Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

"Commander of the 3rd Tank Army
Army HQ, November 1st, 1943

Based on my observations, I came to the conclusion that a significant portion of soldiers do not understand the difficulties that we unavoidably encounter on the fifth year of this war that are caused by the situation with raw materials, production, and supplies. The following are only a few examples of violations that keep repeating, despite numerous directions on this issue:

HESH vs Spaced Armour

Soviet live fire experiments with HESH fired from a 105 mm tank gun and a 106 mm recoilless rifle were published in the Armoured Journal (Bronetankoviy Vestnik) as a part of a study on tank protection. In this study, various types of armour layouts were simulated by placing thin 2P steel or aluminium alloy plates of various types, representing skirt armour, at a distance of 330 mm away from a thicker 2P steel plate, representing the side of the tank's hull. The shots were fired from 100 meters. Here are the results.

Caliber (mm)	Angle (deg)	Impact velocity (m/s)	Armour thickness (mm)	Damage		Normaliza-tion angle of fragments
				First plate	Second plate
105	0	634	5+20 (Steel)	Breach 650x400 mm	Breach 240x300 mm*	0
105	0	615	5+80 (Steel)	Breach 500x550 mm	Dents from fragments up to 12 mm deep over 350x400 mm	0
105	0	605	5+20 (Steel)	Breach 650x480 mm	Dents from fragments 10-12 mm deep over 500x550 mm	0
105	0	614	10+20(Steel)	Breach 600x600 mm	Plate cracked, two penetrations, dents from fragments over	0
105	0	722	10+20(Steel)	Breach 500x400 mm	Three penetrations, dents from fragments over 350x370 mm.	0
105	0	617	10+30(Steel)	Breach 550x600 mm	Dents up to 7 mm deep over 370x400 mm.	0
105	0	607	30 (ABT-101) + 20 (Steel)	Plate cracked	Dents up to 8 mm deep over 450x400 mm, 706 mm long crack.	0
105	0	615	5 (AMG-6) + 80 (Steel at a 60 deg angle)	Penetration 170x110 mm	Plate cracked**	-
105	45	606	5+20 (Steel)	Breach 780x350 mm	Plate cracked. Dents from fragments up to 10 mm deep over 550x500 mm	15-25
105	50	606	5+20(Steel)	Breach 650x290 mm	Plate cracked. Dents up to 11 mm deep over 550x500 mm	20-25
105	60	640	5+20(Steel)	Breach 550x340 mm	Dents up to 13 mm deep over 500x620 mm.	20-30
105	60	635	10+20(Steel)	Plate cracked	40x40 mm penetration, dents from fragments over 350x500 mm.	-
105	60	599	13(ABT-101) + 20 (Steel)	Breach 500x480 mm	Dents up to 100 [sic] mm deep over 500x490 mm.	20-30
105	0	489	5+45(Steel)	Breach 620x480 mm	Dents up to 5 mm deep over 600x560 mm.	0
106	60	489	10+20(Steel)	Plate cracked	Breach 310x170 mm, dents from fragments over 430x400 mm.	35-40
106	60	489	20+45(Steel)	Breach 800x550 mm with spall fragment	Dents up to 15 mm deep from fragments over 360x380. 20 mm dent from spall fragment.	30-40

*The shell did not explode upon striking the first layer, but deformed slightly.

**The shell penetrated the spaced armour and exploded upon hitting the main armour.

Via andrei-bt.

Firewall

"Instructions on Setting Up Anti-Tank and Anti-Personnel Fire Obstructions: Fire Walls and Bottle Fields

1. General concept

Fire walls and bottle fields are used in anti-tank and anti-personnel engineering obstruction systems. Their purpose is to delay the advance of tanks and infantry and upset the enemy's fighting order to guarantee success for our counterattacks.

Fire obstructions are built on tank-accessible directions and are echeloned in depth, covered by rifle/machinegun and artillery/mortar fire from defending units.

Tank destroyer groups are located close to the fire obstructions, completing the destruction of enemy tanks when they are forced to stop.

T-70: Growing Up

On July 20th, 1941, the Red Army adopted the T-60 small tank into service. This was a necessary measure, as incredible losses of tanks in the first month of the Great Patriotic War had to be replenished, and mass production of the T-50 wasn't getting off the ground. Even if the goal of producing 10,000 tanks in 1941 was not met, large amounts of T-60 tanks entered service in October, playing an important part in the defeat of the Germans at Moscow. At the same time, an idea to modernize the T-60 was tossed around as early August, resulting in a heavier tank that was indexed T-70. What is the history of this tank?

Tractor Harvest

"Information on the amount of captured tractors by front as of May 1st, 1943

Front	In use	In warehouses			On the battlefield (not recovered)
		Total	Foreign	Domestic	Total	Foreign	Domestic
Karelian
Leningrad
Volkhov
N. West.	2				36	18	18
Kalinin	17	3	3		35	2	33
Central					160	58	102
Voronezh	12				437	416	21
South		7	4	3	96	63	33
Former Donetsk		8	3	5	467	347	120
Bryansk	6				98		98
North Caucasus	11				56
Transcaucasus
Total	92	239	10	229	1806	1245	561

UMT 1st Department Chief, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel Evstratyev"

CAMD RF 81-12086-19