T-34 tanks are balanced in armor, firepower and power. The thickness of bulletproof vest is 45 mm, which is equivalent to that of German tanks 3 and 4, but the oblique angle of the front armor is 32 degrees and the side armor is 49 degrees. The turret is a cast hexagon, with a front armor thickness of 60 mm and a side surface of 45 mm The oblique angle of the car body extends to the turret, so the T-34 is almost a right triangle when viewed from the front. Inclined armor has two advantages. First, the shell is easy to bounce off after hitting (that is, "ricochet"), and its power is greatly reduced; Secondly, according to the triangle principle, the thickness of the steel plate that the horizontal shell needs to pass through after hitting the inclined armor is equivalent to the hypotenuse of the triangle. Therefore, the T-34 tank has a thickness of 45 mm, the frontal armor with an inclination angle of 32 degrees is equivalent to 70 mm, and the lateral armor with an inclination angle of 49 degrees is equivalent to 54 mm This frontal armor directly leads to the inability of any artillery equipped with 194 1 German tanks to penetrate within 500 meters.
When the tank guns of European countries were still at the level of 40-50 mm caliber, T-34 was equipped with 76 mm L/30.5 cannon L- 1 1 from the beginning, and 194 1 was replaced with 76 mm F-34 L/42 cannon. When the F-34 cannon uses ordinary armor-piercing projectiles, it can penetrate 69 mm homogeneous steel plate at a distance of 500 meters and 6 1000 meters. None of the German tanks at that time could resist such fierce fire. F-34 cannon can also launch high-explosive bombs and fragment bombs to attack soft targets, so it has the ability to support infantry attacks. A T-34 tank usually has 77 rounds of ammunition, including 19 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition, 53 rounds of high-explosive ammunition and 5 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition. The ammunition capacity of the improved T-34 of 1943 was increased to 108 rounds.
Morozov, a Soviet designer, specially developed the famous 12 cylinder 39-liter V2 diesel engine for T-34, with a power of 500 HP, making its highway top speed reach 55 kilometers per hour. Another advantage of V2 diesel engine is fuel saving. The fuel tank capacity of the T-34 tank is 60 liters, and a reserve fuel tank with a capacity of 39 liters is hung on both sides of the car body, and the journey can reach 540 kilometers. In contrast, the German Type 4 tank is only 160 km, while the Tiger tank needs to refuel when it runs 100 km. But the disadvantage of diesel engine is that the exhaust gas is rolling and the fuel tank can't be hidden. Like the previous BT-7, the T-34 uses the Christie chassis patented by the United States. The bearing shaft of this chassis is equipped with giant damping springs, which can withstand severe ups and downs. The track width of T-34 is nearly 50 cm, while the track width of German tanks is usually only 30 cm. The above advantages make the T-34 have super off-road maneuverability, which is the hardware foundation of the Soviet armored forces' deep attack tactics. On the frozen eastern front, the T-34 can ride freely on the ice sheet with a depth of one meter, and is called "the king in the snow" by the Germans.
The above is still an early model, later T-34/85:
After the Tiger Tank appeared in 1942, the Soviet army found that no active tank could pose a positive threat to the Tiger Tank at normal combat distance, so the modification plan of T-34 as the main battle tank was immediately put on the agenda. 1943, four different types of 85mm guns were prepared for testing, namely D5-T, S-53, S-50 and LB-85. After two rounds of lengthy evaluation, the S-53 test won. However, the earliest requirement was to install the S-53 on the standard T-34/76 turret (runway diameter 1420mm). This attempt obviously failed. Subsequently, there was a demand for new turrets. 1 12 factory and 183 factory all participated in the design. The new turret refers to the T-43 turret instead of copying it. 1 12 factory made preparations at first, but later found that S-53 needed to be installed and greatly modified. Meanwhile, install D5-T as a temporary solution. The new model adopts D5-T 85mm tank gun derived from 52km 1939 85mm anti-aircraft gun, and dual-caliber 5 1.5 (the first model equipped with this gun produced by theNo.12 factory is called T-34/85m12). At the same time, the S-53 gun was further improved, and the recoil device was improved. The barrel wall is thinner, and it is called Gith -S-53 with a double diameter of 54.6(T-34/85 M 1944), which is also a derivative model of 52K antiaircraft gun. According to different data sources, the mass production time of Gith -S-53 is said to be 65438+. T-34/85 also improved the armor to a certain extent, and the upper part of the car body was 45 mm in all directions (the original T-34 was 40 mm on the side of the car body). Another important improvement of T-34/85 is the redesigned new turret (from the aborted T-43, with a seat diameter of 1600mm), which greatly increases the turret space, and increases the loader according to the experience gained in the battle, thus liberating the commander from the dual tasks of commanding and loading, and greatly improving the operational efficiency. Due to the increase of turrets, the Germans often refer to T-34/85 as "Big Head T-34".
T-34/85 assembly plants are Gorky/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/2, Lower tagir/KOOC-0/83 and omsk/KOOC-0/74. The production time is June, March and June 1944 respectively. T-34/85 is the most productive one in the T-34 series, and it still serves in many countries and regions after the war. The wartime output of various T-34s exceeded 50,000, which was the largest tank type during the Soviet-German War. Far more than the sum of all tanks in Germany, it became the guarantee of victory in the Great Patriotic War.
After World War II, Soviet T-34 tanks were not replaced by T-55 until 1950s. In addition, the T-34 is equipped with multinational forces. It participated in the War of Liberation, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Middle East War, and even appeared in the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
KV- 1 is a tank with the same name as T-34 at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. KV- 1 was developed by Kojing, the designer of Leningrad Kirov Factory, on the eve of World War II. The name of KV tank is taken from Marshal K. voroshilov, Kojing's father-in-law. At that time, Kirov Factory tested three models, among which two outdated multi-turret designs SMK and T- 100 were eliminated. 1April, 939, the prototype of single turret KV tank was finalized, and production began in February of the following year. KV prototypes (including multi-turret prototypes) were put into the Sufen battlefield for testing, and they showed excellent protection ability in the battle to break through the defensive positions of the Finnish army, and none of them suffered losses.
KV- 1 Tanks and the Soviet Union and Germany broke out, and * * * produced 636 vehicles. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the appearance of new tanks KV- 1 and T-34 on the battlefield dwarfed German tanks, and even the threat of German tanks to these two tanks in 4 1 year was negligible. This kind of tank is undoubtedly a nightmare for German soldiers. Three days after the war broke out, the German northern army group began to encounter these behemoths. On August 13, a German infantry regiment reinforced by 100 tanks encountered a group of KV- 1 tanks. German tanks could not stop the impact of KV, and dozens of tanks were destroyed, among which several Czech 38t tanks were directly squashed by KV- 1. A 150 mm howitzer kept firing at the charged KV tank until it was overturned, but none of the shells fired hit. In the end, 88 anti-aircraft guns came to the rescue, forcing Soviet tanks to retreat. At the beginning of the war, only 88 mm anti-aircraft guns and Stuka attack aircraft could destroy KV- 1 tanks.
There are many types of KV tanks, mainly the early 1939, and the developed models such as 1940,194, 1942, and KV-2 and KV-85. In terms of overall performance, KV- 1 is not as good as T-34 except for defense. Its structural design is backward and its reliability is poor, especially its firepower is not enough to deal with the new German tanks that appeared after 1942. 1943, an improved KV85 tank equipped with 85mm gun appeared, but compared with T-34/85, it was not superior and its performance was not as good as that of the German Tiger, so soviet heavy tanks gradually gave way to Stalin (JS) series.
Is the series "Stalin"
IS series heavy tanks were developed by the Soviet Union during World War II to deal with German heavy tanks at that time. This tank is named after Stalin. IS- 1 and IS-2 tanks were formerly KV- 1 heavy tanks and KV- 13 tanks. KV- 13 tank (later design project No.223) is an important project independently designed by Soviet Union 1942 in Chelyabinsk Experimental Factory, and the second N.V.Tseits Design Bureau of Soviet Union was designated as the main design bureau.
Other members of the design team include K.I. Kuzmin in charge of body design, N.M. Chenev in charge of turret design, S.V. Miskovic in charge of chassis design and G.N. Moskvan in charge of final assembly. KV- 13 tank is designed as a medium-sized tank, but its armor is owned by heavy tanks. This project is very famous because it has a large number of castings, not only used in turrets, but also used in its car body and turret seat ring. Although the internal space is limited, it has gained good armor protection (and reduced weight). Moreover, the design scheme of KV- 13 is also in line with the directive issued by the Soviet Patriotic Committee in 1942 on reducing the consumption of metal resources by armor. The first car took only a short time from design to manufacture./kloc-0 was delivered for test in May, 942. This tank weighs 3 1.7 tons and is equipped with a 76.2 mm gith -5 gun and a DT coaxial machine gun. The maximum armor thickness at the front of the car body is 120mm, while the turret is 85mm. The 600-horsepower V-2K engine makes its maximum speed reach 55 km/h ... Some parts of T-34 tank chassis, including crawler, are adopted, and the load-bearing wheels are taken from KV tanks. KV- 13 also adopts an improved cooling device, which has a good effect on increasing the induced air volume. The test also revealed some shortcomings of KV- 13 tank: its acceleration performance is poor due to the problems of transmission device, the track is easily damaged, and the track will fall off when turning, and so on. 1942 In July, when the test was in progress, chief designer N.V. Chez died and N.F. Shamshulin took his place. When the KV- 13 tank just took over, the rotating device designed by Mali F.A. placer gold mine for KV- 1S tank and other components was adopted on the chassis. After these improvements, KV- 13 still failed the test, and the Soviet military soon lost interest in it. Although the initial design failed, in194265438+February, the experimental factory came up with two new designs of KV- 13. These two models are the same as the last KV- 13 tank only in body, suspension torsion bar and chassis. Turrets and many other components have been completely redesigned. In particular, its steering mechanism adopted the "two-stage planetary steering machine" designed by A.I. Baragnarov, and later the Soviet T-54/55 and T-62 also adopted this steering mechanism.
The tiger heavy tanks invested by the Germans on the eastern front even forced the Soviet Union to develop corresponding tanks. According to the directive GKO1No.2243 of February 24th, 943, two tanks named "Joseph Stalin" (that IS, IS tank or JS tank) will be developed on the basis of the last model of KV- 13 in Kirov factory in Chelyabinsk region and No.00 factory (original experimental factory) in NKTP. The installation of 76.2mm gun is called IS- 1 (factory design number is still Project 233). Equipment122mm u-1/tank howitzer (originally designed for KV-9 test tank) was named as IS-2 (project 234).
Both models were tested from March 22nd, 1943 to April 9th, and the test results were very good. Both of these tanks are lighter than KV- 1S heavy tanks, so they have better maneuverability, good armor protection and powerful firepower. There are several serious defects in the test, especially the chassis and engine/transmission steering device. When driving to soft terrain, the distance between the load wheels will be distorted, resulting in great rotational resistance. The relevant departments of the Soviet Union suggested increasing the number of load-bearing wheels to pass the test. But at that time, Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory, 100 Factory and their cooperative factories UZTM Factory and No.200 Factory all began to prepare to produce this new type of tank. In early April, the Soviet Union obtained the first batch of armor protection data of German tigers. 1On April 5th, 943, GKO issued the No.3187 instruction to develop a powerful anti-tank gun, which can destroy the new German armored fighting vehicle (that is, the tiger type).
At the end of April, a captured Tiger tank was sent to kubinka proving ground for shooting test. The test results show that the best weapon against Tiger Tank is 85mm 52-K 1939 antiaircraft gun, which can penetrate the front armor of Tiger Tank at a distance of 1000 meters. On May 5th, 1943, GKO issued an instruction to assign the design bureau to pay attention to firearms. After this order was issued, the Central Artillery Design Bureau led by V.G. Grabin and the No.9 Factory Design Bureau led by F.F. Petrov were ordered to install 85mm guns on two KV- 1 and two experimental is tanks.
In the first half of June, TzAKB's two S-3 1 and two D-5T guns from Factory 9 were all ready. S-3 1 gun is an 85mm gun developed on the basis of 76.2mm gith -5 tank gun, which is very convenient to manufacture. D-5T gun is a variant of D-5S gun mounted on Su -85 self-propelled gun, which is characterized by light weight and low recoil. It was soon discovered that installing 85 mm guns on the original turret of IS would lead to a sharp decrease in the crew space. Finally, it was decided to increase the turret size, increase the passenger compartment, and correspondingly increase the body to 420 mm
As the car body becomes longer, the distance between the second and third load-bearing wheels also increases, which can be solved by adding load-bearing wheels. The new turret is produced by 200 factories. These changes have increased the total weight of the tank to 44 tons, resulting in a decrease in maneuverability, but in exchange for more powerful firepower. IS tanks equipped with 85 mm guns were designated as "Project 237". 1943 At the beginning of July, two experimental IS tanks were manufactured (one or two were equipped with S-3 1 guns and the other was D5-T guns).
At the same time, ChKZ factory also prepared two 85mm guns to be installed on kV-1s. One is "Project 238" (the S-3 1 gun was installed on KV- 1S, but the turret was not improved), and the other is "Project 239" (like Project 237, D-5T gun was installed). 1in July, 943, all four tanks participated in the comparative test. The model of D-5T gun, items 237 and 239 won the final competition. These two projects were named IS-85 and KV-85 respectively. Project 238 was cancelled because the space in the passenger compartment was too small.
On July 3rd1day, KV-85 and IS-85 were delivered to kubinka proving ground for testing, which was composed of 28 engineers led by N.M. Schnev, the engineer in charge of Factory 100. The test began on August 2nd, and the person in charge of the whole test was Major General S.A. Afonin of the Technical Management Department of the Red Army. The artillery test was carried out at Golo-Hofter proving ground. The success of the test made the Soviet Union decide that both tanks would be put into production on August 8th. A team of test vehicles entered the Kremlin along Moscow Street, where they were personally inspected by Stalin, together with Morotov, Volo Xie Luofu, beria and other senior personnel. Interestingly, except the driver, all the passengers who participated in the inspection were replaced by NKVD officials. Because of the new transmission device and steering structure, the maneuverability is improved compared with KV-85 heavy tank. In addition, the armor thickness has also been greatly enhanced. On September 4th, 1943, the IS-85 heavy tank officially entered the Red Army equipment sequence.
When the IS- 1 tank was put into production, the Germans had already equipped the "Tiger" heavy tank. The armor-piercing projectile that can be fired by the tank's 88mm gun has an initial velocity of 930m/s and a vertical armor-piercing thickness of 140mm. The artillery of IS- 1 tank adopts 85mm artillery, which is weaker than that of Tiger tank. According to this situation, the Soviet Union added 100mm artillery to the IS- 1 heavy tank, and called it IS- 100 tank, but this tank was not approved for production because the Soviet Union had formulated a heavy tank scheme with 122mm artillery. It is the future IS-2 heavy tank. IS- 1 The final output of tanks is about 107. Among them, 102 was later replaced by 122mm D-25 gun. Generally speaking, IS- 1 tank is a transitional tank. Although it was originally designed to deal with German heavy tanks, it was found that there was still a certain gap between it and the demand of the Soviet Union at that time, so only a small amount was produced. However, the IS-2 tank with 122mm artillery later became the most terrible opponent of the Germans in World War II.