Page 75 - The Chief Culprit

52 y e Chief Culprit

unpaved roads it could run for 520 km; on tracks over paved roads—630 km; on wheels over
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paved roads—1,250 km. Sixty years later, this is still the dream of any tanker. e BT-7M
had a 500-horsepower engine. At that time, the most powerful foreign tank engines were: the
300-horsepower German Meibach HL 120TRM, the 307-horsepower French Renault for
the Renault B1bis tank-horsepower.
e “obsolete” BT-7M had an extremely powerful engine—a legendary high-speed B-2
tank diesel. No other country was able to create such an engine before the end of the war; all
of Stalin’s enemies and allies had to get by with carburetor engines, which made their tanks
extremely vulnerable to fires. In some countries, some tank models were equipped with diesel
engines, but these were weak automobile engines. e rest of the world learned to use power-
ful diesel engines, specifically designed for tanks, only after the war, about ten to twenty years
after it was done on the BT-7M.
Having said so many positive things about the quantity and quality of Soviet BT tanks,
we must be just and note one small disadvantage: these tanks could not be effectively used on
Soviet territory.
e main advantage of the BT tank was its speed. is quality dominated all its other
qualities to such an extent that it even had a bearing on the tank’s name—high-speed tank.
e BT tank was a weapon of aggression. All of its characteristics make the BT resemble a
small, but extremely mobile, horseback warrior from the undefeatable hordes of Genghis
Khan. at great world conqueror vanquished all his enemies through a sudden attack of
colossal masses of extremely mobile warriors. He destroyed his enemies mainly not by power-
ful weapons, but through decisive maneuvers. He did not need heavy, clumsy knights, only
light, quick, mobile troops, capable of traversing vast territories, crossing rivers, and going
deep into the enemy’s rear. e BT tanks were exactly the same. At the beginning of World
War II, the Red Army had 6,456 BT tanks—that’s as many as all operational tanks of all
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types in the rest of the world. Soviet commanders clearly understood that BT tanks were
not good for conventional warfare, but they were great in situations when the Red Army sud-
denly broke into enemy territory. “High speed tanks [by] their nature are a weapon of sudden
attack. eir full effect (and success in general) can be obtained only if their use is sudden.” 12
In other words, if we suddenly attack the enemy, we will have success, but if the element of
surprise is not on our side, we will not.
e BT tanks could only be used in aggressive warfare, only in the enemy’s rear, and
only in a decisive aggressive operation, when hordes of tanks suddenly broke through onto
enemy territory and bypassed points of opposition, thrusting deep behind enemy lines, where
there were no enemy troops, but where all cities, bridges, factories, airports, ports, storage
facilities, command posts, and communication units were located. 13
e amazing aggressive characteristics of the BT were achieved by using a unique land-
ing gear. On field roads, the BT moved using caterpillar tracks, but when it found itself on
good roads, it shed the heavy tracks and sped forward on wheels like a racecar. It is well
known that speed and cross-country ability are a trade-off: either we have a racecar that only
rides on good roads, or a slow tractor that can ride anywhere. e Soviet marshals chose in
favor of the racecar, so the BT tanks were not good for the bad roads of Soviet territory. In
the battles fought on Soviet territory, thousands of BT tanks were abandoned. Off the roads,
even with the caterpillar tracks they were difficult to use. e great potential of the BT tanks
was never realized, because it was impossible to realize it on Soviet territory. To the question