With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to tell what intelligence is valid and what is not. However, in the moment, even mostly correct information takes on a very strange form.
This is one such example.
"New Tank Types
1. Russian Tanks
Further development of the T 60 tank. Produced in Gorky, Kirov, and Stalingrad. Production should also be underway in the Urals.
- Weight: 9.2 tons (T 60 = 8 tons)
- Armament: 45 mm tank gun (T 60 = 20 mm)
- Armour: turret 35 mm, front 42 mm, side 15 mm (T 60 = 14-18 mm)
- Motor: 2 GAZ-11 gasoline motors (73 hp)
A new, improved type:
b) T 70B
should already be in production. The front armour is strengthened to 80 mm and side armour to 40 mm. Instead of the sensitive gasoline engine, a diesel engine should be used.
According to reports, the new superheavy tank
c) "Za Rodinu" (for the Fatherland)
- Weight: allegedly 150 tons
- 2 turrets
- Armament: 1 152 mm tank gun, 1 75 mm tank gun
has not yet appeared before Army Group Center."
The data on the T-70 is largely correct, however the data on the T-70B is completely off the mark. The most surprising thing is the new superheavy tank, which is nothing like anything actually built in the USSR. There was even a drawing of this fantastical tank, allegedly seen by the 18th Army from Army Group North in the summer of 1943.
It turns out that even this strange tank had a kernel of truth. There was indeed a tank called "Za Rodinu", and a heavier one than the Germans were used to. This was the name under which one of the T-220 prototypes went into battle in 1941. Of course, it weighed far less than 150 tons and had a single 76 mm gun as opposed to this curious assortment, but this information didn't come from nowhere.
Via Yuri Pasholok and iam-krasnoyarsk.
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