It’s been a couple months since we looked at what Russian language articles the Tank Archives (formerly Archive Awareness) has translated into English. There are quite a few, so we have divided them into two posts, one for the articles from May and one for June. Click on the article headline to go to the full version of the piece.
Renault R 40: Incorrigible
The Char leger Modele 1935 R that was accepted into service by the French army on April 25th, 1935, was a compromise. Created as a replacement for the Renault FT, it did not surpass its predecessor by much in speed, and the armament remained the same. Of course, the new tank had more powerful armour, but experience showed that you could not rely on it. The French infantry began looking at the FCM 36, an expensive tank, but one that was more suitable for the infantry tank role. The Renault R 35 could only be rescued with a modernization of its weakest link: the suspension.
Canon 25 mm S.A. Mle 1934: A “Baby” Gun for a Grown Up War
An old military saying states that “every army prepares to fight the previous war”. That is how the French generals acted when planning new anti-tank guns. Thinking about enemy tanks, they envisioned clumsy boxes, crawling across the battlefield at a pedestrian’s pace, protected with several centimeters of armour. To fight them, a small gun was needed, one that could be easily hidden on a crater-pocked field and pushed around with just the strength of the crew. The result of this line of thinking was the 25 mm anti-tank gun model 1934, Canon 25 mm S.A. Mle 1934.
Renault D1: FT on Steroids
Attempts to modernize the Renault FT, the most numerous tank in WWI, gave unexpected results. Initially, only the low speed was unsatisfactory for the French military, but its tastes grew by the mid-1920s. Now, the thin armour, which was insufficient to protect the tank from high caliber machineguns, was also unsatisfactory. The result was the NC-1 tank, which was 2 tons heavier and had thicker armour, while being twice as fast.
Renault D2: De Gaulle’s Workhorse
The heavy Char B1 tank became the symbol of French pre-war tank building, and General de Gaulle is frequently associated with it. The 36 ton tank might have been the best French tank was indeed the best tank that France had during the fighting of May-June of 1940. The tank’s thick armour worked well, even though the concept of the tank was obsolete. Interestingly enough, mass production of the Char B1 might never have happened, since the French military was considering a different tank for the role of their main tank in the early 1930s, with the same armament, same armour, but more than 1.5 times lighter. This was the Renault D2, the tank that Colonel De Gaulle served in.
LT vz. 35: Steel Fist of the First Czechoslovakian Republic
On April 19th, 1933, the Czechoslovakian army signed a contract with CKD to produce 50 light P-II tanks. This ended the 10 year long quest to build a domestic tank. The tank accepted into service on July 13th, 1935, as the LT vz. 35 was sufficiently modern. However, a year later, the Czechoslovakian military needed a better protected tank. This tank, the LT vz. 35, was destined to become the backbone of the Czechoslovakian armoured forces.
Praga LTL and Pzw 39: Tanks for Neutrals
In May of 1935, an Iranian commission signed a contract with CKD for light Praga TNH tanks. At the moment, these tanks did not exist in metal, but the Iranians saw the potential in this design. A prototype was demonstrated in September of that year. The Iranian commission was so impressed that the order was increased to 50 tanks on September 10th. For this time, this was a very respectable amount of tanks for the export market. It’s not surprising that representatives from other nations came to Czechoslovakia to find inexpensive and high quality light tanks.
T-60 in Difficult Times
On July 20th, 1941, the State Committee of Defense (GKO) passed decree #222ss “On the production of 10 thousand light tanks”. Interestingly enough, the tank that was supposed to be built did not exist even on paper. The tank, later named T-60, was designed in a little over a week. The first tanks were built in September of that year, and full fledged mass production began in October. The Molotov Gorkiy Automotive Factory (GAZ), Kharkov Tractor Factory (HTZ), and factory #37 were tasked with producing these tanks. Meanwhile, reports coming in from the front indicated that the tank was in need of modernization.
T-60 From Stalingrad
The T-34 tanks built in Stalingrad became one of the symbols for the battle there. The last tanks produced where went straight into battle from the factories, crewed by factory workers. T-60 tanks were less noticeable contributors to the breaking of the backbone of the German blitzkrieg. At the outskirts of the city, in Krasnoarmeysk, the T-60 tank remained in production at factory #264 for less than half a year. However, by volume of production, this “unplanned” factory was second only to the Molotov GAZ.
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