Wednesday 13 January 2021

First Emchas

"Brief report on the technical condition of M4-A2 tanks arriving at the Gorkiy foreign vehicles QA department of the GABTU
  1. 26 M4-A2 tanks arrived in Gorkiy from November 20th to December 28th, 1942.
    Delivery of the tanks and external inspection was performed in the presence of the delivering party.
    Transport #
    Arrival date
    # of M4-A2 tanks
    Train chief
    17412
    November 20th, 1942
    3
    Jr. Lt. Barsukov
    17413
    November 23rd, 1942
    9
    Sr. Tech. Lt. Balyayev
    17414
    November 26th, 1942
    11
    Tech. Lt. Volosko
    17415
    December 1st, 1942
    1
    Lt. Nesayev
    105/4805
    December 24th, 1942
    2
    Sgt. Kinozarov
  2. External inspection of M4-A2 tanks showed that:
    1. Transport #17413 had no seals or tarps on 9 vehicles. Tank #3020993 had an open toolbox. Tank #3021054 did not have its travel lock engaged.
    2. Transport #17414 was missing tarps on 11 vehicles. Tank #3021079 was not sealed.
  3. Starting the engines, breaking in the tanks, and partial disassembly as well as observation during usage in units showed a large amount of defects, which are attached in the "Report on technical condition of tanks".
    According to the speedometers, each tank travelled 60-80 miles after leaving the factory, or 100-130 km. The M4-A2 tanks mainly have the following defects:
    1. Coking, scorching, or tearing off injectors (32 cases).
    2. Scorching or melting of the engine pistons (11 cases).
    3. Tearing of the cylinder sleeves along the air channels (9 cases).
    4. Air thermometer shows no reading (9 cases).
    5. Clutch adjustment slips (8 cases).
    6. Transmission oil leaks (4 cases).
    7. Crack in the cylinder block or cylinder heads (3 cases).
    8. Crack in the oil cooler casing caps (3 cases).
    9. Defects with radios (3 cases).
    10. Oil penetrating through seals (3 cases).
    11. Desynchronization of the engines (2 cases).
  4. The following parts on M4-A2 tanks are missing:
    1. Only 4 tanks have gun cleaning tools.
    2. All tanks lack:
      1. Canvas bags for the gun muzzle and breech.
      2. Brass catchers for the 75 mm gun.
      3. Canvas bags for the Browning machine guns. 
      4. Canvas bags for the periscopes.
      5. Wrenches to adjust the brake bands.
      6. Wrenches to adjust the track.
      7. Wrenches to adjust the idler.
        The missing components were provided by the Gorkiy Military QA Department.
  5. The armament, instruments, and equipment is provided in accordance with the standards set by Military QA.
Conclusions: M4-A2 tanks need additional testing and thorough study of their design parameters, especially the GM-4606 [sic] diesel engine.

Chief of the Foreign Vehicles Military QA Department, Engineer-Lieutenant Colonel Muravich
Senior Assistant to the Chief of the Foreign Vehicles Military QA Department, Engineer-Major Masalkin"

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