"Their tanks, which are 20-ton, 50-millimeter tank guns, have quite good performance, especially protection, and our existing tanks simply cannot penetrate them, we have to have new tanks. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info "Major Bellotov said first.

As a tank commander who came back from the Spanish Civil War, and has not yet been purged, Belotov is naturally highly valued, in the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet tanks, simply defeated, the entire Soviet senior commanders, are quite shocked.

"Therefore, we suggest that our tanks must withstand direct fire from 50-mm guns at close range, and oblique fire from 75-mm guns at medium and long ranges." Belotov continued.

At close range, it is within 500 meters, and at medium and long distance, it is 500 meters away, and the opponent is equipped with 50 mm tank guns, and a small number of 75 mm guns, so their own tanks must develop new tanks according to these indicators, so that the tank crews can have confidence.

"It seems that we have to develop new tanks." Stalin, who was holding a large smoking pot, had a gloomy face: "Do you have a good plan?" ”

At this meeting, designers of the tank industry also came.

In the 30s, there were 2 tank production bases in the USSR, both under the leadership of the Main Directorate of Automobile Armored Tanks of the Red Army, the head of which was I.A. Khalevsky.

One of them, located in Leningrad, is a production base consisting of the Kirov plant and the Red October plant, among others; The other is the Kharkov Locomotive Plant.

The former is responsible for the production of tanks such as the T-28, T-35 and T-26, and the latter is responsible for the production of the BT family of fast tanks.

Hearing Stalin's questioning, Kotin spoke first.

Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin, now with the title of chief designer of the Leningrad Kirov plant. There were 3 factories in Leningrad, namely the Voroshilov plant, the Bolshevik plant and the Kirov plant, and the leader was the Kirov plant.

"We believe that if we want to increase the protection of our tanks, we must increase the armor protection." "So, we decided to build on the existing T-28 tank and replace it with a new engine and at the same time increase our armor protection," Kotin said. ”

Kotin spoke eloquently, as a famous tank designer, he was blessed with unique advantages, for example, he was the son-in-law of the Soviet Marshal Voroshilov! He often met with Stalin and was highly respected by Stalin.

Now, hearing Kotin's plan, Stalin also nodded on the side, increasing armor protection, increasing the weight of the car, and replacing it with a new engine, all of which are on the right path.

Cotin reported for two hours, and he had three plans, each of which was described in detail.

It wasn't until he finished his presentation that it was the turn of the Kharkov plant.

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, who last year became the chief designer of the tank design office of the Kharkov plant, has a very different idea from Kotin.

"We believe that just increasing the weight will lead to other problems, for example, our current T-35 tank, which has a total weight of fifty-two tons, but all kinds of mechanical failures are endless. We believe that the weight of the tank, controlled within 30 tons, is in line with our current state of technology. ”

This made Kotin quite dissatisfied.

Actually, Koshkin was not wrong, the T-35, a heavy multi-turret tank, was the pride of the Soviets, and every military parade in Moscow caused a sensation in Red Square.

However, that's all, the total production of such tanks is less than a hundred, and except for attracting attention at military parades, they have no combat capability and have many failures. It can be said that this tank is for the sake of putting on a shelf, showing the advanced nature of the Soviet tank, which is almost the same as the Pe-8.

Koshkin is still relatively young and can't say anything about officialdom, he doesn't know that his remarks have already been blacklisted by Kotin.

"So, our design solution is to use a bulletproof shape and tilt armor to increase protection. We observed that the Germans used a sloping deck, and at the same weight, the sloping armor could have better protection, and we were going to do that, and we were going to use the casting method to get a better bulletproof shape. ”

Koshkin submitted his own design proposal, codenamed A-32, and after Major Belotov got it, he agreed with it in his heart, but it was not convenient for Kotin's face to express his opinion immediately.

Just increasing the weight is definitely not as appropriate as changing the shape!

"This tank of ours is a general-purpose tank, which combines the high speed of the BT series tank, the firepower of the T-28 and the compactness of the T-26. Koshkin continued.

"This tank you designed doesn't look like it's dual-wheeled?" Kotin suddenly noticed something and asked Koshkin.

In this era, it is still advocated for dual-use wheels and tracks, and the BT fast tanks of the Soviet Union are all like this, removing the tracks is the wheels, walking on the road, and installing the tracks can go off-road, which seems to be an all-rounder, but in fact, it is chicken ribs.

The wheel mode of BT tanks is rarely used by the army, it is too cumbersome, and at the same time, this design increases the complexity of production and the weight itself.

Koshkin said all his thoughts: "We have observed that German tanks have abandoned the dual-purpose wheel-track and use all tracked chassis, and we believe that this is the direction of our development. ”

The people who heard it shook their heads, and the member of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Voroshilov, resolutely opposed the purely tracked type: "We must not give up the high-speed march of wheeled vehicles, which will deprive our troops of the ability to maneuver quickly!" ”

Stalin held the big smoke pot in his mouth and did not speak all the time.

In all fairness, Stalin was also not particularly in favor of a purely tracked type. However, now that the Germans are all tracked, it shows that this method is beneficial, otherwise how could the Germans use it like this?

However, what was suitable for Germany was not necessarily suitable for the USSR, after all, the territory of the USSR was too vast, and before entering the theater of operations, a high-speed wheeled scheme was also indispensable.

"Comrade Koshkin, I need you to prove the superiority of the pure tracked scheme." Stalin said: "It is possible to make a combination of wheels and shoes at the same time, and compare the two." ”

That's it, Stalin made a decision, and Koshkin also frowned, and the wheels combined? I don't have any room for this part of my tank! Such an improvement is meaningless.

You can agree to come down first, but the focus is still on the crawler!