radios in Soviet tanks, Jan '44?

[raymos]

I just started reading Hell's Gate about the Cherkassy Pocket in Jan/Feb '44. It's got me hooked. There are a couple of assertions early that made me skeptical. I posted one in the T-34/85 thread. Here's the other. The author asserts that Soviet tanks did not have radios in Jan '44 (perhaps other than command vehicles). I guess I had assumed that by Jan '44 radios were more likely standard issue. But I really don't have knowledge. So, in Jan '44, would Soviet tanks have radios by and large?

[Sheldrake]

IIRC the historian David Glantz used to quote from transcripts from Red Army chatter between tank crews from an operation in spring 1944. He did these to demonstrate the high level of competence of some soviet tank units.

[GregSingh]

In 1944 a new model was introduced: 9-RS and became a standard equipment in all T-34, which meant all T-34/85 had them.

Before that different radio's were used in T-34: 9-R and from 1943: 9-RM.
But I am not sure if they were a standard equipment in every tank, and if not, when they became one.

9-R (9-P in Russian) radio

9-RS (9-PC in Russian) radio

[Stephan]

A somewhat anecdotical evidence, but still, as the book research was decent. In the fictional polish story about Czterej pancerni i pies -" the four armormen and a dog" our hero, a master sharpshooter, although underage, is admitted to a T34-75 crew, belonging to the new Polish Army, their tank brigade.
He is underage, but excellent in every way, sharpshooter as said, and has this dog, excellent in every way him too.
So, after he gave proof of his markmanship, shooting several shots through the same hole, the wagon commander said: OK, you and your dog are in, we do need a good shooter to the machine gun. But you must also learn the morse, because the machine gun shooter is also the radiotelegraphist...
I didnt got the impression the wagon commander commanded also other tanks.

It seems have happened winter 43/44 as their first sharp battle was in Studzianki, august 44..

Thus, I presume ALL 34/85 had radio, if radio was standard for the 34-75 at that time.

And yes, Im sure it was the 75, as later in the serie the cannon got damaged, and they were ordered to change to a 34-85 wagon. But they made a big hullyballo, to let them their trusty, faithful and belowed Rudy...
I know the shortened the pipe as emergency repair, I m not remember for entirely sure if they changed the wagon after all. Although I do have a weak memory they did, the other wagon had fever shells to kill germans with, but otherwise it was better in every other aspect, they were forced to admite. After naming it Rudy too, they were contend.

[Art]

Just an example: "80% of all tanks had radios" (45 Guards Tank Brigade after-action report for December 1943 -January 1944)

[ML59]

Well, assuming that the 45th Guards Tank Brigade report was accurate, it means that not ALL tanks were equipped with radios even as late as January 1944. On the other side, all T34-85 manufactured were equipped with radio sets, so it could be that in some units (most units, actually) there was still a mixture of older and newer models.

[Art]

They didn't have T-34-85, only older versions.

[Stephan]

But being Guards, they had probably better equipment than the regular units. So, we can assume Guards units had it usually, even in 34-75, (seems the allied Polish too), while other more regular 34-75 perhaps not...

[Art]

From information on availability of communication equipment in the 1 Tank Army as of 1 January 1944:
9-R radios on tanks - 210 authorized/206 available
RSB radios on tanks - 13 authorized/8 available
12-RP on armored cars - 64 authorized/21 available
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=113131491
About that moment 1 TA had 493 T-34, 32 SU-85 and 24 SU-152. Total 549 AFVs not counting armored cars

[Art]

From GKO decree No. 3703 (8 July 1943):

Approved plan of tank production in the III quarter of 1943:
KV - 200
T-34 - 4475
T-70 - 1050
T-80 - 135
SU-152 - 265
SU-122 - 300
SU-76 - 225
SU-76I - 80
Total 6730 tanks and SP guns

From GKO decree No. 3773 (20 July 1943)
People's Commissariat for Electronic Industry is to ship the following equipment to tank factories in IIIQ 1943:
450 10-R radios, 4000 9-R radios, 1585 12-RPT radios, as well as 8450 tank intercoms.

So we have 6035 tank radios per 6730 vehicles produces. Looks like most newly produced tanks were supposed to have them. Some radios had to be installed on armored cars, but I can't figure how many.
According to the same decree 250 10-R, 350 9-R and 750 12-RT/P radios were to be shipped as spare parts for tank repair to the Main Tank Directorate.

[Art]

GKO decree No.4923 (11 January 1944):

After capital repair all tanks must be equipped:

KV and IS tanks - 100% with 10-R radios
T-34 - 50% with 9-R radios and 50% with radio receivers ("Malyutka)
self-propelled guns on T-34 and KV chassis - 100% with 9-R and 10-R radios
T-70 - 50% with 12-RT radios
SU-76 - 100% with 12 RT radios

Production plan for the I quarter of 1944:
IS-85 - 40
IS-122 - 210
T-34 - 3790 (incl. 250 T-34-85 and 200 OT-34)
275 ISU-152
540 SU-85
1730 SU-76
Total 6858 tanks and SP guns

Plan of capital repair:
At tank factories - 50 KV/SU-152, 500 T-34/SU-152, 300 T-60/T-70/SU-76
Elsewhere (Main Tank Directorate and others) - 150 KV/SU-152, 1076 T-34/SU-122, 510 T-60/T-70/SU-76, 505 foreign, 239 old types

Planned deliveries of radios to tank factories in the 1st quarter (for new and repaired tanks):
600 10R, 5250 9-R, 2200 12-RT radios

Planned deliveries of tank radios for tank repair in the 1st quarter (other than tank factories):
150 10-R, 600 9-R, 550 12-RT radios, 2000 radio receivers.

So all newly produced tanks had to be equipped with radios, old tanks were to be gradually reequipped with radios/receivers in repair facilities.

[Gary Kennedy]

Art,

A similar query came up on another forum not long back, and while I'm by no means a 'tank guy' the provision of communication equipment is something that interests me of late. This was from one of my posts (it's quicker just to copy it).

"This is the crew line up for a Platoon of three T-34s under shtat 010-463 of 28Feb44.

commander platoon (1)
tank commander (2)
driver mechanic (3)
chief radio operator, he is a machine gunner (1)
gun commander (3)
machine gunner (2)
tank, medium, with radio station (1)
tank medium (2)

There's an amendment (from about Jun44 I think) to this set-up when the unit has T-34 with 85-mm armament, making an extra crew post. The first is for the Platoon commander's tank, the second for the 'linear' tanks.

commander platoon, also commands a tank
driver mechanic
gun commander
chief radio operator, he is a machine gunner
charger (loader)

tank commander
driver mechanic
gun commander
charger (loader)
machine gunner – driver mechanic

It does not refer to the tanks of the Platoon, just the crews. It does match the Nov43 shtat 10/501 for a Tk Bn proper, which does say one tank of three with a radio.

I also found a passage in a preview of "T-34 in action" by Drabkin and Sheremet that refers to 'linear' or 'line' tanks, which had no direct communication to their subunit commander but relied on observation and flags for guidance. The quoted radio for a T-34 in 1941-42 is a 10-RT-26E, which appears to have been a receiver and transmitter.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mas ... et&f=false

Confusingly, while the book states that the division between command and line tanks persevered it also says that later model tanks all got a new 9-R set. Variants 9-RS and 9-RM are mentioned, but I don't know if these refer to receiver only and receiver/transmitter sets."

So, might the progression be then one tank per Pl with a receiver/sender set and two tanks with no sets until 1944, then beginning to fit receiver only sets in those latter two tanks? Then a Bn of 21 T-34 might have nine tanks with receiver/sender sets and 12 tanks with receiver only sets? My attention of late has been on British switchboard and field telephones so I'm not familiar with Red Army AFV radios, did the 9-RS and 9-RM sets have different capabilities or were they the same essentially (I don't know what the Malyutka was, was it the 9-RM)?

If it was a retrofit for vehicles with units to bring them up to par with those coming out of factories, it might explain why there are different views of the overall situation. I am also confused as to why the hull machine gunner would be the radio chief if the set is in the turret.

Gary

[Art]

"Malyutka" was a receiver block of the 9-R radio, from what I can see.
It's pretty clear that originally radios were installed only on command tanks (platoon commanders' tanks and higher). By the end of war that changed to radio installed on every tank. I'm trying to find out when this transition happened. Unfortunately, it's not easy to find any solid numbers on tank radios production or production of radio-equipped tanks. Those production plans is the closest thing I can find, it should be remembered that they give planned numbers instead of actual production.

[Art]

For comparison, production plan for the I quarter of 1942:

Total 10 843 tanks (1535 KV, 3 298 T-34, 860 T-50, 5130 T-60)
Deliveries of radios: 500 71-TK3 radios to the GAZ factory (planned production 2940 T-60) and 4500 71TK-3 radios to other factories for a total of 5000.
(GKO decree No.1043 of 19 December 1941).

It must be remembered, this plan wasn't fully carried out

Production plan II quarter 1942: 6525 tanks (900 KV, 3205 T-34, 1220 T-70, 1200 T-60)
Deliveries: 2500 radios (without GAZ factory with planned production 900 T-70/60)
90 10-R and 150 9-R radios are to be supplied to the GABTU as spare parts.
(GKO No.1571, 9 April 1942)
Also plan of tank radios deliveries in II quarter: 660 10-R and 2200 9-R to the tank factories and 60 10-R and 150 9-R as spare parts to the GABTU.
(GKO No. 1644, 25 April 1942)

Production plan III quarter 1942: 7520 tanks (450 KV, 4745 T-34, 2325 T-70)
Deliveries of radios to tank factories - 3620
(GKO No.2012, 11 August 1942)

Production plan IV quarter 1942: 8400 tanks (600 KV, 5075 T-34, 2725 T-70)
Planned deliveries of radios: 4500 (including 550 10-R)
(GKO No.2392, 10 October 1942)

[Art]

And a real hit:

Memorandum from V. Malyshev (people's commissar for tank industry) to V. Molotov:

According to the GKO decree No.2162 of 8 August 1942 the People's Commissariat for Electric Industry was to organize production of FM radios at the factory No.842 (Belovo, Novosibirsk region). Since production of these radios has already started on three other factories I don't switching the fourth factory (No.842) to their production expedient. At the same time, only 50% of all produced T-34 and T-70 tanks are equipped with radios, hence the other 50% don't possess any means of battle communication. Therefore, I find it necessary to take measures to equip those 50% with radio receivers so that they would be controlled from command tanks. This measure can be realized already in the first half [of 1943] if production of "Maluytka" receivers is organized on the factory No.842. The factory No.842 is situated relatively close to the Novosibirsk radio factory that produces 'Malyutka" tank receiver and the factory No.842 produced a number of details for "Malyutka", and therefore it is ready for quick start of production.
Main Auto-Tank Directorate and Main Signal Directorate of the Red Army support this proposal.
Com. Zubovich (People's Commissar for Electric Industry) is agree as well.
I ask to approve the project of the GKO decree attached herein.

V. Malyshev 22.12 [1942]

GKO decree No.2679 of 31 December 1942
Synopsis: production of FM radios on the factory No.842 is to be cancelled. The factory is to start production of tank receivers ("Malyutka") instead. Plan of production
April [1943] - 50
May - 300
June - 600
July - 1000
August - 1500
"Malyutka" receivers are meant to be installed on T-34, T-70 and T-80 tanks.

From:
http://sovdoc.rusarchives.ru/#showunit& ... 09;tab=img