Damage to T-70s

Just as with the document on T-34s from many months ago, the Red Army also needed to know how its meeker cousin, the T-70, was doing.

"Examined T-70 tanks can be split into two major groups:

1. Tanks that were knocked out without armour penetrations, due to a broken engine, suspension damage, etc.
2. Tanks that were knocked out with armour penetration, as a result of artillery, machinegun, or mortar hits, or due to being blow up with mines or bombs.

Of the 70 examined T-70 tanks, 12 belong in the first group (17.2%) and 58 to the second (82.8%). The percentage of tanks knocked out due to the first category is high, and means that quality of internal mechanisms and the suspension should be increased.

The losses in the first category are caused as follows:

1. Damage to the engine or transmission: 9, or 75%
2. Fire: 2, or 16.5%
3. Suspension damage: 1, or 3.5%

It can be seen that the leading cause of breakdowns is damage to the engine or transmission.

On the 58 tanks knocked out by armour penetration, the following damage was detected:

1. 141 hits to the hull, or 66.5%
2. 71 hits to the turret, or 33.5%

The damage can be split into two groups: penetrating hits and nonpenetrating hits.

1. Nonpenetrating shots: 65, or 30.7%
2. Penetrating shots: 147, or 69.5%

i.e. two thirds of hits to the T-70 penetrate.

Table #1 shows the distribution of hits from all calibers to all components.

Hits	Hits from all calibers		Hits per caliber
	Amount	Percentage	Up to 50 mm	More than 50 mm	Unknown
Nonpenetrating	65	30.7	24	5.7	1.0
Penetrating	147	69.3	41.9	18.4	9.0
Total	212	100	65.9	24.1	10.0

As can be seen from Table #1, the main method of fighting T-70 tanks is artillery with a caliber of 50 mm or lower. As Table #2 shows, this artillery is very effective, with 63.5% of the hits being penetrations."

The report is quite lengthy, so I'm going to skip over some parts and discuss the quality of the armour, like I did with the T-34. The first thing to look at is the strongest part of the armour, the upper front plate.

Damage Type		Damage from all calibers		Breakdown by caliber
		Amount	Percent	Up to 50 mm	Over 50 mm	Unknown
Safe	Dent	7	59	21.4	28.6	-
Unsafe	Penetration	2	14.3	7.15	7.15	-
	Breach	3	21.4	7.15	7.15	7.1
	Breach and crack	2	14.3	-	14.3	-
Total		14	100	35.7	57.2	7.1

This part of the tank is pretty decent at deflecting shots, bouncing two thirds of shells 50 mm and smaller and about half of shells bigger than 50 mm. Unfortunately, these overmatching calibers do cause breaches and cracks occasionally, although the sample size is small.

Next, the sides.

Damage Type		Damage from all calibers		Breakdown by caliber
		Amount	Percent	Up to 50 mm	Over 50 mm	Unknown
Safe	Dent	6	7.1	5.9	-	1.2
Unsafe	Penetration	53	62.3	54.1	8.2	-
	Breach	9	10.6	2.3	4.7	3.6
	Breach and crack	17	20	5.9	10.6	3.5
Total		85	100	35.7	23.5	8.3

The sides are very thin, so literally everything overmatches them. However, they manage to bounce a few shots from low calibers. Calibers over 50 mm are naturally going to wreck the armour quite a bit, but the amount of "clean" penetrations is still much greater than "ragged" ones. 

Turret side:

Damage Type		Damage from all calibers		Breakdown by caliber
		Amount	Percent	Up to 50 mm	Over 50 mm	Unknown
Safe	Dent	22	56.5	41	15.5	-
Unsafe	Penetration	15	38.5	33.5	5	-
	Breach	2	5	2.5	2.5	-
	Breach and crack	-	-	-	-	-
Total		39	100	77	23	-

The side of the turret is is doing much better than the hull, with a high chance of ricochet and a very low chance of breaches. Despite the significant sample size, there are no cracks at all. Very nice!

The front of the turret has a very small amount of samples, but it also manages to not crack.