Chapter 307 Comrade Kotin's Ambition

It all started when Kotin hurried back to his 2nd Special Tank Design Bureau in Chelyabinsk after the Moscow meeting.

Although the plan to convert the M1939 85mm anti-aircraft gun into an 85mm vehicle-mounted tank gun had been determined at the meeting, Kotin, who had never done such an anti-aircraft gun-to-tank gun task before, felt a bit at a loss as to where to start.

Kotin, who had been thinking hard, could not find any good and feasible main gun improvement plan. The new heavy tank design team under the entire design bureau encountered a serious design bottleneck on the main gun issue.

Specifically, the possibility of replacing a larger caliber main gun in the later stage was not considered when the early KV1 heavy tank was designed. The existing KV1 heavy tank turret could not adapt to the expected 85mm tank gun modification. The huge gun tail and the narrower breech block would fill most of the space in the turret, so that even the gunner and the commander could only fight sideways.

In addition, the first ammunition rack built into the turret will become impossible to keep. The loader needs to bend down and pick up the shells from the chassis of the vehicle body and then load them into the turret, just like loading shells for the T34 tank before. This almost "degenerate" design is simply intolerable for Kokin, who is determined to build the strongest heavy tank.

"The original KV1 heavy tank turret is completely scrapped! Don't consider continuing to use this outdated design on our new heavy tank."

"Immediately put the design of the new turret on the top priority. If necessary, you can temporarily put a new turret on the KV1 heavy tank chassis to verify the technical feasibility! As for the improved tank gun plan of the 85mm anti-aircraft gun, I will arrange special personnel to complete it. The priority task is to make a prototype turret according to the expected size of the 85mm tank gun and wait for the vehicle test."

After issuing such an order, Kokin immediately began to arrange the plan for the new 85mm main gun.

Objectively speaking, this plan was not designed by the Second Special Tank Design Bureau led by Kotin, but more like a literal "plagiarism" plan.

Kotin, who is good at "political struggle" and "class struggle", has long planted his own "spies" in the First Special Tank Design Bureau led by his rival Morozov, in order to find out at the critical moment whether Morozov has made new designs and improvement plans that are not beneficial to him.

At the Moscow New Tank Conference, it was learned that the old rival Morozov had actually started to work on the T34 tank improvement plan.

The shrewd Kotin soon realized that the First Special Tank Design Bureau led by Morozov was likely ahead of the Second Special Tank Design Bureau led by him in the plan to improve the 85mm anti-aircraft gun into a tank gun. After all, the time advantage is clearly there.

Having made the final decision, Kotin quickly mobilized his "spies" in the First Special Tank Design Bureau, and as expected, he learned about Morozov's many design plans for further improving the T34 tank, and also obtained the sketches and technical outlines.

This includes the design plan for the next generation of improved T34, and also covers all the current achievements in the improvement of 85mm anti-aircraft guns into tank guns.

Kotin was shocked to get the core confidential files of Morozov. Morozov, his old enemy, has not only completed most of the design work of the 85mm anti-aircraft gun converted into a tank gun, but even the new T34 tank turret that matches it has taken shape in the design sketch.

This new T34 tank turret, which can accommodate an 85mm tank gun, is larger than the original turret, and the physical armor thickness indicated by numbers is also higher than the original T34 tank turret. The front of the turret with a physical thickness of 90mm can even obtain more than 100mm armor equivalent at the edge of the semi-arc gun shield by virtue of the arc angle.

At the same time, Morozov, who was considered "very shameless" by Kotin, also "copied" the design of the first ready-to-fire ammunition rack built into the turret used on the KV1 heavy tank. The tail of the turret of the new T34 tank can store up to 16 rounds of 85mm fixed ammunition, which is stronger than the 10-round capacity turret first ammunition rack design of the KV1 heavy tank.

Kotin, who realized that his design was copied, was immediately very annoyed. The idea that you do the first day of the month and I do the fifteenth day of the month made Kotin's only remaining concern about plagiarism disappear.

Kotin made the decision decisively and was determined not only to directly apply Morozov's existing research results on the 85mm tank gun, but also to "use and learn from" Morozov's design for the new T34 tank turret.

According to Kotin's idea, his new heavy tank turret must be more powerful than Morozov's unfortunate design. The thicker turret armor physical thickness will naturally obtain a stronger equivalent armor thickness after matching the turret shape designed by Morozov. Once his new heavy tank is unveiled, Morozov, the "shameless plagiarist", will not even cry.

Kotin, who called on all the workers and designers in the factory to work hard, set an example by himself. He only rested for four or five hours every day and always lay on his desk to draw design sketches and review and submit plans.

With these design sketches and plans "borrowed" from Morozov's First Special Tank Design Bureau as a basis, Kotin's team made rapid progress, and only needed to make slight improvements on this basis to complete the work. A total of 8 prototype turrets of different appearances were rushed out of the production line in less than half a month.

These new heavy tank prototype turrets with angular appearance changed the previous "flat head and square face" design of the KV1 heavy tank turret. They boldly adopted a semi-arc armored gun shield. While maintaining equivalent armor defense and a large ricochet probability, it also further expanded the efficiency of the use of the internal space of the turret, allowing the new 85mm main gun to be perfectly accommodated without taking up too much space.

In addition, the 85mm main gun manufactured by the Second Special Tank Design Bureau led by Kotin basically directly applied the design of Morozov's team and was almost exactly the same. Strictly speaking, even the design of details such as the breech block structure and the main gun ears can be said to be exactly the same without much difference.