Constant attempts to bury the idea of ​​a tank do not find their implementation. Despite the rapid evolution of anti-tank, there is still no more reliable means of covering soldiers than heavy armored vehicles.

I bring to your attention an overview of the outstanding tanks of the Second World War, created on the basis of the Discovery programs - "Killer Tanks: Steel Fist" and the Military Channel - "Ten best tanks XX century". Undoubtedly, all the cars from the review are worthy of attention. But I noticed that when describing tanks, experts do not consider its combat as a whole, but only talk about those episodes of the Second World War when this vehicle was able to show itself in the best possible way. It is logical to immediately break the war into periods and consider which tank was the best and when. I draw your attention to two important points:

First, one should not confuse strategy and specifications machines. The red flag over Berlin does not mean that the Germans were weak and did not have good technique. It also follows from this that the possession of the best tanks in the world does not mean that your army will advance victoriously. You can be simply crushed by quantity. Do not forget that the army is a system, the competent use of its heterogeneous forces by the enemy can put you in a difficult position.

Secondly, all disputes, “who is stronger than the IS-2 or the Tiger”, do not make much sense. Tanks rarely fight tanks. Much more often their opponents are enemy defensive lines, fortifications, artillery batteries, infantry and automotive equipment. In World War II, half of all tank losses were due to actions anti-tank artillery(which is logical - when the number of tanks went to tens of thousands, the number of guns amounted to hundreds of thousands - an order of magnitude more!). Another fierce enemy of tanks is mines. About 25% of military vehicles were blown up on them. A few percent were chalked up by aviation. How much was left for tank battles then ?!

From this follows the conclusion that tank battle near Prokhorovka - a rare exotic. At present, this trend continues - instead of the anti-tank "forty-five" are RPGs.
Well, now let's move on to our favorite cars.

Period 1939-1940. Blitzkrieg

... Predawn haze, fog, shooting and the roar of engines. On the morning of May 10, 1940, the Wehrmacht breaks into Holland. After 17 days, Belgium fell, the remnants of the English Expeditionary Force were evacuated across the English Channel. On June 14, German tanks appeared on the streets of Paris ...

One of the conditions of the "blitzkrieg" is a special tactic of using tanks: an unprecedented concentration of armored vehicles in the direction of the main attacks and well-coordinated actions of the Germans allowed the "steel claws" of Goth and Guderian to crash into the defense for hundreds of kilometers, and, without slowing down, move deep into the enemy's territory . A unique tactical technique required special technical solutions. German armored vehicles were necessarily equipped with radio stations, with tank battalions there were air traffic controllers emergency communications with the Luftwaffe.

It was at this time that the finest hour» Panzerkampfwagen III and Panzerkampfwagen IV. Behind such clumsy names hide formidable combat vehicles that have wound the asphalt of European roads, the icy expanses of Russia and the sands of the Sahara on their tracks.

PzKpfw III, better known as T-III - light tank with a 37 mm gun. Booking from all angles - 30 mm. The main quality is Speed ​​(40 km / h on the highway). Thanks to the perfect Carl Zeiss optics, ergonomic crew jobs and the presence of a radio station, the “troikas” could successfully fight with much heavier vehicles. But with the advent of new opponents, the shortcomings of the T-III manifested themselves more clearly. The Germans replaced the 37 mm guns with 50 mm guns and covered the tank with hinged screens - temporary measures gave their results, the T-III fought for several more years. By 1943, the release of the T-III was discontinued due to the complete exhaustion of its resource for modernization. In total, German industry produced 5,000 triples.

The PzKpfw IV, which became the most massive Panzerwaffe tank, looked much more serious - the Germans managed to build 8700 vehicles. Combining all the advantages of the lighter T-III, the "four" had a high firepower and security - the thickness of the frontal plate was gradually increased to 80 mm, and the shells of its 75 mm long-barreled gun pierced the armor of enemy tanks like foil (by the way, 1133 early modifications with a short-barreled gun were fired).

The weak points of the machine are too thin sides and feed (only 30 mm on the first modifications), the designers neglected the slope of the armor plates for the sake of manufacturability and the convenience of the crew.

Seven thousand tanks of this type remained on the battlefields of World War II, but the history of the T-IV did not end there - the “fours” were operated in the armies of France and Czechoslovakia until the early 1950s and even took part in the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War of 1967 of the year.

Period 1941-1942. Red Dawn

“... from three sides we fired at the iron monsters of the Russians, but everything was in vain. Russian giants came closer and closer. One of them approached our tank, hopelessly bogged down in a swampy pond, and without any hesitation drove over it, pressing its tracks into the mud ... "
- General Reinhard, commander of the 41st tank corps of the Wehrmacht

... On August 20, 1941, the KV tank under the command of senior lieutenant Zinovy ​​Kolobanov blocked the road to Gatchina for a column of 40 German tanks. When this unprecedented battle ended, 22 tanks were burning on the sidelines, and our KV, having received 156 direct hits from enemy shells, returned to the disposal of its division ...

In the summer of 1941, the KV tank smashed the elite units of the Wehrmacht with impunity as if it had rolled out onto the Borodino field in 1812. Invincible, invincible and extremely powerful. Until the end of 1941, in all the armies of the world there was no weapon at all capable of stopping the Russian 45-ton monster. The KV was twice as heavy as the largest Wehrmacht tank.

Bronya KV is a wonderful song of steel and technology. 75 millimeters of steel firmament from all angles! The frontal armor plates had an optimal angle of inclination, which further increased the projectile resistance of the KV armor - German 37 mm anti-tank guns did not take it even at close range, and 50 mm guns - no further than 500 meters. At the same time, the long-barreled 76 mm gun F-34 (ZIS-5) made it possible to hit any german tank of that period from a distance of 1.5 kilometers.

If battles like the legendary battle of Zinovy ​​​​Kolobanov took place regularly, then 235 KV tanks of the Southern Military District could completely destroy the Panzerwaffe in the summer of 1941. The technical capabilities of the KV tanks, in theory, made it possible to do this. Alas, not everything is so clear. Remember - we said that tanks rarely fight tanks ...

In addition to the invulnerable KV, the Red Army had even more scary tank- the great warrior T-34.
"... There is nothing more terrible than a tank battle against superior enemy forces. Not in terms of numbers - it was not important for us, we were used to it. But against more good cars- this is terrible... Russian tanks are so nimble, at close range they will climb a slope or cross a swamp faster than you can turn the tower. And through the noise and roar, you hear the clang of shells on the armor all the time. When they hit our tank, you often hear a deafening explosion and the roar of burning fuel, too loud to hear the death cries of the crew ... "
- the opinion of a German tanker from the 4th Panzer Division, destroyed by T-34 tanks in the battle near Mtsensk on October 11, 1941.

Neither the volume nor the objectives of this article allow us to fully cover the history of the T-34 tank. Obviously, the Russian monster had no analogues in 1941: a 500-horsepower diesel engine, unique armor, a 76 mm F-34 gun (generally similar to the KV tank) and wide tracks - all these technical solutions provided the T-34 with the optimal balance of mobility, firepower and security. Even individually, these parameters for the T-34 were higher than for any Panzerwaffe tank.

The main thing - Soviet designers managed to create a tank exactly the way the Red Army needed it. The T-34 was ideally suited to the conditions of the Eastern Front. The extreme simplicity and manufacturability of the design made it possible to establish mass production of these combat vehicles as soon as possible, as a result, the T-34s were easy to operate, numerous and ubiquitous.

Only in the first year of the war, by the summer of 1942, the Red Army received about 15,000 T-34s, and in total more than 84,000 T-34s of all modifications were produced.

The journalists of the Discovery program were jealous of the successes of Soviet tank building, constantly hinting that the successful tank was based on the American Christie design. In a joking manner, the Russian “rudeness” and “uncouthness” got it - “Well! I didn’t have time to climb into the hatch - I was all scratched up! Americans forget that convenience was not a priority property of armored vehicles on Eastern Front; the fierce nature of the fighting did not allow tankers to think about such trifles. The main thing is not to burn out in the tank.

The "thirty-four" had much more serious shortcomings. Transmission - weak link T-34. The German design school preferred a front-mounted gearbox, closer to the driver. Soviet engineers went for more efficient way- the transmission and engine were compactly located in an isolated compartment in the stern of the T-34. There was no need for a long cardan shaft through the entire body of the tank; the design was simplified, the height of the machine was reduced. Isn't it an excellent technical solution?

Cardan was not needed. But control rods were needed. At the T-34, they reached a length of 5 meters! Can you imagine what effort the driver had to make? But that didn't pose much of a problem either. extreme situation a person is able to run on his hands and row with his ears. But what the Soviet tankers could withstand, metal could not withstand. Under the influence of monstrous loads, the thrusts were torn. As a result, many T-34s went into battle in one pre-selected gear. During the battle, they preferred not to touch the gearbox at all - according to veteran tankers, it was better to sacrifice mobility than suddenly turn into a standing target.

The T-34 is a completely ruthless tank, both in relation to the enemy and in relation to its own crew. It remains only to admire the courage of the tankers.

Year 1943. Menagerie.

“... we went around through the beam and ran into the Tiger. Having lost several T-34s, our battalion returned back ... "
- frequent description of encounters with PzKPfw VI from the memoirs of tankers

1943, the time of the great tank battles. In an effort to regain the lost technical superiority, Germany is creating by this time two new models of "superweapons" - heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther".

Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger" Ausf. H1 was created as heavy tank a breakthrough capable of destroying any enemy and putting the Red Army to flight. By personal order of Hitler, the thickness of the frontal armor plate was to be at least 100 mm, the sides and stern of the tank were protected by eight centimeters of metal. The main weapon is the 88 mm KwK 36 cannon, based on a powerful anti-aircraft gun. Its capabilities are evidenced by the fact that when firing from the cannon of the captured Tiger, it was possible to achieve five successive hits on a target measuring 40 × 50 cm from a distance of 1100 m. In addition to high flatness, the KwK 36 inherited a high rate of fire anti-aircraft guns. Under combat conditions, the Tiger fired eight rounds per minute, which was a record for such large tank guns. Six crew members were comfortably located in an invulnerable steel box, weighing 57 tons, looking at the wide Russian expanses through high-quality Carl Zeiss optics.

The bulky German monster is often described as a slow and clumsy tank. In reality, the Tiger was one of the fastest combat vehicles of World War II. The 700-horsepower Maybach engine accelerated the Tiger to 45 km / h on the highway. No less fast and maneuverable this thick-skinned tank was on rough terrain, thanks to an eight-speed hydromechanical gearbox (almost automatic, like on a Mercedes!) And complex side clutches with dual power supply.

At first glance, the design of the suspension and caterpillar propulsion was a parody of itself - tracks 0.7 meters wide required the installation of a second row of rollers on each side. In this form, the "Tiger" did not fit on the railway platform, each time it was necessary to remove the "ordinary" caterpillar tracks and the outer row of rollers, instead installing thin "transport" tracks. It remains to be surprised at the strength of those guys who "undressed" a 60-ton colossus in the field. But there were also advantages to the strange suspension of the "Tiger" - two rows of rollers provided high smoothness, our veterans witnessed cases when the "Tiger" fired on the move.

The "Tiger" had another drawback that frightened the Germans. It was an inscription in the technical memo that lay in each car: “The tank costs 800,000 Reichsmarks. Take care of him!"
According to the perverse logic of Goebbels, the tankers should have been very happy to learn that their "Tiger" costs as much as seven T-IV tanks.

Realizing that the "Tiger" is rare and exotic weapon professionals, German tank builders created a simpler and cheaper tank, with the intention of turning it into a mass-produced Wehrmacht medium tank.
Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther" is still the subject of heated debate. The technical capabilities of the car do not cause any complaints - with a mass of 44 tons, the Panther was superior in mobility to the T-34, developing 55-60 km / h on a good highway. The tank was armed with a 75 mm KwK 42 cannon with a barrel length of 70 calibers! An armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile fired from its infernal vent flew 1 kilometer in the first second - with such performance characteristics, the Panther's cannon could pierce any Allied tank at a distance of over 2 kilometers. Reservation "Panther" by most sources is also recognized as worthy - the thickness of the forehead varied from 60 to 80 mm, while the angles of the armor reached 55 °. The board was weaker protected - at the level of the T-34, so it was easily hit by Soviet anti-tank weapons. The lower part of the side was additionally protected by two rows of rollers on each side.

The whole question is in the very appearance of the Panther - did the Reich need such a tank? Perhaps we should have focused our efforts on modernizing and increasing the production of proven T-IVs? Or spend money on building invincible Tigers? It seems to me that the answer is simple - in 1943, nothing could save Germany from defeat.

In total, less than 6,000 Panthers were built, which was clearly not enough to saturate the Wehrmacht. The situation was aggravated by the decline in the quality of tank armor due to a lack of resources and alloying additives.
"Panther" was the quintessence advanced ideas and new technologies. In March 1945, hundreds of Panthers equipped with night vision devices attacked Soviet troops near Balaton at night. Even that didn't help.

Year 1944. Forward to Berlin!

The changed conditions demanded new means of warfare. By this time, the Soviet troops had already received the heavy breakthrough tank IS-2, armed with a 122 mm howitzer. If the hit of an ordinary tank shell caused local destruction of the wall, then a 122 mm howitzer shell demolished the entire house. What was required for successful assault operations.

Other formidable weapon tank - 12.7 mm DShK machine gun mounted on a turret on a pivot mount. Heavy machine gun bullets got the enemy even behind thick brickwork. The DShK increased the capabilities of the Is-2 by an order of magnitude in battles on the streets of European cities.

The armor thickness of the IS-2 reached 120 mm. One of the main achievements of Soviet engineers is the cost-effectiveness and low metal consumption of the IS-2 design. With a mass comparable to the mass of the Panther, the Soviet tank was much more seriously protected. But too tight layout required the placement of fuel tanks in the control compartment - when the armor was broken, the crew of the Is-2 had little chance of surviving. The driver, who did not have his own hatch, was especially at risk.
The IS-2 liberator tanks became the personification of the Victory and were in service Soviet army nearly 50 years old.

The next hero, the M4 Sherman, managed to fight on the Eastern Front, the first vehicles of this type came to the USSR back in 1942 (the number of M4 tanks delivered under Lend-Lease was 3,600 tanks). But fame came to him only after mass use in the West in 1944.

Sherman is the pinnacle of rationality and pragmatism. It is all the more surprising that the United States, which had 50 tanks by the beginning of the war, managed to create such a balanced combat vehicle and rivet 49,000 Shermans of various modifications by 1945. For example, in ground forces used "Sherman" with a gasoline engine, and in units Marine Corps received a modification of the M4A2, equipped with a diesel engine. American engineers rightly believed that this would greatly simplify the operation of tanks - diesel fuel could be easily found among sailors, unlike high-octane gasoline. By the way, it was this modification of the M4A2 that entered the Soviet Union.

No less famous are the special versions of the Sherman - the Firefly tank hunter, armed with a British 17-pounder gun; "Jumbo" - a heavily armored version in an assault kit and even an amphibious "Duplex Drive".
Compared to the swift forms of the T-34, the Sherman is tall and clumsy. With the same weapons american tank significantly loses in mobility to the T-34.

Why did the Emcha (as our soldiers called the M4) so ​​pleased the command of the Red Army that they were completely transferred to elite units, for example, the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps and the 9th Guards Tank Corps? The answer is simple: "Sherman" had the optimal ratio of armor, firepower, mobility and ... reliability. In addition, the Sherman was the first tank with a hydraulic turret drive (this provided special aiming accuracy) and a gun stabilizer in a vertical plane - the tankers admitted that in a duel situation their shot was always the first. Other advantages of the Sherman, not usually listed in the tables, were low noise, which made it possible to use it in operations where stealth was needed.

The Middle East gave the Sherman a second life, where this tank served until the 70s of the twentieth century, taking part in more than a dozen battles. The last Shermans completed their military service in Chile at the end of the 20th century.

Year 1945. Ghosts of future wars.

Many people expected that after the monstrous loss and destruction of World War II, a long-awaited lasting peace would come. Alas, their expectations were not met. On the contrary, ideological, economic and religious contradictions became even more acute.

This was well understood by those who created new weapons systems - therefore, the military-industrial complex of the victorious countries did not stop for a minute. Even when the Victory was already obvious, and Nazi Germany was fighting in its death throes, theoretical and experimental research continued at the factories, and new types of weapons were being developed. Particular attention was paid to the armored forces, which had proven themselves during the war. Starting with bulky and uncontrollable multi-turreted monsters and ugly tankettes, just a few years later, tank building reached a fundamentally different level. where again faced with many threats, tk. anti-tank weapons successfully evolved. In this regard, it is curious to look at the tanks with which the Allies ended the war, what conclusions were drawn and what measures were taken.

In the USSR, in May 1945, the first batch of IS-3s was rolled out of the factory workshops of Tankograd. New tank was a further modernization of the heavy IS-2. This time, the designers went even further - the slope of the welded sheets, especially in the front of the hull, was brought to the maximum possible. Thick 110-mm plates of frontal armor were arranged in such a way that a tri-slope, cone-shaped, elongated nose was formed, which was called the "pike nose". The turret received a new flattened shape, which provided the tank with even better anti-projectile protection. The driver received his own hatch, and all viewing slots were replaced with modern periscope devices.
The IS-3 was a few days late for the end of hostilities in Europe, but the new beautiful tank took part in the Victory Parade along with the legendary T-34 and KV, still covered with soot from recent battles. A visible change of generations.

Another interesting novelty was the T-44 (in my opinion, a landmark event in Soviet tank building). Actually, it was developed back in 1944, but did not have time to take part in the war. Only in 1945 did the troops receive a sufficient number of these excellent tanks.
A major drawback of the T-34 was the turret moved forward. This increased the load on the front rollers and made it impossible to strengthen the frontal armor of the T-34 - the "thirty-four" ran until the end of the war with a 45 mm forehead. Realizing that the problem could not be solved just like that, the designers decided on a complete re-arrangement of the tank. Due to the transverse placement of the engine, the dimensions of the MTO have decreased, which made it possible to mount the tower in the center of the tank. The load on the rollers was leveled, the frontal armor plate increased to 120 mm (!), And its slope increased to 60 °. The working conditions of the crew have improved. The T-44 became the prototype of the famous T-54/55 family.

A specific situation has developed overseas. The Americans guessed that in addition to the successful Sherman, the army needed a new, heavier tank. The result was the M26 Pershing, a large medium tank (sometimes considered heavy) with heavy armor and a new 90mm gun. This time the Americans failed to create a masterpiece. Technically, the Pershing remained at the level of the Panther, while having slightly greater reliability. The tank had problems with mobility and maneuverability - the M26 was equipped with an engine from the Sherman, while having a 10-ton weight more. The limited use of Pershing on the Western Front began only in February 1945. The next time the Pershings went into battle was already in Korea.

In 1940, the Germans captured a large number of tankettes, which were in reserve for a long time, and later were used as a base for self-propelled guns and special vehicles in the defense of occupied France. Part of the Renault 31R was used in police units and airfield security, as well as for towing 37-mm anti-tank guns. Sometimes they were used as a dummy tank - to deceive enemy reconnaissance. The tankette had 9 mm armor. It was powered by a four-cylinder 35-horsepower Renault 85 carburetor engine. With it, a tankette with a carrying capacity of 400 kg developed top speed 30 km/h.

Outcome

Well, our tour comes to an end. I would like to thank the Engines of the War club for providing accreditation for the creation of this report. We hope this is not the last exhibition of this format, when so many rare vehicles are collected in one place. I would like to see many unique machines of the military past more than once in the future and tell you about them in our materials.

In this review, we will talk about rare tanks in World of Tanks.

All players love popular and imaginative tanks, so that they can be played well and comfortably. But sometimes in a random house you can meet unusual and quite rare cars and we immediately ask ourselves the question - what kind of tank is this, how can I get it, why didn’t I know about it before?

And today's TOP of the rarest tanks in World Of Tanks from Jova will tell you about the rarest promotional tanks, as well as those that rejoiced during the alpha and beta tests.

PZKPFW B2 740 F

In tenth place we have a German premium heavy tank of French origin, which had a very accurate and fast-firing gun with a large ammo capacity, good all-round armor, but at the same time large dimensions and not very good mobility.

AT this moment it is not possible to buy this tank, as it was withdrawn from sale on February 13, 2012. The reason for this was the release of the French line of tanks. At the moment, as many as 57742 players own this tank. Perhaps you will be able to get it too, since from time to time there are promotions from Wargaming with the distribution of rare tanks.

M6P2E1

In ninth place we have an American tier 8 heavy tank, which is often called the "Duck".

This is a fairly well-known car, 50412 players have it, and it was once sold along with a special package for a lot of money.

The duck has a classic tier 8 cannon, good frontal armor, but at the same time completely cardboard sides and huge size.

You may be surprised, but Duck is taller than Mouse. At first, these tanks bent over in random, but then due to obsolescence, due to the fact that the gameplay has changed - this tank was out of work.

At the moment, you can’t buy it, and perhaps this is even for the better, because at level 8 there are many much more interesting tanks.

VK 72 01K

In eighth place, we have a German heavy tank of the 10th level. It was once given out for the first share on the global map to those players who achieved good success on this global map.

In short, good frontal armor, a cannon from the E-100, with wadded sides and a rear turret.

In general, the tank is not bad, and due to its rarity in random, it can surprise someone with its frontal armor, but in terms of versatility, it loses to the same E-100. At the moment, 30560 players have it.

A32

In seventh place we have a very rare medium-level Soviet tank. It was once sold with a special package and could be purchased, but is no longer available.

It is owned by 22766 players, and it is almost impossible to see it in random - perhaps because its owners do not ride it, but perhaps because it no longer bends over.

Yes, once the A32 was a very good car, fast maneuverable, capable of shining, but that was a few years ago. A lot has changed since then, so it can be assumed that the tank is obsolete, but nevertheless, this is a good collector's item.

KV 22OT

A Tier 5 Soviet heavy tank given to players who participated in the beta test.

Excellent all-round armor, which is a cut above that of a conventional KV-1, and a weak gun - made this tank just a mobile pillbox, which, however, could not penetrate other tanks.

At level 5, when he gets to the top, he becomes a real bender. It doesn't always bend down, but it tanks well, because we have 100 mm. frontal armor and the same amount of side armor! That is, we can perfectly tank with the sides.

At the moment, this tank is owned by as many as 20977 players who participated in the beta test or received it in some other way. We congratulate them and envy them. Really very rare and good car.

T23E3

In fifth place we have an aggregate that was once taken out of the game, and now it has recently been reintroduced again. This is a tier 7 medium american tank.

Once this car was at level 8 and replaced Pershing, who was at level 9 and just bent over mega. But then the developers introduced the M46 Patton, brought it to level 9, Pershing was moved to the eighth, and the T23 had to be simply removed from the game.

In the hangar, only those players who fought on the global map and received some kind of trophies have it. There are currently 20482 of them, with which we congratulate them, although the tank is very so-so.

PZ KPFW II AUSF J

In fourth place we have a German gift tank. This is just a real armored car at level 3. 80 mm. in a circle - this is not a joke for you to joke.

In the top, this monster just rides in a straight line and kills all living things. Unfortunately, his gun is not very penetrating, but the armor is just super!

At the moment, only 5895 players own this tank, and you can also get it by purchasing the German deluxe edition of World of Tanks, which contains a bonus code with this tank.

On the other hand, this edition costs about 2,000 rubles, which, as you understand, is not a little.

M60

Promotional level 10 tank American M60, which was also presented for victories on the global map.

The M60 is one of Patton's variations, with better stabilization, though not as good dynamics.

At the moment, 5081 players own this tank, and they are lucky.

But in the future, you yourself can get this tank if you play on the global map in some other fortified areas.

BT-SV

Another gift dance. This time it's a Soviet tier 3 vehicle.

It is in a deluxe edition, only the Soviet one.

According to the reviewer under the nickname Flash, this tank is worth buying.

This is such a fun soap box that flies quite cheerfully across the battlefield, shoots, bends down and even tanks well.

At the moment this tank is owned by 5032 players

PZKPFW IV

Well, the German heavy tank of the 6th level, which was given out to alpha testers for their unbridled suffering, takes the first place.

There are only 199 of these vehicles in World of Tanks, and this is even for the best, because on a medium tank of level 6 we have a gun from level 4 - and this is a great sadness.

On the other hand, the owners of this rarest tank can sometimes roll it out at random and show off its uniqueness and rarity.

But bending over on this tank is unlikely to succeed. Here we have the TOP 10 rarest tanks in the game.

"Genius thinks and creates.
An ordinary person carries out.
The fool uses and does not thank"
Kozma Prutkov

H e so long ago powerful weapon there were tanks in the world.
Engineering thought fought for their survivability and invulnerability, for firepower and maneuverability. There were ups and downs, victories and failures.
This post is not copied from somewhere on the internet. This is all collected by me from different sites. Here are the most interesting "tank" engineering solutions (in my opinion) implemented when creating tanks different countries.

Russian tsar tank

Also known as the Bat, Lebedenko Tank, sometimes the Mammoth or Mastodon variant is also found - an armored mobile combat device, developed by engineer Nikolai Lebedenko in Russia in 1914-1915. The tank was huge. Wheels with a diameter of 9 meters. He was supposed to help the troops at the front, but alas.

N. Zhukovsky and his nephews, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin, took part in the development. Strictly speaking, the object was not a tank, but was a wheeled combat vehicle.
The Tsar Tank is the largest armored ground combat vehicle ever built.

The tank was built and tested in 1915.

On the very first day of testing in the forest near Orudyevo, the combat vehicle was hopelessly bogged down in the ground.

According to the test results, it was concluded that the tank was generally unsuitable for use in combat conditions, which led to the closure of the project.

Until 1917, the combat vehicle stood at the test site under guard. Only in 1923 it was dismantled for scrap.

Combat Quad (1899)

One of the very first prototypes of the tank was created in the UK and was a small four-wheeled cart with a machine gun. All this was set in motion thanks to a power unit with a capacity of 1.5 horsepower, the tank had practically no armor - it was assumed that the "tanker" would hide from bullets behind the machine gun shield.

Major Schuman's tank

Armored observation posts or the so-called armored carriages of engineering major Schumann were developed back in the 80s of the 19th century for fortresses.
They were intended for one 37- or 57-mm rapid-fire gun and consisted of a cylindrical box of sheet steel, covered with a dome of steel 2.5 cm thick (from bullets and shrapnel). There was a door for entry. The dome rested on three legs of the central axis, fixed to the floor of the carriage in such a way that the axis can rotate 360 ​​° using a hand drive. The machine gun is firmly connected with the dome.

Sometimes they were placed on motorized carriages. The cannon was serviced by 2 numbers: one - shot while sitting on a bench, the other - brought shells, a decent supply of which is in the carriage itself.

Classic English monster tanks

Pictured is the MK-4 tank. Not everyone knows that it was thanks to Russia that the tanks were given the name "tank" (English tank). Initially, this word did not mean an armored fighting vehicle as it is now, but only what was understood by the word tank in English language- i.e. "cistern" or "tank". Secrecy is to blame for this confusion. During the First World War, the British command could not allow information about the first "land ships" sent to the Allies to be at the disposal of Germany. Therefore, information was spread that these were mobile water tanks, tanks for the needs of the front, and some sources say that the recipient was even specified - Russian empire. They even wrote "To Berlin" "Caution. Petrograd."

These interesting facts can even be found in Churchill’s autobiography - he writes that at the beginning these combat vehicles were called “water carriers for Russia” in documents (i.e., “water carriers for Russia”), but due to the fact that their often shortened to "WCs" (which means toilet in English), the phrase "water tank" appeared, and then only just "tank" remained.
Well, the tanks themselves were complete crap ... clumsy, heavy, with weak firepower and huge "dead zones" in the review. At first they were feared because of the rumble and unusual appearance but when the first fear was gone...

Tracked vehicle Besta, USA (1917)

An American citizen named Best built this unique machine that looks like a capsized boat. The weight of the tank was 15 tons. In 1915, the machine was successfully tested and was adopted by the American army. About 50 of these machines were produced every month.
Looking at the inscription on the front, one would think that this is an armored raillayer.

US Skeleton Tank (1918)

Tank from the First World War. It was assumed that the "holes" would reduce the weight, and the shells would fly through the tank without damaging it, which would increase survivability.
The hull of the tank was mounted on steel pipes between the frames and received a box shape to simplify the design. The hull was assembled on bolts, rivets and corners, which fastened 12-mm armor plates. The fighting compartment and the control compartment were located in front - there were places for the driver, tank commander and machine gunner. A cylindrical tower with one 7.62-mm machine gun was installed on the roof of the fighting compartment. At the rear of the hull were two 4-cylinder Beaver gasoline engines with an HP 50 power. each.
Due to its original design, this combat vehicle was called the “Skeleton Tank”, although the alternative name “Spider Tank” is sometimes used. Considering the requirements for it, we can conclude that this tank was classified as an infantry tank.

Amphibious tank Christie (1921)

In 1921, American designer John Walter Christie built a wheeled-tracked waterfowl tank. The vehicle was equipped with a 75 mm cannon and was designed to carry out combat operations in coastal areas. During the tests, the military revealed a lot of shortcomings: firstly, the Christie tank was shaking a lot, secondly, it was very crowded inside, and thirdly, the lack of a roof had a bad effect on the security of the crew. Yes, perhaps a convertible is not the best body type for a combat vehicle.

Tank Tortuga (1934)

The Tortuga tank (translated from Spanish as a turtle) was developed in Venezuela in 1934. Military technology by that time had stepped far ahead: the tank had full-fledged armor, however, it looked rather comical, and the weapon system was still limited to one machine gun. Such tanks did not represent real tactical value, therefore it was assumed that they would keep the neighboring Colombian army at bay by their mere presence in the military hangars of Venezuela.

Soviet five-turret tank T-35 (1938)

One of the most original and heavy tanks used during World War II, the "land battleship". The T-35 was inspired by various British experimental combat armored vehicles twenties. It was first demonstrated during the May Day parade on Red Square in Moscow in 1933, prototype The T-35 aroused considerable interest in the West, although in no country tank builders tried to create something similar.
Crew - 11 people!
This tank was conceived as a "breakthrough tank" of the enemy's defenses. After it is broken through, light tanks and infantry will rush into the gap, however, during the assault, the T-35 should have been protected from all sides. Transport it across railway it turned out to be a difficult task and the vehicles served only as part of one unit - the 5th brigade of heavy tanks, designed to defend the approaches to Moscow.

Bob Semple Tank (1940)

During World War II, when the world's military industry was developing at a frantic pace, the New Zealand government decided to develop its own tank. However, little funding was allocated for the project, so Bob Semple's tank (named after the then Minister of Labor of New Zealand) was built on a platform from a conventional Caterpillar D8 tractor - hence the somewhat unusual proportions of the combat vehicle. The tank was equipped with seven guns at once, and one machine gunner from the crew had to fire while lying on a mat, which was placed on a thin iron sheet on top of the engine.

self-propelled artillery mount M15A

Only one prototype of this "artillery monster" was released.

Flying tank Antonov A-40 (1942)

Flying tank A-40 - perhaps the most ambitious project Soviet engineers during the Great Patriotic War. Designer Oleg Antonov really managed to lift the T-60 tank into the air. On the ground, the tank was set in motion power unit GAZ-202 with a capacity of 70 horsepower, and Antonov A-40 flew with the help of four aircraft engines with a capacity of 970 horsepower each. The total flight weight of the structure was 7800 kilograms. On tests, the tank aircraft was able to be lifted into the air 40 meters up and reach a speed of 130 kilometers per hour.
Crew mortality was about 10%. After landing, the wings were easily discarded and the tank became an ordinary land tank.

The most unique Soviet "tank" "NI-1" - "At Fright" (1941)

This is an imitation of a tank, created on the basis of a tractor out of desperation. But she worked and helped beat the enemy! Where else could such people appear, if not during the defense of Odessa!
The tank was an ordinary agricultural tracked tractor STZ-NATI, sheathed with armor sheets. In this instance, the "gun" is a pure props - just a pipe or even a log sticking out of the tower. The tank project was developed Chief Engineer plant them. January Uprising P. K. Romanov, A. I. Obednikov and Captain U. G. Kogan. Tractors were protected by welded armor, but more often just steel sheets taken from the Odessa Shipyard. The sheets were placed for a reason, concrete was poured between them, which increased survivability and made it possible to protect the crew from the usual small arms- a simple steel sheet (even folded 4 times), the rifle shot through. Armed cars light machine guns and rifles of the crew, which were pushed through the loopholes. Sometimes towers from wrecked tanks were also placed, in this case the guns were not fake.

On the night of September 20, 1941, 20 of these tanks were used in battle against the Romanian units that were besieging the city. At the same time, a special stake was placed on the psychological effect of the use of tanks. Headlights and sirens were turned on on the tanks, and without artillery support they moved into the Romanian trenches. The enemy was turned into a panic flight. After this battle, the name "NI-1" was assigned to the tanks, i.e. "To the fright." According to the recollections of veterans, when moving, the tank made a terrifying roar.
According to reports, in the fall of 1941, from 50 to 60 such armored tractors were produced by the Kharkov Tractor Plant.

Nazi tank "Maus"

Tank "Mouse" (mouse) did not have time to go into production, the war ended. The crew of the vehicle consisted of six people: a tank commander, a gun commander, two loaders, a driver and a radio operator. The car body was divided by transverse partitions into four compartments: control, engine, combat and transmission.
Two fuel tanks were installed in the niches of the sides, with a total capacity of 1560 liters.

The armament of the tank consisted of a 128-mm tank gun of the 1944 model, the KWK-44 (RaK-44) model, a 75-mm KWK-40 tank gun paired with it, and a separately located 7.92 mm MG.42 machine gun. The project provided for the installation of an anti-aircraft 20-mm cannon MS.151/20 in the turret of the tank instead of the MG.42 machine gun, as well as mortars for placing smoke screens and a flamethrower installation at the stern of the vehicle.

Gas dynamic tank minesweeper "Progrev-T"

A Russian tank with a turret-mounted jet engine for clearing mines with a jet blast. Heavy armor protects the crew. Weight for 30 tons.

Heavy tank "Object 279" (1957)

"Object 279" - a heavy tank designed to break through especially fortified enemy positions and combat operations in difficult terrain, as well as to conduct battles during nuclear strike. The hull of the tank is designed in such a way that the blast wave does not turn it over.
The hull of the tank had a cast curvilinear shape with thin-sheet anti-cumulative screens, where the contours passed to an elongated ellipsoid. The armor of the tank could withstand 122 mm armor-piercing and 90 mm HEAT shells. The thickness of the armor in some places ranged from 93 to 305 mm.
The tank had 4 tracks. Such a unique design solution allowed the vehicle to overcome difficult terrain for conventional tanks. The tank easily moved through the snow and wetlands, a unique tracked chassis excluded the possibility of landing the tank with the bottom when overcoming hedgehogs, stumps, gouges. Object 278 had an average ground pressure like a light tank - 0.6 kg / sq. cm. The tank overcame a rise of 35 degrees and a ford of 1.2 m.
The Object 279 tank was equipped with a 130 mm M-65 rifled cannon with 24 rounds of ammunition, as well as one 14.5 mm KPVT machine gun coaxial with the cannon. All this was aimed at the target by the TPD-2S stereoscopic rangefinder sight and the TPN-1 night sight.

This concludes the review.)))) I hope it was interesting. And finally, a newspaper clipping, how our ancestors in the First World War imagined the war of the future. How wrong they were...

Cynically (C) from different places on the Internet

It so happened that it was the Belarusians who created the World of Tanks game that fell to arouse world interest in formidable vehicles. Making a tank in the game is easy only at first glance. In fact, the skill and imagination of a 3D artist is not enough for this - you need drawings, photographs, armor thickness measurements and many other things that are very difficult to find.

Soviet experimental medium tank "Object 430". Photo: Andrey Gashkov

Today, a special team, including a dozen professionals, is busy searching for rare and unique tanks, as well as collecting materials for the game.

Head of the historical service of the company Andrey Gashkov told about the difficulties one has to face when searching for tanks, what unique blueprints they managed to find in the National Library, and about the twin tanks that museums so often confuse.

The tank that didn't land

The development of tanks in the war was carried out not only by specialized design bureaus. Surprisingly, it was possible to find projects for combat vehicles even in the Yakovlev Aviation Design Bureau. The tank designs that were developed by aircraft engineers date back to 1943, when a turning point was already outlined in the war.

What made aircraft designers engage in tank design remains a mystery. Andrei Gashkov said that they even wanted to teach the tanks to fly, but landing, or rather, splashdown, did not work out.

Among the documents of the Russian State Military Archive, there was a mention of the tests of the “flying” T-38 tank, which they tried to drop from a bomber into the lake. The experiment ended unsuccessfully - the car was so badly damaged that the military abandoned this idea.

As for Belarus, it was on the territory of our country that the Germans first used self-propelled guns Dicker Max armed with a powerful 105mm cannon. An entertaining episode of the hunt for a Soviet armored train is connected with this self-propelled guns, the latter, by the way, managed to escape from the “Fat Max” (this is how the name of the self-propelled gun sounds in translation).

Already trophy Dicker Max. Photo: tanks-encyclopedia.com

- When we first saw Dicker Max in the pictures among captured armored vehicles Soviet troops, then we decided that we have another fake, - Andrey Gashkov shared.

But the most unique material was found in the Belarusian National Library.

— In the archives, we found unique material on aircraft guns that could be installed on tanks. We have not seen these documents anywhere else in the world. They contain information about the experimental developments of Soviet aircraft guns Nudelman. How these documents ended up in the National Library is unclear.

Swedish tanks found by accident

“All the tanks that were built in metal and went into production are already in the game,” says Andrey Gashkov, “there is now a hunt for rare projects that existed only on paper or in the form of wooden models.

In total, there are 10 levels of vehicles in the game, the most powerful combat vehicles are at the top of the list, the discovery of any such tank allows you to fully form new branch. But to find such a machine for countries where tank building has not received proper development is a great success.

Experimental Swedish tank Lago. Photo: Andrey Gashkov

"Paper" technology gives game developers a lot of problems: dimensions and weight are known only approximately, the projects themselves in most cases are sketches, without specific details, a lot has to be calculated and thought out on their own.

However, sometimes during the search for “paper” tanks, real cars are found, as was the case with the Swedish tank Kranvagn (translated as a truck crane, the name was given due to secrecy reasons).

“In general, everything turned out by accident: in the archives we came across a mention of a rare LK II vehicle, a tank created in Imperial Germany in 1918 on the eve of the defeat in the First World War. Ten of these disassembled tanks were secretly delivered to Sweden under the guise of agricultural machinery, they began to "dig" further and found their treasure - the heavy Kranvagn tank. Only the body was preserved from it, which was gathering dust, forgotten by everyone, in the storerooms of the Arsenalen Museum. This discovery made it possible to form a new branch, which the developers introduced into the game for the New Year."

Tanks that didn't exist

Very often, Gashkov's team comes across fakes, which are sometimes difficult to distinguish from real ones, some of them were stored in military archives under the guise of originals.

— We found especially a lot of fakes when we were working on a branch of Japanese technology. The Japanese did not have so many archives - most of them died under the bombing, some were taken out by the Americans after the war, and these documents were lost. It also happened that, under the guise of a historical document, we were shown an ordinary sketch made by an enthusiast.

T-34 with an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun from the "Tiger". Image: gcdn.co

The Japanese, who fought at sea, built mainly light tanks that could become ultimate weapon on a small island where the enemy had only rifles and grenades.

- The Japanese never had heavy tanks, except, perhaps, for one - the German "Tiger", which, according to some reports, was secretly delivered in a disassembled form by a submarine across the ocean, but its further traces were lost. True, the version is more realistic that the submarine only delivered documentation to the Tiger. Local engineers designed real land battleships - huge tanks weighing more than 100 tons and armed with 150-mm ship guns.

The most reliable among the fakes were documents on the installation of a German 88-mm cannon from the heavy Tiger tank on the T-34-85 tank.

- We found a drawing, and not a remake, but an old one, from the Second World War, where such a thirty-four was depicted. We argued for a long time about the authenticity of the drawing, even began to calculate the weight distribution and recoil of the gun. It turned out that the German cannon was getting into the turret of the Soviet tank, but there was no room left for the crew to work normally.

Checkered spy shirts and the secrets of the museum in Saumur

Belarusian search engines are not always welcomed cordially. It happens that you have to go to various tricks to see, measure and photograph the desired tank.

“I still don’t know why we didn’t develop relations with French museums, where a lot of unique equipment is stored. The director of the Saumur Armored Museum - the largest exposition of equipment in France - generally forbade us to approach the tanks and even take measurements of military vehicles, so we had to go for a trick. We bought a plain plaid shirt and held a photo shoot in the background of the tank in the style of "me and my friend against the backdrop of such a big tank" ( for greater clarity spreads his arms to the sides. — Approx. TUT.BY). Then they counted the cells in the photo in order to accurately determine the dimensions of the combat vehicle.

Measurement of tanks in Saumur. Photo: Andrey Gashkov

If there were no complaints about the original tanks exhibited in Saumur, then some of the reconstructed vehicles looked very implausible. For example, the Soviet thirty-four lost the driver's viewing devices, and a wooden cannon was attached to the tower.

Allegedly Jagdpanzer 38 "Hetzer" in Saumur. Photo: wikipedia.org

At the stand of the defense of Stalingrad there was a KV-1 tank, which was borrowed from the Russian liberation army. But such trifles do not seem to bother the French.

Also in Saumur there is an anti-tank self-propelled gun, which is very often passed off as the German Hetzer, only the French sawed off the muzzle brake for greater identity. Read more about this car below.

In Switzerland they were mistaken for spies

A funny story happened to the team in Thun, Switzerland, where there is a museum of rare armored vehicles that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.

— It so happened that when planning the measurements of tanks, we put on clothes that we are not afraid to get dirty and in which it is convenient to climb on a combat vehicle, most often this is camouflage. And we could not assume that the tank museum in Tun is located on the territory of a military unit. Therefore, when five Russian-speaking men in camouflage showed up near the checkpoint in the morning, they categorically refused to let us inside. The situation was complicated by the fact that the local language is German, which we do not know. We had to explain ourselves with gestures: we tried to tell them that we wanted to see the tanks, and they tried to find out who we were and where we came from. The situation was saved by one of the local soldiers, who spoke English.

In Tun, Andrey Gashkov's team found even more than they expected - dozens of unique cars, many in the world exist in single copies.

The same G13. Photo: Andrey Gashkov

— What we saw allowed us to start working on the Swiss branch of tanks, we also discovered an interesting vehicle in its original version — the G13 anti-tank self-propelled gun, which in Saumur, and in museums around the world, is passed off as the German Hetzer. In Thun, before our appearance, by the way, she was also considered a "Hetzer".

The 1000-ton German supertank is not a myth!

It is impossible to find all the tanks that have been built or planned. Many blueprints have been lost, and some of the machines have only fuzzy photographs.

- When looking for medium French tanks, we found a mention of the Somua SM. The combat vehicle was distinguished by a staggered suspension, like the German Panther, and a oscillating turret from the light AMX 13 90. We thought for a long time that this was a hybrid, but it turned out to be an original design that lost in the competition. There are only two pictures left of the tank - from behind, and from behind at an angle of 45 degrees. It was very difficult to recreate the appearance of such a tank.

Super-heavy tank "Mouse" weighing 188 tons. Photo: topwar.ru

Some projects were obviously unfeasible, like the German 1000-ton Ratte (rat) tank. According to Gashkov, the Nazis planned to equip this tank with a turret from the battleship Scharnhorst, having previously removed the medium gun from it.

“But even Hitler, with his gigantomania, did not believe in the future of this tank, preferring the lighter “Mouse”, which weighed 188 tons. Several such tanks were assembled, but contrary to popular belief, none of them took part in the battles. The Germans themselves blew them up, but Soviet specialists managed to restore one "Mouse". Tests have shown that the German 188-ton supertank is in no way superior, and even in many ways inferior to the 49-ton IS-3. And the heaviest tank in history went to the Kubinka museum.