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"Order of the People's Commissar of Defense #005

On the refreshing of materiel of one tank battalion in each tank brigade in the Far Eastern Front with T-34 tanks

March 19th, 1945

In order to renew the materiel of the Far Eastern Front, I order that the following be carried out:

1. Re-arm the first tank battalion of each tank brigade on the Far Eastern Front with T-34 tanks according to TO&E #010/271 (21 T-34 tanks) or #010/346 (25 T-34 tanks).
2. Old tanks, left over from re-arming of the first battalion, are to be left in the brigade's reserve.
3. The Commander of the Armoured and Motorized Forces of the Red Army is to transfer 436 T-34 tanks with crews to the Commander of the Far Eastern Front with in order to perform re-armament. Of those:
1. For the 12 tank brigades of the Primorye army group: 264 tanks from April 1st to April 30th, 1945.
2. For the remaining 8 tank brigades: 172 tanks from April 15th to April 30th, 1945.
4. Give the Chief of the General Staff necessary directions for transferring tanks to the Far Eastern Front.

People's Commissar of Defense,

Marshal of the Soviet Union,

I. Stalin."

RGVA 4-11-83 p.159

Super T-50

"Calculations of mass of the hull and turret according to technical requirements of the GBTU TU for 1945

On the increase of mass of the T-50 due to thickening the armour (calculations are approximate, measurements were taken from photos of the cutaways of the hull in the proving grounds report).

Item	Thickness	Mass (kg)	Required thickness	Increase in mass (kg)
Turret	37 mm	2000	Comparable with the IS-3	4000
Sides (upper)	37 mm	2600	74 mm	2600
Sides (lower)	37 mm	850	92 mm	1275
Rear plates	37 mm	870	74 mm	870
Floor	15 mm	952	20 mm	315
Cannon	45 mm caliber	313	76 mm caliber	840
Total		7585		9900

The mass of the T-50 tank is 14,000 kg. When the armour is increased to the thicknesses in the table, the mass of the tank will be 23,900 kg. 

When designing the new tank, it is necessary to also take into account the increase of the mass of the engine by about 500 kg.

Assistant to the Chief of the 2nd Department of the GBTU TU, Engineer-Captain [signature]"

CAMD RF 38-11355-2816 p.186

Sherman Tracks

"To the Chief of the GBTU Tank Directorate, Engineer-Colonel comrade Blagonravov

I additionally report on the issue of quality of M4A2 tanks with modernized suspension. After informing the Americans that M4A2 tanks with serial numbers less than #64926 have defective tracks, serial numbers of tanks in possession of the 16th OTP and the department were checked.

As of May 25th, 1945, the department and regiment have a combined total of 177 M4A2 tanks with modernized suspensions. All 177 tanks have serial numbers below #64926. These are the tanks whose tracks are considered defective.

Pershing With A Long Hand

The opinion that America could win the war with tanks it already had in production was common at the start of 1944. This attitude backfired in the summer of 1944, when it turned out that even the M4A1(76)W with the 76 mm M1 gun was only a partial solution to fighting German tanks. American tanks were taking heavy losses from German Panthers on the battlefield. Another big surprise was the appearance of a new German tank in July of 1944, the Pz.Kpfw. Tiger Ausf. B, also known as the Tiger II. It turned out that no American tank gun was capable of penetrating it from the front. A search for a worthy opponent for these armoured monsters resulted in the creation of the T26E4 Super Pershing and some other variants of the Pershing with long-barreled cannons.

Tough IS-2

"During the fighting for Roben, having broken enemy resistance by the end of March 23rd, 1945, the brigade approached Roben proper. On the night from March 23rd to March 24th, units of the brigade occupied the eastern outskirts of Roben. During the night and the day of March 24th, the brigade fought to clear Roben from enemy submachinegunners. By 12:00 on March 24th, Roben was cleared completely.

Last Request

"Report on the requests of imported armoured vehicles as a part of the 5th protocol

M4A2(76)W: Emcha With a Long Hand

The Americans considered improving the firepower of the Medium Tank M4 back in September of 1941. A year later, experiments with installing the 76 mm T1 gun into the stock turret commenced. Even though the gun fit, the military was unsatisfied with this rearmament. A decision was made to equip the M4 with the turret from the Medium Tank T23, which did not enter production. This was not hard, since the turret ring diameter was the same.

Shortly before that, the M4 (known in the USSR under the nickname "Emcha") was equipped with wet ammunition racks. These modernized tanks, whose name received the suffix (76)W, went into production in January of 1944. Among them was the M4A2(76)W, the production of which began in May of 1944. The USSR received these tanks under the Lend Lease program.

M24 Chaffee: Test Drive at the End of Lend Lease

Starting in the second half of 1943, the approach to sending British and American Lend Lease armoured vehicles to the USSR changed. Instead of immediate large scale shipments, the Western Allies sent a few samples of new vehicles. If the tank or SPG was satisfactory for the Soviet side, full scale shipments followed.

The first vehicle to arrive on this trial basis was the Light Tank M5A1. By that point, production of light tanks in the USSR was wrapping up, so the American novelty never made it into service. Nevertheless, the USSR received another foreign light tank. This was the Light Tank M24, the best American light tank of WWII.

Superheavy Trophy

The German superheavy Maus tank left a mark in the history of tank building. This was the heaviest tank in the world, developed as an assault tank, practically invincible to enemy fire. In many ways, its fate was the same as the fate of another giant, the French FCM 2C, which holds the title of the world's largest tank to this day. Like the French heavyweight, the German tank never saw combat. In both cases, the tanks were blown up by their own crews. Another similarity was that the tanks became the subject of a careful study.

Wonder Weapons

Colonel Kurt Stressner was captured by the Red Army on January 12th, 1945. His interrogation deals with many interesting topics, but one section is probably the most interesting:

"Presence of new weapons and chemical substances

I don't know anything about new weapons, either through official channels or personally. It's possible to redesign the V-2 so that it could be used to strike targets on the front lines precisely. The V-1 is shaped like a plane and is aimed at the target along a horizontal trajectory, and hits the target very imprecisely. They say that it hits 2-3 km from the target. The V-2 has a vertical trajectory and hits 500-1000 m from the target. Time consuming calculations are required. The V-2 can strike tall objects in an area 3-4 square kilometers in size. Both of these weapons can only be used against cities, that is why they cannot be used on the Eastern Front. They say that there is also a type of weapon being developed that is based on decay of atoms. This kind of weapon is desirable, but unlikely.

The use of chemical weapons on German soil is impossible due to the small spaces on which the battles take place."

CAMD RF 500-12480-32

SS Professionalism

"There's an interesting moment at the start of the Vienna operation that should be remarked on, regarding the issue of highly trained SS units. The Germans saw the preparations. Even though the weather was bad, their reconnaissance aircraft were flying and saw a concentration of cars, tanks, artillery, and tracked it. They could precisely predict that an offensive was about to start. The first round of fighting was with the Fuhrer, who was told that the Spring Awakening had to end, now the Russians are going to hit us and that's it, the front will collapse, we're going to have an "awakening" with hangover, as they say. They tried to convince Hitler for a while, convinced him in the end (it was still Guderian then as the Chief of Staff). Guderian convinced Hitler to wrap up Spring Awakening since it didn't achieve any results. The Fuhrer agreed that it had to wrap up to prepare for the Russian offensive. With a load off his shoulders, Weller, the Commander of Army Group South calls Dietrich's HQ and says "That's it, the Fuhrer allowed it, we can retreat, now the Russians will attack", to which he received a cold answer: "Well you see, it's already evening (March 15th), we can't get in touch with our people and pull them back, let's do it tomorrow, tomorrow night, to conceal our movement." A whole day was lost purely out of exceptional incompetence, I have no other word for it, on behalf the 6th SS Tank Army staff."

Aleksey Isayev, "The Nazis' Last Counteroffensive"

Phantom French Tanks

As you've seen many times on this blog, foreign intelligence can have some rather amusing turns. However, after fighting a war for 6 years you'd think that the German "Department for Study of Western Foreign Armies" would have a better idea about who they are fighting than... this:

"Tanks:

Old French tanks are so obsolete that they can only be used for training. It is necessary to completely refresh their tank fleet.

The Americans supplied the French with light, medium, and heavy tanks, although there was no information on heavy tanks until January of 1945. "General Sherman" and "General Les" (or something like that) are types of American tanks. Light tanks weigh 18 tons, medium tanks about 30 tons.

Armament: 10 cm guns, medium tanks had, if I'm not mistaken, 12 or even 12.4 cm guns.

I don't remember the amount of tanks the French had, but I think they had about 80 tanks."

CAMD RF 500-12480-31

Party Hard

"To the commander of the 61st Radom Rifle Corps

I report that at 23:00 on May 6th, 1945, American correspondents Captains Robert Ruben, John McVane, Victor Berstein, Richard Hotslet, escorted by Sr. Lieutenant Bruce Feshenden and driver Corporal John Doyle were detailed near Hohenwarthe village while headed across the Elbe.

Airborne Tank

"To the Chief of the Red Army Air Force Airborne Troops, Guards Lieutenant-General Zatevakhin
January 9th, 1945

RE: your letter sent on December 15th, 1944, with a plan for an experimental tank for armoured forces.

1. Building a light tank to your requirements would result in the kind of tank that we already rejected, as it is weak in armament and armour. In addition, it is doubtful that designers would fit into the 6 ton weight limit. In our opinion, the tank would be heavier.
   The situation with an SPG on that tank's chassis is the same.

Banner of Victory

"To the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army

By my personal orders, the Red Banner that was raised over the Reichstag on April 30th, 1945 by the 150th Rifle Division has been removed. Instead, I ordered that a large red banner be installed.

The banner raised over the Reichstag on April 30th, 1945, was put in storage. I ask for a petition to Marshal of the Soviet Union comrade Zhukov to form a delegation from the 1st Belorussian Front, 3rd Shock Army, and 79th Rifle Corps to personally present the banner of victory, in the Kremlin or any other location, to our great chief, the favoured Marshal comrade Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin.

Commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major-General Perevertkin
Chief of Staff of the 79th Rifle Corps, Colonel Letunov
14:00, May 9th, 1945"

Via kris-reid

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

"Award Order

1. Name: Hohryakov, Semyon Vasilyevich
2. Title: Guards Major
3. Position: Commander of the 209th Tank Battalion, 54th Guards Tank Briade, 7th Guards Tank Corps, 3rd Guards Tank Army
   is nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Cheating at Statistics 14: Deception at Danzig

I already touched on the 503rd SS Heavy Tank Battalion's questionable claims, but it seems that his battalion ran into some IS-2s before Korner's alleged actions, or at least claimed that they did. Let's take a look at these claims. Achtungpanzer (the website, not the book) paints an impressive picture:

"During the combat in Gdansk (Oliwa and Wrzeszcz districts) and Sopot, SS-Untersturmführer Karl Brommann (commander of the 1st Company) destroyed 65 tanks and self-propelled guns along with 44 artillery pieces and 15 vehicles (including some T-34s from 1st Polish Tank Brigade "Heroes of the Westerplatte"). Following his outstanding score, Brommann was awarded with Knights Cross."

Schneider's Tigers in Combat II gives some more details of these actions:

"26 March 1945: Several attacks are repelled, and six Josef Stalin tanks are knocked out. One Josef Stalin, which was captured by Sturmgeschuetz-Brigade 190, is put under German command; when it becomes non-operational, it is finally sunk in the harbor."

Oliwa and the nearby suburb of Sopot are mentioned, pinning the location of the regiment pretty precisely. There is nothing about the total tank claims here, but at least we get some specifics: seven total lost IS-2 tanks on March 26th. Let's take a look at who these tanks could have belonged to.

IS-3 Gunnery Trials

Since the gun of the IS-3 was the already well known D-25, the trials were rather brief.

"During gunnery trials, 37 fully charged shots were fired from the gun.

The recoil length was 520-530 mm, within normal limits.

No malfunctions of the gun occurred during gunnery or mobility trials.

The sight calibration was 2 thousandths off horizontally due to a weakening of the sight attachment screw.

The effort on the elevation mechanism was as follows:

• 0 degrees: 12 kg to lower, 9 kg to lift
• 5 degrees: 13 kg to lower, 8 kg to lift
• 10 degrees: 13 kg to lower, 8 kg to lift
• 15 degrees: 11 kg to lower, 11 kg to lift

Effort on the turret traverse handle when the tank is tilted:

• 0 degrees: 4 kg
• 5 degrees: 15 kg
• 10 degrees: 29 kg
• 15 degrees: 39 kg

The looseness of the gun is 4 thousandth vertically. The looseness of the turret is 6 thousandths horizontally."

The results of the firing were also recorded:

The radius containing the best half of the shells at 1000 meters is 33 cm. The radius containing all 9 shells fired is 40 cm, pretty close. For 2000 meters, the radii are 88 cm and 154 cm respectively. Not too far off from what was observed in the trials for the same gun on the IS-2.

RGASPI 644-2-464

Heavy Tank Production, Spring-Summer 1945

"State Committee of Defense Decree #7950ss
Moscow, Kremlin
March 29th, 1945

On the modernization of the heavy IS-2 tank, the State Committee of Defense decrees that:

1. The proposal of the People's Commissar of Tank Production (comrade Malyshev) and Deputy Commander of Armoured and Motorized Forces (comrade Korobkov) to accept the IS-3 (modernized IS-2 heavy tank) tank with the following characteristics, designed by the Kirov factory in Chelyabinsk, into service.
1. Overall data, mass, and size:
1. Combat mass, tons: 46-46.5
2. Hull length: 6850 mm
3. Height to periscope top: 2450 mm
4. Full width: 3170 mm
5. Clearance: 465 mm
6. Bore axis height: 1800 mm
7. Range with main tanks: 120-150 km
2. Armour:
1. Hull: welded
2. Thickness and angle of armour plates:
1. Upper front plates: 120 mm at 55 deg
2. Lower front plate: 110 mm at 55 deg
3. Lower side: 90 mm at 0 deg
4. Upper side: 90 mm at 60 deg
5. Upper rear: 60 mm at 49 deg
6. Lower rear: 60 mm at 41 deg
7. Floor: 16-20 mm
8. Roof: 20-30 mm
9. Turret: cast with variable thickness from 75 to 250 mm, with slopes from 30 to 70 deg
3. Turret ring diameter: 1840 mm
4. Armament:
1. 122 mm D-25 gun
2. DShK AA machinegun
3. DT machinegun
4. Gun elevation: +20 degrees +/- 2 degrees
5. Gun depression: -3 degrees +/- 0.5 degrees
6. Ammunition:
1. 28 gun shells
2. 5 DShK belts
3. 12 DT magazines
4. 25 F-1 grenades
5. Observation and aiming devices:
1. Telescopic T-Sh-14 sight
2. Collimating KV-T sight
3. Prismatic MK-IV periscopes:
1. Commander (1)
2. Driver (1)
3. Loader (1)
4. Gunner (1)
6. Other characteristics are same as on the IS-2 tank.
2. The People's Commissariat of Tank Production (comrade Malyshev) and Kirov factory (comrade Zaltsmann) must correct the defects discovered in the trials of the IS-3 tank before organization of its mass production.
3. The People's Commissariat of Tank Production (comrade Malyshev) and Kirov factory (comrade Zaltsmann) must provide for production of heavy tanks and SPGs in the following amounts:

   	April	May	June
   IS-3	25	100	250
   IS-2	225	150	-
   ISU-152	100	100	100
   ISU-122	150	150	150
   Total	500	500	500

4. The People's Commissariat of Tank Production (comrade Malyshev) and factory #200 (comrade Sherbakov) must provide for production of hulls and turrets for them in the following amounts:

   	Uralmash factory			Factory #200			Total
   	April	May	June	April	May	June	April	May	June
   IS-3	30	75	100	25	90	175	55	165	275
   IS-2	60	15	-	150	90	-	210	105	-
   ISU	225	225	250	-	-	-	225	225	250
   Total	315	315	350	175	180	175	490	495	525

5. The GOKO operations bureau must review the measures taken by the NKTP for production of the IS-3 tank in 5 days.
6. The secretaries of the Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk VKP(b) regional committees must aid the Kirov factory, factory #200, Uralmash, and factory #255 in their execution of this decree on production of IS-3 heavy tanks.

Chair of the State Committee of Defense, I. Stalin."

RGASPI 644-2-464

T-44 Upgun

"To the Deputy Chair of the State Committee of Defense, comrade Beriya

[cut off] January 1945

The tank park of the German army consists 50% of heavy Tiger and Panther tanks. Our heavy IS tanks, ISU SPGs and SU-100 SPGs make up about 28% of our total amount of produced tanks and SPGs. The main tank of the Red Army is the T-34-85, which has difficulty fighting heavy tanks. The new T-44 medium tank produced at factory #75 in Kharkov has the same armament as the T-34-85 tank.

To improve the armament and achieve superiority in firepower for our tanks, I consider it necessary to install the 100 mm D-10T gun into this tank. It is very possible to install this gun.

Based on the above, I ask you to order the People's Commissar of Tank Production to produce an experimental prototype of a T-44 tank with a 100 mm D-10T gun to urgently begin mass production of the T-44 with this gun.

Marshal of the Armoured Forces, Fedorenko
Colonel-General of the Tank Forces, N. Biryukov