T 60 combat use. History and background of creation
The T-60 tank was developed in August 1941 by the Design Bureau of Plant No. 37 in Moscow under the leadership of N. A. Astrov. Serial production was organized from September 1941 to February 1943 at the Gorky Automobile Plant, at plants No. 37 (Moscow, after October 1941 - Sverdlovsk), No. 38 (Kirov) and No. 264 (g. . Sarepta). The armored hulls of the T-60 tanks for plant number 37 were produced by the Kolomna Machine-Building Plant (KMZ). Later, the Novokramatorsky Mashinostroitelny and Voroshilovgrad Locomotive Plant (1941), the Vyksa DRO Plant (No. 177), the Murom Locomotive Repair Plant named after V.I. Dzerzhinsky (No. 176) and an armored plant in Kulebaki (No. 178), etc. A total of 5915 T-60 tanks were produced, which were used in combat operations near Moscow, in the Battle of Stalingrad and Kursk, as well as in other numerous operations of the Great Patriotic War war.
The T-60 tank was created in the difficult conditions of the first period of the war, which required the maximum number of tanks at minimal cost time, forces and means in the course of their production. Therefore, the tank (factory designation 0-60) retained the main layout solutions and the same type of power plant, transmission, chassis and electrical equipment of its predecessors - small tanks T-40 (T-40S) and T-30, the production of which has already been mastered by industry. It differed from the T-40S small tank in more powerful weapons, reinforced armor, and a lower vehicle height.
The scheme of the general layout of the tank provided for the placement of a crew of two people in the hull and turret, the installation of cannon and machine gun weapons in a rotating turret, the engine in the middle part of the hull, as well as the front location of the transmission units and drive wheels. The machine had five compartments: transmission and control - in front of the hull, engine and combat - in the middle of the hull and aft. Unlike the hull of the T-30 tank, the hull of the T-60 tank had a smaller armored volume and a lower height - only 1360 mm. The driver was located in the control compartment on the longitudinal axis of the hull. For the convenience of its location, an armored cabin with a folding frontal shield was installed on the upper frontal sheet of the hull. In the frontal shield, behind the viewing slot, there was a quick-detachable viewing device (triplex), covered by an armored flap. The commander of the vehicle monitored the battlefield through two viewing slots with triplexes in the side faces of the tower. The field of view with each observation device was 60° horizontally. The impenetrable space in front of the tank for the driver was 4.5 m, for the commander to the left and right - 9 m each. The crew boarded and exited the vehicle through two hatches, which were closed with armored covers. One hatch was located in the roof of the cabin in the driver's office, the second - in the roof of the tower. In addition, there was an emergency (landing) hatch in the bottom of the hull.
The tank was armed with a 20 mm TNSh (TNSh-1) automatic tank gun and a 7.62 mm DT machine gun coaxial with it. The length of the gun barrel was 82.4 calibers, the height of the line of fire was 1480 mm. For ease of use in combat conditions, the gun was mounted in a turret with a significant offset to the right of its longitudinal axis. The aiming angles of the twin installation along the vertical ranged from -7 to + 25 °. As guidance drives, gear horizontal (the turret rotation mechanism is to the right of the twin installation) and screw vertical (to the left of the twin installation) mechanisms were used, which, together with the triggers of the cannon and the coaxial machine gun, were borrowed from the T-40 small tank. To quickly rotate the turret by the force of the vehicle commander, the rotation mechanism could be disabled. When firing, a TMFP-1 telescopic sight with illuminated aiming scales was used, under which a backup mechanical sight was installed on a special bracket. If the telescopic sight was damaged, a backup mechanical sight could be used. To use it, it was necessary to remove the telescopic sight, while the front sight of a mechanical sight was brought to the center of the mask hole automatically, under the action of a spring. The design of the trigger mechanisms for the gun and machine gun was similar to the design of the trigger mechanisms for the weapons of the T-40 tank. The direct fire range of the TNSh cannon was 2000 m. The tank’s ammunition included 750 rounds for the cannon (including fragmentation-tracer, fragmentation-incendiary shells with an instantaneous fuse and armor-piercing incendiary shells with a tungsten carbide core) and 945 rounds for the DT machine gun (15 discs). To power the gun during automatic firing, a tape was used, consisting of 58 shots and 58 detachable links, which fit into a box mounted on a special bracket under the gun. The remaining 12 boxes were placed on special racks. The ejection of spent cartridges from the turret to the outside under the barrel armor was carried out through the gas outlet tube, and the links of the tapes along the guide to the bottom of the tank. An armor-piercing incendiary projectile with an initial velocity of 815 m/s made it possible to effectively hit lightly armored targets and enemy anti-tank weapons (at a range of 500 m, a 20-mm projectile pierced armor 35 mm thick). The coaxial 7.62 mm DT machine gun could be easily dismantled and used by the crew outside the tank using a bipod and a shoulder rest. The DT machine gun discs were located in racks (12 discs) and in special holders (2 discs). In addition, 10 F-1 hand grenades were placed in the tank.
Armor protection - bulletproof. The welded hull with rational angles of inclination (designer A.V. Bogachev) was made of rolled homogeneous armor steel 2P. The frontal hull sheets had a thickness of 15 - 20 mm (later up to 20 - 35 mm), side - up to 15 mm (later - up to 25 mm), stern - up to 13 mm (later in some places - up to 25 mm). The top sheets of the hull: stern, turret and above the engine were made removable for ease of installation and dismantling of units and assemblies. A hatch was made in the upper front sheet for access to the main gear of the transmission. The lower frontal sheet had a hole closed by an armored cover, intended for the passage of the engine crank. On the right, in the sheet above the engine compartment, there was an air inlet, which had an armored cover, followed by an opening for the exit of the exhaust pipe. In the upper aft sheet on the right there were shutters for the exit from the heated air radiator, on the left there was a hatch for access to the filler neck of the fuel tanks, closed by an armored cover. In addition to the emergency hatch in the bottom of the machine body for servicing the units, there were hatches: one under the engine for draining oil, the other for water from the cooling system and two hatches under the fuel tanks for draining fuel, closed with armored covers. In order to ensure the watertightness of the hull, rubber gaskets were installed under the hatch covers of the bottom, and hemp with red lead was wound under the heads of the bolts that fastened the parts to the hull sheets. To ventilate the control compartment, an air inlet was made in the driver's hatch cover, which had an armor cover.
A conical octahedral welded tower 375 mm high (designer Yu. P. Yudovich), shifted to the port side by 285 mm from the longitudinal axis, was mounted on a ball bearing. The tower was fastened with four roller grippers sliding along the lower shoulder strap of its ball bearing. The thickness of the armor plates of the tower was 25 mm. Subsequently, the thickness of the front cheekbone armor plates was increased to 35 mm. In front of the tower, a rectangular niche was made for installing a mask and weapons. The niche was closed with an armored shield attached to the front of the mask. The gun barrel armor was attached to the armor shield. Protection of the sight window in the mask was provided by a rotating armored flap. For ventilation of the fighting compartment at the top of the tower, under the mask, there was a special window, which was closed by an armored damper. In the hatch cover of the tower there was a hatch with an armored valve, intended for flag signaling. In addition to viewing slots in the side faces of the tower and the frontal sheet of the driver's cabin, there were holes for firing from the crew's personal weapons, which were closed with armor plugs. To protect all viewing slots in the hull and turret of the tank, armored visors were installed above them.
It was supposed to install round conical turrets on the T-60 tank, since some armored hull factories retained their production for this vehicle. In addition, in October 1941, it was planned to organize the production of stamped and cast towers at the Izhora plant, evacuated to Kuibyshev, and plant No. 180, but this was not done.
In October 1941, the armor protection of the tank was strengthened by installing 10 mm thick weld-on armor screens on the bow of the hull and the side of the turret. As a result of the measures taken, the combat weight of the vehicle increased from 5.8 to 6.48 tons.
Two hand-held tetrachlorine fire extinguishers were used as firefighting equipment. During the extinguishing of the fire, the crew had to wear gas masks, since phosgene was released from the high temperature during the decomposition of the fire extinguishing composition. Fire extinguishers were mounted in brackets on the sides of the hull to the right and left of the driver.
In the engine compartment, along the starboard side of the tank hull, a four-stroke six-cylinder liquid-cooled GAZ-202 carburetor engine with an HP 70 power was installed. (51.5 kW) with an MKZ-6G carburetor. Some of the engines installed on the machines were equipped with speed controllers. In this case, instead of the MKZ-6G carburetor, an M-1 type carburetor was used. Some tanks, due to the lack of GAZ-202 engines, were equipped with 65 or 90 hp Ford V-8 engines. (48 or 66 kW).
The battery ignition system included a KZ-11 ignition coil, a R-12 distributor (distributor), U12-10 candles and a 69-K ignition switch. The main way to start the engine was manually using the crank winding mechanism mounted on the gearbox housing. Use an electric starter SL-40 with a power of 0.8 hp. (0.6 kW) with an electromagnetic switching relay, it was allowed only to start a warm engine and in combat. For the first time, a serial tank for operation in winter conditions was equipped with a preheater (designers I. G. Alperovich and B. Ya. Ginzburg). Heating was carried out due to the thermosiphon circulation of antifreeze in a special cylindrical boiler mounted between the side of the tank and the engine. On the side of the hull there was a special hatch through which a gasoline blowtorch was inserted from the outside of the tank. Having passed the boiler, warm air heated the engine crankcase. Emission of exhaust gases on the first machines was carried out through an exhaust pipe connected to a cylindrical muffler, installed in the upper part of the aft hull sheet. On late-production vehicles, the muffler with the exhaust pipe was abolished, and an outlet pipe with a bell was installed on the roof of the hull behind the armored cover of the air intake. The capacity of two fuel tanks, located in the aft compartment in a compartment isolated by an armored partition, was 320 liters. The cruising range of the tank on the highway reached 450 km, shielded tanks - 410 km.
The structure of the mechanical transmission included: a single-disk main friction clutch of dry friction (ferodo steel), mounted on the engine flywheel; a four-speed gearbox that provided four forward gears and one gear when reversing (both transmission units were borrowed from the GAZ-51 truck); cardan shaft; bevel main gear; two on-board multi-disk friction clutches of dry friction (steel on steel) with stopping band brakes with Ferodo linings and two simple single-row final drives. Side clutches were used as a turning mechanism. Control drives - mechanical. The rotation was controlled using two levers located in the control compartment.
In the suspension system, an individual torsion bar suspension without shock absorbers and balancer travel stops with rubber buffers at its extreme nodes were used. The composition of the caterpillar mover included: eight single-slope road wheels (with stamped or cast spoked disks) and six single-slope support rollers, with two front rollers (in relation to one side) having external shock absorption, and the third - all-metal in order to chip off the ice formed from the caterpillar in winter; two rear guide wheels (unified with track rollers) with track tensioners, two tracks with cast tracks and OMSh, as well as two lantern drive wheels with removable gear rims. On the first machines, the guide wheels were not unified with the track rollers and differed from the latter only in their outer diameter (460 mm versus 550 mm). The width of the track track was 260 mm. To prevent the caterpillar from jamming (when driving on a slope), special chippers were riveted to the tank hull above the crankcases of the final drives. On the starboard side, in addition, the lower chipper was additionally riveted.
The electrical equipment of the machine was made according to a single-wire circuit. The on-board network voltage was 6 V. The following sources of electricity were used: two 3STE-112 batteries and a G-41 generator with a power of 0.2 kW, operating with a RPA-364 relay-regulator. On linear tanks, the second battery was a spare, on command tanks equipped with a 71-TK-3 radio station, it was included in the on-board network. Electricity consumers included an SL-40 electric starter, ignition system devices, an electrical signal CE-4714, and internal and external light signaling equipment. For internal communication, a three-color light-signal device was used from the vehicle commander to the driver or TPU-2. On the basis of the T-60 tank, the BM-8-24 rocket launcher (1941) was produced, and prototypes of the tank with a 37-mm ZIS-19 gun, a 37-mm anti-aircraft self-propelled gun (1942), 76.2 mm self-propelled artillery mount, T-60-3 anti-aircraft tank with two twin 12.7 mm DShK machine guns (1942) and self-propelled artillery mount OSU-76 (1944).
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It was developed in August 1941 under the direction of Astrov, the main designer of all light tanks of that time.
The history of the creation of the T-60
In May 1941, the Moscow factory No. 37 was given the task of setting up serial production of the T-50. Unfortunately, the plant had modest production capabilities, and could not cope with the production of such a complex tank as the T-50. Then the plant workers decided to create a new light tank, using the chassis and engine-transmission unit of the T-40 tank.
Permission for the production of such a tank was received. It is worth saying that the permission to release referred to the T-60 (030) tank, which was outwardly identical to the T-40 and bore the unofficial name T-30. The T-60 is already the second prototype in which the DShK machine gun was replaced by the ShVAK rapid-fire cannon.
The first serial T-60 was produced at the Moscow plant number 37 on September 15, 1941. Due to the evacuation of the plant, the production of tanks on it was stopped on October 26, and the tank began to be produced at other plants. When the more advanced T-70 appeared in 1942, production of the T-60 continued anyway. A total of 5920 vehicles have been produced since 1941.
TTX T-60
general information
- Combat weight - 5.8 - 6.4 tons;
- Crew - 2 people;
- The number of issued - 5920 pieces.
Dimensions
- Case length - 4100 mm;
- Hull width - 2392 mm;
- Height - 1750 mm;
- Clearance - 300 mm.
Booking
- Type of armor - homogeneous rolled high hardness;
- The forehead of the hull (top) - 15/70 ° and 35/16 ° mm / hail;
- The forehead of the hull (middle) - 35 / −28 ° mm / hail;
- The forehead of the hull (bottom) - 30 / −76 ° mm / hail;
- Hull board - 15/0 ° mm / hail;
- Hull feed (top) - 10/76 ° mm / hail;
- Hull feed (bottom) - 25 / −14 ° mm / hail;
- Bottom - 10 mm;
- Hull roof - 13 mm;
- Gun mask - 20 mm;
- The side of the tower - 25-35 / 25 ° mm / hail;
- Tower roof - 10 mm.
Armament
- Caliber and brand of gun - 20-mm TNSh;
- Barrel length - 82.4 caliber;
- Gun ammunition - 750;
- Angles HV: -7…+25°;
- GN angles - 360°;
- Sight - TMFP-1, mechanical;
- Machine gun - 7.62 mm DT.
Mobility
- Engine type - GAZ-202 liquid-cooled gasoline;
- Engine power - 70 hp;
- Highway speed - 42 km / h;
- Cross-country speed - 20-25 km / h;
- Power reserve on the highway - 410-450 km;
- Specific power - 10.7-12.0 hp;
- Suspension type - individual torsion bar;
- Specific ground pressure - 0.53-0.63 kg / cm²;
- Climbability - 34 °;
- Overcoming wall - 0.6 m;
- Crossable moat - 1.7 m;
- Crossable ford - 0.9 m.
T-60 modifications
Officially, the T-60 had no modifications, but there were three variants of this vehicle, which differed in performance characteristics due to the varying mass of the tank:
- Early T-60 with 25mm rolled cemented frontal armor, with sloth not identical to road wheels;
- The main serial T-60 with 35-mm rolled homogeneous frontal armor of high hardness, road wheels and sloth unified;
- Shielded T-60 weighing up to 6.5 tons.
Experienced tanks
- T-60-1 - a tank with a more powerful and heavy bus engine ZIS-16, reinforced armor and large dimensions;
- T-60 with a 37 mm ZIS-19 cannon. It required a heavier turret, due to which the range of the tank was greatly reduced, and the strong muzzle swing quickly made the gun useless;
- T-60-2 - a tank with a new turret and a 45-mm ZIS-19BM gun. It also had a shorter power reserve, but was generally better than the previous model. Not produced due to the introduction of the T-70;
- T-60-3 - a tank with a modified standard turret without a roof and with two DShK machine guns. It had a low ergonomics of the combat place and an incorrectly installed anti-aircraft sight, which did not allow the tank to be used to fight an air enemy.
Many other vehicles were also created based on the T-60, the most interesting of which is the A-40, an air tank. A-40 is a T-60 tank mounted on a special towed glider to include the tank in the airborne assault. There was even a prototype A-40, which showed that the designers did not take into account many factors, which is why the project was closed and the “winged tanks” were never produced.
Application
For the first time, the T-60 was massively used in the battle for Moscow - it was in almost all tank battalions and tank brigades. In the spring of 1942, T-60s arrived on the Leningrad front, and they were delivered to the besieged city on coal barges, which was a very good disguise - German troops did not hunt for the fuel that had become familiar. The movement of the tanks was never detected by the German forces.
T-60s also fought on the southern front, mainly in 1942 in the Crimea, participated in the defense of Stalingrad and the Kharkov operation.
The number of T-60s was significantly reduced by November 1942, as it was very easy prey for tanks and was considered a suicide tank. Tankers did not like these tanks at all, christening them BM-2 - a mass grave for two. But the enemy soldiers called the T-60 "indestructible locust."
The last major operation in which the T-60 participated was the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad in 1944.
tank memory
At least six surviving T-60s are known today:
- Pre-production T-60 in the Armored Museum in Kubinka;
- Unrestored T-60 in the tank museum in Parola, Finland;
- Restored to running condition T-60 in the museum of equipment of Vadim Zadorozhny. It was found destroyed near St. Petersburg, in the place of the last mass use of the T-60;
- T-60 in the form of a monument in the Rostov region, in the village of Glubokiy;
- T-60 on the move in the Museum "Battle Glory of the Urals" near Yekaterinburg. Annually takes part in the parade in honor of the Victory Day;
- T-60 in the museum complex "Battle of Stalingrad", raised in 2011 from the bottom of a dry river and restored at the plant of special engineering.
If you start talking about the tanks of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, the first thing that comes to mind, of course, is the T-34. Behind him, IS or KV will surely be remembered. Someone will mention pre-war BTs, which were used to a limited extent at the end of the war. Meanwhile, the main burden of the battles of the early period of the war fell on the T-60.
This light tank, created in the shortest possible time on the basis of an already outdated design, defended Moscow and Leningrad. Sometimes “sixties” are awarded unflattering assessments, up to declaring them generally “unnecessary”. But it was these “unnecessary” “wedges” that turned out to be critically needed by the Red Army, and the significance of their role cannot be underestimated.
History of creation
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Moscow Plant No. 37 developed and began to produce the T-40 light amphibious tank. According to the then classification, such equipment was considered a special class of “small tanks”. They were ordered to conduct reconnaissance, to participate in the counter-guerrilla struggle - that is, to solve tasks usually assigned to armored vehicles.
The T-40 became the most advanced "small tank", but in the outbreak of the war there was little use for it. The lack of medium-class equipment led to attempts to use the T-40 in close support of the infantry. Bulletproof armor and machine gun armament for such tasks were too weak.
Factory #37 received an order to curtail production of small T-40s and start production.
Yes, the T-50 was much more heavily armed, well armored and mobile at the same time - but the plant simply could not comply with the order. A complete re-equipment of the enterprise was required, but there was no time and money for this. The forced downtime could not have a positive effect on the overall pace of tank production.
Chief designer of the plant N.A. Astrov put forward a counterproposal - to prepare a new combat-ready tank, the T-60. A prototype with an unarmored hull was built in just a month. Astrov personally overtook him to the GAZ plant, where they began to master the serial production of the car. In the autumn of 1941, new Soviet tanks were already at war.
Design, crew, communications
The T-60 was greatly simplified against the background of pre-war vehicles. Aluminum and duralumin parts were replaced with cast iron parts, the floor in the hull and the motor shield were removed. Removed all amphibious equipment.
The hull and turret of the T-60 were welded from rolled homogeneous armor of high hardness.
Replacing the cemented armor of the T-40 with a homogeneous one made it possible to increase production volumes while maintaining acceptable bullet resistance. The armor plates of the forehead and stern were installed at rational angles of inclination, with the exception of the vertical sides. Some armor plates were made removable - to make it more convenient to service the units.
The maximum thickness of the armor initially reached 20mm. When the first battles showed the vulnerability of the T-60 even to anti-tank rifles, the armor was reinforced. At first, the problem was solved by installing additional screens, and from 1942 the hulls were assembled from thicker sheets - up to 35 mm. The octagonal tower with sides 25 mm thick was shifted to the left, as the right side of the hull was occupied by the engine compartment. From February 1942, the thickness of the sides was also increased to 35 mm.
The crew of the car consisted of two tankers. The driver was sitting in the center of the hull, he had at his disposal a viewing device with an armored shield. To leave the car (or get into it), the tanker used the hatch in the roof of the armored car on the front sheet. The tank commander, who was both gunner and loader, sat in the turret. A hatch in the bottom of the hull was intended for emergency evacuation of the crew.
The means of communication on the linear T-60s was reduced to a signaling device with colored lights, through which the commander gave orders to the driver. Such a device was available in the early series, and it was quickly abandoned. Flags provided communication with the infantry and other vehicles - a special hatch was provided for them in the tower. The commander's vehicles, unlike the linear ones, had both a tank intercom and a walkie-talkie with a communication range of up to 16 km.
But in July 1941, a GKO decree ordered that the T-60 be armed with 20mm caliber. Its tank variant, created from assemblies of wing and turret guns, received the designation TNSh (Tank Nudelman-Shpitalny). Ammunition - 750 shots, in tapes with a capacity of 58 shots. Armor-piercing incendiary and fragmentation shells were used for firing.
Armor-piercing shells made it possible to deal with light vehicles, and a small behind-the-barrier action to some extent compensated for the high rate of fire of the gun (up to 800 rounds per minute). Similarly, with a low power of a fragmentation projectile, a high rate of fire made it possible to create a high density of fire. According to some reports, since 1942, the choice of shells has been replenished with sub-caliber shells with a tungsten core, but there is no reliable evidence of this.
The insufficient effectiveness of the ShVAK cannon was already noted during the testing of the T-60, so work on creating a more effective weapon was started immediately.
A DT machine gun was paired with a cannon, its ammunition consisted of 15 discs (945 rounds). If necessary, the machine gun was removed and used as a manual one. The installation was aimed at the target using the TMFP telescopic sight and a spare mechanical one. Boxes with shots were stacked in a rack on the bottom, machine-gun discs - above the packing with cannon ammunition. For self-defense, the crew had a bag with 10 F-1 grenades.
The entire right side of the hull was occupied by the engine compartment. The GAZ-202 engine is an in-line six-cylinder, four-stroke - a variant of an automobile engine with a reduced HP from 85 to 70. power. When there were not enough engines, less powerful units from GAZ-M1 were installed.
They started the engine with a crank, it was allowed to use the starter only in combat conditions.
In the stern, behind an armored partition, there were radiators and fuel tanks. Two hand held fire extinguishers served as firefighting equipment.
A mechanical transmission with a four-speed gearbox was placed in the nose of the tank. The control was carried out through simple mechanical drives.
The chassis of the T-60 was borrowed from the T-40. The suspension design remained torsion bar, there were no additional shock absorbers.
TTX in comparison with similar machines
The airborne Tetrarch was chosen as the British analogue of the T-60, as the closest in terms of the year of commissioning and mass-dimensional characteristics.
| T-60 | Pz.Kpfw.IIAusf. C | M3 | Mk.VII "Tetrarch" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | ||||
| Length, m | 4,1 | 4,81 | 4,53 | 4,6 |
| Width, m | 2,4 | 2,28 | 2,24 | 2,39 |
| Height, m | 1,7 | 2,02-2,15 | 2,64 | 2,02 |
| Combat weight, t | 6,4 | 9,5 | 12,68 | 7,6 |
| Armament | ||||
| Armament | 1 x 20mm TNSh-20 1 x 7.62mm DT | 1 × 20 mm KwK 30, 1 × 7.92mm MG-34 | 1 × 37mm M6 5 x 7.62mm М1919А4 | 1 x 40mm QF 2-pounder 1× 7.92mm BESA |
| Booking | ||||
| Forehead of the hull | 30-35 mm | 29-34.5 mm | 16-44mm | 16 mm |
| Hull sides and stern | 15-10 mm | 14.5mm | 25 mm | 14-10 mm |
| Forehead of the tower | 20 mm | 34.5mm | 38 mm | 16 mm |
| Sides and stern of the tower | 25 mm | 14.5mm | 25 mm | 14-10 mm |
| Mobility |
||||
| Engine | carburettor 6-cylinder in-line GAZ-202, 70 HP | carburettor 6-cylinder in-line Maybach HL 62 TRM, 140 hp With. | carburetor 7-cylinder radial "Continental" W-670-9A, 250 hp With. | carbureted 12-cylinder boxer Meadows MAT, 180 hp |
| Specific power, l. s./t | 12 | 14,7 | 17,9 | 21,0 |
| Maximum speed on the highway, km/h | 42 | 40 | 58 | 64 |
| Range on the highway, km | 450 | 190 | 113 | 224 |
In terms of armor protection, the T-60 was generally not inferior to competitors, in combination with smaller dimensions and visibility, this greatly reduced its vulnerability. On the other hand, British and American vehicles were armed with more powerful guns.
The main light tank of the Wehrmacht Pz.II, like the T-60, carried a 20-mm air gun, which roughly equalized their combat capabilities.
Combat use
In the battles near Moscow, the T-60 received a baptism of fire. The 21st Tank Brigade was the first to receive these light tanks in October 1941. By November, all of her T-60s had been lost in action. The production of medium tanks at that time was insufficient, and light tanks had to be forced to replace them. Participating in frontal attacks along with the T-34 and KV, the T-60 suffered heavy losses. It was possible to knock out German tanks with light vehicles only under a fortunate combination of circumstances.
In the spring of 1942, 60 light tanks were transferred down the river to Leningrad.
By the beginning of the Kharkov operation, the number of T-60s in the troops was still significant, but by this time the Nazis had already received more powerful anti-tank guns and tanks with enhanced protection. Experienced tankers were still able to operate effectively on the T-60.
In general, its armament and armor were clearly insufficient - even for infantry support tasks. Best of all, the T-60 showed itself in reconnaissance - but with experienced commanders. From the end of 1942, light tanks moved from the front lines to the rear. In the same 1942, the production of the T-60 was also completed - it gave way to a more powerfully armed and better protected T-70.
But this does not mean that the combat path of the T-60 is over. When they broke through the blockade of Leningrad, it was the T-60s that captured the bridgehead, crossing the Neva, and were the first to join with parts of the Volkhov Front. This important role tanks received for objective reasons - the low weight of the T-60 made it possible to cross the river on ice. And even after leaving the front line, the T-60 continued to be used for the very tasks that the “small” T-40 tank was supposed to perform - fighting saboteurs in the rear, guarding troops on the march, reconnaissance in battle.
Light tanks were actively used as training vehicles. They were removed from service after the end of the war. It is noteworthy that all the surviving T-60s were sent for processing. Museum T-60s of the present time are vehicles restored by restorers that were lost in battles.
A number of T-60s were captured by the enemy.
The Wehrmacht and the Romanian army used them in rear units, in police divisions and as artillery tractors. The Romanians even converted about 30 vehicles into self-propelled guns with a 76.2mm F-22 cannon.
Footprint in history, project evaluation
If you do not take into account the conditions in which the T-60 was created, then it is very easy to brand it as an obvious step back. The T-50 tank surpassed it in all respects, and met the needs of the troops much better. But the T-60 was not a simplified version of the "fifty", but, in essence, a deep modernization of the obviously outdated T-40.
The aircraft gun, never designed to deal with armored vehicles, barely coped with this task. It was difficult for a two-man crew - instead of controlling the situation in battle, the commander fired and loaded weapons. Primitive surveillance devices and the lack of radio communications (on most tanks) prevented the “sixties” from becoming a full-fledged reconnaissance vehicle.
But after all, the designers, led by N.A. The Astrovs needed to develop a tank that was not “ahead of time” and “unparalleled” to satisfy imperial ambitions - they created a reliable combat-ready vehicle, the production of which could easily be arranged at their plant.
When any tanks were needed for defense - as long as massive ones - and the time count went by days, the adoption of even an “unnecessary” tank into service looks quite justified.
At the same time, there are no flaws in the design of the T-60 - it would even be one of the best in its class. It's just that the whole class has become obsolete.
Conclusion
The Soviet light tank T-60 is a combat vehicle that should not have existed at all. If not for the war, the plant would simply switch to the production of more modern machines (the same T-50).
And if the beginning of the war had not turned out to be so tragic, the need to create “at least some” tank as a temporary measure would not have arisen. And the Astrov team managed to create a rather successful vehicle, which really allowed the USSR to survive the period when the production of medium and heavy tanks was just getting better.
The heavy losses of the T-60 are not explained by the fact that it was so bad - it was just that the "sixties" had to fight an unequal struggle. And in the end, he won it, contributing to the overall victory.
Video
A Soviet light tank developed under wartime conditions as an alternative to the more difficult T-50. In the early stages of the war, due to the mass evacuation of Soviet industry to the east and problems with the production of newer tanks, the development and production of the T-60 became an important step in saturating the troops with light tanks, bearing huge losses at the front.
Description
The development and design of the tank were carried out in the summer of 1941 at the plant "No. 37" in Moscow. The prerequisite for the start of work on the tank was a directive to the plant management, ordering to urgently master and begin production of modern light tanks "T-50". The plant at that time could not fulfill this order, since a complete reorganization of the plant and its suppliers was necessary, which was impossible to do in the current difficult conditions, and the plant's capacity was barely enough even to produce simpler T-40 tanks. Given the complexity of the situation, one can imagine what a difficult task the plant management faced. Then the chief designer Nikolai Astrov proposed a compromise solution - to develop a new model of a tank with reinforced armor on the basis of the already mastered T-40. The team of the plant coped with this task quickly enough. The tank initially had a heavy-caliber 12.7-mm DShK machine gun as its main armament, but the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Malyshev, who was presented with a prototype tank, rightly considered that it would be nice to strengthen the armament of the tank. Ultimately, the tank was equipped with a more powerful 20-mm TNSh automatic gun (a variant of the ShVAK aircraft gun adapted for the tank). Reservation frontal projection "T-60" was initially 25mm. The prototype of the tank was almost ready, it remained to carry out the final sea trials, as well as prepare drawings and documentation for the start of mass production. All this was done already in September - October 1941, when the German army was approaching the capital of the USSR. The plant staff was evacuated to Gorky, where the improvements in the design of the T-60 were finally carried out and the ground was prepared for the start of mass production. The experimental model "T-60" under its own power covered the distance from Moscow to Gorky, which could be considered a successful completion of sea trials. The production of "T-60" has finally begun - already on the basis of the Gorky Automobile Plant. At the same time, work continued to improve the tactical and technical characteristics of the tank..jpg)
In terms of combat capabilities, the Soviet light tank "T-60" can be compared with the German tank "Panzer II", which had similar weapons - 20mm automatic guns of the KwK 30, KwK 30/38, KwK 38 brands. The Soviet tank was better armored than the first modifications of the German "twos" and could effectively deal with these tanks (the armor of the upper armor plate of the Pz.II modifications Ausf.A and Ausf.B was only 14.5mm). The armor effect of the T-60 ammunition, however, was small. Later modifications of the German "two", such as the Ausf.F, were heavier than the "T-60", had less maneuverability, and all tanks of the "Pz.II" series lacked rational sloping armor. In general, the T-60 was quite comparable to the German Panzer II tank, and surpassed its opponent in a number of characteristics. Alas, he could not cope with the main tanks of Germany at the beginning of the war - "Panzer III", "T-60". However, confronting enemy armored vehicles was not the main function of this light tank. His task in a real combat situation increasingly became the fight against enemy infantry. Hurricane deadly fire from the 20-mm automatic gun TNSh forced the advancing German infantrymen to lie down in horror, the T-60 could quickly eliminate large concentrations of enemy manpower, for some reason left without the support of tanks and anti-tank guns. Thus, in a number of cases, a tank could become a qualitative reinforcement of rifle subunits, for example, in the event of the liquidation of an isolated enemy infantry unit. "T-60" could also be used as a reconnaissance combat vehicle. Obviously, starting from 1942, the "sixty" was objectively weaker than almost any armored vehicle used by the Nazis on the eastern front, and the Soviet command was well aware that the tank was suitable only for auxiliary tasks. In the event of a collision with enemy equipment, the only thing that the T-60 crew could do was to fire at the viewing slots and observation devices of enemy vehicles, trying to disorientate the crew in order to then retreat from the German vehicle’s fire zone. Despite the modest performance characteristics, the T-60 was actively used by the Red Army at the end of 1941 and throughout 1942. Such major military episodes as the counter-offensive near Moscow, the Kharkov operation, the Battle of Stalingrad - were accompanied by the massive use of "T-60" in battles. German soldiers called these Soviet tanks indestructible locusts. Naturally, the losses of the "T-60" were high, even though the tank's armor was strengthened to 35mm, because the German army already had a sufficient number of guns capable of fighting even more armored Soviet tanks. .jpg)
The use of T-60 tanks continued into 1943. By that time, the production of more advanced T-70s had been launched. Many Soviet units in 1942-1943 used both types of these light tanks at the same time. One of the most recent battles in which the "sixties" distinguished themselves was the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943. On the initial stage operations, only light tanks, such as the T-60, were used, since only they could overcome the Nevsky ice without the preparation of decking by engineering units. In the future, the "sixties" began to give way to more advanced combat vehicles, like the "T-70" and "T-34". Now the T-60 was used exclusively for auxiliary tasks, such as escorting columns on the march, conducting reconnaissance, guarding rear facilities, towing anti-tank guns, etc. Giving a general assessment of the T-60 project, we can say that in the most difficult conditions of the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet designers under the leadership of N. Astrov solved a very important task - to create an easy-to-manufacture, technologically advanced and cheap machine in the shortest possible time. A large number of these tanks, which the Soviet industry was able to quickly give to the front, eventually helped the Red Army to survive in the most difficult first years of the war, when the factories evacuated to the east could not produce newer T-34s, and the losses of armored vehicles at the front were terribly large . Among similar German, Japanese or Italian tanks, that is, in its class, the Astrov project looks quite good, both in terms of armor, which in some cases can withstand even 37-mm guns with a low projectile flight speed, and in terms of armament, not inferior to that installed on similar enemy tanks. The tank had good maintainability and could be produced at factories that could not produce more complex tanks like the T-34. Of course, the "T-60" was not without its shortcomings - for example, the main 20-mm gun often failed, but by 1942 - 1943 this tank actually completed its mission of temporarily saturating the troops with armored vehicles, now it was up to more advanced vehicles . "T-60" still managed to take part in the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. The tank was finally withdrawn from service after the end of the war. T-60 what is it - a Soviet light tank of the period of the Second World War. Developed in August 1941 at Moscow Plant No. 37 under the leadership of Nikolai Alexandrovich Astrov, the leading developer of the entire domestic line of light tanks of that period. In September of the same year, the T-60 was adopted by the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and mass-produced at several machine-building plants.
Tank T-60 - video
Production of the T-60 continued until February 1943, when it was replaced on assembly lines by the more powerful T-70 light tank. In total, 5920 T-60 light tanks were produced, which took an active part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1943. A small number of T-60s that survived the battles were used as reconnaissance tanks, tractors, training vehicles until the end of the war. On the basis of the T-60 in 1941, the first self-propelled unit BM-8-24 of the class of multiple launch rocket systems on a tank chassis was built. Shortly after the end of the war, the T-60 was taken out of service by the Soviet army, and six such tanks have survived to this day in museums in Russia and Finland.
Just three days after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on June 25, 1941, Moscow Plant No. 37 received an order to discontinue production of the T-40 light (according to the then classification of a small amphibious) tank and begin re-equipping factory production facilities for the production of a light infantry support tank T-50. However, to implement this decision, a complete reconstruction of Plant No. 37 and the supplier of armored hulls was required, which was completely unacceptable in the current situation. The team of plant number 37 with great difficulty coped with the plans to produce even a relatively simple design of the T-40 tank, and the production of the T-50 was an order of magnitude more difficult in terms of technology, which only complicated the task.
From the very beginning, the chief designer of plant No. 37, N.A. Astrov, saw the futility of trying to master the serial production of the T-50 at his enterprise. Instead, he and the employees of his design bureau in two weeks at the end of July 1941 designed and manufactured a prototype of a new light tank based on the well-mastered T-40 amphibious tank at the plant. The layout scheme, undercarriage components, transmissions, electrical equipment and weapons installation were borrowed from the latter. Due to the rejection of the possibility of movement afloat (at the beginning of the war, the T-40s were practically not used in this capacity), the frontal armor plates of the tank were increased in thickness and installed at more favorable angles. Initially, the armament remained the same compared to the T-40 - one 12.7 mm DShK heavy machine gun and one 7.62 mm DT machine gun. After agreeing with the military acceptance representative V.P. Okunev, N.A. Astrov wrote a letter addressed to I.V. Stalin with information about the new car and a proposal to produce it at factory No. 37 instead of the T-50.
In the further history of the creation of the T-60, expert opinions differ. There are two versions of the presentation of events: one is canonical, set forth in the articles by E. I. Prochko and I. G. Zheltov and co-authors, and the second was put forward by the famous Russian historian M. N. Svirin. According to the canonical version, the built first prototype of the new tank under the factory designation 0-60 was demonstrated the very next day to the People's Commissar of the tank industry V. A. Malyshev, and he was the prototype of the serial T-60. M. N. Svirin, based on an analysis of documents from the People's Commissariat for the Tank Industry, claims that the designation "T-60" was originally assigned to the prototype of the land version of the T-40 tank under the factory index 0-30, the serial version of which is now known as the T-40S or T -thirty. According to this assumption, it was the land version of the T-40 with enhanced armor that was shown to V. A. Malyshev; and the machine that is now known as the T-60 was developed later. As a result, the time from the start of work on the T-60 (at first the "land" 0-30 and only then the "lowered hull" 0-60) to the construction of the prototype 0-60 was more than two weeks. However, these two weeks, widely mentioned in publications, have as their primary source the memoirs of N. A. Astrov and may well refer to the final phase of development, when the 0-30 was put into series and the designers worked only on the “lowered hull”.
Except for this ambiguity with the type of prototype shown to V. A. Malyshev, in the future the authors mentioned above converge in the description of events. V. A. Malyshev proposed to re-equip the machine with an aviation 20-mm ShVAK automatic gun. He organized a meeting between N. A. Astrov and aircraft armament designers from OKB-15 and OKB-16 to work out the issue of installing a ShVAK gun in a tank. As a result of joint actions, a tank version of this gun was created. It was installed on the second prototype of the 0-60 tank, which was shown to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin during tests. They were completed in the shortest possible time, and by a decree of the State Defense Committee, the tank was put into service under the T-60 index. Plants No. 37, 264 Krasnoarmeisky shipbuilding (Volgograd shipbuilding), Gorky automobile (GAZ) and Kharkov tractor (KhTZ) were ordered to produce 10,000 tanks of the T-60 type. To get acquainted with the design of the tank, plant No. 37 produced pre-production samples of the T-60 for GAZ and KhTZ.
Subsequently, the 20-mm gun was still structurally refined until December 1941 inclusive, when it was officially adopted under the designation TNSh (or TNSh-1 - tank Nudelman - Shpitalny).
However, there were not enough design drawings and documentation for the deployment of mass production of new tanks. These materials were prepared in September-October 1941 by the staff of Plant No. 37 already under the German bombardment of Moscow and on the verge of evacuation. N. A. Astrov, the chief designer of plant No. 37, personally overtook the experimental T-60 from Moscow to Gorky (this was counted as sea trials of the tank), and in mid-October a set of design and technological documentation was delivered there. The designers of GAZ, headed by A. M. Krieger (also A. Ya. Freidlin, S. A. Batanov, K. M. Chivkunov) did a lot of work to further simplify the design of the T-60 tank and adapt it to the production capabilities of GAZ. In November 1941, the first serial Gorky "sixties" were delivered to the troops. It was the designers of GAZ who developed an effective engine preheater, which became an integral feature of all further machines designed by N.A. Astrov. Since October 1941, the chief designer himself has been working on further improving the combat capabilities of the light tank. These works in December 1941 culminated in the creation of the T-70 light tank, which used quite a lot of components and assemblies from the "sixties" that had just been mastered in production.
With the launch of the series, the further development of the T-60 was continued, since its armor and armament no longer met the requirements of the time. The thickness of the armor of the frontal plates with the smallest angles of inclination and the front cheekbones of the tower, which are most exposed to enemy fire, was increased from 25 to 35 mm. At the suggestion of NII-48, armored screens 10 mm thick began to be installed on the frontal part of the hull and turret of the late-released T-60. The screening was carried out in such a way that there was an air gap between the screen and the armored hull, that is, the T-60 became a tank with spaced armor. This configuration of the protective elements made it possible to more effectively resist armor-piercing projectiles - the screen destroyed the tip of the projectile and reduced its normalization, and the main armor delayed the projectile or its fragments. This improvement was met with satisfaction by the troops at the front. Things were not so successful with weapons - various more powerful guns were tested on experimental T-60 tanks compared to the standard TNSh, but none of them was accepted for serial production. After the appearance of the new T-70 light tank, these works continued with regard to it, and the emphasis in improving the T-60 shifted towards the creation of self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft installations on its basis.
Production
After the development of the T-60 light tank, Moscow Plant No. 37 produced 20 vehicles of this type, after which its evacuation to Sverdlovsk began in November 1941. For a long time it was believed that the T-60 armored hull for plant number 37 in Moscow was produced by the Kolomna Machine-Building Plant named after Kuibyshev. However, according to the research of Yuri Pasholok, in fact, the Kolomna Plant received an order to manufacture the hulls and turrets of the T-30 (030) tank on July 17, 1941. Before the evacuation, the plant did not deal with tanks 060, and the confusion in the history of the T-60 at the Kolomna plant was made by the fact that in the factory documentation tanks 030 were listed either as T-60 or T-40 non-floating. "). In October 1941, his workshop , engaged in the production of armored hulls for the T-60, were evacuated to Kirov to the site of the Kirov Machine-Building Plant of the People's Commissariat of Railways named after May 1. On the basis of these two enterprises, a new plant No. 38 was created, which, it is believed, in January 1942 built its first T-60 tanks according to the drawings of plant No. 37. (According to the studies mentioned above, this is also a mistake. Tank production in Kirov began with the use of the T-30 backlog. And only in February were the first T-60s assembled.) Krasnoarmeisky Shipbuilding Plant (No. 264 ) of Stalingrad also launched the production of light tanks T-60. The largest number of light tanks T-60 in 1941-1942 was built by GAZ. Podolsky and Izhorsky plants (for Moscow plant No. 37), Kulebaksky metallurgical plant (for GAZ), Novokramatorsky machine-building plant, Voroshilovgrad locomotive building and Mariupol metallurgical plant named after Ilyich (for KhTZ). 20-mm guns came from Kovrov Plant No. 2, Tula Arms Plant No. 535, Mednogorsk Plant No. 314 and Kuibyshev Plant No. 525. Trucks were manufactured at Stalingrad tractor factory named after Dzerzhinsky.
In January 1942, the T-70 light tank was adopted by the Red Army, and starting from March of the same year, a gradual transition of all plants (except for No. In May 1942, the production of the T-60 was completed at plant No. 38, as the reserve of armored hulls for the "sixties" was used up, in the second half of 1942, GAZ switched to the production of the T-70 (in fact, since April), and the last T-60s were assembled by the plant No. 37 in Sverdlovsk at the very beginning of 1943.
Design
The T-60 had a typical layout for Soviet light tanks of the time. The tank had five compartments, listed below in order from the front of the vehicle to the stern:
transmission department;
- management department;
- engine compartment on the starboard side of the middle of the hull;
- fighting compartment on the left side of the middle of the hull and in the turret;
- aft compartment, where the fuel tanks and the engine radiator were located.
This layout scheme determined, in general, a set of advantages and disadvantages of the tank within the framework of vehicles of its class. In particular, the front location of the transmission compartment, that is, the drive wheels, led to their increased vulnerability, since it is the front end of the tank that is most susceptible to enemy fire. On the other hand, unlike Soviet medium and heavy tanks, the T-60's fuel tanks were located outside the fighting compartment in a compartment isolated by an armored bulkhead, which increased the crew's survivability in the event of a tank hit. Other advantages of the layout chosen for the T-60 include the low height and total weight of the tank compared to other vehicles of other layout schemes. As a result, the dynamic characteristics of the tank increased, and it did not require a powerful specialized engine. The crew of the tank consisted of two people - the driver and the commander of the vehicle.
Armored corps and turret
The armored hull of the tank designed by engineer A.V. Bogachev was welded from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 10 to 35 mm. Late production vehicles were protected by thicker armor compared to early production T-60s. Armor protection is differentiated, bulletproof. The frontal and stern armor plates had rational angles of inclination, the sides were vertical. A number of hull armor plates (over-engine, turret and aft plates) were made removable for ease of maintenance and replacement of various components and assemblies of the tank. The driver was located in the center in front of the armored hull of the tank. To increase the convenience of its work, an armored tube with a folding shield was installed on the frontal part of the hull. In a combat situation, the shield was lowered, and the driver was observing through the viewing device in this shield, which was also protected by an armored flap. On the roof of the cabin there was a hinged hatch for the landing and disembarkation of the driver. The hull also had a bottom hatch for emergency evacuation by the crew of the tank and a number of air inlets, hatches, hatches and technological openings for ventilation of the habitable premises of the tank, draining fuel and oil, access to the fuel tank fillers, other components and assemblies of the machine. A number of these holes were protected by armored covers, shutters and casings. To ensure the watertightness of the hull, the hatches were installed on rubber gaskets, and the holes for the bolted connections of parts with the hull were sealed with tow.
The conical octagonal welded tower designed by engineer Yu. P. Yudovich had sides 25 mm thick, which were located at an angle of 25 ° to the vertical to increase durability. In late machines, the thickness of the front cheekbones of the tower was increased to 35 mm. The frontal part of the tower had a niche of rectangular section for the installation of weapons and armored masks protecting them. The axis of rotation of the turret did not coincide with the plane of longitudinal symmetry of the vehicle due to the installation of the motor on the starboard side of the tank and was shifted from this plane to the left by 285 mm. The designer managed to achieve a very small overall height of the tower - only 375 mm. Also for the T-60 it was planned to produce round conical towers, and not only welded construction, but additionally cast and stamped. However, these plans were not implemented in practice, the only variant produced was a welded octagonal turret. In the first samples for landing and disembarking the commander of the vehicle, an octagonal hinged hatch was located on the turret cover, later they were replaced with semicircular ones. In turn, there was a small hatch in the hatch for flag external signaling. The tower was mounted on a ball bearing and fixed with grips to prevent stalling in case of a strong roll or capsizing of the tank.
Armament
The main armament of the T-60 was a rifled automatic gun TNSh (TNSh-1) of 20 mm caliber. The gun was mounted on trunnions in the turret; in addition to the mask, its barrel was additionally protected by an armor casing. The TNSh gun had a barrel length of 82.4 calibers, the height of the line of fire was 1480 mm, and the maximum direct fire range reached 2 km. A 7.62-mm DT machine gun was paired with the gun, located in a single installation with the TNSh gun. For ease of use of the twin installation, the gun was shifted to the right from the plane of symmetry of the tower, the machine gun was located on the left. The twin installation had vertical aiming angles from -7 ° to + 25 ° and a circular sector of fire horizontally. The horizontal gear-type guidance drive of the turret was located to the right of the twin installation; for a quick turn of the turret by the forces of the tank commander, it could be turned off. The vertical screw-type guidance mechanism was located to the left of the twin installation. These mechanisms and trigger drives for the gun and machine gun were borrowed from the design of the earlier production T-40 light tank. The DT machine gun could be easily removed from the twin mount and used outside the tank. In principle, the same thing could be done with the TNSh cannon, only this operation no longer differed in ease and speed of execution.
The ammunition load of the gun was 750 rounds of unitary loading. For automatic feeding of the gun, the shells were placed in a belt with 58 shots and 58 detachable links. This tape was placed in a box, which was mounted on a bracket under the gun. Another 12 boxes were on racks inside the fighting compartment of the tank. When firing, spent cartridges were thrown out of the tank, and the spent links of the tape fell along the guide to the bottom of the tank. Upon exiting the bore during firing, the projectile had a speed of 815 m/s. The composition of the ammunition included:
Unitary shot with an armor-piercing incendiary projectile (BZT-20);
- a unitary shot with a sub-caliber armor-piercing incendiary projectile (tungsten carbide core) - since 1942;
- a unitary shot with a fragmentation tracer and an instantaneous fuse (OT-20);
- a unitary shot with a fragmentation-incendiary projectile and an instantaneous fuse (OZ-20).
There are conflicting data on the penetration of the TNSh gun. According to one, an armor-piercing incendiary projectile with a tungsten carbide core normally pierced an armor plate 35 mm thick at a distance of 500 m. According to others, at a distance of 100 m, the BZT-20 projectile pierced an 18-mm armor plate at an angle of 30 degrees, and this was the initial, and not guaranteed, penetration. There is also a very low armor effect of small-caliber armor-piercing shells - most often a German tank or armored personnel carrier, hit by a burst from TNSh, was not put out of action. In addition, there are doubts about the supply of ammunition for T-60 tanks with sub-caliber armor-piercing incendiary shells. This is indirectly confirmed by a front-line memo to tankers, which literally says the following: "20-mm tank guns with an armor-piercing projectile pierce armor in vulnerable places at distances up to 200 m."
The small power of fragmentation shells was to some extent compensated by the automatic fire of the cannon, which made it possible to fire several shots at the target in the time required to reload another non-automatic type of gun.
The coaxial DT machine gun had an ammunition load of 945 rounds (15 discs).
Engine
The T-60 was equipped with a four-stroke in-line six-cylinder liquid-cooled carburetor engine GAZ-202. GAZ-202 was derated to 70 hp. With. (51.5 kW) tank version of the GAZ-11 automobile engine with a power of 85 liters. With. The reduction in power was aimed at increasing the reliability of operation and increasing the life of the motor. The engine in some cases was equipped with speed controllers; in this case, the standard MKZ-6G carburetor was replaced by the M-1 carburetor. Due to the lack of regular GAZ-202 engines (problems of cooperation between subcontractors, lack of necessary materials, bombing attacks on GAZ workshops), some T-60s were equipped with other models of engines manufactured by GAZ (for example, GAZ-M-1) or Ford with a capacity of 65 or 90 l. With. (48 or 66 kW). Some sources claim the installation of low-power GAZ-AA or GAZ-MM engines with a capacity of 40 or 50 hp in the T-60. With. This aspect is still an obscure place in the history of the T-60; according to the results of a discussion at the Military History Forum, a mention was found of three T-60s with 40 hp engines. pp., placed in one of the educational parts. However, due to the fact that, according to the memoirs of N. A. Astrov, in 1941-1942. “they set what happened if it wasn’t required by the state,” and this kind of substitution is not fully reflected in the documents (although this should have been recorded at least by military acceptance), the question of the number of such T-60s remains open. The engine was started mainly manually, using the crank. Use of a starter SL-40 with a power of 0.8 liters. With. (0.6 kW) was allowed only in combat and for a preheated engine.
For the latter purpose, for the first time for Soviet serial tanks, the T-60 was equipped with an engine preheater for its operation in winter conditions. This knot was developed by I. G. Alperovich and B. Ya. Ginzburg. Between the side of the tank and the engine, a cylindrical boiler was installed, due to the thermosiphon circulation of antifreeze, in which heating was carried out. The boiler was heated by an external gasoline blowtorch. After passing through the boiler, warm air was supplied to blow the engine crankcase.
Two fuel tanks with a volume of 320 liters were located in the aft compartment. The fuel supply was enough for 450 km on the highway, later tanks with enhanced armor had a slightly lower range - 410 km.
Transmission
The T-60 tank was equipped manual transmission, which included:
Single-disk main clutch of dry friction “steel according to Ferodo”, mounted on the engine flywheel;
- a four-speed gearbox with a demultiplier (4 gears forward and 1 reverse), borrowed from an experimental (at that time) GAZ-51 truck;
- cardan shaft;
- bevel main gear;
- two multi-disc side clutches with dry friction "steel on steel" and band brakes with Ferodo linings;
- two simple single-row final drives.
All transmission control drives are mechanical, the driver controlled the turning and braking of the tank with two levers on both sides of his workplace.
Chassis
The chassis of the T-60 tank was to a certain extent inherited from its predecessor, the T-40. The suspension of the machine is individual torsion bar without shock absorbers for each of the 4 single-sided road wheels of small diameter (550 mm) with rubber bandages on each side. Depending on the manufacturer, the track rollers were either cast spoked or solid stamped. Opposite the extreme suspension units, suspension balancer travel stops with rubber buffers were welded to the armored hull to mitigate shocks. The lantern drive wheels with removable toothed rims were located in the front, and the sloths with the caterpillar tension mechanism were in the back. The first machines had sloths smaller in diameter (460 mm) than road wheels; Subsequently, the unification of these parts was carried out. The upper branch of the caterpillar was supported by three small support rollers on each side. Fenders were riveted to the tank hull to prevent the caterpillar from jamming when the tank was moving with a significant roll to one of the sides. The caterpillar is small-linked, the width of the two-ridge track is 260 mm.
electrical equipment
The electrical wiring in the T-60 tank was single-wire, the armored hull of the vehicle served as the second wire. The sources of electricity (operating voltage 6 V) were the G-41 generator with a relay-regulator RRA-364 with a power of 0.2 kW and a 3-STE-112 battery with a total capacity of 112 Ah. The tank also had a second battery of the same brand. On linear machines, it was a spare, and on command vehicles equipped with a 71-TK-3 radio station, it was connected to the network to ensure the operation of the radio station. Electricity consumers included:
Exterior and interior lighting of the machine, aiming scale illumination device;
- external sound signal CE-4714;
- means of communication - a radio station and a tank intercom (or a one-way three-color light-signal device from the commander to the driver);
- electrics of the motor group - starter SL-40, ignition coil KZ-11, distributor R-12, candles U12-10 and switch 69-K.
Sights and observation devices
The paired installation of the TNSh cannon and the DT machine gun was equipped with the TMFP main sight, if the main sight was damaged after it was removed, the front sight of the backup mechanical sight was automatically cocked. The workplaces of the driver and commander of the T-60 also had several viewing devices (one in the driver's shield, two in the commander's) to monitor the environment outside the tank. Visibility from the car was regarded as quite satisfactory.
Means of communication
On linear tanks, a three-color light-signal device served as a means of internal one-way communication from the commander to the driver; no means of external communication, with the exception of flags, were provided. The 71-TK-3 radio station and the TPU-2 internal intercom for 2 subscribers were installed on command tanks.
The 71-TK-3 radio station was a set of transmitter, receiver and umformers (single-arm motor-generators) for their power supply, connected to the on-board electrical network with a voltage of 6 V. From a technical point of view, it was a duplex lamp short-wave heterodyne radio station operating in the frequency range from 4 to 5.625 MHz (respectively, wavelengths from 53.3 to 75 m) with an output power of 20 watts. In the parking lot, the communication range in the telephone (voice, amplitude modulation of the carrier) mode in the absence of interference reached 16 km, while in motion it slightly decreased. A longer communication range could be obtained in telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by telegraph key in Morse code or another discrete coding system.
The TPU-2 tank intercom made it possible to negotiate between members of the tank crew even in a very noisy environment and connect a headset (head phones and throat phones) to a radio station for external communication.
Modifications
Serial
Officially, the T-60 tank had no modifications, however, the vehicles produced can be divided into several options, which differed very markedly in their performance characteristics due to the varying total mass of the tank, which affected other indicators (specific power and pressure on the ground, cruising range, etc.):
T-60 early series with a maximum frontal armor thickness of 25 mm, the idler is not identical to the road wheels, the armor is rolled cemented.
T-60 of the main issue with a maximum thickness of frontal armor of 35 mm, sloth and road wheels are unified, rolled homogeneous armor of high hardness.
Shielded T-60 weighing up to 6.5 tons.
Experienced
The insufficient armament of the T-60 tank actively stimulated work on its rearmament with a more powerful artillery system. A variant of the tank was also considered, more suitable for components and assemblies produced by the ZIS plant instead of analogues produced by GAZ. Several prototypes of the T-60 were tested:
T-60-1 was developed in the fall of 1942 at the design bureau of the Stalin Moscow Automobile Plant under the leadership of B. M. Fitterman and A. M. Avenarius. This machine completely repeated the layout of the T-60, but was larger in size due to the installation of a more powerful (88 hp / 65 kW), heavy and bulky ZIS-16 bus engine. In terms of armament, the T-60-1 was similar to the T-60, but a more powerful power plant made it possible to strengthen the armor. The T-60-1 was not accepted into service and mass production.
It was developed in the design bureau of plant number 37 at the beginning of 1942. The ZIS-19 cannon was created in March under the direction of V. G. Grabin at factory No. 92 in Gorky. The new artillery system was mounted on the T-60 chassis in a new improved turret with a commander's cupola. The 37 mm ZIS-19 gun had the ballistics of a 37 mm automatic anti-aircraft gun mod. 1939 (61-K) and in terms of its armor penetration was not inferior to the 45-mm tank gun 20-K. It was also simpler in design and more technologically advanced in production than the 45 mm 20-K gun. However, the installation of a heavier turret with a new gun worsened the range of the tank to 390 km and, what was more significant, the 37 mm ZIS-19 gun quickly lost its qualities due to the strong muzzle height. To this were added problems with the decommissioning of shots for the 37-mm anti-tank gun mod. 1930 (1-K) and the lack of shots for the 61-K anti-aircraft gun. As a result, the T-60 tank with a 37-mm cannon was not accepted into service with the Red Army and into mass production.
T-60-2 with 45 mm ZIS-19BM gun - top view
T-60-2 was developed in the spring of 1942 at the design bureau of plant number 37 under the leadership of N. A. Popov. A new turret was installed on the standard chassis of the T-60 tank with 45 mm gun ZIS-19BM designed by V. G. Grabin, manufactured by plant No. 92. The new gun showed good results in terms of armor-piercing action and rate of fire, but due to the increased mass of the tank, the cruising range decreased to 330 km. In connection with the adoption of the T-70 light tank, work on the T-60-2 was stopped.
T-60-Z was developed in the second half of 1942 in the design bureau of plant number 37 under the leadership of N. A. Popov. On the standard chassis of the T-60 tank, a modified full-time turret with two large-caliber DShK machine guns without a roof. The machine guns had a large elevation angle and were equipped with an anti-aircraft collimator sight, which made it possible to use the tank to protect units on the march and in battle from air attacks. However, due to the incorrect installation of the anti-aircraft sight and the extremely poor ergonomics of the combat position, the T-60-Z tank was not even allowed to be tested.
The possibility of replacing the 20-mm TNSh-1 guns on serial T-60s with its improved version of the TNSh-2 of the same caliber was also considered. The latter turned out to be unreliable and was not accepted into service.
Vehicles based on the T-60
The T-60 tank served as the base for the OSU-76 and BM-8-24 self-propelled artillery mounts. The first was a semi-open installation of the 76-mm ZIS-3 divisional gun on the T-60 chassis. Installation into service and mass production was not accepted due to the presence of a sufficient number of more comfortable for the crew and more successful in design SU-76. BM-8-24 was a multiple launch rocket system obtained by a combination of an artillery unit previously developed for the T-40 tank base and the T-60 chassis (since the T-40 was discontinued, and the MLRS based on it proved themselves well in battles ). The artillery unit of the BM-8-24 consisted of 12 beam-type guides, onto which 24 82-mm M-8 rockets were loaded from above and below. The fire control device made it possible to fire in one salvo or with a different rate of projectiles fired.
Also, a small series in Romania produced the TACAM self-propelled guns, armed with a captured 76-mm F-22 cannon based on the captured T-60s.
BM-8-24 is a light weight Soviet self-propelled artillery unit of the class of multiple launch rocket systems based on the T-60 tank.
"Wings of the Tank"
One of the most unusual projects for the use of the T-60 was the proposal of the famous aviation designer Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov to make a disposable towed glider for it to transfer the tank through the air as part of airborne assault forces or to qualitatively strengthen partisan detachments. As a towing aircraft, it was supposed to use either an outdated four-engine heavy bomber TB-3, or a modern twin-engine long-range bomber Il-4. After uncoupling, the tank landed on a small platform and, after dropping the wings and tail, could directly engage in battle.
In the summer of 1942, such a glider was built at one of the factories in Tyumen. It was called AT-1, A-40 or KT ("Tank Wings"). The glider was a biplane wing box with a two-beam tail unit. This design was hung on the armored hull of the T-60 tank. The length of the glider was 12 m, the wingspan was 18 m, the wing box area was 86 m², the flight weight was 2 tons. The tank's flight weight was assumed to be 5.8 tons and the payload on the wing was 90 kgf / m².
In August-September 1942, the KT glider was tested at the Flight Research Institute (LII) in Zhukovsky. To lighten the airframe, the T-60 was stripped of the turret, fenders, headlights, and drained most of the fuel. The crew of such a lightweight CT consisted of one person, who was the famous test pilot and glider pilot S. N. Anokhin. The TB-3 bomber with a forced modification of the AM-34RN engines up to 970 hp served as a towing vehicle for the CT. With. (713 kW). The air train successfully took off, the flight speed reached 130 km / h, and the height - 40 m; but then at TB-3 the temperature of the water in the engine cooling system began to increase sharply. The air train began to decline, and due to the danger of overheating of the towing motors, its commander P. A. Yeremeev decided to unhook the glider. Thanks to his skill and skill, S. N. Anokhin managed to land the glider not far from the Bykovo airfield near Moscow, start the tank engine and, without dropping its wings, move in the direction of the airfield command post. Unwarned about trials of the unusual aircraft, the airfield flight director put the anti-aircraft battery on alert and detained Anokhin. After the arrival of the LII representatives, the incident was settled, and the tank returned to the base under its own power.
The tests clearly showed that the designer of the airframe did not take into account the additional aerodynamic drag from the tank tracks and the cables holding the biplane box together. As a result, an underestimated value of the required power of the towing aircraft engines was obtained. In reality, the CT could only tow a modern four-engine strategic bomber Pe-8, of which about 80 were produced. These vehicles were used for deep raids against Germany and its allies; it was unrealistic to count on their allocation as CT tugs. As a result, the Wings of the Tank project was closed.
A-40. Glider projections
Organizational structure
In view of the catastrophic losses of materiel in the first half of 1941, its rapid replenishment in 1942, and the repeated change of views on the organizational and staffing structure of tank units, its single version simply does not exist for that period. Moreover, in view of the replacements in the production of one model of a light tank for another, the organizational structure (especially in 1941) does not indicate the type of vehicles laid down in the state, but instead uses only the total number of light tanks, which could be of a wide variety of types - BT-7, T-26, T-40 of all modifications and T-60.
Nevertheless, the T-60 was used at all levels of organization of the tank units of the Red Army - from individual tank battalions to tank armies. In the initial phase of the war, the states changed several times: for example, in separate tank brigades of the formation of late August - early September 1941, there were 64 light tanks (T-40 or T-60) out of 93 laid down. In the tank brigades of the formation at the end of September, the total number of tanks decreased to 67, and even later - to 46 vehicles (20 T-40s or T-60s). Soon, due to a lack of materiel, emphasis had to be placed on the formation of separate tank battalions of 29 vehicles (9 medium and 20 light). However, by the beginning of 1942, when the confusion that had reigned since the beginning of the war in all respects had been overcome to some extent, clearly defined states of tank units appeared. Instead of separate tank battalions formed in most cases on the ad hoc principle, it became possible to form tank corps suitable for large-scale offensive operations. So, in March 1942, the state of the tank corps was approved, according to which the corps was supposed to have 100 tanks: 20 KV-1, 40 T-34 and 40 T-60. The increased production of vehicles made it possible in mid-April 1942 to increase exactly one and a half times the size of the corps - up to 30 KV-1, 60 T-34 and 60 T-60. However, already from the middle of 1942, some ambiguity again sets in - new T-70 light tanks begin to be delivered to the troops, and the composition of one or another unit begins to depend on the time and place of formation, the availability of reinforcements, etc. factors. Many units in late 1942 - early 1943 operated both T-60s and T-70s together. In 1943, after the T-60 was taken out of production, only the T-70 was officially approved as a light tank. The surviving "sixties" are beginning to be used in various units and subunits of the rifle, mechanized, tank and self-propelled artillery troops of the Red Army.
T-60 abroad
Light tanks T-60 were in service with the Polish Army. In 1945, he had three tanks of this type. A much larger number of "sixties" as war trophies served in the Wehrmacht. Unlike the frequently broken T-34s (and even more so the KV-1) produced in 1941-1942. with diesel engines, the reliable gasoline T-60 with its fairly widespread automotive components and assemblies (a considerable number of GAZ trucks were operated in the territories occupied by the Germans) fully satisfied the Wehrmacht as a high-speed armored tractor of anti-tank guns. Sometimes the Germans removed the tower from the captured "sixties" used as tractors. A number of captured T-60s were transferred to Romania, where their chassis were used to create the TACAM self-propelled guns.
Combat use
For the first time, the T-60 went into battle in September 1941 as part of the 10th tank brigade operating in the Poltava region. In large numbers, they participated in the battles of 1941-1943, starting with the battle for Moscow and ending with the complete deblockation of Leningrad in January 1944. The role of the T-60 in the defense of Moscow was especially great - due to the catastrophic losses of materiel and the evacuation of tank factories, the level of production of medium and heavy tanks dropped sharply, not covering even the most minimal need of the Red Army for these combat vehicles. As a result, they were replaced by lighter "sixties". During the parade on November 7, 1941, 48 T-60s taken from the reserve passed through Red Square. After the parade, they were immediately sent to the front. On December 13, 1941, after the start of the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops, the first T-60s produced in Gorky took part in the battles near Moscow.
During the 1942 campaign, T-60s were used on all fronts, from besieged Leningrad to the lost Crimea. The “sixties” were delivered to besieged Leningrad by river, disguised on barges with coal, which did not arouse much interest in the German air force dominating the air. Thus, unnoticed by the enemy, the 61st Tank Brigade was moved. T-60s were actively used during all phases of the Battle of Stalingrad and its tragic prologue for the Red Army - the Kharkov operation. Losses were high, since by that time German anti-tank guns, tanks and self-propelled guns were far superior to the T-60 class. It is quite natural that Soviet tankers, due to light armor and weapons, did not like the T-60 too much, calling it “BM-2” - “mass grave for two” (however, all tanks were called “mass graves”). On the other hand, there were practically no operational complaints against the T-60, which was more than a frequent occurrence in relation to the T-34 and KV-1. There were also tankers who liked the T-60 - for example, the "sixties" of the 91st Tank Brigade bore such names as "Terrible", "Eagle", "Brave". By the end of 1942, the T-60 was gradually removed from the front line as the T-34 troops were saturated, the production of which increased many times over, and the new, more combat-ready model of the T-70 light tank.
Historian Aleksey Isaev points out in his book that in fights with Pz.III and Pz.IV of the September 1942 model, the combat value of the T-60 was negligible. The already weak armament of the T-60 refused in the dusty steppe air near Stalingrad. So, in the report on the combat operations of the 45th tank brigade of the 4th tank corps, it was noted: "The 20-mm ShVAK cannon on T-60 tanks in most cases is not used in battle, since after a few shots it fails." In other words, Isaev emphasizes, the T-60 actually became a machine-gun “female”, and equipped with only one disk-powered machine gun.
T-60s continued to be actively used throughout the next 1943. The “finest hour” of the “sixties” was the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad, which began on January 12, 1943. Then the 61st tank brigade, mentioned above, went into battle together with the 86th and 118th separate tank battalions. These units operated in the first echelon of the 67th Army, and on the first day, having crossed the Neva, they captured a bridgehead 2-3 km deep. In this case, only light tanks were used, since it was they who had the most necessary advantage at that moment - low specific pressure on the supporting surface. This allowed Soviet vehicles to pass the Neva on the ice without preparation. The medium and heavy tanks were able to join the battle only the next day, when the engineering and sapper units prepared a reinforcing deck for their passage across the Neva. The tanks of the 61st brigade were the first to connect with units of the Volkhov Front, and for this success it received the rank of Guards.
The shortcomings and merits of the T-60, as well as the courage of its crew, consisting of commander Lieutenant D. I. Osatyuk and driver foreman I. M. Makarenkov during these battles, are evidenced by the following fragment from the book “Tankers in the battle for Leningrad”:
Breaking forward, at dawn on January 18 at the Workers' settlement No. 5, they noticed three tanks. The Volkhovites wanted to jump out of the car and run towards them, but they saw that it was the Nazi tanks going on a counterattack. What to do? Starting a duel with the enemy on your little one with a 20mm cannon is pointless. The decision was ripe instantly. The tank commander gave a command to the driver: "Move away to that grove, on the edge of which our guns took up firing positions!"
The tank, maneuvering, making unexpected and sharp turns, eluded the fire of the Nazi tanks, and Osatyuk fired at them, trying to blind and stun the enemy. The duel went on for several minutes. There were moments when it seemed that armored monsters were about to be overtaken, piled on and crushed. When there were about 200 meters left to the grove, Osatyuk's car turned sharply to the left. The lead Nazi tank also turned around, but came under fire from our guns and blazed. Then the second tank was hit, and the third left the battlefield.
“Now, Vanyusha, go ahead!” the commander ordered the driver. Having caught up with their company, they saw an interesting picture - the tankers drove the enemy infantry into a huge pit. The Nazis stubbornly resisted, throwing grenades at our tanks. It was clear that it was impossible to delay, the Nazis would have time to dig in. Osatyuk orders Makarenkov to roll a trail to a cliff, to lay a track. Then the tank, picking up speed, rushed to the pit, flew through the air and crashed into the Nazis.
"Well done! - the lieutenant shouted - Now act! The car rushed at high speed along the bottom of the pit, destroying the Nazis with fire and caterpillars. Having made several circles, the tank slowed down, went to the middle of the pit and stopped. Everything was over. Yours came up.
For this fight the crew in in full force was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Approximately the same about the successes of the T-60 against enemy infantry says M. E. Katukov in his memoirs.
Calculations of 76.2-mm divisional guns of the 1942 model (ZIS-3) of the anti-tank unit of senior lieutenant Kovalenko (Central Front) move on the armor of T-60 tanks.
In general, the Volkhov and, in particular, the Leningrad fronts retained a large number of old vehicles in their ranks until 1944 inclusive. The operation to finally lift the blockade of Leningrad involved BT-7, single T-38 and T-28, KV-1 of the first issues and a large number of T-60s, which on other fronts were no longer first-line tanks and performed other functions. For example, almost a quarter (21 out of 88) of the tanks of the 1st tank brigade of the Leningrad Front were precisely "sixties".
T-60s also participated in the Battle of Kursk. Thus, the 1st Tank Army had 18 tanks of this type, and the 86th Tank Brigade (Voronezh Front, 38th Army) had 15 tanks.
Starting from the end of 1942, more and more new T-34 and T-70 tanks began to enter the troops. As a result, the weaker T-60s began to be transferred to the most diverse work: escorting and guarding troops on the march, reconnaissance in force, and the destruction of bandits and saboteurs in the rear. They were used as command vehicles for self-propelled artillery units equipped with SU-76 self-propelled guns, and as training tanks in the rear. Also, the "sixties" were used as artillery tractors for anti-tank guns ZIS-2 and divisional ZIS-3. In this capacity, the surviving T-60s served until the end of World War II and took part in the defeat of the Kwantung Army of Imperial Japan in August 1945. Shortly after the end of World War II, the T-60s were decommissioned by the Red Army and sent for scrap. All currently existing museum T-60s (with the exception of the prototype in Kubinka) were found knocked out on the battlefield.
German troops nicknamed the T-60 "indestructible locust".
- Hero of the Soviet Union Irina Nikolaevna Levchenko went through a combat path from the commander of the T-60 to the commander of a unit of these tanks.
- N. A. Astrov had to persuade the designer of aviation weapons Shpitalny, “a rather noble man”, to develop a tank version of the ShVAK air gun.
- Lightly armored combat vehicles armed with a small-caliber automatic cannon and a machine gun are widely represented in modern armies; the concept, of which the T-60 was a representative, is still quite alive today.
- Light tank No. 164 T-60 mentioned above in the article by D. I. Osatyuk, one of the first to break through to the mainland, survived the war and since March 1947 was exhibited at the Leningrad Defense Museum. However, after the museum was liquidated, this tank disappeared without a trace.
- In 1943, the children of the Omsk region raised money for a light tank T-60 - "Baby". His driver was one of the nineteen female tankers of the Red Army, Sergeant Ekaterina Alekseevna Petlyuk.
Project evaluation
The light tank T-60, in terms of the totality of its tactical and tactical characteristics, could be considered as a forced step back in Soviet tank building, as in general plan, and in the class of light tanks. The trend of the pre-war period in Soviet tank building was a general increase in firepower and protection for all classes of tanks, however, the T-60, compared to the pre-war light tank of direct infantry support, the T-50, clearly lost in these components. On the other hand, a light reconnaissance tank of the T-40 type should be floating in the Red Army weapons system, but the T-60 lost this opportunity. Thus, the T-60 ended up in the middle between the T-40 and T-50 both in terms of weight and size classification and in terms of intended use, without having the advantages of either one or the other. However, the 60 was a big step forward in another respect.
A significant part of the losses of the tank troops of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 was of a non-combat nature. Worn-out old T-26 and BT tanks, together with the unfinished T-34 and KV, during overforced marches broke down and rushed into the territory occupied by the enemy, as a result of deep breakthroughs of the Wehrmacht, some tanks were captured even on railway platforms - they did not have time to unload them for entry into battle or evacuate to the rear for repairs. The quality of the structurally undeveloped new T-34 and KV-1 coming from the factories has fallen sharply due to the call-up of a large number of experienced workers and their replacement with women and teenagers, along with demands to maximize their output. As a result, even in the spring of 1942, reports from the troops testified to an unacceptably large percentage of tanks of the T-34 and KV-1 types that had failed for technical reasons and were left on enemy territory. The situation was aggravated by the evacuation to the east of the main tank factories of the country - Kharkov No. 183 and Leningradsky named after S. M. Kirov, which led to a sharp shortage of tanks in the autumn of 1941.
Therefore, the great work carried out in the pre-war years by the team of plant No. 37 under the leadership of N. A. Astrov to improve small and light tanks contributed to the creation in the shortest possible time of a reliable, cheap, technologically advanced and generally combat-ready vehicle, which became the T-60. "Sixties" could be produced at factories that could not produce more complex T-34s. The maximum use of automotive components and assemblies already debugged in production increased the reliability and maintainability of tanks in the face of an extreme shortage of experienced driver-mechanics and qualified specialists for the repair of tank engines in the field. As a result, the losses of the T-60 tanks were mostly combat losses. This was the reason for the high evaluation of the tank by I. V. Stalin. About 6000 produced T-60s allowed the Red Army to hold out until the moment when the evacuated factories began mass production of more powerful combat vehicles.
Compared to foreign models, the T-60 light tank was quite at the level of the German “one-year-old” PzKpfw II Ausf F, which was practically equivalent in armament and armor. Although the latter had a more powerful engine and one more crew member, which gave the PzKpfw II Ausf F a series advantages, it was one and a half times heavier than the T-60 and did not have a rational angle of inclination of the front plates. It is noteworthy that German projects equipping the PzKpfw I Ausf B light tank, which is very close in mass to the T-60, with a 20-mm cannon was unsuccessful, and the Soviet vehicle within the 5-7 ton weight category looks very worthy among German, Italian and Japanese rivals. The armor of the T-60 is quite adequate for protection against heavy machine guns, and the frontal armor, thanks to a rational angle of inclination, is with a certain probability capable of withstanding hits from 20 mm shells (and even low-velocity 37 mm from Japanese tank guns). The 20 mm TNSh gun, in turn, was able to cope with any enemy light armored vehicles. In addition, the T-60 suffered much less from the ergonomic problems typical of Soviet tanks of that period. Summing up, we can say that in its class the T-60 was among the best examples, but in the European theater of operations by 1942 the time of such machines was irretrievably gone, and only exceptional and tragic circumstances for the USSR brought it to life. It is quite natural that the unequal struggle of the T-60 against superior enemy combat vehicles and, as a result, their heavy losses affected the reputation of the tank accordingly. However, in later literature, the brainchild of N.A. Astrov received a completely adequate assessment.
Tactical and technical characteristics of the T-60 tank
Crew, people: 2
Manufacturer: Gorky Automobile Plant
Number of issued, pcs.: 5920
Weight T-60
5.8—6.4 tons
Dimensions T-60
Case length, mm: 4100
- Hull width, mm: 2392
- Height, mm: 1750
- Clearance, mm: 300
Armor T-60
Type of armor: homogeneous rolled high hardness
- Forehead of the hull (top), mm / city: 15/70 ° and 35/16 °
- Forehead of the hull (middle), mm / city: 35 / −28 °
- Forehead of the hull (bottom), mm / city: 30 / −76 °
- Hull board, mm/deg.: 15/0°
- Hull feed (top), mm/deg.: 10/76°
- Hull feed (bottom), mm/deg.: 25/−14°
- Bottom, mm: 10
- Hull roof, mm: 13
- Gun mask, mm / city: 20
- Tower board, mm / city: 25-35 / 25 °
- Tower roof, mm: 10
Armament T-60
Gun caliber and brand: 20 mm TNSh or ShVAK
- Barrel length, calibers: 82.4
- Gun ammunition: 750
- Sights: TMFP-1, mechanical
- Machine guns: 1 × 7.62 mm DT
T-60 engine
Engine type: GAZ-202
- Engine power, l. p.: 70
T-60 speed
Highway speed, km/h: 42
- Cross-country speed, km / h: 20-25
Power reserve on the highway, km: 410-450
- Specific power, l. s./t: 10.7—12.0
- Suspension type: individual torsion bar
- Specific ground pressure, kg/cm²: 0.53—0.63
- Climbability, degrees: 34°
- overcome wall, m: 0.6
- Crossable ditch, m: 1.7
- Crossable ford, m: 0.9
Photo of the T-60 tank
Modern battle tanks of Russia and the world photos, videos, pictures to watch online. This article gives an idea of the modern tank fleet. It is based on the classification principle used in the most authoritative reference book to date, but in a slightly modified and improved form. And if the latter in its original form can still be found in the armies of a number of countries, then others have already become a museum exhibit. And all for 10 years! To follow in the footsteps of the Jane's guide and not consider this combat vehicle (quite by the way, curious in design and fiercely discussed at the time), which formed the basis of the tank fleet of the last quarter of the 20th century, the authors considered it unfair.
Films about tanks where there is still no alternative to this type of weapon ground forces. The tank was and probably will remain a modern weapon for a long time due to the ability to combine such seemingly contradictory qualities as high mobility, powerful weapons and reliable crew protection. These unique qualities of tanks continue to be constantly improved, and the experience and technologies accumulated over decades predetermine new frontiers of combat properties and military-technical achievements. In the age-old confrontation "projectile - armor", as practice shows, protection from a projectile is being improved more and more, acquiring new qualities: activity, multi-layeredness, self-defense. At the same time, the projectile becomes more accurate and powerful.
Russian tanks are specific in that they allow you to destroy the enemy from a safe distance, have the ability to perform quick maneuvers on impassable roads, contaminated terrain, can “walk” through the territory occupied by the enemy, seize a decisive bridgehead, induce panic in the rear and suppress the enemy with fire and caterpillars . The war of 1939-1945 became the most difficult test for all mankind, since almost all countries of the world were involved in it. It was the battle of the titans - the most unique period that theorists argued about in the early 1930s and during which tanks were used in large numbers by almost all the warring parties. At this time, a "check for lice" and a deep reform of the first theories of the use of tank troops took place. And it is the Soviet tank troops that are most affected by all this.
Tanks in battle that became a symbol of the past war, the backbone of the Soviet armored forces? Who created them and under what conditions? How did the USSR, having lost most of its European territories and having difficulty recruiting tanks for the defense of Moscow, be able to launch powerful tank formations on the battlefield already in 1943? This book, which tells about the development of Soviet tanks "in the days of testing ", from 1937 to the beginning of 1943. When writing the book, materials from the archives of Russia and private collections of tank builders were used. There was a period in our history that was deposited in my memory with some depressing feeling. It began with the return of our first military advisers from Spain, and stopped only at the beginning of forty-third, - said the former general designer of self-propelled guns L. Gorlitsky, - there was some kind of pre-stormy state.
Tanks of the Second World War, it was M. Koshkin, almost underground (but, of course, with the support of "the wisest of the wise leader of all peoples"), who was able to create the tank that, a few years later, would shock German tank generals. And what’s more, he didn’t just create it, the designer managed to prove to these stupid military men that it was his T-34 that they needed, and not just another wheeled-tracked “highway”. The author is in slightly different positions that he formed after meeting with the pre-war documents RGVA and RGAE Therefore, working on this segment of the history of the Soviet tank, the author will inevitably contradict something "generally accepted". this work describes the history of Soviet tank building in the most difficult years - from the beginning of a radical restructuring of all the activities of design bureaus and people's commissariats as a whole, during a frantic race to equip new tank formations of the Red Army, the transfer of industry to wartime rails and evacuation.
Tanks Wikipedia the author wants to express his special gratitude for the help in the selection and processing of materials to M. Kolomiyets, and also to thank A. Solyankin, I. Zheltov and M. Pavlov, the authors of the reference publication "Domestic armored vehicles. XX century. 1905 - 1941" because this book helped to understand the fate of some projects, unclear before. I would also like to recall with gratitude those conversations with Lev Izraelevich Gorlitsky, the former Chief Designer of UZTM, which helped to take a fresh look at the entire history of the Soviet tank during the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. Today, for some reason, it is customary to talk about 1937-1938 in our country. only from the point of view of repressions, but few people remember that it was during this period that those tanks were born that became legends of the wartime ... "From the memoirs of L.I. Gorlinkogo.
Soviet tanks, a detailed assessment of them at that time sounded from many lips. Many old people recalled that it was from the events in Spain that it became clear to everyone that the war was getting closer to the threshold and it was Hitler who would have to fight. In 1937, mass purges and repressions began in the USSR, and against the backdrop of these difficult events, the Soviet tank began to turn from a "mechanized cavalry" (in which one of its combat qualities protruded by reducing others) into a balanced combat vehicle, which simultaneously had powerful weapons, sufficient to suppress most targets, good cross-country ability and mobility with armor protection, capable of maintaining its combat effectiveness when shelling a potential enemy with the most massive anti-tank weapons.
It was recommended that large tanks be introduced into the composition in addition only special tanks - floating, chemical. The brigade now had 4 separate battalions of 54 tanks each and was reinforced by the transition from three-tank platoons to five-tank ones. In addition, D. Pavlov justified the refusal to form in 1938 to the four existing mechanized corps three more additionally, believing that these formations are immobile and difficult to control, and most importantly, they require a different organization of the rear. The tactical and technical requirements for promising tanks, as expected, have been adjusted. In particular, in a letter dated December 23 to the head of the design bureau of plant No. 185 named after. CM. Kirov new boss demanded to strengthen the armor of new tanks so that at a distance of 600-800 meters (effective range).
The latest tanks in the world when designing new tanks, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of increasing the level of armor protection during modernization by at least one step ... "This problem could be solved in two ways. Firstly, by increasing the thickness of the armor plates and, secondly," by using increased armor resistance". It is easy to guess that the second way was considered more promising, since the use of specially hardened armor plates, or even two-layer armor, could, while maintaining the same thickness (and the mass of the tank as a whole), increase its durability by 1.2-1.5 It was this path (the use of specially hardened armor) that was chosen at that moment to create new types of tanks.
Tanks of the USSR at the dawn of tank production, armor was most massively used, the properties of which were identical in all directions. Such armor was called homogeneous (homogeneous), and from the very beginning of the armor business, the craftsmen strove to create just such armor, because uniformity ensured stability of characteristics and simplified processing. However, at the end of the 19th century, it was noticed that when the surface of the armor plate was saturated (to a depth of several tenths to several millimeters) with carbon and silicon, its surface strength increased sharply, while the rest of the plate remained viscous. So heterogeneous (heterogeneous) armor came into use.
In military tanks, the use of heterogeneous armor was very important, since an increase in the hardness of the entire thickness of the armor plate led to a decrease in its elasticity and (as a result) to an increase in brittleness. Thus, the most durable armor, other things being equal, turned out to be very fragile and often pricked even from bursts of high-explosive fragmentation shells. Therefore, at the dawn of armor production in the manufacture of homogeneous sheets, the task of the metallurgist was to achieve the highest possible hardness of the armor, but at the same time not to lose its elasticity. Surface-hardened by saturation with carbon and silicon armor was called cemented (cemented) and was considered at that time a panacea for many ills. But cementation is a complex, harmful process (for example, processing a hot plate with a jet of lighting gas) and relatively expensive, and therefore its development in a series required high costs and an increase in production culture.
Tank of the war years, even in operation, these hulls were less successful than homogeneous ones, since for no apparent reason cracks formed in them (mainly in loaded seams), and it was very difficult to put patches on holes in cemented slabs during repairs. But it was still expected that a tank protected by 15-20 mm cemented armor would be equivalent in terms of protection to the same, but covered with 22-30 mm sheets, without a significant increase in mass.
Also, by the mid-1930s, in tank building, they learned how to harden the surface of relatively thin armor plates by uneven hardening, known since the end of the 19th century in shipbuilding as the "Krupp method". Surface hardening led to a significant increase in the hardness of the front side of the sheet, leaving the main thickness of the armor viscous.
How tanks shoot videos up to half the thickness of the plate, which, of course, was worse than carburizing, since despite the fact that the hardness of the surface layer was higher than during carburizing, the elasticity of the hull sheets was significantly reduced. So the "Krupp method" in tank building made it possible to increase the strength of armor even somewhat more than carburizing. But the hardening technology that was used for sea armor of large thicknesses was no longer suitable for relatively thin tank armor. Before the war, this method was almost never used in our serial tank building due to technological difficulties and relatively high cost.
Combat use of tanks The most developed for tanks was the 45-mm tank gun mod 1932/34. (20K), and before the event in Spain, it was believed that its power was enough to perform most tank tasks. But the battles in Spain showed that the 45-mm gun could only satisfy the task of fighting enemy tanks, since even the shelling of manpower in the mountains and forests turned out to be ineffective, and it was only possible to disable a dug-in enemy firing point in the event of a direct hit . Shooting at shelters and bunkers was ineffective due to the small high-explosive action of a projectile weighing only about two kg.
Types of tanks photo so that even one hit of a projectile reliably disables an anti-tank gun or machine gun; and thirdly, to increase the penetrating effect of a tank gun on the armor of a potential enemy, since, using the example of French tanks (already having an armor thickness of the order of 40-42 mm), it became clear that the armor protection of foreign combat vehicles tends to be significantly increased. There was a right way to do this - increasing the caliber of tank guns and simultaneously increasing the length of their barrel, since a long gun of a larger caliber fires heavier projectiles at a higher muzzle velocity over a greater distance without correcting the pickup.
The best tanks in the world had a large caliber gun, also had a large breech, significantly more weight and increased recoil response. And this required an increase in the mass of the entire tank as a whole. In addition, the placement of large shots in the closed volume of the tank led to a decrease in the ammunition load.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that at the beginning of 1938 it suddenly turned out that there was simply no one to give an order for the design of a new, more powerful tank gun. P. Syachintov and his entire design team were repressed, as well as the core of the Bolshevik Design Bureau under the leadership of G. Magdesiev. Only the group of S. Makhanov remained at liberty, who from the beginning of 1935 tried to bring his new 76.2-mm semi-automatic single gun L-10, and the team of plant No. 8 slowly brought the "forty-five".
Photos of tanks with names The number of developments is large, but in mass production in the period 1933-1937. not a single one was accepted ... "In fact, none of the five air-cooled tank diesel engines, which were worked on in 1933-1937 in the engine department of plant No. 185, was brought to the series. Moreover, despite the decisions on the highest levels about the transition in tank building exclusively to diesel engines This process was hampered by a number of factors. Of course, diesel had significant efficiency. It used less fuel per unit of power per hour. Diesel fuel is less prone to ignition, since the flash point of its vapors was very high.
Even the most finished of them, the MT-5 tank engine, required reorganization of engine production for serial production, which was expressed in the construction of new workshops, the supply of advanced foreign equipment (there were no machine tools of the required accuracy yet), financial investments and strengthening personnel. It was planned that in 1939 this diesel engine with a capacity of 180 hp. will go to mass-produced tanks and artillery tractors, but due to investigative work to find out the causes of tank engine accidents, which lasted from April to November 1938, these plans were not fulfilled. The development of a slightly increased six-cylinder gasoline engine No. 745 with a power of 130-150 hp was also started.
Brands of tanks with specific indicators that suited the tank builders quite well. Tank tests were carried out according to a new methodology, specially developed at the insistence of the new head of the ABTU D. Pavlov in relation to combat service in war time. The basis of the tests was a run of 3-4 days (at least 10-12 hours of daily non-stop traffic) with a one-day break for inspection and production restoration work. Moreover, repairs were allowed to be carried out only by field workshops without the involvement of factory specialists. This was followed by a "platform" with obstacles, "bathing" in the water with an additional load, simulating an infantry landing, after which the tank was sent for examination.
Super tanks online after the improvement work seemed to remove all claims from the tanks. And the general course of the tests confirmed the fundamental correctness of the main design changes - an increase in displacement by 450-600 kg, the use of the GAZ-M1 engine, as well as the Komsomolets transmission and suspension. But during the tests, numerous minor defects again appeared in the tanks. The chief designer N. Astrov was suspended from work and was under arrest and investigation for several months. In addition, the tank received a new improved protection turret. The modified layout made it possible to place on the tank a larger ammunition load for a machine gun and two small fire extinguishers (before there were no fire extinguishers on small tanks of the Red Army).
US tanks as part of modernization work, on one serial model of the tank in 1938-1939. the torsion bar suspension developed by the designer of the Design Bureau of Plant No. 185 V. Kulikov was tested. It was distinguished by the design of a composite short coaxial torsion bar (long monotorsion bars could not be used coaxially). However, such a short torsion bar did not show good enough results in tests, and therefore the torsion bar suspension did not immediately pave its way in the course of further work. Obstacles to be overcome: rises not less than 40 degrees, vertical wall 0.7 m, overlapping ditch 2-2.5 m.
Youtube about tanks work on the production of prototypes of D-180 and D-200 engines for reconnaissance tanks is not being carried out, jeopardizing the production of prototypes. 10-1), as well as the amphibious tank version (factory designation 102 or 10-2), are a compromise solution, since it is not possible to fully meet the requirements of the ABTU.Variant 101 was a tank weighing 7.5 tons with a hull according to the type of hull, but with vertical side sheets of case-hardened armor 10-13 mm thick, because: "Sloped sides, causing serious weighting of the suspension and hull, require a significant (up to 300 mm) broadening of the hull, not to mention the complication of the tank.
Video reviews of tanks in which the power unit of the tank was planned to be based on the 250-horsepower MG-31F aircraft engine, which was mastered by the industry for agricultural aircraft and gyroplanes. Gasoline of the 1st grade was placed in a tank under the floor of the fighting compartment and in additional onboard gas tanks. The armament fully met the task and consisted of coaxial machine guns DK caliber 12.7 mm and DT (in the second version of the project even ShKAS appears) caliber 7.62 mm. The combat weight of a tank with a torsion bar suspension was 5.2 tons, with a spring suspension - 5.26 tons. The tests were carried out from July 9 to August 21 according to the methodology approved in 1938, and Special attention given to tanks.
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