“Of IS-7s and Other Things” Blog

Regular World of Tanks poster T__A has been sporadically posting about Soviet era armor at his blog “Of IS-7s and Other Things.”  He has posted some interesting charts showing Soviet tank production from 1945-1965, a chart of the cost of different WWII era Soviet tanks, and a series of penetration values for various postwar guns.  He has also written some nice descriptions of the T-62A and of Object 141 and Object 142. One of his most recent posts is a translation from the memoir of Soviet tank designer L.N. Kartsev describing how the T-72 came to be:

“In connection with the T-62 entering production, and work on the object 167, Kharkovites started working on a modernized T-64 tank with a 125 mm smoothbore gun and a loading mechanism. Once I decided to look at this tank at a proving grounds. I climbed in. I didn’t like the loading mechanism and the ammunition rack in the turret. The shells were positioned vertically along the turret ring and impeded access to the driver. If he was wounded or concussed, it would be hard to get him out of the tank. When I sat in the driver’s seat, I felt like I was in a trap. Metal all around me, limited ability to communicate with the crew.”  

Read the rest of the post on Kartsev and the T-72 here.