Chapter 374

The lessons of the Spanish Civil War made Soviet tank designers work tirelessly.

At the same time, according to the previous progress, around 38 years ago, the two experimental models of the Soviet Union, SMK and T100 heavy tanks, began trial production and were equipped with the Red Army troops.

Among them, the SMK "Kirov" heavy tank was designed by Kejing. At least, tanks with multiple turrets are the mainstream at this time.

Therefore, this tank has two turrets, just like the Land Cruiser. The main turret is equipped with a 76.2mm main gun, and the front and lower secondary turrets are equipped with a 45mm gun, with a crew of 7 people and a total combat weight of 55 tons.

It sounds like an absolute heavy tank, but because it has multiple turrets, the armor thickness is only 20 to 60 mm, which is difficult to meet the protection needs on the battlefield.

Moreover, 55 tons is already the design upper limit of the tank. If you want to improve the protection, you can only change to the layout of a single turret.

Therefore, last year, Kejing personally presided over the development of a new single-turret heavy tank based on the SMK heavy tank.

Last year, the Soviet Ministry of Defense Order No. 45 officially decided to start the project and named the new tank after Marshal Crimea-Voroshilov (KV).

Since this tank inherits the body shape, internal structure, suspension system, transmission mechanism, etc. of the SMK tank, only the turret is changed and the thickness is increased, so the progress is very fast. Under the stimulation of Germany, the sample has now been made The car is coming.

However, in fact, the original SMK tank is a test product, and there are a lot of mechanical problems that have not been solved, so the current new KV tank is also the same.

Historically, in the 39-year Soviet-Finnish war, KV-1 participated in actual combat with good results, but the comprehensive test was not over yet.

When the KV-1 continued to be tested at the Kubinka Proving Ground near Leningrad, during the 2648 km driving test, many problems with the transmission, gearbox and running gear were found.

As a result, it was planned to produce 200 KV-1 tanks in 1940, but the first production KV-1 did not leave the factory until the end of the year.

And now, the KV-1 tank, of course, still has many technical problems, but in the face of German pressure, the Soviet Union has no choice but to put this tank into production as soon as possible!

After hearing Stalin's question, Marshal Voroshilov immediately brought up the KV-1 tank. Now, there is no choice but to put this tank into production immediately!

That is a tank designed by his son-in-law, and he must fully support it!

Hearing Voroshilov's words, Stalin recalled the previous meeting in his mind, and couldn't help but ask, "The Kharkov factory also seems to have a tank project, right? How is that project going?"

Hearing this question, Malyshev was just about to say something, and was taken over by Marshal Voroshilov: "The A-32 project has already fallen behind, and their tank is unable to compete with The latest German tanks are competing, and their tanks, it is said that there are still many faults, and they cannot reach the state of equipment at all."

Hearing the words of Marshal Voroshilov, Maleshev could only swallow what he just wanted to say.

The purge campaign killed many marshals, and the few remaining marshals were the ones Stalin trusted the most. Since Voroshilov had already published one, Malyshev couldn't refute it. He didn't want to give it to himself. trouble.

Hearing this, Stalin nodded: "The progress of the tank cannot be delayed any longer. If it meets the finalization requirements after testing, it will be put into production as soon as possible."

Thinking of Germany's overwhelming tanks, Stalin was unhappy. He must expand the Soviet tank force as soon as possible. Only in this way can he fight against Germany.

The meeting ended abruptly, and Malyshev conveyed the spirit of the meeting. Hearing the news, Koshkin was full of anger.

"Our project is much better than Koshkin's project." Koshkin said: "Now, our prototype car has the ability to participate in the test. Comrade Stalin, he was also positive about our plan at the beginning. We Comrade Stalin must be informed of the progress of our tanks!"

At the beginning, when Koshkin handed over his plan, Stalin was sure, and now, the prototype car has been built, waiting to be tested, and the result was that Marshal Voroshilov, who covered the sky with one hand, was shot. !

How does this work? Has all your hard work these days been in vain? Koshkin is definitely not reconciled!

The dead weight of the KV-1 is too high. Under such dead weight, mechanical failures will occur frequently. Koshkin has already made an investigation. The 30-ton tank is the most suitable, and his A-32 project, is the most suitable!

At the same time, after learning about the progress of the German tanks, Koshkin also planned to further expand the size of the cannon ring and stuff it into larger tank guns. Since the German tank guns are all 75mm, then simply own their own tanks. , just use the 85mm tank gun!

But now, everything is still in the shadows, and the means of Marshal Voroshilov have seized the living space!

No, absolutely not!

Standing in the icy factory building, looking at the hard work in front of him, Koshkin suddenly came up with an idea: "Let's just drive this tank from Kharkiv to Moscow!"

How to show the good mechanical performance of your own tanks? A long trek, of course!

KV tanks, needless to say, run thousands of kilometers and hundreds of kilometers, there will be various mechanical failures, and his current A-32 tank is absolutely no problem!

Compared with history, the progress of the Kharkov factory's project has also advanced a lot. Although there is still a certain distance between the A-32 tank and the T-34, in terms of the most critical reliability, he is fully equipped. of confidence.

As for the power system, the most important thing is the engine. For this tank, Koshkin's assistant, Morozov, successfully developed a 12-cylinder 39-liter V-2 diesel engine with a power of 500 horsepower.

This excellent engine makes the A-32 tank gun very fast, with a maximum speed of 55km/h on the road, and at the same time, it is quite fuel-efficient.

The tank has a fuel tank capacity of 460 liters and a 39-liter backup fuel tank on each side of the body, with a range of up to 540 kilometers.

The German tanks also use diesel engines, which is simply the same as the heroes.

In contrast, the current KV tanks also use aviation gasoline engines!

(Historically, it was Kejing who saw that the diesel engine of the T-34 was good and installed it on the KV tank. Now that history has advanced, Kejing has not had this chance yet.)

"I will personally take part in this test and drive to Moscow to show Comrade Stalin our tanks!" Koshkin made up his mind.

Outside, snowflakes are flying.