"Comrade Stalin, the main purpose of my visit this time is to report to you on the production of transports. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 As soon as Manturov walked into Stalin's office, he went straight to the point and handed over a report.

During the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was arguably one of the busiest people in the entire Soviet Union. Every day, he had to deal not only with military affairs, but also with the diplomatic and internal affairs of the Soviet Union, a world-class power, and his workload was very large.

In order to complete the heavy work at hand, Stalin had to work 14 to 16 hours a day, without even time for rest and recreation, and he was seriously deprived of sleep.

So when he meets everyone, he doesn't want to listen to nonsense, and tries to be as short as possible to save time.

When talking to him on the phone, it is better not to say polite words, and it is okay not to say hello, at least this will save Stalin a few seconds.

Stalin put down his pipe and opened the report presented by Manturov, but his eyes looked at the young man in front of him, "You can briefly introduce it." ”

Manturov thought for a moment, and then said: "At present, locomotives in our country are mainly manufactured at the Kolomna Diesel Locomotive Plant, the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant, the Voroshilovgrad Locomotive Plant, the Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant, the Dynamo Plant and the Novosibirsk Locomotive Plant.

All four factories have relatively complete production equipment and sufficient personnel, but the Kolomna Plant, the Voroshilovgrad Locomotive Plant and the Novocherkask Locomotive Plant were converted into ordnance factories, and now only the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant and the Novosibirsk Locomotive Plant are producing locomotives.

Trucks in our country were mainly produced at the Moscow Stalin Automobile Plant (now the Likhachev Automobile Plant), the Gorky Automobile Plant, the Yaroslavl Mechanical Plant and the Comintern Automobile Plant (КИМ).

Among them, the Stalin Automobile Plant has the largest production scale and the largest output of trucks. On the other hand, the production resources of the Gorky Automobile Plant and the Comintern Automobile Plant were concentrated in the production of cars, and the production scale and output of trucks were relatively small. The Yaroslavl Automobile Plant mainly produced trucks and artillery tractors, but the scale of production was too small, and the output was not as good as that of the Stalin Automobile Plant. ”

"So what do you think we should do to increase the production of transport?" Stalin didn't care about the current state of automobile and locomotive production in the Soviet Union, he cared about how to increase the production of trucks and locomotives to meet the needs of the present and the future.

"First of all, in terms of locomotives, we should resume the production of trains at the Kolomna, Voroshilovgrad and Novocherkassk locomotive plants, transfer the production lines of military products from those factories to other factories.

In addition, we can expand the production capacity of the Novosibirsk Locomotive Plant and the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant and increase the production of locomotives at the existing plants.

After completing these, it is estimated that the output of locomotives in China will be able to meet the demand. ”

"Very well, just do as you say." Stalin nodded, smiled fatherly, and said, "How can we increase the production of trucks?" ”

"I think that the Gorky Automobile Plant should stop producing light tanks and convert the light tank production line of the Gorky Automobile Plant into a truck line.

The production scale of the Yaroslavl Mechanical Plant and the Comintern Automobile Plant was too small and should be expanded in order to increase the production of automobiles.

Among other things, it was possible to convert the production line of some tractors into the production line of half-track trucks for the production of the ZIS-22M half-track transporter, as well as the ZIS-41 self-propelled artillery / self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. This will not only increase the transport capacity of our army, but also strengthen the artillery support and air defense capabilities of the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. ”

Stalin, having heard Manturov's opinion, began to frown. To produce such a "useless" half-track transporter, it is necessary to convert the production line of light tanks of the Gorky Automobile Plant into a truck line, which will indeed increase the transport capacity of the Soviet army, but at the expense of tank production, how can this work?

"Comrade Manturov, I agree with the expansion of production at individual factories, but the transformation of the light tank production line of the Gorky Automobile Plant into a truck production line will have a direct negative impact on tank production in our country. Less tanks are produced and fewer in number, which means that our combat strength will be weakened. ”

"Comrade Stalin," Manturov explained, "the current experience of the war has shown that light tanks such as the T-26, T-50, T-60 are not suitable for fighting in the environment of the present and the future.

First, the armor of light tanks is too thin to be easily destroyed by tank guns and anti-tank guns of various calibers.

Second, the firepower of light tanks is too weak, and its main guns simply cannot penetrate the armor of other tanks.

Therefore, in previous battles, the loss ratio of our light tanks has always been greater than that of other tanks. Every time the light tanks of the Red Army encountered German tanks, they were usually destroyed by the enemy without inflicting any losses on the enemy.

It can be seen that light tanks have a very limited impact on our battle situation and take up a lot of our resources. These resources should be used for the production of transport vehicles, or T-34, KV and other tanks with strong power and protection, so as to effectively enhance the combat strength of our army. ”

"Comrade Manturov, you have a point, it is also possible to convert the tank production line of the Gorky Automobile Plant into a truck line, there are other factories that produce light tanks." Stalin, although he agreed with Manturov, was not fully convinced by him. "But in any case, light tanks still need to be produced, and we cannot deny the role of light tanks on the battlefield."

Manturov also understood that it was impossible to convince Stalin at this time to change his preconceived military concepts. Even then, since he was able to get Stalin's support on the plan to convert the light tank production line of the Gorky Automobile Plant into a truck line, this had already served his main purpose.

"Comrade Stalin, I do not deny that light tanks still have a certain role on the battlefield today, not only to support the infantry, but also to carry out reconnaissance missions. But if you use light tanks as the main force of combat, it is a bit out of place.

Therefore, the production of light tanks still needs to be had, but the output does not need to be too much, nor should it occupy too many production resources, let alone delay the production of transport vehicles.

In my opinion, these surplus production resources should be used for the production of transports, because what the Soviet Red Army lacked was transports, and the number of light tanks was still very sufficient for the time being.

Only by increasing the production of means of transport could the situation now faced by the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which was now overloaded with logistical supplies, allow the troops to obtain sufficient quantities of supplies to fight. ”