Kirov was very interested in the information provided by Zhang Xuewu on the Iron Cavalry medium main battle tank, and he had to first confirm the information on the Iron Cavalry medium main battle tank provided by Zhang Xuewu for effective confirmation, so he called the heads of the Grove Red Machine Building Plant, the First Young Pioneer Factory, and the 203rd Factory, and summoned Koshkin, who was tackling the new tank, to the Kremlin overnight.

For the tank information provided by Zhang Xuewu, dozens of technical engineers and mechanical engineers at the level of colonels and major generals of the manufacturer began to confirm the real surnames of the drawings, and Koshkin, who was organizing the development of a new tank, could be called the husband of the T-34 in history.

However, because the Soviet side handled the Panther tanks supplied by Germany to the Rehe side and the Jackal light tanks that were equipped in large quantities by the Rehe side, Koshkin was also shocked, because the data of the Jackal light tanks, especially the flank armor with the front main armor and skirt with the angle of inclination, were directly immune to all the 37-mm anti-tank guns in service with the Soviet army, and if the anti-tank guns could not destroy the enemy's tank group attacking at an average speed of 50 kilometers per hour on the battlefield, Then the division of the defense line is an instantaneous matter, and the total combat weight of the Jackal light tank has reached 23 tons, which is only four tons lighter than the 50th project it is currently studying, and it seems to be better in terms of protection and mobility, and the full weight and mobility of the Jackal light tank does not seem to be too much to equip it with a modified 76 mm anti-tank gun, and the 50 mm caliber L60 anti-tank gun equipped by the Rehe side inherits the consistent fine style of the German [***] weapon, not only is it extremely powerful, And it is extremely accurate, at this point, the Soviet-made tank gun cannot compete with the German Seiko, but the production cost of the Germans is much higher than that of the Soviet-made, which is insurmountable for the Germans.

It can be said that Koshkin has always been misled into a strange circle, or because of the politically dominant production design, Koshkin's design was introduced into a misunderstanding at the very beginning, because among all the tanks in active service in the Soviet Army, there is no model that can fight against the Jackal light tank, which made the top level of the CPSU angry, especially Stalin personally gave instructions that he must fully catch up with the Germans in terms of tanks within two years, and surpass the Germans within five years. Tank this land decisive battle weapon is to represent the limit of a country's industrial level, from mechanical processing and manufacturing, metallurgy, materials engineering, it can be said that the field involved includes almost all the fields of heavy industry, if you want to catch up with the Germans in a very short time, then you must develop on the platform of the Germans, first develop in the first, understand and understand the design concept and technology of the other party, in order to manufacture a new tank for it.

In fact, as a technical engineer, Koshkin understands very well that the purpose of the existence of weapons is to be used in warfare, and weapons are constantly evolving like the evolutionary history of mankind. According to the instructions of the Supreme Commander, Koshkin had no choice but to abandon his original research direction and instead study the design ideas and concepts of the Germans, knowing that the Slavs and the Germans were on two different positioning systems in the overall national thinking, and it was undoubtedly a torment for Koshkin to study the German ideas.

As a result, Koshkin and his design team began to scale up and down the Jackal and Panther tanks, and they fell into the basic institutional mistakes of the system. This mistake caused the design of the new Soviet tank to fall into confusion and pause, and this design drawing of the Iron Cavalry medium main battle tank seems to return to Koshkin's previous design route, which was originally very dissatisfied with the German route - finally found a catharsis point, inclined body, double guide wheel design, 100 mm smoothbore gun, huge turret with three machine gun turrets, this design should belong to the Soviet Union, it is completely Slavic rough style design, thick armor, large-caliber guns, The multi-turret is fully protected, which is simply perfect to the limit.

Koshkin looked at Kirov and said excitedly: "Dear Comrade Kirov, please take a look at this design!" If we hadn't studied the Jackal and Leopard tanks, along our established route of development, we might have developed a more perfect tank than the Iron Cavalry medium main battle tank, we have taken too many detours, we studied the design ideas of the Germans to deal with the Germans? It will lead us to pay more and greater costs, and we will not have our own iron armor of our great Soviet for a short time, and for a long time to come! I would like to ask you to make a suggestion to the great and respected Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Comrade Stalin! This is related to the development of our great Soviet tank industry, which is a vital matter related to the lifeline, and the fundamental guarantee that our ironclad torrent will be proud of the whole of Europe! ”

Kirov naturally knew the significance of Koshkin to the Soviet tank industry, Koshkin was a famous designer of the Kharkov Comintern plant, and the A20 and TB series tanks developed by him were successful, and Tasinov of the Red Golyurov Heavy Industry Plant has been designing the body for it, which was originally going to use the beveled armor of the revolutionary surname, and the protection capability will be greatly improved.

Zhang Xuewu's drawings for Kirov are actually enlarged versions of the T-34 tank, and they are mounted with a large turret, and the chassis refers to the KV series tanks, so Koshkin feels extremely amazing, because its design ideas are exactly the same as theirs.

It can be said that the t-34 tank not only inherited the excellent mobility of the БТ tank, but also made a great leap in firepower and protection capabilities, and its excellent performance also overwhelmed the KV-1 heavy tank, in history, before the t-34 tank completed the prototype, the Soviet leadership decided to agree to equip the Soviet Red Army with the t-34, but the t-34 tank was not until the end of January 1940, the first batch of tanks left the factory production line in Kharkov, later known as the T-34/76 1940 model, Later, the two T-34s impressed Stalin, who was observing the tests on Moscow's Red Square, during the long-distance driving tests from Kharkov to Moscow and from Smolensk to Kiev and Kharkiv, and the rapid assembly of the T-34 tanks was inextricably linked to Stalin.

In fact, before any kind of tank was tested in actual combat, various types of Soviet tanks, including the T-34/76, also had obvious defects, mainly because they were not all equipped with inter-vehicle radio communication equipment, generally only one command tank in several T-34s had radio equipment, and the communication between tanks also relied on flag language. The various types of tanks in the main battle with Germany, whether they are 3, 4, 5, or 6, are basically equipped with radio stations, and their cooperative combat capabilities are far from each other, so it is difficult to give full play to the excellent surname ability of the tanks when marching in formation, especially when encountering unexpected situations. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a No. 3 tank with a surname to destroy multiple T-34s.

And the T-34 tank is balanced in terms of armor, firepower and power, the thickness of the body armor is forty-five millimeters, which is equivalent to the German three and four types of tanks, but the frontal armor has a bevel angle of thirty-two degrees, and the sides are also forty-nine degrees, the turret is a cast hexagonal type, the thickness of the frontal armor is sixty millimeters, the side is also forty-five millimeters, and the bevel of the body extends to the turret, so the T-34 is almost a right-angled triangle from the front, and the beveled armor has two benefits, first of all, it is easy to bounce off after the shell hitsSecondly, according to the triangular principle, a horizontally fired shell, after hitting the inclined armor, needs to pass through the thickness of the steel plate equivalent to the triangular hypotenuse, so the T-34 tank 45 mm thick 32 degrees of bevel frontal armor, the protection capacity is equivalent to 90 mm, and the 49-degree bevel angle of the side armor is also equivalent to 55 mm, which is the same as the T-54 inclined armor, So much so that the intrusion thickness of the 39-degree inclined armor of the T-54, which adopted composite alloy armor, was two hundred and twenty millimeters.

In terms of power, Koshkin has been preparing to use the famous twelve-cylinder 39-liter V2 diesel engine specially developed by the Soviet designer Morozov for the T-34, with a power of 500 horsepower, so that its maximum road speed reaches 55 kilometers per hour, so that it can compete with the Jackal light tank, and another advantage of the V2 diesel engine is fuel economy, the T-34 tank has a fuel tank capacity of 60 liters, and a reserve fuel tank with a capacity of 39 liters is hung on both sides of the body, and the range can reach 540 kilometers.

In comparison, the German Type IV tank was only 160 kilometers, while the Tiger tank had to refuel after walking 90 kilometers, but the disadvantage of the diesel engine was that the exhaust emissions were thick and the smoke was billowing and the tank could not be hidden.

And the other side of the T-34 lubricating oil reserve is 140 kilometers and also suffer from the breakdown rate, so it is still impossible to drive hundreds of kilometers at a time, and the previous BT-7, the T-34 uses the American patented Christie chassis, the chassis is equipped with a giant shock absorbing spring on the load-bearing axle, which can withstand violent up and down bumps, the track of the T-34 is nearly fifty centimeters wide, while the tracks of German tanks are usually only thirty centimeters wide, the above advantages make the T-34 have super cross-country maneuverability, This is the hardware basis of the Soviet armored forces' large-depth attack tactics, in the icy and snowy Eastern Front battlefield, the T-34 can freely gallop on the ice field with a snow depth of one meter, and is called the king of the snow by the German army.

It can be said that the discontinuation of the T-34 project, which Koshkin poured all his efforts into, made Koshkin depressed and entangled for a long time, and it can be said that everything before was data, and the Iron Horse Tank did a perfect combat test for him? Look at who else dares to question it now? Coupled with the fact that the German Jackal and Leopard tanks were slower, so that the Iron Cavalry of the Rehe side was so powerful, now Koshkin can be said to have finally raised his eyebrows, and now those who advocated what to learn from the Germans and surpass the Germans are afraid that it is time to shut up.

(To be continued)