The lessons of the Spanish Civil War made the Soviet tank designers work tirelessly. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At the same time, according to the previous schedule, around 38 years, two experimental models of the Soviet SMK and T100 heavy tanks began trial production and equipped with the Red Army units.

Among them, the SMK "Kirov" heavy tank was designed by Kotin, at least, at this time, it was still a multi-turret tank as the mainstream.

So, this tank has two turrets, just like the Land Cruiser, with a 76.2 mm gun on the main turret and a 45 mm gun in the lower secondary turret, with a crew of 7 people and a total combat weight of 55 tons.

It sounds like an absolute heavy tank, but because it has multiple turrets, the armor thickness is only 20 to 60 mm, which is difficult to meet the needs of protection on the battlefield.

Moreover, 55 tons is already the upper limit of the design of the tank, and if you want to increase the protection, you can only change to a single-turret layout.

So, last year, Kotin personally presided over the development of a new single-turret heavy tank based on the SMK heavy tank.

Last year, Order No. 45 of the USSR Ministry of Defense officially decided to start the project and named the new tank after Marshal Crimea-Voroshilov (KV).

Because this tank inherited the shape of the body of the SMK tank, the internal structure, the suspension system, the transmission mechanism, etc., only to change the turret and increase the thickness, so the progress is very fast, and under the stimulation of Germany, the prototype has now been made.

However, in fact, the original SMK tank, which was an experimental product, had a large number of mechanical problems that had not been solved, so the same is true for the new KV tank.

Historically, in the 39-year Soviet-Finnish war, KV-1 participated in real combat and the effect was good, but at that time full-scale tests were not over.

While the KV-1 continued its tests at the Kubinka test site near Leningrad, during the 2648-kilometer driving test, it was found that there were a lot of problems with the transmission, gearbox and running gear.

As a result, it was planned to produce 200 KV-1 tanks in 1940, but the first production KV-1 did not leave the factory until the end of the year.

And now, the KV-1 tank, of course, has a lot of technical problems, but, in the face of German pressure, the USSR had no choice but to put this tank into production as soon as possible!

Hearing Stalin's question, Marshal Voroshilov immediately brought up the KV-1 tank, and now, having no choice, it is necessary to put this tank into production at once!

It was a tank designed by his son-in-law, and he had to support it with all his might!

Hearing Voroshilov's words, Stalin's mind, recalling the previous meeting, couldn't help asking: "The Kharkov plant, it seems that there is also a project for a tank, right?" How's that project going? ”

Hearing this question, Malyshev was just about to say something, but Marshal Voroshilov took over the conversation: "That A-32 project has long been lagging behind, and their tank cannot compete with the latest tanks of the Germans, and moreover, their tanks, it is said that there are still many failures, and they simply cannot reach the state of equipping troops." ”

Hearing Marshal Voroshilov's words, Malyshev could only swallow what he wanted to say just now.

The Great Purge killed many marshals, and the few remaining marshals were the most trusted by Stalin, and since Voroshilov had published one, Malyshev couldn't refute it, he didn't want to make trouble for himself.

Hearing this, Stalin nodded: "The progress of the tank cannot be delayed any longer, and if the finalization requirements are met after testing, then it will be put into production as soon as possible." ”

Thinking of Germany's overwhelming tanks, Stalin was unhappy, he had to expand the Soviet tank forces as soon as possible, only in this way could he confront Germany.

The meeting, hastily ended, Malyshev conveyed the spirit of the meeting, and hearing the news, Koshkin was full of anger.

"Our project is much better than Kotin's project." Koshkin said: "Now, our prototype car has the ability to participate in the tests, Comrade Stalin, who was also sure of our plan at the beginning, we must let Comrade Stalin know the progress of our tank!" ”

At the beginning, when Koshkin handed in his plan, Stalin was sure, and now, the prototype has been built, waiting for testing, and as a result, Marshal Voroshilov, who has one hand covering the sky, will be shot!

How does this work? Have all these hard work been in vain? Koshkin is absolutely not reconciled!

The dead weight of the KV-1 is too large, under such a dead weight, mechanical failures will occur frequently, Koshkin has long made an investigation, the 30-ton tank is the most suitable, and his A-32 project is the most suitable!

At the same time, after learning about the progress of the Germans' tanks, Koshkin also planned to further expand the size of the gun ring and stuff it into larger tank guns, since the Germans all had 75 mm tank guns, then simply use 85 mm tank guns for their own tanks!

But now, before everything is visible, it has been seized of the space for survival by such means as Marshal Voroshilov!

No, absolutely not!

Standing in the cold factory building, looking at the crystallization of hard work in front of him, Koshkin suddenly had an idea in his head: "Simply, let's drive this tank from Kharkov to Moscow!" ”

How do you show the good mechanical properties of your tank? A long trek, of course!

KV tank, needless to say, runs thousands of kilometers, runs hundreds of kilometers, there will be all kinds of mechanical failures, and his current A-32 tank, absolutely no problem!

Compared with history, the project of the Kharkov plant has also progressed a lot earlier, although there is still a certain distance from the A-32 tank to the T-34, but in the most critical reliability, he is fully confident.

In terms of the power system, the most critical thing is the engine, for this tank, Koshkin's assistant, Morozov, successfully developed a 12-cylinder 39-liter V-2 diesel engine with a power of 500 horsepower.

This excellent engine allows the A-32 tank to shoot quite quickly, reaching a top speed of 55 km/h on the road, and at the same time, it is quite fuel-efficient.

The tank has a fuel tank capacity of 460 liters, and a reserve fuel tank with a capacity of 39 liters on each side of the body, and can travel up to 540 kilometers.

The tanks of the Germans, which also used diesel engines, are simply the same as the heroes.

In contrast, the current KV tank still uses an aviation gasoline engine!

(Historically, it was Kotin who saw that the diesel engine of the T-34 was good, so he put it on the KV tank, and now that history has advanced, Kotin has not yet had this opportunity.) ）

"I personally took part in this test, drove to Moscow and let Comrade Stalin see our tanks!" Koshkin made up his mind.

Outside, snowflakes are flying.