Soviet heavy tank KV-4
On March 11, 1941, Soviet intelligence provided a report in which it reported that work began on the production of heavy tanks in Germany. The largest of these tanks, the Type VII, allegedly had a mass of about 90 tons and armed with a 105-mm gun. The Soviet leadership reacted seriously to this intelligence report. The answer to this information was the start of work on new heavy tanks, which would be the answer to German developments. The result of the work of Soviet designers was the creation of several extraordinary projects of heavy tanks KV-4 and KV-5, which by their mass (about 100 tons) could easily be attributed to super-heavy tanks.
At the beginning of April 1941, J.S. Kotin, an outstanding designer of heavy tanks who headed the SKB-2 at that time, announced a competition to develop a new heavy tank for the KV-4 breakthrough. The competition was attended by more than 20 Soviet designers, who in speed presented their projects. The winner was the project of engineer N. Shashmurin, in which a 107-mm gun and a 76-mm L-11 cannon mounted in a rotating turret borrowed from the KV-1 tank were mounted directly in the hull. Unfortunately, already at the beginning of June 1941, work on the further development of the tank project, which received the KV-4 index, was curtailed, and the KB's efforts were focused on the development of the KV-5 tank.
The experience of the Winter War of 1939-1940 showed that in order to break through the well-fortified positions of the enemy, tanks are needed that not only have impressive armor, but also have powerful artillery weapons. The SMK and T-100 tanks, which were reliably protected in terms of booking, did not have sufficient firepower to suppress the enemy firing points and destroy its fortifications. Therefore, it was decided to create on the basis of existing KV-1 project heavy tanks the T-150 and T-220 heavy breakout tanks, which would be armed with a gun of a caliber of at least 100 millimeters and a gun of about 76 millimeters.
Before the Kirov Plant, by a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of April 7, 1941, the task was to design and manufacture a super-heavy KV-4 tank with an elongated base, equipped with a 107-mm ZIS-6 gun . The main armor should be 125-130 mm. and in the most vulnerable places to reach 140-150 mm. It was planned to produce one prototype by October 1, 1941.
Work on the creation of the KV-4 was begun in April 1941 at the Kirov Plant and was conducted under the direction of the head of the SKB-2 Zh. Kotin on a competitive basis. Almost all engineers of the design bureau took part in the design of the KV-4, and there were no restrictions on creativity, and therefore the participants put forward a mass of original ideas and layout solutions, in particular for armament, single-turret versions of a heavy tank with the installation of a 107-mm gun the turret and the 45-mm cannon in a small turret, located above it as if on the second floor, double-mounted versions with the installation of a 107-mm cannon in a large central turret (like on an SMK tank) and a 45-mm cannon in a separate turret located in the nose housing options with the installation of a 107-mm or 45-mm cannon in the turret with a limited angle of rotation to 130 * 1 (over the assignment it was proposed to install on the tank and a flamethrower); the proposal of engineer N. Zeitz provided for the installation of only one 107-mm cannon in an ordinary tank turret, having a circular shape in plan, which allowed the entire ammunition load of 120 unitary projectiles to be placed along the walls of the cylindrical turret.
A heavy KV-4 breakthrough tank was assembled on the principle of a two-tiered weapon layout, which was typical at that time for Soviet multi-turret tanks T-35 , SMK, T-100 , T-28 , T-29 , American M3 "Lee" (M3 Lee ) , French Char B1-bis and others. At the same time, the armored hull was divided into three compartments: the control compartment in the bow, the fighting compartment in the middle part of the hull and the tower and the engine-transmission compartment in the stern of the hull. It is also worth noting that the distinctive specifics of the layout of the KV-4 was that the combat compartment and the control compartment were partially mated with each other, since a 107-mm caliber gun had to be installed in the front of the hull. Initially it was assumed that the crew of a heavy tank breakthrough KV-4 will consist of 9 people. Of these calculations, at least 4 people should have served a 107-mm gun and at least 2 - a mad 76-mm cannon. In addition to them, it was planned to include the commander, driver, his assistant or radio operator in the crew.
The project was distinguished by originality and created prerequisites for the application of the loading mechanism. A lot of original solutions were also offered for armor, for example, a method of armoring a turret in such a way that its shoulder strap deepened into the hull and that it was prevented from being jammed from hitting projectiles and debris. A tank turret was developed, which had a diamond-shaped form with rounded corners, and an unconventional figure-shaped turret with two DT machine guns and a 45-mm cannon mounted on the original turret, allowing the arrow to fire without protruding from the hatch.
Techniques and solutions that were not previously used in the design of tanks were developed: the original tracked bypass; Installing the engine and transmission in the front of the hull, which was unusual for heavy tanks; the option of placing the engine in the stern, and the transmission in the bow; the proposal to take the leading pair of rollers in the stern of the car out of the hull and reinforce it on the brackets, which provided some savings in the reserved volume, although on the other hand made this important machine node vulnerable. In total, up to 20 variants of various projects remained valuable from a design point of view, decisions and deserved to be patented at the level of inventions, but this did not make it possible to make anxious pre-war time.
The estimated appearance of the KV-4 tank can be judged by the old layout drawings and computer models in the game World of tanks, which sometimes differ significantly from the project proposed by engineer N. Shashmurin.
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