Battle Reports from Russian Kv-1 (1 Viewer)

C

Crossroads

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With the new release of the KV-1 from Hobby Master I was a little curious about how it had performed in battle. I had researched some of this when I put up the thread about the Russian armor but had forgotten a lot of it.

From these two articles it appears that the KV-1 did quite well.

Here is a link to the page where the articles came from.
http://wio.ru/tank/ww2tank.htm#t2

The monster at the road.
On 23-24 June 1941 a single KV-2 of 2nd tank division conducted an armored road block in southern Lithuania (near Rassaynjay town), holding up the German advance. The Germans found themself in a trouble when they lost whole supply truck collumn. Numerious attacks including a battery of 50mm anti-tank guns (which were destroyed at 500m distance), Flak 88 (the Soviets allowed to mount this gun at 700m distance and then killed it) and an engineer unit attack all failed to silence the Russian tank. Artillery fire of 105mm howitzers achieved a hit to the track and the KV was partially immobilised. This heavy tank at the only road and surrounding swamps made German troops supply (with ammo, fuel and food) and wounded soldiers evacuation impossible. The Germans were forced to use such trick: 50(!) tanks immitated an attack, so it became possible to set another 88mm flak, which managed to eliminate the tank after two days it held up the advance of the entire 6th Panzer Division.
The Stukas were not used beacause a commander not allowed an operation "against one tank".
By the Germans' accounts, the crew could have escaped easily several times before the final attack, but the heroes always chooses own fate..

1 versus 43
On 18 August 1941, an alone KV-1 (the number 864, the commander was lt.Kolobanov) was dug in and camouflaged near Krasnogvardeysk town (Leningrad area). The tank had an order to defend the road from Kinigsep. Four more KVs were ordered to defense two other roads. All tanks got double ammoloads, 2/3 of rounds were armor piercing. An offensive of 8th German panzer division was expected. Kolobanaov's KV had great hidden position in the woods on the hill, the crossroad located down there between swamps.
In the next day German motorcycle recon troops, halftrack and one light track passed by road. Five minutes later the expected column of 43 tanks appeared and filled the road. The 1st Soviet round flamed the head tank, after two more shots the 2nd tank was flamed too. Then Kolobanov opened fire on column's tail and flamed the last tank: the Germans were locked. They even couldn't note Soviet tank and opened no-target-fire. Tried to run, some tanks were immobilized in the swamp. The chaos established on the road. Soviet tankers killed 22 German tanks during 30 minutes. Then the KV was spotted by the Germans and they opened aimed fire. In spite of impossibility of German tank guns to penetrate thick KV's armor, knocking rounds made terrible working conditions for Soviet crew. One of German rounds struck the turret ring and the KV was forced to leave its trench and maneuver by whole hull for aim. Then the Soviets noted two German towed guns appeared on the crossroad. The first shell disabled one gun, but another gun managed to do one shot and damaged KV's periscope. Than that gun was destroyed too. Also ammo was almost out, and Kolobanov got congratulations via the radio and an order to go back. Already three another KVs were on the way to the battlefield, and they killed 20 more German tanks.
There were destroyed 42 German tanks total and two guns. Kolobanov's tank got 135 hits, but no one penetration.
Kolobanov was awarded with the Order of Lenin, Usov (driver) with the Order of the Red Banner


Thanks
Ronnie
www.crossroadsdiecast.com
 
If you like that, take a look at "Panzers on the Eastern Front" by Tsouras, and "Panzer Operations" by Newton.

After WW2, the US Army took the captured German officers & translated their war diaries to study. The frist battle you told above is covered in great detail in the above two books. The first by Tsouras is the original translation of General Raus, and Newton's book is a fresher & better done translation of General Raus. (unfortunately, the better maps are in the former).

It is fascinating to see what that one tank held off.
 
Crossroads said:
With the new release of the KV-1 from Hobby Master I was a little curious about how it had performed in battle. I had researched some of this when I put up the thread about the Russian armor but had forgotten a lot of it.

From these two articles it appears that the KV-1 did quite well.

Here is a link to the page where the articles came from.
http://wio.ru/tank/ww2tank.htm#t2

The monster at the road.
On 23-24 June 1941 a single KV-2 of 2nd tank division conducted an armored road block in southern Lithuania (near Rassaynjay town), holding up the German advance. The Germans found themself in a trouble when they lost whole supply truck collumn. Numerious attacks including a battery of 50mm anti-tank guns (which were destroyed at 500m distance), Flak 88 (the Soviets allowed to mount this gun at 700m distance and then killed it) and an engineer unit attack all failed to silence the Russian tank. Artillery fire of 105mm howitzers achieved a hit to the track and the KV was partially immobilised. This heavy tank at the only road and surrounding swamps made German troops supply (with ammo, fuel and food) and wounded soldiers evacuation impossible. The Germans were forced to use such trick: 50(!) tanks immitated an attack, so it became possible to set another 88mm flak, which managed to eliminate the tank after two days it held up the advance of the entire 6th Panzer Division.
The Stukas were not used beacause a commander not allowed an operation "against one tank".
By the Germans' accounts, the crew could have escaped easily several times before the final attack, but the heroes always chooses own fate..

1 versus 43
On 18 August 1941, an alone KV-1 (the number 864, the commander was lt.Kolobanov) was dug in and camouflaged near Krasnogvardeysk town (Leningrad area). The tank had an order to defend the road from Kinigsep. Four more KVs were ordered to defense two other roads. All tanks got double ammoloads, 2/3 of rounds were armor piercing. An offensive of 8th German panzer division was expected. Kolobanaov's KV had great hidden position in the woods on the hill, the crossroad located down there between swamps.
In the next day German motorcycle recon troops, halftrack and one light track passed by road. Five minutes later the expected column of 43 tanks appeared and filled the road. The 1st Soviet round flamed the head tank, after two more shots the 2nd tank was flamed too. Then Kolobanov opened fire on column's tail and flamed the last tank: the Germans were locked. They even couldn't note Soviet tank and opened no-target-fire. Tried to run, some tanks were immobilized in the swamp. The chaos established on the road. Soviet tankers killed 22 German tanks during 30 minutes. Then the KV was spotted by the Germans and they opened aimed fire. In spite of impossibility of German tank guns to penetrate thick KV's armor, knocking rounds made terrible working conditions for Soviet crew. One of German rounds struck the turret ring and the KV was forced to leave its trench and maneuver by whole hull for aim. Then the Soviets noted two German towed guns appeared on the crossroad. The first shell disabled one gun, but another gun managed to do one shot and damaged KV's periscope. Than that gun was destroyed too. Also ammo was almost out, and Kolobanov got congratulations via the radio and an order to go back. Already three another KVs were on the way to the battlefield, and they killed 20 more German tanks.
There were destroyed 42 German tanks total and two guns. Kolobanov's tank got 135 hits, but no one penetration.
Kolobanov was awarded with the Order of Lenin, Usov (driver) with the Order of the Red Banner


Thanks
Ronnie
www.crossroadsdiecast.com
Click to expand...

What a story,absolutely enthralling.Its so good to read this sort of thing on the forum,thanks very much for posting it.I want a KV Tank now!

Rob
 
I'll bet there are similar stories of a well placed Tiger holding up an entire Allied armored division until air power could blast it out, or of one Tiger tearing up an entire Allied armored collumn (Villers Bocage comes to mind on the later). It is scary how certain German (Tiger, Panther) and Russian (T34-85 and KV1) vehicles totally outclassed the American (Sherman, Greant/Lee) and British (Cromwell, Chirchill, Valentine, Matilda) armor in mass production at the time.
 
As long as the Sherman had HVAP, it proved the better tank in Korea.
 
OzDigger said:
And as long as you don't count the M-26 Pershing, M-46 Patton, Centurion and the T-34/85 ;)
Click to expand...


Disagree. The Centurion was the best tank in the world, no doubt. The Pershing was not popular in Korea among the crews (did bad on inclines). The M-46 fixed the problems & performed very well. But all of the above 3 were overkill for the T-34/85.

The Sherman Easy Eight (HVAP) with green crews chopped up the N. Korean T-34's & their veteran crews quite nicely. The Sherman was still in service in 1973 & still managed to kill T-62's.

Easy Eights with green crews defeating T-34's with vets. Tells all.

In the post WW2 era, ammunition became so effective that armor was much less important than it used to be. It soon became whoever got the first hit, & the Sherman had big advantages in bringing it's gun to bear first.
 
So you're basically saying that the Centurion and the M-46 were better tanks than the Sherman but the later was a more even match for the T-34/85. If so, I agree.
 
This discussion is making me wonder how many Korean War vets out there would buy a 30mm tank. The British Tank Regiment is so elite, I would love to see a Centurion. Ahh, hell will probably freeze over before any Korean War stuff is made. :( Still, maybe you guys should ask your friends. Those two USMC tank battle books by Gilbert came out recently, so there must be some interest out there somewhere.
 
Figarti might be your best chance, as they have started a Korean War category........Michael
 
Re: Korean War Armor

Oh, I love this:

"With the exception of the 75-mm gun in the M24, which lacked sufficient power to overcome the armor of the T34 at most angles of impact or location, the guns mounted in our tanks in Korea were able to penetrate with relative ease the armor of the T34 when HVAP OR APC ammunition was used. HVAP ammunition was particularly effective, especially in the 90-mm gun of the M46 or M26. A number of cases are reported of projectiles of this type penetrating enemy armor and then passing out through the other side. Gunnery was generally good; hits were registered usually on the first shot."
 
It's no big deal from my point of view. However the point that I'm making is that HVAP shells were being used by the Germans, Russians etc from the early 1940's onwards and therefore it's not a round only used by the US. It may not have been your intention but your comments suggested that only the US tanks used HVAP ammo. Remember that you started this discussion with your initial claim that the Sherman with HVAP rounds was the best tank in the Korean war.
 
But you caught my interest...is it possible that the US developed the round from captured technology say from...Tunisia?
 
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