Steel Soviet Union

As the culmination of the Soviet Stalin series of heavy tanks, the IS series heavy tank turret integrated the best defensive appearance and equivalent armor of that era. There is no doubt about the powerful defensive performance it can display in actual combat.

The semi-curved mantlet with a physical thickness of 100 mm in front of the entire turret not only has an extremely excellent ricochet shape, but the semi-curved mantlet is a compromise between inclined armor and vertical armor. Multiple turret internal spaces and equivalent armor features.

Strictly speaking, the excellent turret shape design of the IS1/2 series of heavy tanks born during World War II played a very important role in inheriting and ushering in the future of the Soviet Union's large number of egg-shell-headed main battle tanks.

The appearance of the turret tends to be rounded and smooth rather than vertical and angular. Even in the T64 and T80 series main battle tanks that spanned the Cold War, you can still find the traces of its predecessors from the World War II period, and this extremely excellent The bulletproof appearance design of the heavy armored turret first started with the KV85 heavy tank.

This type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile, which hit the front edge of the turret of Malashenko's vehicle, was hit by the semi-curved gun mantlet without any suspense because the impact angle was too small, less than 20 degrees. The Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile, which was extremely powerful at penetrating vertical armor, simply bounced off the ground, leaving a shallow ballistic scratch on the edge of the gun mantlet and then disappearing.

Affected by the powerful impact of the hit, Iushkin immediately became unstable and bumped his head against the main gun sight in front of him. Although the aiming eye protection ring made of rubber rings protected Iushkin's eye sockets, it did not directly hit him. It came into close contact with the hard metal, but this violent impact still hit Iushkin's entire right eye socket and caused extreme pain in an instant.

"It didn't penetrate the armor! The shell hit the edge of the gun mantlet and bounced away! Continue to maintain the fighting position, Iushkin, how are you?"

Malashenko, who was barely affected by the burst of artillery shells just now, realized that his armor had not been penetrated. He immediately raised his head and continued to give orders to direct the battle. However, Iwu was separated by a gun bolt. Shikin's ferocious expression as he stretched out his right hand to cover his right eye couldn't help but make Malashenko, who also suffered an injury to his right eye, worry.

Covering his burning right eye with his hand, he felt the pain that was almost tearing away gradually subsided. Realizing that the battle was not over and he had to continue fighting, Iushkin immediately let go of his right hand.

"The right eye frame hit the scope. Fortunately, that guy Karamov cleverly installed a rubber retainer on it in advance. Otherwise, the right eye might have been completely destroyed just now."

After hearing what Iushkin said, Malashenko did not say much in response after a moment of silence. Although the classic turret used all the way to the later Stalin 1/2 series heavy tanks has extremely excellent protective performance, in The year 1941, which was born in advance, is now considered abnormal.

But even so, it does not mean that this type of thick and heavily armored turret is absolutely invincible. The best option in the current situation is to destroy the enemy before it fires again.

"Since there's nothing wrong, just keep aiming and firing, those German guys are aiming at us again!"

"It's already being done, Comrade Commander!"

boom--

Ding-ding——

Before he finished speaking, there was another huge impact sound of an unpenetrated armor-piercing projectile that immediately reverberated in the interior of the car. Because the caliber was only a 50mm small water pipe and the shells were installed in one piece, the reloading speed was extremely fast. After a missed shot, he was experienced and skilled. It only took the German anti-tank gun team 7 seconds to complete the action from loading to aiming again. The German gunner then put the aiming ring on the armor plate on the front of Malashenko's vehicle. Without hesitation he fired again.

It is the same as the protection-enhanced KV1 prototype that Malashenko left in Leningrad and failed to bring back.

The fierce fighting situation that had broken out in the war did not allow Soviet tank designers to make any adjustments to the thickness of the armor plate on the front of the car body that was cut and then welded on the existing production line.

If this is done, not only will the existing Soviet armor plate processing process be forced to start over again, but the re-adjusted homogeneous steel armor plates of different thicknesses will also add extra burden to the tank production line, thereby increasing the size of a heavy-duty tank. The production of tanks takes time and increases unnecessary costs, all of which are obviously contrary to the Soviet tank steel torrent tactics that pursue "large quantities and sufficient control".

Based on the guiding spirit of these steel torrent tactics, the simple and crude tank design team under Kojing directly welded an additional layer of rolled homogeneous steel additional armor with a physical thickness of 25 mm on these eight newly manufactured prototype tanks. The upper and lower parts of the car body are sold, hoping to enhance the defensive power of the KV1 heavy tank chassis which is already somewhat dwarfed by the German 88 gun.

As a result, the KV1 heavy tank chassis, which has an equivalent armor defense of more than 100 mm on the front of the vehicle body, can withstand even the German 88 gun in actual combat as long as the bomb incidence angle is tricky enough. Malashenko, who had previously driven a KV1 prototype car, has fully experienced this. As for resisting the 50mm small water pipe toothpick cannon, which is currently far less powerful than the 88 cannon, it is naturally not a problem.

The Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet, which hit the upper front of Malashenko's vehicle with a high angle of incidence of more than 60 degrees, was lucky enough and did not ricochet like the previous armor-piercing bullet. .

However, the 75 mm thick armor on the front of the car body plus the 25 mm thick additional armor, plus the tilt angle, the equivalent armor thickness on the front of the car body is already more than 120 mm. This solid "unyielding wall"-like defense in 1941 At that time, except for the possibility of breaking through the defense with the 88 gun, all other types of anti-tank guns were almost out of the question.

This type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile accurately hit the armor plate on the front of the car body. The projectile immediately twisted and deformed. Due to the strong kinetic energy impact when it hit the armor, it turned into a lump of iron and fell to the ground, leaving an empty space. The tungsten-core armor-piercing body wrapped inside the projectile is like a javelin and pierces the external additional armor, which is extremely eye-catching.

"Damn it! The turret ricocheted and the car body couldn't penetrate! These Ivan heavy tanks are simply monsters! What kind of opponent are we fighting!? Damn it! Damn it!!"

The German gunner, who finally cursed the terrible situation, still refused to give up this last hope. However, when the loader reported that the loading was completed and closed the gun breech, the German gunner once again put his right eye on the sight next to the gun breech. At that moment, a sudden flash of orange-red light was the last scene he saw in his life.