"What Soviet tank is meant by this?" Topic

From Armored Bears (3rd Pz Div) in early days of Russian Invasion:
… The disquieting information reached the command post that a fifty-two ton fighting vehicle had just succeeded in crossing a bridge into Unetscha, after it had eliminated the German guard force on the bridge with its main gun… The heavy tank was lumbering around the streets of the city, firing wildly. Previous efforts to take care of the tank with satchel charges had failed… Gefreiter Baldes likewise jumped up onto the the rolling tank and blocked the vision ports of the turret with his hands…

They eventually knock it out with charges in the engine compartment. They never ID it except to say it weighed 52 tons. SO what is it?
T-34 = 26 tons
T-35 = 45 tons
T-28 = 28 tons

Most likely a KV, they were guessing the weight.

KV-1 or KV-2 I imagine. That heavy probably the 2.

KV-2 is my guess as well.

Oops forgot to look up KV:
KV-1 = 45 tons
Kv-2 = 53 tons

Yeah, probably a KV-2 … Must have been quite a shock ! Made most of the German AFVs at the time look a bit outclassed …

Made most of the German AFVs at the time look a bit outclassed …

No, it made them look small.

As far as outclassed … KV-2 was taken out of production after Barbarossa. It was almost impossible to use it productively in combat. Most of the time that they actually made it to a battle (rare enough in itself), the damage they created was mostly of the "ooh, that's big and scary" kind.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Re-the KV-2, wasn't there an issue with the turret traverse being problematic/ near impossible, except on nearly level ground? Can't imagine the traverse rate being outstanding, whether powered or not.

Duck

It was a KV-2 I read about this where they just parked one near a bridge on an elevated road with bogs on either side and it help the whole division up for over a day. Rude awakening for the Germans.

It was assuredly a KV-2 – IIRC there are even pictures of the wreck taken many days later.

Early in the war the Germans didn't have names for the unknown tanks so they were called by their weights. So it was a KV-2.

Yes, Mark 1, a Panzer III or IV would be dwarfed, not to mention a 152mm vs. Panzer III's 37 or 50mm and the Panzer IV's 75 L/24 … Or the PzJager 1B with the Czech 47mm. The Germans even captured an KV-2 … And decided to use it for the planned but cancelled invasion of Malta. To take care of some of the defenses there … Still I wouldn't want to be in any German AFV at the time and go toe-to-toe with a KV-2 …

The kv 2 on the bridge was against 6 pz div and the efforts they had to employ to get rid of it makes for a great read…..

"Re-the KV-2, wasn't there an issue with the turret traverse being problematic/ near impossible, except on nearly level ground? Can't imagine the traverse rate being outstanding, whether powered or not."

Further if the gun was fired with the turret turned I believe more that 15 degrees either way of center it had a bad habit of unseating the turret!

IIRC they were intended to be bunker-busters kinda like the original plan for the STG. If they were used for that role I imagine they'd be effective. As a breakthrough tank they're a little slow and clumsy, as proven by the narrative in the OP.

All I know is if you shoot at one with a Matilda you get told it was a ricochet.

Murvihill, Correct.

Intended to be a Bunker Buster, to assault things like the Mannerheim line. Don't be so game obsessed that the only thing you think about is tank vs tank engagements, although that is what