"Comrade Kotin, you are here...... Is there anything you want me to do? Seeing a familiar figure, Manturov reluctantly pretended to smile politely. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Dressed in a military uniform and holding a stack of papers, Kotin walked to Manturov's desk. There was a forced smile on that white, gruff face.

Judging from Kotin's face, it seemed that he really wanted to have a good relationship with the deputy People's Commissar of National Defense with the rank of general in front of him, but he remembered that there was a bit of prejudice between him in the past and he was a little hesitant.

Kotin handed over the document with both hands and said: "Comrade Manturov, I have completed the design of a new heavy tank, and now I will hand over the design documents to you to see, and I hope you can give me some guidance." If I can, I hope to put this tank into production as soon as possible and equip the Red Army as soon as possible. ”

Manturov took the document from Kotin's hand, and when he opened the cover and saw the design drawings of the new tank, he couldn't help but be stunned, and secretly said in his heart: "This is ...... IS-2？ ”

This new tank is no different from the historical IS-2, the chassis, body design, and the thickness of the armor and the angle of inclination in each position are almost no different from the historical IS-2.

The only difference is that this IS tank has a 100 mm caliber D10T tank main gun. This main gun can be said to be one of the most powerful and armor-piercing Soviet tank guns during World War II.

How awesome? If a Soviet armor-piercing shell (APBC) is fired from the main gun of a D10T tank at a distance of one kilometer, it can penetrate 185 mm thick armor. If an APCBC is used, it can penetrate 221 mm thick armor at a distance of one kilometer.

Such a main gun is powerful enough to penetrate the armor of any tank during World War II, except for the frontal armor of the King Tiger tank and the Rat tank, which can barely resist a distance of 1 km, other tanks will not be the opponent of the D10T tank gun at all. In addition, compared to the 122 mm caliber tank gun, the D10T tank gun has a faster reload speed and a larger ammunition reserve, striking a balance between armor-piercing power, rate of fire and ammunition reserve.

Normally, Cotin would not have thought of this design at this time. Although it was Kotin's work, the IS-2 was supposed to be unveiled in 1943, but now it is 1941, and if it weren't for Manturov's design direction and inspiration, Kotin would not have been able to design this tank that should have been released in 1943 so quickly.

Looking at Manturov's uncertain look, Kotin thought that the director of the Ordnance Department of the Red Army thought that this design did not meet his requirements, "Comrade Manturov, I have designed this chassis with 120mm thick front armor and an angle of inclination of 60 degrees according to your requirements, and adopted the latest 100 mm caliber tank main gun modified from the S-34 naval gun.

As for the places you didn't mention, I just supplemented and improved them with my own experience and knowledge, so I came up with this design. ”

Hearing Kotin's voice, Manturov came to his senses. He smiled, nodded slightly, and said with satisfaction: "This design is quite good, if it can be produced and equipped with troops, I believe that our tank troops will be invincible." ”

Manturov's high praise made Kotin feel very complacent, and he couldn't help but smile confidently. His work during this period of time has finally been affirmed, and his talent has also been affirmed!

However, it was certainly not enough to get Manturov, this tank, until it was approved by the Ministry of Ordnance of the Red Army and the State Defense Committee, remained only on paper, "then when will we be able to produce test vehicles?" ”

In fact, this question is not something that Manturov can say. As the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense in charge of armaments, Manturov certainly has the right to know, but the supreme decision-making and auditing power is not in his hands. "You have to ask Comrade Molotov about this, he is a member of the National Defense Committee in charge of tank production."

However, even if the official in charge of ordnance approved the production plan and allowed the military-industrial complex to put into production, whether the Soviet Red Army would be equipped with this weapon is another matter.

For example, in history, before the Soviet-German war, even if the military industrial complex produced a certain number of 76 mm caliber tank guns (ZIS-3), because Kulik, who was in charge of ordnance on the Red Army's side, did not agree to equip this anti-tank weapon, the result was that when the German invasion, the Soviet army barely got a little bit of ZIS-3 to make do.

But the Germans have already pressed the border, and this little bit of ZIS-3 is simply not enough, and in front of the German armored clusters, the Soviet 40-mm caliber anti-tank guns are simply powerless.

If Manturov had not known the development of history in advance and persuaded Zhukov, Timoshenko, Voroshilov and others to put pressure on Kulik (then the head of the Ordnance Department of the Red Army) to equip the Soviet army with a large number of ZIS-3 anti-tank guns, I am afraid that the Manturov defense line would have been broken through by the Germans within a week.

"I already gave a report to Comrade Molotov yesterday, and he is also quite satisfied with the design of this new tank, so I asked you to hear your opinion." Kotin smiled and said in a very gentle tone, and at first glance he knew that he was trying to curry favor with Manturov, the deputy People's Commissar of Defense in charge of ordnance.

Manturov has always been wrong with things, although there were some fetters with Kotin before, but now that Kotin has made an IS tank, he has no reason to object. He will vigorously support everything that is beneficial to the country and the people. "Well, the design of this tank is really good, since Comrade Molotov agreed, then you should prepare for testing and production as soon as possible."

Hearing Manturov's positive response, Kotin's smile became even brighter. This is a smile from the heart, this is a confident smile, his work has finally been highly praised, his ability has been highly recognized, can this not be happy?

Kotin's heart was sweet and joyful, and just as he was about to say goodbye and leave, Manturov suddenly said something that disappointed his happiness: "Comrade Kotin, over there at the Kirov factory, don't build light tanks anymore." I know that the T-50 of your Kirov plant is good in all respects and is an excellent light tank.

However, light tanks were never the opponent of German medium tanks and German aircraft, and during these three months of fighting, our light tanks were easily destroyed by the Germans because of their thin armor and insufficient protection, and they suffered too many losses.

However, the proportion of losses in the T-34 and KV tanks is quite small, and the number of losses due to malfunctions is even greater than the number of combat damages, and it seems that our tanks still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of reliability. ”

"Yes," Kotin nodded slightly, "our tanks are really not good in terms of reliability, and we will try to improve this." But now, if we don't work on light tanks, then what should the production line of light tanks at the Leningrad Three Factories be used for? Converted into a production line for heavy tanks? ”

Although Manturov intends to stop the production of light tanks such as the T-26 and T-50, he does not plan to completely convert the production line of those light tanks to medium or heavy tanks.

"For the production line of light tanks, it doesn't hurt for us to keep some, and it's good to produce light tanks for reconnaissance purposes, but as the main force of operations, I'll keep it a little.

As for other light tank production lines, we can develop some anti-aircraft tanks, some tracked tractors, and armored personnel carriers on the basis of existing technologies. ”