The most powerful tank of World War II - Alexei S. Zheleznov

Constant attempts to bury the idea of a tank do not find their implementation. Despite the rapid evolution of anti-tank, there is still no more reliable means of covering soldiers than heavy armored vehicles.

I bring to your attention an overview of the outstanding tanks of the Second World War, created on the basis of the Discovery programs - “Killer Tanks: Steel Fist” and the Military Channel - “Ten Best Tanks of the 20th Century”. Undoubtedly, all the cars from the review are worthy of attention. But I noticed that when describing tanks, experts do not consider its combat as a whole, but only talk about those episodes of World War II when this vehicle was able to prove itself the best way. It is logical to immediately break the war into periods and consider which tank was the best and when. I draw your attention to two important points:

First, one should not confuse the strategy and technical characteristics of the machines. The red flag over Berlin does not mean that the Germans were weak and did not have good equipment. It also follows from this that the possession of the best tanks in the world does not mean that your army will advance victoriously. You can be simply crushed by quantity. Do not forget that the army is a system, the competent use of its heterogeneous forces by the enemy can put you in a difficult position.

Secondly, all disputes, “who is stronger than the IS-2 or the Tiger”, do not make much sense. Tanks rarely fight tanks. Much more often their opponents are enemy defensive lines, fortifications, artillery batteries, infantry and vehicles. In World War II, half of all tank losses were due to actions anti-tank artillery(which is logical - when the number of tanks went to tens of thousands, the number of guns amounted to hundreds of thousands - an order of magnitude more!). Another fierce enemy of tanks is mines. About 25% of military vehicles were blown up on them. A few percent were chalked up by aviation. How much was left for tank battles then ?!

From this follows the conclusion that tank battle near Prokhorovka - a rare exotic. At present, this trend continues - instead of the anti-tank "forty-five" are RPGs.
Well, now let's move on to our favorite cars.

Period 1939-1940. Blitzkrieg

... Predawn haze, fog, shooting and the roar of engines. On the morning of May 10, 1940, the Wehrmacht breaks into Holland. After 17 days, Belgium fell, the remnants of the English Expeditionary Force were evacuated across the English Channel. On June 14, German tanks appeared on the streets of Paris ...

One of the conditions of the "blitzkrieg" is a special tactic of using tanks: an unprecedented concentration of armored vehicles in the direction of the main attacks and well-coordinated actions of the Germans allowed the "steel claws" of Goth and Guderian to crash into the defense for hundreds of kilometers, and, without slowing down, move deep into the enemy's territory . A unique tactical technique required special technical solutions. German armored vehicles it was mandatory to be equipped with radio stations, with tank battalions there were air traffic controllers for emergency communication with the Luftwaffe.

It was at this time that the finest hour» Panzerkampfwagen III and Panzerkampfwagen IV. Behind such clumsy names hide formidable combat vehicles that have wound the asphalt of European roads, the icy expanses of Russia and the sands of the Sahara on their tracks.

The PzKpfw III, better known as the T-III, is a light tank with a 37 mm gun. Booking from all angles - 30 mm. The main quality is Speed (40 km / h on the highway). Thanks to the perfect Carl Zeiss optics, ergonomic crew jobs and the presence of a radio station, the “troikas” could successfully fight with much heavier vehicles. But with the advent of new opponents, the shortcomings of the T-III manifested themselves more clearly. The Germans replaced the 37 mm guns with 50 mm guns and covered the tank with hinged screens - temporary measures gave their results, the T-III fought for several more years. By 1943, the release of the T-III was discontinued due to the complete exhaustion of its resource for modernization. In total, German industry produced 5,000 triples.

The PzKpfw IV, which became the most massive Panzerwaffe tank, looked much more serious - the Germans managed to build 8700 vehicles. Combining all the advantages of the lighter T-III, the "four" had high firepower and security - the thickness of the frontal plate was gradually increased to 80 mm, and the shells of its 75 mm long-barreled gun pierced the armor enemy tanks, like foil (by the way, 1133 early modifications with a short-barreled gun were produced).

The weak points of the machine are too thin sides and feed (only 30 mm on the first modifications), the designers neglected the slope of the armor plates for the sake of manufacturability and the convenience of the crew.

Seven thousand tanks of this type remained on the battlefields of World War II, but the history of the T-IV did not end there - the “fours” were operated in the armies of France and Czechoslovakia until the early 1950s and even took part in the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War of 1967 of the year.

Period 1941-1942. Red Dawn

“... from three sides we fired at the iron monsters of the Russians, but everything was in vain. Russian giants came closer and closer. One of them approached our tank, hopelessly bogged down in a swampy pond, and without any hesitation drove over it, pressing its tracks into the mud ... "
- General Reinhard, commander of the 41st tank corps of the Wehrmacht

... On August 20, 1941, the KV tank under the command of senior lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov blocked the road to Gatchina for a column of 40 German tanks. When this unprecedented battle ended, 22 tanks were burning on the sidelines, and our KV, having received 156 direct hits from enemy shells, returned to the disposal of its division ...

In the summer of 1941, the KV tank smashed the elite units of the Wehrmacht with impunity as if it had rolled out onto the Borodino field in 1812. Invincible, invincible and extremely powerful. Until the end of 1941, in all the armies of the world there was no weapon at all capable of stopping the Russian 45-ton monster. The KV was twice as heavy as the largest Wehrmacht tank.

Bronya KV is a wonderful song of steel and technology. 75 millimeters of steel firmament from all angles! The frontal armor plates had an optimal angle of inclination, which further increased the projectile resistance of the KV armor - German 37 mm anti-tank guns did not take it even at close range, and 50 mm guns - no further than 500 meters. At the same time, the long-barreled 76 mm F-34 (ZIS-5) gun made it possible to hit any German tank of that period from a distance of 1.5 kilometers from any direction.

If battles like the legendary battle of Zinovy Kolobanov took place regularly, then 235 KV tanks of the Southern Military District could completely destroy the Panzerwaffe in the summer of 1941. The technical capabilities of the KV tanks, in theory, made it possible to do this. Alas, not everything is so clear. Remember - we said that tanks rarely fight tanks ...

In addition to the invulnerable KV, the Red Army had an even more terrible tank - the great warrior T-34.
"... There is nothing worse than a tank battle against superior enemy forces. Not in terms of numbers - it was not important for us, we were used to it. But against better vehicles - it's terrible ... Russian tanks are so agile, at close distances they will climb down a slope or through a swamp faster than you can turn a turret. And through the noise and roar you can hear the clang of shells on the armor all the time. When they hit our tank, you often hear a deafening explosion and the roar of burning fuel, too loud to hear dying Crew screams...
- the opinion of a German tanker from the 4th Panzer Division, destroyed by T-34 tanks in the battle near Mtsensk on October 11, 1941.

Neither the volume nor the objectives of this article allow us to fully cover the history of the T-34 tank. Obviously, the Russian monster had no analogues in 1941: a 500-horsepower diesel engine, unique armor, a 76 mm F-34 gun (generally similar to the KV tank) and wide tracks - all these technical solutions provided the T-34 with an optimal ratio of mobility, fire power and protection. Even individually, these parameters for the T-34 were higher than for any Panzerwaffe tank.

The main thing - Soviet designers managed to create a tank exactly the way the Red Army needed it. The T-34 was ideally suited to the conditions of the Eastern Front. The extreme simplicity and manufacturability of the design made it possible to establish mass production of these combat vehicles as soon as possible, as a result, the T-34s were easy to operate, numerous and ubiquitous.

Only in the first year of the war, by the summer of 1942, the Red Army received about 15,000 T-34s, and in total more than 84,000 T-34s of all modifications were produced.

The journalists of the Discovery program were jealous of the success Soviet tank building, constantly hinting that the basis of a successful tank is the American Christie design. In a joking manner, the Russian “rudeness” and “uncouthness” got it - “Well! I didn’t have time to climb into the hatch - I was all scratched up! Americans forget that convenience was not a priority property of armored vehicles on Eastern Front; the fierce nature of the fighting did not allow tankers to think about such trifles. The main thing is not to burn out in the tank.

The "thirty-four" had much more serious shortcomings. Transmission is the weak link of the T-34. The German design school preferred front location gearboxes, closer to the driver. Soviet engineers took a more efficient path - the transmission and engine were compactly located in an isolated compartment in the stern of the T-34. There was no need for a long cardan shaft through the entire body of the tank; the design was simplified, the height of the machine was reduced. Isn't it an excellent technical solution?

Cardan was not needed. But control rods were needed. At the T-34, they reached a length of 5 meters! Can you imagine what effort the driver had to make? But that didn't pose much of a problem either. extreme situation a person is able to run on his hands and row with his ears. But what could endure Soviet tankers- could not withstand the metal. Under the influence of monstrous loads, the thrusts were torn. As a result, many T-34s went into battle in one pre-selected gear. During the battle, they preferred not to touch the gearbox at all - according to veteran tankers, it was better to sacrifice mobility than suddenly turn into a standing target.

The T-34 is a completely ruthless tank, both in relation to the enemy and in relation to its own crew. It remains only to admire the courage of the tankers.

Year 1943. Menagerie.

“... we went around through the beam and ran into the Tiger. Having lost several T-34s, our battalion returned back ... "
- frequent description of encounters with PzKPfw VI from the memoirs of tankmen

1943, the time of the great tank battles. In an effort to regain the lost technical superiority, Germany is creating by this time two new models of "superweapons" - heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther".

Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger" Ausf. The H1 was designed as a heavy breakthrough tank capable of destroying any enemy and putting the Red Army to flight. By personal order of Hitler, the thickness of the frontal armor plate was to be at least 100 mm, the sides and stern of the tank were protected by eight centimeters of metal. The main weapon is the 88 mm KwK 36 cannon, based on a powerful anti-aircraft gun. Its capabilities are evidenced by the fact that when firing from the cannon of the captured Tiger, it was possible to achieve five successive hits on a target measuring 40 × 50 cm from a distance of 1100 m. In addition to high flatness, the KwK 36 inherited a high rate of fire anti-aircraft guns. Under combat conditions, the Tiger fired eight rounds per minute, which was a record for such large tank guns. Six crew members were comfortably located in an invulnerable steel box, weighing 57 tons, looking at the wide Russian expanses through high-quality Carl Zeiss optics.

The bulky German monster is often described as a slow and clumsy tank. In reality, the Tiger was one of the fastest combat vehicles of World War II. The 700-horsepower Maybach engine accelerated the Tiger to 45 km / h on the highway. No less fast and maneuverable this thick-skinned tank was on rough terrain, thanks to an eight-speed hydromechanical gearbox (almost automatic, like on a Mercedes!) And complex side clutches with dual power supply.

At first glance, the design of the suspension and caterpillar propulsion was a parody of itself - tracks 0.7 meters wide required the installation of a second row of rollers on each side. In this form, the "Tiger" did not fit on the railway platform, each time it was necessary to remove the "ordinary" caterpillar tracks and the outer row of rollers, instead installing thin "transport" tracks. It remains to be surprised at the strength of those guys who "undressed" a 60-ton colossus in the field. But there were also advantages to the strange suspension of the "Tiger" - two rows of rollers provided high smoothness, our veterans witnessed cases when the "Tiger" fired on the move.

The "Tiger" had another drawback that frightened the Germans. It was an inscription in the technical memo that lay in each car: “The tank costs 800,000 Reichsmarks. Take care of him!"
According to the perverse logic of Goebbels, the tankers should have been very happy to learn that their "Tiger" costs as much as seven T-IV tanks.

Realizing that the "Tiger" is a rare and exotic weapon for professionals, German tank builders created a simpler and cheaper tank, with the intention of turning it into a mass-produced Wehrmacht medium tank.
Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther" is still the subject of heated debate. The technical capabilities of the car do not cause any complaints - with a mass of 44 tons, the Panther was superior in mobility to the T-34, developing 55-60 km / h on a good highway. The tank was armed with a 75 mm KwK 42 cannon with a barrel length of 70 calibers! An armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile fired from its infernal vent flew 1 kilometer in the first second - with such performance characteristics, the Panther's cannon could pierce any Allied tank at a distance of over 2 kilometers. Reservation "Panther" by most sources is also recognized as worthy - the thickness of the forehead varied from 60 to 80 mm, while the angles of the armor reached 55 °. The board was weaker protected - at the level of the T-34, so it was easily hit by Soviet anti-tank weapons. The lower part of the side was additionally protected by two rows of rollers on each side.

The whole question is in the very appearance of the Panther - did the Reich need such a tank? Perhaps we should have focused our efforts on modernizing and increasing the production of proven T-IVs? Or spend money on building invincible Tigers? It seems to me that the answer is simple - in 1943, nothing could save Germany from defeat.

In total, less than 6,000 Panthers were built, which was clearly not enough to saturate the Wehrmacht. The situation was aggravated by the decline in the quality of tank armor due to a lack of resources and alloying additives.
"Panther" was the quintessence of advanced ideas and new technologies. In March 1945 near Balaton at night in an attack on Soviet troops went hundreds of "Panthers", equipped with night vision devices. Even that didn't help.

Year 1944. Forward to Berlin!

The changed conditions demanded new means of warfare. By this time, the Soviet troops had already received the heavy breakthrough tank IS-2, armed with a 122 mm howitzer. If the hit of an ordinary tank shell caused local destruction of the wall, then a 122 mm howitzer shell demolished the entire house. What was required for successful assault operations.

Another formidable tank weapon - 12.7 mm DShK machine gun mounted on the tower on a pivot installation. Heavy machine gun bullets got the enemy even behind thick brickwork. The DShK increased the capabilities of the Is-2 by an order of magnitude in battles on the streets of European cities.

The armor thickness of the IS-2 reached 120 mm. One of the main achievements of Soviet engineers is the cost-effectiveness and low metal consumption of the IS-2 design. With a mass comparable to the mass of the Panther, the Soviet tank was much more seriously protected. But too tight layout required the placement of fuel tanks in the control compartment - when the armor was broken, the crew of the Is-2 had little chance of surviving. The driver, who did not have his own hatch, was especially at risk.
The IS-2 liberator tanks became the personification of the Victory and were in service with the Soviet army for almost 50 years.

The next hero, the M4 Sherman, managed to fight on the Eastern Front, the first vehicles of this type came to the USSR back in 1942 (the number of M4 tanks delivered under Lend-Lease was 3,600 tanks). But fame came to him only after mass application in the West in 1944.

Sherman is the pinnacle of rationality and pragmatism. It is all the more surprising that the United States, which had 50 tanks by the beginning of the war, managed to create such a balanced combat vehicle and rivet 49,000 Shermans of various modifications by 1945. For example, the Sherman with a gasoline engine was used in the ground forces, and the M4A2 modification equipped with a diesel engine entered the Marine Corps. American engineers rightly believed that this would greatly simplify the operation of tanks - diesel fuel could be easily found among sailors, unlike high-octane gasoline. By the way, it was this modification of the M4A2 that entered the Soviet Union.

No less famous are the special versions of the Sherman - the Firefly tank hunter, armed with a British 17-pounder gun; "Jumbo" - a heavily armored version in an assault kit and even an amphibious "Duplex Drive".
Compared to the swift forms of the T-34, the Sherman is tall and clumsy. Possessing the same armament, the American tank is significantly inferior in terms of mobility to the T-34.

Why did the Emcha (as our soldiers called the M4) so pleased the command of the Red Army that they were completely transferred elite units, for example, the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps and the 9th Guards tank corps? The answer is simple: "Sherman" had the optimal ratio of armor, firepower, mobility and ... reliability. In addition, the Sherman was the first tank with a hydraulic turret drive (this provided special aiming accuracy) and a gun stabilizer in a vertical plane - the tankers admitted that in a duel situation their shot was always the first. Other advantages of the Sherman, not usually listed in the tables, were low noise, which made it possible to use it in operations where stealth was needed.

The Middle East gave the Sherman a second life, where this tank served until the 70s of the twentieth century, taking part in more than a dozen battles. The last Shermans completed their military service in Chile at the end of the 20th century.

Year 1945. Ghosts of future wars.

Many people expected that after the monstrous loss and destruction of World War II, a long-awaited lasting peace would come. Alas, their expectations were not met. On the contrary, ideological, economic and religious contradictions became even more acute.

This was well understood by those who created new weapons systems - therefore military-industrial complex the victorious countries did not stop for a minute. Even when the Victory was already obvious, and Nazi Germany was fighting in its death throes, theoretical and experimental research continued at the factories, and new types of weapons were being developed. Particular attention was paid to the armored forces, which had proven themselves during the war. Starting with bulky and uncontrollable multi-turreted monsters and ugly tankettes, just a few years later, tank building reached a fundamentally different level. where again faced with many threats, tk. anti-tank weapons have successfully evolved. In this regard, it is curious to look at the tanks with which the Allies ended the war, what conclusions were drawn and what measures were taken.

In the USSR, in May 1945, the first batch of IS-3s was rolled out of the factory workshops of Tankograd. New tank was a further modernization of the heavy IS-2. This time, the designers went even further - the slope of the welded sheets, especially in the front of the hull, was brought to the maximum possible. Thick 110-mm plates of frontal armor were arranged in such a way that a tri-slope, cone-shaped, elongated nose was formed, which was called the "pike nose". The turret received a new flattened shape, which provided the tank with even better anti-projectile protection. The driver received his own hatch, and all viewing slots were replaced with modern periscope devices.
The IS-3 was a few days late for the end of hostilities in Europe, but the new beautiful tank took part in the Victory Parade along with the legendary T-34 and KV, still covered in soot from recent battles. A visible change of generations.

Another interesting novelty was the T-44 (in my opinion, a landmark event in Soviet tank building). Actually, it was developed back in 1944, but did not have time to take part in the war. Only in 1945 did the troops receive a sufficient number of these excellent tanks.
A major drawback of the T-34 was the turret moved forward. This increased the load on the front rollers and made it impossible to strengthen the frontal armor of the T-34 - the "thirty-four" ran until the end of the war with a 45 mm forehead. Realizing that the problem could not be solved just like that, the designers decided on a complete re-arrangement of the tank. Due to the transverse placement of the engine, the dimensions of the MTO have decreased, which made it possible to mount the tower in the center of the tank. The load on the rollers was leveled, the frontal armor plate increased to 120 mm (!), And its slope increased to 60 °. The working conditions of the crew have improved. The T-44 became the prototype of the famous T-54/55 family.

A specific situation has developed overseas. The Americans guessed that in addition to the successful Sherman, the army needed a new, heavier tank. The result was the M26 Pershing, a large medium tank (sometimes considered heavy) with heavy armor and a new 90mm gun. This time the Americans failed to create a masterpiece. Technically, the Pershing remained at the level of the Panther, while having slightly greater reliability. The tank had problems with mobility and maneuverability - the M26 was equipped with an engine from the Sherman, while having a 10-ton weight more. The limited use of Pershing on the Western Front began only in February 1945. The next time the Pershings went into battle was already in Korea.

Constant attempts to bury the idea of a tank do not find their implementation. Despite the rapid evolution anti-tank weapons, there is still no more reliable means of covering soldiers than heavy armored vehicles. I bring to your attention an overview of the outstanding tanks of the Second World War, created on the basis of the Discovery programs - “Killer Tanks: Steel Fist” and the Military Channel - “Ten Best Tanks of the 20th Century”. Undoubtedly, all the cars from the review are worthy of attention.

But I noticed that when describing tanks, experts do not consider its combat history in its entirety, but only talk about those episodes of World War II when this vehicle was able to show itself in the best possible way. It is logical to immediately break the war into periods and consider which tank was the best and when. I draw your attention to two important points.:

Firstly, do not confuse strategy and technical characteristics of machines. The red flag over Berlin does not mean that the Germans were weak and did not have good equipment. It also follows from this that the possession of the best tanks in the world does not mean that your army will advance victoriously. You can be simply crushed by quantity. Do not forget that the army is a system, the competent use of its heterogeneous forces by the enemy can put you in a difficult position.

Secondly, all disputes, “who is stronger, IS-2 or Tiger”, do not make much sense. Tanks rarely fight tanks. Much more often their opponents are enemy defensive lines, fortifications, artillery batteries, infantry and vehicles. In the Second World War, half of all tank losses were due to anti-tank artillery (which is logical - when the number of tanks went to tens of thousands, the number of guns was in the hundreds of thousands - an order of magnitude more!).

Another fierce enemy of tanks is mines. About 25% of military vehicles were blown up on them. A few percent were chalked up by aviation. How much was left for tank battles then ?!

This leads to the conclusion that the tank battle near Prokhorovka is a rare exotic. Currently, this trend continues - instead of the anti-tank "forty-five" are RPGs.

Well, now let's move on to our favorite cars.

Period 1939-1940. Blitzkrieg

One of the conditions of the “blitzkrieg” is a special tactic of using tanks: an unprecedented concentration of armored vehicles in the direction of the main attacks and well-coordinated actions of the Germans allowed the “steel claws” of Hoth and Guderian to crash into the defense for hundreds of kilometers, and, without slowing down, move deep into the enemy’s territory .

A unique tactical technique required special technical solutions. German armored vehicles were obligatorily equipped with radio stations, and air traffic controllers were stationed at the tank battalions for emergency communication with the Luftwaffe. It was at this time that the "finest hour" fell Panzerkampfwagen III and Panzerkampfwagen IV. Behind such clumsy names hide formidable combat vehicles that have wound the asphalt of European roads, the icy expanses of Russia and the sands of the Sahara on their tracks.

The PzKpfw III, better known as the T-III, is a light tank with a 37 mm gun.. Booking from all angles - 30 mm. The main quality is Speed (40 km / h on the highway). Thanks to the perfect Carl Zeiss optics, ergonomic crew jobs and the presence of a radio station, the “troikas” could successfully fight with much heavier vehicles. But with the advent of new opponents, the shortcomings of the T-III manifested themselves more clearly.

The Germans replaced the 37 mm guns with 50 mm guns and covered the tank with hinged screens - temporary measures gave their results, the T-III fought for several more years. By 1943, the release of the T-III was discontinued due to the complete exhaustion of its resource for modernization. In total, German industry produced 5,000 triples.

The PzKpfw IV, which became the most massive Panzerwaffe tank, looked much more serious - the Germans managed to build 8700 vehicles. Combining all the advantages of the lighter T-III, the "four" had high firepower and security - the thickness of the frontal plate was gradually increased to 80 mm, and the shells of its 75 mm long-barreled gun pierced the armor of enemy tanks like foil (by the way, it was fired 1133 early modifications with a short-barreled gun).

Period 1941-1942. Red Dawn

“... from three sides we fired at the iron monsters of the Russians, but everything was in vain. Russian giants came closer and closer. One of them approached our tank, which was hopelessly bogged down in a swampy pond, and without any hesitation drove through it, pressing its tracks into the mud ... ”- General Reinhard, commander of the 41st tank corps of the Wehrmacht.

... August 20, 1941 KV tank under the command of Senior Lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov blocked the road to Gatchina for a column of 40 German tanks. When this unprecedented battle ended, 22 tanks were burning on the sidelines, and our KV, having received 156 direct hits from enemy shells, returned to the disposal of its division ...

In the summer of 1941, the KV tank smashed the elite units of the Wehrmacht with impunity as if it had rolled out onto the Borodino field in 1812. Invincible, invincible and extremely powerful. Until the end of 1941, in all the armies of the world, there was generally no weapon capable of stopping the Russian 45-ton monster. The KV was twice as heavy as the largest Wehrmacht tank.

Armor KV - a beautiful song of steel and technology. 75 millimeters of steel firmament from all angles! The frontal armor plates had an optimal angle of inclination, which further increased the projectile resistance of the KV armor - German 37 mm anti-tank guns did not take it even at close range, and 50 mm guns - no further than 500 meters. At the same time, the long-barreled 76 mm F-34 (ZIS-5) gun made it possible to hit any German tank of that period from a distance of 1.5 kilometers from any direction.

In addition to the invulnerable KV, the Red Army had an even more terrible tank - the great warrior T-34.

«… There is nothing worse than a tank battle against superior enemy forces. Not in terms of numbers - it was not important for us, we were used to it. But against better vehicles, it's terrible... Russian tanks are so nimble, at close range they'll climb a slope or cross a swamp faster than you can turn a turret. And through the noise and roar, you hear the clang of shells on the armor all the time. When they hit our tank, you often hear a deafening explosion and the roar of burning fuel, too loud to hear the death cries of the crew... "- the opinion of a German tanker from the 4th Panzer Division, destroyed by T-34 tanks in the battle near Mtsensk on October 11, 1941.

The main thing is that the Soviet designers managed to create the tank exactly the way the Red Army needed it. The T-34 was ideally suited to the conditions of the Eastern Front. The extreme simplicity and manufacturability of the design made it possible to establish mass production of these combat vehicles as soon as possible, as a result, the T-34s were easy to operate, numerous and ubiquitous.

Only in the first year of the war, by the summer of 1942, the Red Army received about 15,000 T-34s, and in total more than 84,000 T-34s of all modifications were produced.

The journalists of the Discovery program were jealous of the successes of Soviet tank building, constantly hinting that the successful tank was based on the American Christie design. In a playful way, the Russian “rudeness” and “uncouthness” got it - “Well! I didn’t have time to climb into the hatch - I was all scratched up!

The Americans forget that convenience was not a priority property of armored vehicles on the Eastern Front: the fierce nature of the fighting did not allow tankers to think about such trifles. The main thing is not to burn out in the tank.

The "thirty-four" had much more serious shortcomings. Transmission - the weak link of the T-34. The German design school preferred a front-mounted gearbox, closer to the driver. Soviet engineers took a more efficient path - the transmission and engine were compactly located in an isolated compartment in the stern of the T-34. There was no need for a long cardan shaft through the entire body of the tank; the design was simplified, the height of the machine was reduced. Isn't it an excellent technical solution?

Cardan was not needed. But control rods were needed. At the T-34, they reached a length of 5 meters! Can you imagine what efforts the driver had to make? But even this did not create any special problems - in an extreme situation, a person is able to run on his hands and row with his ears. But what the Soviet tankers could withstand, metal could not withstand.

Under the influence of monstrous loads, the thrusts were torn. As a result, many T-34s went into battle in one pre-selected gear. During the battle, they preferred not to touch the gearbox at all - according to veteran tankers, it was better to sacrifice mobility than suddenly turn into a standing target.

The T-34 is a completely ruthless tank, both in relation to the enemy and in relation to its own crew. It remains only to admire the courage of the tankers.

Year 1943. Menagerie.

“... we went around through the beam and ran into the Tiger. Having lost several T-34s, our battalion returned back ... ”- a frequent description of meetings with PzKPfw VI from the memoirs of tankers.

1943, the time of the great tank battles. In an effort to regain the lost technical superiority, Germany is creating by this time two new types of "superweapons" - heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther".

Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger" Ausf. It was created as a heavy breakthrough tank capable of destroying any enemy and putting the Red Army to flight. By personal order of Hitler, the thickness of the frontal armor plate was to be at least 100 mm, the sides and stern of the tank were protected by eight centimeters of metal. The main weapon is the 88 mm KwK 36 cannon, based on a powerful anti-aircraft gun. Its capabilities are evidenced by the fact that when firing from the cannon of the captured "Tiger", it was possible to achieve five consecutive hits on a target measuring 40 × 50 cm from a distance of 1100 m.

In addition to high flatness, the KwK 36 inherited a high rate of fire for an anti-aircraft gun. Under combat conditions, the Tiger fired eight rounds per minute, which was a record for such large tank guns. Six crew members were comfortably located in an invulnerable steel box weighing 57 tons, looking at the wide Russian expanses through high-quality Carl Zeiss optics.

The bulky German monster is often described as a slow and clumsy tank. In reality, the Tiger was one of the fastest combat vehicles of World War II.. The 700-horsepower Maybach engine accelerated the Tiger to 45 km / h on the highway. No less fast and maneuverable this thick-skinned tank was on rough terrain, thanks to an eight-speed hydromechanical gearbox (almost automatic, like on a Mercedes!) And complex side clutches with dual power supply.

It remains to be surprised at the strength of those guys who "undressed" a 60-ton colossus in the field. But there were also advantages to the strange suspension of the "Tiger" - two rows of rollers provided high smoothness, our veterans witnessed cases when the "Tiger" fired on the move.

The "Tiger" had another drawback that frightened the Germans. It was an inscription in the technical memo that lay in each car: “The tank costs 800,000 Reichsmarks. Take care of him!". According to the perverse logic of Goebbels, the tankers should have been very happy to learn that their "Tiger" costs as much as seven T-IV tanks.

Realizing that the Tiger is a rare and exotic weapon for professionals, German tank builders created a simpler and cheaper tank, with the intention of turning it into a mass-produced Wehrmacht medium tank.

Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther" is still the subject of heated debate. The technical capabilities of the car do not cause any complaints - with a mass of 44 tons, the Panther was superior in mobility to the T-34, developing 55-60 km / h on a good highway. The tank was armed with a 75 mm KwK 42 cannon with a barrel length of 70 calibers!

An armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile fired from its infernal vent flew 1 kilometer in the first second - with such performance characteristics, the Panther's cannon could pierce any Allied tank at a distance of over 2 kilometers. Reservation "Panther" by most sources is also recognized as worthy - the thickness of the forehead varied from 60 to 80 mm, while the angles of the armor reached 55 °. The board was weaker protected - at the level of the T-34, so it was easily hit by Soviet anti-tank weapons. The lower part of the side was additionally protected by two rows of rollers on each side.

In total, less than 6000 Panthers were built, which was clearly not enough to saturate the Wehrmacht. The situation was aggravated by the decline in the quality of tank armor due to a lack of resources and alloying additives. "Panther" was the quintessence of advanced ideas and new technologies. In March 1945, hundreds of Panthers equipped with night vision devices attacked Soviet troops near Balaton at night. Even that didn't help.

Year 1944. Forward, to Berlin!

The changed conditions demanded new means of warfare. By this time, the Soviet troops had already received heavy breakthrough tank IS-2, armed with a 122 mm howitzer. If the hit of an ordinary tank shell caused local destruction of the wall, then a 122 mm howitzer shell demolished the entire house. What was required for successful assault operations.

Another formidable tank weapon is a 12.7 mm DShK machine gun mounted on a turret on a pivot mount. Heavy machine gun bullets got the enemy even behind thick brickwork. The DShK increased the capabilities of the Is-2 by an order of magnitude in battles on the streets of European cities.

The thickness of the reservation IS-2 reached 120 mm. One of the main achievements of Soviet engineers is the cost-effectiveness and low metal consumption of the IS-2 design. With a mass comparable to the mass of the Panther, the Soviet tank was much more seriously protected. But too tight layout required the placement of fuel tanks in the control compartment - when the armor was broken, the crew of the Is-2 had little chance of surviving. The driver, who did not have his own hatch, was especially at risk.

The IS-2 liberator tanks became the personification of the Victory and were in service with the Soviet army for almost 50 years.

next hero, M4 "Sherman", managed to fight on the Eastern Front, the first vehicles of this type came to the USSR back in 1942 (the number of M4 tanks delivered under Lend-Lease was 3600 tanks). But fame came to him only after mass use in the West in 1944.

Tank "Sherman" - the pinnacle of rationality and pragmatism. It is all the more surprising that the United States, which had 50 tanks by the beginning of the war, managed to create such a balanced combat vehicle and rivet 49,000 Shermans of various modifications by 1945. For example, the Sherman with a gasoline engine was used in the ground forces, and the M4A2 modification equipped with a diesel engine entered the Marine Corps.

American engineers rightly believed that this would greatly simplify the operation of tanks - diesel fuel could be easily found among sailors, unlike high-octane gasoline. By the way, it was this modification of the M4A2 that entered the Soviet Union.

No less famous are special versions of the Sherman - the Firefly tank hunter, armed with a British 17-pounder gun; "Jumbo" - a heavily armored version in an assault kit and even an amphibious "Duplex Drive". Compared to the swift forms of the T-34, the Sherman is tall and clumsy. Possessing the same armament, the American tank is significantly inferior in terms of mobility to the T-34.

Why did the Emcha (as our soldiers called the M4) so pleased the command of the Red Army that they were completely transferred to elite units, for example, the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps and the 9th Guards Tank Corps? The answer is simple: "Sherman" had the optimal ratio of armor, firepower, mobility and ... reliability.

In addition, the Sherman was the first tank with a hydraulic turret drive (this provided special aiming accuracy) and a gun stabilizer in a vertical plane - tankers admitted that in a duel situation their shot was always the first. Other advantages of the Sherman, not usually listed in the tables, were low noise, which made it possible to use it in operations where stealth was needed.

Year 1945. Ghosts of future wars.

This was well understood by those who created new weapons systems - therefore, the military-industrial complex of the victorious countries did not stop for a minute. Even when the Victory was already obvious, and Nazi Germany was fighting in its death throes, theoretical and experimental research continued at the factories, and new types of weapons were being developed.

Particular attention was paid to the armored forces, which had proven themselves during the war. Starting with bulky and uncontrollable multi-turreted monsters and ugly tankettes, just a few years later, tank building reached a fundamentally different level. where again faced with many threats, tk. anti-tank weapons have successfully evolved. In this regard, it is curious to look at the tanks with which the Allies ended the war, what conclusions were drawn and what measures were taken.

In the USSR in May 1945, the first batch of tank IS-3. The new tank was a further upgrade of the heavy IS-2. This time, the designers went even further - the slope of the welded sheets, especially in the front of the hull, was brought to the maximum possible. Thick 110-mm plates of frontal armor were arranged in such a way that a tri-slope, cone-shaped, elongated nose was formed, which was called the "pike nose".

The turret received a new flattened shape, which provided the tank with even better anti-projectile protection. The driver received his own hatch, and all viewing slots were replaced with modern periscope devices. The IS-3 was a few days late for the end of hostilities in Europe, but the new beautiful tank took part in the Victory Parade along with the legendary T-34 and KV, still covered in soot from recent battles. A visible change of generations.

Another interesting innovation is tank T-44(in my opinion - a landmark event in Soviet tank building). Actually, it was developed back in 1944, but did not have time to take part in the war. Only in 1945 did the troops receive a sufficient number of these excellent tanks.

A major drawback of the T-34 was the turret moved forward. This increased the load on the front rollers and made it impossible to strengthen the frontal armor of the T-34 - the "thirty-four" ran until the end of the war with a 45 mm forehead. Realizing that the problem could not be solved just like that, the designers decided on a complete re-arrangement of the tank. Due to the transverse placement of the engine, the dimensions of the MTO have decreased, which made it possible to mount the tower in the center of the tank.

The load on the rollers was leveled, the frontal armor plate increased to 120 mm (!), And its slope increased to 60 °. The working conditions of the crew have improved. T-44 became the prototype of the famous T-54/55 family.

This time the Americans failed to create a masterpiece. Technically, the Pershing remained at the level of the Panther, while having slightly greater reliability. The tank had problems with mobility and maneuverability - the M26 was equipped with an engine from the Sherman, while having a 10-ton weight more. The limited use of Pershing on the Western Front began only in February 1945. The next time the Pershings went into battle was already in Korea.

Although the First World War was marked by the appearance of tanks, the Second World War showed the real rampage of these mechanical monsters. During the hostilities, they played an important role, both among the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and among the powers of the "axis". Both opposing sides created a significant number of tanks. Listed below are ten outstanding tanks of the Second World War - the most powerful vehicles of this period ever built.
10. M4 Sherman (USA)

The second largest tank of the Second World War. Released in the USA and some others Western countries the anti-Hitler coalition, mainly due to the American Lend-Lease program, which provided military support to foreign allied powers. The Sherman medium tank had a standard 75 mm gun with 90 rounds of ammunition and was equipped with relatively thin frontal (51 mm) armor compared to other vehicles of that period.

Designed in 1941, the tank was named after the famous American Civil War general, William T. Sherman. The machine participated in numerous battles and campaigns from 1942 to 1945. The relative lack of firepower was compensated by their huge numbers: about 50,000 Shermans were produced during the Second World War.

9. Sherman Firefly (UK)

The Sherman Firefly was a British variant of the M4 Sherman tank, which was equipped with a devastating 17-pounder anti-tank gun, more powerful than the original 75 mm Sherman gun. The 17-pounder was destructive enough to damage any known tank of the time. The Sherman Firefly was one of those tanks that terrified the Axis and was characterized as one of the deadliest fighting vehicles of the Second World War. In total, more than 2,000 units were produced.

The PzKpfw V "Panther" is a German medium tank that appeared on the battlefield in 1943 and remained until the end of the war. A total of 6,334 units were created. The tank reached speeds of up to 55 km/h, had strong 80 mm armor and was armed with a 75 mm gun with an ammunition capacity of 79 to 82 high-explosive fragmentation and armor-piercing shells. The T-V was powerful enough to damage any enemy vehicle at the time. It was technically superior to the tanks of the Tiger and T-IV types.

And although later, the T-V "Panther" was surpassed by numerous Soviet T-34s, she remained her serious opponent until the end of the war.

5. "Comet" IA 34 (UK)

One of the most powerful combat vehicles in Great Britain and probably the best that was used by this country in the Second World War. The tank was armed with a powerful 77 mm cannon, which was a shortened version of the 17-pounder. Thick armor reached 101 millimeters. However, the Comet did not have a significant impact on the course of the War due to its late introduction to the battlefields - around 1944, when the Germans were retreating.

But be that as it may, during his short term operation, this military machine has shown its effectiveness and reliability.

4. "Tiger I" (Germany)

The Tiger I is a German heavy tank developed in 1942. It had a powerful 88 mm gun with 92-120 rounds of ammunition. It was successfully used against both air and ground targets. The full German name of this beast sounds like Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.E, while the Allies simply called this car "Tiger".

It accelerated to 38 km / h and had armor without a slope with a thickness of 25 to 125 mm. When it was created in 1942, it suffered from some technical problems, but was soon freed from them, turning into a ruthless mechanical hunter by 1943.

The Tiger was a formidable vehicle, which forced the Allies to develop better tanks. It symbolized the strength and power of the Nazi war machine, and until the middle of the war, not a single Allied tank had sufficient strength and power to withstand the Tiger in a direct collision. However, during the final stages of World War II, the Tiger's dominance was often challenged by the better-armed Sherman Fireflies and Soviet tanks IS-2.

3. IS-2 "Joseph Stalin" (Soviet Union)

The IS-2 tank belonged to a whole family of heavy tanks of the Joseph Stalin type. It had characteristic sloped armor 120 mm thick and a large 122 mm gun. The frontal armor was impenetrable to German 88 mm anti-tank guns at a distance of more than 1 kilometer. Its production began in 1944, a total of 2,252 tanks of the IS family were built, of which about half were modifications of the IS-2.

During the Battle of Berlin, IS-2 tanks destroyed entire German buildings using high-explosive fragmentation shells. It was a real ram of the Red Army when moving towards the heart of Berlin.

2. M26 "Pershing" (USA)

The United States created a heavy tank, which belatedly took part in World War II. It was developed in 1944, the total number of produced tanks was 2,212 units. The Pershing was more complex than the Sherman, with a lower profile and larger tracks, which gave the car better stability.
The main gun had a caliber of 90 millimeters (70 shells were attached to it), powerful enough to penetrate the armor of the Tiger. "Pershing" had the strength and power for a frontal attack of those machines that could be used by the Germans or the Japanese. But only 20 tanks took part in the fighting in Europe and very few were sent to Okinawa. After the end of World War II, the Pershings took part in the Korean War and continued to be used by the American troops. The M26 Pershing could have been a game changer had it been thrown onto the battlefield earlier.

1. "Jagdpanther" (Germany)

The Jagdpanther is one of the most powerful tank destroyers in World War II. It was based on the Panther chassis, entered service in 1943, and served until 1945. It was armed with an 88 mm cannon with 57 rounds and had 100 mm frontal armor. The gun retained accuracy at a distance of up to three kilometers and had a muzzle velocity of over 1000 m/s.

Only 415 tanks were built during the war. The Jagdpanthers went through their baptism of fire on July 30, 1944 near Saint Martin Des Bois, France, where they destroyed eleven Churchill tanks in two minutes. Technical superiority and advanced firepower did not render special influence on the course of the war due to the late introduction of these monsters.

Since then, we have lived with this clear understanding that we made the best tank in the world. In general, as winners, we did our best. The best weapons, the best American lend-lease, the best American planes and so on, and of course the tank.

But today, with my guests, we will once again raise this very dangerous and controversial topic, with the same question: so, after all, which tank is the best, well, not that it showed itself in the Second world war, but at least was rated by the users themselves as the most suitable for the tasks.

Vyacheslav Len, collector, publisher, antiquary, historian, gambler, reviving and returning to our country its history.

Yuri Pasholok, a historian of armored vehicles, an encyclopedist, a person who knows the answer to the very question about which we have gathered here for three. Hello.

S. Aslanyan: Well, now I'll listen to you. So which tank is the best?

Y. Pasholok: Well, they still recognized the T-34 as the best tank of the Second World War.

S. Aslanyan: Shugurov, God rest him, who graduated from Baumanka, and also understood something about tanks, every time it came to this maxim, he carefully remarked: “Well, he has a transmission tunnel, suspension, sights ... Well, in general, yes , overall, not bad".

I asked those people who fought on the T-34 what they think about this, they said different things, but most often they called the German T-4 (PzKpfw IV Ausf H), after modernization since 1943.

They considered him the best, although, in general, they fought directly with him, and since they won, they probably still had some kind of, apparently, talent and vitality, because if the German tank was the best, and we won, it also remains question.

Y. Pasholok: Well, on this occasion it is interesting to learn this information from the Germans. I can say that the modernization of the T-4, in fact, ended at the end of 1942. Because it turned out that further loading it with armor, in general, is useless, because then he will have to redo undercarriage. Therefore, the German T-4 tank, it has 80 millimeters of armor in the forehead, on the hull, but in the turret - the same 50 millimeters.

V. Len: But its advantage is that it was not as difficult to manufacture as the T-3 (Pz.Kpfw.III). The T-3 had torsion bar suspensions, but this one has a completely different one. The body was welded separately, there were no torsion bars,

it had completely different levers, so to speak, and therefore it was easier to manufacture. They could have been made much more, which was more than relevant for the Germans in the second half. Although the Germans themselves say that at the beginning of the war, the T-3 was more convenient for them. Well, it's in practice.

S. Aslanyan: Did the T-34 have flaws?

Y. Pasholok: Yes, sure. I'll tell you more, the T-34 that we know did not suit our military already at the beginning of 1941. Firstly, they were not satisfied with the fact that, in fact, he was pulling on a two-seat car. Well, actually, to be honest, the T-34 is a development of the BT tank. Very, very deep, but still it's BT. Well, with their cockroaches, with their shortcomings. Initially, the 17-18-ton machine began to weigh at first 27 tons, and by 1941, by the end, all 30.

S. Aslanyan: But what a motor.

Y. Pasholok: Well, the motor is not bad, but the problem, for example, is with the gearbox. The suspension was already considered unsuccessful. Moreover, initially the BT-20 tank, which is known as the A-20, the prototype of the T-34, was already initially told about its development: “Guys, why don’t we make a torsion bar, otherwise we have a little goat back and forth when we accelerate , we brake sharply.

S. Aslanyan: Well, yes. The problem of those who fought on the T-34, including in their description, boiled down to the fact that before firing it was necessary to wait until the tank settled down, until it swayed in all directions, and this was, in general, not the time which one could afford under enemy fire in anticipation of spending.

V. Len: They also shot on the move, but very rarely, and very few people could do it. Of course we had to stop. As a rule, the signal to stop the mechanic was given by foot. The tank commander hit him in the back. It meant stop. Short stop. And indeed the tank stopped rocking, and a shot was fired immediately. But, as a rule, they took into account this buildup.

S. Aslanyan: Of course, those who fought on it, they already knew all the features of the car, and took into account, including this, but here is the episode reproduced in the film, quite honestly, “In war as in war”, when our unit is being redeployed self-propelled gunners, and they go out into the clearing, where there are three wrecked T-34s, and one "Tiger". Here is the ratio of one to three, in order to fill up one German, you had to spend three of your own ...

V. Len: For "Tiger" much more was needed. At least a company to surround him. It was necessary completely ... All our tankers say that it was necessary for six or seven tanks to circle around him at once, so that he would not have time. His main thing was to blind him, it was necessary to knock out all his viewing devices.

This was told to me by a German tanker, by the way. It was scary. Of course, when the viewing devices were all knocked out, then they simply stopped, it was useless - where to shoot.

Y. Pasholok: But, in fact, in the case of the "Tiger" I can say that when we captured the "Tiger" near Leningrad and fired at it, it turned out that the 76 mm shell did not penetrate the frontal armor (and the sides, in general, too) from a distance 200 meters. Well, we can assume that almost completely point blank.

V. Len: Point blank.

Y. Pasholok: Yes. And only if they had caliber shells, which they already had in service in 1943, then yes, something could be done.

S. Aslanyan: And our KV-1? Maybe he is the best tank?

Y. Pasholok: No, the fact is that the KV-1 is the case when the tank was overweight. The original tank, which was, it weighed 40 tons. The tank that went into production was the very first, 42.5. It already weighed 45 tons in 1941, at the beginning, and everyone loaded it and loaded it, and it already weighed 47.5 tons in the summer. But it’s real that he has a cast tower, we are already getting almost 50 tons of mass.

As a result, he flew final drives, friction clutches were burning, and he was already burning at the beginning of 1941. The box kept falling out. And, in fact, this was the reason why the KV-1 was discontinued. Lightened it up to 42.5 tons, it turned out KV-1S.

V. Len: But, the main drawback is its barrel, a 76-mm gun. In my opinion, it was a very good tank, it would have had a more powerful barrel. But again, to increase the barrel is to increase the weight, which Yura was talking about. And significantly.

S. Aslanyan: The complexity of managing this tank was such that it was one of the few tanks that had two officer positions on board. The driver was a junior lieutenant, an officer. This suggests what kind of incredible technique could be entrusted to such a qualified specialist.

V. Len: Everything is correct.

Y. Pasholok: Well, of course, this is a breakthrough tank. There must be an officer in the crew.

S. Aslanyan: But the officer was the commander, and the officer was the mechanic. Two officers aboard one tank. Absolutely amazing staffing.

Total. Does all of the above give reason to believe that the T-34 could be the best tank, but none of them was an ideal tank?

Y. Pasholok: The best tank of the war, the one that is produced in large quantities, more or less corresponds to its function on the battlefield, has a simple enough design that allows it to be used in combat, and has room for modernization. Say, the T-34 really had a reserve of modernization until the end of the war. T-4, in fact, ceased, as I said, at the end of 1942. An English tank, for example, "Matilda", it ceased to be capable of modernization already, in fact, in 1941.

S. Aslanyan: Total. From these, for example, the mentioned names, is the portrait of the best tank already dancing? Or you still need to go through all our armed forces and mention the Americans, who also fought with us.

V. Len: The Americans with their Sherman, of course, are a good tank, comfortable, our tankers say that it was a cool tank, but very often they say that they burned them themselves.

S. Aslanyan: Sabotage?

V. Len: Yes exactly. It is one and a half times higher than the T-34, but with a small 76-mm cannon. It was very unfortunate, in my opinion, in order to compare it with the T-34. T-34 is much better than him.

Y. Pasholok: But in the case of the Americans, I can say this. The most important task when the M4 medium tank was being made was... We already have the M3 medium tank in production, which is known as "Lee", we need to new car unify with it, so as not to drastically shovel production. Therefore, the M4 is such a tank of compromise. Moreover, its replacement began to be made already in 1942, but in the end it turned out at the end of 1944 the Pershing tank.

S. Aslanyan: Which was how lucky and successful?

Y. Pasholok: Well, it so happened to them that, in general, the medium tank turned into actually like ... Well, 2 tons lighter than the Lee tank.

S. Aslanyan: Vyacheslav Len, a collector, publisher and specialist in military equipment, returns to our country the pages of its history, including in a living, embodied form, bringing from abroad at his own expense a lot of equipment that we somehow lost. Yuri Pasholok, historian of armored vehicles, encyclopedist, and, in addition, a master who can revive and put a tank into motion with his own hands. We are trying to find an answer to a question that is not an axiom, it is precisely the reason for the discussion: what is the best tank in World War II? We were armed with as many things as we had, to put it mildly, different brands in this respect.

Y. Pasholok: Well, we can say that the same Germans had the same thing.

V. Len: If not more.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, if not more. We must proceed from the following that the tank, in fact, becomes obsolete at the time of its adoption into service. Namely, the end of the 30s, when the T-34 was born ... By the way, such a small one, interesting fact that the Germans were not satisfied with the T-3 and T-4 already in 1938. The tanks that we know, "Tiger" and "Panther", are very, very well-fed tanks in terms of armament and weight, which were originally supposed to replace the T-3 and T-4. As a result, the T-3 was replaced by the Panther, which is twice as heavy.

S. Aslanyan: How ineffective is it?

V. Len:"Panther" is very effective.

S. Aslanyan: The fact of the matter is that the increase in mass, it cannot be said that, as with a woman, it greatly spoiled her figure, and everyone turned away from her.

V. Len: She had a beautiful trunk, excellent driving performance. On it you feel like driving a car, the handling is just crazy on this tank. You can shoot on the move quite calmly. It simply absorbs bumps, stones, everything imaginable and unimaginable. The tank was so successful.

Y. Pasholok: But there is a nuance. The problem is that the Panther, in fact, never became the main medium tank, because it was quite difficult to manufacture. Those firms that took up its production, they could not fulfill the plan that was supposed. Therefore, the “four” remained the main medium tank of the Wehrmacht.

V. Len: But, nevertheless, "Panther" about 5000 pieces, in my opinion, have been made.

Y. Pasholok: Well, actually, at that time, the Germans were already thinking even more likely not about tanks, but about fighters. The most interesting fact is that the Germans have the most massive armored unit - this is the "Geschutz", this is a self-propelled anti-tank gun.

V. Len: At first, it was not anti-tank, but one might say anti-personnel. They entered Russia with a so-called “cigarette butt”, with a barrel ... Well, “fifty dollars” is called in slang, both in German and in Russian. This is a short barrel with a 50 mm ... Well, first 50, then 75. The goal was to spit into the trench just like a mortar, as they say, there is no other way to call it.

Well, then, by 1942 and at the end of 1941, other goals appeared. Everything that the Germans could achieve with an offensive war, they achieved. Then there were already difficult victories for them. Moscow nevertheless set a border for offensive German weapons. It was already more necessary to have defensive and, so to speak, anti-tank. Because Russia and the Soviet Union, it is correct to say, and our allied countries already produced such a quantity of equipment and tanks that it was necessary to fight with tanks with equipment. The direct purpose of the tank.

S. Aslanyan: And at what stage did it become clear that the infantry had nothing to oppose? Was there such a moment in the history of the war when it was clear that such equipment could only be stopped by technology? Or is it all the same to the last heroism and the Mosin rifle?

Y. Pasholok: 1943 When the Germans had Tiger and Panther en masse, it was exactly the episode when the German army got a weapon that, well, let's say, if not everything is impossible to oppose, then at least it is very difficult. But this stage, in fact, lasted until the end of 1943.

But look what happened in 1943. They lost the Kursk Bulge. Rolled back further. The front very quickly rolled back several hundred kilometers.

V. Len: Resources. The war of resources has already begun, in principle. To put it mildly, a country that is richer, human and material resources, so to speak, resources, well, all equipment and so on, it will win. We have already begun to fight ... Many people call it “throwing hats”, but this is not so. With your resources. First of all, human.

S. Aslanyan: But, nevertheless, it turns out that until 1943 it was still possible, one way or another, for infantry to resist tanks? After 1943, the weapons on the German side had already acquired such a specific focus that a response was needed at the level of comparable technology?

Y. Pasholok: Not only. First of all, we have cumulative grenades in service. First, the RPG-43, then the RPG-6, which completely pierced the side of the Panther. Secondly, we changed tactics. The same anti-tank artillery, which the infantry always had, had several guns working on one machine at once. As a result, it seems like the tank is intact, but it can no longer drive and shoot.

V. Len: No one.

Y. Pasholok: Someone, yes.

V. Len: As a rule, the gunners tried first, if it big tank, immobilize him, knock down one of the tracks, and then he became an easy target, he could not leave. And as a rule, if a caterpillar was shot down, the tank stood sideways to the gunners, and as a rule, the gunners did not put one gun at a time. The tactics that Yura is talking about are crowded: they put five guns all together and one aside somewhere, 300 meters away. And five stood side by side, in fact, 20-30 meters from each other. Maybe even at 15.

Y. Pasholok: Well, our sappers do not need to be written off, as it were. The failure of the German offensive on Ponyri, where Ferdinand (Sd.Kfz.184) participated, which could not be penetrated by anything ...

V. Len: On the Kursk Bulge it happened.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, on the Kursk Bulge. It choked thanks to our sappers. The Germans lost a whole bunch of these Ferdinands there, which were blown up on exposed anti-tank mine screens.

V. Len: Since "Ferdinand" did not have ... Surprisingly, a huge self-propelled unit, incredible, the best one can say (would be), but she did not have elementary protection against infantry machine guns. It just wasn't. And so our sappers just burned almost all of them. There were 90 of them in that place, and almost 70 of them were burned there.

Y. Pasholok: 35 irretrievable losses precisely on the Kursk Bulge.

V. Len: Irrevocable - it is torn to shreds. The Germans had a very large system, such a gradation, almost ten scales. The tank, in a word, if it was torn into shreds, then this is the tenth scale. And everything else, burned and so on, is being treated, repaired, taken away, and the like.

Therefore, when the Germans talk about their losses on the Kursk Bulge, you don’t have to listen to it much, real losses by our standards ... We didn’t repair the T-34: it burned down and burned out. It was cheaper to make it again than to take it to the factory, take it apart, sort it out, and so on. The Germans had something else: if the tank did not shatter, they restored it. They were dragged to the rear and sent to factories. It was cheaper for them. And we had a conveyor.

Y. Pasholok: In this sense, we can say that we did not shower them with corpses, we showered them with iron.

V. Len: Everything is correct.

Y. Pasholok: And by the way, with regard to the "Tigers" and their losses, it must be borne in mind that, in general, behind each German tank battalion, in which the "Tigers" were, there was a train with spare parts.

V. Len: Real echelon.

Y. Pasholok: In reality, the Germans won not because they had better tanks, but because they had much better material support and, by the way, our victories are further, 1943 and beyond, firstly, we learned how to fight, stopped these sketches, “We need to capture it by such and such a date,” operations have already begun competently ...

This is clearly seen, for example, in the battles of 1944, when ours literally did not notice the German Tiger battalions: they rolled it out - and, in general, that's all, no. This is first.

Secondly, thanks, among other things, to the same Lend-Lease, we have a good material support. American trucks, including ... Not just a truck, but there were also repair kits and other vehicles. Thanks to all this, we received good material support, and this greatly affected the results.

V. Len: Letuchki, by the way, were chic, so equipped. And welders, and lathes, and drilling, and what was not there. In the field, it was possible to actually restore a blown up tank on a mine, and it was combat-ready.

S. Aslanyan: And besides the Lend-Lease flyers, what did fight in our army in general? On the topic of armor?

Y. Pasholok: Well, look, we, firstly, took a very serious look at self-propelled guns, already from the end of 1941. And the reason was banal: due to the fact that either the factories were evacuated, or the tractor factories stopped making tractors, and began to make tanks, a very comical situation turned out: we have guns, but we have nothing to carry them with. Therefore, the program was launched self-propelled artillery, it worked for about a year, and as a result, already in the winter of 1943, medium, light and heavy self-propelled units went into the troops.

V. Len: Before that, of course, the gunners tell something terrible: always on horseback, they hitch four horses somewhere, six horses - and they went, they dragged the cannon. It was, of course, a horse-drawn circus, so to speak. That's how we got to Moscow. And our guns were dragged from Moscow on horseback.

S. Aslanyan: But after we replaced the horses with self-propelled guns and applied lend-lease for its intended purpose, purely technically (not to mention tactically) we became unambiguously victorious? Or, nevertheless, from the German side, unfortunately, there were also quite combat-ready people and equipment?

Y. Pasholok: Well, the point here is that we need to look at the situation soberly and say that we have learned to fight, and we have received equipment that can really win.

V. Len: By the end of 1942.

Y. Pasholok: Yes. Here is the same, for example, SU-152, this self-propelled unit, which was originally developed to open enemy pillboxes, turned out, in principle, to be a very good tank destroyer. It is she who is called "St. John's wort".

V. Len: By the way, ours managed just because of the hills ... If the "Tiger" could only shoot in a straight line, then the self-propelled artillery mount (well, Yura says about 152 mm) could shoot like a canopy. Like a mortar. What our tankers perfectly used. They simply retreated behind the hill, if they understood that one or two “34s” were burned ahead, and they beat the “Tiger”, and the “Tiger”, as a rule, was a very arrogant tank, it burned calmly from 1.5 kilometers T -34 ours. Our T-34 could plant it in the side from 500 meters.

S. Aslanyan: Vyacheslav Len - publisher, antiquary, collector - well, a person who, in general, makes history not a dead paragraph in a textbook, but a living element of our modern life, you can go and see Len's footprints on Poklonnaya Hill, where, among other things, part of his collections. Yuri Pasholok is a historian of armored vehicles, an encyclopedist, a man who knows why a tank drives and knows how to breathe life into it.

We just finished on light tanks, I was reading the combat log of one of our tank regiments, this is the end of 1941, the entire regiment was on the Stuart, and it had only one entry: "The regiment entered the battle."

V. Len: With a 37 mm gun against the Germans with 75 mm guns, of course, no other record could follow.

S. Aslanyan: Yes, it’s just that the regiment was gone after that, they didn’t reach it.

V. Len: Everything is correct.

S. Aslanyan: They couldn't even sneak up, they just got out, and with that the entire regiment was destroyed.

V. Len: 2008 pieces were delivered to us.

Y. Pasholok: No, there is something on the order of a thousand, but, firstly, about the M-3 light, and in general, in principle, light American tanks, you can look very good at the site in Kubinka, here is the most tall tank- This is the American "M5A1", a light tank.

V. Len: On which they landed, by the way, in large numbers in Normandy, but it must be taken into account that I will separately say about Normandy, only 60 defeated divisions opposed, and how many entered the Soviet Union - 300 pieces.

Y. Pasholok: 150 divisions for 1941 alone. As for light tanks, you need to understand that, firstly, we didn’t really understand about German equipment, the same M-3 light tanks ended the war in 1945 as part of regiments, for example, in cavalry divisions, there are some.

S. Aslanyan: Well, we still have cavalry, the Germans no longer had cavalry since 1943, they still had cavalry as a branch of service, in the form of cavalry reconnaissance companies with each SS regiment, and an element of the cavalry uniform - the famous yellow clearance, yellow shoulder straps and yellow buttonholes - he flashed only among those officers who were in the cavalry in the First World War, and the German cavalrymen put the checkers back into the warehouses and caulked into the chests just at the turn of 1942-1943, as the Germans did not have an active branch of the cavalry troops.

Y. Pasholok: And our cavalry felt very well right up to the end of the war. First, we make a breach, then the cavalry is launched there, which begins to work very effectively in the rear, and each cavalry division had a regiment of at least 10 tanks.

V. Len: That's right, tanks started first, we have already learned, under machine guns, as it was at the beginning of the war, when regiments lay down to go into the breakthrough, it was useless. By the way, one German describes, by the way, also from the cavalry division, which was stationed in Nakhabino, near Moscow, 20 kilometers from Moscow, we note, this is how he writes how our cavalrymen tried to break through, two regiments were seated there, just a terrible massacre: they are with machine guns against of our cavalry, no one survived. One regiment, and after an hour and a half, in my opinion, the second regiment was laid down.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, and then we have a completely different picture, moreover, everything was thrown into our cavalry according to the principle “on you, God, what’s not good for us”, therefore, in the same Lvov-Sandomierz operation, one of the cavalry regiments went into battle, having Matilda.

V. Len: Well, yes, this is the old tank that we just talked about, 1941-1942.

Y. Pasholok: The British stopped riding them in Africa, and we calmly used them in offensive operations.

V. Len: But they were developed for Africa, in which the sides are completely sewn up with armor.

Y. Pasholok: And the same "Valentine", which the British stopped actually using in battles in 1943 - we have reached the end of the war.

V. Len: And moreover, our tankers spoke very well of them due to the fact that they have a low hull, a really very low tank, and a low turret - they could sneak up on the Germans. They have rubberized tracks, a very quiet tank, it has a car engine, it got very close to the "Tiger" and literally could go in from the rear, and this case was described, in my opinion, in Hungary: two "Valentines" destroyed two " Tiger, incredible.

Y. Pasholok: And in general, if we are talking about the best tanks, then since we mentioned Valentine, there are various disputes about which tank is better from light ones, but if you look at a sober look, then the British released into the war best lightweight tank.

V. Len: Not average, like the T-34.

Y. Pasholok: This is, firstly, the most massive English tank, which was produced not only in England, but also in Canada, by the way, the Canadians mainly supplied them to us, they did not produce them for themselves. The tank is very technologically advanced, the tank was very reliable, it used a massive diesel engine, and at first they used their bus diesel engines, and then they began to use American diesel engines from GM, by the way, the same ones that we later produced in Yaroslavl.

V. Len: And to this day they produce, modernized.

Y. Pasholok: In general, yes, this is the same diesel. And the most interesting thing is that this tank started with a 40-mm cannon, which, by the way, did not have high-explosive fragmentation ammunition, well, the British were like that, very peculiar.

V. Len: Only armor-piercing, only armor-piercing could be fired against infantry.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, for infantry - here you are, with machine guns. Real lords consider it wrong to hit the infantry with high-explosive fragmentation shells. Then they put in a 57-mm cannon, which also did not have fragmentation shells, and here are the “Valentine IX”, which, in fact, came to us in mass quantities - it was they who worked well on the “Tiger”, they were good tanks, but not infantry, because there was so much space that they really didn’t have enough space for a machine gun on the Valentine IX. The tank is working - well, it will spit on someone with a blank. Already "Valentine X" received a machine gun, but we only had 60 of them, or something.

On the other hand, we also had people with ingenuity, and they noticed: “So, guys, you are supplying us with 157 installations,” this was an American 57-mm gun on the halftruck, “so, this is the same gun, and to it there is high-explosive fragmentation ammunition. Great, we will solve problems at the expense of the actual American supplies. The Australians, who fought in the Pacific on their Matilda and Valentine, they solved the problem in a different way, they set up their production, took the ammunition from the Bofors anti-aircraft guns and used it, and we, in general, solved the problem with ingenuity.

S. Aslanyan: And it turns out that the best tank of the Second World War is the Valentine, and in relation to the medium tank, which inevitably becomes the most massive on the battlefield, the appointment of this title depends not only on its characteristics, but also on the economic component - on the production price , from the cost?

Y. Pasholok: Yes, and on this occasion it is worth thinking about the fact that cheap tanks were produced in the Soviet Union. If I am not mistaken, the exchange rate of the ruble to the Reichsmark in 1940 was 2.1 rubles to 1 Reichsmark.

For reference, the T-3 cost about 120 thousand Reichsmarks, this is without weapons, well, okay, somewhere around 130-135 thousand Reichsmarks for one tank. And now, attention, according to the agreements between the Main Armored Directorate and the Kharkov Locomotive Plant, aka Plant No. 183, one T-34 cost 400 thousand rubles. So it turns out that, in general, our tanks are relatively cheap.

But one thing is peacetime, and another thing is war. Already by February 1, 1942, the T-34 without a walkie-talkie cost 240 thousand rubles. The T-34-85 cost, in my opinion, 190 thousand rubles by the beginning of production, then they dropped the price to 170 thousand rubles.

S. Aslanyan: For what?

Y. Pasholok: Simplification of the design, because, in general, to be honest, it is much more profitable for the manufacturer to make the tank as labor intensive as possible so that it can raise the price. On this occasion, there were very serious battles, if someone thinks that money was not counted in the Soviet Union, he is very deeply mistaken.

V. Len: That the Germans, in principle, had not been decided before the end of the war, everything was commercial there, all the factories belonged to private individuals, so Hitler could not break their price tags for tanks and so on, everything I saw German was like a work of art , respectively, a work of art and costs the same. These tanks were so expensive, incredibly expensive to manufacture, and not only tanks - cars, and everything that is only related to the war, respectively, we were talking about resources

- German tanks could not be produced in such massive quantities, because they were super-expensive during the war.

S. Aslanyan: Now it’s clear why you became an antiquary.

Y. Pasholok: As for the German tanks, by the way. When there was a time great interview with the late collector Jacques Littlefield, who basically started out as a 1:5 modeler and ended up with the largest private collection in the world…

V. Len: Which, unfortunately, is now on sale.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, he said, “I looked at the Sherman and it has four types of pipes. Then I looked at Panther - and she has 20 types of pipes.

V. Len: 26.

Y. Pasholok:“And after that I understood why the Germans lost the war.”

S. Aslanyan: Due to technical difficulty.

V. Len: Everything is correct. This Yura is referring to the tubes in order to remove the engine. On the Sherman, four pipes were unscrewed, and that's it, on the Panther - 26.

S. Aslanyan: Non-repairable.

V. Len: No, it’s suitable, but it must be a specialist of the highest level, in order to change it, any machine operator from the village who drove a tractor will calmly transfer this engine to Sherman, but to Panther - only a specialist of the highest level, whom they brought up over the years .

S. Aslanyan: And if, nevertheless, the tactical and technical characteristics of tanks, the T-34 on a pedestal, are left in the bottom line?

Y. Pasholok: In general, yes, because the fact that

The T-34 was officially decommissioned in 1997, which is saying something.

V. Len: And our tankers, mind you, who won the Second World War, I believe that the back of fascism was completely broken by the Soviet Union, all the landings in Normandy and so on - these were all easy walks compared to what happened with the Soviet Union, we should remember and respect their ancestors.

So, literally this Saturday, I was talking on Poklonka with the commander of the T-34-85 tank, Georgy Egorovich Kuzmin, and so he said that the T-34-85 was the best tank, and he started the war in a motorized battalion on July 15, 1941 year, the tank received near Stalingrad. So, this man went through the whole war, and he said: "The T-34 was the best tank." I respect him, a deep bow to all the tankers who fought on these tanks, it was they who defeated great Germany, and the myth about them was broken here on Soviet soil.

Y. Pasholok: Well, and, by the way, with regard to British tanks - the British had such an excellent tank industry that the most massive English tank during the war there was a Sherman tank.

S. Aslanyan: In total, the economy assigned its own idea of which tank is the best, because the most affordable in production, and for all that, the T-34 is still really the best tank of the Second World War, because the economic component for it is a mass tank, especially the T-34-85 worth 190 thousand rubles, and performance characteristics.

I read from the Germans in their memoirs their rave reviews about our T-34, when they knocked it out in the village, approached an already defeated tank, ammunition was burning in the tank, and none of the Germans retreated, knowing full well and being drugged by this legend - they they said that, of course, the ammunition would explode now, but “we know that his armor is so strong that nothing will hit us.”

V. Len: And when the tower flew away with these Germans, when high-explosive shells exploded, then they didn’t think about anything, and the tower, especially on the early T-34s, for one, two, three. God forbid, a direct hit, or the diesel fuel began to burn after it hit the tanks - that's it, the tower - the first thing that flew away within a few minutes, flew 50 meters away.

Y. Pasholok: In this case, it makes sense to just raise the issue of the shortcomings of the T-34, of which there were a sufficient number.

S. Aslanyan: Having made a remark that this is rightfully the best tank.

Y. Pasholok: Yes. So, firstly, this tank had tanks inside the fighting compartment with all the ensuing consequences for the crew. Actually, it is believed that a gasoline engine is more dangerous - not quite so. The fact is that when it hits a half-empty fuel tank, it detonates no worse than ammunition, a tank can not only fly away the tower, but also fly forward the frontal sheet.

V. Len: The sides are expanded - this is just a tank. Shells - this is when the tower flew away.

Y. Pasholok: Secondly, there was a big problem: the T-34 is really "blind". The Germans had a bunch of observation hatches - this is both a disadvantage, since something can fly into any of these hatches, and at the same time an advantage, because the commander sitting in the commander's cupola sees everything. We simply did not have time to make a commander's cupola. It was supposed to be a tank with a torsion bar suspension, with tanks removed into the aft, engine compartment, there should have been a three-man turret with a commander's cupola, reinforced with armor, but, unfortunately, they did not have time to do this. In fact, we received such a tank only at the end of 1944, it was called the T-44. And the T-34 is, in fact, the machine on which they had to fight, just like the Germans had to fight instead of their VK-2001 and VK-3001 ...

V. Len: Predecessors of "Tiger".

Y. Pasholok: Yes, and Panther. They had to fight with what they have, with the car ...

V. Len: which has been established in production.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, the T-3, which went into production in 1936, and the T-4, which went into production also in 1936. What other disadvantages does the T-34 have? Actually, the suspension is candle, “swinging” - by the way, the British did not have these problems. Why? Actually, the British, like us, bought a license from Christie, but somehow they stopped following Christie in our country in the mid-1930s, and they did it absolutely in vain, because in 1936 Christie introduced into the design of his tank a parallel shock absorber that solved the goat problem once and for all. And by the way, when they say that the “Christie” suspension is for light tanks - there is such a very light tank as the “Merkava”, it has 70 tons of combat weight.

V. Len: Officially - but on the bottom a 10-ton plate from mines is installed.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, so, this tank has Christie suspension, they just introduced a second shock absorber.

S. Aslanyan: Which is what they use to this day. But the problem of visibility and sights decided on the T-34 ...

V. Len: There was a problem in the early days.

Y. Pasholok: So, there were no problems with sights. The fact is that even dug TMFD sights are quite normal.

V. Len: This is the commander and gunner.

Y. Pasholok: And by the way, the Americans recognized them as much better than their own. The main problem was precisely in the observation devices. Firstly, we had a construction made of stalinite, two pieces of iron, polished to a shine. The tank will shoot - it can burst. Then they changed it with big fights, the plant was very resistant to changing Stalinit for something else - they put prisms. But the problem: due to a violation of technology, they turned yellow very quickly. For example, these prisms were made in Gorky, but they did not get coal to the boiler room - as a result, they got married.

V. Len: But at the beginning of the war, tankmen very often describe, namely, mechanics - viewing devices were enough for exactly 10 minutes. What they were doing? Before the battle, the hatch is always open exactly on the palm of your hand. And so, they go into battle - as a rule, at first they did it, later they didn’t do it either. One viewing device is opened, they look at it for 5-10 minutes, then the second one. It is very easy - it leans back with its hands, they are right in front of the driver, these two viewing devices, but after 15-20 minutes of the battle you just need to open the hatch, and due to this, a lot of drivers died.

Both tank commanders and radio gunners describe this situation - very often driver mechanics died precisely because the hatch was open, the tank commander very often says that it’s just without a head - they drive, they drive, the tank stopped, they can’t understand what is it, they lower their head down - the mechanic has no head. This very often took place due to the fact that the hatch was ajar on the palm of your hand.

The gunner-radio operator himself could not shoot in this tank, the viewing gap was literally 10 millimeters - it was impossible to observe the battlefield through this hole. All that he did at the beginning of the war was to help the driver change the three-speed, outdated gearbox, and turn cigarettes for the driver, he was like an assistant to the driver. The radio, in principle, did not need it, it was possible to switch to internal communication without it.

Y. Pasholok: There is also the problem that, in general, he could, of course, get somewhere from his course machine gun, but it is problematic, because he did not have a sight as such - he had a hole in the ball mount.

V. Len: The hole is small.

Y. Pasholok: Only in 1943 did they begin to introduce the PPO-8 device, which is a sight adapted for a ball mount "PO" for sniper rifle. This sight has been actually installed since 1944, and even then not on all cars, but it went only to the T-34-85. As for surveillance devices, our armored vehicles still have such a device as the MK-4. It is believed that this is, in fact, an English device that was developed by the Polish engineer Gundlach, but the name "Wickers MK-4" and our name MK-4 have a slightly different origin.

In this case, this is not a device, but a tank, a device similar to the device that is installed on the MK-4 tank, "Churchill". This is a prism, which consists of two parts, if some fragment hit, this upper prism was broken - it was possible to open this prism, drop the top and put a new one. In addition, it can rotate 360 degrees, which is very convenient. Thanks to this, in fact, we stopped having a "blind" tank. Ideally, the T-34-85 in the turret each of the crew members had an MK-4 sight, and the same thing on our heavy tanks.

V. Len: About T-34-85, modified T-34-76. It already had a five-speed gearbox installed, which the tankers already rated as very good. I drove both the T-34-76 and the T-34-85. Very often, tankers write that the T-34-76 immediately before the attack turned on the second gear, because on the battlefield they might not turn on the third gear, and accordingly, the tank was immobilized and became a target. As for the second period of the war, the T-34-85 had a good gearbox, and this problem for tankers has already gone.

S. Aslanyan: What crew did the T-34 have, how many people? After all, he constantly changed in composition.

Y. Pasholok: Four people in a T-34, five people in a T-34-85.

V. Len: Very often, early T-34-76s did not take a gunner-radio operator with them, because he is a useless crew member, in fact, as for the second period of the war, the crews were already almost always full.

S. Aslanyan: What did the five people do - jobs?

Y. Pasholok: So, a driver, a gunner-radio operator, but already further - just a shooter, because the T-34-85 radio moved to the tower, respectively, the commander - he also became a radio operator, gunner and loader.

S. Aslanyan: Still, a shell feeder is such a position, without which you can’t go anywhere?

Y. Pasholok: Oh sure.

V. Len: Absolutely. And by the way, on early vehicles it was such a position - I will tell you the episodes that the tankers told. During the battle, inexperienced loaders lost consciousness after the very first shots, the powder gases had nowhere to go, and, as a rule, the T-34s went into battle with open hatches: so that the loader, after the cartridge case fired, would throw them into this hatch , because the sleeve lies at the bottom, and there is an ammunition rack, and continues to smoke, so the loaders tried to simply throw these sleeves overboard through the hatches during the battle.

Y. Pasholok: This, in fact, is a continuation of the shortcomings of the T-34. Based on the experience of Khalkhin Gol and the battles for Lake Khasan, it was decided that the tank should have one large hatch so that the commander could shoot back, he opened the hatch in front and could shoot from personal weapons.

V. Len: Like a shield.

Y. Pasholok: Yes, but it's actually a trap for the crew, because if the crew is injured, they won't lift this hatch.

V. Len: Oh, and by the way, no one closed the hatch - they just tried to tie the hatch to the rope. The commander did it for sure. And they tried not to keep belts, belts, and so on, so as not to catch on during the evacuation from the tank. And there was an even bigger problem: the device for intercom, which is in the helmet, has a very powerful plug, and many wounded tankers did not jump out of the tank just because they could not pull out this device.

Y. Pasholok: By the way, the Germans have the same thing. When there were some legends that a German was chained in a tank, in fact, he couldn’t get out just the same, he could get caught ...

V. Len: And back, flies into the tank.

Y. Pasholok: All his headset became a grave for him.

S. Aslanyan: They were Vyacheslav Len and Yuri Pasholok. We answered the question, what is the best tank of the Second World War. The answer is still the same - T-34.

Y. Pasholok: Absolutely right.

The history of the armored forces begins at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the first models of self-propelled armored vehicles, more like matchboxes on tracks, nevertheless showed themselves perfectly on the battlefields.

The high cross-country ability of the fire fortresses gave them a huge advantage in a positional war. A truly successful combat vehicle had to easily overcome trenches, barbed wire and a landscape of front lines dug up by artillery preparation, inflict good fire damage, support the “queen of the fields” (infantry) and never break. It is not surprising that the most influential powers in the world immediately joined the "tank race".

The dawn of the tank era

The laurels for the creation of the first tank rightfully belong to the British, who designed and successfully used their “Tank. Model 1” in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, completely demoralizing the enemy infantry. However, there were still decades of painstaking work ahead on armor, rate of fire, cross-country ability, it was necessary to change the weak carburetor engine to a more powerful diesel engine, come up with a rotating turret, solve problems with heat dissipation and the quality of movement and transmission. The world was waiting for tank duels and anti-tank mines, round-the-clock operation of steel mills, insane projects of multi-tower monsters and, finally, a silhouette carved in the fire and fury of the wars of the twentieth century modern tank familiar to everyone now.

Calm before the storm

In the 30s, England, Germany, the USA and the Soviet Union, anticipating a big war, raced to create and improve their tank lines. Design engineers of heavy armored vehicles were poached and bought from each other by hook or by crook. For example, in 1930, the German engineer E. Grote worked at the Bolshevik plant, who created a number of interesting developments that later formed the basis of later models of tanks.

Germany hastily forged the ranks of the Panzerwaffe, the British created the Royal Tank Corps, the USA - the Armored Force. By the beginning of the war, the tank forces of the USSR already had two legendary vehicles that did a lot for victory - the KV-1 and T-34.
By the beginning of World War II, the competition to each other was mainly the USSR and Germany. The Americans also produced an impressive amount of armored vehicles, giving only 80 thousand under lend-lease to the allies, but their vehicles did not gain such fame as the Tigers, Panthers and T-34s. The British, because of the disagreements that existed before the war, in which direction to develop the tank industry, gave up the palm and used mainly American M3 and M5 tanks on the battlefields.

Legendary tanks of World War II

"Tiger" - a heavy German breakthrough tank, was created at the factories of Henschel und Sohn. For the first time he showed himself in a battle near Leningrad in 1942. It weighed 56 tons, was armed with an 88 mm cannon and two machine guns, and was protected by 100 mm armour. Carried five crew members. Could dive under water to 3.5 meters. Among the shortcomings are the complexity of the design, the high cost (the production of one "Tiger" cost the treasury, like the cost of two medium tanks "Panther"), incredibly high fuel consumption, problems with the chassis in winter conditions.

The T-34 was developed at the design bureau of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant under the leadership of Mikhail Koshkin just before the war. It was a manoeuvrable, well-protected tank equipped with a powerful diesel engine and a long-barreled 76mm gun. The reports, however, mentioned problems with optics, visibility, cramped fighting compartment, lack of radios. Due to the lack of space for a full-fledged crew, the commander had to act as a gunner.

M4 Sherman - the main American tank of that period - was produced at the factories of Detroit. The third (after T-34 and T-54) the most massive tank in the world. It has medium armor, is equipped with a 75-millimeter gun, and successfully proved itself in battles against German tanks in Africa. Cheap, easy to use, maintainable. Among the shortcomings: it easily overturns due to the high center of gravity.

"Panther" is a German tank of medium armor, the main competitor of Sherman and T-34 on the battlefields. Armed with a 75 mm tank gun and two machine guns, the thickness of the armor is up to 80 mm. First used in the Battle of Kursk.

The well-known tanks of the Second World War also include the German fast and light T-3, the Soviet heavily armored Joseph Stalin, which performed well in the storming of cities, and the ancestor of the single-turret heavy tanks KV-1 Klim Voroshilov.

Bad start

In 1941 the Soviet tank forces suffered crushing losses, since the German Panzerwaffe, having weaker light-armored T-4 tanks, were significantly superior to the Russians in their tactical skills, in the coherence of the work of crews and command. T-4, for example, initially had good overview, presence commander's cupola and Zeiss optics, and the T-34 received these improvements only in 1943.

The rapid German strikes were skillfully reinforced by self-propelled guns, anti-tank guns and air raids, which made it possible to inflict massive damage. “It seemed to us that the Russians had created a tool that they would never learn to use,” wrote one of the German generals.

tank winner

After the completion of the T-34-85, with its “survivability”, it could seriously compete even with heavily armored, but clumsy German “Tigers”. Possessing incredible firepower and thick frontal armor, the "Tigers" could not compete with the "thirty-fours" in terms of speed and maneuverability, bogged down and drowned in difficult areas of the landscape. They required tankers and special rail transport for transportation. The Panther tank, with its high technical characteristics, like the Tiger, was capricious in operation, was expensive to manufacture.

During the war, the “thirty-four” was finalized, the crew compartment was expanded, equipped with intercoms, and an even more powerful gun was installed. Heavy armor easily withstood a 37mm gun. And most importantly, Soviet tankers mastered the methods of communication and interaction of tank brigades on the battlefield, learned to use the speed, power and maneuverability of the new T-34-85, delivered swift blows to the rear of the enemy, destroying communications and fortifications. The machine began to brilliantly perform the tasks for which it was originally intended. Soviet industry has established a stream production of improved, well-balanced models. It is especially worth noting the simplicity of the design and the possibility of quick cheap repairs, because it is important for a tank not only to effectively perform combat missions, but also to quickly return to service after damage or breakdown.

You can find a model of that time that surpasses the T-34 in terms of individual characteristics, but it is precisely in terms of the combination of performance characteristics that this tank can rightfully be called the best and most effective tank of the Second World War.