One of the myths of the Great Patriotic War about "miracle tanks", invulnerable, sweeping everything out of their way, was the myth about the new tanks of the Soviet Union - T-34, KV, in the initial period of the war. It has even been suggested that in order to knock them out, the German armed forces had to use aircraft, since conventional anti-tank weapons could not cope. This led to another myth - the reason for the defeat at the beginning of the war was the lack of "miracle tanks". The blame, of course, was placed on the Soviet leadership, which allegedly did not understand their significance before the war, and on Stalin personally.
Examples were given when KV (Klim Voroshilov) returned from battle with dozens of dents from enemy shells, but without holes, such facts did take place. The memories of the Germans aroused even greater interest; some of the most famous were the memoirs of the commander of the 2nd tank group G. Guderian based on his message about the "invulnerability" of the T-34 for German guns, about the heavy battle of the 4th tank division in October 1941 south of Mtsensk - it was attacked by the T-34 tank brigade Katukov. As a result, a myth was created, including in the Anglo-American literature, about the "invincible" T-34 tanks, which quickly overcome slopes, swamps, they are not taken by shells, they sow death and destruction. Although it is clear that the tanks of that time moved over rough terrain at a speed of no more than 10-15 km per hour.
Although it is clear that if the German column was attacked in a marching formation and caught by surprise, then the fault of the German commanders, its commander, Major General W. von Langemann und Erlenkamp. He did not organize reconnaissance in order to deploy the column into battle formation ahead of time. The 4th Panzer Division had enough funds to organize anti-tank defense: 50-mm Pak-38 cannons, 88-mm anti-aircraft guns, corps guns. But the Germans allowed themselves to be caught by surprise and, in order not to admit their mistakes, blamed the "terrible" Russian "miracle tanks". Guderian supported Langemann's report so as not to undermine his reputation.
Interestingly, Guderian had previously argued that: “… the Soviet T-34 tank is a typical example of backward Bolshevik technology. This tank cannot be compared with the best examples of our tanks, made by the faithful sons of the Reich and have repeatedly proved their advantage ….
T-34 model 1940.
The first battles of new Soviet tanks with the Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht met in battle with new Soviet tanks at the very beginning of the war. With normal reconnaissance, well-oiled interaction of tank units with artillery and infantry, our new tanks would not have come as a surprise to the Germans. German intelligence reported on new tanks in April 1941, although it was mistaken in assessing the armor protection: the KV was estimated at 40 mm, and it was from 40 to 75 mm, and the T-34 - at 30 mm, and the main booking was 40-45 mm.
One of the battles with new tanks is the clash of the 7th Panzer Division of the 3rd Panzer Group of Gotha on June 22 at the bridges over the Neman near the city of Alytus (Olita) with the 5th Soviet tank division, it had 50 newest T-34s, not counting other tanks. The German division was mainly armed with Czech tanks "38 (t)", there were 167 of them, T-34s were only 30 units. The battle was difficult, the Germans failed to expand the bridgehead, but our T-34s could not knock them out, the Germans pulled up their artillery, developed an offensive to the flank and rear, and under the threat of encirclement, our division withdrew. That is, on the very first day, the Wehrmacht "got acquainted" with the latest Soviet tanks, and there was no disaster.
Another battle took place in the area of the town of Radziechów on June 23, when units of the 4th mechanized corps and units of the 11th German tank division collided. German tanks broke into the town and there they collided with our T-34s. The battle was hard, but the forces were unequal - a German tank regiment, reinforced with artillery, and our two tank battalions without artillery, ours withdrew. According to Soviet data, the Germans lost 20 tanks, 16 anti-tank guns, our losses - 20 BT tanks, six T-34s. Thirty-fours were hit by 88-mm anti-aircraft guns. In further battles, German tankers, with the support of 88-mm anti-aircraft guns, taking advantage of a good defensive position, knocked out, according to their data, 40-60 Soviet tanks, according to our data, the detachment of the 4th mechanized corps lost 11 tanks, knocking out another 18 enemy tanks. In the battle on June 25, 88-mm anti-aircraft guns destroyed 9 KV, Soviet data confirm this number.
On June 24, the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht of the Reinhardt corps met with the 2nd Soviet tank division of the 3rd mechanized corps. The Soviet division had 30 KV, 220 BT and several dozen T-26s, the Landgraf division had 13 command tanks (without guns), 30 Panzer IV, 47 Panzer II, 155 Czech Panzer 35 (t). But the Germans had a variety of artillery pieces, as a result, the Germans were able to fight off the 30 KV, and then go on the offensive together with the 1st Panzer Division, surrounding and destroying the 2nd Soviet Panzer Division.
The Wehrmacht from the first days collided with new Soviet tanks, but this did not stop him, he had a weapon capable of hitting the KV and T-34. Most of them were hit by 105-mm guns (10, 5 cm) and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns, this is confirmed by F. Halder.
The main means of dealing with "miracle tanks"
Anti-aircraft guns and field 10, 5-cm guns played a major role in the fight against KV and T-34 at the beginning of the war, but then the 50-mm Pak-38 began to play the main role, it was adopted in 1940. The armor-piercing projectile of this anti-tank gun penetrated 78-mm homogeneous armor at a distance of 500 meters, and this made it possible to hit the KV and T-34 in favorable conditions. The main problem was to hit the frontal armor of the T-34, the shells ricocheted, it could only be hit at a certain angle.
On June 1, 1941, the Wehrmacht had 1,047 of these guns, as their production increased, anti-tank units began to receive them, their role in the fight against KV and T-34 was constantly growing. According to NII-48 in 1942, Pak-38 accounted for 51.6% of dangerous hits from the total number of hits.
50 mm PAK-38 cannon.
105 mm German light field howitzer.
A gun from the famous series of German anti-aircraft guns 8, 8 cm FlaK 18, 36 and 37. It is considered one of the best anti-aircraft guns of the Second World War. It was successfully used not only as a means of air defense, but also as an anti-tank gun, since the standard anti-tank artillery of the Germans in 1941 turned out to be weak for Soviet heavy tanks.
Problems of KV and T-34
When a shell and large-caliber bullets hit the KV, the tower could jam, jamming the armored caps. The KV engine had a small power reserve, so the motor was often overloaded and overheated, failure of the main and side clutches. In addition, "Klim Voroshilov" was slow, low-maneuverable. Diesel V-2 by the beginning of the war was "raw", its total resource did not exceed 100 hours on the stand, 40-70 hours on the tank. For example: German gasoline "Maybachs" worked 300-400 hours, our GAZ-203 (on T-70 tanks) and M-17T (stood on BT-5, BT-7, T-28, T-35) up to 300 hours …
In the T-34, armor-piercing shells of 37-mm anti-tank guns pierced the armor from a distance of 300-400 meters, and 20-mm armor-piercing shells also pierced the sides. With a direct hit of the projectile, the driver's front hatch and the "apple" of the machine-gun mount, weak tracks, failure of the main and side clutches fell through. The ball mount of the Dektyarev tank machine gun was designed for bullets and shrapnel, it did not hold 37-mm shells. The front hatch of the tank was also a problem.
But it cannot be said that most of the new tanks "broke" before reaching the battle, or were abandoned due to breakdowns. In general, about half of the tanks died in battle, the Wehrmacht beat them quite successfully. The rest of the "non-combat losses" are quite understandable, for the retreating army breakdowns, damage to tanks, which could be corrected in another situation (with a stable front or during an offensive), forced them to blow up and abandon. This is also true for tanks that ran out of fuel during retreat. Tank units of the Wehrmacht, retreating in 1943-1945, lost about the same amount of equipment due to the inability to evacuate it.
The Nazis inspect the padded KV-1 with add. armored screens.
Other methods of the Wehrmacht
The command of the Wehrmacht, faced with new Soviet tanks, tried to strengthen the anti-tank capabilities of the army. The 75-mm French field gun of the 1897 model of the year was massively converted into an anti-tank gun - the body of the gun was placed on the PAK-38 carriage. But the effect was small, there were no guarantees to hit Soviet tanks head-on, so they tried to hit the side. But in order to successfully hit the tanks, it was necessary to hit from a distance of 180-250 meters. In addition, there were almost no armor-piercing shells for it, only cumulative and high-explosive fragmentation. The disadvantage when firing cumulative projectiles was the low muzzle velocity of the projectile - about 450 m / s, which made it more difficult to calculate the lead.
Soviet tanks were hit with 75-mm cannons of German T-IV (Pz. IV) tanks using cumulative ammunition. This was the only German tank shell capable of hitting the T-34 and KV.
German 75-mm anti-tank guns with kinetic armor-piercing and sub-caliber projectiles, PAK-40, Pak-41 guns (they were released for a short time and in small batches) became truly effective weapons against the KV and T-34. The Pak-40 became the basis of the German anti-tank defense: in 1942 they produced 2114 units, in 1943 - 8740, in 1944 - 11 728. These guns could knock out T-34s at a distance of 1200 meters. True, there was a problem of circular fire, after several shots the openers were buried so deeply into the ground that it was only possible to deploy the gun with the help of a tractor.
That is, the Wehrmacht was forced to use heavy, slow-moving guns against the new Soviet tanks, which were vulnerable to roundabout maneuvers by armored vehicles, aviation, and enemy artillery.
PAK-40 German 75mm anti-tank gun.
Outcome
The myth about "Russian supertanks" has extremely negative information - it elevates technology, belittles people. They say that the Russians had "miracle tanks", but could not use them properly and eventually retreated to Moscow.
Although it is clear that even well-protected tanks had their weaknesses and were vulnerable to the enemy. This is also true for the newest German tanks - "tigers", "panthers". There were anti-aircraft guns, heavy hull guns, it was possible to hit tanks on the side with anti-tank guns. In addition, the tanks were knocked out by aviation and heavy artillery, which struck before the offensive of the troops. Quite quickly, both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army increased the main caliber of anti-tank and tank guns to 75-mm.
There is no need to create another myth - "about the weakness of Soviet new tanks." The new Soviet tanks had the disadvantages of "childhood", they were eliminated by modernization, and the T-34 is not for nothing considered the best tank of the Second World War.
T-34 1941 release in the Armored Museum in Kubinka.
