KV-1

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) was a Soviet heavy tank, named after Kliment Voroshilov.

History

After dissapointing results with the multi-turreted T-35 heavy tank, Soviet tank designers started drawing up replacements.

One of the main competing designs was the SMK, which lowered the number of turrets from five to two. When two prototypes were ordered though, it was decided to create one as-normal and another with a single turret, but more armor. This new single-turret tank was the KV.

When the Soviets entered the Winter War, the SMK, KV and a third design, the T-100, were sent to be tested in combat conditions. The heavy armor of the KV proved highly resiliant to Finnish anti-tank weapons, making it more effective then the other designs. It was soon put into production, both as the original 76mm armed KV-1 and the howitzer-mounting assault gun, the KV-2.

While the KV was virtually unstoppable by conventional attack, it had serious flaws in nearly every other aspect. It was slow and unmanuverable, and used the same gun as smaller medium tanks. Most damaging was its terrible reliability, as many more KV's were taken out of operation due to mechanical problems then enemy assault. As an example, so poor was its transmission gears that many drivers had to use hammers to switch between them.

When Operation Barbarossa first started, the Red Army was equipped with 639 KV-1's. So effective was its armor that the Germans were incapable of destroying it with their tanks or anti-tank weapons and had to rely on air support and artillery to knock them out. At one point a large German armoured group was delayed for 2 days by a single KV-1 near Ostrov.

Because of its overall effective performance, the KV-1 was chosen as one the few tanks to continue production following the Soviet reorganization. Due to the new standardization, it shared the same engine, gun and transmission as the T-34, was built in a large quantity and received frequent upgrades.

As the war continued the KV-1 continued to get heavier armor to compensate for the increasing efficiency of German weapons. This led to predictable results and the KV-1C, though quite well protected, was unacceptably slow and unwieldy.

In order to try and get some extra use out of the tank, it was redesigned as the KV-1s which saw a few technical improvements and the shedding of armor in order to reclaim some speed. Ironically, this eliminated the only advantage the tank ever really had, and it was now clearly overshadowed by the cheaper and more versatile T-34.

The final upgrade to the KV series was the short-lived KV-85. Designed on the hull of the KV-1s, the KV-85 used the same 85mm D-5T gun as the T-34. Already high demand for the gun slowed production of the KV-85 tremendously until the series was cancelled in 1944 with the arrival of the Iosef Stalin tank.

Variants

KV-1 (141)
First production models, these tanks were prone to frequent breakdowns, but were highly resiliant to anti-tank weapons during the Winter War. These tanks were armed with the 76mm L-11 tank gun. Also called KV-1 M1939.

KV-1A
Used the F-32 76 mm gun and a new mantlet. The main production model by the time of the German invasion. Also called KV-1 M1940.

KV-1e
A KV-1A tank with additional appliqué armor. Also called KV-1e M1940.

KV-1B
Uparmoured with 25-35mm added to the turret, hull front and sides. Turret was now cast instead of plated. Later versions of this tank used the ZiS-5 tank gun. Also called KV-1 M1941.

KV-1C
Fully cast turret, again uparmoured and used an improved engine. Also called KV-1 M1942.

KV-1s (1370)
A lighter variant with higher speed, but lowered armor. There were also numerous technical improvements and a redesign of the rear hull.

KV-2 (334)
A heavy assault tank with the M-10 152 mm howitzer, the KV-2 was produced at the same time as the KV-1. Due to the size of its heavy turret and gun, the KV-2 was slower and had a much higher profile then the KV-1. The extra weight also increased the breakdown rate of the vehicle and production was soon halted. The original KV-2 was built on the chassis of the KV-1, while the improved KV-2B was built on that of the KV-1A.

KV-8
A KV-1 where the hull machine gun has been replaced with the ATO-41 flamethrower. In order to accommodate the new weapon, the main gun was restricted to a weaker 45mm, though it was disguised to look like the standard 76mm.

KV-85 (130)
A KV-1s with the 85mm D-5T gun, this tank was never put into large scale production due to heavy demand for the 85mm gun for T-34's.

Vehicles based on chassis

• SU-152