simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 12:09:08 GMT
Soviet Tank Development Part 1: 1900-1939
The Russian Empire was widely regarded as perhaps the most backward of the Great Powers of Europe in the middle of the 19th century, an impression reinforced from the nadir of defeat in the Crimean War of 1854-1856, when the once-invincible Imperial Russian Army crumbled before the technologically superior forces of Britain and France. The vaunted Russian steamroller of the Napoleonic period had been beaten by steam and iron. That this defeat came as a sharp rebuke to its national self-conception is undeniable, but it also sowed the seeds for the modernization of Russia. The sheer size of her armed forces meant that the introduction of modern weaponry would be a gradual one, but, like many of the armies of Europe, Russia began to field a handful of experimental steam-powered ironclad vehicles over the course of the 1880s and 1890s. The perceived main threat to Russia was the British Empire and the Great Game in Central Asia shaped the outlook and preparedness of the Imperial Russian Army until the dawn of the new century. It was a conflict fought by the Cossack and cloak and dagger, not by machines and industry. To the west, the once secure European frontier had shifted to a faultline of tension as Germany and Austria-Hungary girded their loins against the Russian bear.
Beyond the borders of Europe, a new and vigorous foe arose in the brightness of the rising sun of the east – the Empire of Japan. The aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion and the intervention of the Grand Alliance bought Japanese and Russian ambitions for the control of Manchuria and Korea to the point of crisis, which boiled over into open conflict in the latter half of 1903. The attention of the world was drawn to the slashing battles at sea and the daring clashes in the air, but the nature of the fighting on the broken hills of frozen Manchuria was desperate, grinding and bloody. Both sides found it extremely difficult to break through the trenches, barbed wire and machine guns of the enemy without appalling losses and every swift maneuver by the cavalry was soon bogged down in a killing match dominated by artillery. The decisive Battle of Mukden was the largest engagement the world had seen since the Napoleonic Wars and broke the back of Russian resistance in the Far East, bringing on riotous victory celebrations in Tokyo and revolutionary riots in St. Petersburg. The collected hosts of the Tsar swiftly put down the revolts across Russia and Poland, but had lost a significant amount of credibility as an overwhelming threat to the Triple Alliance. Reform was the order of the day and a number of armoured cars were tested by the Imperial Russian Army over the next decade, in addition to a 1912 proposal from the inventor Boris von Kuryakin for a steampowered pedrail vehicle armed with a 75mm gun.
The Kuryakin Gun, as it was known, did not attract universal approval, but construction of a prototype began in early 1914 due to the sponsorship and advocacy of Colonel Vladimir von Kolpakow, one of the Stavka’s more forward-thinking officers. In this hour, the winds of war blew once again across the continent after a long period of calm, as the bitterness of Balkan disputes ignited the powder keg that was Europe. With over seven million men called to the colours, Russia’s immediate challenge came in the form of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies arrayed along her frontiers and two great offensive thrusts were launched into Galicia and East Prussia before they could strike in concert. The former resulted in a decisive triumph that took the Russian tricolour to the midst of the Carpathians, but the latter saw two entire armies smashed in succession at Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes and paved the way for the crushing blow of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of 1915. The Great Retreat that followed straightened Russian lines and bought valuable time and space, but at cost of all of Poland. The subsequent war on the Eastern Front would be one of movement on a vast scale compared to the relatively confined circumstances of the Western Front, making the use of armoured vehicles a far-off luxury. The Kuryakin Gun died with its greatest defender, von Kopakow, near Tarnopol in a nameless copse stripped bare by war.
Russia’s bloody war in the east would continue for two further years and in that time, two notable armoured vehicle proposals reached the prototype stage of production before the technical limitations of her stretched industrial capacity could go no further. One would mirror the intended purpose of the French tank programme and the other would follow the heavier British path. The Vezdekhod, or ‘all-terrain vehicle’, was the brainchild of the young military engineer Aleksandr Porokhovschikov and consisted of a welded frame covered with rubberized cloth with both tracks and wheels. Testing began in late 1915, but it proved to be impossible to maneuver using the wheels. Work was halted on the project in July 1916 in favour of acquiring a number of French light tanks then under development, much to Porokhovschikov’s disgust. The Tsar Tank was designed by the shipwright Vasily Mendeleev as a means of moving a 42 line/107mm gun across a contested battlefield. The 91t heavy tank was well-protected, capable of sound performance on roads and across open country alike and featured an advanced pneumatic suspension system. Its only major flaws were its heavy weight and most of all exorbitant cost, which rivalled that of a destroyer and ensured that only a single prototype would be built by the time the programme was quietly cancelled in January 1917.
360 Renault FT light tanks were ordered by the Russian government in late 1916 and a total of 108 had been shipped before the rupture in Allied relations bought on by the Bolshevik Revolution. The majority of these vehicles were employed by the White forces in their long and terrible struggle with the Red Army and only 33 survived the Civil War and Polish-Soviet War with varying degrees of damage. These tanks, known as Russkiy Renos, would serve as the nexus of the vast Soviet tank force that would be built up over the following decades, a small beginning for what would become a mighty array. Whilst most had relatively staid careers in training units, military academies and proving grounds, the travels and exploits of one individual vehicle rival those of any other known tank. The Krasnaya Zvezda served with White troops until captured by the Red Army in 1920. It remained in supporting service until 1926, when it was damaged and captured by British Indian forces in Afghanistan. It was sent to Britain as a war trophy and initially displayed as a gate guard at an RAF airfield on an isolated craggy island off the west coast of Connaught. It was subsequently sold to Yugoslavia as an economy measure in the depths of the Great Depression, where it was adapted as a circus clown transport prior to being requisitioned for border patrol duties. Seized by the German Army during their 1941 invasion, it was used for garrison duty in occupied Denmark protecting a regimental field kitchen until knocked out by Swedish paratroopers in late 1944. This would have been the end for most vehicles, but it was identified by a team of British battlefield arcanists in 1945 and shipped back to the Soviet Union as a mark of Allied solidarity. Today, it is displayed at Kubinka as perhaps the only tank to serve with five armies.
The tank was given something of a higher priority by the Soviet Union than the wartime Tsarist authorities due to the changing shape of warfare and the famed successes of tanks in the final battles of the Western Front. The first order of national priority in the 1920s was reconstruction and the reordering of agriculture and the production of tanks and other heavy arms occurred in the shadow of these greater designs. The beginning of the First Five Year Plan in 1928 marked a shift to rapid industrialization and modernization of the Red Army. Soviet tank development in the latter half of the interwar period occurred in three main families of vehicles – light tanks of between 10t and 14t, medium and fast tanks of 20-24t and heavy tanks of over 45t. Whilst no single Soviet tank of the 1930s can be regarded as the best in the world, the tank production of the Soviet Union vastly exceeded that of the other major powers.
The first indigenous Soviet tank design were the T-18 and T-19 light tanks. The Red Army had formed a Tank Bureau in 1923 to design its future armoured vehicles and the initial specification was for an 9 ton light tank equipped with a 37mm gun and protected by at least 16mm of armour that would be capable of reaching speeds of over 15km/hour. The engine would be a copy of the 35hp Italian Fiat 15 ter truck engine and an independent vertical spring suspension was included after initial test vehicles proved incapable of crossing wide trenches. Demonstrations of the 10t fully armoured prototype in late 1926 saw it reach an impressive top speed of 18km/hour and an initial production order for 320 T-18s was placed in mid 1927. The threat of war with the British Empire over the Persian Crisis saw this greatly increased to 960 tanks, but the delivery of the first production vehicles only occurred in early 1929, after international events had run their course. An improved and slightly enlarged variant, the T-19, began production in 1930. It was notable for being the first Soviet tank to be specifically designed for the circumstances of modern chemical warfare, as well as being fitted with sloped armour and an additional DT medium machine gun. A total of 448 T-18s and 195 T-19s were built between 1929 and 1931, when their production was curtailed in favour of the larger and faster T-26 light tanks. Only a few would see active service in the Second World War, mainly in isolated skirmishes on the borders of Tartary and Mongolia.
A further evolution of the type was the T-24 medium tank, an enlarged version of the T-19 equipped with heavier armament and armour. It was the product of the new tank design bureau at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory (KhPZ), which would later be responsible for some of the most legendary tanks of the Second World War and beyond. Upon its establishment in 1928, work began on a larger T-19 with a more powerful engine, resulting in the prototype of the 21t T-24 in late 1930. Its 45mm gun was the most powerful yet fitted to a Soviet tank and it could reach the considerable top speed of 25km/hour. Despite these formidable attributes, it was regarded as unreliable and prone to temperamental performance, such as the engine catching fire, tracks falling off and other such minor faults. Only 69 of a planned 470 were built and were used mostly for parades, propaganda films and photographic opportunities for Comintern delegates. Its suspension was used for a series of successful medium and heavy artillery tractors which proved quite valuable throughout the Great Patriotic War.
The most capable Soviet tank of the 1930s was the BT (Bystrokhodny tank or ‘high-speed tank’) series of fast medium tanks. They were based around the ideas and theories of the American inventor J. Walter Christie, who had begun to look abroad for a more receptive audience for his innovative tank designs after the US Army began to feel the constraints of the Great Depression. Poland, Britain and Italy all expressed interest, but it was in the Soviet Union that Christie’s works were most enthusiastically received. Plans and four prototypes of his M1931 were transferred to the Amtorg trading group, ostensibly as agricultural tractors, and they were swiftly put into production as the 17t BT-1 turretless test vehicle, followed by the BT-2, which was equipped with a 45mm gun and sloped armour on its turret and capable of reaching the unprecedented top speed of 80km/hour. 770 were built between 1932 and 1934 before they were replaced by the 20t BT-5, which featured an improved turret and increased armour; a total of 3258 were produced over the next three years. This in turn gave way in 1935 to the ultimate form of the type, the BT-7. Weighing 21t and with a top speed of 92km/hour, it was powered by a Mikulin M-17 engine and carried 25% more ammunition than its predecessors. 5965 were built between 1935 and 1940, serving as the backbone of the Soviet medium tank force in the Winter-War, the Soviet-Japanese War and the early stages of the Great Patriotic War.
Just as the BT series provided a substantial leap in capability over its unfortunate predecessor, the T-26 light tank represented an equally notable advance over the T-18/T-19 family of vehicles. It had its origins in the Chinese version of the Light Tank Mark IIC, twelve of which were purchased by the Soviet technical mission to the Dragon Throne in 1931 through a series of convoluted back channels. Extensive testing showed the protection scheme to be of high quality and cross-country performance to be quite creditable. An evolved Soviet 12t version armed with a 45mm gun entered production in October 1932 at the Bolshevik Factory in Leningrad, followed by the Stalingrad Tractor Factory in 1933. Yearly production rates peaked in 1939 with 1495 vehicles and an incredible total of 12,483 had been built by the end of 1940. It saw action in the 1930s along the Chinese frontier and performed successfully in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1938 and 1939, where it made up the majority of the Red Army’s arsenal in the close fought victory at Khalkin Gol.
The Soviet Union could boast of the world’s largest arsenal of tankettes in the 1930s, consisting of 2876 T-27s, 1149 T-37s and 1394 T-38s. These were all broadly similar vehicles, developed as a Soviet response to the presence of British tankettes captured in raids along the Afghan border. With an average weight of 3 tons, their armament was limited to a single machine gun, proving ideal for close infantry support and reconnaissance in low threat combat environments, but death traps when faced with enemy fire. The T-37 and T-38 were intended as amphibious tankettes, but their performance proved quite mixed when faced with fast flowing rivers and Finnish water mages. Thin armour and the lack of a radio confined the Soviet tankettes to a limited number of roles where they performed adequately in the absence of heavier guns or rapacious dragons, who would often carry off one or more vehicles at a time.
In addition to large numbers of light vehicles, the Red Army operated the most numerous force of multi-turreted medium and heavy tanks in the 1930s. The T-28 was a 29t vehicle that showed the influence of British and other foreign developments. Built by the Kirov Factory in Leningrad, it was equipped with a 76.2mm main gun and four machine guns arrayed in two smaller turrets. It could reach an acceptable top speed of 37km/hour, but carried relatively light armour. 573 were produced between 1933 and 1939. The T-28 was one of the most widely used Soviet tanks of the Winter War, where over 350 were knocked out in the fruitless efforts to break the Mannerheim Line between December 1939 and April 1940.
The 64t T-35 was the far more formidable big brother to the T-28, sporting a 76.2mm main gun, two secondary 45mm guns and six machine guns and protected by over 50mm of armour. It was an extraordinarily expensive tank, required a crew of fifteen and was extremely unwieldy in tactical situations. Only 127 were built between 1934 and 1940, serving as a central reserve for the armoured forces of the Red Army. Thirty T-35s were employed in the Winter War, fourteen falling prey to the potent Finnish anti-tank guns and ubiquitous land mines. When employed in a defensive fashion in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the T-35s were able to blunt several German attacks and serve as the lynchpins of defensive fortifications before abandoned due to mechanical failure or irreparable transmission breakdown.
Dwarfing both the T-28 and the T-35 was the T-100 superheavy tank, a vehicle regarded as the either the apogee or the nadir of the less useful superheavy types of the interwar period. Weighing an incredible 176t, the T-100 looked more like a tank of the Great War, carrying a pair of 45mm guns in independent turrets, six machine guns and a 107mm gun in its main central turret. Its maximum armour protection was over 100mm, making it invulnerable to other tanks and anti-tank guns of the time, but at the cost of a pedestrian top speed of 13km/hour and an extremely unreliable transmission. 5 vehicles were built at great expense between 1935 and 1939, none of which survived the subsequent global conflagration. The sole vehicle used in the Winter War was destroyed by a Swedish dragon flying under Finnish colours, three fell to German Tigers in the defence of Moscow and the final T-100 was eventually destroyed whilst operating in the blasted ruins of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942.
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 12:09:37 GMT
Soviet Tank Development Part 2: 1939-1945
The Red Army began and ended the Second World War with the largest tank arsenal in the world, but underwent massive changes and leaps in evolution over the course of the conflict. Soviet participation in the global conflagration began when it invaded Poland without a declaration of war on September 17, 1939 in accordance with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This act of infamy was greeted with outrage in France and Britain, but little could be done to assist the Poles short of declaring war on the Soviets. Fighting was brief yet intense as the Polish Army sold their lives dearly to allow those forces in the Romanian Bridgehead to escape to the West. The primary tanks used by the Red Army in the Polish Campaign were the T-26 and BT-7 and they proved superior to the small number of 7TP light tanks operated by the forces guarding Poland’s eastern frontier; the most modern Polish armoured vehicles, including the formidable 25TP mediums had been committed to the grand battle against the German invaders at Warsaw. It was thus the Red Army’s tanks did not face any appreciable opposition in the West until the German invasion of 1941.
Expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence to the west was not limited to Poland, with the Baltic states forced to accept military bases and Red Army garrisons before Stalin’s eye turned to his nearest neighbor, the small Kingdom of Finland. The demands for the cession of a large part of the Karelian Isthmus and strategic islands in the Gulf of Finland were refused, paving the way for a direct ultimatum. On November 30, four days after a conveniently contrived border incident, 525,000 Soviet troops poured across the border without a declaration of war. The significantly outnumbered Finnish Army was considered as capable of offering little opposition, an impression that would soon be corrected. Early fighting in the Karelian forests saw Soviet BT-7 and T-26 tanks enjoy early tactical success before the Finns countered them with their deadly combination of Molotov cocktails, mines, anti-tank rifles and Bofors 40mm anti-tank guns. The Soviet advance was stopped cold on the formidable Mannerheim Line as the ice and frost took hold. The Winter War had begun.
In extraordinarily freezing conditions, which reached a low point of -52° Celsius on December 21st, the Finnish Army, now swelled to 470,000 men, held the Mannerheim Line against repeated Soviet assaults throughout December. Lighter tanks were replaced with the heavier T-28 and T-35 to no avail, falling prey to the Finnish 105mm and 120mm field guns and the deadly spells of their mages. The Finnish Medium Mark III and FT-17 tanks rarely engaged their numerically superior opponents on an even basis, being held in reserve to crush enemy infantry in swift counterattacks. To the north in Ladoga Karelia, the Red Army offensive was cut into dozens of mottis in the deep forests in a series of running battles that saw the legendary sharpshooter Simo Häyhä earn the fearsome sobriquet of ‘White Death’ and record the highest number of sniper kills of all time, with over a thousand Soviet soldiers falling to his rifle. Supplies from Britain and France began to stream in via the Petsamo lifeline to the north, volunteers from across the world rallied to the aid of bold little Finland and with every day, Sweden moved closer to outright intervention.
Stalin’s displeasure manifested itself in the wholesale reorganisation of the Red Army’s command and tactical doctrine on the Karelian Front and the number of troops swelled to over 800,000 as Soviet artillery bombarded the Mannerheim Line around the clock. The great offensive began on February 1st at Summa and initial breakthroughs were achieved, threatening to outflank the Finnish positions and sunder their defences entirely. The Soviet 240mm howitzers and 280mm mortars proved instrumental in smashing Finnish defences in the initial phase of the battle, allowing the penetration of combined infantry and armoured units. Reinforcing their earlier heavy tanks was a new, more successful vehicle, the KV-1or Kliment Voroshilov tank, the first in a family of tanks that would see service throughout the war. Weighing 48t and armed with a 76.2mm gun, it was capable of a top speed of 50km/hour, had good traction on soft ground and sported 90mm of turret armour and 75mm of side protection. It had significant problems with its transmission, ergonomics and most crucially of all, its operational weight. Few bridges could support the KV-1 and it had not been fitted with a snorkel necessary for fording rivers. It encountered qualified operational success in the Winter War, proving immune to all but the heaviest enemy guns and capable of providing devastating firepower when called on to support infantry. A total of 6932 would be built between 1939 and 1942 and they built up an impressive combat record in the titanic fighting of the first year of the Great Patriotic War.
The Soviet successes were countered by Marshal Mannerheim hurling all his remaining reserves into the fray, along with his carefully preserved tank force and the remaining three dozen Wellesley bombers of the Royal Finnish Air Force. Bridgeheads won dearly over the past week were smashed in hours by a heavy Finnish artillery bombardment from the venerable 480mm Vickers coastal guns at Viipuri and the 420mm main armament of the battleships Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen, blasting the Soviet siege artillery into silence. The Mannerheim Line held and both the Finns and the Red Army would continue to bleed through February and March. Sweden mobilised her full strength of over a million and a quarter men, began to deliver guns, tanks and munitions in ever greater quantities and dozens of Swedish aircraft now flew under the flag of Finland after hasty repainting. The end of winter’s night and the coming of spring dawning bought with it the end of the war, as the Allies issued an ultimatum for a cessation of hostilities by March 30th on pain of their direct intervention.
The suboptimal performance of the Red Army’s armoured forces in the Winter War came as a profound shock and influenced Stalin’s decision to support the full development of Mikhail Koshkin’s impressive prototype A-20 medium tank, a decision that would be fully vindicated in the years to come. The experience of the Soviet-Japanese War had shown that the petrol engined T-26 and BT-7 had proved vulnerable to incendiary attacks, in addition to occasionally being prone to catastrophic spalling of the riveted armour plates on the hull and turret. Following successful tests, the A-20 was developed into an up-armoured version, the A-32 which in turn became the production vehicle, the T-34. Protected by 70mm of sloped armour on the turret, weighing 29.5 tons and driven by a powerful 600hp V12 diesel engine, the wide-tracked T-34 was capable of reaching a top speed of 60km/hour and carried the deadly F-34 76.2mm/50 and a pair of 7.62mm DT medium machine guns. Initial difficulties in manufacturing sufficiently thick armour plate held back mass production until November 1940, when the first T-34s were delivered to the Red Army from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, later followed by the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory in Gorky and the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. An incredible total of 79,238 T-34s of all variants were built between 1940 and 1945 (2493 at the Moscow Tractor Factory, 1984 at ChTZ No.183 in Kharkov, 36,982 at UTZ in Nizhniy Tagil, 4256 at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, 21,254 at Krasnoye Somovo in Gorky, 5987 at the Voroshilov Plant in Omsk and 6295 at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory) reaching a monthly high of 2096 in January 1944, making it clearly the most produced Soviet tank of the Second World War.
Accompanying the development of the T-34 medium tank was a new and extremely effective family of heavy tanks, the Kliment Voroshilov or KV series. They would provide the backbone of the heavy armoured forces of the Red Army in the battles of 1941 and 1942. The unwieldy T-35 was correctly perceived to be an evolutionary dead end even before it went into action in 1939 and the tactical utility of multiple-turreted tanks was also being questioned. A new design with a smaller hull and single heavy turret that allowed for far greater frontal protection began development in 1938 and two prototypes were successfully tested in operational conditions in the final phase of the Winter War. Named for the People’s Commissar for Defence, the KV-1 began production in December 1940. It was a 52t vehicle protected by up to 110mm of armour and armed with a modified 107mm gun that, whilst quite effective over short and medium ranges, proved of mixed utility in combat with comparable German types; ultimately, it would be regarded not so much as a failure as a gun that did not live up to its promise. With a top speed of 30km/hour, it was well-suited to defensive operations in urban environments. Its sister tank, the KV-2, was a beast of a vehicle, carrying a 152mm howitzer in a tall, high profile turret and attracting the nickname ‘Dreadnought’ from its crews. Far fewer were produced compared to the more conventional KV-1 due to reduced speed and the enlarged target presented by the hulking turret. 5924 KV-1s and 483 KV-2s were built between 1941 and October 1942, when they were phased out in favour of the newer IS heavy tanks.
The T-34 would prove to be the dominant tank of the largest and bloodiest theatre of operations in the Second World War, the Eastern Front, and gain a reputation as one of the deadliest weapons of war devised by man. Once convivial relations between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union soon returned to frosty hostility after the Fall of France and the sharp setback of the Battle of Britain as Hitler’s rapacious gaze shifted to the vastness and riches of the east. The forces of the Wehrmacht and their Austro-Hungarian and Romanian allies built up along a 2900 mile front in the first months of 1941 in ever greater strength, although Stalin stubbornly refused to countenance the growing likelihood of betrayal and war. At 0305 hours on May 12th 1941, the Nazis struck. A titanic bombardment of over 10,000 guns marks the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. 584 Luftwaffe heavy bombers and three dozen dragons attacked Minsk and Kiev in the hours before dawn, inflicting considerable damage and causing widespread terror. The German lead offensive consists of four army groups, each supported by a Luftflotte of over 1500 aircraft, totaling 236 divisions and over 4.6 million men, equipped with 5800 tanks and 12400 guns. The initial border battles swept aside the Red Army’s T-26s and BT-7s, which proved no match for the German Panzer IIIs and IVs. On the second day of the invasion, the first T-34s and KV-1s were encountered and immediately changed the calculus of armoured combat in Barbarossa. German tanks could only penetrate the protection of the medium Soviet tanks at shorter ranges and many of their earlier anti-tank guns were rendered tactically useless, forcing the Heer to use 105mm field guns and 88mm anti-aircraft guns firing over open sights. In the engagements with the heavy KV tanks, virtually no German guns could be relied upon to consistently penetrate their frontal armour and only the desparate use of 150mm guns halted one particularly effective Soviet advance. These engagements were one of the major factors in the expedited fielding of the Panzerabwehrkanone 42 88mm anti-tank gun and the superb Panzer V and VI tanks.
Against the odds, the Soviet Union survived the first body blows of the German invasion and gave up space for time, losing its most productive agricultural and industrial areas to the seemingly unstoppable grey tide. With a grim determination born of the realisation that this was a battle to the death for the very existence of their country and people, the Soviet populace and the Red Army bled and died to buy time. City after city fell – Kiev, Smolensk, Odessa, Riga and Novgorod. In some areas, the oppressed citizenry greeted the Germans as liberators with bread and salt, expecting a more benign regime than that of the Kremlin, an expectation that they were soon disabused of as the murderous intent of the Nazis became clear. Factories were dismantled and sent by train to the secure fastness of the Urals and Siberia, where they would be rebuilt with the welcome aid of Britain and the United States. These would later be well known as the greatest Soviet production plants of the war – the Stalin Ural Tank Factory No.183 in Nizhniy Tagil, the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant at Sverdlovsk and the vast industrial conglomerate known as ‘Tankograd’ in Chelyabinsk. Not one field or mine was left for the invader in the greatest scorched earth campaign of all time. The battles of July and August saw the effective end of the BT-7 as a frontline tank, as its limited armour and light armament proved ineffective in engaging the Panzer III Ausf. Gs and the increasing numbers of Panzer IVs that spearheaded the German advance that was gradually slowing as the warmth of summer gave way to the rains of autumn. Dozens of Red Army divisions were shifted towards the central sector of the front from Siberia and Central Asia to shore up the defences of Moscow. To the north, Leningrad was besieged, its only outlets to the world coming over Lake Ladoga and whatever aid could make its way through the silent lines of the embittered but as yet neutral Finns. Soviet armoured counter-attacks occasionally encountered limited success on a tactical level but were unable to halt the general German offensive, with only the T-34 and the KV heavy tanks proving able to engage their counterparts on an even or better basis. One such occasion occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Smolensk on August 29th, where over 500 T-34s, 120 KV-1s and 34 KV-2s conducted a successful double envelopment of advanced German forces, breaking their momentum and buying valuable time for the defence of Moscow. Over 2800 T-34s and 900 KV-1s were lost in 1941 out of almost 24,000 Soviet tanks destroyed in the first year of war in the East.
The pivotal moment of the first year of the Great Patriotic War came at the defence of Moscow from October 1941 to January 1942, where the German Operation Typhoon was stopped cold at the gates of the capital and then smashed back in the first of many Red Army winter offensives. Early successes of Army Group Centre at Bryansk and Vyazma ground to a halt along the Mozhaisk Line where 150,000 men under Marshal Georgiy Zhukov, recalled from the Leningrad Front, held stubbornly for two and a half crucial weeks while the fortifications of Moscow were built up by a civilian army of men, women and children. The full remaining strength of the Red Air Force was thrown into the battle, including the strategic reserve of five great red wyrms, managing to break the Luftwaffe’s effective air superiority over the battlefield. It was here that the KV-3 superheavy tank first saw action, fortuitously counterbalancing any tactical advantage that the Heer may have enjoyed from the combat debut of the deadly Tiger tanks. The KV-3 had originally been intended to replace the KV-1, but had encountered many of the same problems as the massive prewar T-35. At 80t, it was protected by 125mm of frontal armour and armed with a specially adapted 130mm naval gun. It’s 800hp diesel engine gave it a top speed of 24km/hour, making it decidedly unsuited to the modern battlefield outside of the specific circumstances of the Battle of Moscow and other defensive siege operations and only 140 were completed by the time production ended in February 1943.
Typhoon wore on and German successes began to run up against ever greater resistance. Soviet wizardry made each night a terror for the German troops, sending forth storms of ice, crimson lightning and blue fireballs that defied all mundane means of defence. Valiant medium tanks supplied by Britain through the perilous Arctic waters made up a small but useful fraction of the Red Army’s strength in the Battle of Moscow in the infantry support role. But, above all else, it was Mother Russia’s oldest ally, the weather, also acted to slow the German way forward, the churning mud of the rasputitsa preventing any decisive breakthroughs. Once the muds of autumn had frozen, the German push began anew on November 15th and crossed the Moscow-Volga Canal on December 1st, coming within almost 30 miles of the Kremlin itself. Resistance was ferocious as the 1st Shock Army and the famous Cavalry Army were thrown into the fray to defend the capital. Stalin’s ‘Monsters’, three massive 640mm railway howitzers based to the east of Moscow, kept the German frontlines under regular fire in the pivotal hours before Typhoon was finally called off in the face of fanatical resistance and the bitter cold of winter. Temperatures regularly dropped below -40° and the Germans found themselves bereft of the necessary winter clothing and cold weather equipment to operate in such conditions. On December 6th, 1,250,000 Red Army troops in 69 divisions smashed into the German lines around Moscow in a stunning counteroffensive that threatened to overwhelm the entire of Army Group Centre before it ended in mid January 1942.
The first major Soviet advances of the war were spearheaded by a new, fast light tank, the T-50. It had its origins in the same developmental reappraisal of Red Army tank design of 1938/39 that lead to the development of the T-34 and KV series. Foreign light tanks were already bringing the T-26 and its variants swiftly towards obsolescence and a new vehicle was required to replace it, whilst still being suitable for production in smaller manufacturing plants. The result was a 15t vehicle with up to 60mm of armour and an excellent 45mm gun. Cross-country speed of the T-50 was a creditable 62km/hour and it was regarded initially as a robust vehicle well suited to the role of infantry support and reconnaissance. The first operational vehicles were delivered in March 1941 and full production followed in April. The general prewar assumptions on the use of light tanks were smashed by the early battles of Barbarossa and the titanic Red Army arsenal of light tanks was soon whittled down by the enormous early losses in the Byelorussia and the Ukraine. Subsequently, the T-50 was used as a fast armoured reconnaissance vehicle that ranged far behind enemy flanks and disrupting their lines of communication, until such time as T-34 production allowed it to fill such roles. Production of the T-50 took on a priority behind that of the frontline T-34 mediums and KV-1/KV-2 heavies, but continued for more than two years until September 1943. A total of 12,519 were built in that period, suffering considerable losses at the hands of heavier German and Austro-Hungarian armoured vehicles and the much-feared 88mm anti-tank guns; a number were captured by the Romanian Army in the advances of 1941/42 and used as the basis for a number of light assault guns, most of which were lost in the Soviet counteroffensives of 1943-1945.
As the winter gave way to the summer fighting season of 1942 and the great German offensive towards the Volga and Caucasus, Case Blau, work was already underway on an improved variant of the T-34 capable of engaging the new Panther on more even terms. Initial design studies on a universal tank to replace both the T-34 and the KV, the T-43, ended in failure as the proposed vehicle would lack the same degree of rugged mobility as the T-34 whilst slowing production at a crucial period. Instead, an evolved variant of the T-34 was developed, armed with an 85mm gun derived from the successful M1939 52-K which had proved deadly in the defence of Moscow against the Luftwaffe. The T-34-85 was capable of penetrating the side armour of a Tiger from 870 metres, a significant improvement on earlier versions. Production began in May 1943 and the first vehicles reached frontline Red Army service in late July, taking part in the lengthy battles along the Panther-Wotan Line. 32,974 would be built by the end of the war. The ultimate development of the T-34 family of tanks came in the form of the T-34-100, a heavily modified vehicle armed with a 100mm gun that had been briefly designated the T-44 due to the number of changes made, before being switched back at Stalin’s personal insistence. It was produced from December 1944 and combined improved cross-country performance with a small but notable increase in armoured protection, but was always regarded as something of an interim vehicle compared to the new tank already under development by the Morozov Design Bureau, the T-54; only 3562 T-34-100s would be produced before the end of hostilities in September.
The KV-1 had never been regarded as entirely suitable by the Red Army due to its relatively poor mobility and unsatisfactory gun and work on a replacement was well underway by early 1942 with added urgency due to the German introduction of the formidable Panther and Tiger tanks. The Iosif Stalin or IS-1 heavy tank began production in December 1942 as a stopgap measure to expedite the entry of the 85mm gun into service, but only 275 were built before they were replaced by the preferred 122mm armed IS-2. The larger gun had been chosen in preference to the new D-10 100mm tank gun as it was a proven design already in production, as well as being able to penetrate the frontal armour of a Panther at substantially better combat ranges. The IS-2 weighed 52 tons, was protected by 120mm of sloped armour and was one of the fastest tanks of its class with a top speed of 40km/hour. Mass production of the IS-2 began in August 1943 and it was the primary Soviet heavy tank of the key year of 1944, when the Red Army finally pushed the Axis forces out of the motherland. 4983 tanks would be built up until December 1944, when it was replaced by the IS-3, which featured improved armour, a hemispheric cast turret and a more powerful engine. It would be the IS-3 that spearheaded the final Soviet offensives of the war in Europe, crushing the German defences of Silesia and reaching the banks of the Oder River. In the Far East, they devastated Japanese armour and infantry alike in the lightning invasion of Manchuria that served as the harbinger of ultimate victory. 1269 IS-3s would be built before the end of the war and the type remained in production until early 1947.
Just like the other major great powers, the Soviet Union also operated a range of heavy assault guns and tank destroyers in the Great Patriotic War; rather than the distinct types employed by others, the Soviet vehicles eventually coalesced into a handful of general purpose self-propelled guns. In the first half of the war on the Eastern Front, the primary Soviet requirement was for anti-tank guns and tank destroyers, known in Russian as samokhodnaya ustanovka, or self-propelled carriages. Eventually, the difference between the types would be one of gun calibre, with 152mm armed vehicles employed in the assault support role and those with smaller armaments used for anti-tank purposes. The SU-76 was the first such vehicle to enter service with the Red Army, based on a lengthened and widened version of the chassis of the T-50 light tank. It was liked for its reliability and general ease of use, although its steering was regarded as clunky. 15,247 were built from July 1942, primarily by the Gorky Automobile Plant. As the Germans and Austro-Hungarians began to employ heavier tanks, the SU-76 was shifted to the infantry support role, where is served for the rest of the war in a workman-like fashion. The SU-85 was based on the T-34 chassis and brought the 85mm to the battlefield on the simplest possible vehicle in the shortest time and 2371 were produced from late October 1942 until the T-34-85 began to join frontline units in significant numbers in the second half of 1943. It was replaced by the SU-100, a versatile vehicle equipped with a 100mm main armament. The SU-100 proved capable of destroying any Axis tanks of the latter half of the war apart from the Brobdingnagian Elefants; production continued into 1946, with 3063 built in wartime. The largest tank destroyer produced by the Soviet Union was the SU-130, which sported a 130mm naval gun adapted for use on land and only saw limited service due to its high profile and comparative difficulty of production. 219 were built in 1945 and they were used to devastate the formidable defences of the East Prussian fortress city of Konigsberg in the final days of the war in Europe.
The first of the pure assault guns the SU-152, a 55t mobile gun based on the chassis of the KV heavy tank. Although it was primarily used as self-propelled artillery and a close infantry support gun, the SU-152 saw enough use in the heavy anti-tank role to earn the fearsome sobriquet of the Zveroboy, or ‘Beast Slayer’ in 1942 and 1943 before it was gradually replaced by the better protected ISU-152s; a total of 895 were produced in this time. The shift of offensive momentum from the Heer to the Red Army saw the production of what can be regarded as the Soviet Union’s finest assault gun of the war, the ISU-152. Based on the chassis of the new Iosif Stalin heavy tank, the ISU-152 was designed for the destruction of any enemy field fortifications that would be encountered on the battlefield, as well as fulfilling the secondary roles of a self propelled howitzer and a heavy tank destroyer. Protected by over 130mm of frontal armour, it was to prove ideal for both urban combat in Konigsberg and Breslau and the heavy fighting along the Romanian border, earning the same reputation as a ‘Beast Slayer’ as its predecessor. 6852 were built between February 1944 and September 1945 and production would continue until 1949.
Soviet tank production over the course of the war surpassed that even of the United States of America and played a key role in the transformation of the Red Army from its prewar position as merely the world’s largest military force to its new status as the most formidable army in the world and the key factor in the Soviet Union’s influence over European and world affairs. The T-34 was arguably the best Allied medium tank by a very small margin over the Sherman and Crusader and the IS-2 and IS-3 can be regarded as at least the equals of the Tiger in the latter half of the war.
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 12:10:30 GMT
Soviet Tank Development Part 3: The Postwar Years
The aftermath of the Second World War saw the Soviet Union take its place as a genuine superpower on the world stage. Postwar demobilization of the Red Army began in late 1945 and the personnel strength of the Soviet Ground Forces was reduced from 16.42 million men in 625 divisions to 3.6 million men in 254 divisions by early 1949. The majority of this contraction was felt in the infantry and cavalry arms, while the frontline armoured force was maintained at the wartime level of over 60 divisions and 25,000 tanks, reflecting the dominance of the tank in the defeat of the Axis powers. Mainstay of this force was the redoubtable T-34-100, which continued production until early 1950 in the U.S.S.R., allowing for substantial exports to the Soviet satellite states of Poland, Romania, the German People’s Republic and Mongolia; a further 5892 T-34s were supplied to China between 1949 and 1952. Total production in the postwar period came to 12,974 tanks, the majority being built in 1946-47. T-34-85s and -100s would see extensive service in the first two years of the Korean War with the North Korean, Mongolian and Chinese armies, enjoying initial success against Allied light tanks and M4 Shermans before meeting their match in the form of American M-48 Pattons and British Commonwealth Centurions. The Red Army retained an estimated 18,000 T-34s in reserve in 1960, although their relative utility in modern warfare is regarded as limited.
The heavy tank enjoyed something of an Indian summer in Soviet service in the late 1940s and 1950s. The IS-3 was succeeded by the considerably larger and exceptionally well-armoured IS-7 in December 1947, a 72t superheavy vehicle armed with a 130mm gun that was effectively immune to all Western and Soviet anti-tank guns of the time. It was a comfortable and easy to drive tank capable of reaching the heady top speed of 60km/hour due to its 1000hp engine. The only flaw of the IS-7 was its bulk, which limited its ability to safely cross bridges and utilize ordinary rail transport. 793 were built in 1948 and 1949, with all operational vehicles being assigned to independent heavy tank regiments based in Poland and East Prussia until its retirement from active service in 1958. More widely successful would be the IS-10, 4268 of which have been produced since 1952. Weighing 60t and armed with a 130mm gun, it resembles an enlarged IS-3, but sported far superior protection equivalent to up to 260mm of armour plate on the turret and glacis. Top speed of the IS-10 is a creditable 45km/hour and its tactical mobility belies its heavyweight status. Its presence in the tank divisions of the Red Army is seemingly secure for years to come and it has been one of the major reasons in the development of new Western MBTs.
Light tanks almost disappeared from the Soviet inventory in the immediate postwar period given the seeming ubiquity of the T-34, but the concept was saved due to the requirement for amphibious ability. A number of designs were pursued in the late 1940s prior to the selection of engineer N. Shasmurin’s Obyekt 740 for full scale development in March 1948. A prototype of the tank now known as the PT-85, or 85mm armed Plavayushchiy Tank (‘swimming tank’), was accepted for production in November 1950. Capable of reaching a top speed of 50km/hour on land and 12km/hour swimming, the PT-85 weighed 20t and carried up to 30 mm of armour, providing it with some limited protection against 12.7mm heavy machine gunfire. It currently serves as the standard light reconaissance tank for the Red Army and its associated allied forces, as well as the Naval Infantry of the Red Navy. An estimated 6477 PT-85s have been built since 1951 and the chassis has additionally served as the basis for the deadly ZSU-23-4 self propelled anti-aircraft gun and the BTR-50 amphibious armoured personnel carrier.
Development of a new medium tank to replace the T-34 had been underway since early 1944 and the first tests of the prototype T-54 began in October 1945. A robust 40t vehicle protected by over 125mm of turret armour, it was an excellent tank that combined deadly firepower, substantial armour, speed and rugged reliability. It was armed with a stabilised D-10 100mm rifled main gun, a coaxial SGMT 7.62 medium machine gun and carried the lethal new KPV 14.5mm heavy machine gun on a pintle mount on the turret roof. A top speed of 60km/hour made the T-54 the fastest of the first generation of postwar tanks operated by any of the great powers. It was highly regarded by the Red Army as a worthy successor to the T-34 and the basis for a universal tank. Mass production began in Nizhniy Tagil in January 1947 and it replaced the T-34 in production in the vast factories in Kharkov, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Stalingrad by late 1949. A total of 45,624 T-54s would be built between 1947 and 1954, equipping the tank force and new motor rifle divisions of the Red Army to this day. Flamethrower and rocket armed variants were produced in substantial numbers, replacing earlier T-34 and IS-2 based vehicles.
The combat debut of the T-54 came in February 1951 in Korea and its operational performance came as an unpleasant surprise to the Western Allies, particularly given that earlier examinations of a tank clandestinely obtained from Romania via diplomatic bag had been coolly unimpressed. It spurred the full replacement of medium tanks with 105mm armed vehicles and lead to the development of a new generation of powerful anti-tank guided weapons. The T-54 gave the Chinese and Communist forces a degree of parity in armoured engagements during the stalemate period of 1952-53 but was outmatched by improved versions of their Western counterparts in the last years of the war. In the limited tank clashes in the 1956 War, the T-54 performed creditably when used in circumstances that suited its attributes, although a number of losses were inflicted by Conqueror superheavy tanks from beyond the range of the Soviet 100mm guns.
By this time, a new and improved tank, the T-55, had entered production, replacing the T-54. It was designed as a tank for the atomic age, fitted with a MBCR protection system, improved gun stabilization, a new 650hp diesel engine and increased ammunition storage capacity. The T-55 can be considered the Soviet Union’s first true main battle tank and was responsible for the gradual replacement of the heavy tank in frontline Red Army service due to its considerable advantages in mobility and improved HEAT rounds. The physical size of the crew was limited due to the design of the turret and the increased numbers of Soviet dwarves conscripted for service in tank units is a direct consequence of this factor. Its low profile turret is generally considered as a positive feature, although it limits the angle of depression of the main gun when firing from a hull-down position on the rear slope of hills. 32,645 T-55s have been built since production began in 1955 and it is currently in service with the armies of six other states.
The latest and most powerful tank in the Soviet arsenal is the 45t T-62, which entered service in 1959. Comparatively little is known of the newest MBT in the Red Army apart from its 115mm smoothbore armament and estimated road speed of 56km/hour. It is broadly considered to be an evolutionary development of the T-54/55 family of tanks. Armoured protection is in advance of the T-55, with increased thickness particularly apparent on the front of the turret. The operational range of the T-62 seems to be greater than that of previous Soviet tanks based on open source intelligence. Up to 2400 have been built thus far, although they have not been fielded by armoured units serving outside of the Soviet Union.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Jul 29, 2018 13:49:18 GMT
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Post by stevep on Jul 29, 2018 14:35:30 GMT
Fully agree. A hell of a lot of production and some very functional and well armed tanks, pretty much typifying the Red Army. 
Steve
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 15:08:47 GMT
The Soviets have a formidable productive capacity which is focussed in no small part on arms in general and tanks in particular. The T-64 and a new heavy first came to Western attention after the time that Simon Bailey writes this book.
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Post by lordroel on Jul 29, 2018 15:13:28 GMT
The Soviets have a formidable productive capacity which is focussed in no small part on arms in general and tanks in particular. The T-64 and a new heavy first came to Western attention after the time that Simon Bailey writes this book. Is the History of the Tank going as far as 1961. |
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Post by stevep on Jul 29, 2018 15:17:27 GMT
The Soviets have a formidable productive capacity which is focussed in no small part on arms in general and tanks in particular. The T-64 and a new heavy first came to Western attention after the time that Simon Bailey writes this book. Is the History of the Tank going as far as 1961.
I think it has done for all the powers mentioned so far. Although possibly Germany ended with the 45 defeat but then they weren't allowed an army for a while after WWII. Not sure who else there is to mention, other than possibly Japan as a power that has some armoured forces - plus China I just thought of.
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 15:29:19 GMT
It essentially goes up to early 1960 insofar as information is concerned. The last few parts cover Italy and Austria-Hungary, Spain and Japan; and China/Sweden/Poland/Canada/Australia.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Jul 29, 2018 18:48:01 GMT
It essentially goes up to early 1960 insofar as information is concerned. The last few parts cover Italy and Austria-Hungary, Spain and Japan; and China/Sweden/Poland/Canada/Australia. Like to see both Italy and Austria-Hungary who i guess are mostly based around Škoda designed tanks. |
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 29, 2018 21:20:40 GMT
International Tank Development Part 1: Italy and Austria-Hungary
Beyond the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Germany, there have been several other states that have developed their own indigenous tank designs over the course of the 20th century. Across Europe and Asia, some of these vehicles remain in production and service, even as the vehicles of the superpowers have begun to dominate their competitors in the armies of the world; the recent advent of the main battle tank could well cement this general position. Italy, Spain and Austria-Hungary all had significant tank forces in the interwar period, China and Japan have fielded strong armoured forces from the 1930s onwards, Sweden and Poland have long histories of innovative armoured development and the Commonwealth dominions of Canada, and Australia all have produced noteworthy tanks.
The first armoured vehicles of the Royal Italian Army in the Great War were imported French Renault FT light tanks. It was replaced from early 1918 by a domestically improved version, the Fiat 3000. Only 42 vehicles were produced by the armistice in November and orders were reduced to a total of 180 tanks. It was fitted with a 37mm gun and a 6.5mm machine gun and weighed 12.3 tons. They would serve as the mainstay of the Italian armoured force in the 1920s and early 1930s, along with the Fiat 3000B that entered service in 1929. 70 were employed in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935-6 where they overwhelmed the poorly equipped infantry forces of the Imperial Abyssinian Army. 47 Fiat 3000s were still in second line service at the outbreak of the Second World War, mainly in Italian East Africa, where they were destroyed or captured by the British Commonwealth offensive of late 1940.
The Fiat light tanks were replaced in service in the early 1930s by the CV-32, jointly produced by Fiat and Ansaldo based on design studies undertaken by Vickers in the late 1920s. Weighing 15 tons and armed with a 25mm Breda gun and two 8mm machine guns, it was a fast and mobile vehicle capable of reaching a top road speed of 51km/hour, but was outclassed by foreign light tanks due to its light protection. Further variants included the CV-34 and CV-35, which added more powerful engines and some modest increases in frontal armour; all were limited by the requirements of infrastructure in the Italian colonial empire. A total of 2943 light tanks of the CV-32 family were produced between 1932 and 1941, putting it among the most numerous of all Italian tanks. It enjoyed significant export success, being purchased by Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Iraq, Ottoman Turkey, Spain and Ruritania. Their operational career was one characterized by mediocrity, with one CV-35 attracting the dubious record of being the only modern tank to be destroyed by lions in the Abyssinian Campaign. In the decisive fighting of Operation Compass in North Africa in 1940, over 430 CV-34s and -35s were destroyed or captured by the British 7th Armoured Division in its invasion of Cyrenaica. Many were employed as immobile defensive obstacles in the Allied invasions of Sicily, Sardinia and mainland Italy of 1942 and 1943, but they provided only a limited tactical inconvenience at best.
The most successful Italian light tank of the Second World War was the L18/39. It was equipped with the potent Ansaldo Cannone da 75/39 modello 38, which gave it excellent anti-tank and infantry support capacity. At 56km/hour, it was slightly slower than many of its foreign counterparts, but made up for this deficiency with good reliability, fine cross-country mobility and 56mm of frontal armoured protection. 3986 were built between 1939 and 1943 by Fiat and Ansaldo and they comprised the major part of the Regio Esercito’s tank force when Italy entered the war in June 1940. They performed creditably against British Cavalier tanks in North Africa, but were increasingly outmatched by the heavier Valiants and Crusaders from early 1941 onwards. 167 served with the ill-fated Italian Army in Russia, all of which were lost in the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad. It would be in Spain that the L18/39 enjoyed its greatest measure of success, providing the Axis forces with a strong and capable reconnaissance screen before being gradually replaced by German and Austro-Hungarian types as their numbers were worn down in the battle of attrition.
It was to be in the medium tank category that Italy would make its greatest mark on the Second World War. Italian capacity to field medium and heavy tanks was constrained by the limits of her heavy industrial capacity and particularly the availability of engines of sufficient power to propel heavier vehicles to useful speeds. As in other states, the solution of an aircraft engine was ultimately decided upon in 1938 and a 450hp petrol engine was selected as the powerplant for the M25/40, a tank regarded the best Italian armoured vehicle of either World War. It was armed with a 75mm L/42 gun and protected by upwards of 75mm of armour plate whilst still being capable of reaching a top road speed of 52km/hour. It was a match for the best Allied medium tanks on a one on one basis in North Africa and Spain, but was never present in sufficient numbers to prove tactically or strategically decisive. By the final year of large scale Italian participation in the war, it was outclassed by the upgunned variants of the Crusader and Sherman then rolling off Allied production lines in ever-greater numbers. Just 2487 were built between 1940 and 1943, with the chassis also being used for the Semovente da 90/54 and Semovente da 105/25 self-propelled guns; 219 of the former and 124 of the latter were produced in 1941-1943. The M25/40 also saw limited service with the Ottoman and Bulgarian Armies, with the former operating just six vehicles prior to the armistice.
Following the Italian surrender of 1943, a royalist Italian Co-Belligerent Army of twelve light infantry divisions fought alongside the Allies to expel the Germans from Italy, but no tanks or heavy guns were fielded. This force provided the nucleus of the postwar Royal Italian Army, which was formally reestablished with a strength of six infantry, four alpine and four armoured divisions in 1947 in the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris. These units were equipped with surplus American Sherman and Pershing tanks in the late 1940s, which in turn were replaced by M-48 medium tanks from 1953. Restrictions on Italian domestic production of armaments were completely relaxed by the mid-1950s, allowing for the development of the 48t Leone main battle tank, previously known as the P48/56 before a change of nomenclature. Armed with a 105mm gun and two medium machine guns, it entered production in early 1960. It is thought to have considerable armoured protection equivalent to that of late model M-48s and Centurions and is capable of reaching the considerable top speed of 58km/hour. The Regio Esercito has ordered an initial 800 Leones and has a stated requirement for up to 2400 tanks; additional interest has been shown by Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria as they seek to eventually replace their older Centurions and Crusaders.
Austro-Hungarian tank development had its origins in Gunther Burstyn’s Motorgeschutz design of 1912, which took four long years to reach the battlefield. 109 were built in the final years of the Great War, serving primarily in the vast openness of the Eastern Front, although 15 were employed in the decisive victory at the Battle of Caporetto in 1917. Like Germany, Austria-Hungary was initially forbidden to operate tanks or other armoured vehicles under the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain, but this requirement was gradually relaxed as the aftermath of war gave way to the wave of communist revolution that swept over Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The final stages of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-1921 saw extensive clashes between the KuK and Red Armies in the dark Carpathians of Eastern Slovakia, leading to the French sale of 105 surplus Renault FT light tanks to Vienna in 1922; maintenance of the cordon sanitaire against the ravages of Bolshevism was seen as of paramount importance in this period. They would serve until 1935, allowing time for the development of Austria-Hungary’s first true modern tank
The industrial powerhouse of the Skoda Works produced the first prototype of the Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 28 in 1928, a 12t light tank that was clearly an evolved variant of the Renault, upgunned with a 47mm L/40. It was comparatively slow by the standards of 1920s light tanks, reaching a top speed of just 32km/hour, but more than made up for this with its respectable frontal protection of upwards of 35mm. 227 were built between 1928 and 1933 as production was curtailed at the height of the Great Depression. Many were scrapped in the late 1930s as they were replaced by newer vehicles, but 98 remained in service in May 1941, when they were attached to the Austro-Hungarian 2nd and 4th Armies in Operation Barbarossa. Initial light casualties slowly gave way to heavier losses, resulting in the replacement of the Panzer 28 in virtually all frontline roles by early 1942. Austro-Hungarian armoured officers regarded them with a strange mixture of affection and derision towards the end of their long service life.
The role of the light tank would be filled by the most widely produced Austro-Hungarian tank of the Second World War, the 17.5t Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 35. Protected by 50mm of armour and armed with a 47mm gun, it could reach the exceptionally fast top speed of 62km/hour over an operational range of 250 kilometres. Its operational role was envisaged as engaging the expected large numbers of Soviet light tanks in the rugged terrain of the Carpathians with a secondary mission of infantry support. It formally entered production in December 1935 and equipped the majority of the six Panzer divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1939. In the invasion of Poland and the subsequent Battle of France, the Panzer 35, as it would be commonly known, soon developed a deserved reputation as a tank-killer par excellence through the combination of its powerful gun, low profile and maneuverability. This was reinforced in the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union, when it faced older Soviet light tanks in the offensive thrusts deep into the Ukraine. Army Group Ukraine’s first encounters with the T-34 in September 1941 would prove to be the harbinger of the end for the Panzer 35 and it was completely replaced in frontline service by a combination of German Leopards and more formidable medium tanks by mid-1942. It would continue to soldier on, particularly in Spain and the Balkans, until the Austro-Hungarian collapse of 1944, both as a light tank and for a number of conversions, including an anti-dragon rocket launcher. A total of 3947 Panzer 35s were built between 1935 and 1943, serving with the KuK Army as well as the forces of Bulgaria, Romania, Ottoman Turkey and the puppet Fascist regimes in Spain and France.
In 1935, the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry issued a requirement for a 24t medium tank capable of outmatching Polish, Italian, German and Soviet vehicles then thought to be under development. This would become the well-known Panzerkampfwagen 36, which served as the backbone of the Austro-Hungarian armoured forces in the first half of the war. The only major tank of the Second World War designed by a dwarf, it was well-protected by the standards of pre-war medium tanks, sporting a maximum of 65mm on the glacis and featuring a well sloped turret that served it in good stead against larger opponents. The Panzerkampfwagen 36 was one of the heavier armed tanks in its class, carrying an 76.2mm/39 main gun, a 13.2mm Mannlicher heavy machine gun and two 7.92mm medium machine guns. A maximum speed of 42km/hour driven by a 500hp V12 petrol engine was combined with good mobility and its wide tracks made for fine stability. 884 were in service at the outbreak of war in 1939 and 2116 in total were built between 1936 and 1941. They provided decisively successful in the southern flank of the invasion of Poland and helped break through British and French defences in the second stage of Fall Gelb; 329 Panzer 36s were lost in both campaigns to all causes. They saw particularly heavy use in the first 18 months of fighting in the Soviet Union and provided sharp opposition to Red Army T-34s when handled by experienced units. Dozens were wrecked by Soviet giants in the Siege of Voronezh and over 200 were destroyed in the counteroffensive following the Battle of Stalingrad, paying a heavy cost to stabilize the southern front. The remaining Panzer 36s were gradually withdrawn to defensive roles along the Eastern Front in 1943 and the last vehicles left operational service in mid 1944.
It would be the successor to the Panzer 36 that would attract the most fearsome reputation of any Austro-Hungarian armoured vehicle, the Panzerkampfwagen 40. It was a highly complex vehicle with a temperamental engine, but proved a match for the T-34 and KV series tanks on an individual basis for much of the war. Weighing 55t, it was classified as a heavy tank and comprehensively protected by up to 90mm of sloped armour, which limited its top speed to 40km/hour. It was armed with a 100mm L/52 gun that was among the most powerful tank guns of the war, capable of penetrating the frontal protection of most Allied heavy and medium tanks of the midwar period. The prototype was completed in December 1940 and the first Panzer 40s entered service with the Austro-Hungarian Army in March 1942, in time for Case Blau. Production rates were slow, peaking at 68 tanks in November 1943, and only 1249 were built before production ceased in September 1944. During much of this period, Austro-Hungarian forces were on the defensive against the seemingly inexorable Soviet advance and the Panzer 40 proved to be the ideal tank for such operations. The majority were destroyed in the retreat back to the Carpathians through the Western Ukraine in a host of vain, nameless actions; whilst well-protected against most conventional tank attacks, they did prove vulnerable to aerial attack from the marauding Sturmovik threat and specialized Soviet battle magics.
The postwar Austro-Hungarian Army received its first tanks, former British Crusaders, in 1948/49 as part of the general Western move towards rearmament in the face of the burgeoning Soviet threat. As in Italy, the outbreak of the Korean War lead to gradual relaxations on the imposed restriction of heavy armaments and the consortium of Skoda, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Manfred Weiss combined to begin development of a new main battle tank, provisionally named the Panzer 60, in 1956 whilst licensed production of the Centurion would fill the interim requirement for a modern tank force. The exact characteristics of the Panzer 60 are still considered highly secret, but it is thought that it will feature a 120mm gun and heavy conventional armour. Discussions for the initiation of a joint tank project with Germany have been stalled since 1959.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jul 29, 2018 21:51:18 GMT
Good point in that I forgot Italy and than A-H still exists. Interesting background on developments in those two countries. See that for all the delays in N Africa the empire managed to defeat the Italians in E Africa a year earlier, which was a good help.  |
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Jul 30, 2018 3:37:56 GMT
International Tank Development Part 1: Italy and Austria-HungaryBeyond the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Germany, there have been several other states that have developed their own indigenous tank designs over the course of the 20th century. Across Europe and Asia, some of these vehicles remain in production and service, even as the vehicles of the superpowers have begun to dominate their competitors in the armies of the world; the recent advent of the main battle tank could well cement this general position. Italy, Spain and Austria-Hungary all had significant tank forces in the interwar period, China and Japan have fielded strong armoured forces from the 1930s onwards, Sweden and Poland have long histories of innovative armoured development and the Commonwealth dominions of Canada, and Australia all have produced noteworthy tanks. The first armoured vehicles of the Royal Italian Army in the Great War were imported French Renault FT light tanks. It was replaced from early 1918 by a domestically improved version, the Fiat 3000. Only 42 vehicles were produced by the armistice in November and orders were reduced to a total of 180 tanks. It was fitted with a 37mm gun and a 6.5mm machine gun and weighed 12.3 tons. They would serve as the mainstay of the Italian armoured force in the 1920s and early 1930s, along with the Fiat 3000B that entered service in 1929. 70 were employed in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935-6 where they overwhelmed the poorly equipped infantry forces of the Imperial Abyssinian Army. 47 Fiat 3000s were still in second line service at the outbreak of the Second World War, mainly in Italian East Africa, where they were destroyed or captured by the British Commonwealth offensive of late 1940. The Fiat light tanks were replaced in service in the early 1930s by the CV-32, jointly produced by Fiat and Ansaldo based on design studies undertaken by Vickers in the late 1920s. Weighing 15 tons and armed with a 25mm Breda gun and two 8mm machine guns, it was a fast and mobile vehicle capable of reaching a top road speed of 51km/hour, but was outclassed by foreign light tanks due to its light protection. Further variants included the CV-34 and CV-35, which added more powerful engines and some modest increases in frontal armour; all were limited by the requirements of infrastructure in the Italian colonial empire. A total of 2943 light tanks of the CV-32 family were produced between 1932 and 1941, putting it among the most numerous of all Italian tanks. It enjoyed significant export success, being purchased by Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Iraq, Ottoman Turkey, Spain and Ruritania. Their operational career was one characterized by mediocrity, with one CV-35 attracting the dubious record of being the only modern tank to be destroyed by lions in the Abyssinian Campaign. In the decisive fighting of Operation Compass in North Africa in 1940, over 430 CV-34s and -35s were destroyed or captured by the British 7th Armoured Division in its invasion of Cyrenaica. Many were employed as immobile defensive obstacles in the Allied invasions of Sicily, Sardinia and mainland Italy of 1942 and 1943, but they provided only a limited tactical inconvenience at best. The most successful Italian light tank of the Second World War was the L18/39. It was equipped with the potent Ansaldo Cannone da 75/39 modello 38, which gave it excellent anti-tank and infantry support capacity. At 56km/hour, it was slightly slower than many of its foreign counterparts, but made up for this deficiency with good reliability, fine cross-country mobility and 56mm of frontal armoured protection. 3986 were built between 1939 and 1943 by Fiat and Ansaldo and they comprised the major part of the Regio Esercito’s tank force when Italy entered the war in June 1940. They performed creditably against British Cavalier tanks in North Africa, but were increasingly outmatched by the heavier Valiants and Crusaders from early 1941 onwards. 167 served with the ill-fated Italian Army in Russia, all of which were lost in the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad. It would be in Spain that the L18/39 enjoyed its greatest measure of success, providing the Axis forces with a strong and capable reconnaissance screen before being gradually replaced by German and Austro-Hungarian types as their numbers were worn down in the battle of attrition. It was to be in the medium tank category that Italy would make its greatest mark on the Second World War. Italian capacity to field medium and heavy tanks was constrained by the limits of her heavy industrial capacity and particularly the availability of engines of sufficient power to propel heavier vehicles to useful speeds. As in other states, the solution of an aircraft engine was ultimately decided upon in 1938 and a 450hp petrol engine was selected as the powerplant for the M25/40, a tank regarded the best Italian armoured vehicle of either World War. It was armed with a 75mm L/42 gun and protected by upwards of 75mm of armour plate whilst still being capable of reaching a top road speed of 52km/hour. It was a match for the best Allied medium tanks on a one on one basis in North Africa and Spain, but was never present in sufficient numbers to prove tactically or strategically decisive. By the final year of large scale Italian participation in the war, it was outclassed by the upgunned variants of the Crusader and Sherman then rolling off Allied production lines in ever-greater numbers. Just 2487 were built between 1940 and 1943, with the chassis also being used for the Semovente da 90/54 and Semovente da 105/25 self-propelled guns; 219 of the former and 124 of the latter were produced in 1941-1943. The M25/40 also saw limited service with the Ottoman and Bulgarian Armies, with the former operating just six vehicles prior to the armistice. Following the Italian surrender of 1943, a royalist Italian Co-Belligerent Army of twelve light infantry divisions fought alongside the Allies to expel the Germans from Italy, but no tanks or heavy guns were fielded. This force provided the nucleus of the postwar Royal Italian Army, which was formally reestablished with a strength of six infantry, four alpine and four armoured divisions in 1947 in the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris. These units were equipped with surplus American Sherman and Pershing tanks in the late 1940s, which in turn were replaced by M-48 medium tanks from 1953. Restrictions on Italian domestic production of armaments were completely relaxed by the mid-1950s, allowing for the development of the 48t Leone main battle tank, previously known as the P48/56 before a change of nomenclature. Armed with a 105mm gun and two medium machine guns, it entered production in early 1960. It is thought to have considerable armoured protection equivalent to that of late model M-48s and Centurions and is capable of reaching the considerable top speed of 58km/hour. The Regio Esercito has ordered an initial 800 Leones and has a stated requirement for up to 2400 tanks; additional interest has been shown by Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria as they seek to eventually replace their older Centurions and Crusaders. Austro-Hungarian tank development had its origins in Gunther Burstyn’s Motorgeschutz design of 1912, which took four long years to reach the battlefield. 109 were built in the final years of the Great War, serving primarily in the vast openness of the Eastern Front, although 15 were employed in the decisive victory at the Battle of Caporetto in 1917. Like Germany, Austria-Hungary was initially forbidden to operate tanks or other armoured vehicles under the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain, but this requirement was gradually relaxed as the aftermath of war gave way to the wave of communist revolution that swept over Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The final stages of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-1921 saw extensive clashes between the KuK and Red Armies in the dark Carpathians of Eastern Slovakia, leading to the French sale of 105 surplus Renault FT light tanks to Vienna in 1922; maintenance of the cordon sanitaire against the ravages of Bolshevism was seen as of paramount importance in this period. They would serve until 1935, allowing time for the development of Austria-Hungary’s first true modern tank The industrial powerhouse of the Skoda Works produced the first prototype of the Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 28 in 1928, a 12t light tank that was clearly an evolved variant of the Renault, upgunned with a 47mm L/40. It was comparatively slow by the standards of 1920s light tanks, reaching a top speed of just 32km/hour, but more than made up for this with its respectable frontal protection of upwards of 35mm. 227 were built between 1928 and 1933 as production was curtailed at the height of the Great Depression. Many were scrapped in the late 1930s as they were replaced by newer vehicles, but 98 remained in service in May 1941, when they were attached to the Austro-Hungarian 2nd and 4th Armies in Operation Barbarossa. Initial light casualties slowly gave way to heavier losses, resulting in the replacement of the Panzer 28 in virtually all frontline roles by early 1942. Austro-Hungarian armoured officers regarded them with a strange mixture of affection and derision towards the end of their long service life. The role of the light tank would be filled by the most widely produced Austro-Hungarian tank of the Second World War, the 17.5t Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 35. Protected by 50mm of armour and armed with a 47mm gun, it could reach the exceptionally fast top speed of 62km/hour over an operational range of 250 kilometres. Its operational role was envisaged as engaging the expected large numbers of Soviet light tanks in the rugged terrain of the Carpathians with a secondary mission of infantry support. It formally entered production in December 1935 and equipped the majority of the six Panzer divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1939. In the invasion of Poland and the subsequent Battle of France, the Panzer 35, as it would be commonly known, soon developed a deserved reputation as a tank-killer par excellence through the combination of its powerful gun, low profile and maneuverability. This was reinforced in the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union, when it faced older Soviet light tanks in the offensive thrusts deep into the Ukraine. Army Group Ukraine’s first encounters with the T-34 in September 1941 would prove to be the harbinger of the end for the Panzer 35 and it was completely replaced in frontline service by a combination of German Leopards and more formidable medium tanks by mid-1942. It would continue to soldier on, particularly in Spain and the Balkans, until the Austro-Hungarian collapse of 1944, both as a light tank and for a number of conversions, including an anti-dragon rocket launcher. A total of 3947 Panzer 35s were built between 1935 and 1943, serving with the KuK Army as well as the forces of Bulgaria, Romania, Ottoman Turkey and the puppet Fascist regimes in Spain and France. In 1935, the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry issued a requirement for a 24t medium tank capable of outmatching Polish, Italian, German and Soviet vehicles then thought to be under development. This would become the well-known Panzerkampfwagen 36, which served as the backbone of the Austro-Hungarian armoured forces in the first half of the war. The only major tank of the Second World War designed by a dwarf, it was well-protected by the standards of pre-war medium tanks, sporting a maximum of 65mm on the glacis and featuring a well sloped turret that served it in good stead against larger opponents. The Panzerkampfwagen 36 was one of the heavier armed tanks in its class, carrying an 76.2mm/39 main gun, a 13.2mm Mannlicher heavy machine gun and two 7.92mm medium machine guns. A maximum speed of 42km/hour driven by a 500hp V12 petrol engine was combined with good mobility and its wide tracks made for fine stability. 884 were in service at the outbreak of war in 1939 and 2116 in total were built between 1936 and 1941. They provided decisively successful in the southern flank of the invasion of Poland and helped break through British and French defences in the second stage of Fall Gelb; 329 Panzer 36s were lost in both campaigns to all causes. They saw particularly heavy use in the first 18 months of fighting in the Soviet Union and provided sharp opposition to Red Army T-34s when handled by experienced units. Dozens were wrecked by Soviet giants in the Siege of Voronezh and over 200 were destroyed in the counteroffensive following the Battle of Stalingrad, paying a heavy cost to stabilize the southern front. The remaining Panzer 36s were gradually withdrawn to defensive roles along the Eastern Front in 1943 and the last vehicles left operational service in mid 1944. It would be the successor to the Panzer 36 that would attract the most fearsome reputation of any Austro-Hungarian armoured vehicle, the Panzerkampfwagen 40. It was a highly complex vehicle with a temperamental engine, but proved a match for the T-34 and KV series tanks on an individual basis for much of the war. Weighing 55t, it was classified as a heavy tank and comprehensively protected by up to 90mm of sloped armour, which limited its top speed to 40km/hour. It was armed with a 100mm L/52 gun that was among the most powerful tank guns of the war, capable of penetrating the frontal protection of most Allied heavy and medium tanks of the midwar period. The prototype was completed in December 1940 and the first Panzer 40s entered service with the Austro-Hungarian Army in March 1942, in time for Case Blau. Production rates were slow, peaking at 68 tanks in November 1943, and only 1249 were built before production ceased in September 1944. During much of this period, Austro-Hungarian forces were on the defensive against the seemingly inexorable Soviet advance and the Panzer 40 proved to be the ideal tank for such operations. The majority were destroyed in the retreat back to the Carpathians through the Western Ukraine in a host of vain, nameless actions; whilst well-protected against most conventional tank attacks, they did prove vulnerable to aerial attack from the marauding Sturmovik threat and specialized Soviet battle magics. The postwar Austro-Hungarian Army received its first tanks, former British Crusaders, in 1948/49 as part of the general Western move towards rearmament in the face of the burgeoning Soviet threat. As in Italy, the outbreak of the Korean War lead to gradual relaxations on the imposed restriction of heavy armaments and the consortium of Skoda, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Manfred Weiss combined to begin development of a new main battle tank, provisionally named the Panzer 60, in 1956 whilst licensed production of the Centurion would fill the interim requirement for a modern tank force. The exact characteristics of the Panzer 60 are still considered highly secret, but it is thought that it will feature a 120mm gun and heavy conventional armour. Discussions for the initiation of a joint tank project with Germany have been stalled since 1959. Good update as always simon darkshade. So Italy is still a monarchy i presume. So as i toughed Skoda, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Manfred Weiss are the three major tank producers in Austro-Hungaria. |
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 30, 2018 9:09:59 GMT
Italy is still a monarchy; the historical referendum was a very close run thing. With Umberto getting a clear run from 1943 after Victor Emmanuel's abdication, it comes down the other way.
Steve, East Africa is always going to be a difficult theatre for the Italians to support logistically. Allied victory there is very likely.
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Jul 30, 2018 9:11:11 GMT
International Tank Development Part 2: Spain and Japan
Spain acquired its first tanks in much the same way as Italy, ordering a number of Renault FTs from France for testing purposes in the final stages of the Great War. The primary occupation of the Spanish Army in the interwar period was the various colonial campaigns in Morocco and West Africa, which saw the French light tanks employed in the second first mechanised amphibious landings in history after the Grand Descent on Flanders by the Royal Marines in 1918. They encountered mixed success, providing overwhelming firepower against the mounted Rif rebels, but proving prone to mechanical breakdown in the searing sands of the Sahara. A rump armoured force of 54 FTs remained in Spanish Army service throughout the early 1920s at home and abroad, with half a dozen doing sterling patrol work in the Spanish concessions in China. An adapted domestic version, the Caballero, began low level production in 1926 but only 89 were built until production ceased in 1932. They were armed with a 37mm gun and twin 7.92mm machine guns, but only carried minimal armoured protection. The Caballero’s were most notable for the poor mechanical reliability and were regarded as one of the more mediocre interwar designs.
The dawn of the 1930s were marked by the deleterious impact of the Great Depression upon much of the Western world, but Spain was generally insulated from the most egregious impacts due to the relative isolation of its agricultural economy. Plans for the development of new domestic light and medium tanks were curtailed due to bottlenecks of supply of British, French, German and Italian manufactures and armaments, but a steady series of heavy tank designs continued over the next seven years. The resultant prototype of the Espada tank was first unveiled in early 1938 and began production in the final days of 1939. It was based around the Spanish requirement of defending the passes of the Pyrenees against an external Western European invader, typically considered to be Italy or France, with a secondary mission of colonial defence in North Africa. The Espada was a 36t tank equipped with a 75mm/40 main gun and a pair of French 25mm guns fitted in side sponsons, a design feature that had mostly been abandoned in the rest of Europe. Frontal armour protection was a creditable 65mm and it was capable of reaching a top speed of 29km/hour over rough terrain. Crucially for its intended role, the Espada was ideally suited to defensive combat in the type of hilly and mountainous areas that abounded on the Iberian peninsula. Spanish industrial capacity had lagged behind the other powers of Europe for the first half of the 20th century, but the successful development campaigns of the 1930s had gone a significant distance towards catching up with Italy. Production of the Espada in 1940 totalled 428 vehicles, a considerable achievement considering the modest nature of the Spanish heavy industrial sector after the troubles of the Coup of 1938.
The Spanish-Portuguese War opened on August 25th 1940 and soon became a new front of the wider Second World War with the intervention of Allied and Axis forces. The Battle of Portugal and the naval setbacks inflicted on the Spanish Armada Real by the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet were the harbinger of the Royalist counter-coup of April 1941 and the subsequent German invasion. The Allied retreats to Andalusia and South Western Portugal were primarily caused by the potent combination of German Panzers, airpower, artillery and motorized infantry, but Fascist Spanish collaborationist forces did employ 124 Espadas in the 1st Spanish Armoured Division to some effect at the Battle of Seville, where they provided a fair match to earlier British Cavaliers and Valiants. Further production of the Espada ceased in November 1941 after the complete destruction of the Madrid manufacturing plant by coordinated dragonstrikes and a daring aerial raid from RAF airships. The remaining Royalist Spanish armoured units of the Second World War were equipped with American Shermans and British Crusaders in the next two and a half years of the Iberian Campaign.
In the immediate postwar period, Spain’s priorities were focused on national reconstruction rather than military modernization and their wartime tank force was only significantly augmented by the acquisition of 390 American M-24s in early 1949. The process of Western rearmament was given renewed impetus by the outbreak of the Korean War the following year and 1278 Centurions were acquired from Britain between 1952 and 1956. Development of a domestic main battle tank has been proceeding at a slow pace since 1957, but its long term viability and future are unclear at this time. As in Austria-Hungary, the precise design features of the Conquistador are not widely known outside of a target weight of 45t, a high speed and a 105mm main gun. There has been strong interest from a number of South American nations for potential licenced production of a fast, non-superpower produced main battle tank and the Conquistador may well fill that role, given strong Spanish links to the region.
Japan’s initial forays into the development of armoured forces came in the bloody aftermath of the Great War in China and Far Eastern Russia, where the five cavalry divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army were used for long range reconnaissance in force, deep penetration raids and more traditional shock action against enemy infantry. Each division was augmented by a motor squadron equipped with Rolls-Royce and Austin armoured cars by early 1918 and these were followed by the acquisition of 96 British Whippet light tanks over the following two years to counter Bolshevik and Mongolian numerical advantages. The samurai units proved somewhat reticent to abandon their loyal steeds, but the long years of fighting soon wore down their institutional equine preference, whereas the veterans of the Japanese Expeditionary Force on the Western Front had seen the value of the heavy and medium tank in the less mobile environment of Europe. Those in the armoured infantry regiments were far more open to the prospect of direct support and employed thirty nine British Mark I-III heavy tanks in the Yangtze Campaign. The close links between the Japanese Armed Forces and their British allies in the Great War would have a strong bearing on the subsequent developments in Japanese tanks, particularly in the mutual belief in the value of the arme blanche and tank bayonets.
The formal establishment of an experimental armoured force came in 1924 with a battalion sized formation equipped with one company of Mark IV heavy tanks and two of Renault FT light tanks. Japanese industrial production grew significantly over the course of the 1920s from its humble foundations, but the broad impact of the disastrous Great Kanto Earthquake continued to act as a fundamental limit on heavy armament construction. The Osaka Arsenal developed Japan’s first indigenous tank design in 1927, a 20t experimental medium tank armed with a 57mm gun and three machine guns. This proved to be beyond Japan’s immediate capacity for production in the late 1920s and all three prototype vehicles were only ever deployed on the sets of IJA propaganda newsreels and the lonely patrols against the oni in the frozen mountains of Hokkaido.
The first successful production tank designed by the Japanese Army Technical Bureau was the Type 89 light tank. It was a 12t vehicle that was far smaller than European vehicles, moderately fast at 30km/hour, but heavily armed with a short barreled 57mm gun that made it ideal for close infantry support. With 16mm of armour protection, it was considered immune to contemporary small arms fire and sufficiently agile to avoid long range spellfire. The first variant of the Type 89, known as the I-Go, entered service in 1928 and the Imperial Japanese Army formed its first independent armoured brigade in 1931, consisting of three tank regiments, each having two companies of twelve tanks. 589 Type 89s were built between 1928 and 1935, providing a solid vehicle tank that gave the IJA extensive experience in armoured operations. It first saw action in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the later Battle of Shanghai in 1932 prior to the full scale outbreak of the Third Sino-Japanese War in 1935, facing little opposition from Chinese infantry. It had been mostly withdrawn from frontline combat service by the late 1930s, but a number remained in supporting service the Philippines and Dutch East Indies during the Japanese centrifugal offensive of 1941/42.
It was replaced in service by the far more formidable Type 95 Ha-Gō, which many historians regard as not only the best light tank produced by Japan, but also one of its best all-round armoured vehicles. The design roots of the Type 95 lay in the debates conducted within the Army Technical Bureau in 1935 regarding the future of mechanised warfare in the light of foreign developments. The parameters for the new tank were certainly ambitious – a speed of over 50km/hour, a superior anti-tank armament to any other vehicles in the Far East and as much protection as could be accommodated given the requirements for speed and firepower. The result was the 12t Type 95, which began production at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sagami Arsenal in June 1936, followed by other armaments plants. It carried a powerful 47mm gun and had a top speed of 52km/hour whilst still sporting up to 25mm of armour. Total production reached 2891 by the end of 1942, making it the most produced Japanese tank of the interwar era. The Type 95 proved an even match for Soviet light tanks in Manchuria and made up a large part of the Japanese armoured forces in the Philippines and South East Asia in the early stages of the Pacific War. British Cavaliers and American M3s outmatched the Type 95 from 1942 onwards and many were devastated in engagements with Australian Sentinels in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Japan was also the leading operator of tankettes, or very light tanks, in the 1930s and World War 2. The first was the Type 92 Heavy Armoured Car, which despite its name was a 4t tracked vehicle equipped with a 13mm heavy machine gun and designed for use by the cavalry arm. It was a troubled vehicle much plagued by technical problems and the attention of gremlins and only 224 were built between 1932 and 1938. Far more prevalent were the Type 94 and Type 97 tankettes, with 1119 and 877 produced respectively. The Type 94 Tokushu Keninsha, or ‘Special Tractor’, was designed primarily for reconnaissance, although it did fulfil a secondary direct support mission in the early stages of the war with China. At 5.2t, it did not represent a great advance in protection or speed over the earlier Type 92, but was considered to be more robust and mobile. The chassis was used as the basis for the Type 94 Gas Scattering Vehicle, which was frequently employed to disseminate chemical weapons and countermeasures on the mobile battlefield. The Type 97 Te-Ke was a 6.4t tankette that carried a 37mm main gun and could reach a top speed of 48km/hour. It firstly supplemented and then replaced earlier tankettes in both IJA and IJN service, with their light weight contributing to their amphibious utility in the latter case. All types of Japanese tankette were roughly mauled by larger Red Army light and medium tanks in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1938-39, their thin armour providing no protection against 45mm gunfire. Their subsequent use was confined to their original purpose of regimental and divisional reconnaissance, although a number of units served in the Southern Expeditionary Army in the bloody battles against the forces of the British Empire in Malaya and Burma in 1942.
The main Japanese medium tank of the 1930s and early 1940s was the Type 97 Chi-Ha. This 22t tank was armed with a reliable 57mm gun and powered by a 200hp Mitsubishi diesel engine. Its primary role of infantry support was reflected by relatively light armoured protection that reached 40mm at its strongest and a top speed of 42km/hour; in many ways, it was essentially a scaled up version of the Type 95 light tank in design and philosophy. It was decisively outclassed by Soviet tanks in the Manchurian campaign of 1939 in speed and firepower and relegated to second line service in China for the remainder of its operational career, where it was finally eclipsed by Chinese Grant and Sherman tanks. Those used in the Battle of Malaya proved little match for British and Australian Crusaders and Valiants, but their light weight gave them a high degree of operational mobility. 1274 Type 97 Chi-Has were built between 1938 and 1942, after which time production shifted to the improved Type 97 ShinHoTo Chi-Ha. This was a slightly larger vehicle, weighing 24t due to an improved turret carrying a 75mm/40 gun. This gave the IJA a competitive edge against Allied tanks in 1942 and 1943; 1189 were built before production finished in early 1944.
As Japan progressed from the Chinese War and limited clashes with the Soviet Union into a state of undeclared and then open conflict with the United States and the British Empire, it benefitted from limited cooperation on tank development with Nazi Germany, which influenced the design of the most redoubtable Japanese tank of the Second World War, the Type 3 Chi-Nu. A 25t medium tank armed with a 75mm gun, its armoured protection of 60mm was markedly superior to that carried by previous Japanese armoured vehicles and it was also faster than most of its predecessors at 45km/hour. Entering production in June 1942, it had the best combat record of any Japanese tank of the war, but the impact of the Anglo-American submarine blockade and Japanese’s inferior economic and industrial power meant that it was only produced in modest numbers, with 2453 built between 1942 and 1945 by Mitsubishi and the Osaka Arsenal. When it first took the field in September 1942 in China, the Type 3 gave Japan a definite combat edge against Chinese armoured forces that was only countered by Lend-Lease M3 Grants. In Indochina and Siam, it proved adept both at defensive operations and slashing counteroffensive action, its wickedly sharp tank bayonet proving reasonably effective in the fighting around Phnom Penh and Saigon. In the Philippines, the small numbers of Type 3s used in combat were comfortably countered by later marks of the M4 Sherman and US anti-tank guns, but both Japanese armoured divisions present gave a fair account of themselves before the inevitable defeat. It would be in Manchuria and Japan itself that the Type 3 would see its final battles against the Allies, by which time it was verging on obsolescence.
Most advanced of any Japanese medium tank of World War 2 was its successor, the 36t Type 4 Chi-To. Front armour was improved to a maximum thickness of 80mm and a higher velocity 50 calibre version of the 75mm main armament was fielded along with a 13mm heavy machine gun and a pair of 7.7mm lighter guns. Its top road speed reached 51km/hour and the Type 4 was noted for its excellent acceleration. The strong general characteristics of the tank were counterbalanced by manufacturing difficulties and a temperamental engine and suspension. When fielded in China in August 1943, the Type 4 was more than the equal of any Allied tank, but only 1297 were built between June 1943 and the end of the war. It would be one of the few Japanese tanks able to oppose the formidable Soviet T-34s on something approaching an even basis, but the impact of Anglo-American strategic bombing and the merciless blockade meant that it could never be fielded in anything approaching decisive numbers.
Japan produced just two true heavy tanks, the Type 5 Chi-Ri and the Type 6 superheavy tank. The former was a 55t heavily armoured beast armed with an 88mm main gun and protected by over 120mm of frontal armour. Its top speed was only 25km/hour and only 212 were built between 1943 and 1945, but in defensive operations in Manchuria and the Japanese Home Islands they proved much feared adversaries. The Allied response to the Type 5 was similar to the approach taken in the war in Europe, with both the Red Army and the Anglo-American forces preferring to counter the Type 5 with heavy artillery, tactical air strikes, rockets and spellfire rather than in open armoured engagements. The Type 6 was Japan’s sole foray down the strange path of the superheavy tank and all six prototypes and test vehicles of the 125t monstrosities produced in 1944 and 1945 were destroyed by a USAF bombing raid on the factory in Tokyo.
Left prostrate, shattered and occupied at the end of the war, the prospects of further Japanese tank development looked to be a most unlikely proposition. Rearmament commenced in the early stages of the Korean War and the first tanks operated by the renewed Imperial Japanese Army were surplus American Shermans, Chaffees and Pershings. These would only provide a temporary stopgap force until a more lasting solution could be determined. By 1958, an indigenous Japanese design had been decided upon, the eponymous Type 58. At 42t, it is one of the lighter main battle tanks currently in service, but it can make a claim to be one of the best balanced vehicles in its class, sporting a 105mm main gun, a top speed of 50km/hour and the equivalent of upwards of 210mm of protection from its highly angled turret. Production had totaled 579 by the latter half of 1960 and requirements are thought to be upwards of 2400 vehicles by 1965.
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