"Another part of our comrades, after reading the report submitted by General Zhukov, thought it was very far-sighted. In their opinion, it was only a matter of time before the Germans put the 88-gun on tanks."
"After discussion, these comrades agreed that we must redesign a subversive heavy tank that is far superior to the KV. The minimum design indicator is to be able to withstand the German 88-gun at a distance of 500 meters.
In terms of attack and firepower, we must target our army's existing KV heavy tanks and equip them with a powerful main gun that can destroy KV heavy tanks from the front within a conventional combat distance."
"In addition, these comrades also suggested that our new heavy tank should improve the maneuverability and actual combat power of the existing KV heavy tank. The entire transmission system and gearbox must be replaced from the original Hongqi tractor kit to one specially designed and manufactured for the new tank.
System, the negative reports of actual combat feedback submitted by front-line troops mainly focus on criticisms of mobility, and the general response is that KV heavy tanks are too difficult to maneuver in actual combat."
He should be very clear about the weaknesses of the heavy tanks he designed himself. At this moment, Kojin naturally understood in his heart how poor the mobility of the KV series heavy tanks currently fighting on the front lines of the Great Patriotic War was.
In October 1939, Comrade Stalin personally inspected and accepted two multi-turret heavy tanks, the SMK and T100. Their performance in the test was extremely poor. The weaknesses exposed included but were not limited to difficulty in crossing obstacles, slow travel speed, and poor steering.
It is simply worse than waiting for a problem that is so serious that it is unbearable.
Comrade Stalin, who personally observed the entire acceptance test process, was very unhappy with this. At the acceptance summary meeting, he angrily criticized "These useless things will only make our Red Army a target for the enemy!".
Kogin, who has a very keen intuition about the future design of heavy tanks, has actually already realized that the multi-turret heavy tank cannot actually achieve its original design concept of "all-purpose and universal". This was entirely based on the level of the industrial base at that time.
It's just the inevitable result, there are no other possibilities at all.
Kotin, who was quite foresight, knew that the multi-turret heavy tank was useless but still pretended to be obsessed with its design. His purpose was to confuse the Borosov Tank Factory, which was Kotin's main competitor at the time, and make it used for Heko.
Beijing's T100 heavy tank, which is competing for the Red Army's future heavy tank project, has gone further and further down the wrong path of multiple turrets until it can no longer turn back.
As expected, the Borosov Tank Factory, which fell into the trap of Kotin's carefully woven network, was unaware of Kotin's plan and mistakenly believed that the design team led by Kotin was also working hard to develop a multi-turret heavy tank, and eventually
Under the guidance of the big idea of "must surpass Kejing's design plan", the t100 was created, which was useless at all.
After hearing Stalin's angry rejection of the multi-turret heavy tank at the summary meeting, Kotin was immediately overjoyed. Realizing that the time had come, Kotin immediately came up with the single-turret design of the SMK multi-turret heavy tank that he had already prepared.
The plan was submitted to Stalin for review.
At the same time, in order to get his design approved and better win over the upper-level relations and Stalin's preferences, Kotin, who was prepared with both hands, personally named the single-turret modified heavy tank of this SMK heavy tank Kotin-Volo.
The Shilov heavy tank is the name of Marshal Voroshilov, Kotin’s father-in-law.
As expected, the single-turret modified version of the SMK heavy tank solution has thrown away the heavy and useless additional weight burden of the turret. At the same time, the removal of the secondary turret has reduced the length of the original bus-like body.
The weight of these remaining tanks was carefully designed and calculated by the design team led by Kojing. On the basis of weight reduction, the single turret solution of the SMK heavy tank was equipped with heavier armor than the multi-turret version, and the tank itself was
Mobility is also greatly improved due to the lighter weight of its heavier turret version.
Sure enough, the design of the single-turret version of the SMK heavy tank, which was planned by Kojin and fully prepared, was a treasure for Comrade Stalin, who loved heavy tanks and large-caliber heavy artillery. The prototype showed excellent maneuverability and maneuverability in actual tests.
The cross-country passability is improved by countless Wallaces compared to the original multi-turret version.
Comrade Stalin, who was quite satisfied with this, immediately signed and approved Kotin's improved design plan with a wave of his hand. The KV series heavy tanks, which were given the name "Kotin-Voroshilov", were officially finalized and put into production and began to be widely equipped.
The front-line tank unit of the Red Army, and the T100 heavy tank that was tricked to death by Kogin was swept into the garbage heap of history and no one cares about it again.
Although the KV heavy tank, which was the culmination of the early first-generation heavy tanks, was considered to be the heavy tank with the best comprehensive actual combat performance in the world at the time.
But in a hurry, in order to make his design plan finally win the bid, Kejing directly applied many existing mature technologies to ensure the reliability of the tank while speeding up the research and development progress. The entire transmission system of the Hongqi tractor is just one of them.
Just one.
The potential disasters laid by focusing solely on winning the design plan were finally revealed after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Compared with German tanks, the KV series heavy tanks had extremely poor off-road steering and overloaded transmission systems, which became its popular choice.
It was the main culprit criticized by the front-line Red Army tank troops.
Kotin, who has been familiar with this situation for a long time, has actually made up his mind to completely solve this bad problem on the next generation heavy tank he designed. The report of his deputy Yakozov is just a reminder for Kotin now.
Just a function.
After thinking deeply for a moment, Ke Jin finally raised his head again with his hands clasped together and resting on his chin.
"I think the conclusions given by these few comrades are more in line with the long-term design plan of our Red Army's heavy tanks. You and I both know that some of the inherent design flaws in the KV series heavy tanks must be fundamentally solved. Instead of focusing on this set of heavy tanks, it seems now
Instead of proposing an improvement plan that lacks fundamental innovation on a design that is already riddled with shortcomings, it is better to hurry up and design and develop a brand new heavy tank. Blindly following the old path of KV heavy tanks will not defeat that cunning guy Morozov."
Having roughly guessed that Kotin, who had always dared to make bold innovations, would make such a decision, Yakozov lowered his head and thought for a moment, then raised his head again.
"Now that you have made your decision, I will naturally follow your order, Comrade Kejin, but do you have any specific ideas and instructions for this new heavy tank? Our design team comrades still need your leadership."
Ke Jin, who had completely lost the angry expression just now and felt that his thoughts were becoming clearer, simply stood up from his chair, clasped his hands behind his back like a candidate who had learned the answers to the exam in advance, and walked back and forth in front of the window with an excited expression.
He started walking, and when he suddenly stopped a few minutes later, his words seemed so exciting and happy to Yaksov.
"I thought of it! Yaksov! Our new heavy tank design has been made clear! I will try to find the greatest name to name it, a name even greater than Marshal Voroshilov! This must be
It will make our design famous in history, I promise you!”