Steel Soviet Union

"This is the latest prototype produced by the Kirov plant in Chelyaspink. There is no other prototype besides it."

"Those people at the Kirov factory originally planned to put it on the front line after more tests and planned to finalize it and put it into production, but after all, actual combat is the best way to test whether a new equipment meets the standards. During the preliminary trial run test, it did not appear After the fatal failure, the tank was sent to the front line to test its actual combat effectiveness. "

Before he finished speaking, he took a step forward, stretched out his right arm and gently patted the armor plate of the huge steel beast in front of him, and then continued to speak.

"Every component of the vehicle, even the gearbox gears, has been inspected and maintained by me personally after arriving at the Yartevo front line."

"It is no exaggeration to say that, Major Malashenko. This is not only the most powerful heavy tank currently in service in our Red Army, but to be more precise, it is also the most powerful heavy tank in the entire world."

With the truthful words from Karamov's mouth echoing in his ears, he immediately took a step forward. The strong visual impact of this angular and huge heavy tank in front of him at such a close distance is undoubtedly extremely powerful. What was so shocking was that even Malashenko, who had some knowledge of all heavy tanks during World War II, had to admit the powerful performance of the thing in front of him.

Staring at the heavy tank in front of him, which made him somewhat unsure of the specific model, Malashenko stood there and thought for a moment. He did not pretend to understand, but opened his mouth to ask the "professionals" on the side for advice.

"Captain Karamov, if you can, please tell me about its specific performance. I hope to know more about this tank."

"With great pleasure, Major Malashenko, this is what I should have done."

After saying this, Captain Karamov jumped onto the body of the heavy tank in front of him with a clean and neat movement, put his hand around the barrel of the gun and patted the body of the gun. Naturally, Captain Karamov was talking about the work that passed through his hands. Familiar as a treasure.

"Compared with the same type of vehicle before improvement, the biggest difference is the 76mm ZIS-5 tank gun."

"As you can see, Major Malashenko, this is a new model of the ZIS-5 tank gun that was derived from our T34 tank and has been correspondingly improved on the basis of the F34 tank gun. The gun mount and gun mantlet structures have been greatly improved. , which improves the human-machine efficiency to a certain extent, and when coupled with the already spacious turret, it allows you to target the enemy more easily than before and achieve preemptive strikes.”

After introducing the main gun, which is the biggest improvement point of the entire vehicle, he jumped to the upper armor plate area of ​​the vehicle body and used his heel to lightly kick the double-layered main armor belt, which made a crisp and unusual sound, followed by improvements in protective performance. Then the words came out of Captain Karamov's mouth.

"In terms of protective performance, those at the Kirov Factory in Chelyaspink welded and attached two pieces of 25 mm thick homogeneous steel armor to the upper and lower front areas of the tank's body."

"This is a reluctant emergency response after I heard that the Germans used their 88mm anti-aircraft guns to deal with our heavy tanks. Counting these two additional armor plates, the equivalent frontal defense of the entire vehicle can reach 100mm. About the same level. Although I don’t know whether it is really immune to the 88mm anti-aircraft guns in the hands of the Germans, at least in theory it is much stronger than the original model. "

As the German army has been conquering cities and advancing rapidly since the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, as one of its important technical weapons, has always accompanied the main force of the German army in frontline operations, even if it has to be dispatched to carry out dangerous counterattacks. Armored combat missions are no exception.

Because of this, in the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Red Army, which was chased by the German sling hammer, did not capture a complete 88-gun. Even wanting to destroy a German 88-gun required great courage and usual effort. It can only be done with no small sacrifice under the circumstances.

The Soviet tank engineers, who lacked sample guns for actual firing tests, could only roughly guess the ultimate armor-piercing capability of the German 88 gun based on the partial combat information and verbal descriptions collected from the frontline troops, and Based on this, we will strengthen the protective capabilities of our new heavy tanks so that they can be immune to the maximum penetration of the German 88 gun.

Since the tank fire control system and sighting system during World War II were relatively crude and unable to perform the fancy operations of fighting and running and ultra-high-precision shooting of later main battle tanks, most tank battles during this period were Anti-tank battles all take place within one kilometer of the maximum fighting distance.

As a later time traveler, Malashenko clearly remembers that the ultimate armor-piercing power of the German 88 gun at a distance of one kilometer is about 115 mm of homogeneous steel armor plates placed vertically at 90 degrees. This number will fluctuate slightly in actual combat due to the quality of the armor being hit, but overall it is still a very powerful "anti-tank" gun with almost no opponents.

From this point of view alone, although the Soviet tank engineers who were working day and night at the Kirov Factory in Chelyaspink were not completely accurate in guessing the penetration depth of the German 88 gun, they were very close even so. The ultimate armor-piercing power of the German 88 gun.

You must know that all these speculations about the German 88 gun are based on the fact that the Soviet army has not captured even one 88 gun for sample gun target shooting to obtain armor-piercing parameters.

On this point alone, even Malashenko, who is a later time traveler, has to admire the outstanding professional abilities of those Soviet tank engineers.

Without target shooting data as a reference, the ultimate penetration power of the German 88 gun can be guessed so close. It seems that the powerful Soviet tank force that was able to ride on NATO's head during the entire Cold War was not. A beach castle built overnight.

Malashenko here was thinking about issues that did not belong to this era at all. Captain Karamov, who was still standing on the tank on the other side, jumped off the vehicle after introducing all the major improvements.

"In addition to the major improvements I just mentioned, the rest are some minor improvements such as changing the drop-forged tracks to cast ones, and adding an external tank tank to improve strategic mobility."

"Although this is a prototype built at all costs, some of the old problems before improvements still exist. The transmission system is still the same and has not been replaced. The 47-ton combat weight also makes it impossible for this thing to run like the T34. So fast. But I guess these minor problems are not a big problem for you, Major Malashenko."