Video: Three Way Heavy Tank Contest

In 1939, the Red Army had not one, not two, but three whole heavy tank designs. Find out how they competed and who the winner was in my latest video.

Video: KV-1 with Applique Armour

The KV-1 was the heaviest and best protected heavy tank in the world, but the Red Army still wanted even more armour! Find out why and how effective this add-on armour was in my latest video. 

There are Always Two

The tank was initially conceived as a mobile fortress; huge and slow. However, the army had to rein in their appetites from a 300 ton monster to just 28 tons. This didn’t mean that the idea of a mobile fortress died off. The mass of tanks continued to grow and the development of the K-Wagen clearly suggested that not only Lebedenko was thinking about Tsar-tanks. Only the prompt end of the First World War stopped these giants from reaching the battlefield. Although, the monstrous projects that were built by 1919 were about as useful as the rest of the Tsar family: a tank that doesn’t fight in addition to a bell that doesn’t ring and cannon that doesn’t shoot.

T-39, the first Soviet "large" heavy tank. Thankfully, clearer minds prevailed.

For obvious reasons, Soviet tank designers didn’t even think about a heavy breakthrough tank. Ironically, the most numerous tank in the Red Army at the time was the British Mark V that fit this role perfectly. The USSR began working on its own heavy tank in the early 1930s. It just so happened that they ended up with two designs over and over again for two decades. They choice was always made in favour of the lighter one, but it didn’t prevent work on the heavier one from moving forward.

Heavy Without Alternatives

One can often encounter brainstorms about how individual vehicles or even entire tank building schools ought to have evolved. Most of these brainstorms are done by people that are far removed from the field of history, but sometimes even notorious historians take part in this exercise. Among Soviet tanks, the T-28 is a popular character in alternative history. Modern improvements to this tank know no bounds, but the fact that the T-28 was replaced by the KV-1 and not the T-34 is often ignored, as is the fact that a replacement for the T-28 by the name of T-29 already existed. 

Object 237 accepted into service with the Red Army as the IS-85 (IS-1).

The IS-85 heavy tank was accepted into service with the Red Army on September 4th, 1943. This was the finale of the program aimed at developing a successor to the KV. One can often hear claims that if the KV remained in production and was modernized then it could be made into a heavy tank that was no worse than the IS-85. You may laugh, but these claims were not just made by alternative historians. Attempts to preserve the KV-85 were made at the highest levels, even in 1944. Nevertheless, the KV had to make room on the assembly line for its successor. Read on to find out why this happened and why there was no alternative to the IS tank.

Voroshilov Abroad

Soviet tank building was a mystery for foreigners, but the start of the Great Patriotic War lifted the dense veil of secrecy. Depictions of new Soviet tanks first appeared in German intelligence summaries and later in news and propaganda. If the T-34 was a predictable development of Christie’s designs that were already known to American and British engineers, then the heavy KV tank was without an equal or obvious ancestor. As neither the British nor Americans experienced much success with building heavy tanks, these tanks were valuable sources of inspiration. Before too long, they began to receive information directly from their new ally to the east, and even got their hands on the tanks themselves.

Building KVs

 "Addendum to agreement #B1-081 signed between the GABTU and Kirov factory for the year 1941

This addendum is signed on [rubbed out] June July 1941 between the GABTU (Customer) represented by Deputy Chief of the GABTU Major General of the Technical Forces I.A. Lebedev and Chelyabinsk factory (Vendor) represented by Deputy Director comrade Obrant and is based on State decree #525-224 issued on March 13th, 1941.

The Vendor accepts the responsibility of producing and delivery of 500 33 KV-3 tanks and increase of monthly delivery of KV-1 tanks by 10 units and the Customer accepts these vehicles and pays the previously agreed price of 740 thousand rubles for each one.

Delivery of KV-3 tanks is conducted in accordance with blueprints and technical requirements developed by the Kirov factory and the tactical-technical requirements approved by the State.
Blueprints and technical requirements are subject to final approval by the GABTU after the prototype is tested.

The agreed upon price of one KV-3 tank with parts and instruments is established at 740,000 rubles and is subject to adjustment according to calculations in reports delivered in October of this year. All calculations to establish the price of the KV-3 are subject to revision based on these reports.

In accordance to State decree #548-232s issued on March 15th, 1941, the amount of KV-1 tanks build according to agreement B1-081 is reduced by 100 units, as a result of which the cost of the contract is reduced by fifty two million three hundred thousand (52,300,000) rubles.

The overall cost of the KV-3 tanks is established by this addendum to equal three hundred and seventy million rubles (370,000,000).

The final cost of contract B1-081 including the addendum is therefore six hundred and thirty five million rubles (635,000,000).

The Vendor accepts the responsibility of producing a manual for the KV-3 vehicle by November 1st, 1941 and a catalog of spare parts by November 1st, 1941.

All other sections of the contract B1-081 remain in force.

[Signatures]
June 5th, 1941"

Item	Amount	Unit cost (thousand)	Total (thousand)
KV-1 tank	400	523	209,200
KV-2 tank	100	558	55,800
KV-3 tank	500	740	370,000
Total	1000	-	635,000

	KV-1		KV-2		KV-3
	Amount	Cost (thousands)	Amount	Cost (thousands)	Amount	Cost (thousands)
January	40	20,920	-	-	-	-
February	45	23,535	-	-	-	-
March	50	26,150	-	-	-	-
Q1 Total	135	70,605	-	-	-	-
April	65	33,995	-	-	-	-
May	-	-	70	39,060	-	-
June	50	26,150	30	16,740	-	-
Q2 Total	115	60,145	100	55,800	-	-
July	100	52,300	-	-	-	-
August	50	26,150	-	-	55	40,700
September	-	-	-	-	105	77,700
Q3 Total	150	78,450	-	-	160	118,400
October	-	-	-	-	110	81,400
November	-	-	-	-	110	81,400
December	-	-	-	-	120	88,800
Q4 Total	-	-	-	-	340	251,600

CAMD RF F.38 Op.11355 D.98 pp 65, 67

Heavy Guns vs KV-1

 

"XXXVIII Army Corps HW
Operational Department

Lempelevo, September 19th, 1941

RE: Experimental firing by Pz.Jg.Abt.563 against a Russian 52 ton tank (not reinforced).
1 diagram

18th Army HQ

Attached is the result of experimental firing against a Russian 52 ton tank (not reinforced) ordered by the corps HQ.

• Gun: l.F.H.18
• Ammunition: 10 cm Gr.39 rot (5th charge)
• Range: 200 m
• Results:
• 1st shot to the side destroyed the road wheels.
• 2nd shot to the turret ring jammed the turret. No penetration.
• 3rd shot to the turret ring jammed the turret. No penetration.
• 4th shot to the turret side penetrated about 5 cm, no complete penetration.

For the General Commander, Acting Chief of Staff, [Signature]"

Deliveries

 "Table of arrivals of tanks at the front lines in 1941, by type

Type	Domestic				British			American		Total
Month	KV	T-34	T-60	T-70	Mk.II	Mk.III	Mk.IV	M3 S	M3 L
Total 1941										20,740
Jan	126	206	348	-	-	16	-	-	-	696
Feb	165	420	260	-	-	-	-	-	-	845
Mar	105	338	84	-	-	-	-	-	-	527
Apr	320	702	576	-	134	144	-	14	32	1922
May	350	1003	898	-	255	171	-	30	16	2723
Jun	199	698	657	103	-	74	-	144	222	2091
Jul	299	1177	746	371	86	44	-	66	91	2880
Aug	178	1378	250	583	10	63	-	35	98	2595
Sep	45	598	-	439	-	72	-	54	43	1251
Oct	160	1100	75	640	-	10	-	24	5	2024
Nov	215	1312	-	838	85	163	-	187	61	2861
Dec	239	1678	48	1026	-	-	42	23	16	3072
Total 1942	Total domestic:  20,957				Total foreign: 2530					23,487

"

Via Alexey Isayev

This data is interesting on its own, but it's also interesting to compare to deliveries of foreign tanks. The first Matilda and Valentine tanks began arriving during the Battle for Moscow and were thrown into battle with little preparation. As you can see in the above table, once the situation stabilized a little bit it took some time before new units with British tanks could be properly outfitted. Large deployments of Matildas and Valentines only take place in April, four months after deliveries began.

A similar picture can be seen with American tanks. The first shipments arrived in January of 1942 and we start seeing a small number of these tanks on the battlefield in April-May, 4-5 months later. Once the pipeline was set up, it was not as hard to deploy new tanks. A bump shipments that came in May hits the front lines in June. A lot of tanks were tied up in delivery by the end of the year: 3875 foreign tanks were delivered to the USSR in 1941-1942, but only 2530 were actually fielded before the end of 1942.

You can see the same pattern with Soviet tanks. Evacuation of factory #183, the USSR's largest producer of the T-34 tank, began in September of 1941. The factory began to set up in the Urals in December-January, and by May of 1941 you see a spike in deliveries of T-34 tanks. Similarly, production of the T-70 was authorized in March of 1942 and we see these tanks begin to arrive on the front lines in July.