And it so happened that somewhere in the 70s of the last century I came across the book "Strike and Defense" by the publishing house "Young Guard", in which, in addition to stories about armored vehicles, there were also memoirs of veterans of tank forces. One of them described his encounter with German tanks … "Rheinmetall", which took place in 1942, and the tanks themselves were painted yellow-brown. He immediately remembered their performance characteristics, which he studied at the school, ordered them to load with armor-piercing, fired and knocked out … Then I did not know anything about the Wehrmacht tanks, which were armed with two guns at once - 75 and 37-mm and I really wanted to know more about this machine. This "thirst for knowledge" lasted for more than one year, I even had to write to the tank museum in Münster, but in the end I learned everything I wanted.
So, the tank called "Rheinmetall" in that book was actually designed and built by this company in 1933. At the same time, two tanks numbered 1 and 2 were made not of armor, but of ordinary steel, that is, they were essentially mock-ups, albeit running ones. Armament was also present on them, but only they could not fight and were later used exclusively as training vehicles. They received the designation Neubaufahrzeug (Nвfz) - literally "a machine of a new design."
In 1934, three more tanks were produced by Krupp. These machines received respectively No. 3, No. 4, No. 5. Externally, the cars of the "first release" and the second were quite noticeably different. With the same chassis, they had different turrets and weapon installations. In addition, these were already real combat vehicles, since they were made of armor steel.
The design of both cars, although very impressive, did not shine with particular originality. In general, this was the German response to British and Soviet three-turret tanks. The frontal armor plates had large angles of inclination, but the thickness of the armor was small and amounted to only 20 mm. The T-28 had 30-mm frontal armor, so it did not have an armor advantage over our vehicle. Many of the details on the first tanks had rounded outlines. In particular, the turret and turret platform at the rear were rounded at the front. This was done so that the aft machine-gun turret would have a maximum sector of fire, and this also increased the resistance of the armor.
Nbfz in Norway.
Speaking about the design of the vehicle, it should be noted that the Germans carefully studied all the advantages and disadvantages of both Soviet and British vehicles and, apparently, decided to do something between the Soviet T-28 and T-35, and the British Vickers-16 tank. T . To begin with, the tank had three turrets, but they were located diagonally from left to right. In the front left, a machine-gun turret with one MG-13 machine gun (later MG-34), then the central large turret with a commander's cupola, armed with the same machine gun in a separate installation, and two 37 and 75-mm guns (KBK-3, 7L-45 and KBK-7, 5L-23, 5), vertically paired, and another machine-gun turret to the right behind. Ammunition of the tank was: 37-mm shells - 50, 75-mm - 80, cartridges for machine guns - 6000). With such a composition of weapons, this tank was definitely stronger than the British vehicle and the Soviet T-28, but was inferior to the T-35, occupying an intermediate place between them.
Someone's well-made 1:35 scale model …
And here is the Maybach HL108 TR engine with a capacity of 280 hp. for a tank weighing 23 tons, it was clearly rather weak. Although he could accelerate it on the highway to 32 km / h. The cruising range was only 120 km. The drive wheels were at the back, which was not typical for German cars, driven in front. The engine was shifted to the left, as there was a turret with a machine gun on the right. The suspension consisted of 10 paired rubberized rollers of small diameter, interlocked on five bogies. Coil springs were used as a shock absorber, so the suspension was very simple.
The upper branch of each track rested on four rubber-coated twin rollers fixed in bulwark niches on V-shaped brackets. The front drive wheel also had a "rubber band", which reduced the wear of the tracks and the roller itself. Below it was an additional video that should help in overcoming obstacles. The track width was 380 mm, that is, it was the same width as that of the first Pz. III and Pz. IV tanks. Again, for such a tank, it was too narrow, which could not but affect the maneuverability and maneuverability of the new tank, but increased its maintainability. The undercarriage had an armored bulwark that covered the suspension springs.
Soviet stamp of 1943 on which this tank can be viewed.
The tank's crew, which consisted of 6 people, had a good view and 8 hatches for entry and exit and 4 for maintenance. Only on the main turret there were three hatches: one on the commander's cupola and two on the sides, closer to the stern. The hatches of the first two tanks opened in the direction of the tank, which was inconvenient. On the other three, which received the tower "faceted" outlines, this was taken into account and made them open against the movement, so that the open doors served as a shield from bullets. Another notable change was the placement of the guns. Now they were placed not one above the other, but horizontally: 37 mm to the right of the 75 mm. The hatches had machine-gun turrets, the driver's cabin and two more manholes were in the bulwarks immediately behind the driving wheels. For communication, a radio station with a range of 8000 m was used, which had a handrail antenna on the first two tanks, and a whip antenna on the latter. But such an important indicator as the thickness of the armor on both modifications remained unchanged: 20 mm - the armor of the hull and 13 mm - the armor of the turret.
And then the service of all these machines began, and in a very unusual quality of tanks-PR, although the Germans hardly used this then purely American term in those years. They were filmed! Filmed in the factory workshops from different angles, filmed, filmed … Then, during the Norwegian campaign, three tanks with armor protection as part of the 40th separate tank battalion of special purpose were sent to Norway, where they marched through Oslo and where they were again filmed, filmed, and filmed. As a result, pictures of these tanks, first in the factory workshops, and then on the streets of Oslo, went around the world. As a result of the information skilfully presented in this way, all foreign military specialists were afraid, placed the silhouettes of the new tank in all their officers' manuals and began to assert that Germany has … a lot of such tanks! So many! And soon there will be even more! There are these photos in our domestic editions dedicated to the Second World War, there is in the Heigl reference book, there are … everywhere! For example, in the "Identifier of the types of fascist tanks" Nbfz. (under the name "Rheinmetall") was indicated as the main "heavy tank" of the German army, while it was reported that it has a solid thickness of armor - 50-75 mm. And all this was done by only three tanks, which were filming a lot and skillfully …!
As for the combat service of these tanks, it turned out to be short and not impressive. On April 20, 1940, these tanks, along with others, were attached to the 196th Infantry Division and went to beat the British along with the Pz. I and Pz. II. Roads in Norway are narrow, the area of hostilities is mountainous, there are rubble all around, and the bridges are dilapidated and not designed for the passage of such equipment. In addition, the British fired at them with their Boyes anti-tank rifles and 25-mm French Hotchkiss anti-tank guns. As a result, of the 29 Pz. Is that the Germans had in this 40th tank battalion, 8 vehicles were lost, 2 out of 18 Pz. II. and 1 NBFZ. Moreover, the latter was not hit, but simply stuck in a swampy lowland in the Lilihammer area. It was not possible to pull it out, and although the situation was not so dramatic, the crew blew up the tank so that it would not fall into the hands of the British.
The remaining two tanks were then returned to the Reich, where they all got lost. There are no documents proving that they were sent to the Eastern Front, but there are no documents that prove that they were not sent. Even in the tank museum in Münster nothing is known about their fate. In any case, it was not difficult for Soviet tanks to knock them out. But here is their impressive appearance … here … oh, yes - they fought perfectly!
Rice. A. Shepsa
