KV1 evaluation

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OldBill
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KV1 evaluation

#1

Post by OldBill » 11 Nov 2020, 14:45

What did the UK learn from the KV1 they got from the Soviets? Were any ideas incorporated into their tanks? Was any thought given to making a version of the tank for the UK?

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: KV1 evaluation

#2

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 12 Nov 2020, 05:31

Im fairly sure little to none. I may be wrong but the Brits seem to have sent a team of automotive, ordnance, and tank engineers to Egypt to study the lessons of the evidence there. The US definitely did in the winter of 1942. Two US captains picked over dozens of damaged tanks and made extensive notes on what they observed. That distilled went into the specifications for the T20 series of tank designs that led to the T26 & its descendants from the M46 to the M60. The M1 still has echoes of that study. I suspect the Centurion had its origins in a similar trawl of burnt out wrecks for the lessons learned.

Digression Opportunity
There is a story that the Brits made a inquiry in January 1941 as to purchasing some Soviet tanks for use in Egypt. Obviously none were obtained, but one wonders what folks would have made of it had a brigade been swaning about the Western Desert in T34s later that year.

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I read a translation of a report from a Red Army officer who circa 1943 visited the US tank arsenal and took notes on US engineers notes on a T34 that had been loaned for study. The remarks are not good. The engine was seen as a clone of a obsolete 1920s US design, the air filter wholly useless & again of a obsolete design. The steel was badly made and had large flaws. The ergonomics of the driver and the turret crew were judged bad. The 76.2mm gun was under powered, the transmission badly made... This was about the time the Red Army tank engineers were making a decision to ditch a T34 follow on & start over with a clean slate and file of notes taken of destroyed tanks. I've heard they had a lot of them there. The result led eventually to the T54/T55 or so I heard. For the interim the Reds stuck a larger turret with a 85mm caliber gun on the T34 and called it good.


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Urmel
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Re: KV1 evaluation

#3

Post by Urmel » 14 Apr 2021, 21:27

Well sure the T-34 was a piece of rubbish, but it was a piece of rubbish that was in action with >1,000 exemplars giving the Germans a headache when the best the US tank industry could produce were a few hundred M3 Stuarts.

Context, it matters.
The enemy had superiority in numbers, his tanks were more heavily armoured, they had larger calibre guns with nearly twice the effective range of ours, and their telescopes were superior. 5 RTR 19/11/41

The CRUSADER Project - The Winter Battle 1941/42

Art
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Re: KV1 evaluation

#4

Post by Art » 14 Apr 2021, 23:23

Carl Schwamberger wrote:
12 Nov 2020, 05:31
The engine was seen as a clone of a obsolete 1920s US design
Sure, it wasn't.

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Urmel
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Re: KV1 evaluation

#5

Post by Urmel » 14 Apr 2021, 23:40

The notes are a joke and it isn't a great reflection on a moderator to just quote this stuff without a serious health warning or three seconds on Google.

Here is an actual report by competent engineers on the engine. Maybe, just maybe, the engineer who made the notes wasn't very good at their job?

https://www.scribd.com/document/2418199 ... uiser-Tank

But sure the engine was just a clone of a 1920s engine and the tank was rubbish and oh...
Attachments
Untitled 4.jpg
The enemy had superiority in numbers, his tanks were more heavily armoured, they had larger calibre guns with nearly twice the effective range of ours, and their telescopes were superior. 5 RTR 19/11/41

The CRUSADER Project - The Winter Battle 1941/42

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