models. On the basis of the English wedge, the T-27 wedge was created and put into mass production, which was in service with the Red Army even in the first months of the war.
When creating the T-26 tank, which in the pre-war years was the main one for the Red Army, the achievements, important components and assemblies of the Vickers - 6 tons combat vehicle were largely used. And the original chassis, invented by Christie, was first used on tanks of the BT family, and then on thirty-fours.
To be a heavy tank
The second half of the 30s was a period when the world and, especially Europe, lived in anticipation of war. Countries responded differently to the difficult political environment. The role was ambiguously assessed armored forces in a future confrontation.
The French and Italians viewed them as a means of supporting infantry and cavalry, giving them a supporting role. The British established the need to have two types of tanks: cruising and infantry, which performed different functions.
The Germans considered the use of tanks as part of large formations, which, with the support of aviation, should break through the defenses and move forward without waiting for the infantry.
The concept of Soviet military specialists provided for the use of all types of tanks to break through tactical defenses, to support infantry and develop success in the operational space, operating as part of tank and mechanized formations. But if the issues of improving light and medium vehicles in the pre-war period were resolved well, then the situation with heavy ones was worse.
Next attempts The creation of a heavy tank came down to strengthening the armor protection (as a consequence - an increase in the mass of the tank) and the use of the common multi-turret version (increase in size), to the detriment of speed and maneuverability. Such vehicles and armor protection were lost. Fortunately, after the production of 59 units of the T-35 tank and its recognition as unpromising, work on creating heavy tanks went in a different direction.
In the history of the creation of a heavy tank, 1939 turned out to be the most successful:
- in February, the Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) began development of the KV tank, named after the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov;
- by the end of the year, the 185th plant completed the development of the 58-ton double-turret T-100 tank;
- another version of the heavy tank was the 55-ton model, also developed at LKZ and named after Sergei Mironovich Kirov - SMK;
- shortly after the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish war in November 1939, all three samples were sent for testing to the combat area. The victory in this “competition” was won by the KV heavy tank, with one significant caveat. The military who conducted the test were not satisfied with the weak 76 mm gun for such a powerful tank;
- The decision was made to serially produce the KV tank.
From KV to IS-2
The practice of replacing official names, alphanumeric designations, with other, humorous names has always existed in the army environment. Certain types of weapons received an official name in the form of the initial letters of the full name of their creator.
But the tank, with the exception of the “Freedom Fighter...,” was named after the People’s Commissar of Defense for the first time. No sarcasm, but the cliche involuntarily suggests itself about how you name a ship, so it will sail. Hero of the Civil War, Marshal Soviet Union, People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov, who was not replaced for 15 years, did not make a special contribution to Victory in the war. Moreover, by the end of the war, he, the only one in all the years, was removed from the State Defense Committee.
So the KV-1 tank seemed to exist, but it was not born with that name and did not complete its life’s journey with it.
- in 1939, the KV heavy tank was developed and sent for testing at LKZ;
- in the summer of 1940, the KV tank with a 76 mm L-11 cannon (in 1941 it was replaced by a more advanced, but of the same caliber ZIS-5 cannon) and with a 152 mm M10T howitzer were put into mass production;
- but serial number 1 was assigned to the tank “retroactively”, not in connection with the appearance of a new modification, but so as not to break the sequence;
- after the production of the KV (KV-1) and KV-2 ceased in 1941, the combat vehicle, having undergone some technical changes, and having received an 85 mm cannon, became known as the KV-85 in the summer of 1943;
- in the fall of 1943 at the base latest modification The heavy tank IS-1 or IS-85 began to be mass-produced from the KV family. And after installing a 122 mm gun and changing the hull, on October 31, 1943, production of the IS-2 tank (Joseph Stalin) began, which in the early stages was known under the designation KV-122.
It is symbolic that, having freed K.E. Voroshilov from all key posts, Stalin replaced his name with his own in the name of the main tank. Replacing it with the name of any other military leader would be an insult to the former People's Commissar.
After such a lyrical digression, it’s worth getting acquainted in detail with the first Soviet heavy tank KV-1 (there’s no point in remembering the T-35) and comparing it with subsequent models. After all, by and large, these models are interconnected.
Main characteristics of Soviet heavy tanks during the Great Patriotic War
| Basic characteristics | Tank KV 1 | Tank KV 2 | Tank IS 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combat weight (t) | 43 | 52 | 46 |
| Crew (persons) | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Dimensions (mm) | |||
| length | 6675 | 6950 | 6770 |
| width | 3320 | 3320 | 3070 |
| height | 2710 | 3250 | 2630 |
| Clearance (mm) | 450 | 430 | 420 |
| Armor thickness (mm) | 40-75 | 40-75 | 60-120 |
| Gun caliber (mm) | 76 | 152 | 122 |
| Machine guns | 3x7.62 | 3x7.62 | 3x7.62, 1x 12.7 (DShK) |
| Ammunition (artillery rounds) | 90 | 36 | 28 |
| Engine power (hp) | 500 | 600 | 580 |
| Maksim. Speed | 34 | 34 | 37 |
| Highway range (km) | 225 | 250 | 240 |
| Off-road (km) | 180 | 150 | 160 |
| Overcoming obstacles (m) | |||
| wall | 0,87 | 0,87 | 1 |
| ditch | 2,7 | 2,7 | 3,5 |
| ford | 1,3 | 1,6 | 1,3 |
The tactical and technical characteristics, both presented in the table and those remaining outside of it, evaluate the three main components of any armored vehicle:
- armor protection and survivability of the tank and crew;
- firepower of weapons;
- speed and maneuverability.
Tank design and protection
Some experts consider the KV-1 tank to be a milestone in world tank building, because some technical discoveries were subsequently used in many other models. These are a diesel engine, projectile-proof armor, individual torsion bar suspension, division of the armored hull into sections: combat, control and engine-transmission.
The tank crew is more protected in such conditions. The driver and gunner-radio operator are located in the control compartment, the remaining crew members are in the combat compartment, both of them are separated from the engine compartment.
The armor protection of the hull and turret - welded armor plates with a thickness of 80, 40, 30, 20 mm - withstood hits of 37 and 50 mm from standard Wehrmacht anti-tank guns. It was not always sufficient for protection against larger calibers - the German 88 mm Flak 18/36 anti-aircraft gun became one of the main means of combating this Soviet tank.
KV-1 armament
The first KV models were equipped with a 76 mm F-32 cannon. It was against her that there were complaints when testing the tank on the Karelian Isthmus. The replacement with a 152 mm howitzer led to the appearance of the KV-2 tank model. But the KV-1 also underwent changes in armament by 1941, receiving a more advanced ZIS-5 cannon. The ammunition load was 90 artillery rounds of unitary loading. The shells were located on the sides of the fighting compartment.
The tank had an electric motor for turning the turret.
The tank's armament included three 7.62 mm DT-29 machine guns: coaxial with a cannon, forward and rear. All of them were removable and could be used outside the tank if necessary. A certain difficulty in conducting combat was caused by poor visibility for both the driver and the tank commander. Two sights were used for firing: TOD-6 for direct fire and PT-6 for firing from closed firing positions.
Speed and maneuver
All tanks of the KV family, including the KV-1, were equipped with a four-stroke V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine with a power of 500 hp. After strengthening the armor protection and increasing the combat weight of the KV-2 tank, the power was increased to 600 hp. This engine allowed the combat vehicle to reach speeds of up to 34 km/h.
A big problem for tankers was the transmission, which consisted of a five-speed gearbox (including reverse speed), planetary onboard mechanisms, multi-disc (main and two side) clutches and band brakes. All drives were mechanical and difficult to operate. Experts clearly assess the transmission of KV tanks as the weakest side of the combat vehicle.
The chassis is the most vulnerable point, like all tanks.
The KV-1's suspension is individual, torsion bar with an internal shock absorber for each of the six double small-diameter rollers on each side. The drive wheels with removable pinion gears were located at the rear, and the idlers were located at the front. The caterpillar tension mechanism is screw. The number of 700 mm wide tracks in the caterpillar varied from 86 to 90 pieces.
Combat use of KV 1
The creation and development of military equipment and weapons is closely related to the military doctrine of the state.
Stalin's point of view is known that a possible war would be fleeting and take place on enemy territory. Accordingly, demands were put forward for the creation of combat vehicles distinguished by their speed and the ability to confidently suppress defensive fortifications enemy.
The war at the initial stage, unfortunately, followed a different scenario. Heavy tanks were not defensive. They were used in various types of combat, but, as a rule, not for their main purpose.
The Germans could not resist our “heavyweights” and tried to avoid meeting them.
But, despite the firepower, reliable armor protection, and heroism shown by the tank crews, heavy tanks, including the KV-1, turned out to be less in demand than medium ones. Heavy tanks suffered heavy losses during this period due to a simple lack of fuel. Without it, the tank is a good target.
Production of heavy vehicles was suspended in 1941. However, already in 1943 the situation changed and the importance of heavy tanks increased again. But without the KV-1.
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The KV tank, or, as the Germans called it, “Gespenst” (ghost) is a real metal fortress, but even such a reliable block could not have accomplished the feat at Raseiniai without cold calculation and hatred of the invaders. About seven centimeters of steel and one crew, which for the Germans became the personification of Russian character and unbending will - in this material.
By the evening of June 23, 1941, the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht captured the Lithuanian city of Raseiniai and crossed the Dubissa River. The tasks assigned to the division were completed, but the Germans, who already had experience of campaigns in the west, were unpleasantly surprised by the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops. One of the units of Colonel Erhard Routh's group came under fire from snipers who were occupying positions on fruit trees growing in the meadow.
Snipers killed several German officers and delayed the advance of German units for almost an hour, preventing them from quickly encircling Soviet units. The snipers were obviously doomed, since they found themselves inside the location of German troops. But they completed the task to the end. The Germans had never encountered anything like this in the West.
How the only KV-1 ended up in the rear of Routh’s group on the morning of June 24 is unclear. It is possible that he simply got lost. However, in the end, the tank blocked the only road leading from the rear to the group’s positions.
The fact remains: one tank held back the advance of the Raus battle group... Moreover, it was delayed for a whole day by one tank blocking the road to the bridge over the Dubissa River, and thus deprived half of the division of supplies. Battle group- This is almost half of the division and in this case, the most powerful.
Look at the composition of the battle group "Raus":
- II Tank Regiment
- I/4th Motorized Regiment
- II/76th Artillery Regiment
- Company of the 57th Tank Engineer Battalion
- Company of the 41st Tank Destroyer Battalion
- Battery II/411th Anti-Aircraft Regiment
- 6th Motorcycle Battalion
And all this against 4 people!!! KV-1, whose crew is 4 people, “exchanged” itself for 12 trucks, 4 anti-tank guns, 1 anti-aircraft gun, possibly for several tanks, as well as for several dozen Germans killed and dying from their wounds.
All five combat episodes - the defeat of a column of trucks, the destruction of an anti-tank battery, the destruction of an anti-aircraft gun, shooting at sappers, the last battle with tanks - in total hardly even took an hour. The rest of the time the KV crew wondered from which side and in what form they would be destroyed next time. The battle with anti-aircraft guns is especially indicative. The tankers deliberately delayed until the Germans installed the cannon and began to prepare to fire, so that they could shoot for sure and finish the job with one shell. Try to at least roughly imagine such an expectation.
Moreover, if on the first day the KV crew could still hope for the arrival of their own, then on the second, when their own did not come and even the noise of the battle at Raseinaya died down, it became clearer than clear: the iron box in which they had been roasting for the second day would soon enough turn into their common coffin. They took it for granted and continued to fight.
So, while escorting several of our prisoners in a car to the rear of the Germans, he was discovered right on the road super heavy tank KV-1, which blocked the only supply route for Routh's group. Seeing the tank, our soldiers attacked the guards, a struggle and a shootout ensued - as a result, several Red Army soldiers jumped from the car and disappeared into the forest, and the rest were killed.
The German car quickly turned around and rushed back to the bridgehead to convey this unpleasant news for the Germans. At the same time, it was discovered that the tank crew damaged the telephone connection with the headquarters of the Nazi division and destroyed 12 supply trucks that were coming from Raseiniai.
All attempts to bypass our tank were unsuccessful. The vehicles either got stuck in the mud or collided with scattered Red Army units still wandering through the forest.
Then the Nazis decided to destroy the tank. An anti-tank battery, consisting of four 50 mm cannons, secretly moved towards the tank at a direct shot distance and opened fire. Eight hits were recorded. You should have seen the jubilation and joy of the Germans at this. But at least give the tank a damn... And then, to the surprise of the enemies, the KV-1 turret slowly turns around and fires four shots. As a result, two guns were blown to pieces, and two were damaged beyond repair in the field! The German personnel lost several people killed and wounded.
The Russian tank was still tightly blocking the road, so the Germans were literally paralyzed. Deeply shocked, the German soldiers returned to the bridgehead. The newly acquired weapon, which they trusted unconditionally, turned out to be completely helpless against the monstrous Russian tank.
It became clear that of all the weapons that Routh's group possessed, only 88-mm anti-aircraft guns with their heavy armor-piercing shells can cope with the destruction of the steel giant. In the afternoon, one such gun was withdrawn from the battle near Raseiniai and began to carefully creep towards the tank from the south. The KV-1 was still turned to the north, since it was from this direction that the previous attack was carried out.
Although the tank had not moved since the battle with the anti-tank battery, it turned out that its crew and commander had nerves of iron. They calmly watched the approach of the anti-aircraft gun, without interfering with it, since while the gun was moving, it did not pose any threat to the tank. In addition, the closer the anti-aircraft gun is, the easier it will be to destroy it. A critical moment came in the duel of nerves when the crew began to prepare the anti-aircraft gun to fire. It was time for the tank crew to act. While the gunners, terribly nervous, were aiming and loading the gun, the tank turned the turret and fired first! Every projectile hit its target. The heavily damaged anti-aircraft gun fell into a ditch, several crew members died, and the rest were forced to flee. Machine-gun fire from the tank prevented the removal of the gun and the collection of the dead.
The optimism of the German soldiers died along with the 88 mm gun. They did not have the best day, munching on canned food, since it was impossible to bring hot food.
As night fell, the Germans decided to blow up the tank with explosives. For this purpose, the best sappers of the group were selected. When they approached the tank at a fairly close distance, an amazing thing became clear: several civilians (apparently from the local population or partisans) approached the tank, knocked on the turret, the hatch opened and they were given food. The crew had dinner safely and went to bed inside the tank. At this time, the Germans approached the tank, planted several powerful charges and blew it up. The next rejoicing of the Germans did not last long - the tank machine gun immediately came to life and began pouring lead all around. The Nazis barely escaped!
The next attempt to attack the brave tank was made on the morning of June 25. Now the Germans resorted to a trick - they carried out a false attack with PzKw-35t tanks (they themselves could not do anything to the KV-1 with their 37 mm guns), and under their cover they brought another 88 mm anti-aircraft gun closer. The crew was carried away by the battle with nimble and light enemy tanks and did not notice the danger. And the terrain contributed to this. The crew of the KV-1 tank was confident in the strength of its armor, which resembled an elephant hide and reflected all shells, continuing to block the road.
The anti-aircraft gun took up a position next to the place where one of the same ones had already been destroyed the day before. Its barrel aimed at the tank and the first shot rang out. The wounded KV-1 tried to turn the turret back, but during this time the German anti-aircraft gunners managed to fire 2 more shots. The turret stopped rotating, but the tank did not catch fire. Four more shots were fired with armor-piercing shells from an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun.
Witnesses to this deadly duel wanted to get closer to check the results of their shooting. To their great amazement, they discovered that only 2 shells penetrated the armor, while the remaining 5 88-mm shells only made deep gouges in it. They also found 8 blue circles marking the impact sites of 50mm shells. The result of the sappers' sortie was serious damage to the track and a shallow gouge on the gun barrel. But they did not find any traces of hits from the 37-mm cannons of the PzKW-35t tanks.
Suddenly the gun barrel began to move and the German soldiers ran away in horror. Only one of the sappers retained his composure and quickly shoved hand grenade into the hole made by the shell in the lower part of the turret. There was a dull explosion and the hatch cover flew off to the side. Inside the tank lay the bodies of the brave crew, who had previously only received injuries. Deeply shocked by this heroism, the Germans decided to bury them with full military honors. They fought until their last breath, but this was just one small drama of the great war.
Today it is difficult to imagine how much courage they showed, how hot the hatred burned in their hearts. After all, a stationary tank is a good target; it is a steel coffin for the entire crew. We will never know what the tankers said then, what they were thinking... But their actions testify that they were people of extraordinary will. The tank commander realized what a critical position he had taken. And he deliberately began to hold her back. It is unlikely that the tank standing in one place can be interpreted as a lack of initiative; the crew acted too skillfully. On the contrary, standing was the initiative. The crew could blow up the tank so that the enemy would not get it and calmly go to their own, to the partisans. But they made the only right decision and remained to fight their last battle.
The combat episode of the beginning of the war near Raseiniai is just one of highlights characterizing mass heroism Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. Eternal memory to the fallen heroes!
P.S. The description of this feat of tank crews is given from the memoirs of that same Erhard Routh. Of the 427 pages of his memoirs that directly describe the fighting, 12 are devoted to a two-day battle with a single Russian tank at Raseiniai. Routh was clearly shocked by this tank. Therefore, there is no reason for mistrust.
P.P.S. Unfortunately, not all the names of these brave tankers are known, but most likely they were from the 2nd Tank Division of the 3rd Mechanized Corps. It was the 2nd Panzer Division that opposed the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht in the battles of Raseiniai. In 1965, the grave was opened. Based on the found passport surrender receipt, it was possible to restore the name of one of the crew members - Pavel Egorovich Ershov. The surname and initials of another tanker are also known - Smirnov V.A.
Thank you for watching!
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