• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

KV-1 Heavy Tank - American Evaluation

In addition to the supply of military equipment in the USSR, the Allies were actively interested in using Soviet equipment. pecial attention was paid to the medium T-34 tank and the heavy KV-1, but in the first months of the war it was not possible to obtain at least one sample of each type. It was only in mid-1942 that the Soviet side, in the framework of international cooperation, provided the Americans with one KV-1 and T-34.

The Americans tried to “squeeze” virtually everything possible from a tank. This, in part, justifies their attitude to the Soviet machines, which were considered completely unsuitable for use in the American army, which particularly concerned such qualities as comfort. On the other hand, when the Soviets tested tanks, the attitude towards the equipment was more “humane”. The Soviet side made its own conclusions from a report received from the United States. One sample of the KV-1 and T-34 tanks was sent to the USA through Arkhangelsk at the end of August 1942. At a meeting held on October 25, 1943, on the assessment of the Americans KV-1 and T-34 tanks, the following was noted about the first:

• an indication of an insufficient initial speed of the ZiS-5 cannon to be considered correct, as a result, armor penetration is worse than that of American guns of the same caliber;
• DT machine gun requires replacement with a more durable and rapid-firing;
• there is no anti-aircraft weapons (all have American tanks);
• The KV suspension is significantly better than the T-34 torsion bar suspension, whose design is outdated and was practically unsuitable for use on a tank weighing almost 30 tons;
• the B-2 motor is not a tank engine both from its size and the reliability of its individual mechanisms (water pump) and the service life as a whole;
• evaluation of transmissions of the Soviet construction is correct, the lag in this area is most striking;
• an indication of the difficulty of controlling the machine correctly;
• side friction, as a mechanism for turning tanks, outdated;
• an indication of the coarseness of welding should be considered insignificant, since this remark is purely aesthetic in nature;
• an indication of a large number of adjustments correctly and requires the attention of NKTP and BTU.

In accordance with these observations, the commission made conclusions about the need to improve the quality of Soviet tanks, but more interesting was different. As it turned out, the Americans liked the Soviet TMF and TP-4 sights, and this despite the fact that their optics required improvement. The thickness of the armor KV-1 surpassed all serial American tanks, therefore, its security was much better. In particular, the description of the KV-1, prepared by the training department of the US Army, indicated the following: “... A very strong tank armor allows him to withstand any enemy artillery fire, except for direct hits from large-caliber guns, and this tank is very difficult to incapacitate. Even being incapacitated, this tank can maintain a strong fire until reinforcements drive the Germans back ... ” The overall assessment of the KV-1 among American specialists was satisfactory, but one should not forget that this tank was created according to the technical assignment issued in 1938, and tests in the United States were carried out at the end of 1942, when “Tigers” and “Panthers” and the requirements for heavy tanks were completely different.