Congratulations are received at the UMMC Museum of Military Equipment, which is located in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region. A new exhibit has appeared on the museum site - the KV-1S tank.
The tank left the assembly line in August 1942 and went to the front during the Battle of Stalingrad. Its "century" did not last long: at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant they managed to produce just over 1000 of these tanks; to this day, only a few of these machines have survived in military museums.
Where did this particular car come from?
Alexander Yemelyanov, Director of the UMMC Museum of Military Equipment:
“Fragments of several tanks of this model were found in the Pskov and Novgorod regions, where heavy battles were fought almost throughout the entire war - from 1941 to 1944. In particular, the tower and the main body of our KV were found near Staraya Russa.
The battle marks that remained in the tank hull speak eloquently about the past of the museum exhibit. Judging by them, the car withstood several dozen hits before it was hit."
The KV-1S is a modernized version of the KV-1 tank, which began its history in 1939. For its impenetrable armor, the predecessor tank in the German army was called a ghost - Gespenst. However, the very first battles showed that the vehicle was too heavy and unmanageable.
Corresponding work was done over the shortcomings, and during the summer of 1942 a new engine was installed on the tank, the armor plates were made thinner, and the turret acquired a rounded shape. Thanks to the modernization, the mass of the tank decreased from 47.5 to 42 tons, and the speed increased from 30 to 42 km / h.
The release of this model did not last long: by 1943, heavy tanks "Panther" and "Tiger" appeared in the German army, and the main problem of even a lighter and faster KV-1S was that it retained the weapon of its predecessor: the 76-mm cannon, which was difficult to fight in the new realities of the war. So the "ghost" was replaced with completely new combat vehicles - heavy tanks of the IS type.
In Verkhnyaya Pyshma, the legendary tank took its place in the open area of the Museum of Military Equipment of the UMMC, adding to the existing line of heavy tanks of the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.
