"To the Deputy Chair of the State Committee of Defense, comrade Beriya
[cut off] January 1945
The tank park of the German army consists 50% of heavy Tiger and Panther tanks. Our heavy IS tanks, ISU SPGs and SU-100 SPGs make up about 28% of our total amount of produced tanks and SPGs. The main tank of the Red Army is the T-34-85, which has difficulty fighting heavy tanks. The new T-44 medium tank produced at factory #75 in Kharkov has the same armament as the T-34-85 tank.
To improve the armament and achieve superiority in firepower for our tanks, I consider it necessary to install the 100 mm D-10T gun into this tank. It is very possible to install this gun.
Based on the above, I ask you to order the People's Commissar of Tank Production to produce an experimental prototype of a T-44 tank with a 100 mm D-10T gun to urgently begin mass production of the T-44 with this gun.
Marshal of the Armoured Forces, Fedorenko
Colonel-General of the Tank Forces, N. Biryukov
How correct is that German "heavy" tank percentage?
ReplyDeleteI posted German production plans for 1945, for the month of March they have 270 Tiger II and Panthers (including Bergepanthers) and then 180 PzIVs, 180 Jagdpanzer IVs, 380 StuGs and StuHs, and 350 Jagdpanzer 38(t). I guess if you ignore all non-turreted armoured vehicles, you can fudge the numbers enough to get about 50% Tigers and Panthers, but once you count those and the huge number of older tanks kicking around, the number would obviously be a lot lower.
DeleteThanks Peter!
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