Playing with the Big Boys

[Mad Russian]

During the war the T-34 and the KV's were a rude shock to the German tankers. The KV's were legendary for taking hits and still functioning. Especially the KV-2.

I just happen to have one.

Let's see how it did against the German tanks. The Germans in this engagement are equipped with the PzIIIF with the 37mm and the PZIVE with the 75mm short gun. Sorry, that's what they had.

Let's see what happens.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Early in the battle it was all about taking care of the smaller Soviet tanks. The ones with tank guns and not howitzers. To isolate the Big Bad KV-2.

The KV escapes attention until the Reaction Phase of turn 15. It then takes 2 Hits.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

During the next 40 second in the first part of turn 16 it takes 4 more hits.

Total Hits on the KV-2: 6

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Within the next 40 seconds the KV takes 6 more hits. One of them a damaging hit to it's tracks.

Total Hits on the KV-2: 12

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Two minutes later the KV gets hit again. This time twice.

Total Hits on the KV-2: 14

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

80 seconds later the KV gets peppered by hits. The KV took 6 hits within 40 seconds.

One of them is a damaging hit. Those are displayed in red in the message box.

Total Hits on the KV-2: 20

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

In the next 40 seconds it gets hit 6 more times. Again one is a damaging hit but it doesn't tell us where.

In the original action that KV-2 was hit 11 times before bogging down and having the crew abandon it.

Total Number of Hits on the KV-2: 26

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Within the next 40 seconds the KV is twice more.


Total Hits on the KV-2: 28

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is the attack plan. At this point the battlefield is littered with the smaller Soviet battle tanks. Only the KV-2 and possibly a couple of other tanks still survive.

Everybody is ordered to rush up on both sides of the KV. Stay away from in front of the tank if possible and converge on it.

Not knowing what kind of damaging hits it's taken I need to stay away from the gun.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The KV gets hit 4 more times in the 40 seconds. German tanks are rapidly closing the range.

Just behind the KV-2 is a PzIVE at extremely close range!

Total Hits on the KV-2: 32

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The KV takes 4 more hits just as the game ends.

Total Hits on the KV-2: 36

The KV was not knocked out during fighting but it appears it was both immobile and the gun may not have been working. In either case the crew never abandoned it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

There were KV-2's reported hit more than 70 times in combat without penetrating the armour.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian
Total Hits on the KV-2: 36

The KV was not knocked out during fighting but it appears it was both immobile and the gun may not have been working. In either case the crew never abandoned it.

It might start to look like this KV-1.

[heinrich55]

MR,
Nice AAR. That KV-2 IS the proverbial "Broad Side of a Barn!" That is, both literally and figuratively [:D]. Hitting it and surviving is half the battle. Knocking it out is something altogether different, and in this case didn't happen.

I happened to be going through the Barbarossa volume of my Time Life Books Series The Third Reich and there on page 37 is a picture of a KV-2. The caption notes the tank was captured near Dubno on June 29, 1941. The tank looked undamaged on the right side but had the left track torn off. The book noted that on the evening of June 23, 1941, near Raseiniai, Panzer Group 4 of the XLI Panzer Corps crashed into a Russian armored unit of over 300 tanks, many the large monsters of the KV class. One KV-2 was noted as having taken over 70 hits with not one penetration. That is likely the one you referred to in your post above. The battle went on for days.

I have read combat accounts where PzKfw35(t) gunners would deliberately aim for the gun barrels of T-34s to knock out the guns, knowing they had no chance to penetrate the armor of those beasts with their "door knocker" 37mm guns. It would just be 10 times worse going up against the KV monsters.

Heinrich55

[Mad Russian]

If they were Pz35(t) tanks then you were reading about the 6th Panzer Division; which was the only German unit armed with them. Which is the one involved with the KV-2 at Raseiniai. There was only one KV-2 involved in the main incident. It was so bad that the 1st Panzer Division had to come to their rescue.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here are some pictures of the beast. Note that this KV has a hole shot through it's barrel.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

They took what appear to be small hits. On other tanks those hits wouldn't look so small.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is the KV-2 that you were talking about that stopped 6th Panzer Division.

This picture is from the Russian Battlefield site where you can learn a lot about the KV-2 in action. I would think that there could be scenarios released with PCO that could include at least one of them.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

I found this reference to a KV-2 that may very well find it's way into a scenario later on...........

A single captured KV-2 was used by German forces in 1945 against US forces in the Ruhr.


I'll bet that tank was every bit as much of a surprise for American forces as they ever were for German forces.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is another KV-2 that took tremendous damage.

Good Hunting.

MR