Thursday 13 August 2015

Armour Up

"State Committee of Defense
Decree #GKO-1062ss
December 25th, 1941, Moscow, Kremlin

On T-34 and T-60 tanks
NKTP and comrade Malyshev must:
  1. Begin production of T-34 tanks with an armour screen bringing up the front armour to 60 mm starting on January 15th, 1942, and then solid 60 mm armour starting on February 15th.
  2. Begin production of T-60 tanks with an armour screen bringing up the front armour to 35 mm starting on January 15th, 1942, and then solid 35 mm armour starting on February 15th.
Chair of the State Committee of Defense, I. Stalin."


However, nothing is permanent.

"State Committee of Defense
Decree #GKO-1333ss
February 23rd, 1942, Moscow, Kremlin

Cancel part 1 of GOKO decree 1062ss issued on December 25th, 1941 regarding the addition of armour screens on the front of the T-34. NKTP is allowed to use up any hulls with extra armour that were already produced.

Chair of the State Committee of Defense, I. Stalin"

RGASPI 644-1-22

4 comments:

  1. That did sound like a reasonable upgrade actually.

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  2. If an increase to 60 mm on the T-34 hull had gotten past the design stage (one would assume this since the order was "begin production"), while I can understand why the change was not made in 1942 (not until the tide had turned at Stalingrad, with production being sacred) why wasn't this change incorporated into later T-34s, including the T-34/85?

    The biggest shortcoming of the T-34/85 was that using 1944/45 standards, its armor was on the thin side. An increase of 13 mm on the hull front and (better) the turret front would have made its resistance to the most common German medium AT weapon, the 75/L48, excellent save at very close ranges.

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    Replies
    1. Increased armour thickness was attempted on the T-34-85M project, there it was decided that the effect of additional armour was not enough to offset the increase in weight and other complications that arose from it. I think that 60 mm would have been a reasonable increase, but I guess Soviet engineers knew something that I didn't.

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    2. I heard from somewhere it was a bit front heavy (?). I can't remember where, so I'm not challenging the tanks record, but perhaps the 85mm gun mount in the new turret may have raised/caused problems with the balance of the tank and tacking on 15mm might have been a valid reliability concern

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