Page 69 - The Chief Culprit

46 y e Chief Culprit

category of medium tanks was one of the factors that limited the German tank production to
a level much lower than the Soviet.” 20
e Panther and the T-34 should not even be compared. Comparing them is like com-
paring boxers from different weight classes. If Stalin didn’t have any other tanks, then we
would be forced to compare the T-34 with the Panther. But Stalin had the IS-2. e IS-2 was
adopted in the same year as the Panther, and weighed the same. ey should be compared.
e Panther resembled the IS-2 tank in another aspect as well: the Panther was a complex,
expensive tank for elite formations. e IS-2 was deployed in exactly the same way, to fight
in heavy breakthrough tank units and nowhere else. With the same weight and roughly equal
mobility characteristics, the IS-2 had a much more powerful armor and surpassed the Panther
21
in fire power.
In 1941, only two armies in the world recognized the necessity of heavy tanks. Obviously,
they were the German and the Soviet armies. e order to begin project development of the
first German heavy tank was given on May 26, 1941. e project was called MK4501: 45
tons, model one. e project resulted in the Tiger. Once again the German designers were
unable to stick to the planned weight. e tank was supposed to be 45 tons, but came out at
57 tons. However, this happened later:: in 1941, obviously, there was no tank yet. By June 22,
German designers had only made the first set of sketches. It was still a long time until the test
models made of metal, but at least the attempt to create a heavy tank was made on paper.
In contrast, work on creating a heavy tank in the Soviet Union began in 1930. In
1933, the first Soviet heavy tank, the T-35, was produced in series and entered the ranks of
the troops. It was a five-turret giant, weighed 45 tons, and was operated by a crew of eleven
men. It was the only five-turret tank in the world that was used by troops. It had three guns
and six machine guns. Its armor was 30 mm thick. In 1941, not a single German tank, and
no other tank in the world, was equal to the Soviet medium T-28 tank. Obviously, none of
them could even approximately compare with the heavy T-35. Design of the T-35 was con-
tinuously improved. For example, the models from 1938 increased the number of machine
guns to seven, and the armor was made 50 mm. e last series of T-35 joined the troops in
1939. But the tank was improved even after the production was completed: after the war in
Finland, all T-35s were returned to the factories and their armor was reinforced to 80 mm.
e weight of the tanks reached 50 tons.
In 1939, government tests of three of the newest Soviet heavy tanks, the KV-1, SMK,
and T-100, were conducted in combat conditions. ese tanks were tested in “anti-tank”
territory, in conditions in which the use of tanks was theoretically impossible. e Soviet
heavy tanks withstood the extreme challenges of the war in Finland: the absence of roads,
the obstacles hidden under piles of snow, the impenetrable forests, swamps, deadly fire, vast
minefields, anti-tank ditches, steel hedgehogs, scarps and counterscarps, and cold tempera-
tures that caused steel to crumble.
e bloody experiment in Finland proved that Soviet heavy tanks could fight success-
fully even in those conditions. Out of the three heavy experimental tanks, the KV-1 was
recognized as the best. On December 19, 1939, the Red Army enlisted it among its weapons,
and the industry received orders to produce it in series. In February 1940, the heavy KV-2
tank was tested in military conditions and also was accepted into the army.
e KV-1 and KV-2 weighed 47 and 52 tons, respectively. e KV was the first tank
in the world with a true anti-shell armor: it had a frontal armor of 75 mm, which could be