What did the events of the Great Patriotic War show in relation to the T-34 tank? At the initial stage - a wonderful car, far ahead of its contemporaries. On the final, on the example of the T-34-85, it became clear that there was nowhere to upgrade the vehicle.
World tank building marched at ten-kilometer strides, and the T-34 was clearly no longer keeping up with its "classmates". Yes, some changes in the turret and the installation of a more powerful 85 mm cannon did their job, but then there was a dead end.
And at the end of 1943, Soviet designers came to the conclusion that something must be done.
Initially, the layout of the T-34 was designed so that the V-2-34 engine occupied almost half of the entire internal space of the tank.
The tower had to be moved forward as much as possible, and the crew had to be shoved across the remaining space. As a result, as we have already noted, it was very cramped inside the T-34, but this was not the worst thing either. It was unpleasant that it became impossible to further build up frontal armor and install a more powerful cannon. This was caused by a serious overload of the undercarriage at the front of the tank.
Therefore, already in 1943, a worthy replacement for the T-34 was prepared, developed by the design bureau (department No. 520, chief designer A. A. Morozov) of the Ural Tank Plant No. 183 named after Stalin, which received the working index T-44, or object 136.
The main task for the designers was the complete re-arrangement of the engine-transmission compartment of the tank. Succeeded. The T-44 engine was installed not along, but across the body and connected to the gearbox with an overdrive. It was also possible to reduce the height of the engine by moving the air cleaner to the side, moving the radiator across the body behind the gearbox and displacing the fan to the stern of the tank.
The layout turned out to be not only more successful: in comparison with the T-34, the T-44 significantly improved the cooling of the transmission units.
The fighting compartment has not only increased. If you change from T-34 to T-44, you feel that you got into a modern apartment after the "Stalin", so the internal free volume increases. The turret could be moved to the center of the hull, closer to the center of gravity of the tank. This improved balance and had a positive effect on the accuracy of fire on the move. The modernization potential increased, there was now enough space even for the installation of a 122 mm cannon from the IS-2.
The load on the front rollers has decreased, which means that it has become possible to increase the frontal armor of the hull to 90 mm, and the frontal armor of the turret to 120 mm.
The angle of inclination of the frontal sheet was increased to 60 °, and it became monolithic. If in the T-34 the driver's hatch, located in the frontal armor plate, was the weak point, then on the T-44 the driver's hatch was generally removed to the hull.
The tank's crew was reduced by a radio operator, since the tank commander was handling the maintenance of the radio station. In addition, the receipt of orders by the tank commander directly from the higher authorities, and not through a crew member, increased efficiency.
The course machine gun was left, but now it was rigidly fixed in the frontal armor, the driver fired from it. A fuel tank was placed in the vacant place for the gunner-radio operator.
Well, and the crew became much more comfortable.
TTX T-44:
Combat weight, t 31, 0
Crew, people 4
Years of production 1944-1947
Years of operation 1945 - late 1970s
Number of issued, pcs. 1823
Dimensions (edit)
Body length, mm 6070
Length with gun forward, mm 7650
Case width, mm 3180
Height, mm 2410
Base, mm 3800
Track, mm 2630
Clearance, mm 425
Reservation
Body forehead (top), mm / deg. 90/60 ° [1]
Body forehead (bottom), mm / deg. 90/45 ° [1]
Hull board, mm / deg.75/0 ° [1]
Bottom, mm 15 [1]
Hull roof, mm 15-20 [1]
Tower forehead, mm / deg. 120
Tower board, mm / deg. 90/20 ° [1]
Armament
Caliber and brand of the gun 85 mm ZIS-S-53 arr. 1944
Gun ammunition 58
HV angles, deg. −5 … + 25 °
Machine guns 2 × 7, 62-mm DTM
Mobility
Engine power, hp with. 500
Speed on the highway, km / h 60
Cross-country speed, km / h 25..30
Cruising on the highway, km 200..250
Cruising in store over rough terrain, km 180..200
The overcome rise, hail. thirty
The overcome wall, m 0, 73
Overcome moat, m 2, 5
Overcome ford, m 1, 3
Having a significant external resemblance to the T-34-85, the T-44 radically differed from it in size, layout and design.
Replacing the old, heavy and cumbersome Christie spring suspension with a torsion bar suspension freed up a lot of space. This is what made it possible to completely revise the layout of the tank.
The fenders disappeared, and the freed up space allowed the new B-44 engine to be placed not along, but across the tank hull. Due to the turn of the engine, the fighting compartment was increased and the working conditions of the crew were improved.
After making a number of minor design improvements on November 23, 1944, the T-44A was put into service.
The first five production vehicles left the KhTZ workshops in November 1944. In total, during the production period from 1944 to 1947, 1,823 T-44 tanks were produced.
True, they did not go to the front and did not participate in the hostilities of the Second World War.
Moreover, almost immediately after launching into production at the end of 1944, it became clear that in terms of armament, the T-44 could not be considered as the main combat vehicle. The 85-mm cannon had practically exhausted its capabilities and was not suitable for fighting modern tanks.
It was decided to start work on the next modification of the tank, the T-44B, equipped with a 100 mm D-10 cannon. Work began in October 1944, design was completed in December 1944, and a prototype was manufactured by February 1945.
The tank has successfully passed the tests and was recommended for adoption. It differed from the "base" model of the T-44 in many things: a new cannon, a turret of a different configuration, an engine, and a different booking scheme.
In fact, it was already a completely different tank, therefore, instead of the letter "B", the machine received an independent name, under which it was soon put into production - T-54.
But that's a completely different story.
In 1961, all T-44 tanks produced were modernized in order to unify the chassis with the main Soviet T-54 tank. In addition, the vehicles, designated T-44M, received night surveillance devices and increased ammunition, and a second radio station was installed on the commander's T-44MK due to a decrease in ammunition.
In 1965, part of the T-44 was converted into BTS-4 armored tractors, and in 1966 the remaining tanks were equipped with a two-plane weapon stabilizer, which increased the accuracy of firing on the move. These vehicles received the designation T-44S. In the late 1970s, the T-44 was withdrawn from service by the Soviet Army.
The only armed conflict in which the T-44 participated was Operation Whirlwind. In addition, at the end of their service, the machines still had a chance to "participate" in the Great Patriotic War: in the role of German tanks Pz VI "Tiger" in the films "Liberation" and "They Fought for the Motherland."
Still from the movie "Hot Snow"
Shot from the movie series "Liberation"
After the corresponding alteration, the tanks became almost indistinguishable from German vehicles (with the exception of the undercarriage).
In 2004, this tank portrayed the Pz VI "Tiger" already in the film "Bunker". Also, this tank can be seen in the films "Father of a Soldier", "Officers", "On the Way to Berlin", "On the Roads of War", "Native Blood", where it "plays" the role of T-34-85.
