Sunday 12 January 2014

KV and T-100 in Battle

"Work of heavy tanks in the active army from February 22nd to March 13th of this year [1940]


Schedule of active participation in battle of KV #0, KV #1U, KV #2U, KV #3U, and T-100 heavy tanks.
CAMD RF 38-11355-6

Data on damage and technical breakdowns of tanks over the combat period.

T-100

Impacts by 20, 37, and 47 mm guns:
  1. Right side: 6
  2. 45 mm gun mantlet: 1
  3. Large turret bay: 3
  4. Left track: 2
  5. Left idler: 1
Additionally, shrapnel knocked off the head of the periscope on the small turret and dented the armoured cup over it.

Damage and technical problems:
  1. Starter and dynamo gear breakage.
  2. Main friction clutch pin breakage (x2).
  3. Main friction clutch pin breakage and tearing of the power control cup lug.
  4. 7 track links broke on rocks and mines.
  5. 5 track pins broke (overhardened).
  6. Right exhaust pipe was destroyed.
  7. The nut stopper of the right drive wheel broke, as a result the nut was loosened and the wheel fell off.
  8. Loosened road wheel retention nuts.
KV #0

Impacts:
  1. Front plate joint: 1
  2. Upper front plate: 3
  3. Lower front plate: 2
  4. Rear: 2
  5. Right side: 3
  6. Left side: 1
  7. Right idler hub: 1
  8. Upper idler: 1
  9. Road wheel hub: 1
Damage and technical problems:
  1. Road wheel retention nuts burst: first right wheel and third left wheel.
  2. Road wheel hub nuts burst: 3rd right and 2nd left.
  3. Road wheels destroyed by mines: 1st right and 1st left.
  4. 1st right winch destroyed by mine.
  5. 3rd left shock absorber torn off by mine.
  6. Right idler hub destroyed by shell.
  7. 2nd right shock absorber torn off by mine.
  8. 2nd idler on the right destroyed by shell.
  9. 8 track links destroyed by mines.
  10. Two cases of fuel pump socket breaking.
  11. Pipe from the fuel pump to the filter broke.
  12. Oil meter broke. 
KV #1U tank

No impacts from AP shells, but there are scratches from a large caliber shell detonation.

Damage and technical problems:
  1. Three cases of fuel pump socket breaking.
  2. Engine piston rod broke.
  3. 11 track links destroyed by mines.
  4. 6th torsion bar on the right broke.
KV #2U tank

1 hit from a 37 mm shell in the front plate joint.

Damage and technical problems:
  1. 1 left road wheel destroyed by mines.
  2. 3 track links destroyed by mines.
  3. Left fuel tank is leaking.
  4. 5 cases of fuel pump socket breaking.
KV #3U tank

Impacts from shells:
  1. Upper front plate: 1
  2. Lower front plate: 1
  3. Right side: 4
  4. Rear: 1
  5. Turret: 1
  6. Limiter: 1
  7. Road wheels: 2
  8. Tracks: 1
Damage and technical problems:
  1. 4th road wheel on the right destroyed by mine.
  2. 4th shock absorber on the right destroyed by mine.
  3. Power control disk of the left side friction clutch jammed.
  4. Left friction clutch power control cup retention nuts burst.
  5. Left friction clutch ball bearing broke.
  6. 3 cases of fuel pump socket breaking.
  7. As a result of HE shell explosion, the gearbox retention frame was bent.
  8. Due to the same explosion, the gearbox case burst.
  9. Turret jammed with a shell.
  10. A fan loosened due to poor cone calibration. 
All shell impacts made dents 10-40 mm deep. No shell impact affected crew performance in any way.

Composed based on reports from Captain Kolotushkin, commander of the heavy tank group.

Senior engineer of the 8th ABTU department, Military Engineer 3rd Grade, P. Voroshilov
June 28th, 1940"

So what happened to these tanks? You hear people go on about "poor reliability" this and "fifty thousand tanks lost in the first day" that, but the majority of these first batch of vehicles survived, at least until their modernization. CAMD RF 38-11355-321 tracks incoming and outgoing tanks from the Kirov factory as of August 1st , 1941, and contains almost the entire initial batch. KV-2 tanks U-1 and U-2, and KV-1 tanks U-5 through U-18 (missing U-7) all arrived from the Kiev Military District for modernization and were sent off to various destinations after the procedure was performed. KV-1 U-5 was the luckiest, as it mentioned in documents as late as spring of 1944.

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