Already in October 1941, it became clear that the new light tank T-60, the serial production of which began a month earlier, was almost useless on the battlefield. His armor was freely penetrated by all anti-tank weapons of the Wehrmacht, and his own weapons were too weak to fight enemy tanks. It was not possible to reinforce both without a radical change in the design. The engine and gearbox were already over-stressed. An increase in the mass of a combat vehicle, inevitable with an increase in armor and weapons, would simply lead to the failure of these units. A different solution was required.
In September 1941, the design bureau of plant number 37, at that time the leading one for the production of T-60, proposed an option for its modernization, which received the T-45 index. In fact, it was the same T-60, but with a new turret, in which a 45 mm cannon was installed. This machine was supposed to use a new ZIS-60 engine with a capacity of 100 hp, which would increase the thickness of the frontal armor of the tank to 35 - 45 mm. However, the ZIS plant could not master the production of the engine due to the evacuation from Moscow to the Urals, to the city of Miass. The attempt to install an 86 hp ZIS-16 engine on the tank also did not save the situation. Not everything went smoothly with its development, and time did not wait.
In parallel with plant number 37, work on the creation of a new light tank unfolded at the Gorky Automobile Plant. There was nothing unusual in this development of events - this enterprise already had experience in the production of armored vehicles, being engaged in the serial production of T-27 tankettes and T-37A small amphibious tanks in the 1930s. A number of prototypes of armored vehicles were also designed and manufactured here. In September 1941, the plant received a task to organize the mass production of a light tank T-60, for which a separate structural unit of tank production and the corresponding design bureau were created at GAZ. In early September, the chief designer of plant No. 37 N. A. Astrov surpassed under his own power from Moscow to Gorky a prototype of the T-60 tank, which was to be used at GAZ as a standard N. A. Astrov himself was also left at GAZ to help organize the production of tanks.
It was Astrov who presented to the Red Army GABTU a project of a new light tank with reinforced armor and weapons, created on the basis of the T-60. As a power plant on this machine, it was supposed to use a pair of GAZ-202 automobile engines. Prototypes of paired power units, which received the GAZ-203 index, were manufactured by the end of November. However, during the very first tests of the pair, after 6-10 hours of operation, the crankshafts of the second engines began to break, and only thanks to the efforts of the designers under the leadership of A. A. Lipgart, the resource of the paired power unit was able to reach the required 100 hours. The design of a new tank in the GAZ Design Bureau began at the end of October 1941. It was carried out very quickly, using the technique adopted in the automotive industry, unusual for tank designers. General views of the combat vehicle were drawn in full size on special aluminum plates measuring 7x3 m, painted with white enamel and broken into squares measuring 200x200 mm. To reduce the area of the drawing and increase its accuracy, a plan was superimposed on the main view - a longitudinal section - as well as full and partial cross sections. The drawings were carried out as detailed as possible and included all the units and parts of the internal and external equipment of the machine. These drawings later served as the basis for control when assembling a prototype and even the entire first series of machines.
At the end of December 1941, for the tank, which received the factory designation GAZ-70, an armored hull was welded and a turret designed by V. Dedkov was cast. Along with the cast one, a variant of a welded turret was also developed. The assembly of the tank began in January 1942 and, for a number of reasons, was rather slow. The new car did not arouse much enthusiasm among the military. In terms of armor protection, the tank only slightly surpassed the T-60, and the nominally increased power of the armament, thanks to the installation of a 45-mm cannon, was leveled by placing one person in the tower, a jack of all trades - a commander, gunner and loader. However, N. A. Astrov promised to eliminate the shortcomings as soon as possible. Quite quickly, it was possible to increase the armor, bringing the thickness of the lower frontal hull plate to 45 mm, and the upper one to 35 mm. under the designation T-70. Two days later, the GKO decree on the production of the tank saw the light, according to which factories No. 37 and No. 38 were involved in its production since April. However, reality did not allow these plans to be fully realized. For example, the new tank required twice as many engines as the T 60 The production of the cast turret was unsuccessful, and GAZ had to hastily provide other factories with documentation for the welded turret. As a result, the April plan for the production of the T-70 was fulfilled only by GAZ, which assembled 50 vehicles. Factory # 38 in Kirov managed to produce only seven tanks, while factory # 37 failed to assemble them either by April or later.
The layout of the new vehicle did not fundamentally differ from that of the T-60 tank. The driver was located in the bow of the hull at the left side In the rotating turret, also shifted to the left side, was the tank commander. In the middle of the hull along the starboard side, two engines were installed in series on a common frame, making up a single power unit Transmission and drive wheels were located in front …
The body of the tank was welded from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 6, 10, 15, 25, 35 and 45 mm. The welds were reinforced with riveting The frontal and stern hull plates had rational angles of inclination. In the upper frontal sheet there was a driver's hatch, in the cover of which the tanks of the first releases had a viewing slot with a triplex, and then a rotary periscope observation device was installed.
A welded faceted tower, made of armor plates 35 mm thick, was mounted on a ball bearing in the middle of the hull and had the shape of a truncated pyramid. The welded joints of the turret walls were reinforced with armored corners. The frontal part had a cast mask with embrasures for installing a cannon, machine gun and sight. An entrance hatch for the tank commander was made in the roof of the tower. In the armored hatch cover, a periscopic mirror observation device was installed, which provided the commander with an all-round view. In addition, there was a hatch in the cover for a flag signaling.
On the T-70 tank, a 45-mm tank gun model 1938 was installed, and to the left of it was a coaxial DT machine gun. For the convenience of the tank commander, the gun was shifted to the right of the longitudinal axis of the turret. The length of the gun barrel was 46 calibers, the height of the line of fire was 1540 mm The vertical aiming angles of the twin installation were from -6 ° to + 20 ° Telescopic TMFP sights were used for firing (a TOP sight was installed on some of the tanks) and a mechanical one as a backup Sighting range firing was 3600 m, maximum - 4800 m When using a mechanical sight, only direct fire was possible at a distance of not more than 1000 m. The rate of fire of the gun was 12 rounds per minute. …The trigger mechanism of the cannon was foot, the cannon was released by pressing the right pedal, and the machine gun - by the left. The ammunition consisted of 90 rounds with armor-piercing and fragmentation shells for the cannon (of which 20 shots were in the store) and 945 rounds for the DT machine gun (15 disks). The initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile weighing 1, 42 kg was 760 m / s, a fragmentation projectile with a mass of 2, 13 kg - 335 m / s. After firing a shot with an armor-piercing projectile, the sleeve was ejected automatically. When firing a fragmentation projectile, due to the shorter recoil length of the gun, opening the bolt and removing the sleeve was carried out manually.
The power plant GAZ-203 (70-6000) consisted of two four-stroke 6-cylinder GAZ-202 carburetor engines (GAZ 70-6004 - front and GAZ 70-6005 - rear) with a total power of 140 hp. The crankshafts of the engines were connected by a coupling with elastic bushings. The flywheel housing of the front engine was connected to the starboard side by a rod to prevent lateral vibrations of the power unit. The battery ignition system, lubrication system and fuel (excluding tanks) system for each engine were independent. Two gas tanks with a total capacity of 440 liters were located on the left side of the aft compartment of the hull in a compartment isolated by armored partitions.
The transmission consisted of a two-disk semi-centrifugal main dry friction clutch (steel according to ferrodo), a four-speed car-type gearbox (4 + 1), a main gear with a bevel gearbox, two side clutches with band brakes and two simple single-row final drives. The main clutch and gearbox were assembled from parts borrowed from a ZIS-5 truck.
The propeller of the tank, applied to one side, included a drive wheel with a removable toothed ring gear, five single-sided rubberized road wheels and three all-metal support rollers, a guide wheel with a crank track tension mechanism and a fine-link caterpillar of 91 tracks. The design of the idler wheel and the road roller were unified. The width of the cast track track was 260 mm. Suspension - individual torsion bar.
The command tanks were equipped with a 9P or 12RT radio station, located in the tower, and an internal intercom TPU-2F. On line tanks, a light signaling device was installed for internal communication between the commander and the driver and an internal intercom TPU-2.
During production, the mass of the tank increased from 9, 2 to 9, 8 tons, and the cruising range on the highway decreased from 360 to 320 km.
At the beginning of October 1942, GAZ, and in November, plant No. 38 switched to the production of T-70M tanks with an improved chassis. The width (from 260 to 300 mm) and track pitch, the width of the road wheels, and the diameter of the torsion bars (from 33, 5 to 36 mm) of the suspension and gear rims of the driving wheels The number of tracks in the track was reduced from 91 to 80 pcs. In addition, the support rollers, stopping brakes and final drives were strengthened. The mass of the tank increased to 10 tons, and the cruising range on the highway decreased to 250 km. The gun ammunition was reduced to 70 rounds.
From the end of December 1942, Plant No. 38 stopped producing tanks and switched to the production of SU-76 self-propelled guns. As a result, starting in 1943, light tanks for the Red Army were produced only at GAZ. At the same time, in the second half of 1943, the release was accompanied by great difficulties. From 5 to 14 June, the plant was raided by German aviation. 2170 bombs were dropped on the Avtozavodsky district of Gorky, of which 1540 were dropped directly on the territory of the plant. More than 50 buildings and structures were completely destroyed or severely damaged. In particular, the chassis workshops, wheel, assembly and thermal No. 2, the main conveyor, the locomotive depot burned down, and many other workshops of the plant were seriously damaged. As a result, the production of BA-64 armored vehicles and cars had to be stopped. However, the production of tanks did not stop, although it slightly decreased - only in August it was possible to cut off the production volume in May. But the age of the light tank had already been meted out - on August 28, 1943, a GKO decree was issued, according to which, from October 1 of the same year, GAZ switched to the production of SU-76M self-propelled guns. In total, in 1942 - 1943, 8226 tanks of the T-70 and T-70M modifications were produced.
The light tank T-70 and its improved version of the T-70M were in service with tank brigades and regiments of the so-called mixed organization, together with the T-34 medium tank. The brigade had 32 T-34 tanks and 21 T-70 tanks. Such brigades could be part of tank and mechanized corps or be separate. The tank regiment was armed with 23 T-34 and 16 T-70. brigades or be separate By the spring of 1944, light tanks T-70 were excluded from the staff of the tank units of the Red Army. Nevertheless, in some brigades, they continued to be operated for quite a long time. In addition, some of the tanks of this type were used in self-propelled artillery divisions, regiments and brigades of the SU-76 as command vehicles. World War II.
The baptism of fire was received by the T-70 tanks during the battles in the South-West direction in June-July 1942 and suffered serious losses. machines in the Wehrmacht were rapidly decreasing), and the armor protection was insufficient when they were used as tanks for direct support of the infantry. In addition, the presence of only two tankers in the crew, one of whom was extremely overloaded. numerous duties, as well as the lack of communication equipment on combat vehicles made it extremely difficult to use them as part of subunits and led to increased losses.
The final point in the combat career of these tanks was set by the Battle of Kursk - the ability to survive, let alone emerge victorious, in an open battle with new German heavy tanks, the T-70 was close to zero. At the same time, the troops also noted the positive merits of the "seventy". According to some tank commanders, the T-70 was the best suited for pursuing a retreating enemy, which became relevant in 1943. The reliability of the power plant and chassis of the T-70 was higher than that of the T-34, which made it possible to make long marches. "Seventy" was quiet, which again sharply differed from the roaring engine and rumbling tracks of "thirty-four", which at night, for example, could be heard for 1.5 km.
In clashes with enemy tanks, the T-70 crews had to show miracles of ingenuity. Much also depended on the crew's knowledge of the features of their vehicle, its advantages and disadvantages. In the hands of skilled tankers, the T-70 was a formidable weapon. So, for example, on July 6, 1943, in the battles for the village of Pokrovka in the Oboyansk direction, the crew of a T-70 tank from the 49th Guards Tank Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant B. V. Pavlovich, managed to knock out three medium German tanks and one Panther. … A completely exceptional case occurred on August 21, 1943 in the 178th Tank Brigade. When repelling an enemy counterattack, the commander of the T-70 tank, Lieutenant A. L. Dmitrienko noticed a retreating German tank. Having caught up with the enemy, the lieutenant ordered his driver-mechanic to move next to him (apparently in the "dead zone"). open tower hatches), Dmitrienko climbed out of the T-70, jumped onto the armor of an enemy vehicle and threw a grenade into the hatch. The crew of the German tank was destroyed, and the tank itself was towed to our location and, after minor repairs, was used in battles.
