Soviet tanks at war
Photo: press service of the Central Military District
With the outbreak of World War tank troops are beginning to rearm - a whole line of vehicles has been developed to replace the old ones: T-35 - KV, T-28 - T-34, BT - A-20, T-26 - T-50, T-37A / T-38 - T- 40. The problem was that to replace the huge arsenal of old tanks, the same huge arsenal of new tanks was required, and it was not possible to produce it quickly. She was also in the extreme unreliability of engines and running new machines, and also in an organizational mess - when old models are no longer produced, as well as components for them, and the production of new ones has not yet begun. More precisely - started, but a teaspoon per hour.
But this was all decided, something else was not decided - the look at the use of tanks, which was seen in the style of the attack of the Yakovlev brigade at Khalkhin Gol, in numerous and dense masses. For this, new mechanized corps were sharpened - little motorized infantry, little low-speed artillery, weak air defense, but more than a thousand tanks. And in such conditions, our vehicles could be ideal, tankers heroic to the point of madness. But. Let the number be at least ten times greater, but this advantage was leveled over the order. And the Germans had order not only in battle - their repair and evacuation service was beyond praise, but here ...
At war
Actually, the beginning of the war proved this - the Khatskilevich corps (the strongest mechanized corps of the ZOVO) was driven into the offensive without air defense, without knowing the situation and without the support of the Air Force. And what's the point of the mass of the new KV and T-34, the old BT and T-26? This was the case everywhere - both in the counterattack of four mechanized corps on Brody on the South-West front, and in insane counterattacks on the North-West front. In this sense, the slogan of the commanders of the Red Army could be the English "the king has a lot." Tanks were burned in attacks, thrown with minor breakdowns right on the roads, tanks attacked not only without air defense, but often without infantry. And vice versa, the commanders of the combined arms where they could pull apart the tank divisions - the tanks brought together in the divisions could not provide support to the infantry, but it was needed.
By the end of the summer, sobering began to set in - technology began to run out, and the industry could not make up for the colossal losses physically. And the middle link of the commanders who survived the border battle began to think.
“4th tank brigade with brave and skillful military operations from 04.10.1941. on 11.10.1941/3/4., despite the significant numerical superiority of the enemy, inflicted heavy losses on him and fulfilled the tasks assigned to the brigade to cover the concentration of our troops ... As a result of fierce battles of the brigade with the 133rd and 49th tank divisions and the enemy's motorized division, the Nazis lost 8 tanks , 15 guns, 6 aircraft, 4 tractors with ammunition, up to an infantry regiment, XNUMX mortars and other weapons. The losses of the XNUMXth tank brigade are in units. "
And to think correctly, it was worth getting rid of theoretical illusions and pre-war practice, as Comrade Katukov smashes a German tank division with a small brigade, which the mechanized corps did not manage just a couple of months earlier. The General Staff also thought: divisions of 350 tanks were first stung to 150-200, and then to brigades altogether, with fewer tanks than in the pre-war regiment. But they added motorized infantry, mobile artillery, reconnaissance ... And they also stopped chasing record vehicles, although this happened largely by accident. The war devoured cars, they needed a lot and relatively reliable, the T-34 became such a machine - in all modifications the tank is unpretentious and massive - 65 800 pieces, the most massive series in stories tanks all over the world.
They produced other things, of course, and KV, and light T-60/70 and heavy IS, but it was the T-34 that won the war. An interesting point - in 1941 the Germans were inferior to us in terms of the quality of technology, but were superior in organization and won. By the end of the war, we were superior to them in organization, but inferior in quality - and took Berlin. It is not the technique that is important, but the organization, which we, however, quickly forgot, and as soon as the volleys died down, we began to prepare for the second edition of the Patriotic War.
Tank ocean
Even experts argue - how many tanks were built in our country during the Cold War, or rather, what should be considered tanks, what was ours, and what were our "allies" in the Internal Affairs Directorate? If by types, then we get the following:
IS-2 - 1140 in 1945
IS-3 - 2315
IS-4 - 258
T-10 - 1593 vehicles
T-44 - 1823
T-54 - 16 675
T-55 - 13 287
T-62 - about 20 thousand
T-64 - 1192
T-64A - 3997 for 1990 in service
T-72 - about 30 thousand
T-80 - about 5000 in service for 1990
PT-76 - 3039
As a result, we have not just a lot of tanks, as in the pre-war period, but a lot. It is clear that something was written off, something was distributed to allies around the world, something was simply lost in an army way, but still by 1990 we had a real tank ocean. In fact, our generals and marshals took into account all the mistakes of the Second World War and prepared a full set of tanks for both line units and one more for mobilized units. For tanks, they developed air defense systems, and self-propelled guns, and light armored vehicles, and in general - everything necessary for a war with the whole world taken together. Only the little things were not taken into account - a repetition of the Second World War was not planned, and the nuclear weapon completely overturned strategy and tactics. And not only it - specifically, tanks at the end of the Great Patriotic War had a new enemy - a hand-held anti-tank rocket weapon, light and compact, which only developed later. And later, ATGMs, attack aircraft and helicopters, new types of mines, and even later - attack and reconnaissance UAVs. As a result, the massive use of tanks against a serious enemy became difficult, which the wars proved over and over again, but the love for tanks (in cyclopean quantities) did not pass from the Soviet generals.
It did not pass even after the collapse of the USSR. So, poor Ukraine deeply and expensively modernized the T-64 to "Bulat". As a result:
"Tanks T-64BM" Bulat "due to their heavy weight and weak engine turned out to be ineffective, were transferred to the reserve, and replaced by linear T-64."
However, the T-64A knocked out quite well, even according to Ukrainian official data, 519 tanks were damaged in Donbass and 79 were completely destroyed. , and into the oven and on pins and needles. And this despite the fact that the enemy of the mechanized army was "partisans" with hand weapons, supported by a small number of volunteers with combat experience. Since 2015, tanks have been used at all in a positional front in a peculiar way - as mobile firing points, some kind of ersatz self-propelled guns.
Other wars have shown, in principle, the same thing - without air supremacy, without a large and well-trained infantry, a modern tank is a crypt for the crew, armor has long been no panacea, and means of destruction have stepped very far forward. And the role begins to play not mass, but quality. Although what is new in this? In principle, the same World War II, only at a different technical level, the organization beats the number.
Where does the question come from - does the modern Russian Federation need a lot of tanks? Or is it less, but better, and with the rest of the funds to train motorized riflemen, anti-aircraft gunners, electronic warfare, UAVs? Tanks are our symbol, they are the best in the world, but in 1941 they did not bring benefits in accordance with the invested funds, and in 1991 they became one of the factors in the death of the country, due to their large number and high cost. It is not in vain that the Ministry of Defense is in no hurry with Armata, rearmament is money, colossal money, and a jerk of tank armies to the English Channel is somehow not foreseen, and it has not been possible since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Times are changing, and this, too, must be understood and kept up with them.
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