It was only 4 years after the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Still, the KV stayed operational until German infantry managed to approach it and throw grenades into the tank’s hatches.Īs for T-34, there is only one fact that needs to be mentioned here – the most-produced tank of WW2 was designed at the Kharkiv Lokomotiv Plant in Ukraine in 1937. It was only on the morning of 25 June, German tanks fired several shots at the KV and two shots penetrated the tank. It was also hit by a heavy 8.8 cm gun of the German division’s anti-aircraft battalion from about 730 m behind the KV but the tank gunner knocked out the 8.8 cm gun almost instantly as well. The tank was hit by four 50 mm anti-tank guns of the anti-tank battalion of the 6th Panzer Division but returned fire, disabling all four guns. According to Raus, in the Battle of Raseiniai which took place simultaneously with the Battle of Brody, his whole unit was delayed by a single KV-1 tank. There is an account of German General Erhardt Raus, commander of the Kampfgruppe of the 6th Panzer Division that was breaking through the Soviet defenses in Lithuania. What was so special about the Soviet tanks just mentioned? The KV tank was a real monster that weighed close to 50 tons it was impervious to most anti-tank guns and could knock out any German tank in service at the time. The Soviet 10th Tank Division of the 15th Mechanized Corps alone had 63 KVs and 38 T-34s,” – wrote an American military historian David Glantz. 729 tanks per Wikipedia), but there is yet another shocking fact: “What’s all the more remarkable is that the Soviet corps had considerable numbers of heavier KV and T-34 tanks, tougher than the German army’s best tanks at the time. Surprisingly, the balance of tanks at the beginning of the battle was at least 3 to 1 in favor of the USSR ( 3429 vs. Known as the Battle of Brody, it started June 23, 1941, the following day after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, and was mostly an attempt to stop the 1st Panzer Group’s advance toward Kyiv. The largest tank battle of WW2 is largely unknown, but it took place in western Ukraine in the triangle between the cities of Dubno, Lutsk, and Brody. Inscription in German with the date - June 29, 1941
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