Armor

Soviet production of armored vehicles was far more disrupted by the invasion than was artillery manufacture. It was more centralized than was artillery production in locations that were considerably further east than Stalin would have wished in the fall of 1941.

A new generation of armored vehicles was just being fielded by the Soviets when the Germans attacked, based on their own experiences in Spain, Finland and the Far East as well as German successes. The primary conclusions were the needs to increase armor thickness, to prevent engine fires and the ability to operate in extremely low temperatures. A number of new designs were prepared incorporating these features. These were the T-40 amphibious scout tank, T-50 light infantry tank, T-60 scout tank, KV heavy tanks, and the T-34 in the medium and cavalry tank roles.

The T-34 was designed to withstand 76mm shells at ranges over a kilometer and 37mm shells at any range. A new diesel engine was adopted since diesel fuel has a far higher flash point than ordinary gasoline and is thus much less likely to explode. Its sloping armor was adopted to maximize effective armor thickness for a given weight. Due to the international situation it entered production in 1940 before all the bugs were worked out. The Kharkov and Stalingrad Tractor Factories were forced to use components from older tanks to meet their production quotas in the early part of their production runs and the new engine and transmissions that were used still had to have the bugs worked out. More T-34s may have been lost to mechanical failure than to enemy action in 1941. A total of 35,760 T-34/76s were built.

A T-34M version was designed to satisfy critics of the standard T-34's poor turret layout and lack of adequate vision facilities for the tank commander. But these problems were not corrected in full until the T­34/85 entered production in December 1943 because the existing production lines could not be disrupted after the German invasion.

The appearance of the Tiger and Panther in quantity forced the Soviets to acknowledge the need to upgun the T-34. A 85mm gun had been under design for some time and the favorable strategic situation after Kursk allowed the production lines to be disrupted, but they were only initially built by the Gorkiy factory.

Zavod Nr. 112 began production in July 1941 of the T-34 and was able to make up the shortfall resulting from the evacuation of Zavod Nr. 183 to Nizhni Tagil that began in September 1941. A portion of Zavod Nr. 174 was also evacuated to Nizhni Tagil where they both combined with the Ural Locomotive Factory to form Zavod Nr. 183 Ural Tank Works. Zavod Nr. 9 in Sverdlovsk began production of T-34 components in 1942 and began assembly later in the year. In August of that year Tankograd began production of the T-34 to make up for the loss of production from Stalingrad. It continued production until the IS-2 heavy tank and ISU series heavy assault guns were introduced in April 1944. 19,430 T-34/85s were built through 10 May 1945, though production continued into the 1950s.

The KV series tanks were designed to replace the T-35 multiturreted heavy tanks. Initial designs were also multi-turreted, but Stalin was persuaded to approve a prototype of a single-turreted version and to enter it in the trials. Unsurprisingly, the KV was selected over its multi­turreted competitors. An improved version of the KV-1 was designed with a more powerful engine, an improved turret layout and a 107mm gun as the KV-3, but the German invasion made its production impracticable as further disruptions of the production lines could not be tolerated. 3927 KV-1s of all types were built.

The Kirovskiy and lzhorskiy Works were evacuated from Leningrad to Chelyabinsk along with a portion of the Kharkov Diesel Factory to centralize KV production where they formed

Zavod Nr. 100 with the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory. The combination was also known as Tankograd (Tank City).

The T-40 was in low-rate production, but its minimal armor and poor armament rendered it an expensive luxury after war broke out and it was canceled after 230 were completed by Zavod Nr. 37 in Moscow. In fact the last batch was completed with launchers for M-8 rockets mounted in place of the turret.

The T-50 and T-60 were not placed into production until after the German invasion. As the T-50 required a unique engine and transmission, it was also an expensive luxury. Production had been initiated in Omsk by Zavod Nr. 174, but was canceled in early February 1942 after only 48 were completed, despite its excellence as a light tank.

The T-60 had few of the combat virtues of the T-50, but was kept in production because it was economical to build. It used a number of readily available truck components and could be built in facilities too small for the T-34. It was built at Zavod Nr. 38 after the factory was evacuated from Kolomna to Kirov. A portion of Zavod Nr. 37 was also evacuated to Kirov. Zavod Nr. I at Gorkiy also began production. The Podolskiy Machine Factory in Podolsk built T-60 hulls for the other plants. As tanks were in short supply it was produced to satisfy the demand for any sort of tank at all until replaced by the T-70 after September 1942 after 6022 were built.

The T-70 also used readily available components, but carried a 45mm gun, unlike the 20mm of the T-60 and much thicker armor. 8226 were produced at the same plants that had built the T-60 until production was canceled in October 1943.

A successor was designed with a two-man turret and placed into production as the T-80, presumably at the same factories that built the earlier light tanks. Only 120 were built as it was inferior to the SU-76 in fighting power, but used most of the same components.

Mechanized Artillery

The Soviets decided to introduce mechanized artillery for many of the same reasons as the Germans. It was cheaper to produce and allowed the use of a heavier gun on a given chassis than the turreted vehicle. One curious feature of all Soviet assault guns was that none had a machine gun for the suppression of infantry. This was a drawback as they could not overrun infantry positions, but had to stand off and shell them while the infantry closed and did the dirty work.

The smallest was the SU-76 that mated the chassis of the T-70 with the ZiS-3 field gun. Initially it was produced at was Gorkiy and Kirov, but Zavod Nr. 40 at M'tishchi near Moscow was brought into the program. Production began at the end of 1942, but the first batches were severely flawed and had to be rebuilt as the SU-76M. It was unpopular with its users who called it the "Suka" which was the Russian word for bitch as well as the diminutive of the acronym SU.

The SU-76i was produced by the conversion of captured Pz III and StuG III chassis to take the 76.2mm ZiS-5 gun used in the KV-1. About 200 were converted by Zavod Nr. 38 in 1943 from vehicles captured mostly at Stalingrad.

The SU-122 was result of the mating of a T-34 chassis and a M-30 122mm howitzer. It entered production at the beginning of '43 at Zavod Nr. 9. It was not particularly successful as only 660 were built before production was switched to the SU-85. It swapped a D-5 85mm gun for the M-30, but didn't enter production until August 1943. 2650 were produced.

The SU- 152 mounted a ML-20 howitzer on a modified KV- I S chassis. Production began in February 1943, but only a single regiment saw service at Kursk. It was nicknamed the Zvierboy (Animal Killer) for its ability to deal with the vehicles of the German armored zoo. Only 670 were built before production switched to vehicles based on the IS tank chassis.

The KV-1 could not be upgraded to carry a gun larger than 85mm without thorough redesign and only the necessity to avoid disruption of the production lines forced the Soviets to accept a heavy tank armed with the same gun as the medium tank. Time could be taken after Kursk to completely redesign the KV. After a few false steps the IS-2 made its appearance in April 1944. Tankograd was ordered to expand its facilities after the introduction of the IS-2 due to the demand from the field.

It was armed with an A-19 122mm gun despite the better armor penetration ability of the BS-3 100mm gun because surplus capacity existed to manufacture the A-19 and its ammunition. That was not the case with the BS-3 which was just entering large-scale production. 3854 were built before switching to the IS-3.

The IS-2 was redesigned to improve the armor protection as the IS-3. It used the same automotive components as the IS-2 but had a new hull and turret of far greater thickness. Some 350 were produced before war's end and they saw some combat in the final weeks of the war.

An improved version of the SU- 152 was adapted from the ISI chassis after the KV series went out of production in October 1943. 35 were completed by the factory complex at Chelyabinsk as the ISU-152 by the end of the year, but total wartime production was 1335.

The ISU-152 was easily adapted to the A-19 122mm gun and the ISU-122 entered production before the end of 1943 at Chelyabinsk. Both types were kept in production because of the availability of 122mm tubes and ammunition despite the preference of the troops for the ISU- 152.

The SU-100 was developed to replace the SU-85 during the summer of 1944 as there was little sense in mounting an 85mm gun on the tank destroyer and medium tank both. The 100mm BS-3 gun was mounted on an improved SU-85 hull. Production began in September 1944 in Sverdlovsk and 1300 were delivered before the war's end in Europe.

More Soviet Armaments Factories

Introduction
Tube Artillery
Lend Lease Artillery, Mortars, and Rocket Artillery
Ammunition, Lend Lease Ammunition and Explosives
Armor, Armored Fighting Vehicles and Tank Factories
Lend Lease Armored Fighting Vehicles and Motor Transport
Soviet Factories and Europa