Friday 23 January 2015

Arming the Russian Renault

"An Act of Artillery Trials

The current act is composed to record that, on November 9th, 1920, a 37 mm Hotchkiss gun #124 produced in 1895 and converted by the Sormovo factory according to blueprint #31138, installed on Renault tank #2 produced at the Sormovo factory, underwent trials.

11 shots were fired with combat rounds. The results were satisfactory. After trials, the Renault type gun mount with modifications assembled at Sormovo was disassembled, examined, and judged to be free of defects.

Short history of the production of the first tank in Russia. Practical time requirements:

The blueprints for the chassis were made at Sormovo, and engines by AMO, by January 1st, 1920. Production work started in February of 1920. Armour arrived at Sormovo in June, engines in July. Assembly of the first tank finished in August of 1920. Initial trials revealed many design and manufacturing defects. Two months, September and October, were necessary to correct those defects. Full trials were carried out by the Council of Military Industry in November.

The shipment of the first tank is planned for December 15th. After that, four per month will be delivered, with the order being finished in March of 1921. As such, the assembly of all 15 tanks took place from October 1919 to March 1921, of those:
  • Preliminary work took 5 months
  • Production took 10 months
  • Trials and conversions took 3 months.
Total: 18 months.

As a result of SVP trials from November 13th to November 21st, it was determined that the tank meets requirements and is a reliable combat unit."

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