T 60 combat use. History and prerequisites for creation

The T-60 tank was developed in August 1941 by the design bureau of plant number 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 factories No. 37 (Moscow, after October 1941 - Sverdlovsk), No. 38 (Kirov) and No. 264 ( . Sarepta). The armored hulls of T-60 tanks for plant number 37 were produced by the Kolomna machine-building plant (KMZ). Later, the Novokramatorsk machine-building plant and Voroshilovgrad steam locomotive plant (1941), the Vyksa plant DRO (No. 177), the Murom steam locomotive repair plant named after V.I. Dzerzhinsky (No. 176) and the armored plant in Kulebaki (No. 178), etc. A total of 5915 T-60 tanks were produced, which were used in hostilities near Moscow, in the Stalingrad and Kursk battles, as well as in numerous other operations of the Great Patriotic War. war.

The T-60 tank was created in difficult conditions of the first period of the war, which required the maximum number of tanks during minimum costs time, effort and money in the course of their production. Therefore, the tank (factory designation 0-60) retained the basic 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 the industry. It differed from the small T-40S tank in more powerful armament, enhanced armor, and a lower vehicle height.

The general layout of the tank provided for the placement of a crew of two in the hull and turret, the installation of cannon and machine-gun armament in a rotating turret, the engine in the middle of the hull, as well as the front arrangement of transmission units and drive wheels. The machine had five compartments: transmission and control - in the 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 booked 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 wheelhouse with a folding windshield was installed on the upper frontal sheet of the hull. A quick-detachable viewing device (triplex), covered by an armored flap, was located in the windshield behind the viewing slot. The commander of the vehicle monitored the battlefield through two viewing slots with triplexes in the side faces of the tower. The sector of view with each observation device was 60 ° horizontally. The blind space in front of the tank for the driver was 4.5 m, for the commander to the left and to the right - 9 m each. The crew got into and out of the vehicle through two hatches, which were closed by armored covers. One hatch was located in the roof of the wheelhouse in the control compartment of the driver, 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 automatic tank gun TNSh (TNSh-1) and a 7.62-mm DT machine gun paired with it. The length of the gun barrel was 82.4 caliber, the height of the line of fire was 1480 mm. For ease of use in combat conditions, the gun was installed in the turret with a significant offset to the right of its longitudinal axis. The vertical aiming angles of the paired installation were from -7 to + 25 °. As guidance drives, a gear-type horizontal (the turret rotation mechanism is to the right of the twin installation) and a screw vertical (to the left of the twin installation) mechanisms were used, which, together with the trigger mechanisms of the cannon and coaxial machine gun, were borrowed from the small T-40 tank. To quickly turn the turret by the effort of the vehicle commander, the turning mechanism could be disabled. When firing, a telescopic sight TMPP-1 was used with illumination of sighting scales, under which a duplicate mechanical sight was installed on a special bracket. If the telescopic sight was damaged, a duplicate mechanical sight could be used. To use it, it was necessary to remove the telescopic sight, while the front sight of the mechanical sight was automatically brought to the center of the mask hole, under the action of a spring. The design of the trigger mechanisms of the cannon and machine gun was similar to the design of the trigger mechanisms of the weapon of the T-40 tank. The firing range of direct fire from the TNSh cannon was 2000 m.The tank's ammunition included 750 rounds for the cannon (including those with fragmentation-tracer, fragmentation-incendiary projectiles with an instant fuse and armor-piercing incendiary 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 discharge of spent cartridges from the tower outward under the barrel armor was carried out through the gas outlet pipe, and the belt links along the guide on the bottom of the tank. An armor-piercing incendiary projectile with an initial speed of 815 m / s made it possible to effectively hit lightly armored targets and anti-tank weapons of the enemy (at a distance of 500 m, a 20-mm projectile pierced 35 mm armor). A 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 disks of the DT machine gun were located in racks (12 disks) and in special holders (2 disks). In addition, the tank contained 10 F-1 hand grenades.

Armor protection - bulletproof. The welded hull with rational angles of inclination (designer A.V. Bogachev) was made of rolled homogeneous 2P armor steel. The frontal hull plates had a thickness of 15 - 20 mm (later up to 20 - 35 mm), the side ones - up to 15 mm (later - up to 25 mm), the aft ones - up to 13 mm (later in some places - up to 25 mm). The upper hull plates: aft, turret and above-engine were made removable for ease of installation and dismantling of units and assemblies. A hatch was made in the upper frontal sheet for access to the main transmission of the transmission. The lower frontal plate had an opening, 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 intake, which had an armored cover, behind it was an opening for an exhaust pipe. In the upper stern sheet on the right there were louvers for the outlet of heated air from the radiator, on the left there was a hatch for access to the fuel tank filler neck, closed with an armored cover. In addition to the emergency hatch, there were hatches in the bottom of the car body for servicing the units: one under the engine for draining the oil, the other for water from the cooling system and two hatches under the fuel tanks for draining fuel, which were closed by armored covers. In order to ensure the watertightness of the case, rubber gaskets were installed under the covers of the bottom hatches, and a hemp with red lead was wound under the heads of the bolts that fastened the parts to the sheets of the case. For ventilation of the control compartment, an air inlet was made in the driver's hatch cover, which had an armored cover.

A conical octahedral welded tower with a height of 375 mm (designer Yu. P. Yudovich), shifted to the left side by 285 mm from the longitudinal axis, was installed on a ball bearing. The tower was fastened with four roller grips sliding along the lower shoulder strap of its ball bearing. The thickness of the turret armor plates was 25 mm. Subsequently, the thickness of the front zygomatic armor plates was increased to 35 mm. In front of the turret, a rectangular niche was made for the installation of a mask and weapons. The niche was covered with an armored shield attached to the front of the mask. The armor of the gun barrel 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 flap. In the hatch cover of the tower there was a hatch with an armored latch, intended for flag signaling. In addition to the viewing slots in the side faces of the tower and the frontal leaf of the driver's cabin, there were holes for firing from the crew's personal weapons, which were closed with armored plugs. To protect all viewing slots in the hull and turret of the tank, armored visors were installed above them.

It was planned to install on the T-60 tank and round conical towers, since some armored hull factories retained their production for this vehicle. In addition, in October 1941, at the Izhora plant, evacuated to Kuibyshev, and at plant No. 180, it was planned to organize the production of stamped and cast towers, but this was not done.

In October 1941, the armor protection of the tank was strengthened by installing welded-on armor screens 10 mm thick 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 manual tetrachloride fire extinguishers were used as fire-fighting equipment. During the extinguishing of the fire, the crew had to be in gas masks, since phosgene was released from the decomposition of the extinguishing agent from the high temperature. 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 a capacity of 70 hp was installed. (51.5 kW) with MKZ-6G carburetor. Some of the engines installed on the machines were equipped with speed governors. 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 Ford V-8 engines with a power of 65 or 90 hp. (48 or 66 kW).

The battery ignition system consisted of a KZ-11 ignition coil, a R-12 distributor (distributor), U12-10 spark plugs and a 69-K ignition switch. The main way to start the engine was manually using the crank of the winding mechanism installed on the gearbox housing. Use an electric starter SL-40 with a capacity of 0.8 hp. (0.6 kW) with an electromagnetic turn-on relay, it was allowed only for starting a warm engine and in battle. For the first time, a serial tank for operation in winter conditions was equipped with a pre-heater (designers I. G. Alperovich and B. Ya. Ginzburg). Heating was carried out by 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. After passing through the boiler, warm air heated the engine crankcase. The exhaust gases on the first machines were emitted through an exhaust pipe connected to a cylindrical muffler installed in the upper part of the rear hull sheet. On late-production machines, the muffler with an exhaust pipe was abolished, and an outlet pipe with a bell was installed on the roof of the hull behind the armor cover of the air intake. The capacity of two fuel tanks, located in the aft compartment in an insulated compartment with an armored partition, was 320 liters. The tank's cruising range on the highway reached 450 km, for shielded tanks - 410 km.

The mechanical transmission consisted of: a single-disk main dry friction clutch (ferodo steel) mounted on the engine flywheel; a four-speed gearbox providing four forward gears and one gear when reversing (both transmission units were borrowed from the GAZ-51 truck); cardan shaft; bevel final drive; two side multi-disc dry friction clutches (steel on steel) with stopping band brakes with Ferodo linings and two simple single-row final drives. The side clutches were used as a turning mechanism. Control drives are mechanical. Rotation control was carried out using two levers located in the control compartment.

The suspension system used an individual torsion bar suspension without shock absorbers and balancer travel stops with rubber buffers at its extreme nodes. The tracked propeller consisted of: eight single-sided road wheels (with stamped or cast spoked discs) and six single-sided support rollers, with two front rollers (applied to one side) had external shock absorption, and the third one was all-metal for the purpose of breaking ice formed from the caterpillar in winter; two rear guide wheels (unified with track rollers) with track tensioning mechanisms, two tracks with cast tracks and OMSh, as well as two lantern drive wheels with removable toothed rims. On the first machines, the idler wheels were not unified with the road wheels and differed from the latter only in their outer diameter (460 mm versus 550 mm). The track width was 260 mm. To prevent jamming of the caterpillar (when driving along a slope), special bumpers were riveted to the body of the tank above the housings of the final drives. On the starboard side, in addition, the lower bumper was additionally riveted.

The electrical equipment of the machine was made according to a single-wire circuit. The voltage of the on-board network was 6 V. The sources of electricity used were two 3STE-112 rechargeable batteries and a G-41 generator with a power of 0.2 kW, working with a RRA-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, a CE-4714 electric signal, and internal and external light signaling equipment. For intercom, a three-color light signaling 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 was produced (1941), and prototypes of the tank with a 37-mm ZIS-19 cannon, a 37-mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (1942), were also developed and manufactured, 76.2 mm self-propelled artillery mount, anti-aircraft tank T-60-3 with two twin 12.7 mm DShK machine guns (1942) and self-propelled artillery mount OSU-76 (1944).

Characteristic T-60 [shielded version] State in service since September 1941 The developer Design Bureau of Plant No. 37 Chief designer N. A. Astrov Manufacturers Plants No. 37, 38, 264; GAS Production September 1941 - February 1943 series Issued, pcs. 5915 (5920?) Combat weight, t 5,8 Dimensions (edit) Length, m 4,1 Support surface length, m 2,3 Width, m 2,3 Height, m 1,7 Clearance, m 0,25 Average specific ground pressure, kgf / cm 2 0,48 Engine Brand GAZ-202 Type of 4-stroke carburetor Number of cylinders 6 Arrangement of cylinders inline Power, h.p. (kw) 70 (51,5) Cooling system liquid Chassis Fuel capacity, l 320 Specific power, hp s / t 12,1 Speed, km / h - maximum 45 - average on a country road 15-20 Cruising range (road), km 450 Overcoming obstacles - rise, degrees 34 - roll, degrees 35 - moat, m 1,7 - wall, m 0,6 - ford, m 1,0 Reservation, mm (tilt angle to normal, degrees) - upper body forehead 15 (70) - middle of the forehead of the body 35 (-28) - the forehead of the body bottom 10 (-76) - hull side 15 (0) - hull feed top 10 (76) - body feed bottom 25 (-14) - cabin of the driver 35 (16) - side of the tower 25 (25) - gun protection 20 (0) - tower roof 10 (90) - hull roof 13 (90) - bottom 10 (90) Crew, people 2 Radio station 71-TC-3 Intercom TPU-2 or light signaling device Artillery weapons Quantity x type 1 x TNSh automatic cannon Caliber, mm 20 Barrel length, clb 82,4 Loading type unitary shots in ribbons Aiming angles, degrees - vertical from -7 to +25 - horizontal 360 - ammunition, shells 750 Aim TMFP-1 + mechanical Additional weapons Machine gun - quantity x type 1 x 7.62 mm DT - ammunition, cartridges 945 Ammo rack grenades - quantity x type 10 x F-1

It was developed in August 1941 under the leadership of Astrov, the main developer of all light tanks of the time.

The history of the creation of the T-60

In May 1941, the Moscow plant number 37 was given the task to establish the 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 workers of the plant decided to create a new light tank, using the chassis and the engine-transmission unit of the T-40 tank.

Permission for the production of such a tank was obtained. It is worth mentioning that the release permit referred to the T-60 (030) tank, which was outwardly identical to the T-40 and was unofficially named T-30. The T-60 is 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 # 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 (edit)

• Body length - 4100 mm;
• Case width - 2392 mm;
• Height - 1750 mm;
• Clearance - 300 mm.

Reservation

• Armor type - homogeneous rolled high hardness;
• Body forehead (top) - 15/70 ° and 35/16 ° mm / deg;
• Body forehead (middle) - 35 / −28 ° mm / deg;
• Body forehead (bottom) - 30 / −76 ° mm / deg;
• Hull side - 15/0 ° mm / deg;
• Hull feed (top) - 10/76 ° mm / deg;
• Hull feed (bottom) - 25 / −14 ° mm / deg;
• Bottom - 10 mm;
• Hull roof - 13 mm;
• Gun mask - 20 mm;
• Tower side - 25-35 / 25 ° mm / deg;
• The roof of the tower is 10 mm.

Armament

• Caliber and brand of the gun - 20 mm TNSh;
• Barrel length - 82.4 caliber;
• Gun ammunition - 750;
• HV angles: -7 ... + 25 °;
• Angles GN - 360 °;
• Sight - TMPP-1, mechanical;
• Machine gun - 7.62 mm diesel fuel.

Mobility

• Engine type - GAZ-202 liquid-cooled gasoline;
• Engine power - 70 hp;
• Highway speed - 42 km / h;
• Cross country speed - 20-25 km / h;
• In store down 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;
• Climbable rise - 34 °;
• Overcoming wall - 0.6 m;
• The overcome ditch - 1.7 m;
• Overcome ford - 0.9 m.

Modifications of the T-60

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 are unified;
• Shielded T-60 weighing up to 6.5 tons.

Experienced tanks

• T-60-1 - a tank with a more powerful and heavier ZIS-16 bus engine, enhanced armor and larger dimensions;

• T-60 with a 37mm ZIS-19 cannon. It required a heavier turret, due to which the tank's power reserve was greatly reduced, and the strong height of the barrel quickly rendered the cannon useless;
• T-60-2 - a tank with a new turret and a 45mm ZIS-19BM cannon. It also had a smaller power reserve, but was generally better than the previous model. Not released due to the appearance 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 site and an incorrectly installed anti-aircraft sight, which did not allow the tank to be used to combat an air enemy.

On the basis of the T-60, many other vehicles were also created, the most interesting of which was 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 at the Leningrad front, and they were delivered to the besieged city on coal barges, which was a very good disguise - the German troops did not hunt for familiar fuel. The movement of the tanks was never detected by the German troops.

T-60s fought on the southern front, mainly in 1942 in the Crimea, took part 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

Today, at least six surviving T-60s are known:

• Pre-production T-60 at the Armored Museum in Kubinka;
• An unrestored T-60 at the tank museum in Parola, Finland;
• The T-60 restored to running order in the Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology. 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 Gluboky;
• T-60 on the move in the Museum "Military Glory of the Urals" near Yekaterinburg. Annually takes part in the Victory Day parade;
• T-60 in the museum complex "Battle of Stalingrad", raised in 2011 from the bottom of a dry river and restored at a special machine building plant.

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 will probably be remembered IS or KV. Someone will mention the pre-war BT, 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 ratings, even to the point of declaring them generally "unnecessary". But it was these “unnecessary” “tankettes” that were 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 # 37 developed and began producing the T-40 light amphibious tank. According to the then classification, such vehicles were considered a special class of "small tanks". They were instructed to conduct reconnaissance, to participate in counter-guerrilla warfare - that is, to solve tasks usually assigned to armored vehicles.

The T-40 became the most advanced "small tank", but in the outbreak of war it was of little use. The lack of middle class equipment led to attempts to use the T-40 for direct support of the infantry. Bulletproof armor and machine-gun armament for such tasks were too weak.

Factory # 37 received an order to curtail the production of small T-40s and start production.

Yes, the T-50 was much stronger armed, well armored and at the same time mobile - but the plant simply could not fulfill 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 counter-proposal - to prepare a new combat-ready tank, the T-60. A prototype with an unarmored hull was built in just a month. Astrov personally drove it to the GAZ plant, where they began to master the serial production of the car. In the fall of 1941, new Soviet tanks were already at war.

Construction, crew, communications

The T-60 was greatly simplified against the background of pre-war vehicles. Aluminum and duralumin parts were replaced with cast iron ones, the floor in the body and the engine 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 T-40 armor 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 of the armor plates were removable to make it easier to service the units.

The maximum armor thickness was originally up to 20mm. When the first battles showed the vulnerability of the T-60 even to anti-tank rifles, the armor was strengthened. 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 turret with 25mm thick sides was shifted to the left, since the engine compartment occupied the right side of the hull. From February 1942, the thickness of the sides was also increased to 35 mm.

The crew of the vehicle consisted of two tankers. The driver sat in the center of the hull, at his disposal was a viewing device with an armored shield. To leave the vehicle (or to enter it), the tanker used the hatch in the roof of the armored jacket on the front plate. The tank commander, who is both the gunner and loader, was sitting in the tower. For emergency evacuation of the crew, a hatch in the bottom of the hull was intended.

The means of communication on the linear T-60 were reduced to a light-signaling device with colored lamps, through which the commander gave orders to the mechanized command. Such a device was present in the early series, and it was quickly abandoned. Communication with the infantry and other vehicles was provided by flags - a special hatch was provided for them in the tower. The command vehicles, in contrast to 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 to arm the T-60 with a 20mm caliber. Its tank version, 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. For firing used armor-piercing incendiary and fragmentation shells.

Armor-piercing projectiles made it possible to fight light equipment, and the small behind-the-bar 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 confirmation of this.

The insufficient effectiveness of the ShVAK cannon was noted already during the tests of the T-60, so work on the creation of a more effective weapon began immediately.

The DT machine gun was paired with the cannon, its ammunition consisted of 15 disks (945 rounds). If necessary, the machine gun was removed and used as a manual one. The installation was aimed at the target using a telescopic sight TMPP and a spare mechanical one. Boxes with shots were stacked in a rack on the bottom, machine-gun disks - above the stack with cannon ammunition. For the self-defense of the crew, there was 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 from 85 to 70 hp. power. When there were not enough engines, less powerful units from the GAZ-M1 were installed.

They started the engine with a crank; it was allowed to use the starter only in battle conditions.

In the stern, behind an armored partition, there were radiators and fuel tanks. Two hand-held fire extinguishers served as fire-fighting 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.

Performance characteristics in comparison with similar machines

As the British analogue of the T-60, the airborne Tetrarch was chosen, as the closest in terms of the year it entered service and the mass-dimensional characteristics.

	T-60	Pz.Kpfw.IIAusf. C	M3	Mk.VII "Tetrarch"
Dimensions (edit)
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 х 20 mm TNSh-20 1 x 7.62 mm DT	1 × 20 mm KwK 30, 1 × 7.92 mm MG-34	1 × 37 mm M6 5 x 7.62 mm М1919А4	1 x 40mm QF 2-pounder 1 × 7.92 mm BESA
Reservation
Body forehead	30-35 mm	29-34.5 mm	16-44 mm	16 mm
The sides and stern of the hull	15-10 mm	14.5 mm	25 mm	14-10 mm
Tower forehead	20 mm	34.5 mm	38 mm	16 mm
Sides and stern of the tower	25 mm	14.5 mm	25 mm	14-10 mm
Mobility
Engine	carburetor 6-cylinder inline GAZ-202, 70 hp	carburetor 6-cylinder inline Maybach HL 62 TRM, 140 hp with.	7-cylinder carburetor radial "Continental" W-670-9A, 250 HP with.	carburetor 12-cylinder opposed Meadows MAT, 180 hp
Specific power, hp s / t	12	14,7	17,9	21,0
Maximum speed on the highway, km / h	42	40	58	64
Cruising 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 its smaller dimensions and visibility, this greatly reduced its vulnerability. On the other hand, British and American vehicles were armed with more powerful weapons.

The main light tank of the Wehrmacht Pz.II, like the T-60, carried a 20-mm air cannon, which roughly equalized their combat capabilities.

Combat use

In the battles near Moscow, T-60s received the 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 the light ones had to be forced to replace them. Taking part in frontal attacks along with the T-34 and KV, the T-60 suffered heavy losses. Light vehicles managed to knock out German tanks only with a successful combination of circumstances.

In the spring of 1942, 60 light tanks were transferred along 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, his weapons and armor were clearly insufficient - even for the tasks of supporting the infantry. Best of all, the T-60 showed itself in reconnaissance - but with experienced commanders. From the end of 1942, light tanks left the front lines to the rear. In the same 1942, the production of the T-60 was completed - it gave way to the more powerful 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 seized the bridgehead, forcing the Neva, and were the first to join forces with 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 force.

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, 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.

Trace 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 fact, a deep modernization of the obviously outdated T-40.

An aircraft cannon, never intended to combat armored vehicles, barely coped with this task. The crew of two was difficult - instead of controlling the situation in battle, the commander fired and loaded weapons. Primitive observation devices and the lack of radio communication (on most tanks) did not allow the "sixty" to become a full-fledged reconnaissance vehicle.

But after all, the designers headed by N.A. The Astrovs needed to develop a non-“ahead of time” and “unparalleled” tank to satisfy imperial ambitions - they created a reliable, combat-ready vehicle, the production of which could be easily adjusted at their factory.

When any tanks were needed for defense - if only massive ones - and the time went on for days, the adoption of even an "unnecessary" tank 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 outdated.

Conclusion

The Soviet light tank T-60 is a combat vehicle that shouldn't have existed at all. If not for the war, the plant would have simply switched 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 Astrov's team managed to create a rather successful car, which really allowed the USSR to hold out during 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 "sixty" had to wage an unequal fight. And in the end, he won it, contributing to the overall victory.

Video

Soviet light tank, developed in wartime conditions as an alternative to the more difficult-to-master "T-50". In the early stages of the war, due to the massive evacuation of Soviet industry to the east and problems with the production of newer tanks, the development and production of the T-60 was an important step in saturating the troops with light tanks, which suffered huge losses at the front.

Description

The development and design of the tank was carried out in the summer of 1941 at the plant "No. 37" in Moscow. A prerequisite for the start of work on the tank was a directive to the plant's 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 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 was offered a compromise solution - to develop on the basis of the already mastered "T-40" a new model of the tank with enhanced armor. The staff of the plant coped with this task quickly enough. The tank initially had a large-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 of the tank, rightly thought that it would be nice to strengthen the tank's armament. Ultimately, the tank was equipped with a more powerful 20-mm automatic TNSh gun (a variant of the ShVAK aviation cannon adapted for the tank). Reservation of the frontal projection "T-60" was initially 25mm. The prototype of the tank was almost ready, it only remained to carry out the final sea trials, as well as prepare the 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 staff of the plant was evacuated to Gorky, where the improvements to the T-60 design were finally carried out and the ground was prepared for the start of mass production. The experimental T-60 model covered the distance from Moscow to Gorky on its own, 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. In terms of combat capabilities, the Soviet light tank "T-60" can be compared with the German tank "Panzer II", which had a similar armament in terms of parameters - 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 modification of the Ausf.A and Ausf.B was only 14.5mm). The armor-plated effect of the T-60 ammunition, however, was not great. Later modifications of the German "two", such as the Ausf.F were heavier than the "T-60", had less maneuverability, and all the tanks of the "Pz.II" series lacked rational oblique booking. On the whole, the T-60 was quite comparable to the German Panzer II tank, and surpassed its enemy in a number of characteristics. Alas, the main tanks of Germany at the beginning of the war - "Panzer III", "T-60" could not cope. However, opposition to 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 cannon TNSh forced the advancing German infantrymen to lie down in horror, the T-60 could quickly liquidate large accumulations of enemy manpower, which for some reason were left without the support of tanks and anti-tank guns. Thus, a tank could in some cases become a qualitative reinforcement of rifle subunits, for example, in the event of the elimination of an isolated enemy infantry unit. "T-60" could be used as a reconnaissance combat vehicle. Obviously, since 1942, the "sixty" was objectively weaker than almost any armored vehicles used by the Nazis on the eastern front, and the Soviet command was well aware that the tank was only suitable 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 hurricanely at the observation slots and observation devices of enemy vehicles, trying to disorient the crew, in order to then retreat from the zone of fire of the German vehicle. Despite the modest tactical and technical characteristics, the T-60s were 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 the T-60 in battles. German soldiers called these Soviet tanks the indestructible locust. Naturally, the losses of the "T-60" were high, even though the tank's armor was increased to 35mm, because the German army already had a sufficient number of guns capable of fighting more armored Soviet tanks. The use of T-60 tanks continued in 1943. By that time, the production of more advanced T-70s was 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 initial stage operations used only light tanks, such as the "T-60", since only they could overcome the Nevsky ice without preparing the flooring by engineering units. In the future, "sixties" began to give way to more advanced combat vehicles, such as "T-70" and "T-34". Now the "T-60" was used exclusively for solving auxiliary tasks, such as escorting columns on the march, conducting reconnaissance, guarding rear objects, towing anti-tank guns, etc. Giving an overall assessment of the T-60 project, we can say that in the harsh conditions of the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet designers under the leadership of N. Astrov solved a very important task - the creation of an easy-to-manufacture, high-tech and cheap machine in the shortest possible time. A large number of these tanks, which the Soviet industry was able to quickly provide to the front, eventually helped the Red Army to withstand 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 appallingly large ... Among similar German, Japanese or Italian tanks, that is, in its class, Astrov's project looks quite good, both in terms of armor, which in some cases can withstand even 37-mm guns with a low projectile velocity, and in terms of weapons, 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 thirty-four. Of course, the "T-60" was not devoid of shortcomings - for example, the main 20-mm cannon 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" also managed to take part in the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. The tank was finally removed from service after the end of the war.

T-60 what is it - a Soviet light tank of the Second World War. Developed in August 1941 at the Moscow plant number 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 was 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. A total of 5920 light T-60 tanks were produced, which took an active part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1943. A small number of survivors of the T-60 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. Soon after the end of the war, the T-60 was withdrawn from service by the Soviet army; to this day, six such tanks have survived in museums in Russia and Finland.

Just three days after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on June 25, 1941, Moscow plant number 37 received an order to discontinue production of the light (according to the then classification of small amphibious) T-40 tank and begin re-equipment of factory production facilities for the production of a light tank for direct infantry support T-50. However, to implement this decision, a complete reconstruction of plant No. 37 and the plant supplying armored hulls was required, which in the current situation was completely unacceptable. The collective of the plant number 37 with great difficulty coped with the plans for the production of even a relatively simple in design T-40 tank, and the production of the T-50 was much more complicated in terms of technology, which only complicated the task at hand.

From the very beginning NA Astrov, the chief designer of the plant number 37, saw the futility of attempts 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 T-40 amphibious tank, which was well mastered at the factory. From the latter, the layout diagram, chassis components, transmissions, electrical equipment and the installation of weapons were borrowed. Due to the rejection of the ability to move afloat (at the beginning of the war, 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 agreement with the representative of the military acceptance V. P. Okunev, N. A. Astrov wrote a letter addressed to I. V. Stalin with information about the new machine and a proposal to release it at plant number 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 canonical, set out in the articles of E. I. Prochko and I. G. Zheltov with 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 it was the prototype of the serial T-60. M.N.Svirin, based on an analysis of documents from the People's Commissariat of 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 production version of which is now known as the T-40C or T -thirty. According to this assumption, it was the land-based version of the T-40 with enhanced armor that was shown to VA 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 0-30 was launched into series and the designers worked only on the "lowered case".

Except for this ambiguity with the type of prototype shown to VA Malyshev, in the future the authors mentioned above agree in the description of the events. VA Malyshev suggested re-equipping the aircraft with an aviation 20-mm automatic cannon ShVAK. He organized a meeting of N.A. Astrov with the designers of aircraft weapons from OKB-15 and OKB-16 to work out the issue of installing the ShVAK cannon in the tank. As a result of joint actions, a tank version of this weapon was created. It was installed on the second prototype of the 0-60 tank, which was shown to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief IV Stalin during trials. They were completed in the shortest possible time, and the tank was put into service under the designation T-60 by the decision of the State Defense Committee. Plants No. 37, 264 Krasnoarmeiskiy shipbuilding (Volgograd shipbuilding), Gorky automobile (GAZ) and Kharkov tractor (KhTZ) were ordered to produce 10,000 T-60 tanks. 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 cannon was still constructively refined until December 1941, inclusive, when it was officially accepted into service under the designation TNSh (or TNSh-1 - tank Nudelman - Shpitalny).

However, for the deployment of mass production of new tanks, there was not enough design drawings and documentation. These materials were prepared in September-October 1941 by the collective of the plant No. 37 already under the German bombardment of Moscow and on the threshold of evacuation. The chief designer of plant No. 37, N. A. Astrov, personally overtaken an 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 great deal 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 "sixty" were delivered to the troops. It was the designers of GAZ who developed an effective pre-heater for the engine, 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 ended with the creation of a light tank T-70, which used a lot of components and assemblies from the "sixty" that had just been mastered in production.

With the launch of the series, the further development of the T-60 was continued, since its booking 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 zygomatic edges of the tower, most exposed to enemy fire, was increased from 25 to 35 mm. At the suggestion of NII-48, armor screens with a thickness of 10 mm began to be installed on the frontal part of the hull and turret of the T-60 of late production. The shielding 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 protective elements made it possible to more effectively resist armor-piercing projectiles - the shield destroyed the projectile tip and reduced its normalization, and the main armor delayed the projectile or its fragments. This improvement was met with satisfaction among the troops at the front. With weapons, things were not so successful - on the experimental T-60 tanks, various more powerful guns were tested in comparison with the standard TNSh, but none of them was accepted for serial production. After the appearance of the new light tank T-70, this work continued already in relation 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 light tank T-60, the Moscow plant number 37 produced 20 vehicles of this type, after which in November 1941 its evacuation to Sverdlovsk began. 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 the task to manufacture the hulls and turrets of the T-30 (030) tank on July 17, 1941. Before the evacuation, the plant was not engaged in 060 tanks, and the confusion in the story of the T-60 at the Kolomna plant was introduced by the fact that in the factory documentation the 030 tanks were listed either as T-60 or T-40 non-floating. ") In October 1941, his workshops , engaged in the production of armored hulls for the T-60, were evacuated to Kirov at 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 is believed to have built its first T-60 tanks according to the drawings of the plant number 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 the first T-60s were assembled.) Krasnoarmeyskiy shipyard (number 264 ) in Stalingrad also launched the production of light T-60 tanks. The largest number of light T-60 tanks in 1941-1942 was built by GAZ. Podolsk and Izhora plants (for Moscow plant No. 37), Kulebaksky metallurgical plant (for GAZ), Novokramatorsk machine-building, Voroshilovgrad steam locomotive building and Mariupol metallurgical named after Ilyich (for KhTZ) were the leaders. The 20-mm cannons came from the Kovrovsky plant # 2, the Tula arms plant # 535, the Mednogorsk plant # 314 and the Kuibyshev plant # 525. The tracks were manufactured at the Stalingrad tractor plant named after Dzerzhinsky.

In January 1942, the T-70 light tank was adopted by the Red Army, and starting in March of the same year, a gradual transition of all factories (except No. 264, which was in the combat zone), producing light tanks, to the production of "seventy" began. In May 1942, the release of the T-60 at plant number 38 was completed, as the reserve of armored hulls for the "sixty" was used up in the second half of 1942, GAZ switched to the production of the T-70 (in fact, from 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;
- department of management;
- 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 engine radiator were located.

This layout determined the whole set of advantages and disadvantages of a 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 shelling. On the other hand, unlike Soviet medium and heavy tanks, the T-60's fuel tanks were located outside the fighting compartment in an isolated armored bulkhead compartment, which increased the survival rate of the crew when the tank was 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 a powerful specialized engine was not required for it. The tank's crew consisted of two people - a driver and a vehicle commander.

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 than earlier production T-60s. Differentiated armor protection, 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 rear plates) were 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 tank's armored hull. To increase the convenience of its work, an armored jacket with a folding flap was installed on the frontal part of the hull. In a combat situation, the flap was lowered, and the driver monitored through a viewing device in this flap, which was also protected by an armored flap. On the roof of the cabin there was a hinged hatch for landing and disembarking the driver. The hull also had a bottom hatch for emergency escape by the crew of the tank and a number of air vents, hatches, hatches and technological openings for ventilation of the tank's habitable spaces, draining fuel and oil, access to the necks of fuel tanks, and other components and assemblies of the vehicle. A number of these holes were protected by armored covers, dampers and casings. To ensure the watertightness of the body, the hatches were installed on rubber gaskets, and the holes for the bolted joints of the parts with the body were sealed with tow.

The conical octahedral 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 later machines, the thickness of the front zygomatic sheets of the turret was increased to 35 mm. The frontal part of the tower had a rectangular niche for the installation of weapons and an armored mask protecting it. 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 tower height - only 375 mm. Also for the T-60, it was planned to produce round conical towers, and not only welded structure but additionally cast and stamped. However, these plans were not implemented in practice, the only option produced was a welded octagonal tower. In the first models for the landing and disembarkation of the vehicle commander, 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 an external flag signaling. The tower was mounted on a ball bearing and fixed with grips to avoid stalling in the event of a strong roll or overturning of the tank.

Armament

The main armament of the T-60 was a 20 mm TNSh (TNSh-1) automatic rifled cannon. The gun was mounted on trunnions in the tower, in addition to the mask, its barrel was additionally protected by an armored casing. The TNSh gun had a barrel length of 82.4 caliber, the height of the line of fire was 1480 mm, and the maximum direct-fire range reached 2 km. The gun was paired with a 7.62 mm DT machine gun, located in a single installation with the TNSh cannon. For ease of use of the twin mount, the gun was shifted to the right of the turret symmetry plane, the machine gun was located on the left. The twin installation had vertical aiming angles from −7 ° to + 25 ° and a circular firing sector horizontally. The horizontal guidance drive of the gear-type turret was located to the right of the twin unit; for a quick turn of the turret by the forces of the tank commander, it could be turned off. The vertical guidance mechanism of the screw type was located to the left of the twin installation. These mechanisms and drives for triggering the gun and machine gun were borrowed from the design of the earlier serial light tank T-40. The DT machine gun could be easily removed from the twin installation and used outside the tank. In principle, the same could be done with the TNSh cannon, only this operation did not differ in ease and speed of execution.

The gun's ammunition was 750 unitary loading rounds. For the automatic power supply of the gun, the shells were placed in a belt with 58 rounds and 58 detachable links. This tape was placed in a box that was mounted on a bracket under the gun. Another 12 boxes were on the racks inside the fighting compartment of the tank. When firing, the spent cartridges were thrown out of the tank, and the spent tape links along the guide lowered to the bottom of the tank. At the exit from the bore when firing, the projectile had a speed of 815 m / s. The ammunition included:

Unitary shot with an armor-piercing incendiary projectile (BZT-20);
- a unitary shot with a subcaliber armor-piercing incendiary projectile (tungsten carbide core) - since 1942;
- a unitary shot with a fragmentation tracer and an instant fuse (OT-20);
- a unitary shot with an incendiary fragmentation projectile and an instant fuse (OZ-20).

There are conflicting data on the penetration of the TNSh cannon. One by 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 an initial, and not guaranteed penetration. There is also a very low armor-piercing effect of small-caliber armor-piercing shells - most often a German tank or armored personnel carrier, hit by a burst from a TNSh, was not disabled. In addition, there are doubts about the supply of ammunition for T-60 tanks with subcaliber armor-piercing incendiary shells. This is indirectly confirmed by the 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 of up to 200 m."

The small power of the 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 weapon.

The DT coaxial machine gun had an ammunition load of 945 rounds (15 disks).

Engine

The T-60 was equipped with a four-stroke in-line six-cylinder liquid-cooled carburetor engine GAZ-202. GAZ-202 was deformed to 70 liters. with. (51.5 kW) a tank version of the GAZ-11 automobile engine with a capacity of 85 hp. with. The decrease in power was aimed at increasing the reliability of work and increasing the resource of the motor. In some cases, the engine was equipped with speed governors; 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, bomb attacks on GAZ workshops), some T-60s were equipped with other models of GAZ engines (for example, GAZ-M-1) or Ford with a capacity of 65 or 90 liters. 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 liters in the T-60. with. This aspect is still an obscure place in the history of the T-60; According to the results of the discussion at the Military-Historical Forum, a mention was found of three T-60s with engines with a capacity of 40 liters. with., put in one of the training parts. However, in view of the fact that, according to the memoirs of NA Astrov, in 1941-1942. "They put what was, if it was not set by the state," and such substitutions are not fully reflected in the documents (although this should at least have been recorded by the military acceptance), the question of the number of such T-60s remains open. The engine was started mainly by hand, using the crank. Using a starter SL-40 with a capacity of 0.8 liters. with. (0.6 kW) was allowed only in battle 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 unit was developed by I. G. Alperovich and B. Ya. Ginzburg. A cylindrical boiler was installed between the side of the tank and the engine, 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 off the engine crankcase.

Two fuel tanks with a volume of 320 liters were located in the aft compartment. The fuel reserve was enough for 450 km of travel on the highway, the later tanks with enhanced armor had a slightly smaller cruising range - 410 km.

Transmission

The T-60 tank was equipped with mechanical transmission, which included:

Single-disc main clutch of dry friction "steel according to Ferodo", installed on the engine flywheel;
- a four-speed gearbox with a demultiplier (4 gears forward and 1 reverse), borrowed from an experienced (at that time) GAZ-51 truck;
- cardan shaft;
- conical 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 rotation and braking of the tank with two levers on both sides of his workplace.

Chassis

The chassis of the T-60 tank was inherited to a certain extent from its predecessor, the T-40. The suspension of the machine is an individual torsion bar without shock absorbers for each of the 4 single-sided road rollers of small diameter (550 mm) with rubber tires on each side. Depending on the manufacturer, the road wheels were made either cast and pressed or solid stamped. Opposite the extreme suspension nodes, the travel stops of the suspension balancers with rubber buffers to cushion the impacts were welded to the armored hull. The drive wheels of the lantern gearing with removable gear rims were located in the front, and sloths with a track tensioning mechanism were located at the rear. The first machines had sloths smaller in diameter (460 mm) than road wheels; subsequently, these details were unified. The upper branch of the track was supported by three small carrier rollers on each side. Fenders were riveted to the hull of the tank to prevent jamming of the tracks when the tank was moving with a significant roll to one of the sides. The caterpillar is small-link, the width of the double-ridged 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 RRA-364 relay-regulator with a power of 0.2 kW and a 3-STE-112 rechargeable battery with a total capacity of 112 Ah. The tank also had a second battery of the same brand. On linear vehicles, it was a spare, and on commanders 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:

External and internal vehicle lighting, sighting scale illumination device;
- external sound signal CE-4714;
- communication equipment - a radio station and a tank intercom (or a one-way three-color light signaling device from the commander to the driver);
- electrician of the engine group - SL-40 starter, KZ-11 ignition coil, R-12 distributor, U12-10 spark plugs and 69-K switch.

Sights and observation devices

The twin installation of the TNSh cannon and the DT machine gun was equipped with the main sight of the TMPP, 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 dashboard, two at the commander) to monitor the environment outside the tank. The visibility from the car was regarded as quite satisfactory.

Means of communication

On line tanks, a three-color light-signaling device served as a means of internal one-way communication from the commander to the driver-mechanic; no external communication means, with the exception of flags, were provided. The command tanks were equipped with a 71-TK-3 radio station and an internal intercom TPU-2 for 2 subscribers.

The 71-TK-3 radio station was a set of a transmitter, a receiver, and umformers (single-armature 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 short-wave tube 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, carrier amplitude modulation) mode, in the absence of interference, reached 16 km, while in motion it slightly decreased. A greater communication range could be obtained in telegraph mode, when information was transmitted by a telegraph key in Morse code or another discrete coding system.

Tank intercom TPU-2 made it possible to negotiate between tank crew members even in a very noisy environment and connect a headset (headphones and laryngophones) 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 variants, which were very noticeably different in their tactical and technical characteristics due to the varying total mass of the tank, which affected other indicators (specific power and ground pressure, power reserve, etc.):

T-60 of the early series with a maximum frontal armor thickness of 25 mm, the sloth is not identical to the road wheels, the armor is rolled cemented.

T-60 main production with a maximum frontal armor thickness of 35 mm, sloth and road wheels are unified, rolled homogeneous armor of high hardness.

Shielded T-60 with a mass of up to 6.5 tons.

Experienced

The lack of armament of the T-60 tank actively stimulated work on its rearmament to a more powerful artillery system. A variant of the tank was also considered, more suitable for units 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 car 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 booking. The T-60-1 was not accepted into service and serial 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 leadership of V.G. Grabin at the plant number 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 gun ZIS-19 had the ballistics of the 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun mod. 1939 (61-K) and in 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 cannon. However, the installation of a heavier turret with a new gun worsened the tank's range to 390 km and, which was more significant, the 37 mm ZIS-19 cannon quickly lost its qualities due to the strong height of the barrel. Added to this were the problems with the removal from production of shots for the 37-mm anti-tank gun mod. 1930 (1-K) and the lack of rounds for the 61-K anti-aircraft gun. As a result, the T-60 tank with a 37-mm cannon was not accepted into the Red Army's armament and was not accepted into mass production.

T-60-2 with a 45mm ZIS-19BM cannon - top view

T-60-2 was developed in the spring of 1942 in 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 a 45-mm cannon ZIS-19BM designed by VG Grabin, manufactured by plant number 92. The new gun showed good results in 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 discontinued.

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 standard 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 low ergonomics of the gunner's combat site, the T-60-Z tank was not even allowed to be tested.

Also considered was the possibility of replacing the serial T-60 20-mm TNSh-1 cannon with its improved version of the TNSh-2 of the same caliber. The latter turned out to be unreliable and was not accepted for service.

Cars based on 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. The installation for service and mass production was not accepted due to the availability 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 a T-40 tank base and a T-60 chassis (since the T-40 was discontinued, and the MLRS based on it proved to be good in battles ). The artillery unit of the BM-8-24 consisted of 12 rails of the "beam" type, onto which 24 82-mm M-8 rockets were loaded from above and below. The fire control device made it possible to fire in a salvo or with a different rate of projectiles fired.

Also, in a small series in Romania, the TACAM self-propelled guns were released, armed with a captured 76-mm F-22 cannon based on the same captured T-60.

BM-8-24 - a light-weight Soviet self-propelled artillery unit of the class of multiple launch rocket systems based on the T-60 tank

"Wings of a tank"

One of the most unusual projects for the use of the T-60 was the proposal of the famous aircraft designer Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov to make a towed single-use glider under it for airlifting a tank as part of airborne assault forces or for a qualitative strengthening of 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 named AT-1, A-40 or KT ("Wings of a Tank"). The glider was a biplane wing box with a double-girder tail. 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 area of ​​the wing box was 86 m², the flight weight was 2 tons. The flight weight of the tank was supposed 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 facilitate the glider, the turret, fenders, headlights were removed from the T-60, and most of the fuel was drained. The crew of such a lightweight CT scan consisted of one person, who was the famous test pilot and glider pilot SN Anokhin. The towing vehicle for the KT was a TB-3 bomber with a forced modification of the AM-34RN engines up to 970 hp. with. (713 kW). The air train took off successfully, the flight speed reached 130 km / h, and the height was 40 m; but then the temperature of the water in the engine cooling system began to rise sharply at the TB-3. The air train began to decline, and because of the danger of overheating of the towing engines, its commander P.A.Eremeev decided to unhook the glider. Thanks to his skill and skill, S.N. Anokhin managed to land a glider not far from the Bykovo airfield near Moscow, start the tank's engine and, without dropping its wings, move in the direction of the command post of the airfield. Unwarned of the trials of the unusual aircraft, the head of the airfield's flights 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 on its own.

The tests clearly showed that the glider developer 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 aircraft-towing aircraft engines was obtained. In reality, the KT could only tow a modern four-engine strategic bomber Pe-8, of which about 80 pieces were produced. These vehicles were used for deep raids against Germany and its allies; it was unrealistic to count on them to be allocated as KT tugs. As a result, the Wings of a Tank project was canceled.

A-40. Glider projections

Organizational and staff structure

Due to the catastrophic losses of the material part in the first half of 1941, its rapid replenishment in 1942 and the repeated change in views on the organizational and staff structure of tank units, its single version for that period simply does not exist. Moreover, in view of the substitutions 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 assigned to the state, but instead only the total number of light tanks is used, which could be of the most diverse types - BT-7, T-26, T-40 of all modifications and T-60.

Nevertheless, the T-60 was used at all levels of the 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 at the end of August - beginning of September 1941, there were 64 light tanks (T-40 or T-60) out of 93. 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-40 or T-60). Soon, due to a lack of material, it was necessary to focus 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 prevailed since the beginning of the war in all respects had to some extent been overcome, there were clearly defined staffs of tank units. Instead of separate tank battalions, which were 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 staff 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 the number of the corps by exactly one and a half times - up to 30 KV-1, 60 T-34 and 60 T-60. However, already from the middle of 1942, some confusion reappeared - new light T-70 tanks began to be supplied to the troops, and the composition of one or another unit began to depend on the time and place of formation, the availability of reinforcements, and other factors. Many units in late 1942 - early 1943 operated jointly both the T-60 and the T-70. In 1943, after the T-60 was withdrawn from production, only the T-70 was officially approved as a light tank. The surviving "sixties" begin to operate in various units and subunits of 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, it had three tanks of this type. A much larger number of "sixty" served as war trophies in the Wehrmacht. In contrast to the often broken T-34 (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 turret 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. They participated in large numbers in the battles of 1941-1943, starting with the battle for Moscow and ending with the complete release of Leningrad in January 1944. The role of the T-60 was especially great in the defense of Moscow - due to the catastrophic losses of material and the evacuation of tank factories, the level of production of medium and heavy tanks fell 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 Soviet counteroffensive, the first T-60s released in Gorky took part in the battles near Moscow.

During the 1942 campaign, the T-60s were used on all fronts, from the besieged Leningrad to the lost Crimea. In besieged Leningrad, "sixties" were delivered by river, camouflaged on barges with coal, which did not arouse much interest in the German aviation dominating the air. Thus, the 61st Tank Brigade was moved unnoticed by the enemy. T-60s were actively used during all phases of the Battle of Stalingrad and its tragic prologue for the Red Army - the Kharkov operation. The losses were high, since by that time the German anti-tank guns, tanks and self-propelled guns were far superior in class to the T-60. It is quite natural that the Soviet tankers, because of the light armor and weapons, did not favor the T-60 too much, calling it "BM-2" - "common grave for two" (however, all tanks were called "common graves"). On the other hand, there were practically no operational complaints about 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 "Grozny", "Eagle", "Brave". By the end of 1942, the T-60 began to be gradually removed from the front line as the T-34 troops were saturated, the production of which had increased many times, and the new, more combat-ready model of the T-70 light tank.

Historian Alexei Isaev points out in his book that in the battles with the Pz.III and Pz.IV of the September 1942 model, the combat value of the T-60 was negligible. The already weak weapons of the T-60 refused in the dusty steppe air near Stalingrad. So, in the report on the hostilities of the 45th Tank Brigade of the 4th Panzer Corps it was noted: "The 20-mm ShVAK cannon on T-60 tanks is not used in most cases in battle, since it fails after several shots." In other words, Isaev stresses, the T-60 actually became a machine-gun "female", moreover, equipped with only one machine gun with a disk feed.

The T-60s continued to be actively used throughout the next 1943 year. The breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad, which began on January 12, 1943, became the "finest hour" of the "sixty". Then the aforementioned 61st tank brigade 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. At the same time, 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 across the ice without preparation. Medium and heavy tanks were able to enter the battle only the next day, when the engineer units prepared reinforcing flooring for their passage across the Neva. The tanks of the 61st Brigade were the first to connect with the units of the Volkhov Front, and for this success it received the title of the Guards.

The following excerpt from the book "Tankers in the Battle of Leningrad" testifies to the shortcomings and advantages of the T-60, as well as the courage of its crew consisting of commander Lieutenant D. I. Osatyuk and driver-mechanic Sergeant I. Makarenkov during these battles:

Rushing ahead, at dawn on January 18, near the Workers' Village No. 5, they noticed three tanks. The Volkhovtsy wanted to jump out of the car, run towards them, but they saw that it was Hitler's tanks going into a counterattack. What to do? It is pointless to start a duel with the enemy on your baby with a 20-mm cannon. The decision was ripe instantly. The tank commander gave a command to the driver: "Move back to the grove, on the edge of which our guns took up firing positions!"

The tank, maneuvering, making unexpected and sharp turns, eluded the fire of Hitler's tanks, and Osatyuk fired at them, tried to blind, stun the enemy. The duel lasted for several minutes. There were moments when it seemed that the armored monsters were about to overtake, pile on and crush. When about 200 meters remained to the grove, Osatyuk's car turned sharply to the left. Hitler's head tank also turned around, but came under fire from our guns and burst into flames. Then the second tank was knocked out, and the third left the battlefield.

"Now, Vanyusha, go ahead!" - ordered the commander to the driver. Having caught up with their company, they saw an interesting picture - the tankmen 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 hesitate, the Nazis would have time to dig in. Osatyuk orders Makarenkov to roll a trail to the cliff, to lay a track. Then the tank, picking up speed, rushed to the pit, flew in the air and crashed into the Nazis.

"Well done! - shouted the lieutenant - Now act! ". The car rushed at high speed along the bottom of the pit, destroying the Nazis with fire and tracks. After making several circles, the tank slowed down, went to the middle of the pit and stopped. It was all over. Ours came up.

For this battle, the crew in full complement was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About the same about the successes of the T-60 against the enemy infantry says ME Katukov in his memoirs.

The crews of the 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 especially the Leningrad fronts retained a large number of old machines in their ranks up to and including 1944. In the operation to finally lift the blockade of Leningrad, BT-7s, individual T-38 and T-28s, KV-1s of the first releases and a large number of T-60s, which on other fronts were no longer first-line tanks and performed other functions, took part. For example, almost a quarter (21 out of 88) of the tanks of the 1st Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Front were exactly "sixty".

The T-60s also took part in the Battle of Kursk. So, in the 1 tank army there were 18 tanks of this type, in the 86 tank brigade (Voronezh front, 38th army) - 15 tanks.

Since 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 a wide variety of jobs: escorting and guarding troops on the march, reconnaissance in force, destroying bandits and saboteurs in the rear. They were used as command vehicles of self-propelled artillery units equipped with SU-76 self-propelled guns, and as training tanks in the rear. Also, "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. Soon after the end of World War II, the T-60s were removed from service by the Red Army and sent to scrap metal. All currently existing museum T-60s (with the exception of the prototype in Kubinka) were found destroyed on the battlefield.

German troops dubbed the T-60 "the indestructible locust."
- Hero of the Soviet Union Irina Nikolaevna Levchenko has gone from the commander of the T-60 to the commander of a unit of these tanks.
- NA Astrov had to persuade the designer of aviation weapons Shpitalny, "a rather noble man", in order to develop a tank version of the ShVAK air cannon.
- Light 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. However, after the liquidation of the museum, 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-mechanic was one of the nineteen female tankmen of the Red Army, Sergeant Yekaterina 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 tendency of the pre-war period in Soviet tank building was a general increase in firepower and protection of 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's weapons system, but the T-60 lost this opportunity. Thus, the T-60 was in the middle between the T-40 and the T-50, both in terms of weight and size classification and in terms of intended use, having no advantages of either one or the other. However, the “sixty” was a big step forward in another respect.

A significant part of the losses of the Red Army tank forces in the summer of 1941 were of a non-combat nature. Worn out old T-26 and BT tanks, along with the unfinished T-34 and KV, broke down and threw themselves on the enemy-occupied territory during over-forced marches, 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 to enter the battle or evacuate to the rear for repairs. The quality of the constructively unfinished new T-34 and KV-1 arriving from the factories fell sharply due to the call of a large number of experienced workers and their replacement by women and adolescents, along with the 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 T-34 and KV-1 tanks that were out of action for technical reasons and 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 fall of 1941.

Therefore, the great work carried out in the pre-war years by the collective 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 the 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 in repairing tank engines in the field. As a result, the losses of the T-60 tanks were to a large extent already in combat. This is what caused the high appraisal of the tank by I.V. Stalin. About 6,000 released 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 almost equal in armament and armor to the German "one-year-old" PzKpfw II Ausf F. Although the latter had a more powerful engine and one more crew member, which gave the PzKpfw II Ausf F 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 frontal sheets. 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 proved to be unsuccessful, and the Soviet vehicle in 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 large-caliber machine guns, and the frontal armor, due to the rational angle of inclination, with a certain probability is able to withstand the hits of 20-mm shells (and even low-speed 37-mm shells from Japanese tank guns). The 20-mm TNSh cannon, in turn, was able to cope with any light armored vehicles of the enemy. 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 had irrevocably 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.

The performance characteristics of the T-60 tank

Crew, pers .: 2
Manufacturer: Gorky Automobile Plant
The number of issued, PC .: 5920

Weight T-60

5.8-6.4 tons

Dimensions T-60

Body length, mm: 4100
- housing width, mm: 2392
- Height, mm: 1750
- Clearance, mm: 300

Armor T-60

Armor type: homogeneous rolled high hardness
- housing forehead (top), mm / city .: 15/70 ° and 35/16 °
- housing forehead (middle), mm / city .: 35 / −28 °
- housing forehead (bottom), mm / city .: 30 / −76 °
- body board, mm / city .: 15/0 °
- housing feed (top), mm / city .: 10/76 °
- housing feed (bottom), mm / city .: 25 / −14 °
- Bottom, mm: 10
- body roof, mm: 13
- gun mask, mm / city .: 20
- side of the tower, mm / city .: 25-35 / 25 °
- tower roof, mm: 10

Armament T-60

Caliber and brand of the gun: 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. from .: 70

Speed ​​T-60

Speed ​​on the highway, km / h: 42
- Speed ​​over rough terrain, km / h: 20-25

Cruising 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
- Overcome rise, city .: 34 °
- Overcoming wall, m: 0.6
- Passable moat, m: 1.7
- Overcome ford, m: 0.9

Photo of the T-60 tank

Modern battle tanks of Russia and the world photos, videos, pictures watch online. This article gives an idea of ​​the modern tank fleet. It is based on the principle of classification 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, others have already become a museum exhibit. And only for 10 years! The authors considered it unfair to follow in the footsteps of the Jane’s reference book and not consider this combat vehicle (very interesting in design and fiercely discussed at the time), which formed the basis of the tank fleet of the last quarter of the 20th century.

Films about tanks where there is still no alternative to this type of weapons for the 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 the decades predetermine new frontiers of combat properties and achievements of the military-technical level. In the eternal confrontation "projectile - armor", as practice shows, protection from a projectile is being improved more and more, acquiring new qualities: activity, multi-layer, self-defense. At the same time, the projectile becomes more accurate and powerful.

Russian tanks are specific in that they can destroy the enemy from a safe distance for themselves, have the ability to make quick maneuvers on off-road, contaminated terrain, can "walk" through the territory occupied by the enemy, capture a decisive bridgehead, 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 debated by theorists in the early 1930s, during which tanks were used in large numbers by almost all warring parties. At this time, there was a "test for lice" and a deep reform of the first theories of the use of tank troops. And it is the Soviet tank forces that are most affected by all of 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 could the USSR, having lost most of its European territories and having difficulty gaining tanks for the defense of Moscow, could already in 1943 release powerful tank formations onto the battlefields? This book, which tells about the development of Soviet tanks "in the days of testing ", from 1937 to early 1943. When writing the book, materials from Russian archives and private collections of tank builders were used. There was a period in our history that was deposited in my memory with a kind of oppressive feeling. It began with the return of our first military advisers from Spain, and stopped only at the beginning of 1943, - said L. Gorlitsky, the former general designer of the ACS, - there was some kind of pre-storm condition.

Tanks of the Second World War, it was M. Koshkin, almost clandestinely (but, of course, with the support of "the wisest of the wise leader of all nations"), was able to create the tank that, a few years later, would shock German tank generals. And moreover, he did not just create it, the designer managed to prove to these foolish military men that it was his T-34 that they needed, and not another wheeled-caterpillar "motorway. 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 the entire activity of design bureaus and people's commissariats in general, during a frantic race to equip new tank formations of the Red Army, transfer of industry to wartime rails and evacuation.

Tanks Wikipedia the author wants to express his special gratitude for help in the selection and processing of materials to M. Kolomiets, and also to thank A. Solyankin, I. Zheltov and M. Pavlov, - the authors of the reference publication "Domestic armored vehicles. XX century. 1905 - 1941" since this book has 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. For some reason, it is customary for us today to talk about 1937-1938. only from the point of view of repression, 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 LI Gorlinky.

Soviet tanks a detailed assessment of them at that time sounded from many lips. Many old people recalled that it was precisely from the events in Spain that it became clear to everyone that the war was getting closer and closer to the threshold and it was with Hitler that they would have to fight. In 1937, massive purges and repressions began in the USSR, and against the background of these difficult events, the Soviet tank began to transform from a "mechanized cavalry" (in which one of its combat qualities was emphasized by reducing others) into a balanced combat vehicle with powerful weapons at the same time. sufficient to suppress most targets, good maneuverability and mobility with armor protection, capable of maintaining its combat effectiveness when fired by the most massive anti-tank weapons of a potential enemy.

Large tanks were recommended to be added to the composition in addition only special tanks - amphibious, chemical. The brigade now had 4 separate battalions of 54 tanks each and was strengthened by switching from three-tank platoons to five-tank platoons. In addition, D. Pavlov substantiated the refusal to form three more mechanized corps in 1938 to the four existing mechanized corps, believing that these formations are immobile and difficult to control, and most importantly, they require a different organization of rear services. The tactical and technical requirements for promising tanks, as expected, were adjusted. In particular, in a letter dated December 23 to the head of the design bureau of the plant № 185 named. CM. Kirov new boss demanded to strengthen the booking 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. resistance. ” It was this path (the use of especially 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 widely used, the properties of which were identical in all directions. Such armor was called homogeneous (homogeneous), and from the very beginning of armoring, the craftsmen strove to create just such armor, because homogeneity 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 sharply increased, while the rest of the plate remained viscous. So, heterogeneous (heterogeneous) armor came into use.

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 consequence) to an increase in fragility. Thus, the most durable armor, all other things being equal, turned out to be very fragile and often pricked even from the explosions 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 maximum possible hardness of the armor, but at the same time not to lose its elasticity. Surface-hardened by saturation with carbon and silicon, the armor was called cemented (cemented) and was considered at that time a panacea for many ills. But carburizing is a complex, harmful process (for example, treating 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 patch holes in cemented slabs during repairs. But it was still expected that the tank, protected by 15-20 mm cemented armor, would be equivalent in level of protection to the same, but covered with 22-30 mm plates, without a significant increase in mass.
Also, by the mid-1930s, tank building had learned 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 tough.

How tanks shoot video up to half the thickness of the slab, which was, of course, 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 slightly more than cementation. But the hardening technology that was used for thick sea armor was no longer suitable for the relatively thin armor of tanks. Before the war, this method was almost never used in our serial tank building due to technological difficulties and relatively high cost.

The most advanced use of tanks for tanks was the 45-mm tank gun model 1932/34. (20K), and before the event in Spain it was believed that its power was quite enough to perform most tank tasks. But the battles in Spain showed that the 45-mm gun can only satisfy the task of fighting enemy tanks, since even shelling manpower in the mountains and forests was ineffective, and it was only possible to disable a dug-out enemy firing point only in case of a direct hit ... Shooting at shelters and bunkers was ineffective due to the small high-explosive effect of a projectile weighing only about two kg.

Types of tanks photo so that even one hit of a projectile will reliably disable 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 on the example of French tanks (which already had an armor thickness of about 40-42 mm) it became clear that the armor protection of foreign combat vehicles tends to be significantly enhanced. For this, there was the right way - 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 with a higher initial velocity over a greater distance without correcting the aiming.

The best tanks in the world had a large-caliber cannon, also has 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 rounds in a closed tank volume 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 group 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 free, who from the beginning of 1935 tried to bring his new 76.2-mm semi-automatic single gun L-10, and the staff 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 adopted ... "Indeed, 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 a series. the highest levels of the transition in tank building exclusively on diesel engines, this process was restrained by a number of factors. Of course, the diesel had significant economy. It consumed less fuel per unit of power per hour. Diesel fuel is less susceptible to fire because of the high flash point of its vapor.

New tanks video, even the most advanced of them, the MT-5 tank engine, required a 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 machines of the required accuracy yet), financial investments and staff strengthening. It was planned that in 1939 this diesel with a capacity of 180 hp. will go to production 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. Also, the development of a slightly increased in height six-cylinder gasoline engine No. 745 with a capacity of 130-150 hp was started.

The brands of tanks were specific indicators that were quite satisfactory for the tank builders. Tests of tanks were carried out according to a new method, specially developed at the insistence of the new chief of ABTU D. Pavlov in relation to military service in wartime. The test was based on a 3-4 day run (at least 10-12 hours of daily non-stop traffic) with a one-day break for technical inspection and production restoration work... Moreover, repairs were allowed to be carried out only by the forces of field workshops without the involvement of factory specialists. This was followed by a "platform" with obstacles, "swimming" in the water with an additional load, imitating an infantry landing, after which the tank was sent for inspection.

Super tanks online, after work on improvement, seemed to remove all claims from the tanks. And the general course of 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 transmission and suspension of the Komsomolets. But during the tests, numerous minor defects appeared in the tanks. Chief designer N. Astrov was suspended from work and was in custody and investigation for several months. In addition, the tank received a new turret with improved protection. 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 tank model in 1938-1939. The torsion bar suspension developed by V. Kulikov, designer of the design bureau of plant No. 185, has been tested. It differed in the design of a composite short coaxial torsion bar (long mono-torsion bars could not be used coaxially). However, such a short torsion bar on tests showed insufficiently good results, and therefore the torsion bar suspension did not immediately make its way in the course of further work. Overcoming obstacles: climbs not less than 40 degrees, vertical wall 0.7 m, overlapped ditch 2-2.5 m. "

YouTube about tanks, work on the manufacture of prototypes of the D-180 and D-200 engines for reconnaissance tanks is not being conducted, jeopardizing the production of prototypes. "Justifying his choice, N. Astrov said that a wheeled-tracked non-floating reconnaissance aircraft (factory designation 101 or 10-1), as well as the variant of the amphibious tank (factory designation 102 or 10-2), are a compromise solution, since it is not possible to fully satisfy the requirements of ABTU.Variant 101 was a tank weighing 7.5 tons with a hull by hull type, but with vertical side plates of cemented armor with a thickness of 10-13 mm, since: "Inclined sides, causing a serious weighting of the suspension and hull, require 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. First grade gasoline was placed in the tank under the floor of the fighting compartment and in additional onboard gas tanks. The armament fully corresponded to the task and consisted of coaxial machine guns DK of 12.7 mm caliber and DT (in the second version of the project even ShKAS is listed) of 7.62 mm caliber. The combat weight of the tank with a torsion bar suspension was 5.2 tons, with a spring suspension - 5.26 tons. Tests were carried out from July 9 to August 21 according to the method approved in 1938, and Special attention was given to tanks.

 

It might be helpful to read:

• Craft from plasticine for the day of cosmonautics;
• School riddles - fun activity for kids;
• How to mold a plasticine bat step by step with a photo;
• Embroidered keyrings Embroidered keychain scheme;
• Station game "fair";
• Games in the summer day camp for primary school children;
• Camp contests for children;
• Children's riddles about transport;