Tank T 70 of the Second World War. The most massive of the lungs. Design and description

Design and production

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 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 is underway to create a new light tank deployed 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 subdivision 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. 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 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, 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 subsequently served as the basis for control during assembly. prototype and even the entire first series of cars

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 the shortest possible time correct deficiencies.

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, 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

Layout new car 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. 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 twin installation was installed 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 a cannon (of which 20 shots were in the magazine) and 945 rounds for a 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 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. On 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 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 states tank units 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 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 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 " 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.

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

In October 1941 it became clear that the new light tank The T-60, which was launched in September, is practically useless on the battlefield. The fact is that it had too weak weapons and armor, which was easily penetrated by enemy tanks. It was impossible to correct these shortcomings without a radical change in the design, since its engine and gearbox were already working in overstressed mode. An increase in the mass of the tank, which is inevitable with increased armor and weapons, would put these units out of action.

At the end of October 1941, specialists design bureau The Gorky Automobile Plant began developing a new tank, which received the index GAZ-70 or military designation T-70.

The work proceeded very quickly, using a prima standard commonly used in the automotive industry, which was unusual for tank designers. General views of the combat vehicle were made life-size on special aluminum plates measuring 7x3 meters, which were 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, which included all the parts and components of the external and internal equipment of the tank, were carried out in as much detail as possible and in the future they served as the basis for control when assembling the prototype.

Design and description

The T-70 light tank had a classic design, with a front-mounted transmission. The driver-mechanic's seat was located in the bow of the hull on the left side, and the tank commander's seat was in a rotating turret shifted to the left side. In the middle part of the hull along the starboard side, two engines paired in series were installed on a common frame, which made up a single power unit. The transmission and drive wheels were in front.

The hull was welded from rolled armor plates, which had a thickness of 6, 10, 15, 25, 35 and 45 mm. In particularly critical areas, the welds were reinforced with riveting. The front and rear plates of the armored hull had rational angles of inclination. A welded faceted turret made of 35 mm thick armor plates was mounted on a ball bearing in the middle part of the hull. The welded joints of the turret were reinforced with armored angles. The frontal part of the turret had a cast swinging mantlet with embrasures for mounting a cannon, machine gun and telescopic 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. There was also a hatch in the lid for a flag alarm.

As weapons, the T-70 tank was equipped with a 45-mm tank gun of the 1938 model and to the left of it a coaxial DT machine gun. The gun was shifted to the right of the longitudinal axis of the turret, which provided greater convenience for the commander's work. The gear mechanism for turning the turret was installed to the left of the commander, and the screw lifting mechanism of the twin installation was on the right. The gun had a foot trigger mechanism, which was operated by pressing the right pedal, and the machine gun by pressing the left pedal. The ammunition consisted of 90 rounds of armor-piercing and fragmentation shells for the cannon and 945 rounds of ammunition for the DT machine gun.

Gun characteristics:

• height of the firing line – 1540 mm;
• vertical tilt angle of the coupled installation – from -6 to +20 degrees;
• target firing range – 3600 m;
• maximum firing range – 4800 m;
• rate of fire – 12 rounds/min.

The GAZ-203 engine was chosen as the power plant, which consisted of two GAZ-202 four-stroke six-cylinder carburetor engines with a total power of 140 hp. The engine crankshafts were connected using a coupling with elastic bushings. The front engine flywheel housing was connected by a rod to the starboard side, which prevented lateral vibrations. For each engine, the battery ignition system, lubrication system and fuel system were independent. The tank was equipped with two fuel tanks with a total capacity of 440 liters, which were located on the left side of the aft compartment of the hull in a compartment isolated by armored partitions.

The transmission of the T-70 tank consisted of a two-disc semi-centrifugal dry friction main clutch, a four-speed automotive-type gearbox, a final drive 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 note: “The command tanks were equipped with a 9R or 12RT radio station, which was 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-mechanic and an internal intercom TPU-2.”

The propulsion unit on each side included: drive wheels 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 fine-link caterpillar of 91 tracks with a pitch of 98 mm. The design of the idler wheel and support roller were unified. The width of the cast track track was 260 mm. Suspension – individual torsion bar.

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

Performance characteristics and dimensions T-70 tank:

• length – 4285 mm;
• width – 2420 mm;
• height – 2035 mm;
• ground clearance - 300 mm;
• armament - 20K cannon, model 1934, 45 mm caliber, DT machine gun, model 1929, 7.62 mm caliber;
• communication means - intercom TPU-2 and on command tanks radio station 12RT or 9P;
• obstacles to be overcome – angle of ascent 28 degrees, ditch width 1.0 meters, wall height 0.6 meters, ford depth 0.9 meters;
• maximum speed – 45 km/h;
• Power reserve – 250 km.

Assembly and testing

At the end of December 1942, a hull was made for the first tank and a turret designed by V. Dedkov was cast. Simultaneously with the cast one, a welded version of the turret was also developed. In January 1942, assembly began, which, for a number of reasons, was completed only on February 14. The tank was then sent to Moscow and shown there to representatives of the Main Armored Directorate. The military reacted rather coolly to the new tank, since in terms of armor protection it was only slightly superior to the T-60 and had an increased mass due to the installation of a 45-mm cannon, and the power of the weapons was offset by only one place for a person in the turret, who must perform the duties of commander, gunner and loader However, chief designer N.A. Astrov promised to eliminate all shortcomings in a short time.

Then tests were carried out on a prototype of the T-70 tank and test firing from the main weapon. The new tank, in comparison with its predecessor, had a higher specific power (15.2 hp/t versus 11 hp/t), more powerful weapons (45 mm gun instead of 20 mm) and enhanced armor protection (45 -mm armor instead of 20-35mm).

Based on the test results, the new tank was adopted by the Red Army by decree of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of March 6, 1942. Two days later, the following GKO decree was issued on the production of the tank from April at factories No. 37 and No. 38, as well as the Gorky Automobile Plant. However, the new tank required twice as many parts as the previous tank, and it was not possible to organize the production of the turret and the Gorky Automobile Plant quickly had to provide documentation for the welded turret to other factories.

The T-70 tank was produced from spring to November 1942, and then it was replaced by a modernized one.

The use of T-70 tanks during the Great Patriotic War

Tank and mechanized corps could include tank brigades consisting of 32 tanks T-34 and 21 T-70 tanks. However, by the spring of 1944, this tank model was excluded from the staff of the tank units of the Red Army, but in some brigades they continued to be used for quite a long time.

The first to receive new tanks were the 157th and 162nd separate tank brigades, which were formed in the city of Murom in the first half of 1942. in each of these brigades there were 65 such vehicles. Even before the outbreak of hostilities, both brigades were reorganized into a more traditional mixed organization. The new tanks received their baptism of fire during battles in the southwestern direction in June-July 1942, where they suffered significant losses. Already the first battles showed their low fighting qualities, insufficient armor protection when using tanks as infantry support, and weak weapons that did not allow them to fight German medium tanks.

However, in capable hands the T-70 tank was a formidable weapon. So, on July 6, 1943, in the battles for the village of Pokovka in the Oboyan direction, the tank crew under the command of Lieutenant V.V. Pavlovich from the 49th Guards Tank Brigade was able to knock out three medium German tanks and one Panther.

On August 21, 1943, tank commander Lieutenant A.L. Dmitrienko of the 178th Tank Brigade discovered a retreating German tank and began pursuing it. Having caught up with the enemy, Dmitrienko noticed that the hatch in the turret of the enemy tank was open, he climbed out of his tank, 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.

Fact: « A large number of T-70 tanks took part in the Battle of Kursk. So, tank forces On the eve of the battle, the Central Front had 1,652 tanks, of which 369 or 22% were tanks of this model.”

Often these tanks were used for ramming. For example, in the combat log of the 150th Tank Brigade, which operated as part of the 40th Army of the Voronezh dandy in January 1943, the following entry was preserved:

“Senior Lieutenant Zakharchenko and driver-mechanic Senior Sergeant Krivko, repelling tank counterattacks and expending shells, went with their company to ram German tanks. Zakharchenko himself personally rammed two tanks and captured the commander and chief of staff of the 100th Special Purpose Tank Battalion.”

Fact: “During the Second World War, in addition to the Red Army, the T-70 tank was in service with the Polish Army in the amount of 53 copies and the Czechoslovak Corps in the amount of 10 copies.”

Already in October 1941, it became clear that the new light tank T-60, serial production of which began a month earlier, was almost useless on the battlefield. Its armor was freely 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 a radical change in the design. The engine and gearbox were already working in overstressed mode. An increase in the mass of the 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 experience in the production of armored vehicles, having been engaged in the serial production of T-27 tankettes and small amphibious tanks T-37A in the 1930s. A number of prototypes of armored vehicles were also designed and manufactured here in September In 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 experimental a sample 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.

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 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, 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 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.

1 - drive wheel, 2 - 45-mm cannon, 3 - DT machine gun, 4 - MK-4 observation device, 5 - hole plug for firing from personal weapons. 6 - support roller, 7 - idler wheel, 8 - support roller, 9 - transmission access hatch, 10 - air supply hatch armor, 11 - hatch cover above the cooling system filler neck, 12 - air outlet blinds, 13 - spare support skid, 14 - hatch covers above the filler necks of fuel tanks, 15 - commander's hatch cover, 16 - mufflers, 17 - hatch cover for portable installation blowtorch to start the engine in winter time, 18 - headlight, 19 - driver's hatch cover, 20 - hatch for manual engine start, 21 - emergency exit hatch cover, 22 - towing device

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 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 hull plate to 45 mm, and the upper one to 35 mm. As a result, by a decree of the State Defense Committee of March 6, 1942, the new combat vehicle was adopted by the Red Army under the symbol T-70 Two days later, the State Defense Committee's decree on the production of the tank was released, 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 much engines than 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 they could not be assembled either by April or later. 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 at 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, making up 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 of armor plates 35 mm thick, was mounted on a ball support 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 periscope mirror observation device was installed in the armored hatch cover, which provided the commander with all-round visibility. In addition, there was a hatch in the cover for a flag alarm.

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 TMFP were used (a TOP sight was installed on some tanks) and mechanical sights were used as a backup. The effective 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 twin settings - on 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 idler 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 the composition of tank and mechanized corps or be separate. The tank regiment was armed with 23 T-34s and 16 T-70s. At the same time, 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 the tank units of the Red Army. 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 their 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 final point in the combat career of these tanks was set by the Battle of Kursk - 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 positive advantages “seventy” 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 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 Panther1. 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 battles

M. BARYATINSKY

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The T-70 tank was developed at the Gorky Automobile Plant design bureau under the leadership of N. A. Astrov at the end of 1941. Mass production was organized in 1942-1943. at the Gorky Automobile Plant, plants No. 37 (Sverdlovsk) and No. 38 (Kirov). A total of 8,226 tanks of the T-70 and T-70M modifications were produced. The vehicles took part in the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, as well as in other operations of the Great Patriotic War.

Tank T-70
Combat weight - 9.2-10 tons; crew - 2 people; weapons: cannon - 45 mm, machine gun - 7.62 mm; armor - bulletproof; power unit power - 140 hp. (103 kW); maximum speed - 45 km/h

The T-70 tank was developed to replace the T-60 tank in the army and differed from it mainly in size, more powerful weapons, enhanced armor protection and higher specific power. The general layout of the vehicle was fundamentally the same as that of the T-60 tank. The tank had five compartments: control compartments in the front part of the hull, combat compartments in the middle part, transmission compartments in the front part of the hull on the right side, engine compartments in the middle part along the right side of the hull, and aft compartments. A crew of two was housed in the hull and turret. The driver was located in the bow of the hull on the left side. The tank commander was located in the rotating turret, offset to the left side from the longitudinal axis of the hull. In the middle part of the hull along the starboard side, two engines paired in series were installed on a common frame, forming a single power unit. This design solution was implemented for the first time in domestic tank building. The transmission and drive wheels were located in the front.

The turret was equipped with a 45-mm tank gun mod. 1938 and a coaxial 7.62-mm DT machine gun, which was located to the left of the 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 machine gun was mounted in a ball mount and, if necessary, could be removed and used outside the tank. The vertical aiming angles of the twin installation ranged from - 6 to + 20°. When firing, the following sights were used: telescopic TMFP (a TOP sight was installed on some tanks) and a mechanical one as a backup. The direct fire range was 3600 m, maximum - 4800 m. Rate of fire - 12 rounds/min. 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 connected by a cable to the right foot pedal, and the machine gun - to the left. The tank's ammunition included 90 rounds of armor-piercing and fragmentation shells for the cannon (of which 20 rounds were in the magazine) and 945 rounds of ammunition for the DT machine gun (15 discs). Additionally in fighting compartment The vehicles were stowed: one 7.62-mm PPSh submachine gun with 213 rounds of ammunition (3 discs) and 10 F-1 hand grenades. On the first production vehicles, the gun's ammunition load consisted of 70 rounds. 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 spent cartridge case was thrown out 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. Created in the spring of 1942, a new armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile for a 45-mm cannon penetrated an armor plate 50 mm thick at a range of 500 m.

Reservation scheme for the T-70 light tank

Armor protection - bulletproof, made of rolled armor sheets with a thickness of 6, 10, 15, 25, 35 and 45 mm. The front and rear hull sheets and turret sheets had rational angles of inclination. In the upper frontal plate of the hull there was a driver's hatch, in the armored cover of which a rotating periscope viewing device was installed (on the first production vehicles, a viewing slot with triplex was made in the hatch cover). To facilitate opening the hatch cover, a balancing mechanism was used. In addition, at the bottom right (along the direction of the tank) in the frontal plate there was a hatch for access to the transmission units, closed with an armored cover with bolts. In the lower frontal plate there was a hatch for the engine crank, closed with an armored cover. Each side of the hull consisted of two sheets welded together. The weld was reinforced with riveting. At the bottom of each side, five cutouts were made for installing the balancer brackets, as well as holes for attaching the rear roller balancer stop and for three support roller brackets. In addition, on the starboard side there was a hatch for installing a starting heater lamp, and an armored air supply box for the power plant was welded along its upper part.

The roof of the hull consisted of a turret sheet supported by a longitudinal beam and a partition of the aft compartment; a removable sheet above the engine compartment and air supply armor, mounted on hinges and simultaneously serving for access to the engines; a removable horizontal sheet above the water radiator of the cooling system, which had: a hatch for filling the cooling system with water and blinds for the exit of cooling air, as well as two removable sheets above the fuel tank compartment, one of which had two hatches for filling fuel tanks. The bottom of the hull was made of three armor plates and, to ensure rigidity, had box-section transverse beams in which the suspension torsion bars passed. It contained: an emergency hatch located under the driver's seat, two small hatches for draining oil from the engines, two hatches for draining fuel and two hatches for access to the water radiator mounting studs.

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 were reinforced with armored angles. The frontal part of the turret had a cast swinging mantlet with embrasures for mounting a cannon, machine gun and sight. An entrance hatch for the tank commander was made in the roof of the turret. A periscope viewing mirror device was installed in the armored hatch cover, providing the commander with all-round visibility. The blind space around the tank ranged from 7.5 to 16.5 m. For flag signaling, there was a special hatch in the hatch cover, which was closed by an armored flap. Providing all-round visibility through the installation of a rotating viewing device was an innovation for the lungs domestic tanks. The sides of the turret had holes for firing personal weapons, which were closed with armor plugs.

Two hand-held tetrachlorine fire extinguishers were used as fire-fighting equipment in the tank.

The power unit of the GAZ-203 (70-6000) consisted of two four-stroke six-cylinder carburetor engines GAZ-202 (GAZ 70-6004 - front and GAZ 70-6005 - rear) with a total power of 140 hp. (103 kW) with "M" type carburetors. The engine crankshafts were connected by a coupling with elastic bushings. The flywheel housing of the front engine was connected by a rod to the starboard side to prevent lateral vibrations of the power unit. The battery ignition system, lubrication system and fuel (except tanks) system for each engine were independent. The water-oil radiator had two sections for separate servicing of the engines. The engine cooling system was significantly improved compared to the cooling system of the T-60 tank; the water pump was made common to the two engines. The air system used an oil-inertial type air cleaner. To quickly start engines in winter, a hot air heater was used, powered by a portable blowtorch. The heater boiler and water-oil radiator were included in the cooling system. The engines were started from two ST-40 electric starters connected in parallel with a power of 1.3 hp. (0.96 kW) each or using a manual winding mechanism. On command tanks (with a radio station), instead of ST-40 starters, two ST-06 starters with a power of 2 hp were installed. (1.5 kW). The engines ran on aviation gasoline KB-70 or B-70. Two fuel 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. On the right side of the aft compartment there was a fan and radiator for the engine cooling system. Two cylindrical silencers were located on the starboard side behind the armored air supply cover.

The mechanical transmission consisted of a two-disc semi-centrifugal dry friction main clutch (steel over ferodo); a four-speed simple automobile-type gearbox, providing four forward gears and one reverse gear; main gear with bevel gear; two multi-disc dry final clutches (steel on steel) with band brakes with ferodo linings and two simple single-row final drives. The main clutch and gearbox were assembled from parts borrowed from the ZIS-5 truck.

The suspension system used a reinforced individual torsion bar suspension and travel limiters for the fifth road wheel balancers. The role of travel limiters for the first and third road wheels was played by the support rollers. The tracked propulsion unit consisted of two drive wheels with removable gear rims of lantern engagement with the tracks, ten single-slope support wheels with external shock absorption and six all-metal support rollers, two guide wheels with crank mechanisms for tensioning the tracks and two small-link caterpillars with OMS. The design of the idler wheel and support roller was unified. The width of the cast track track was 260 mm. To prevent the fingers from moving towards the body when the vehicle was moving, special bump stops were riveted to the final drive housings from above and to the bottom of the body from below.

The electrical equipment of the machine was made according to a single-wire circuit. The on-board voltage was 12 V (on early production tanks - 6 V). Two sources of electricity were used rechargeable batteries 3STE-112, connected in series, with a voltage of 6 V and a capacity of 112 Ah and a GAZ-27A generator with a power of 225 W with a relay regulator RPA-14 or a generator G-64 with a power of 250 W with a relay regulator RPA-44 or RPA-4574 . Since August 1942, command tanks began to be equipped with GT-500S or DSF-500T generators with a power of 380/500 W with relay regulators RRK-37-500T or RRK-GT-500S, and on line tanks - a G-41 generator with a relay -regulator PPA-364. 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.

Since September 1942, Plant No. 38 and GAZ switched to producing T-70M tanks with an improved chassis. The gun's ammunition load was reduced to 70 rounds. As a result of work on modernizing the chassis, the width and pitch of the tracks were increased (up to 300 mm and 111 mm, respectively), the width of the road wheels (from 104 to 130 mm), as well as the diameter of the suspension torsion bars (from 34 to 36 mm) and ring gears driving wheels. By increasing the track pitch, their number in one track was reduced from 91 to 80 pieces. In addition, the support rollers, stopping brakes were strengthened (the width of the brake band and drum was increased from 90 to 124 mm) and final drives. The tank's weight increased to 10 tons, and its highway range decreased to 250 km.

For lovers military history The Soviet T-70 tank designed by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Astrov is familiar.

The characteristics of this combat vehicle immediately speak for themselves: this Combat vehicles battlefield is a light type.

The military was prompted to create a new tank by a depressing fact: combat tests light and medium tanks of the Red Army (models from T-38 to T-60) during the first year of the Second World War revealed their lack of competition.

In January 1942, the 70th tank was demonstrated to Stalin as a reinforced version of the previous representative of the T-60 line of light tanks, and its mass production began in March.

Brief performance characteristics of the T-70 light tank

Let's consider the main characteristics of Astrov's brainchild:

Frontal armor thickness: bottom - 45 mm; top - 35 mm;

Side armor thickness - 15 mm;

Main armament: 20-K cannon, 45 mm caliber (previously used in the T-50 tank);

Ammunition - 90 shells;

7.62 mm machine gun, 15 discs with 945 rounds;

Two four-stroke six-cylinder gasoline engines with a power of 70 hp each. With.;

Speed ​​over rough terrain - up to 25 km/h, on the highway - 42 km/h;

Cruising range over rough terrain - 360 km, on the highway - 450 km;

On the command vehicle - a 12T or 9P radio.

The T-70 tank project was initially critical

The T-70 is a tank of the Great Patriotic War, reviews of which are quite contradictory. And this is despite the fact that the number of such tanks produced (almost 8.5 thousand units) was second only to the famous T-34! Objective view reveals its advantages and disadvantages main reason this historical and technical incident. It is banal: often a project that fails is initiated and promoted not by end users (in this case, the military), but by the top party leadership.

The initial pre-war thesis for the development of armored forces was “The Army needs good light tank!" - turned out to be wrong. The strategists did not take into account the prospect of arming the Wehrmacht (and this happened in 1942) with 50 and 75 mm artillery. Reinforced enemy guns effectively hit the T-70 from any angle. The tank was inferior to the German “tigers” and “panthers” with 75-caliber guns both in firepower and armor protection. The commander of the Fifth Tank Army, M.E. Katukov, wrote unflatteringly about them to G.K. Zhukov, pointing out the impossibility of using the T-70 in an oncoming tank battle due to pre-guaranteed losses.

Wrongly chosen design direction?

Indeed, Russian WWII tanks were initially created by a banal way of improving the previous model, without predicting, on the basis of intelligence, the battlefield weapons created by enemies. Based on the above, unflattering reviews about the imperfections of the T-70 seem natural. Simply improving the T-60 tank was not enough. Now, more than 70 years after the project was implemented of this weapon, we can already fully justify the dead end of such motivation.

Light tanks (photos of them are proof of this) would have been ideal on the fronts of the First World War. It was for the guns of that time that the armor of the tank designed by Astrov was practically impenetrable. The second important trump card was the speed and maneuverability of the T-70.

In other words, the need to produce light tanks for the army in the middle of the 20th century was a fantasy of Soviet strategists of that time, who had not grown either tactically or strategically since the Civil War. Arms customers should think in accordance with contemporary military thought!

Are the identified design flaws of the T-70 an indicator of its failure?

Such shortcomings were characteristic of almost all light tanks of that time, therefore, looking ahead, we state the fact: not one of them became truly effective on the battlefield.

All light Russian tanks of the Second World War were designed to order by leading designer Nikolai Aleksandrovich Astrov, like the T-70. Tests of new weapons carried out in 1941 revealed areas for improving the tank:

Strengthening armor;

Replacement of a single cast turret with a double hexagonal one;

Strengthening the transmission, tracks, road wheel tires;

Replacing the main gun with a more modern one (the latter was never implemented).

What can I say? Did the base model have too many shortcomings? Was it really this basic model that was in demand by the Red Army?

The inappropriateness of light tanks on the battlefield was proven by the further evolution of tank building: the army different countries Gradually, in principle, they abandoned such battlefield weapons. Instead, other lungs developed armored vehicles, primarily performing the role of support, which no longer act as the main armored fire force of the battlefield. However, on the other hand, the process of creating and modifying the T-70 itself turned out to be very creative.

Serial types

Industrial production of T-70 light tanks was carried out in a version corresponding to the original design of designer Astrov, as well as in a modified version of the T-70M.

The first variety had non-reinforced armor, lighter weight - 9.2 tons and more ammunition - 90 shells; second - more weight(9.8 t), achieved through additional armor, strengthening of components and parts. The ammunition capacity of the modernized tank was reduced to 70 shells.

In fact, they were structurally different combat vehicles having different, non-interchangeable parts.

- fiasco for the T-70 light tank

In reality, the army needed medium and heavy tanks capable of effectively hitting enemy armored vehicles.

The party bosses did not hear the dishonestly repressed and executed Marshal in the basement of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet Court Soviet Union Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky: “The future war will be a war of tank formations!”

And, accordingly, since 1942, the defense industry of the USSR has been mass-producing the T-70 - a tank whose combat potential did not withstand the severe test in 1943 - an uncompromising oncoming tank battle near the village of Kursk).

The armor did not help: 75 and 50 caliber enemy artillery easily penetrated even its frontal part. Moreover, the tank turned out to be vulnerable even to outdated German regimental artillery of 37 mm caliber. The test in an oncoming tank battle was failed and, accordingly, after the Kursk Bulge, mass production of the T-70 was stopped.

However, oddly enough, it was precisely at the second stage of the Great Patriotic War, when the Red Army was advancing uncontrollably, that a number of qualified combat commanders expressed regret over the premature farewell to the T-70. The tank, despite its obvious shortcomings, turned out to be useful!

About the positive combat qualities of the T-70

It was not possible for new tankers to reveal his positive qualities. At the same time the aces tank battle in rough and wooded terrain, they even preferred this light vehicle to the more armored medium T-34. What motivated them for this choice? Firstly, German heavy guns and heavy tanks hit the T-34 and T-70 almost equally. In addition, due to the smaller size of a light tank, targeted fire on it is possible from a distance of half a kilometer, while on the T-34 - from a kilometer away.

Also, with the help of the T-70 it was possible to use the factor of surprise when attacking the enemy. At the same time, both the heavy IS tank and the medium T-34 were deprived of this opportunity due to noisier diesel engines.

Almost closely, unnoticed, a light tank T-70 approached the enemy camp over rough terrain. After all, the noise of a twin gasoline car engine with a power of 140 hp. With. The sound level was reminiscent of just a passenger car. Lieutenant General Bogdanov reported to the main armored department that the T-70, due to its low noise, ideally performed the function of pursuing a retreating enemy.

The location of the fuel tanks at the rear of the hull contributed to the extremely rare detonation of fuel when it entered the tank.

In 1944, when about one and a half thousand T-70 tanks remained in the tank units of the Red Army, the OGK of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry stated its effectiveness in urban battles. "Seventy" was difficult to hit with "faustpatrons" and grenades due to its small size and high maneuverability.

Manufacturability

It should be admitted that the Soviet T-70 tank, by its design, turned out to be one of the most technologically efficient. For its production, a thoroughly balanced production base of the GAZ plant was used. Cooperation with factories supplying components and parts was effectively established.

The repair of weapons based on the T-70, damaged at the fronts, was effectively organized.

Initially, designer Astrov established its production at the Gorky Automobile Plant.

In 1942, the factory workers produced 3495 units of this weapon, and in 1943 - 3348. Then the production of the T-70 in 1942 was also adjusted at plant No. 38 (Kirov). 1,378 of these tanks were manufactured here.

It was also planned to involve Sverdlovsk Plant No. 37 in the production of the tank. However, it was not prepared here, and the technological costs turned out to be critically high. Requiring twice as many engines as the T-60, the more powerful rolled armor was more labor-intensive to manufacture. The result was a modest result: 10 tanks and production ceased.

An objective look at the design flaws of the tank

The fact is obvious: the idea effective lung tanks on the fronts of World War II turned out to be a complete utopia. Therefore, the work on the project to create the T-70 (despite a lot of original engineering discoveries, which we will write about later) was obviously doomed to failure.

Let's begin with soviet tanks The Second World War (and the subject of our description as well) had a layout design, not without obvious shortcomings, involving 5 compartments:

Management;

Motor (right - middle of the body);

Combat (tower and left - in the middle of the hull);

Aft (where the gasoline tanks and radiator were located).

The tank with similar compartments was front-wheel drive, so chassis part of it was characterized by increased vulnerability.

T-70 - exhibit of the armored tank museum in Kubinka (Moscow region)

It is no secret that light tanks (photos of the Japanese “Ha-Go” and the German PzKpfw-II, modern with the T-70, are presented below) must be designed taking into account technical and combat criteria that are mutually exclusive:

Effective distribution of responsibilities between crew members (functional overload of the tank commander in a crew of two, which also included a driver);

The firepower of the gun turned out to be insufficient (the design of the light tank assumed a 45-mm rifled automatic gun 20-K model 1932 as the main armament).

Those wishing to see the standard armament of the T-70 - the main gun and the DT-29 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun - are recommended to visit the specialized military armored museum (Kubinka). Museum guests can see both the equipment and the seating arrangements for the crew members.

The tank commander was located in the turret compartment, which is shifted to the left relative to the longitudinal axis and also covers the left middle part of the hull. According to his duties, he supervised the actions of the driver through internal communications, monitored the situation, loaded and fired weapons and a coaxial machine gun.

The driver was in the front of the body, in the middle.

Since the museum exhibits have been carefully restored and, as they say, are on the move, tourists can examine the operating components and assemblies of the T-70, making a visual impression for themselves. What do we mean when we mention the functional overload of a tank commander? Too many mechanical, routine processes were not automated. This drawback can also be noticed by those who visit the museum (Kubinka). One has only to carefully examine the mechanisms of the restored combat vehicle. Judge for yourself:

Manual drive of the turret rotation device;

Manual drive of the gun lift;

When firing projectiles fragmentation type the semi-automatic did not work, and the commander was forced to manually open the bolt and pull out the red-hot spent cartridge case.

Due to these factors, which objectively interfere with combat, the designed rate of fire - up to 12 rounds per minute - turned out to be unattainable. In reality, the T-70 fired up to 5 shots per minute.

By the way, in the same museum, namely in pavilion No. 6, visitors will be able to see the tanks of Nazi Germany: “tigers” and “panthers”, which opposed the Soviet tank we are considering.

Rapidly evolved, but still far from perfect, Soviet tanks from the Second World War invariably attract the attention of visitors.

The popular chassis of the T-70

The twin GAZ-203 engine was developed especially for the T-70. In front is the GAZ-70-6004 engine, and in the rear is the GAZ-70-6005. Six-cylinder four-stroke engines - both were derated to increase reliability and service life.

The T-70 transmission, inherited from the previous model, received generally positive reviews. It consisted of:

Double-disc clutch;

4-speed gearbox;

Cardan shaft of stepped type;

Bevel final drive;

Onboard multi-disc clutches;

Single-row final drives.

The T-70 caterpillar consisted of 91 tracks 26 cm wide.

Instead of a conclusion: military equipment based on the T-70

However, the T-70 tank was not a dead-end model. was developed by the design bureau of plant No. 38 (Kirov) on the basis of its extended chassis. The main armament of this self-propelled gun was the 76-mm ZIS-3 cannon. The T-70 itself turned out to be technologically advanced and promising.

The design of the new weapons was dramatic. The first designer Semyon Aleksandrovich Ginzburg was accused of non-existent “sins” after the depressing consequences of the Kuskaya Arc, deprived of rights to design, sent to the front, where he died. The commissioner of tank construction, I.M. Zaltsman, who was in conflict with him, had a hand in this. However, this ambitious official was soon removed from office for reasons.

Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malyshev, who was appointed to his position, appointed a competition to modify the SU-76, where representatives of GAZ and plant No. 38 were involved.

As a result, the self-propelled guns were reconfigured and launched into mass production. The 75-mm gun made it possible to successfully destroy enemy self-propelled guns, light and medium tanks. It was also relatively effective against heavy Panthers, penetrating the gun mantlet and side armor. In the fight against the newer and more armored “tiger”, the SU-76 turned out to be ineffective before the introduction of cumulative and

In the second half of 1944, the T-70, created on the basis of the chassis of the tank, entered service with the Red Army.

Today, amateur collectors have the opportunity to purchase any model of the T-70 tank. The price of the basic model (full size) is 5 million rubles. Let's make a reservation that it is equipped with an original chassis, but, of course, is not intended for combat. At the same time, the latest improvements are offered: from leather interior to echo sounder.