Tank t 70 technical specifications. The most massive of the lungs. An objective look at the design flaws of the tank

Hello to all those who like to fight in the sandbox, the site is here! Tankers and tankmen, now we will talk about a really worthwhile small machine, a Soviet light tank of the third level, in front of you T-70 guide.

Without exaggeration, I hasten to inform you that among the huge diversity light equipment at the third level, this device can really please its owner. T-70 WoT has an impressive number of advantages that will allow the player to “bend” in the sandbox and have a lot of fun, but for this, you must know your tank well.

TTX T-70

According to the already established tradition, we will start with what our light tank there is a standard view by the standards of classmates, and also a weak Soviet view range of 310 meters.

It is noteworthy that, unlike most of our classmates, our survival rate is quite good, but with nuances. First of all, have T-70 characteristics frontal armor is impressive.

If we talk about the frontal projection of the hull, then thanks to the excellent slope of the armor plates, the upper frontal part T-70 World of Tanks it has 72 millimeters of armor over its entire area, and the small red square on the side of the model is also reinforced, here the thickness of the metal reaches 113 millimeters. At the same time, it is better to hide the NLD, because it is only a 51-mm section that can ricochet, but in general it penetrates easily.

The turret is protected from the front by a large 50 mm gun mantlet, behind which light tank T-70 has about 86 millimeters of added armor, and the small “shelf” above the mask boasts 98 millimeters of added armor, but the cheeks break through easily, but fortunately they are very small.

A completely different picture opens up when examining the side projection, since the sides have T-70 World of Tanks even thinner than the stern, because there is a measly 15 millimeters of armor without slopes, which can be penetrated not only by land mines, but also by small-caliber machine guns. However, this does not mean that the stern can be substituted; both of these projections are vulnerable and need to be hidden.

In terms of mobility, everything is relative, because maximum speed T-70 tank develops decent and also has excellent maneuverability. But in dynamics we are inferior to many of our classmates, although we cannot call the car slow or slow; in this regard, we are more like a dynamic medium tank.

gun

It's no secret that weapons are the main component of any tank, and in our case the gun is really good, it deserves not only attention, but also respect.

First of all, you should know that T-70 gun Alphastrike has an average level, but in addition it has a high rate of fire, thanks to which we have the opportunity to inflict decent damage per minute, which is approximately 1320 units.

In terms of penetration, our gun is really good, even with an armor-piercing projectile T-70 WoT capable of confidently inflicting damage on classmates and most fourth levels. You can also deal with fives, but for skirmishes with heavy tanks you should have about 15 gold sub-calibers with you.

The accuracy did not let us down either, although not everything is as smooth as we would like. Soviet light tank T-70 has at its disposal a good spread of 100 meters, but the stabilization of our gun is poor and it takes quite a long time to converge, that is, something needs to be done about it.

In general, all weapon indicators T-70 tank I received good results, but there is one serious flaw - the vertical aiming angles. Our barrel only goes down 4 degrees, this is very sad and it will be really difficult to play due to the terrain.

Advantages and disadvantages

As you all understand perfectly well, from knowledge of the strong and weaknesses A lot depends on the vehicle you go into battle with. First of all, you will better understand which modules and skills you should bet on, but this question can also help significantly in building tactics, so now we will highlight the main pros and cons T-70 World of Tanks.
Pros:
Good frontal armor;
Decent mobility (maximum speed and maneuverability);
Impressive damage per minute;
High performance penetration;
Pleasant spread over 100 meters.
Minuses:
Small basic viewing range;
Poor armoring of sides and stern;
Low one-time damage;
Mediocre mixing and stabilization;
Poor elevation angles.

Equipment for T-70

Despite the fact that at the third level the choice additional modules is very limited, it is possible and necessary to strengthen the tank, especially since everything necessary for this device is, in principle, available. To achieve maximum results for tank T-70 equipment It's better to put the following:
1. – as can be seen from the list of shortcomings, this device needs to improve its mixing speed, which is what we will do first.
2. is a good and thoughtful choice that will give a 5% boost to the most important parameters, improving damage, accuracy and slightly increasing visibility.
3. – there is no point in inventing anything, because you can radically increase the viewing range and gain an advantage over the enemy only by choosing this module.

Crew training

A properly trained crew with enough skills at level three is a huge advantage that you should strive for if you really want to conquer the sandbox. The problem is that our crew consists of only two people, but even in such circumstances, for the T-70 it is better to learn the perks in the following sequence:
Commander (gunner, radio operator, loader) – , , , .
Driver mechanic - , , , .

Equipment for T-70

As always, the process of purchasing consumables remains standard, and therefore simple and understandable. If you have little silver in stock or are saving up for a tank, take , , . However, you will feel much more confident in battle if you buy for T-70 equipment in the form of , , , especially understanding the problems with shell shock of such a multifunctional commander. By the way, Soviet tanks rarely burn, so you can also replace the fire extinguisher with one.

Tactics for playing the T-70

From all of the above, you could form an opinion about this device, and I must say that the machine in our hands is really worthwhile, capable of destroying enemies in the sandbox, but for this you need to act correctly.

I want to say right away that ours is most comfortable Soviet light tank T-70 feels at the top of the list, because here our armor shows itself with best side. In order to confidently deal with the enemy, you should always turn your forehead towards him and the hull can be turned quite a bit, so as not to expose the vulnerable side, but to increase the reduced armor of the VLD.

Of course, fighting at the top of the list for T-70 tactics combat consists of taking a position on the front line, where, having hidden your NLD and taking cover from enemy artillery, you can confidently tank, holding back or pushing through the direction together with your allies.

However, when it comes to battles against the fourth and especially fifth levels, on your armor T-70 World of Tanks can no longer rely so blindly. In such cases, we turn into a good support tank, which is capable of excellent damage from behind the backs of stronger teammates.

No less confident T-70 tank feels like standing on the second line, because such tactics are much safer and make it possible to inflict damage with impunity. Fortunately, for remote firing we have pleasant accuracy and good penetration, all that remains is to shine less and target vulnerable areas in the enemy’s armor.

As a result, I would like to say that T-70 WoT- This is one of the few cars at the third level that is comfortable and pleasant to play. Otherwise, try to keep an eye on the mini-map, beware of artillery and formidable level 5 vehicles, and do not expose the sides and stern to the enemies.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet light tanks had to play a much more significant role than what was originally intended for them. Back in December 1939, the light (according to the then classification - “small”) tank T-40 was adopted by the Red Army. It was a small vehicle with a crew of two, armed with two machine guns (a large-caliber DShK and a conventional DT). The T-40 was amphibious, had good mobility, and its armor protected it from small arms fire. The purpose of the tank was reconnaissance, and it was not assigned any serious combat functions. However, the war decreed otherwise.

A column of T-70 tanks on the outskirts of Krasnoye Selo. 1944 (author's collection)

Three days after the German attack, Plant No. 37, which produced the T-40, was ordered to curtail production of these vehicles. Reconnaissance tanks, of course, are always needed, but at that moment the country needed ordinary, linear tanks more. Now plant No. 37 was instructed to use the freed-up capacity to produce the T-50 infantry escort tank. The chief designer of the plant, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Astrov, raised an objection - the T-50 was radically different in design from the T-40 and was much more difficult to manufacture. The plant, which had previously only dealt with light floating machines, would have taken an prohibitively long time to develop it. Instead, Astrov suggested Alternative option actions - to improve the T-40, making it more suitable for the battlefield, and to maximize its production. This, of course, was a half-measure - a light machine-gun reconnaissance aircraft, no matter how you improve it, will not become a full-fledged replacement for a normal tank - but anyone understands that in a desperate situation it is better to have at least some tanks right now than good ones, but someday later, in indefinitely distant future.

Astrov's proposal was given green light, and production of the tank began, which was initially designated T-60, but later became known as T-30 (from the factory designation of the project - “030”). The T-30 differed from the T-40 in a number of simplifications that made its production faster and cheaper. The most significant of them were the abandonment of the ability to swim and the transition to easier-to-manufacture homogeneous (uniformly hardened) armor instead of surface-hardened armor. Subsequently, the weapons also changed - DShK machine gun It turned out to be in short supply in the summer of 1941, since it was produced in quantities of only a few hundred per month. Instead, the T-30 received a 20-mm TNSh automatic cannon, created on the basis aircraft gun SHVAK. Contrary to popular belief, this hardly increased the firepower of the tank, but it did solve the issue of a shortage of weapons.

Tankers resting near the T-70 (author’s collection)

The next logical step was to simplify the shape of the tank. The T-30's hull carried the legacy of the floating T-40 - it had excess volume to ensure positive buoyancy, high sides for stability, and its front part had a rather complex shape to reduce drag when moving in water. All this increased the mass of the tank, its dimensions (and therefore visibility and vulnerability) and, most importantly, complicated production. The tank with a simplified hull shape and reduced dimensions was designated T-60M; in some documents it is called T-70, but eventually the name T-60 stuck, under which it went down in history.

It was the T-60 that bore the brunt of the fighting at the end of forty-one and the beginning of forty-two. The catastrophic losses of the summer campaign led to the fact that there were practically no medium and heavy tanks left in the troops, and due to the evacuation of industry, it was not possible to fill this shortage in the foreseeable future. It was the “sixties” who had to plug the gap. In some cases, they made up up to a third or even half of the Red Army's tank fleet in certain sectors of the front.

German prisoners of war pass by a T-70 tank, which changed owners twice - it was captured by the Germans and used by them, then Soviet troops beat him back. Kyiv, 1944 (author’s collection)

Of course, the T-60, like any emergency improvisation, had significant drawbacks. The most significant of them were the weakness of weapons and insufficient armor. The TNSh gun in terms of real combat value, in fact, was not much different from heavy machine gun– its armor penetration was only sufficient to combat weakly armored vehicles, such as armored personnel carriers and light armored vehicles. The high-explosive effect of the shells was practically zero, so it was difficult to destroy infantry and field fortifications with them. It was necessary to install a more powerful gun with a caliber of at least 37 mm. The armor, although it had been increased to 30-35 millimeters in the frontal part of the hull, still remained insufficient - based on experience in use, the military noted that the T-60 is extremely vulnerable and can be hit by almost any anti-tank weapon at actual combat distances.

Back in October 1941, in parallel with the deployment of T-60 production, Astrov, sent to the Gorky Automobile Plant, together with a number of other designers there, began work on an improved version of the tank, designated “070” or GAZ-70. The main advantage was the reinforced armament - a 45-mm 20-K cannon, used on most tanks and cannon armored vehicles of the Red Army, was installed in a new cast turret with a streamlined shape. Also, instead of the GAZ-202 engine, a significantly more powerful GAZ-203 was installed - in fact, it was two GAZ-202 engines connected in series. The last change required an increase in the body - it was lengthened, and another pair of road wheels was added to the chassis.

A train with T-70 tanks is preparing to be sent to Stalingrad. 1942 (author's collection)

The work on modernization dragged on, despite repeated demands for its acceleration from the top leadership, including Stalin personally. The GAZ-70 prototype was submitted for testing only at the end of February 1942. For the military new tank, however, great impression did not produce. They noted that the armor of the GAZ-70 is the same as that of the T-60, that is, it is clearly insufficient, and the crew is still insufficient for a full-fledged combat vehicle. The GAZ-70 was driven by two tankers - this was the legacy of its ancestor T-40, not affected by any of the previous alterations and remaining so on both the T-30 and T-60. Two people were enough for reconnaissance tank: the driver-mechanic controlled the car, and the commander, located in the turret, essentially played the role of an observer - he had to use weapons only in those few cases when reconnaissance came into fire contact with the enemy. For a combat vehicle, a single-seat turret was a big disadvantage: the commander had to actively participate in the battle - detect the enemy, make decisions about moving the tank and transfer them to the driver, fire from weapons and reload them. This load was too great for one person, and as a result the efficiency of the tank was significantly reduced. It was necessary to increase the crew to three people and, accordingly, expand the turret to a double one in order to relieve at least the loader duties from the commander.

Astrov promised to eliminate the noted shortcomings as quickly as possible. The thickness of the armor was increased to 35 mm in the upper part of the forehead and to 45 mm (like the T-34 medium tank) in the lower part, where according to statistics it falls greatest number hits. The turret was replaced with a welded octagonal one - the original cast one showed too low resistance (it was easily penetrated even by a 20-mm German tank gun) and, moreover, did not have reserves to strengthen the reservation. With the expansion of the crew to three people, however, unforeseen difficulties arose. The enlarged turret, according to calculations, was supposed to increase the weight of the vehicle from nine tons to eleven and a half. The designers had doubts that the chassis elements would withstand such a load - after all, they were originally created for the T-40, which weighed half as much. As a result, it was decided to put the tank into service in existing form, and on March 6, 1942 it was done - the GAZ-70 went into service with the designation T-70.

The development of a three-seat version of the tank began immediately after the two-seat version was put into service. Having tested the production vehicle, weighted with special loads to the expected weight of the new tank (11.5 tons), the designers were convinced that their fears were not in vain - the chassis really could not cope with the increased weight. Tracks broke, torsion bars burst, and the transmission wore out abnormally quickly. The work to strengthen the chassis was successful, but by the time it was completed, management decided that the creation and production of the three-seat version should be entrusted to another plant, so as not to distract GAZ from production self-propelled units SU-76, which the troops needed at all times large quantities. As a result, the three-seat T-70, after making several more improvements, went into production at plant No. 40 in Mytishchi under the name T-80. GAZ, in order not to let the good things go to waste, made the developed changes to the T-70 chassis, and the tank was produced with the designation T-70M from October 1942. At the cost of a slight (about six hundred kilograms) increase in weight, the T-70M received noticeably better, due to wider tracks, cross-country ability and a significantly longer service life of the suspension and transmission. In the end, however, it turned out more bad than good. It was technically impossible to upgrade the existing T-70 to the T-70M, so the troops ended up with two almost identical tanks with incompatible chassis parts. This, for obvious reasons, did not cause joy among the maintenance personnel and repairmen.

T-70 of the 1st Ukrainian Front crosses the Spree River. 1945 (author's collection)

The T-70's combat career was bright, but short-lived. They first went into battle on the Southwestern Front in June 1942. It immediately became clear that, despite all the efforts of the designers to improve the vehicle’s performance, the combat value of light tanks turned out to be low. In the year that has passed since the beginning of the war, light tanks PzKpfw.I and PzKpfw.II have practically disappeared from the ranks of the Panzerwaffe, and medium tanks have significantly increased the thickness of their armor. As a result, the 45-mm 20-K cannon, which was quite sufficient to fight enemy armored vehicles in the summer of '41, became largely useless by the summer of '42. Also, the T-70 turned out to be too vulnerable - although the front of the tank was well armored and the armor plates in it were located at a large angle, which increased protection, the armor on the sides was only 15 mm thick and was located vertically, so it could only protect against bullets. In addition, new modifications of the PzKpfw.III and PzKpfw.IV tanks, armed with long-barreled guns, and powerful 75-mm anti-tank guns PaK.40 - it was not difficult for them to penetrate the armor of the T-70 from any angle at the entire distance aimed shooting. It was noted, however, that on average, other things being equal, the survival rate of the T-70 is slightly higher than that of the T-34 and KV due to its smaller size. Positive Feedback The tank was awarded with good reliability, ease of use and low weight. The latter not only facilitated the evacuation of damaged tanks from the battlefield, but also allowed the “seventies” to pass where other tanks could not pass, and to take the enemy by surprise with attacks from unexpected directions. This was also facilitated by the low noise level of the T-70 in motion - according to eyewitnesses, it made no more noise than a truck, which made it easier to covertly advance to positions and approach the enemy.

The most widespread use of the T-70 was in the Battle of Kursk - for example, the tank forces of the Central Front consisted of almost a quarter of it (369 vehicles out of 1487 available on July 4, 1943). As a result of the operation, it was concluded that, due to the rapid development of armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons, the T-70 had finally lost even the small combat value that it had at the time of its creation. In addition, the situation with the production of full-fledged, not ersatz, tanks was no longer as acute as two years ago, so in October 1943 the T-70 was taken out of production, and the freed up resources were directed to the production of self-propelled artillery installations SU-76M, based on its chassis. The vehicles that remained in service were sent to training units, or were used as command vehicles in units armed with the SU-76M. Some returned to the original role of their distant ancestors, taking up exploration. Many of them survived until the end of the war - at the beginning of 1946, there were 1,502 T-70 and T-70M tanks in the Soviet armed forces (out of 8,231 produced).

T-70 in winter camouflage. Leningrad Front, 1944 (author's collection)

T-70 has become the most massive lung tank Soviet Union in World War II. Despite the fact that most often he had to be used in a role completely unsuitable for his characteristics, he honestly completed the task to the best of his ability. It was of little use for open combat even at the time of its appearance, not to mention the later stages of the war, but if used correctly it could still be useful, especially in the absence of strong anti-tank defenses among the enemy. There are also known cases of the T-70 successfully fighting enemy armored vehicles. For example, in January 1943, the crew of Senior Lieutenant Zakharchenko, having used up ammunition, went to ram and disabled two German tanks with a ram. The type of tanks is not indicated in the documents, but since the 100th Tank Battalion acted as the enemy special purpose, these were obviously PzKpfw.II - conventional or flamethrower. As a result of the battle, the commander and chief of staff of the German battalion were captured by the crew. There is a known case when a T-70 of the 3rd Guards Tank Army destroyed two heavy tank"Panther". The story may seem incredible, but the Panther's side armor was relatively weak, and the ammunition rack was located immediately behind it - with close range even a 45 mm gun had every chance of coping. In the capable hands of a trained and cold-blooded crew, the T-70 could be extremely formidable - which once again confirms the validity of the old truth: “Weapons don’t fight, people fight.”

Already in October 1941 it became clear that new lightweight The T-60 tank, whose serial production began a month earlier, is almost useless on the battlefield. Its armor was easily penetrated by all Wehrmacht anti-tank weapons, and its own weapons were too weak to fight enemy tanks. It was not possible to strengthen both without radically changing the design. The engine and gearbox were already working under strain. An increase in the mass of a combat vehicle, inevitable with increased armor and armament, would simply lead to the failure of these units. A different solution was required.

In September 1941, the design bureau of plant No. 37, at that time the leading one in the production of the T-60, proposed an option for its modernization, which received the index T-45. In fact, it was the same T-60, but with a new turret in which a 45-mm cannon was installed. This vehicle was supposed to use the new ZIS-60 engine with a power of 100 hp, which would increase the thickness of the frontal armor of the tank to 35 - 45 mm. However, the ZIS plant was unable to master engine production due to the evacuation from Moscow to the Urals, to the city of Miass. The attempt to install a ZIS-16 engine with a power of 86 hp on the tank did not save the situation. Its development also did not go smoothly, and time did not wait.

In parallel with plant No. 37, work on creating a new light tank began at the Gorky Automobile Plant. There was nothing unusual in this development of events - this enterprise already had production experience armored vehicles while doing serial production T-27 tankettes and T-37A small amphibious tanks in the 1930s. A number of prototypes of armored vehicles were also designed and manufactured here. In September 1941, the plant received the task of organizing mass production of the T-60 light tank, for which a separate structural unit was created at GAZ tank production and the corresponding design bureau In early September chief designer plant No. 37, N.A. Astrov drove under his own power from Moscow to Gorky a prototype of the T-60 tank, which was to be used at GAZ as a standard. N.A. Astrov himself was also left at GAZ to help organize the production of tanks.

It was Astrov who presented to the GABTU of the Red Army a project for a new light tank with reinforced armor and weapons, created on the basis of the T-60. As power plant This car was supposed to use a pair of GAZ-202 automobile engines. Prototypes of twin power units, designated GAZ-203, were manufactured by the end of November. However, during the very first tests of the twins, after 6 - 10 hours of operation, the crankshafts of the second engines began to break, and only thanks to the efforts of the designers under the leadership of A.A. Lipgart, the resource of the twin power unit was brought to the required 100 engine hours. The GAZ design bureau began designing a new tank at the end of October 1941. It was carried out very quickly, using a technique common in the automotive industry that was unusual for tank designers. General types The combat vehicle was drawn life-size on special aluminum plates measuring 7x3 m, painted with white enamel and divided into squares measuring 200x200 mm. To reduce the area of ​​the drawing and increase its accuracy, a plan was superimposed on the main view - a longitudinal section - as well as full and partial transverse sections. The drawings were made as detailed as possible and included all components and parts of the internal and external equipment of the machine. These drawings later served as the basis for control during the assembly of the prototype and even the entire first series of machines.
At the end of December 1941, for the tank, which received the factory designation GAZ-70, an armored hull was welded and a turret designed by V. Dedkov was cast. Along with the cast one, a welded turret version was also developed. Assembly of the tank began in January 1942 and, for a number of reasons, proceeded rather slowly. It was only completed on February 14, after which the tank was sent to Moscow, where it was shown to representatives of the GABTU. The military new car didn't generate much enthusiasm. In terms of armor protection, the tank was only slightly superior to the T-60, and the nominally increased power of the weapons, thanks to the installation of a 45-mm cannon, was offset by the placement in the turret of one person, a jack of all trades - commander, gunner and loader. However, N.A. Astrov promised to the shortest possible time eliminate the shortcomings Quite quickly it was possible to increase the armor, bringing the thickness of the lower frontal plate of the hull to 45 mm, and the upper one to 35 mm As a result, by decree of the State Defense Committee of March 6, 1942, a new fighting machine was adopted by the Red Army under the designation T-70. Two days later, the State Defense Committee issued a decree on the production of the tank, according to which factories No. 37 and No. 38 were involved in its production from April. However, reality did not allow these plans to be fully realized. For example, the new tank required twice as many engines as the T- 60 It was not possible to establish production of a cast turret, and GAZ had to quickly provide other factories with documentation for a welded turret. As a result, the April plan for the production of the T-70 was fulfilled only by GAZ, which assembled 50 vehicles. Plant No. 38 in Kirov was able to produce only seven tanks, and at Plant No. 37 their assembly could not be established either by April or in the future.

The layout of the new vehicle was not fundamentally different from that of the T-60 tank. The driver was located in the bow of the hull on the left side. The tank commander was located in the rotating turret, also shifted to the left side. In the middle part of the hull along the right side, two engines were installed in series on a common frame, forming a single power unit. The transmission and drive wheels were located in front. .
The tank hull was welded from rolled armor plates with thicknesses of 6, 10, 15, 25, 35 and 45 mm. The welds were reinforced with riveting. The front and rear hull sheets had rational angles of inclination. In the upper frontal plate there was a driver's hatch, in the cover of which tanks of the first production had a viewing slot with a triplex, and then a rotating periscope observation device was installed.

The welded faceted turret, made from 35 mm thick armor plates, was mounted on a ball bearing in the middle part of the hull and had the shape of a truncated pyramid. The welded joints of the turret walls were reinforced with armored corners. The frontal part had a cast mantlet with embrasures for installing a cannon, machine gun and sight. An entrance hatch for the tank commander was made in the roof of the turret. A periscopic mirror observation device was installed in the armored hatch cover, which provided the commander with all-round visibility. In addition, the cover had a hatch for flag signaling.

The T-70 tank was equipped with a 45-mm tank gun model 1938 and, to the left of it, a coaxial DT machine gun. For the convenience of the tank commander, the gun was shifted to the right of the longitudinal axis of the turret. The length of the gun barrel was 46 calibers, the height of the firing line was 1540 mm. The vertical aiming angles of the twin installation ranged from -6° to +20°. For shooting, telescopic sights were used TMFP (on some tanks a TOP sight was installed) and mechanical - as a backup Sighting range The firing range was 3600 m, the maximum was 4800 m. When using a mechanical sight, only direct fire was possible at a distance of no more than 1000 m. The rate of fire of the gun was 12 rounds per minute. The gear rotation mechanism of the turret was installed to the left of the commander, and the screw lifting mechanism of the coaxial installation was to the right . Trigger The gun was foot operated, the gun was released by pressing the right pedal, and the machine gun by pressing the left pedal. The ammunition included 90 rounds with armor-piercing and fragmentation shells for the cannon (of which 20 rounds were in the magazine) and 945 rounds for the DT machine gun (15 discs). starting speed an armor-piercing projectile weighing 1.42 kg was 760 m/s, a fragmentation projectile weighing 2.13 kg was 335 m/s. After firing an armor-piercing projectile, the cartridge case was ejected automatically. When shooting fragmentation projectile Due to the shorter recoil length of the gun, opening the bolt and removing the cartridge case was done manually.

The power plant of the GAZ-203 (70-6000) consisted of two four-stroke 6-cylinder carburetor engines GAZ-202 (GAZ 70-6004 - front and GAZ 70-6005 - rear) with a total power of 140 hp. The engine crankshafts were connected by a coupling with elastic bushings. The flywheel housing of the front engine was connected to the starboard side by a rod to prevent lateral vibrations of the power unit. The battery ignition system, lubrication system and fuel (except tanks) system for each engine were independent. Two gas tanks with a total capacity of 440 liters were located on the left side of the aft compartment of the hull in a compartment isolated by armored partitions.
The transmission consisted of a two-disc semi-centrifugal main clutch of dry friction (steel on ferrodo), a four-speed automotive-type gearbox (4+1), a main gear with a bevel gear, two final clutches with band brakes and two simple single-row final drives. The main clutch and gearbox were assembled from parts borrowed from the ZIS-5 truck.

The tank propulsion system, applied to one side, included a drive wheel with a removable pinion gear, five single-pitch rubber-coated road wheels and three all-metal support rollers, a guide wheel with a crank mechanism for tensioning the track, and a small-link caterpillar of 91 tracks. The designs of the idler wheel and support roller were unified. The width of the cast track track was 260 mm. The suspension was individual torsion bar.
Command tanks were equipped with a 9R or 12RT radio station located in the turret, and an internal intercom TPU-2F Na linear tanks a light-signal device was installed for internal communication between the commander and the driver and an internal intercom TPU-2.
During production, the tank's weight increased from 9.2 to 9.8 tons, and its highway range decreased from 360 to 320 km.

At the beginning of October 1942, GAZ, and from November Plant No. 38 switched to producing T-70M tanks with improved chassis The width (from 260 to 300 mm) and the pitch of the tracks, the width of the road wheels, as well as the diameter of the torsion bars (from 33.5 to 36 mm) of the suspension and the ring gears of the drive wheels were increased. The number of tracks in the caterpillar was reduced from 91 to 80 pieces. In addition, the support rollers, stopping brakes and final drives were strengthened. The mass of the tank increased to 10 tons, and the highway range decreased to 250 km. The gun's ammunition load was reduced to 70 rounds.

From the end of December 1942, Plant No. 38 stopped producing tanks and switched to the production of SU-76 self-propelled guns. As a result, starting from 1943, light tanks for the Red Army were produced only at GAZ. At the same time, in the second half of 1943, production was accompanied by great difficulties. From June 5 to June 14, the plant was subjected to German air raids. 2,170 bombs were dropped on the Avtozavodsky district of Gorky, of which 1,540 were dropped directly on the territory of the plant. More than 50 buildings and structures were completely destroyed or severely damaged. In particular, the chassis, wheel, assembly and thermal workshops No. 2, the main conveyor, and the locomotive depot burned down; many other workshops of the plant were seriously damaged. As a result, the production of BA-64 armored vehicles and cars had to be stopped. However, the production of tanks did not stop, although it decreased somewhat - only in August was it possible to cover the May production volume. But the century of the light tank had already been measured - on August 28, 1943, a GKO decree was issued, according to which, from October 1 of the same year, GAZ switched to the production of SU-76M self-propelled units. In total, 8,226 tanks of the T-70 and T-70M modifications were produced in 1942 - 1943.

The T-70 light tank and its improved version T-70M were in service with tank brigades and regiments of the so-called mixed organization, together with the T-34 medium tank. The brigade had 32 T-34 tanks and 21 T-70 tanks. Such brigades could be part of tank and mechanized corps or be separate. A tank regiment was armed with 23 T-34 and 16 T-70 tanks. At the same time, regiments could be part of mechanized ones brigades or be separate By the spring of 1944, T-70 light tanks were excluded from the staff of tank units of the Red Army. Nevertheless, in some brigades they continued to be used for quite a long time. In addition, some tanks of this type were used in self-propelled artillery divisions, regiments and brigades SU-76 as command vehicles. They were often equipped with tank units in motorcycle units. T-70 and T-70M tanks took part in combat operations until the end of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War.

The T-70 tanks received their baptism of fire during the battles in the South-Western direction in June-July 1942 and suffered serious losses. Already the first battles revealed the low combat qualities of the new light tanks, the armament of which did not allow them to fight German medium tanks (the share of light combat tanks vehicles in the Wehrmacht were rapidly declining), and the armor protection was insufficient when used as tanks for direct infantry support. In addition, the crew had only two tankers, one of whom was extremely overloaded. numerous responsibilities, as well as the lack of communications equipment on combat vehicles, made it extremely difficult to use them as part of units and led to increased losses.

The Battle of Kursk marked the final point in the combat career of these tanks - the T-70's ability to survive, not to mention emerge victorious, in an open battle with new German heavy tanks was close to zero. At the same time, the troops also noted the positive advantages of the “seventies”. According to some tank commanders, The T-70 was perfectly suited for pursuing a retreating enemy, which became relevant in 1943. The reliability of the T-70's power plant and chassis was higher than that of the T-34, which made it possible to make long marches. The “Seventy” was low-noise, which again differed sharply from the roaring engine and rattling tracks of the “Thirty-four”, which at night, for example, could be heard 1.5 km away.

In collisions with enemy tanks, the T-70 crews had to show miracles of ingenuity. Much depended on the crew’s knowledge of the features of their vehicle, its advantages and disadvantages. In the hands of skilled tankers, the T-70 was formidable. For example, on July 6, 1943, in the battles for the village of Pokrovka in the Oboyansky direction, the crew of a T-70 tank from the 49th Guards tank brigade, commanded by Lieutenant B.V. Pavlovich, managed to knock out three medium German tanks and one Panther. A completely exceptional incident occurred on August 21, 1943 in the 178th Tank Brigade. When repelling an enemy counterattack, the commander of the T-70 tank, Lieutenant A.L. Dmitrienko noticed a retreating German tank. Having caught up with the enemy, the lieutenant ordered his driver to move next to him (apparently in " dead zone") It was possible to shoot point-blank, but, seeing that the hatch in the turret German tank open ( German tank crews almost always went into battle with the turret hatches open), Dmitrienko climbed out of the T-70, jumped onto the armor of the enemy vehicle and threw a grenade into the hatch. The crew of the German tank was destroyed, and the tank itself was towed to our location and, after minor repairs, was used in battle.

Design and production

Already in October 1941, it became clear that the new light tank T-60, the serial production of which began a month earlier, was almost useless on the battlefield. Its armor was easily penetrated by all Wehrmacht anti-tank weapons, and its own weapons were too weak to fight enemy tanks. It was not possible to strengthen both without radically changing the design. The engine and gearbox were already working under strain. An increase in the mass of a combat vehicle, inevitable with increased armor and armament, would simply lead to the failure of these units. A different solution was required.

In September 1941, the design bureau of plant No. 37, at that time the leading one in the production of the T-60, proposed an option for its modernization, which received the index T-45. In fact, it was the same T-60, but with a new turret in which a 45-mm cannon was installed. This vehicle was supposed to use the new ZIS-60 engine with a power of 100 hp, which would increase the thickness of the frontal armor of the tank to 35–45 mm. However, the ZIS plant was unable to master engine production due to the evacuation from Moscow to the Urals, to the city of Miass. The attempt to install a ZIS-16 engine with 86 hp on the tank did not save the situation. With its development, not everything went smoothly either, and time did not wait.

In parallel with plant No. 37, work on creating a new light tank began at the Gorky Automobile Plant. There was nothing unusual in this development of events - this enterprise already had experience in the production of armored vehicles, having been engaged in the serial production of T-27 tankettes and T-37A small amphibious tanks in the 1930s. A number of prototypes of armored vehicles were also designed and manufactured here. In September 1941, the plant received the task of organizing mass production of the T-60 light tank, for which a separate structural division of tank production and a corresponding design bureau were created at GAZ. In early September, the chief designer of plant No. 37 N.A. Astrov drove under his own power from Moscow to Gorky a prototype of the T-60 tank, which was to be used at GAZ as a standard. N.A. himself Astrov was also retained at GAZ to help organize tank production.

It was Astrov who presented to the GABTU of the Red Army a project for a new light tank with reinforced armor and weapons, created on the basis of the T-60. It was planned to use a pair of GAZ-202 automobile engines as the power plant for this machine. Prototypes of twin power units, designated GAZ-203, were manufactured by the end of November. However, during the very first tests of the twin engines, after 6–10 hours of operation, the crankshafts of the second engines began to break, and only thanks to the efforts of the designers under the leadership of A.A. Lipgart managed to bring the resource of the twin power unit to the required 100 engine hours. The GAZ design bureau began designing a new tank at the end of October 1941. It was carried out very quickly, using a technique common in the automotive industry, which was unusual for tank designers. General views of the combat vehicle were drawn life-size on special aluminum plates measuring 7x3 m, painted with white enamel and divided into squares measuring 200x200 mm. To reduce the area of ​​the drawing and increase its accuracy, a plan, as well as full and partial cross sections, were superimposed on the main view - a longitudinal section. The drawings were made as detailed as possible and included all components and parts of the internal and external equipment of the machine. These drawings later served as the basis for control during the assembly of the prototype and even the entire first series of machines

At the end of December 1941, an armored hull was welded and a turret designed by V. Dedkov was cast for the tank, which received the factory designation GAZ-70. Along with the cast one, a welded turret version was also developed. Assembly of the tank began in January 1942 and, for a number of reasons, proceeded rather slowly. It was completed only on February 14, after which the tank was sent to Moscow, where it was shown to representatives of the GABTU. The military did not arouse much enthusiasm for the new vehicle. In terms of armor protection, the tank was only slightly superior to the T-60, and the nominally increased power of the weapons, thanks to the installation of a 45-mm cannon, was offset by the placement in the turret of one person, a jack of all trades - commander, gunner and loader. However, N.A. Astrov promised to eliminate the shortcomings as soon as possible.

Quite quickly it was possible to increase the armor, bringing the thickness of the lower frontal plate of the hull to 45 mm, and the upper one to 35 mm. As a result, by decree of the State Defense Committee of March 6, 1942, the new combat vehicle was adopted by the Red Army under the designation T-70. Two days later, the State Defense Committee issued a decree on the production of the tank, according to which factories No. 37 and No. 38 were involved in its production from April. However, reality did not allow these plans to be fully realized. For example, the new tank required twice as many engines as the T-60. It was not possible to establish production of a cast turret, and GAZ had to quickly provide other factories with documentation for a welded turret. As a result, the April plan for the production of the T-70 was fulfilled only by GAZ, which assembled 50 vehicles. Plant No. 38 in Kirov was able to produce only seven tanks, and at Plant No. 37 their assembly could not be established either by April or in the future.

Layout and device

The layout of the new vehicle was not fundamentally different from that of the T-60 tank. The driver was located in the bow of the hull on the left side. The tank commander was located in the rotating turret, also shifted to the left side. In the middle part of the hull along the starboard side, two engines were installed in series on a common frame, forming a single power unit. The transmission and drive wheels were located in front.

The tank hull was welded from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 6, 10, 15, 25, 35 and 45 mm. The welds were reinforced with riveting. The front and rear hull sheets had rational angles of inclination. In the upper frontal plate there was a driver's hatch, in the cover of which tanks of the first production had a viewing slot with a triplex, and then a rotating periscope observation device was installed.

The welded faceted turret, made from 35 mm thick armor plates, was mounted on a ball bearing in the middle part of the hull and had the shape of a truncated pyramid. The welded joints of the turret walls were reinforced with armored corners. The frontal part had a cast mask with embrasures for installing a cannon, machine gun and sight. An entrance hatch for the tank commander was made in the roof of the turret. A periscope mirror observation device was installed in the armored hatch cover, providing the commander with all-round visibility. In addition, there was a hatch in the lid for a flag alarm.

The T-70 tank was equipped with a 45-mm tank gun mod. 1938 and to the left of it is a coaxial DT machine gun. For the convenience of the tank commander, the gun was shifted to the right of the longitudinal axis of the turret. The length of the gun barrel was 46 calibers, the height of the firing line was 1540 mm. The vertical aiming angles of the twin installation ranged from -6° to +20°. The following sights were used for shooting: telescopic TMFP (a TOP sight was installed on some tanks) and a mechanical one as a backup. The target firing range was 3600 m, the maximum was 4800 m. When using a mechanical sight, only direct fire was possible at a distance of no more than 1000 m. The gun's rate of fire was 12 rounds per minute. The gear rotation mechanism of the turret was installed to the left of the commander, and the screw lifting mechanism of the twin installation was installed to the right. The trigger mechanism of the gun was foot-operated; the gun was released by pressing the right pedal, and the machine gun by pressing the left pedal. The ammunition included 90 rounds with armor-piercing and fragmentation shells for the cannon (of which 20 rounds were in the magazine) and 945 rounds for the DT machine gun (15 discs). The initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile weighing 1.42 kg was 760 m/s, and a fragmentation projectile weighing 2.13 kg was 335 m/s. After firing an armor-piercing projectile, the cartridge case was ejected automatically. When firing a fragmentation projectile, due to the shorter recoil length of the gun, opening the bolt and removing the cartridge case was done manually.

The power plant of the GAZ-203 (70-6000) consisted of two four-stroke 6-cylinder carburetor engines GAZ-202 (GAZ 70-6004 - front and GAZ 70-6005 - rear) with a total power of 140 hp. The engine crankshafts were connected by a coupling with elastic bushings. The flywheel housing of the front engine was connected to the starboard side by a rod to prevent lateral vibrations of the power unit. The battery ignition system, lubrication system and fuel (except tanks) system for each engine were independent. Two gas tanks with a total capacity of 440 liters were located on the left side of the aft compartment of the hull in a compartment isolated by armored partitions.

The transmission consisted of a two-disc semi-centrifugal main clutch of dry friction (steel on ferrodo), a four-speed automotive-type gearbox (4+1), a main gear with a bevel gear, two final clutches with band brakes and two simple single-row final drives. The main clutch and gearbox were assembled from parts borrowed from the ZIS-5 truck.

The tank propulsion system, applied to one side, included a drive wheel with a removable pinion gear, five single-pitch rubber-coated road wheels and three all-metal support rollers, a guide wheel with a crank mechanism for tensioning the track, and a small-link caterpillar of 91 tracks. The designs of the guide wheel and support roller were unified. The width of the cast track track was 260 mm. Suspension – individual torsion bar.

Command tanks were equipped with a 9R or 12RT radio station located in the turret and an internal intercom TPU-2F. Linear tanks were equipped with a light-signal device for internal communication between the commander and the driver and an internal intercom TPU-2.

During production, the tank's weight increased from 9.2 to 9.8 tons, and its highway range decreased from 360 to 320 km.

At the beginning of October 1942, GAZ, and from November plant No. 38 switched to producing T-70M tanks with an improved chassis. The width (from 260 to 300 mm) and the pitch of the tracks, the width of the road wheels, as well as the diameter of the torsion bars (from 33.5 to 36 mm) of the suspension and the ring gears of the drive wheels were increased. The number of tracks in the caterpillar was reduced from 91 to 80 pieces. In addition, the support rollers, stopping brakes and final drives were strengthened. The tank's weight increased to 10 tons, and its highway range decreased to 250 m. The gun's ammunition capacity was reduced to 70 rounds.

From the end of December 1942, Plant No. 38 stopped producing tanks and switched to the production of SU-76 self-propelled guns. As a result, starting from 1943, light tanks for the Red Army were produced only by GAZ. Moreover, in the second half of 1943, the release was accompanied by great difficulties. From June 5 to June 14, the plant was subjected to German air raids. 2,170 bombs were dropped on the Avtozavodsky district of Gorky, of which 1,540 were dropped directly on the territory of the plant. More than 50 buildings and structures were completely destroyed or severely damaged. In particular, the chassis, wheel, assembly and thermal workshops No. 2, the main conveyor, and the locomotive depot burned down, and many other workshops of the plant were seriously damaged. As a result, the production of BA-64 armored vehicles and cars had to be stopped. However, the production of tanks did not stop, although it decreased slightly - only in August was it possible to cover the May production volume. But the century of the light tank had already been measured - on August 28, 1943, a GKO decree was issued, according to which, from October 1 of the same year, GAZ switched to the production of SU-76M self-propelled units. In total, 8,226 tanks of the T-70 and T-70M modifications were produced in 1942–1943.

Light tank T-70 in battles

The T-70 light tank and its improved version T-70M were in service with tank brigades and regiments of the so-called mixed organization, together with the T-34 medium tank. The brigade had 32 T-34 tanks and 21 T-70 tanks. Such brigades could be part of tank and mechanized corps or be separate. The tank regiment was armed with 23 T-34s and 16 T-70s. In this case, the regiments could be part of mechanized brigades or be separate. By the spring of 1944, light T-70 tanks were excluded from the staff of tank units of the Red Army. Nevertheless, in some brigades they continued to be used for quite a long time. In addition, some tanks of this type were used in self-propelled artillery divisions, regiments and SU-76 brigades as command vehicles. They often equipped tank units in motorcycle units. T-70 and T-70M tanks took part in hostilities until the end of the Great Patriotic War

The T-70 tanks received their baptism of fire during the battles in the South-Western direction in June-July 1942 and suffered serious losses. Already the first battles revealed the low combat qualities of the new light tanks, the armament of which did not allow them to fight German medium tanks (the share of light combat vehicles in the Wehrmacht was rapidly declining), and the armor protection was insufficient when used as direct infantry support tanks. In addition, the presence of only two tankers in the crew, one of whom was extremely overloaded with numerous responsibilities, as well as the lack of communications equipment on combat vehicles, made it extremely difficult to use them as part of units and led to increased losses.

The Battle of Kursk marked the final point in the combat career of these tanks - the T-70’s ability to survive, not to mention emerge victorious, in an open battle with new German heavy tanks was close to zero. At the same time, the troops also noted the positive advantages of the “seventy”. According to some tank commanders, the T-70 was the best suited for pursuing a retreating enemy, which became relevant in 1943. The reliability of the T-70's power plant and chassis was higher than that of the T-34, which made it possible to make long marches. The “Seventy” was low-noise, which again differed sharply from the roaring engine and rattling tracks of the “Thirty-four”, which at night, for example, could be heard 1.5 km away.

In clashes with enemy tanks, the T-70 crews had to show miracles of ingenuity. Much depended on the crew’s knowledge of the features of their vehicle, its advantages and disadvantages. In the hands of skilled tankers, the T-70 was a formidable weapon. So, for example, on July 6, 1943, in the battles for the village of Pokrovka in the Oboyansky direction, the crew of the T-70 tank from the 49th Guards Tank Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant B.V. Pavlovich, managed to knock out three medium German tanks and one Panther!

A completely exceptional incident occurred on August 21, 1943 in the 178th Tank Brigade. When repelling an enemy counterattack, the commander of the T-70 tank, Lieutenant A.L. Dmitrienko noticed a retreating German tank. Having caught up with the enemy, the lieutenant ordered his driver to move next to him (apparently in the “dead zone”). It was possible to shoot point-blank, but when he saw that the hatch in the turret of the German tank was open (German tank crews almost always went into battle with open turret hatches), Dmitrienko climbed out of the T-70, jumped onto the armor of the enemy vehicle and threw a grenade into the hatch. The crew of the German tank was destroyed, and the tank itself was towed to our location and, after minor repairs, was used in battle.

T-70 tanks in the battles of the Great Patriotic War
Tank T-70M in the military museum of Verkhnyaya Pyshma