#Hs 129 b1 tank buster install
#Hs 129 b1 tank buster series

Furthermore, at 45 tons, it was simply too heavy. It also had serious flaws: it was difficult to steer, the transmission (which was a twenty year old Caterpillar design) was unreliable (and was known to have to be shifted with a hammer), and the ergonomics were poor, with limited visibility and no turret basket. The KV's strengths included armor that was impenetrable by any tank-mounted weapon then in service except at point-blank range, that it had good firepower, and that it had good traction on soft ground. Initially known as Little Turret and Big turret, the 76-mm-armed tank was designated as the KV-1 Heavy Tank and the 152 mm howitzer one as KV-2 Heavy Artillery Tank. One of the rush projects to meet the request put the howitzer in a new turret on one of the KV tanks. During the War, the Soviets found it difficult to deal with the concrete bunkers used by the Finns and a request was made for a tank with a large howitzer. The KV's heavy armour proved highly resistant to Finnish anti-tank weapons, making it more difficult to stop. The KV outperformed the SMK and T-100 designs. 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.

#Hs 129 b1 tank buster install

The smaller hull and single turret enabled the designer to install heavy frontal and turret armour while keeping the weight within manageable limits. Two of these, named after the People's Defence Commissioner were ordered alongside a single SMK. The designers of the SMK independently drew up a single-turreted variant and this received approval at the highest level. One of the main competing designs was the SMK, which in its final form had two turrets, mounting the same combination of 76.2 mm and 45 mm weapons. All had heavy armour, torsion-bar suspension, wide tracks, and were of welded and cast construction. Several competing designs were offered, and even more were drawn up prior to reaching prototype stage. The Spanish Civil War demonstrated the need for much heavier armor on tanks, and was the main influence on Soviet tank design just prior to World War II. The T-35 conformed to the 1920s notion of a 'breakthrough tank' with very heavy firepower and armour protection, but suffered from poor mobility.

#Hs 129 b1 tank buster series

Later in the war, the KV series became a base of development of the Iosif Stalin tanks.Īfter disappointing results with the multi-turreted T-35 heavy tank, Soviet tank designers started drawing up replacements.

Yet in the end it turned out that there was little sense in producing the expensive KV tanks, as the T-34 medium tank performed better (or at least equally) in all practical respects. When the KV-1 appeared, it outclassed the French Char B1, the only heavy tank used in the world at that time. Prior to the invasion, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks in Soviet service at the time were of the KV-1 type. Almost completely immune to the 3.7 cm KwK 36 and howitzer-like, short barreled 7.5 cm KwK 37 guns mounted respectively on the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, until better guns were developed often the only way to defeat a KV was a point-blank shot to the rear. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov.