Zherelov was indeed wounded, and it was true that he had pierced the Tiger at the last moment, but at the same time the Tiger Hunter's gunner also gave him a shot, which pierced the 888 turret with little effort, smashing some of the car's sighting equipment and crashing into the back of the turret. Flying shrapnel and fragments tore through Zherelov's tank cap and made a hole in his head.

Fortunately, the armor of the T-54 is still quite powerful, basically using up most of the kinetic energy of the PAK44 armor-piercing projectile, resulting in its armor-piercing after-effect is not particularly ideal. For example, even if No. 888 was penetrated, there was no major problem except for the destruction of some equipment and minor injuries to the members. Even, No. 888 still retains part of its combat effectiveness.

"The hydraulic line was broken, and the turret had to be turned manually."

While the loader Alexander was treating Zherelov's wounds, the elder Hemstra completed his assessment of the injuries. It should be said that the state is not very good, but compared to the car crash and death, this is extremely lucky.

"How's it going out there?" Zherelov, grinning in pain, asked.

"That guy was killed, but the remaining one is still shooting, and the company commander is not in a good situation!"

In other words, there is still a Tiger Hunter left on the battlefield, but no one dares to despise this Tiger Hunter, its defense and firepower are too strong. For the time being, the Red Army could only fire at it with mortars, firing some smoke grenades to cover its own T-54 detours.

"Oleg's crew was all glorious, and only Sergey and Ulyan escaped from Sergey's crew. That's armor is too thick to penetrate at all! "The driver, Lavre, kicked the car hard, and he and Oleg are quite good friends. Now the good friend has died. Naturally, he was extremely angry.

The good news is that the number of tiger hunters is still too limited. After being knocked out, its threat is greatly reduced, and the T-54 can safely detour from both wings, as long as the tiger king who acts as a cover is knocked out, it is a matter of time before the tiger hunting is destroyed.

After a simple repair, it was actually a piece of wood that was knocked into the hole that had been pierced, and the 888, which had a turret that was not very flexible, continued to fight. At this time, any tank is precious. Even if it's hard to fire, it's good to be able to attract the enemy's attention.

At this time, the Germans also began to be embarrassed, after losing a Hunting Tiger, the remaining Hunting Tiger was not enough to support a battlefield alone, even with the Tiger King and the Black Panther covering. The Germans began to slowly reverse, preparing to retreat.

At the same time, more than a dozen T-54s made a detour from both wings, constantly attacking the Tiger King and the Panther, who were responsible for covering the tiger hunting, and they were much easier to deal with than the rough-skinned and thick-skinned hunting tigers. With the T-54 regressed step pressure. One after another, the Black Panther and the Tiger King began to catch fire and explode.

"That's it, yes! Fast! Faster! ”

The battalion commander on the side of the Red Army was a little excited. It seemed to him that in three or five minutes at most, the Germans would be finished. But at this moment, he suddenly heard a roar behind him, he subconsciously looked back, and then his face immediately fell. Immediately, he picked up the walkie-talkie and shouted: "Attention all car groups, please pay attention to all car groups!" The helicopters of the Army Aviation are coming, repeat, the helicopters of the Army Aviation are coming, speed up the course of the battle, don't let them succeed! ”

As the battalion commander spoke, three helicopter gunships flew over his head, and the powerful air currents blew him staggering, which made him even more angry and scolded, and now he could only hope that his young man could find this field.

On the ground, the T-54 is still detouring, and it looks like it will be able to succeed soon, but the ground always can't outrun the air, and for the Sikorsky helicopter gunship, there is no need to play any detours, the Germans' field air defense capabilities are very average, and it is difficult to threaten them operating at ultra-low altitudes.

"Rocket ready! Put! ”

With this sound, the rocket nests under the short wings of the three gunships erupted in flames, and the sharp hiss shook the cochlea of the armored soldiers on the ground. In the blink of an eye, the Tiger Hunter was overwhelmed by the rain of bullets......

"Damn, it's just a little bit!" Old Hemsstra is on fire, if it weren't for the difficulty in the turret turning, he would have already solved this Tiger Hunter, just a little bit, you say this is not annoying!

When the explosion and smoke gradually dissipated, the Tiger Hunter, which had been showing off its might, had been pierced by a dozen rockets, and more than a dozen rockets had nailed it to the ground like arrows, the top of the turret was full of smoking craters, and the super awesome 128mm cannon was also hanging down weakly, completely languishing. Only about a minute and a half later, this languishing appearance was gone, and as the ammunition in the body of the car was detonated, the Hunting Tiger exploded to pieces.

The helicopter gunship pilots whistled, which was too easy for them, and after eliminating the tiger hunters, they aimed at the tigers and leopards who were turning around and fleeing for their lives, and as the rockets flew across the battlefield, the German tanks turned into torches.

"This group of bastards is here to steal the credit again!" Old Hemstella scolded hatefully. In his opinion, Lu Hang is really a nasty combat unit, and he has to fight with them and these armored soldiers, and what is even more terrifying is that those guys are more efficient, and they can't do anything about it every time they let their tankmen stare at them.

"The battalion commander shouldn't have called for backup!" Old Hemstra grumbled depressedly.

But he can only complain, because the pilots of the gunships don't care what they feel, and the focus is to sweep the enemy on the battlefield.

No matter how powerful a tank is, no matter how thick its frontal armor is, one thing is certain, its Celestial Spiritual Cap will definitely not be thick. Generally, it is only twenty or thirty millimeters of homogeneous armor. And this is really nothing for fighters in the air, as soon as a rocket is smashed, it will become scum in minutes.

To tell the truth, by 1944, the Red Army was no longer the Red Army of 1941, and it may no longer have absolute superiority in individual weapons, but systematic combat effectiveness was initially possessed. Like this battle. Even without the T-54. Only the T-34 or T-35 went into battle. It was completely beaten on the ground, but each mechanized corps was equipped with a direct army aviation regiment, and as long as the weather permitted, the helicopter gunships were on call, and they could also bloodied the heavy beasts of the German army.

Even if you don't have a helicopter, you can call the Il-2 or Su-2 of the Air Force, anyway, you don't have to be like the Germans at all, once the armored forces are frustrated, you can't do anything.

Of course, this is not to say that the Red Army did not pay attention to the development of armored forces. Several major design bureaus are gearing up to squeeze every drop of potential out of the T-54. Kartsev of the Nizhny Tagil Design Bureau acted first, determined to turn the T-54 into a real heavy tank, and his idea was simple: to retain the original firepower and fire control of the T-54A series, to adopt the more powerful B-55 engine (580 hp), to weaken the armor of the rear hemisphere of the T-54A turret and to strengthen its frontal armor instead.

After these additions and subtractions, and the adjustment of the chassis, the heavy tank that Kartsev called the T-54M was born, and the overall layout of the tank was still much the same as that of the T-54. Only the frontal armor has been greatly enhanced. The frontal turret was strengthened to the level of 200 mm to 230 mm (different in arcs). As for its head, it remains at a level of 120 mm at 60 degrees (equivalent to 240 mm of vertical armor).

In Kartsev's opinion, such a T-54 can be considered impregnable. However, the plan he first put forward was not affirmed by the Central Military Commission. The reason for this is that in real vehicle tests, the first and second pairs of torsion bars of this T-54M type, which is greatly strengthened by frontal armor, have too much suspension pressure and are prone to breaking.

So this plan was put on hold for the time being, and the second one to attack the T-54 was Kotin. This nepotistic household, who has been playing heavy tanks, has mixed quite unsatisfactorily after the fall of his father-in-law. Especially with the discontinuation of the ВИ-2 heavy tank, he also had to find a way to live for his design bureau.

Kotin's idea was similar to Kartsev's, and he also started by strengthening the defense of the T-54, but he was a little more aggressive, he directly changed the T-54 to a larger turret, and the defense of the frontal hemisphere reached the level of 190 mm to 250 mm, and the upper armor of the head was also strengthened to the level of 120 mm and 60 degrees. In order to avoid the kind of tragedy that Kartsev did, he also made special efforts to strengthen the suspension of the first two pairs of torsion bars. This version of Kotin called itself the T-54K, that is, his improved T-54.

There is no big problem with this version, and its armor defense is indeed quite strong, but its mobility has deteriorated, after increasing the weight of nearly six tons, the total weight of the T-54K has reached nearly 43 tons, and the engine is still B-54 (520 horsepower), and the unit power is only 12.09 horsepower / ton, although it is still passable, but it is undoubtedly still much worse than the original T-54.

In order to highlight that this is a heavy tank, Kotin installed the 122-mm D-25T of the ВИ-2 on the T-54K, the original intention of which was nothing more than to strengthen its ability to attack fortifications, because it is more powerful to bombard fortifications with large-caliber grenades. However, the D-25T is problematic, and it is good to support infantry combat, but the anti-armor capabilities are much weaker than the 100 mm D-10T.

According to Kotin's thinking, the T-54K can be regarded as a modified version of the ВИ-2 heavy tank. But in 1944, especially after the appearance of the jackals, tigers and leopards, the military commissar changed the planning of the future armored forces, in the future the T-34 and T-35 series will not continue to be mass-produced, will gradually retreat from the position of the backbone of the armored forces, and it is the T-54 series used to replace them.

The T-54 will not be a heavy tank, but a medium tank. This also determined that the most important task of the T-54 was to attack and destroy the enemy's medium tanks, and the anti-armor capability was higher than the ability to support the infantry. So how is the D-25T this gun unqualified.

It stands to reason that Cotin complied with the request to replace the main gun with the D-10T, but this one has gone crazy, and he chose the S-70 cannon (130 mm caliber, that is, the giant cannon equipped with the IS-7 in history), he thinks that there is nothing to say about the anti-armor work, right? However, it was not that simple, the S-70 was indeed powerful, but it was still very difficult to install the T-54, and Kotin had to expand the turret and seat again, which meant that the design was almost overturned. Outcome. When Kotin came up with a heavy tank-like T-54. Better improvements have won.

This better improvement plan does not refer to NORINCO's program. Rather, it is an improved version of Morozov on the basis of the North Industries T-55, which is called the T-55B. This T-55B did not change much in terms of defense, and Morozov slightly thickened the turret armor, increasing it from the level of almost two hundred millimeters to the level of almost 220 millimeters. Naturally, this increase is not too large, at least for the German KWK44 (PAK44) series of 128mm cannons, it is not enough, and it is not so reliable in the face of the bombardment of KWK43 (PAK43) at close range.

So how did Morozov's plan win? Here's why. He changed the composition of the T-55's armor steel, replacing the armor steel on the original T-34, T-35 and T-54 with a new generation of 8S series armor steel. The comprehensive performance of the new armor steel is better, with higher hardness and better toughness than the original armor steel, which improves the defense of Soviet tanks in terms of connotation.

Yes, many comrades evaluate the defense of tanks only by the thickness of the armor and not by the composition of the armor, and steel and steel are not the same. It's the same 100mm thickness, is it the same thing when you use nichrome steel and carbon steel from the bad street?

Let's put it this way, by switching to the 8S series armor steel, the T-55B is about 7% higher than the T-55 even without thickening the armor, which means that in fact, the equivalent thickness of the T-55B turret in the Morozov version is equivalent to 250 mm (at its thickest). And this level is basically able to ensure its viability.

While strengthening the defenses. Morozov also switched to the more powerful B55-5 engine (580 hp), which allowed the T-55 to continue to maintain a high level of maneuverability. This made the armored corps quite satisfied.

Of course. There was also something that dissatisfied the armored troops, that is, the D-55T rifled gun used in the T-10, which was already insufficient after the war. Even the continuous development of new ammunition did not completely satisfy the armored forces, because Britain and the United States, stimulated by the Soviet Union, were desperately developing heavy tanks and enhancing the armor of medium tanks, which put a lot of pressure on the D-10T.

But it doesn't matter, because after the T-55B was finalized, the armored corps specially purchased the 1A20 smoothbore gun from NORINCO and developed the T-55B1 type. After entering the fifties, the Soviet Red Army simply eliminated the T-10B with the D-55T installed, and the T-55B of the later production all used 1A20 smoothbore guns. And the T-10B, which was originally equipped with the D-55T, was all used for export, which was later called the monkey version of the T-55.

However, the topic of the T-55 is not over yet, after all, the copyright of the T-55 in this time and space belongs to NORINCO, and it is impossible for NORINCO not to dig deep into the potential of this model. Just as Morozov was developing the T-55B, NORINCO's T-55A also stepped off the drawing board, and this T-55A was almost completely indistinguishable from the T-55 in terms of structure, except that the turret was slightly thickened (210 mm at its thickest point).

It seems that this T-55A has nothing to show for it? If you really want to think so, you would be wrong, because the connotation of the T-55A has also completely changed. After more than ten years of development, the metallurgical department of NORINCO has become quite strong, and in the second half of 1944, they successfully developed two quite successful armor steels - 52S rolled armor plate and 66L armor steel.

This 52S rolled armor plate has quite good performance, nickel-cadmium-molybdenum alloy steel, hardness up to HB285-341, hardenability (this performance is key) is also up to 120 mm, mainly used as tank hull armor.

As for 66L, this is even better, because later on the basis of 66L, NORINCO developed the famous 75L armor steel, which is also nickel-cadmium-molybdenum armor steel, which is hardness at the level of HB262-311, but has a hardenability of up to 350 mm, and is mainly used as a casting steel for tank turrets. Let's put it this way, this 75L armor steel far surpassed the armor steel of NATO during the Cold War.

However, everyone also knows that good things are not cheap, whether it is 66L or 52S is very expensive, and the production capacity of this new type of armored steel is still limited, and it cannot meet the needs of the Red Army armored troops in terms of quantity for the time being, so the T-55A of NORINCO was abandoned.

Of course, this does not matter, because soon NORINCO abandoned minor repairs to the T-55 in favor of large-scale improvements to the T-55. And this is what became the T-62 later. The basic layout of this T-62 is similar to the historical original, but it differs in several ways, first of all, it still uses the 1A20 series smoothbore gun, but it is installed with an improved version of the 1A20M3. The chamber pressure is greater, and the chamber has been expanded, which can give full play to the power of the tail stabilized deshelling armor-piercing projectile. Other major improvements were the increased armor, such as the 230 mm thickness of the turret and the replacement of the two more advanced armor steels mentioned above. In order to compensate for the pressure caused by weight gain, the T-62 was also replaced with a turbocharged NORINCO 12V150 engine (750 horsepower).

After this series of improvements, the T-62 became the main armor pillar of the Soviet Guards from the end of the forties...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to Yue Cheng Ling, Zhu Chi 2, Admiral Hood, tianwen2018, Cavalry King, 1st Guards Tank Brigade and Comrade Juventus!