Technical research and development of KV-2 heavy tank

In the late 1930s, the appearance of various anti-tank weapons and the use of German III and IV tanks made the Soviet Union realize that the T-35 heavy tank was out of date, so it decided to step up the development of a new generation of heavy tanks. 1938, the Jing Ke design team of Kirov Factory provided an improved single turret heavy tank based on SMK tank. The tank was named KB, which is the acronym of K. voroshilov, chairman of the Soviet National Defense Commission. In this paper, the common English abbreviation KV is adopted. 1939 19KV prototype was approved as the standard equipment of the Soviet Union in February, 2009, and it was named as KV- 1 heavy tank when it was finalized. 1In February, 1940, KV- 1 heavy tanks started mass production, which was later divided into 1939, 1940, 19438+0 and 1942 by year. A total of 4,247 kV-1vehicles were produced before 1942. The shortcomings of KV- 1 heavy tanks are insufficient armor thickness and artillery power. Therefore, in 1940, the Soviet Union decided to urgently develop the KV-2 heavy tank. The tank body is designed as a KV prototype, with a large turret and a large-caliber howitzer. Actually, it's a self-propelled gun. 1February 940, three KV-2 tanks were put into the Soviet-Finnish war and tested. After improvement, KV-2/ 1940 and KV-2/ 194 1 year heavy tanks were developed.

Around 1938, two Soviet experimental models SMK and T- 100 heavy tanks began trial production and were equipped with Red Army troops. Both are heavy tanks with multiple turrets. Among them, the main turret of SMK "Kirov" heavy tank designed by Jing Ke, a famous Soviet tank designer, is equipped with a 76.2 mm main gun, and the front and lower auxiliary turrets are equipped with a 45 mm machine gun, with 7 crew members and a total combat weight of 55 tons. The T- 100 heavy tank also adopts a similar layout of main and auxiliary turret weapons, with 6 crew members, a total combat weight of 58 tons and a frontal armor thickness of 60 mm.

In the late 1930s, the storm of war enveloped Europe. All countries in the world have accelerated the research on anti-tank weapons. 1938, Germany developed PAK38 50 mm long barrel anti-tank gun. The gun was one of the most advanced anti-war guns in the world at that time. It can penetrate the armor of all active tanks in the world at that time at a distance of 500 meters. At the same time, Nazi Germany continued to develop a larger caliber 75 mm anti-tank gun. At that time, the armor thickness of SMK and T- 100 heavy tanks in the Soviet Union was only 20 ~ 60 mm, which was difficult to meet the protection needs on the battlefield. At the same time, Jing Ke also realized that 55 tons was the design limit of multi-turret tanks, and the protection ability could not be improved by thickening armor. In this way, only the layout of a single turret can solve this problem, and better armor and maneuverability can be obtained. 1938 10 according to Jing Ke's suggestion, the development of a new type of single turret heavy tank based on SMK heavy tank began. 1938+065438+ 10, the military approved the trial production of this new single turret heavy tank. 1On February 27th, 938, the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union officially decided to start the project by Decree No.45, and named the new tank after Marshal Kerim voroshilov (KV). September 1939, 1, KV tank prototype manufacturing. The single turret is equipped with 76.2 mm machine gun, 45 mm machine gun and a 7.62 mm DP machine gun. The turret armor was once as thick as120 mm. This new tank inherited the shape, internal structure, suspension system and transmission mechanism of SMK tank list.

On September 5, 1939, the KV tank was transported to Moscow for display. A month later, the KV prototype returned to Leningrad, and just as it was preparing for further testing, the Soviet-Finnish war broke out. KV heavy tanks and SMK, T- 100 heavy tanks were incorporated into the 9 1 tank battalion of the 20th heavy tank brigade of the Red Army and sent to the front.