Steel Soviet Union

The trailer summoned by Karamov's radio call arrived quickly, but this trailer was not a common wheeled truck, it was actually a little special.

The turret was removed, leaving only the chassis of the vehicle body. A crane moved from a wheeled crane was attached to the original turret seat ring. In order to ensure a good operating view, the crane's operating room was also specially changed to It is open-air and placed directly above the car body on one side of the crane outside the car.

In addition to this rotatable telescopic crane with a huge boom, a large number of external storage boxes and grilles are also welded in the free area directly above the chassis of the car body. There are a lot of equipment used for maintenance scattered here and there. Tools, towing cables, etc., and even a set of special tools for disassembling the road wheels are pinned to the skirt on the side of the vehicle body: a thick steel crowbar and an oversized wrench.

That's right, this is a "Stalin Repair Vehicle" that has removed the original turret and modified it using the body and chassis of an IS2 heavy tank. Its main purpose is to repair and tow the Red Army's heavy tanks on the battlefield.

Once the IS6 heavy tank, which is invincible and invincible on the frontal battlefield, is damaged and breaks down, how to get it back for repair is a very troublesome problem.

If you use an ordinary T43 medium tank to pull it, you can't pull this wide and fat behemoth at all.

The only way is to find an equally powerful IS6 that can barely drag it, but it is as slow as an old man crossing the road, which seriously hinders the efficiency of emergency repairs.

Karamov mentioned the matter in a written report to Malashenko, explaining the difficulties and details encountered in reality, and soon received a formal reply from the division commander.

"Pull out and modify those IS2s that were previously eliminated and kept as spares. Remove the turrets and make them special emergency repair trailers. If they are left in your logistics, they will gather dust and rust, or they will be given to the brother troops and become other people's possessions. . Instead of doing this, we might as well recycle the waste and modify it ourselves. There is a practical need anyway. It would be good to use it as a trailer after removing the turret to reduce the weight. Let’s give it a try.”

The valuable IS2 heavy tanks that other fraternal forces are eager to see through have become "waste utilization" transformation experiments here.

But Karamov doesn't care how valuable these things are in the eyes of other brother troops. Anyway, if they are left here, they have indeed reached the point where no one cares about them.

All day long, I followed the logistics support troops to carry supplies outside the vehicle and use them as mules and horses to run around. Even the ammunition racks in the vehicle were emptied to store more things. It may be true that they are not very useful and don't have much to show for it, but this is indeed the only use of these big guys in logistics.

Then again, these eliminated IS2 heavy tanks are said to be temporarily kept by the logistics support force, and will be dispatched and requisitioned at any time when the combat troops have equipment gaps.

But anyone with a discerning eye can clearly see that, as far as the equipment support rate of the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division is concerned, the IS6 heavy tank is sufficient for all kinds of equipment. If necessary, call your superiors at any time to apply for rapid deployment. Even the T43 medium tanks, which are newer than the IS6, are now in full supply.

Given this situation, it is estimated that it will not be the turn of these IS2s to be deployed on the battlefield again in the next life, at least not in the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division.

Therefore, it is inappropriate to use these IS2s as mules and horses in logistics, and the suggestions given by Malashenko really made Karamov's eyes shine and brought a lot of inspiration.

The relevant transformation work was immediately started within the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division. Strictly speaking, this field modification project did not even have a serious project chief engineer, let alone a professional military industry team. It was purely Karamov. With the soldiers under his command, he rolled up his sleeves and fiddled around to get the result.

Precisely because it was a self-modification using spare time, there was no unified modification template and project plan. From the beginning to the end, I fumbled it by myself and relied on the skills and experience of a group of old tank repairmen. Unified standard equipment.

Therefore, almost all of the 13 Starling recovery vehicles are different, especially the details and appearance are more or less different.

The summed up experience gained during the modification process of the previous car will be applied to the next one. At the same time, based on the final modification results of the next car, the previously modified previous car will be reworked and perfected for a second time.

In terms of trouble, it was not that troublesome at all. The whole group of skilled car repairmen and ordinary mechanics numbered 1,800 people, and it was more than enough to work on these 13 cars. In addition, Stalin's 1st Guards Tank Division is already very arrogant. Not only combat equipment, but also all kinds of logistics, maintenance and support equipment are supplied in sufficient quantities, with complete types and styles.

A large number of skilled and experienced front-line old tank repairmen, coupled with an excess material and equipment supply support base.

With such sufficient and excellent conditions, if Karamov can't even get the modification work for these 13 vehicles, he will really be ashamed of his several years of professional training in tank repair technology at the Kirov Factory. Such a job For Karamov, the child is simply a piece of cake.

Looking at the headless IS2 heavy tank in front of me, the maintenance soldiers fixed the tow cable. After a burst of black smoke erupted from the engine exhaust port, the IS6 heavy tank began to move slowly.

Although this speed is still not much faster, compared with the ridiculously slow speed of the previous IS6, it is already much better.

The IS2 heavy tank that has removed the turret can greatly reduce its weight. Even if it is connected with a crane head, the power-to-weight ratio is still high enough, and there is still plenty of power. Towing an IS6 forward at low speed is really not a big deal. Something that takes too much effort.

"This thing looks very useful, but have you never thought of writing a report to your superiors to recommend mass production? If every army can be equipped with this thing, I bet that the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops can at least be improved. Half, if the number is sufficient, it is possible to double the combat effectiveness. The efficiency of repairing damaged tanks is too important. "

Kulbalov, who was not clear about the specific situation, expressed his true thoughts, but Karamov beside him slowly shook his head.

"I've had this thought before, because our division's field modifications are quite effective. If we let people from the rear military industry do the modifications, it would definitely be better and more professional. I even made special suggestions to the division commander, just like you just said That's what it said."

"How do you think Comrade Commander answered me?"

"Comrade Division Commander said, you are the only one who dares to think of such a wild thing. If you can think of something, wouldn't the people in the rear military industry think of it? It's not that I don't want to change it. I have already mentioned similar things to Ke Jing. However, the answer is that the current production plan and mission indicators do not allow precious heavy tank chassis to be used to modify this thing. "

"There are a lot of equipment gaps in the combat units on the front line that have yet to be filled. Not to mention the cutting-edge IS6, many heavy tank units are not even able to make do with the IS2."

"Only our division in the entire Red Army can handle the matter of modifying and repairing IS2 chassis, regardless of the actual conditions or objective circumstances. This is a special case that cannot be replicated, let alone reported to superiors for mass production. . If it gets published in the newspaper, you might get scolded, and someone will say that you are wasting the resources of the motherland. Do you believe it?"