The Tanks of Operation Barbarossa: Soviet versus German Armour on the Eastern Front by Boris Kavalerchik

Author:Boris Kavalerchik [Kavalerchik, Boris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / world War II
ISBN: 9781473886810
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2018-05-29T23:00:00+00:00

Source: Boevoi i chislennyi sostav Vooruzhennykh sil SSSR v period Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. Statistichesky sbornik No. 1. 22 iunia 1941 goda [The order of battle and numerical strength of the USSR armed forces during the Great Patriotic War. Statistical collection No. 1. 22June 1941] (Moscow: IVI MO RF, 1994), pp. 132–9.

Category 2 – is or has been in use, fully serviceable and ready for use as directly intended;

Category 3 – requires repair in district repair shops (intermediate overhauls);

Category 4 – requires repair in central repair shops or in factories (major overhauls);

Category 5 – unserviceable. These vehicles were not included in summary lists.

Combat vehicles in Categories 1 and 2 were assigned to the category of operational tanks in the table.

Category 2 also included tanks requiring troop (current) repairs. What this term meant back then was explained in detail in the ‘Service manual for use and park service’, published by the Main Automotive-Armoured-Tank Directorate of the Red Army in 1938. According to this document, a current repair primarily represented anchoring and tightening loose components and parts done in the process of operating the tank and when carrying out mechanical inspections. It was done as far as was needed primarily by the crew themselves in any conditions under the direction of a technician, using the individual set of tools and spare parts carried by the tank, and it lasted up to 5 to 8 hours. It is today impossible to determine the ratio between fully operational tanks in Category 2, and the tanks that needed current repair.62 However, this in no way notably changes the overall picture.

Between 1 and 21 June 1941 the western military districts received another 206 new tanks, of which 41 were KV tanks, 138 were T-34 tanks, and 27 were T-40 tanks. They were allocated in the following fashion: 1 KV tank to the Leningrad Military District; 20 KV and 138 T-34 tanks to the Western Special Military District; and 20 KV and 27 T-40 tanks to the Kiev Special Military District. Other than the tanks shown above, there were 1,255 light tanks in the forces of the 16th, 19th and 22nd Reserve Armies and the 21st Mechanized Corps that managed to arrive in their designated areas in the western military districts. The exact number of their operational vehicles is still unknown. However, knowing that the share of serviceable tanks in the troops of the Soviet Second Strategic Echelon amounted to 90.4 per cent, it is possible to assert with a large degree of confidence that among the arriving tanks, 1,135 were operational and ready for use in the role intended for them.63 Thus, the Red Army had 15,162 tanks and tankettes in the western military districts, of which 12,344 were combat-ready.

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