AA Tanks

"To the Chief of the Main Tank Directorate of the Red Army, Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces comrade Vershinin

In response to your letter dated March 26th, I reply the following:

The People's Commissariat of Armaments had never supplied DShK tank machine guns with magazines. The DShK tank machine gun was always fed the same way as the infantry machine gun, with a belt. 

Forward Observer

"To the Chief of Staff of the 10th Artillery Breakthrough Corps

I present to you an article by Guards Captain Cherkashenko titled "observation and fire correction from a radio tank".

Chief of Staff of the 4th Artillery Breakthrough Division, Lieutenant Colonel Zyazin

Major Vetrov

February 10th, 1945

Tank Experience

"Report on the use of tanks in the Patriotic War of 1941-1945

1st Tank Battalion, 3rd Guards Minsk-Gdansk Order of Lenin Order of the Red Banner Order of Suvorov Tank Brigade

1. The armament and ammunition of the T-34 tank are of high quality.
   To make it easier to use the commander's cupola, we consider it necessary to remove the periscope.
   Practice shows that nonstop observation from a tank has a great effect in combat. This is especially true in the last part of the war in 1945 when the Germans used the Faustpatrone in large quantities. Soldiers armed with the Faustpatrone hiding in thick forests, enfilades, or settlements dealt great damage to tanks firing suddenly from concealment. To successfully combat the Faustpatrone and discover them in due time, it is necessary for all crew members to observe the battlefield in all directions. The existing observation devices do not allow this. To improve vision we consider it necessary to introduce a periscope in the front plate for the machine gunner and side vision periscopes for the driver.
   The TSh-15 sight should have 5x magnification.

The Other Degtyaryev

The Red Army had two primary machine guns during the Great Patriotic War and the period preceding it: the light DP-27 and heavy Maxim. All Soviet armoured vehicles were equipped with a modified variant of the light machine gun. However, even these proven designs had their competitors. Given certain circumstances, they could have become widely used as well. One of them, the DS-39 heavy machine gun, even had a tank version produced and tested.

Sore Feet

"Cipher telegram

Top secret

Enciphered

Do not copy

TO: 1st Baltic Front

Deputy Commander of Armoured and Mechanized Forces, Colonel Karpenko

The 21 M4A2 tanks that arrived do not have a single spare road wheel with them.

During a march between Shvibuk and Arnsvalde 24 road wheels broke due to low quality rubber. I ask you to urgently give orders to issue spare road wheels for M4A2 tanks and give us directions on where to receive them.

Chief of Armoured and Mechanized Vehicles of the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, Guards Colonel Kravtsov

Sent: March 1st, 1945 12:30

Received: March 1st, 1945 13:00"

CAMD RF 3475-1-252a p.679

Kotin's Visit

Despite being promoted to very high posts, Zh.Ya. Kotin did not restrict his work to the office and visited the front lines frequently. On October 7th, 1942, he dropped by the 1st battalion of the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade to check up on KV tanks.

"October 7th, 1942.

The battalion is in the same location, continuing to repair materiel.

At 17:00 the designer of the KV tank, Hero of Socialist Labout, Major General of the Engineering Forces Kotin arrived with the commander of the 7th Tank Corps, and the commander and commissar of the 3rd Guards Heavy Tank Brigade.

Major General Kotin talked with the crews and asked about issues of preserving and using the vehicles. He was surprised by the state of affairs where the tanks have been running for 250-300 hours and many of them are still in service.

At 18:00 the commanders left."

CAMD RF 3067-1-22 p.72

Drive Me Closer

"Award Order

1. Name: Aleksey Georgievich Lebedev
2. Rank: Guards Sergeant
3. Position, unit: Mechanic-driver, 1st tank battalion, 5th Guards Tank Brigade
   is nominated for the Order of the Red Star.

How to Kill a Tiger

There were many guides on how to take out Tiger tanks printed in the Red Army. I've shown two of them here, but this one is a lot more detailed.

Optimal Modernization

GKO decree #3892ss "On organization of 85 mm SPGs on the T-34 chassis at the Uralmash factory" was signed on August 8th, 1943. The first 100 vehicles of this type were ready by early September. The SU-85 ended up being the most numerous Soviet SPG of the war. However, the question of its successor was already raised at the start of its production. The cause of this was information from the Kursk salient about new German Panther tanks and Ferdinand SPGs. A program to develop a gun more powerful than the D-5 was launched in September of 1943. The result was the SU-100, the best Soviet medium SPG of the war.

Night Vision Conclusions

"Conclusions on night driving devices for the T-34

The devices for driving tanks at night did not prove themselves.

1. The field of view is weak.
2. Only vertical objects are well defined. Terrain and horizontal objects are nearly invisible.
3. Vision range is short.