Steel Soviet Union

In early 1941, when the Soviet-German war just broke out, the vast majority of the Soviet tank designer team and even the senior Soviet commanders and political leaders did not yet have a clear and accurate understanding of the research and development capabilities and replacement capabilities of the German armored forces. .

Since the German army won the Blitzkrieg in Europe, completely conquered France and drove the British back to the mainland and expelled the European continent, the main equipment of its armored forces has not been substantially updated, improved and strengthened.

The early Panzer IV tank equipped with a 24x caliber short-barreled 75mm main gun was the most advanced main tank model among the German armored forces until the launch of Operation Barbarossa.

This type of short-barreled gun Panzer IV, together with Panzer III, formed the absolute main armored force of the German army when Operation Barbarossa was launched. It was also the most direct cause of the German army's weak performance in the face of the "T34 Crisis" .

The excellent and reliable T34 tanks and the poor quality inferiority that dwarfed the German armored forces caused senior Soviet commanders and senior party, government and military leaders to have the dangerous idea of ​​being overly conceited, believing that the quality advantage of Soviet tanks would be greater than that of German tanks. Progress has been slow in the face of replacements.

This extremely dangerous and overly conceited idea undoubtedly placed the entire Soviet tank force in an extremely unfavorable development prospect.

Various improved main tank plans were killed one by one either because the design quality was not up to par, or because they could not meet the most important requirements for large-scale mass production during wartime.

The design and development of new tanks was delayed again and again because of the quality advantage of the front-line tank units. After the outbreak of the war, the Soviet tank design bureau actually had no design drawings for the reconstruction of existing models. There is no set of design drawings for a new main tank available.

In stark contrast, the German army is always under the haze of the T34 crisis.

Compared with the poor development situation in which the Soviet army's main tank models have never been fundamentally improved and replaced, the German army, which encountered the T34 crisis immediately after the start of Operation Barbarossa, soon woke up from a dream.

Realizing that the existing models of old tanks in its hands were no longer sufficient to cope with the war situation, Germany quickly summoned many German military industries, including Rheinmetall, Krupp, Porsche, Henschel, MAN, etc. A large number of military industrial companies, including giants, immediately launched actions to deal with the T34 crisis.

Regarding the plan to deal with the Soviet T34 crisis, the Germans, after coordinating the overall situation, chose two completely different paths, one fast and one slow, and began to proceed simultaneously.

First of all, the classic principle that distant water cannot quench near thirst also applies to the German frontline troops who have now set foot in the quagmire of war in the Soviet Union.

The new German tank, which is enough to completely cope with the Soviet Union's main tanks, has a too long cycle from tendering and research and development to completion of design and then finalization and production.

During this period, the German front-line armored forces, which had entered a state of war, needed to continue to assume combat missions against the Soviet army. Making the existing German armored equipment capable of fighting the Soviet main tanks has become a top priority for the Germans to survive this important transition period before their new tanks are put into actual combat.

After a hasty and rigorous bidding discussion meeting, the important task of transforming existing main tanks to make them capable of dealing with the Soviet T34 crisis finally fell to the old German military giants Krupp and Rheinmetall. on the company.

After half a year of unremitting efforts, Krupp and Rheinmetall finally submitted a satisfactory answer to the German military as a powerful alliance - the KWK40 75mm 43x caliber long tube Tank gun.

The improved Panzer IV equipped with this powerful new main gun was soon given the official equipment name of Panzer IV F2 by the German military, and was put on the frontline battlefield with life-saving expectations.

The Panzer IV F2, which rushed into the Soviet-German battlefield in early 1942, did live up to expectations. The powerful new long-barreled 75mm main gun was enough to destroy the Soviet T34 tank from the front within conventional combat distances and seriously threatened the KV series heavy tanks. , which allowed the German army to regain a victory in the confrontation with Soviet armor for the first time since the launch of Operation Barbarossa.

On the other hand, the research and development of new main tanks is proceeding simultaneously with this.

The "Panzer 6" project developed through competition between Porsche and Henschel, and the "Panzer 5" project undertaken by MAN, were launched simultaneously.

The final product of these two plans was the German tank, the famous Panzer 6 Tiger heavy tank and Panzer 5 Panther medium tank.

However, it is too early to discuss the actual debut time of these two types of German tanks with powerful combat performance in 1941.

At this moment, what Malashenko hopes most to change due to his arrival is to attract the attention of the Soviet tank design bureau and military and political leaders to the new main tank research and development plan as soon as possible.

According to the original historical trend, the Soviet army, which had always believed that its tank quality advantage would always be maintained, did not gain this kind of advantage until the German army put the No. 6 Tiger heavy tank into actual combat for the first time in the direction of Leningrad in 1942. At that time, it was like waking up from a dream in front of the powerful and extremely amazing German war machine.

Realizing that its own armored forces no longer had any advantages in either medium or heavy tanks, the Soviet army hastily launched a research and development plan for the next generation of main tanks.

But from the perspective of later generations, the "Stalin" IS1/2 heavy tank and T3485 medium tank that were put into actual combat at the end of the war in 1944 were a bit too late.

Counting from August 1942, when the German army first put Tiger tanks into actual combat, until early 1944, it took more than a year for the IS2 heavy tank and the T3485 medium tank to be put into mass production and officially participate in the war.

The Soviet tank force, which had completely lagged behind the German armored force in terms of tank quality, had suffered unimaginable heavy losses in more than a year.

One of the undeniable main reasons for this is that the Soviet army's development plan for new main tanks has been delayed and shelved. As a result, more than a year of precious research and development time from the launch of Operation Barbarossa to the emergence of the Tiger tank was wasted, resulting in the German armored forces throughout 1943 being almost invincible in tactical crushing.

"If we want the IS series heavy tanks and T3485 medium tanks to be put into actual combat early, we must find someone with a high official position to be the entry point. I must climb the Zhukov line!"

Malashenko, who was still talking endlessly to Zhukov in front of him, thought so.