Kvass as it is
The main battle heavy tank KV-1C is well known to fans of the on-line World of Tanks game under the somewhat frivolous nickname KVAS. This car is very fond of the numerous horned individuals with whom this game is densely populated. Also, this tank is a tool of serious bending in the hands of skill players. Such popularity KVAS owes its extremely high performance characteristics, which allow this tank to create such that no other tank will ever allow. A fun car, which is perhaps the most perfect unit among all the famous tanks of the game, excluding premium cars. Yes, and among the prem-tanks, one can argue with KVAS in terms of efficiency, perhaps only not quite the “legitimate” Chinese Type-59, nicknamed “Type”. Both of these devices look very cool, as befits the winning technique. The article will focus on the eldest of them.
So, KV-1C. In fact, it turns out that the real performance characteristics of KVAS in the game is even somewhat understated. In fact, he was even steeper, even more powerful, even more terrible. Starting with the modification of the KV-85, KVAS could fight Tigers and Panthers on equal terms. In the version of KV-100 and KV-122, this unit could easily turn into scrap metal and Tiger-II with Jagtigr. The article will review these three recent modifications of KVAS. It will consider its advantages and disadvantages in relation to the enemy vehicles of that period and give a general assessment of this interesting machine, which clearly unfairly remained in the shadow of simpler and cheaper T-34-85 and EC-2.
HF-85 (239 object). Appeared in August 1943. 148 units were released, which took an active part in the battles against the German occupiers. Designed on the basis of tanks KV-1С and KV-85Г.
The tank has the largest dimensions among all domestic tanks of the period to the end of the 2МВ, excluding the KV-2, T-35 and some prototypes. The dimensions of the KV-85 are approximately at the level of the Tiger, which predetermined the excellent ergonomics of the tank, the space and convenience of the crew members, which, in turn, had a very positive effect on its effectiveness in battle. The hull of the tank is made of sheets of rolled armor of various thickness. In order to save a lot, without squeezing the tank size to absurdity (as was done with the EC-2), the designers very carefully approached the tank reservation scheme. Frontal parts are located at significant angles of inclination, which significantly increases the equivalent level of spall resistance. The lower frontal sheet has a thickness 60mm at an angle 25 ° to the vertical. Given that, according to statistics, this place has no more than 1% hits, this protection NLD was considered quite sufficient. The middle frontal sheet (“step” with a thickness of 50 mm) was placed at an extremely large angle of inclination to the vertical - 70 °. Not a single armor-piercing projectile of that period was designed to overcome an armored obstacle located at such an angle. At the same time, in contrast to the same Tigra, the “step” of the SLD KV-85 covers approximately 40% of the frontal projection of the hull. The upper frontal part 75 mm thick is located at an angle of 30 °. To enhance the VLD, an 25-mm screen can be mounted on it, as a result of which the total thickness of the VLD tank KV-85 armor reaches 75mm + 25mm = 100mm / 30 ° = 115mm. For comparison: in the Panther, the WFD 80 mm thick was located at an angle 55 °, which gives the equivalent of 139 mm, but the Panther does not have an impenetrable “step”. The armor of the forehead of the Tiger's body in mm 100 is almost vertically clearly worse than that of the KV-85 and Panther. In general, the reservation of the forehead of the KV-85 case, although it seems at first glance rather flimsy, in fact turns out to be rather “lousy” and formidable.
The sides of the tank hull are arranged vertically and have a thickness of 60 mm. This is, of course, less than that of the Tigger (82 mm), but significantly more than the Panthers comparable in mass to the KV-85 (40-50 mm). The fenders are fastened to the sides, on which the spare parts boxes and additional fuel tanks are located. Bent forage sheet also has a thickness of 60 mm, which is again very good. For example, in Panther, the stern's armor is all mm 40, albeit at an angle. Tiger feeds are better protected (80 mm). Here KV-85 was in the middle. The tank has a very powerful protection of the upper hemisphere and armor plates with a thickness of up to 40 mm. This almost excluded the possibility of defeating KVAS with automatic cannon fire even on the most powerful attack aircraft. The armor roofs of the Tigers and Panthers are about two times weaker. The bottom of the tank - 30 mm. The normal figure for tanks of this type. It can also be noted that the protection of the KVAS hull, aft, roof and bottom of the hull is quite on the level of modern T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks. A rotating tower is installed on the roof of the hull with a forward displacement. The KVAS tower had the best ballistic form among all the tank towers in the world until the appearance of the heavy tank EC-3. In terms of dimensions, it was larger than the Panther Tower and approximately at the same level as the Tiger Tower. The spacious and comfortable KVAS tower at the same time has a very powerful booking - 100 mm in a circle and the roof is 40 mm thick. This is significantly more powerful than his German opponents. For example, the Tigris tower had a frontal part 100 mm thick. The armor of the sides and the stern was 82 mm, and the roofs 28 mm. The Panther looked even worse here. The forehead is 100-110 mm, but the board and the stern are 45 mm, and the roof is just 17 mm. Summing up, it can be stated that booking KVAS with a tank mass in 46 tons was at the level of a Tigger weighing 57 tons and much more powerful than the Panther of approximately the same mass - 46,5 tons. At the same time, unlike the EC-2, the space inside the KV-85 was no less than in German cats. Inside, the tank is divided into three sections: a control unit, a combat compartment, and a military hardware. In the department of management is the place of the driver. His chair is located in the center of the case as it is done in the modern MBT. At the disposal of the driver there are levers and pedals to control the movement of the tank, a set of instrumentation, cylinders with compressed air and fire extinguishers. The driver is observing through two periscopic devices MK-4 and through the reticule slot located in the hatch on the WLD. In non-combat conditions, the flap can open up and the driver can observe directly through his opening. Landing on the site of the driver is comfortable and does not cause any complaints. A headlight located on the front of the hull is used to illuminate the road at night. For driving in the dark under combat conditions, the driver can use an active infrared night vision device TSC-8. In this case, the headlight is replaced by an infrared illuminator. In the German tanks, the landing of the mechanic is significantly hampered by the nearby transmission, and the T-34-85 has a very low ceiling. To the left of the driver's seat, there is a ball mount with an 7,62-mm DT machine gun, equipped with a PU optical sight. The fire from a machine gun can lead any passenger who appeared in the tank in battle. In the fighting compartment in the turret, the main toy of the gunner was installed: the 85 mm threaded D-5T gun and the DT machine gun 7,62 mm coaxed with it. The gun has a barrel-monoblock and semi-automatic wedge bolt. Flow angles from -5 ° to + 25 ° degrees vertically and 360 ° horizontally. Guidance horizontally electrical and manual mechanical drives vertically. Due to the space and convenience of the loader, the firing rate reached 8 rounds per minute. For example, the much closer T-34-85 with a similar artillery system, as a rule, could not develop more than 4-5 shots per minute.
For firing, armor-piercing, armor-piercing-snapping, fragmentation and caric missiles are used. The initial speed of the BR-365P sub-caliber projectile reached 1050 / s. Armor-piercing and armor-piercing-snapping shells allowed KVAS to reliably hit the German Tigers and Panthers into a frontal projection at a distance of up to 1000. If the Tiger inadvertently substituted the board, the 85 mm KV-85 blank could have been fatal for him from a distance of 1500 meters, and the Panther in general was vulnerable in almost the same range of aimed fire. For the sake of fairness, it must be said that for KVAS 75 mm and 88 mm the shells of the Germans also represented a great danger, and therefore the results of the battles between these machines were determined by the degree of crew training and just good luck. Behind the commander’s seat in the back of the turret was another ball mount with an 7,62-mm DT machine gun. The tank commander could fire from it or use a huge 12,7 mm anti-aircraft gun DShK mounted on the roof of the commander's turret at will. The commanders of the German tanks until the end of the war were deprived of such toys.
Mindful of the Achilles heels of the early domestic tanks - poor visibility, the designers tried to provide the crew of KVAS with everything necessary. The gunner located to the left of the gun had two sights to search for and destroy a target. 10T-15 telescopic sight (on some telescopic articulated TSH-16) and PT4-15 periscope sight. The head of the periscopic sight went to the roof of the tower. Periscopic sight could be used to control the surrounding panorama. For shooting from closed positions, the gunner had a side level. The maximum range of the KV-85 in ACS mode was about 13 kilometers. For comparison, the German tank gunners always had only one sight. By design, KVAS sights were no worse than German ones, although in German, Zeiss glass of very high quality was used. Not deprived and commander KVAS. Not only did he, like the Germans, have a commander's turret with six triplexes above his head, but his main device was a wide-angle periscope MK-360 rotating on 4 °, which allowed the KVAS commander to timely detect the target while being protected by armor. The same device had a loader. In addition, there was one reticle in the sides of the tower. The commanders of the German tanks up to the Royal Tiger had only a fixed turret with several viewing devices and poorly controlled the situation from inside the tank. This forced the commanders of German tanks to often pop out of the hatch with binoculars as a result of which many of them became victims of shrapnel or sniper fire. The saturation of the KVAS observation and aiming devices was at the level of the best American and British cars, but the quality of the glass itself, of course, was slightly worse. Ammunition of the tank 70 85-mm shells and 3276 7,62-mm ammunition. Another very important point - communication and team control. KVAS had a TPU-4-bis tank intercom and 10РК radio station. The radio station was serviced exclusively by the commander, which made it possible to exclude the radio operator from the crew, reserving his place either for a passenger or for a wounded man. In German tanks, the radio station was served by a separate crew member, which often entailed communication problems.
By command controllability, KVAS is again better than the Germans. The MTO is equipped with a X-NUMX-cylinder, V-shaped diesel engine of liquid cooling B-12K with a power of 2л.с. With the engine interlocked 600-x speed manual with 4-x speed demultiplier. The friction clutches theoretically allowed the tank to make a smooth turn with any radius, but in practice they were not very reliable. In principle, the same can be said about German cars. In general, the unreliable transmission, coupled with the high cost and complexity in production, were the reasons why KVAS could not become the first main battle tank in the world, giving way to the middle T-2-34. The chassis of KVAS is approximately the same as used on modern MBT T-85 and T-64 / 72 with the only difference that the KVAS support rollers did not have rubber bands and internal depreciation. Torsion bar suspension. The running gear included six support rollers, three supporting rollers, a sloth, and a drive sprocket with a caterpillar skid. To present its design, it is enough to look at the undercarriage of the T-90 tank. A steel caterpillar with an open hinge included 72-86 tracks for each branch. The high power of the diesel engine and moderate weight allowed KVAS to accelerate quickly and reach speeds of 90km / h. It was larger than that of the Tiger, and larger than even many medium tanks of that period. The panther was faster (up to 43km / h), but could only reach that speed along an ideal road, and again, according to the dynamics of acceleration, it was worse than KVAS. The advantages of German tanks before the KV-55 include the ease of controlling their movement. The levers and pedals of the KVAS manual transmission seemed tugovat to the author. The diesel engine also provided KVAS with a large power reserve and lower fire hazard. Supply of fuel 85 l main tanks and 615 l in external tanks. The tiger, especially on the roads with full tanks, could not drive 360 km. The patency of the KV-100 was better than that of foreign tanks, and the suspension itself was strong and reliable in comparison with the hypercomplex systems of German cats. Later, with some changes, it migrated to the 85 object, then to the 140 object, until it found itself on well-known T-172 tanks. Thus, the KV-72 was more than an adequate response to German cats, and could well resist Pershing.
KV-122. Variant of KVAS with enhanced firepower.
In the turret of the tank installed a new rifled gun D-25T caliber 122 mm. The gun was deadly accurate (it was more accurate than the 88 mm gun KwK 43 L / 71
Royal Tiger) and the monstrous power of fire. Used shells - armor-piercing BR-471B and high-explosive fragmentation complex OF-471 weighing about 25 kg. Armor-piercing projectiles were quite enough to tear off the turret to almost any existing tank of that time. The range of the Tigers and Panthers was determined by the sighting range of the shooting - about 4000 m. If this was not enough, then it was possible to use the BR-471П armor-piercing-stencils. They left the barrel at an initial speed of 1400 m / s and from the distance of 1 km they could penetrate armor with a thickness of 300 mm. Gun ammunition dropped to 22 art shots. The mass of the tank increased to 48 tons, which resulted in a decrease in maximum speed to 41-42 km / h. The place of the 10Т-15 sight was taken by the TS-17 telescopic zoom 4x. Instead of the PT4-15, the PT4-17 sight with ballistics of 122 mm cannons is installed. Changed ammunition. The remaining characteristics of the tank remained unchanged, although on the prototype at first they put a less powerful engine from the EC-2 (520l.s), but this was a temporary step. This KVAS was already able to effectively deal with any of the heaviest Western tanks at great distances, thanks to the excellent mobility of finding where necessary, but due to the low rate of fire of the 122-mm cannon, the melee was a dangerous undertaking for him.
KV-100. A variant of the main combat KVAS, the predecessor of the 140 and 167 / 172 objects.
This machine is already significantly different from previous models. The 100-mm C-34 high-power rifled gun with a semi-automatic wedge gate is installed in the turret. Vertical flow angles from –3 ° to + 18 ° 30 '. In connection with this reconfigured fighting compartment. Commander's turret moved to the right side. There also moved the commander and the gunner. The charger is located to the left of the gun for easy loading of 100-mm unitary art-shots. The whole range of T-54 and T-55 ammunition fits the tank. The rate of fire gun order 4-6 shots per minute. The mass of the tank 46,5 t. Maximum speed 43 km / h. The remaining characteristics of the tank remained unchanged.
The tanks of the KV-1C family are probably the most breakthrough and vibrant designs of their time, while, perhaps, the most undervalued. In their genes flows more than purebred blood of the famous KV series. One type of these clear steel fighters inspires a sense of confidence and superiority over ridiculous enemy cuttlefish. Go to the development of domestic armored personnel carriers along this “branch”, and T-72 with T-10 might appear much earlier. But these plans, unfortunately, did not come true. As with any premium technology, these machines differed in complexity and high price with the reliability issues that were not fully resolved. At some other time, these devices would probably be developed, but not during the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army needed a simple and cheap tank, a car-soldier. They and steel T-34-85 and EC-2.
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