Life is still a funny thing. Recently, at the request of his wife, he climbed into the sofa, where a pile of papers was gathering dust, in order to throw away all this waste paper and found there a number of old "tank-workshop" materials and … decided to "drive" them into the Antiplagiat system. I drove it and saw that they had a high level of novelty. That is, something was planned for publication, something was published, but did not get on the Web, in a word, I worked a little and it turned out to be quite good material for VO on the topic of Czech tanks. And then he looked there again, and there was a "continuation of the banquet" about the towers of Czech and not only Czech tanks, which fell on the pedestals of various fortified lines.
The most common tower from a tank on a concrete base is, of course, the tower from the Renault R-35 tank.
And it so happened that when my magazine "Tankomaster" began to be published and distributed, many considered it almost a miracle - in the days of the USSR, our people were not pampered with such information. In the special storage of the library. IN AND. Lenin, even the drawings of the T-27 tankette were kept. There was fear - “whatever might happen,” and so strong that the very first issue of the magazine came out in handwritten altogether! Nobody wanted me to recruit it for any money, and my friend, artist I. Zeynalov, had to write the entire text to it by hand! Well, and they printed it in some research institute on a hectograph (not a single printing house did it!), Like Bolshevik leaflets in the underground.
And here is a whole set of them, and in one fortified area: 38 (t) on the left, then either T-I or T-II, then Renault.
Famous shot of American soldiers walking past the turret of a T-II tank.
Another tower T-II.
Tower T-II in the Marseille area.
But over time, the magazine got better and better, and then generally began to be published in Moscow, as an appendix to the "Technology-Youth". And here it began: both model firms and individual citizens "from there" began to overwhelm me with requests for help (and the most sometimes original ones - for example, to send good drawings of a 1941 Russian hut for a diorama with a T-III tank), and offers of cooperation … One came from the USA from St. Louis (that's where my THERE got to!), Where its author worked as the chief biologist of the local zoo and part-time owned the company "Tank turret", which was engaged in collecting information about tank towers that were stationary used in the war … The biologist wanted two things from me: first, he needed … a bone from a walrus penis (!). It turns out that walruses have bone there and this is a great rarity. And secondly - information on the photo, where the towers of German tanks were found in Russia and Poland. I never found a bone for him, because there were no “tank masters” among the Chukchi, but the photo was burned out. Moreover, one of the five firms, and in Penza in the 90s there were as many as five firms that produced models of tanks and podiums for dioramas, decided to release a podium for the diorama, which would have a piece of the German fortified line from one of these photos. It was supposed to have a shaft, a concrete bunker built into it under the turret of a T-II tank, pillars, nadolby, a couple of "hedgehogs", several craters on the ground, but the figures of the soldiers would have to be bought on their own. I remember there was also "grass" there, but we made few such podiums - they were expensive and were not in demand.
Fortress Tobruk.
But … about the tank towers installed permanently, apart from TAM, I also wrote in "Technology-Youth" and "Equipment and weapons", so communication with this American did not go to waste. What turned out in the end? But what: the Germans during the Second World War proved to be extremely practical, economical and thrifty people, so that they managed to use the equipment and enemies and allies that got to them very rationally.
Another Renault tower.
So, as stationary firing installations, even our Soviet BT-7 towers were used (judging by the photo), from which the upper armor plate was cut off and installed on a concrete base dug into the ground. By 1942, the Germans had so many captured tanks that standard drawings were developed for the installation of such Soviet tanks as the T-34 and KV, moreover, there were two options - concrete and log!
Tower from 38 (t) - so where did they all go ?!
At the same time, projects of concrete foundations were developed for the German tanks themselves, which were being withdrawn from service: T-I, T-II, 38 (t). Surprisingly, T-II turrets were often found, at least in Poland, and were rearmed with 37-mm cannons from T-III tanks. The ammunition was stored in the underground part of such a bunker, so the tightness in the tower was not a hindrance to such a modernization. They were placed on pedestals and towers from the T-III and T-IV themselves, and the latter were already at the end of the war placed in different places, including at the crossroads of streets. The second largest were the towers from the French tanks "Hotchkiss", "Renault" AMX, which fortified the coast of France, Holland and Belgium. Moreover, in France they were installed in the north, in Brittany, and in Normandy, and in the south - in the area of Marseille.
Tower AMS-35 for some reason painted with "bricks". Belgium.
The most famous, of course, defensive fortified line of Germany was the "Atlantic Wall". On it, the Germans built both very powerful, with walls of many meters thick, bunkers with 128 and 152-mm guns, and "machine-gun nests" in the form of … a concrete pipe without a roof! A soldier with an MG-34 machine gun was supposed to sit in this … "fortification" and … that's it! I leaned out, set the machine gun and shoot! And they bomb, shoot - stuck to the bottom and sit, trembling with fear, hoping that the bomb will not fall into such a tiny "hole".
T-III turret with a 37 mm gun.
And this is a T-III turret with a 50 mm gun in the Russian snow.
But, in addition, the Germans built many concrete pedestals along the coast for two people, on top of which they erected towers from the R-35, H-35/39, AMS-35 tanks - in a word, they strengthened the defense with everything that was at their fingertips! The distance between the towers was chosen so that the cannons of the towers (or machine guns, if the guns were not installed in them) blocked it with fire. Structurally, it was a concrete parallelepiped with a staircase and a door. Moreover, the internal turret volume made it possible for two soldiers to be quite comfortable there, one of whom loaded, pointed the gun at the target, and fired from it, and the second gave him ammunition from below, that is, there was not one person in the tower, as in a tank, but on essentially - two, which allowed to increase the rate of fire. The twin towers AMS-35 were also very actively used. A slightly different base was developed for them, and there are several photographs from different places with the installation of a turret from this tank. But there were very few tanks of this type in the French army, so Renault and Hotchkiss remained the main suppliers of turret installations.
Drawings of concrete silos for towers.
The turrets of the Czechoslovak 38 (t) tank were also widely used. And wherever they were not installed: in Italy, and on the border of Germany, and in Czechoslovakia itself. Then, after the decommissioning, the towers of Czech tanks produced in Sweden will also go to strengthen the coastal defense and will be installed along its eastern coast to counteract Soviet landings.
A panorama of the coast in Normandy with the Nazi antiamphibious fortifications and the broken tower from "Renault".
As the Soviet and Allied forces approached Germany, the problem of defense became more and more acute, and the turrets of decommissioned tanks could not solve it. After all, their 37-47-mm cannons were powerless against the armor of Soviet and Anglo-American tanks. In North Africa, the Germans also used towers from captured tanks. For example, the Tobruk fortress was defended by towers from the destroyed Matilda tanks.
Stationary installation of the Panther tank turret.
Tower "Panthers" in Italy.
In addition to tanks, the Panther turrets were used for installation as long-term firing points (DOT). For this purpose, they were used as standard turrets for Ausf. D and Ausf. A and special turrets, which were distinguished by a roof reinforced up to 56 mm and the absence of a commander's cupola.
"Panther" PzKpfw V Ausf. A in Munster. Germany.
There were two modifications of pillboxes using the Panther turret: Pantherturm I (Stahluntersatz) - the tank turret was mounted on a chase mounted on an armored base welded from 80 mm thick armor plates with a turret base thickness of 100 mm. The base itself consisted of two sections - residential and combat. The upper one was combat, and a turret was installed on it, where the ammunition was located. The lower compartment was intended for the rest of the bunker team. It had two exits, the first through a secret door to the outside, the second into the transition section to the fighting compartment.
Tower from "Panther" on a box-shaped base. Gotha Line, September 1944.
Pantherturm III (Betonsockel) - a version of the bunker with a concrete base, which differed from Pantherturm I only in the increased dimensions of reinforced concrete compartments, but it had no special structural differences.
Simplified modifications of pillboxes with towers only on the upper fighting compartment were also produced. This project provided for the installation of the tower on an armored box with an exit through the hatch, and with four brackets at the corners for crane hooks. The box, along with the turret, was transported in the back of a truck. On site, it was removed with a crane and installed in a previously dug hole, and covered with excavated soil. The tower, thus, turned out to be level with the ground and became inconspicuous. Very often the Germans put them at street crossings or somewhere on the side of the lawn. Due to the fact that there was no engine for such towers, the tower was turned exclusively by hand, that is, slowly.
Armored box with a turret from the Panther tank of the Pantherturm I (Stahluntersatz) type.
All types of these firing points were used on the Atlantic Rampart, on the "Gotha Line" in Italy, on the Eastern Front, as well as on the streets and squares of German cities. Damaged Panther tanks buried in the turret were often used as bunkers.
Another armored box with a turret from the "Panther" (simplified version). To make it stand smoother, logs were placed under it.
At the end of March 1945, 268 Pantherturm bunkers were produced. But, of course, if there was a tank with a broken chassis, but a whole turret, it could also be removed and used in such an installation. Even beds for rest were provided inside the concrete casemate. So, theoretically, such a stationary tower could resist for a long time.
A very interesting photo. On it ACS "Alekto" based on the airborne tank "Tetrarch" pass by the "Panther" without wheels, installed at the side of the road.
Sometimes such "boxes with towers" were mounted on railway platforms, which turned the train with them into a kind of armored train.
