Polish tanks of World War 2. Trophy armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht. Poland. Combat use and comparison with similar machines

21.09.2019

Polish armored forces were the first in World War II to compete with the German Panzerwaffe - one of the main tools of the blitzkrieg strategy. The battles during the September 1939 campaign of the year showed that, technically, the 7TP light tanks are quite capable of withstanding the German Panzers. But the ratio of the number of German and Polish tanks did not leave the Poles any chance.

Polish armored forces on the eve of World War II

Already during the First World War, it became clear that the combat clashes of the 20th century would be "wars of engines" - both in the air and on the ground. However, this did not mean that all countries feverishly began to fill their arsenals with combat aircraft and tanks. The states that lost the war were not entitled to new military vehicles under the terms of peace treaties, while the victorious countries, especially England and France, came to the fore with the opposite problem - something had to be done with the huge number of built combat vehicles that became unnecessary in peacetime . Both countries were drastically reducing their huge armies created in war time. The massive English "diamonds" and the French Renault FT had three ways within this reduction: recycling, conservation and export. It is not surprising that the tank forces of many countries of the world "began" with these combat vehicles.

It was also fair for the army of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As part of the supply of weapons and military equipment during the Soviet-Polish war, Poland received from the main powers of the Entente, including tanks. Subsequently, the Poles purchased and produced several types of armored vehicles, but even by the beginning of a new world war, the Polish army had several dozen ancestors of tanks of the classic layout - Renault FT.

The desire of the Polish Army to have numerous tank troops was limited by the industrial and economic capabilities of the state. The needs and capabilities were eventually balanced by such a compromise: by 1939, the main armored vehicles of the Polish army were inexpensive tankettes TK-3 and TKS.

At the same time, of course, the Poles had an idea of what was happening in the armies of neighboring states. The fact that Germany, the USSR and Czechoslovakia relied on "full-fledged" turret tanks, and in most cases with cannon weapons, forced Poland to get involved in an "arms race" in this direction. The purchase abroad of small batches of new French R-35s and English "tank bestsellers" Vickers Mk. E eventually culminated in the creation and production of domestic light tanks 7TP based on the "British".

Equipped with a variety of vehicles, the peacetime Polish armored forces included:

10 armored battalions;
11th experimental tank new battalion at the training center in Modlin;
10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade;
two detachments of armored trains.

The pre-war Polish armored battalions were large units with complex structure and various weapons. Immediately before the start of hostilities in August 1939, the Poles, as part of the mobilization of the army, carried out, among other things, the restructuring of their armored forces. By the beginning of the war, the following forces could oppose the following forces to the seven tank and four light divisions of the Wehrmacht:

2 battalions of light tanks equipped with 7TP vehicles (49 tanks each);
1 battalion of light tanks, equipped with French R-35s (45 tanks);
3 separate companies of light tanks (15 French Renault FTs each);
11 armored battalions (consisting of 8 armored vehicles and 13 tankettes TK-3 and TKS each);
15 separate reconnaissance tank companies (13 TK-3 and TKS tankettes each);
10 armored trains.

In addition, two motorized brigades (10th Cavalry and Warsaw Armored) had a company of 16 Vickers Mk. E and two companies of tankettes TK-3 / TKS.

Taking into account the fact that there were no medium tanks in service with the Polish army at all, as well as the fact that the 7TR was superior to the German light PzKpfw I and II in armament, it can be argued with some degree of conditionality that the light 7TR against the background of numerous Polish tankettes could perform the role of a medium tank.

"Vickers six-ton" and armor scam

Since 1926 Polish war ministry maintained contacts with the British firm Vickers-Armstrong. The British offered several models of their combat vehicles (Mk.C and Mk.D), but the Poles did not like them. Things got off the ground when the Vickers company built the Mk.E tank ("Vickers six-ton"), which was destined to become one of milestones in the history of world tank building. Moreover, the Poles began to get acquainted with the new tank, which was created in 1928, even before its birth: in January 1927, their delegation was shown a new promising chassis, and in August 1927, the military made a preliminary decision to purchase 30 tanks that did not yet exist. .

The high price of a new British car forced the Poles to pay attention to French tanks Renault NC-27, which, in turn, was another attempt to breathe life into the rapidly aging Renault FT. The attempt to save was unsuccessful. 10 vehicles purchased in France made such a depressing impression on the Polish military that it was finally decided to return to the Vickers. Another possible alternative, which aroused great interest among the Poles, was the Christie wheeled-tracked tank, but the American designer failed to fulfill his obligations to deliver the ordered copy to Poland in time.

The Vickers company produced Mk.E tanks in two versions - a single-turret "B" with mixed cannon-machine gun armament and a two-turret "A" machine-gun. After testing a sample that arrived in Poland in September 1930, the Poles decided to purchase 38 (some sources indicate the number 50) double-turreted tanks simultaneously with a license for their further production.

Vickers Mk.E modification A tanks destined for Poland in the assembly hall of the Vickers plant in Newcastle. The tanks were delivered to Poland unarmed, and 7.92 mm wz. 25 "Hotchkiss". June 1932.
http://derela.pl/7tp.htm

In fairness, it should be noted that the new Polish acquisition had significant drawbacks. Even during preliminary tests in 1930, it turned out that weak point The "British" was a 90 hp Armstrong-Siddeley gasoline engine. air cooled. With its help, the tank could move at a cruising speed of 22–25 km/h, but at a maximum speed of 37 km/h, the engine overheated after 10 minutes.

The second equally important drawback was the booking of the Vickers (the incident is known in Poland as the "armor scam"). Upon arrival in Poland of ordered tanks, it turned out that their armor had a lower resistance than indicated in the technical specifications. 13-mm frontal armor plates during the tests were pierced by the fire of a large-caliber 12.7-mm machine gun from a distance of 350 meters, declared in the TX. The scandal was settled by reducing the cost of the party's tanks - from the original 3,800 pounds to 3,165 pounds per vehicle.

16 "Vickers" received a large-caliber 13.2-mm machine gun in one of the towers, and another 6 - a short-barreled 37th gun. Subsequently, some of the British tanks (22 vehicles) were converted into single-turret ones, with a 47-mm short-barreled gun as the main armament and a coaxial 7.92-mm machine gun.

After the Soviet-Polish war, the USSR seriously believed that Poland was hatching aggressive plans against its eastern neighbor. Fearing Poland's ability to achieve superiority in tanks (however, the imaginary ability - the industrial and financial capabilities of the Second Commonwealth allowed it to build only less than 150 full-fledged tanks), the Soviet Union closely followed the development of Polish tank weapons. Perhaps one of the consequences of such attention was the “synchronous” interest on the part of the USSR to the Vickers Mk.E and the Christie tank (at least in Polish sources, these events are presented from this angle). As a result, the Christie tank became the "progenitor" of several thousand Soviet tanks BT-2, BT-5 and BT-7 (and the experimental Polish 10TR), and the Vickers became the basis for thousands of T-26s and 134 Polish 7TRs.

As noted above, along with a batch of English-assembled Vickers, the Poles also acquired a license for their production. The license did not cover the engine; however, the air-cooled engine was clearly unsuccessful for the tank. To replace it, the Poles chose a Swiss 110 hp Saurer water-cooled diesel engine, which was already produced in Poland under license. As a result, this is enough random selection(just the Saurer turned out to be the only engine of suitable size and power produced in Poland at that time) 7TP became the first diesel tank in Europe and one of the first in the world (after Japanese cars).

The use of a diesel engine in tank building, as you know, eventually became generally accepted. Its advantages are less flammable fuel, better torque and lower fuel consumption, which has a positive effect on the range. As for the case with the 7TP, the Swiss diesel also had a significant drawback: its dimensions and water radiators required the engine compartment to be expanded upwards, the “hump” of which eventually became the most obvious difference between the Polish tank and the Vickers and T-26.

With the second drawback of the British tank - insufficient armor - the Poles also decided to fight, but in the end they managed with half measures: instead of 13-mm homogeneous armor plates in the frontal projection, 17-mm surface-hardened ones were installed. The driver's hatch had a thickness of only 10 mm, the sides - from 17 mm in front to 9 mm in the rear. The rear part of the hull was made of armor plates 9 mm thick (6 mm in early series), while on machines early series in back wall the power compartment had louvered vents for the cooling system. Double turrets had a circular 13-mm armor. Of course, there was no question of any "protivosnaryadnosti".

The new car, which originally acquired the name VAU 33 (Vickers-Armstrong-Ursus, or, according to another version, Vickers-Armstrong Ulepszony), received a reinforced suspension and a new transmission. The tank was equipped with a four-speed gearbox (plus one reverse gear). Already at this stage, its mass increased to seven tons, which was the reason for the renaming to 7TR (“seven-ton Polish”, by analogy with the “Six-ton Vickers”).

Two 7TP prototypes with two turrets called Smok (Dragon) and Słoń (Elephant) were built in 1934–35. Both of them were made of mild non-armored steel and used part of the parts purchased from Vickers.

In March 1935, the first series of twin-turret 7TRs with machine gun armament was ordered - they were equipped with turrets removed from the Vickers being converted into single-turret versions. This decision was obviously temporary, since the military still had not decided on the final version of the turret and gun. The 47-mm English gun of the single-turret Vickers was rejected because it had poor armor penetration. The British proposed a new hexagonal turret with a more powerful 47 mm gun, but the Poles also rejected this proposal. But the Swedish company Bofors, which proposed to create a new tower based on the towers of the L-30 and L-10 tanks, they agreed. Which is not surprising - a good 37-mm Swedish gun of the same Bofors company was already in service with the Polish army as a standard towed anti-tank gun.

The Swedish double tower in Poland has been redesigned. She received a stern niche for installing a radio station and additional ammunition, as well as Polish-made optics, including a circular view periscope designed by Rudolf Gundlach, the patent for which was sold to Vickers, and subsequently such periscopes became standard for Allied tanks. The secondary armament of the tank was a 7.92-mm water-cooled wz.30 machine gun (in the twin-turret version, the armament consisted of two such machine guns). Since 1938, Polish N2 / C radio stations were installed in the tank towers of battalion, company and platoon commanders. In total, before the war, the Poles managed to produce 38 of these radio stations, of which not all were installed on tanks. The turret of the 7TP tank in the single-turret version had a thickness of 15 mm on all sides and on the gun mantlet, 8–10 mm on the roof. The protective casing of the machine gun cooling system had a thickness of 18 mm in front, and 8 mm around the barrel.

The serial 7TR in a single-turret version had a mass of 9.9 tons, in a two-turret version - 9.4 tons. Max Speed the movement of the car was 32 km / h, the cruising range was up to 150 km on the road, 130 km on rough terrain (Soviet sources indicate the numbers 195/130 km). The crew of the 7TR consisted of three people in both options. The ammunition load of the 37 mm gun was 80 rounds.

Production

Despite discrepancies in detail regarding batch sizes and exact production times, sources generally agree on the total number of 7TPs produced. Taking into account two prototypes, 134 tanks of this type were produced. The financial possibilities of the Polish Ministry of Defense allowed it to purchase one company of tanks per year. After the first order of 22 machines in 1935, 16 were produced in 1936. Such a snail's pace (18 7TRs were ordered for 1937) was clearly insufficient. Only thanks to the sale of four companies of old French Renault FTs to the Republicans in Spain (fictitiously they were sold to China and Uruguay), it became possible in 1937 to make a large additional order for 49 new tanks. But here the desires of the military were already fettered production capabilities Polish factories, on the assembly lines of which the 7TR tanks were forced to "compete" with the C7R artillery tractors. As a result, the Polish industry managed to produce tractors by the beginning of the war more than tanks - about 150 units.

In total, before the start of World War II and during its course (11 tanks entered the troops as early as September 1939), 132 serial 7TR tanks were created, including 108 in single-turret and 24 in double-turret modifications (alternative figures - 110 and 22) .

The number of serial tanks 7TR, produced by order:

Although countries such as Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey, Estonia, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece and, possibly, Republican Spain expressed interest in acquiring 7TP, due to limited industrial capacity and the priority of supplies for their armed forces, Polish tanks were not exported.

Combat use and comparison with similar machines

Two companies of 7TP tanks (a total of 32 vehicles) were included in the Silesia Task Force and in October 1938 participated in the invasion of Teszyn Silesia, a region disputed with Czechoslovakia, which, under the terms of international arbitration, was annexed to the latter in July 1920. Czechoslovakia, which at the same time was invaded by Germany as a result of the Munich Agreement, did not put up any resistance to the Poles, so the participation of the 7TP in the conflict was more of a psychological nature.

Polish tank 7TR from the 3rd armored battalion (tank of the 1st platoon) overcomes the Czechoslovak anti-tank fortifications in the area of the Polish-Czechoslovak border.
waralbum.ru

In September 1939, Polish tanks were quite successfully used against the German troops. In terms of the combination of combat characteristics, they significantly exceeded the German PzKpfw tanks I (which was also clear from the experience of using this "tower tankette" during the war in Spain against the Soviet T-26, the "cousin" of the 7TP), a few - PzKpfw II and were quite comparable with PzKpfw III and Czechoslovak LT vz.35 and LT vz.38, which were also used by the Wehrmacht. Both light tank battalions, equipped with 7TP, proved themselves well in clashes with German tank and light divisions, although, of course, due to their small number they could not significantly affect the course of hostilities.

LT vz.35 of the Wehrmacht, knocked out by a Polish 37-mm gun (either a gun monitor or a tank gun). It can be seen that the white cross is smeared with mud - the German tankers thus tried to mask these excellent markers for aiming http://derela.pl/7tp.htm

For example, on September 4, two companies of the 2nd Polish light tank battalion participated in the defense on the southern outskirts of Piotrkow-Trybunalsky, where they destroyed 2 armored vehicles and 6 tanks of the 1st Wehrmacht Panzer Division, while losing one tank. The next day, all three companies of the battalion tried to attack the German 4th Panzer Division, defeating the 12th Infantry Regiment's car column and destroying about 15 enemy tanks and armored fighting vehicles during the largest tank battle Polish campaign. At the same time, the losses of the Polish side amounted to at least 7 TR tanks. Due to the overwhelming superiority of the Germans, including in tanks, the Polish units had to withdraw in the future.

"Breaking" stereotypes about the Polish campaign of 1939 photo - Polish tank 7TP against the background of the German cavalry
http://derela.pl/7tp.htm

Captured 7TRs were used by the Germans in France (where they were discovered by the Americans in 1944), as well as in counter-partisan operations in the territories of modern Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. In addition, two or three damaged 7TRs were captured by the Red Army during the invasion of Poland. From several faulty tanks, one was assembled, which was tested in October 1940 in Kubinka. Soviet designers were interested in the diesel engine, armor protection of the gun and machine gun mantlet, as well as the gundlach all-round periscope, the design solutions of which were later used in the production of Soviet counterparts.

The fighting showed that the 7TP had approximately equal chances of winning in clashes with German (and Czechoslovak) cannon tanks, which were in service with the Wehrmacht. results tank battles as a result, they depended mainly on non-technical factors - such as surprise, numerical superiority, training of individual crews, commanding skills and coherence of units (some of the Polish crews were staffed immediately before the start of the war by reserve servicemen who had no experience in driving armored vehicles). Another significant factor was the wider use of radio communications in the tank forces of the Wehrmacht.

Of particular interest may be the comparison of the 7TP with another participant in the events of September 1939 - another direct "descendant" of the Vickers Mk.E Soviet T-26. The latter was better armed (45 mm anti-tank gun against the 37 mm gun of the 7TP). The auxiliary armament of the Polish vehicle consisted of one machine gun, while the Soviet one had two. Observation and aiming devices were the best for 7TR. As for the engine, if the aforementioned 110-horsepower diesel engine was installed on the Polish tank, the Soviet T-26 managed with a 90-horsepower gasoline engine, and in some modifications weighed even more than the Polish counterpart.

Literature:

Janusz Magnuski, Czołg lekki 7TP, "Militaria" Vol.1 No.5, 1996
Rajmund Szubański: "Polska broń pancerna 1939".
Igor Melnikov, The Rise and Fall of 7TR,

Since I told you a little about the Polish VIS pistol, it’s probably worth continuing about Polish weapons. Indeed, it is generally accepted that when on September 1, 1939, German troops crossed the Polish border, they collided - a disciplined German tank avalanche and a backward crowd of Polish cavalry. It's not like that at all.

The famous stamp - "attack of the Polish cavalry with sabers on German tanks" - is nothing more than a propaganda stamp. Yes, the Polish army was inferior to the German one - but it was not inferior by orders of magnitude. Poland within the borders of 1939 was comparable to Germany in terms of territory, and only slightly inferior in population to France. The mobilization resources of Poland, as of 1939, were no less than three million people. But by the time the war began, the Polish army managed to mobilize a million soldiers (the Germans 1.5 million), 4300 artillery pieces and mortars (the Germans - 6000 artillery pieces), 870 tanks and tankettes (the Germans had 2800 tanks, over 80% of which were light tanks) and 771 aircraft (the Germans - 2000 aircraft).
And given that Poland could firmly count on the support of Great Britain and France, since it was connected with them by defensive military alliances, the situation on September 1, 1939, at first glance, was not at all critical.

If we talk about tanks, it is often customary to mock the Polish "wedges", showing something like this:

Polish tankette TKS in service with the Estonian army.

In fact, the Polish army used a wide variety of armored vehicles, both imported and assembled in Poland under license. It included tankettes TK and TKS (574) (light reconnaissance tanks), obsolete French light tanks Renault FT-17 (102), light tanks 7TP (158-169), light tanks Vickers 6-ton and Renault R-35 ( 42-53) and three Hotchkiss H-35 light tanks, along with about a hundred wz.29 and wz.34 armored vehicles. Tankettes were part of infantry and cavalry divisions, as well as separate units (companies and platoons) assigned to larger formations. And even such a tankette - against simple infantry that did not have anti-tank weapons, was a formidable force.

But this is not about wedges - today, I want to tell you about a Polish tank that could compete on equal terms with all German tanks of that time.

By the beginning of World War II, the most combat-ready Polish tank, surpassing the German light tanks PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II and capable of on equal terms with medium tanks (Panzer III and IV) was the Polish light tank 7TP.

In 1928, the British firm Vickers-Armstrong developed the 6-ton Mark E tank - which became the basis for the 7TP. Vickers was offered to the British Army, but was rejected, so almost all tanks produced were intended for export. The Vickers company sold it (and a license for it) - to Bolivia, Bulgaria, Greece, China, Portugal, Romania, the USSR, Thailand (Siam), Finland, Estonia, Japan.

Soviet licensed Vickers. A production license was purchased, and the T-26 tank became the development of Vickers

Chinese Vickers-Armstrong Mk "E"

On September 16, 1931, the Poles ordered 22 double-turret and 16 single-turret Vickers 6t and acquired a license for the production of a tank.

Vickers Mk.E (early - double turret) in the Polish army

The main problem with the 6-ton Vickers was the Siddeley engine, which overheated very quickly. After testing, the Poles decided to develop their own model light tank based on "Mark E". The flammable English engine was replaced with a licensed Swiss diesel engine "Sauer", with a capacity of 100 liters. with
Together with the replacement of the engine, its armor protection was also strengthened. The armament of the 7TP consisted of a 37-mm anti-tank gun from the Swedish company Bofors and a 7.92-mm machine gun from the Browning company, coaxial with it and protected by an armored tube. With a weight of 9,900 kg, the 7TP had a top speed of 37 km/h. The crew included 3 people
The 7TP was put into service in 1936. At that time, he was a very worthy tank, even by the most stringent world standards.

Yes, yes, 7TP was the FIRST SERIAL DIESEL TANK. Can you imagine?! There are a lot of countries in the world that claim to be the world's first tank power. And each of them has something to be proud of, looking at their achievements, but Poland was the first country to launch mass production of diesel-powered tanks.

Here is how the 7TP is compared, and the most modern German T-III at the start of World War II:

"In order to understand whether the 7TP was a good or bad tank, I propose to take for comparison the main tank of the enemy, Nazi Germany, for the same period - T-III. Yielding only 13 mm in armor, the 7TP has a gun of the same caliber - 37 mm. The difference is moreover: the armor of a German tank breaks through from a Polish cannon, just as vice versa a German tank can hit 7TP from its gun. booking T-III still loses in security, since it has a gasoline engine that can catch fire even when an enemy projectile does not penetrate armor. At the same time German projectile, even breaking through the armor will not necessarily set fire to a Polish tank. The 7TP engine is less powerful, but the tank itself is more than twice as light, therefore, the “German” also has no gain in dynamic characteristics. By the way, there is another win for the Polish designers: they managed to install an artillery system of equal power on a car that was half the mass.
Thus, it would seem that there is approximate equality in the three main characteristics of the tank - protection, maneuver, fire, and the superiority of the Polish design in character constructive solutions. I also first put an equal sign between these tanks. But when I dug a little deeper, I realized that I was wrong.
The fact is that at that time the T-III was the most modern German tank. A long service awaited him. Production of the T-III continued until 1944. The last copies remained in service with the Wehrmacht until May 1945. The Polish vehicle, despite the advanced solutions that were incorporated into its design, was already yesterday's Polish tank building. The 7TR was replaced by a new tank - 10TR, the first copies of which appeared in 1937.

Experimental Polish 10TP

But back to 7TP.
In 1938, the tank was modernized: the turret received a “back” part, which housed a radio station and additional ammunition. The equipment of the machine included a new device - a semi-gyrocompass - for movement in low visibility conditions.

On September 1, 1939, the Polish troops had 152 7TR tanks and the Vickers 6-ton of the same type. Reflecting Nazi aggression, these vehicles, interacting with infantry and artillery, managed to destroy about 200 German tanks from total 2800 who participated in the Polish campaign.

"To illustrate the effectiveness of 7TP, it is worth giving a few examples: when breaking through the positions of the Volyn cavalry brigade near Mokra, the 35th tank regiment The 4th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht lost 11 Pz.I. The 1st Panzer Division left 8 Pz.II there; against Pz. I, the Poles even successfully used wedges: shelling the engine and gas tank with armor-piercing cartridges gave good results; On September 5, during the counterattack of the Polish troops near Piotrkow Trybunalski, one 7TP tank destroyed 5 Pz.I. With the Red Army units, the Polish tank units on their territory had single clashes at the end of September and lost only one tank. Another tank was burned by the crew themselves, after the car was hit by fire anti-tank artillery. All other tanks were lost in battles with German troops."

On the 7TP chassis, a tractor and an artillery tractor C7P were developed.

After the defeat of Poland, the 7TP was adopted by the Germans under the name Pzkpfw 731 (p) 7TP. From these tanks, the German 203rd tank battalion was formed. In 1940, this battalion was sent to Norway, and one unit armed with the Polish 7TP even fought in France!

Pzkpfw 731 (p) 7TP

Pzkpfw 731 (p) 7TP in the background

The Polish 7TR did not have direct battles with the Soviet counterpart T-26, so they can only be compared by technical specifications, according to which both tanks were approximately equivalent. Unless the Soviet 45 mm anti-tank gun had a slight advantage in armor penetration. To date, not a single copy of the 7TP has been preserved. Unfortunately, having the greatest chance of survival, the tank captured Soviet troops and being tested in Kubinka., did not survive the war - and was melted down.

Tank from Kubinka 🙁

PS A small bonus. Very rare footage - allowing you to see this interesting tank live

Everyone who is interested in the history of Polish tank building knows that several types of tankettes and one lung type tank - 7TR. However, Polish designers in the 1930s were developing armored vehicles for various purposes. Infantry support tank (9TR), wheeled-tracked tank (10TR), cruiser tank (14TR), amphibious tank (4TR). But, in addition to this, in the second half of the 1930s, the Polish Armaments Directorate decided to create first medium and then heavy tanks for the army. These unrealized programs will be discussed. When writing about Polish medium / heavy tanks, they often use the indices 20TP, 25TP, 40TP and others. Let's make a reservation right away that these indices are designed by researchers according to the 7TP (7-Tonowy Polski) type, but in reality the projects did not have such an alphanumeric designation.

A rough drawing of one of the options for a BBT medium tank. Br. panc.

Program " C zołg średni" (1937-1942).
In the mid-1930s, the command of the Polish army came to the conclusion that it was necessary to develop a Polish medium tank for the Army, which could solve not only the tasks of escorting infantry (for which tanks 7TPand wedgesTKS), but also as a breakthrough tank, as well as for the destruction of fortified points.

The program was adopted in 1937 under the simple name "Czołg średni" ("medium tank"). Armament Committee (KSUST) determined the initial parameters of the terms of reference, inviting the designers to focus on the project of the English medium tank A6 (vickers 16 t.), also mentioning that such a tank is in service with the "probable enemy" - the USSR (T-28). An additional incentive for the development of their own medium tank for the Polish military leadership was intelligence information about the start of production in Germany of Nb tanks. fz. Accordingly, the PolishCzołg średni "should at least correspond to the A6 and T-28 (these tanks were considered equivalent by the Poles) in terms of technical parameters, not to be inferior in strengthNb. fz.,and ideally surpass them. Specialists Artillery Directorate The Polsky troops proposed to use the 75mm gun of the 1897 model as the main armament. The mass of the designed tank was initially limited to 16-20 tons, however, later, the limit was increased to 25 tons.

Comparison of the size of the medium tank of the KSUST project with the "probable opponents" T-28 and Nb. fz.

The program itself was designed for 5 years - until 1942, when, according to the plan of the Polish command, the army was to receive a sufficient number of serial medium tanks.

The development of the tank was entrusted to leading Polish engineering firms under the overall direction of the Armaments Committee.

The first projects were ready by 1938 - these were the developments of designers who worked on the committee itself (KSUST 1 option) and the option proposed by the companyBiura badan Technicznych Broni Panzernych ( BBT. Br. panc.).

I version of the medium tank KSUST.

I medium tank variantBBT. Br. panc.

According to the tactical and technical data (see the table below), they were very close, with the exception that the specialistsBBT. Br. panc. proposed, in addition to the option with a 75mm gun, to create a tank with a long-barreled 40mm semi-automatic gun based on anti-aircraft gun Bofors. This equipment was well suited for combating armored targets - since starting speed shells of anti-aircraft guns was very high. In both projects, there were 2 small machine gun turrets capable of firing at the course of the tank.

By the end of 1938, the company presented its projectDzial Silnikowy PZlzn. ( D.S. PZlzn.). This project differs significantly from others in that the engineersD.S. PZlzn. (lead engineer Eduard Khabich) decided not to follow exactly the instructions of the armaments committee regarding tactical and technical data, but created an original concept of a medium tank based on their own developments. The fact is that this company developed “high-speed tanks” for the Polish Army on a Christie-type suspension. In 1937, an experimental tank 10 was createdTP, close in its characteristics to the Soviet BT-5 tanks, and in 1938 the development of a cruising tank with enhanced armor and weapons 14TR began. Based on the developments for the 14TP project, the “сzołg” variant was createduśredniego”, submitted to the weapons committee.

Compared to the 14TP project, the “medium tank” had a somewhat lengthened hull, significantly increased armor (frontal armor 50mm for the first version and 60mm for the latter), and a powerful engine of 550 hp was supposed to be installed. or a pair of engines of 300 hp, which was supposed to provide the tank with a speed of up to 45 km / h. As for armament, instead of the 47mm anti-tank gun originally planned for installation (as on the 14TR), it was decided to use a 75mm gun, created on the basis of an anti-aircraftwz. 1922/1924with a barrel length of 40 calibers, which also had a small recoil, which made it possible to place it in a compact turret. Such a weapon had very high armor penetration and was suitable both for fighting tanks and for destroying long-term fortifications. An expanded turret was designed for this gun, and the designers abandoned the small turrets, replacing them with machine guns coaxial and coaxial with the gun.

The company's medium tank project D.S. PZlzn.

In fact, if this project had been implemented with the declared characteristics before 1940, then Poland would have received perhaps the most powerful medium tank in the world, close in armor to modern heavy tanks. It can be recalled that in the USSR in 1939, tests began on the A-32 tank, which had slightly less armor and a significantly weaker 76mm gun, and the German army in 1939/40 had a medium tank Pz. IV with 15 - 30 mm armor and a short-barreled 75 mm gun.

75mm guns intended for installation in a medium tank
(clearly visible as the difference in the length of the barrel, and in the magnitude of the rollback).

At the beginning of 1939, BBT. Br. panc. presented a new project of her tank in two versions. Having retained the general layout, the engineers changed the purpose of the tank - it became a high-speed specialized tank for combating armored targets. There was a refusal to use 75mm infantry guns, instead it was proposed to use 40mm semi-automatic or 47mm anti-tank. Having proposed a variant with a 500 hp petrol (or a 300 hp twin), the developers expected their tank to reach a speed of 40 km/h on the highway. At the same time, the armor (frontal part of the hull) was also increased to 50 mm. A new reduced turret for 40mm guns and a different version of the undercarriage were also developed. The mass of the projected tank has increased to the maximum allowed by the second edition of the requirements of the Armaments Committee of 25 tons.

II medium tank variantBBT. Br. panc. with 47mm anti-tank gun.

II medium tank variantBBT. Br. panc. with 40mm gun,
a different chassis design and a reduced turret.

However, although the projects of DS PZlzn. and BBT. Br. panc. were not rejected by the weapons committee (DS PZlzn. at the beginning of 1939, funds were even allocated for the creation of a wooden full-size layout), more attention was paid to the revised project, the committee's specialists (KSUST 2 option).

Based on the analysis of companies' proposalsBBT. Br. panc. andD.S. PZlzn., engineers who worked on the armaments committee presented a new project at the end of 1938. Having retained the basic layout (including the three-turret scheme), as well as the 75mm gun mod. 1897, as the main armament, they remade the engine compartment and the aft part of the hull following the example of the projectBBT. Br. panc., and instead of a 320-horsepower diesel engine, they decided to use a pair of 300-horsepower gasoline engines, as suggested by the company's specialistsD.S. PZlzn., which made it possible to achieve the same speed parameters as that of a competitor. It was also decided to bring the project up to 50mm in terms of booking (front of the hull). All this was supposed to be put into a weight of 23 tons (the projectD.S. PZlzn- 25 tons), but later the design weight was increased to 25 tons.

II variant of the medium tank KSUST.

The Polish military expected to start testing prototype tank in 1940, but the war did not allow these plans to be realized. By the beginning of the war, the work of the company was most advancedD.S. PZlzn., which made a wooden model of the tank. According to some reports, this layout was destroyed, as well as the unfinished experimental tank 14TR, when the Germans approached.

Program "Czolgciezki"(1940-1945).

In 1939, when the design of a medium tank approached the stage of manufacturing full-size mock-ups, representatives of the Armaments Committee suggested starting a program to create a heavy tank "Czolgciezki". The main parameters were: appointment - a breakthrough of fortified lines and infantry support; armor providing invulnerability to anti-tank guns; maximum weight - 40 tons. The program was designed for 5 years (1940-1945).

We know about several concepts of a heavy tank, created in Poland in 1939.

One of them belongs to the specialists of the Armament Committee Buzhnovits, Ulrich, Grabsky and Ivanitsky, the project was called " B. U. G. I.". The authors relied on the concept of a medium tank (KSUS II option), however, the tank had to have a single-turret scheme, frontal armor and turret armor up to 100mm and, as the main armament, an infantry gun of 75mm caliber or a 100mm howitzer.

Drawing appearance heavy tank B.U.G.I.

The second concept of a heavy tank in 1939 belongs to E. Habich. Little is known about this tank. Khabich intended to use in his project the same 75mm long-barreled anti-aircraft gun, which was supposed to be installed in the medium tank of the projectD.S. PZlzn. He intended to carry out the running gear according to the type of blocked carts (3 carts per board), as in an experimental tank of his development 4TR. The reservation was supposed to be larger than that of the medium tank of the project.D.S. PZlzn., that is, the frontal armor should have exceeded 60mm (sometimes there is a mention of the thickness of the frontal armor of the Khabich tank project - 80mm).

Modern reconstruction (according to the description) of a heavy tank designed by E. Habich.

The third project of a heavy tank was created by Anthony Markovsky, a professor at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute. His work was submitted to the Committee on Armaments on July 22, 1939. Professor Markovsky proposed the concept of a tank armed with a 120mm howitzer of the 1878 model and one machine gun, with very strong armor (130mm for the forehead of the hull, 100mm for the sides, 90mm for the stern and 110mm for the turret ), but low mobility (25-30 km / h when installing a 500-horsepower engine).

Between 1919 and 1920, the Polish army was in fourth place after France, England and the United States in terms of the number of tanks, its ranks consisted of 120 Renault FT and Mk V tanks.

The Poles quickly realized that tanks played an important role on the battlefield. Important, but not the main one. Being in captivity of stereotypes, they gave leadership to the cavalry, and the tanks had to support it. Based on such considerations, up to, the military leadership preferred light tanks, the so-called "pursuit tanks". To support the infantry and suppress the fortified firing points, they tried to create "breakthrough tanks" (cruising).

After the war, Poland's industry was quite high level Thanks to which, at the end of the 1920s, its engineers managed to launch the production of tanks in a fairly short time. In 1929 An English wedge "Carden-Loyd" Mark VI was purchased. The production license from Vickers made it possible to create a whole series of slightly improved wedges TK-1, TK-2, TK-3 and TKS on its basis.

Tankettes "TK-3" and "TKS", starting from 1931, were mass-produced. Looking ahead, we can say that there was no particular sense in these, on the whole, pretty good cars - almost all of them were destroyed during the battles with the Germans, and the Wehrmacht used those that remained as ammunition transporters.

In the early 30s, Poland purchased 16 Vickers-Armstrong 6-ton Tank Mark E (Vickers-6 tons) and a license for their production. Having released 34 more units, the designers began to improve them, so the “7TR” appeared, the designation was read: 7-ton Polish tank. It was mass-produced in 1934-1939.

In 1935, work was actively carried out on the creation of the "10TP" with the suspension of the Christie system. On its tests in 1939, many shortcomings were revealed. Because of this, and due to the military understanding of the need for heavier tanks for the army, the 10TR project was stopped in favor of the more promising 14TR tank. But the outbreak of war mixed all the cards.

Tanks of Poland during the Second World War

On September 1, 1939, the tank fleet of the Polish Army consisted of 867 tankettes and tanks, including: 135 - "7TR", 67 - "Renault FT", 50 - "R35", 38 - "Vickers-6 tons", the rest - TK-3 and TKS.

During the years of World War II, Polish factories did not produce more than one unit of armored vehicles for the needs of the Wehrmacht.

After the war, as in other countries of the Warsaw Pact, the basis of the Polish army was exclusively Soviet armored vehicles, which, within the framework of secrecy, were mass-produced here. After the termination of all relations between Poland and the USSR, in order to maintain a high technical level of tanks, as well as preventing the collapse of domestic tank building, Polish engineers were forced to create their own tank. Moreover, some private research organizations have been working in this direction for a long time. The Soviet T-72 was chosen as the prototype. Since the beginning of the 90s, work began on the creation of the main battle tank of the third generation TR-91 "Tverdy". Currently, the tank entered service with the Polish Army.

The 7TP light tank was a Polish development of the English Vickers 6-ton, one of the most common pre-war tanks in the world. The development of this tank was carried out in 1933-1934, while during its series production in 1935-1939, 139 of these tanks were assembled in Poland. By the time the Second World War began, it was the 7TP that was the most combat-ready Polish tank, which, in terms of its capabilities and characteristics, surpassed the German light tanks PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II, however, due to its small number, it could not affect the course of hostilities and prevent the capture of Poland. By its combat power this tank at that time it was comparable to the Czechoslovak LT vz.38 tank and the Soviet T-26.

It is worth noting that in the interwar period, few European armies had doubts that tanks would play a decisive role on the battlefield in the war of the future. This was well understood in Poland, for this reason the Polish military leadership made the main bet on the development of its own tank building in the country. However, for this development, at least some kind of base was needed. Therefore, like most states that gained independence as a result of the First World War, Warsaw is quite long time acquired foreign armored vehicles.

The first tanks in Poland in 1919 were the Renault FT-17 light tanks received from France, which proved themselves quite successfully during the First World War, acting on Western front. It was the Renault FT-17 tanks that until 1931 formed the basis of the tank forces of Poland, until there was an urgent need to replace this outdated combat vehicle with something. To replace the Polish military considered several options, among which in better side the American M1930 tank designed by Christie and the British Vickers Mk.E (more commonly known in Russia as the "Vickers 6-ton") stood out. However, it was not possible to agree with the Americans, so the Poles turned to Vickers, whose tank had already attracted the USSR delegation, and later served as a prototype for Soviet tank T-26.

In 1930, the Polish military delegation signed a contract for the supply of 50 Vickers Mk.E tanks to the country, of which the Poles had to assemble 12 combat vehicles on the spot with their own hands. The tank made a very favorable impression on the military, but there were also a number of shortcomings - insufficient armor, weak armament (only 2 machine guns), unreliable power point. Among other things, the cost of one "Vickers" reached 180 thousand zlotys, a considerable sum for those times. In this regard, already in 1931, the Polish government decided to create its own light tank based on the English tank. Work on the modernization of the combat vehicle was launched at the end of 1932. The Poles pinned considerable hopes on the new tank - suffice it to say that the contract for the supply of the first batch of new tanks to the army was already signed on January 19, 1933, and design work managed to complete only on June 24 of the same year.

Chassis The tank has not undergone any changes, having completely passed from the Vickers. The chassis consisted of 4 two-roller bogies, which were interlocked in pairs with leaf spring suspension, 4 support rollers, as well as a front drive and rear guide wheel (on each side). The caterpillar chain was small-link, it consisted of 109 steel tracks with a width of 267 mm. The length of the bearing surface of the tank tracks was 2900 mm. Unlike the undercarriage, the hull of the Polish tank was modified by installing an armored casing located above the engine compartment. At the same time, the armor of the tank was also strengthened: the thickness of the front hull plates was increased by the Poles to 17 mm, and the side plates - to 13 mm.

It was decided to leave the armament of the tank completely machine-gunned, it consisted of two 7.92-mm wz.30 machine guns mounted in two cylindrical towers, which were similar in design to the English ones. For its time, the 7.92 mm Browning wz.30 machine gun had good performance. Its maximum rate of fire was 450 rds / min, the muzzle velocity was 735 m / s, maximum range shooting - up to 4500 meters. At a distance of 200 meters, this machine gun pierced 8 mm armor, so it could be effectively used to combat lightly armored targets. The ammunition of two tank machine guns consisted of 6 thousand rounds. To protect the barrel with a liquid cooling system, Polish designers used cylindrical casings. Each tank turret could rotate 280°, and the vertical guidance angles of the machine guns ranged from -10° to +20°. At the same time, the Poles completed the design of the machine gun installation in such a way that instead of the Browning it was always possible to install Maxim wz.08 machine guns. or Hotchkiss wz.35.

The British engine, which was considered unreliable and fire hazardous, was also replaced. It was replaced by a Saurer 6-cylinder diesel engine that developed 110 hp. at 1800 rpm. The engine cooling system was liquid. Inside the fighting compartment and the engine compartment, air circulation was provided by two fans. fuel tanks were in front of the tank. The main tank with a capacity of 110 liters was located next to the driver's seat, a spare capacity of 20 liters - next to the gearbox. When driving on the highway, the tank could spend up to 80 liters per 100 kilometers, and when driving over rough terrain, the consumption increased to 100 liters.

The transmission of the combat vehicle was in front of the hull. It included a cardan shaft, main and side clutches, control drives, final drives and a gearbox. The maximum speed on the highway was 37 km / h. At the same time, the speed when driving in 1st gear was 7 km/h, in 2nd - 13 km/h, in 3rd - 22 km/h and in 4th - 37 km/h.

The crew of a light tank included 3 people. In front of the hull on the right was the driver's seat, the commander of the combat vehicle occupied the right turret, the second gunner occupied the left turret. The observation devices installed on the tank were simple and few. On the sides of each tower, two viewing slots were made, which were covered with armored glass, and telescopic sights were installed next to the machine guns. For the driver, only a front double-leaf hatch was provided, in which an additional viewing slot was cut out. Periscopic observation devices were not installed on the twin-turret 7TP light tanks. At the same time, a version of a single-turret tank armed with a 37 mm Bofors tank gun and a coaxial 7.92 mm wz.30 machine gun was under development.

The first prototype of the 7TP light tank entered testing in August 1934. Although there was enough time to create a full-fledged prototype, it was partially made of non-armored steel. Sea trials of the tank were carried out from August 16 to September 1, 1934, during this time period the tank covered 1100 km. The second prototype of the tank in iron was delivered for field testing on August 13, 1935.

Comparison of the new light Polish tank with the British Mk.E leaves no doubt that the Polish engineers managed to optimize the design of the combat vehicle, making the tank more reliable. But the most significant changes concerned the improvement of engine cooling, the replacement of weapons and the strengthening of the suspension. After the production of prototypes and their inspection by the military, the army issued an order for the construction of light tanks 7TP (7-Tonowy Polsky).

At the same time, already in 1935, it was quite obvious that the two-turreted version of the 7TP light tank did not have any reserves for further modernization. For this reason, the main focus was on a single-turret version of the tank with cannon armament. However, for quite a long time, the Poles could not decide which gun to put on the tank. From 1934 to 1936, they managed to consider 6 different variants of guns with a caliber from 37 mm to 55 mm. At the same time, the requirements for a tank gun were quite standard. The gun had to have a high rate of fire, compact size, the ability to fight enemy armored vehicles, and also have good performance characteristics. Having gone through all the possible options, the Polish military opted for a 37-mm cannon from the Swedish company Bofors. Having learned about the desire of the Polish side to place the Bofors gun together with the Polish machine gun, the representatives of the company offered Poland free help in the creation of a twin design of the turret armament of the 7TR light tank. In addition, the Swedes equipped the Polish tank with Zeiss sights. As a result, the Swedish side manufactured the tower according to the drawings provided from Poland. In many ways, it was similar to the Vickers tank turret.

Light tank 7TP with Bofors turret

Work on the turret was carried out in Sweden from December 1935 to November 1936, when Bofors presented the finished turret to the Poles, with a 37 mm gun installed in it. At the same time, the Polish side refused further deliveries of towers from Sweden. Instead, with the help of engineer Fabrikovsky, a new "adapted" design was designed, which was intended to be installed on the first prototype of the 7TP tank. The changes affected only the turret box and the placement of batteries, which were moved from the fighting compartment to the transmission. The tank turret was made in the form of a truncated cone and had differentiated armor. The frontal part, sides, stern and mask of the gun were made of the same armor plates 15 mm thick, the roof of the tower had a thickness of 8-10 mm. Due to the layout of the tank hull, the turret had to be placed on a combat vehicle with an offset to the port side.

In the period from 3 to 7 February 1937, tests were carried out that showed the suitability of the towers for installation on 7TR light tanks. Serial production was distinguished by a hatch on the roof of the tower, and not in the stern armor plate, as well as the presence of a stern niche. The niche was both a counterweight for a tank gun and a place to install N2C or RKBc radios, which began to be installed on Polish tanks in the autumn of 1938. In total, before the start of World War II, only 38 radio stations were assembled. As a result, they appeared on the tanks of platoon, company and battalion commanders.

It is worth noting the fact that at that time the 37 mm Bofors gun was enough. The gun had excellent performance and combat qualities, it was enough to destroy all the tanks available at that time. At a distance of up to 300 meters, a projectile fired from such a gun pierced armor up to 60 mm thick, from a distance of up to 500 meters - 48 mm, up to 1000 meters - 30 mm, up to 2000 meters - 20 mm. In this case, the rate of fire of the gun was 10 rds / min. The ammunition load of the gun consisted of 80 shells and was located inside the tank as follows: 76 shots were stored in the lower part of the fighting compartment, and another 4 in the tank turret. The ammunition load of the 7.92-mm wz.30 machine gun paired with the gun was 3960 rounds.

The first live firing of the new tank took place in 1937 at the base of the Center for Ballistic Research, located in the town of Zelenka near the Polish capital. At the same time, the price of one tank with artillery weapons increased to PLN 231,000. The main place of production of light tanks 7TR from 1935 to 1939 was a factory located in Chekhovitsy. In total, 139 such tanks were produced here, of which 24 were double-turret and were armed only with machine guns. However, subsequently all double-turreted tanks underwent modernization, one gun turret was installed on them.

Before the start of World War II, the 1st and 2nd battalions of light tanks of the Polish army (49 combat vehicles each) were armed with 7TR tanks. Shortly after the start of the war, already on September 4, 1939, the formation of the 1st tank company of the Warsaw Defense Command was completed at the Training Center for Tank Forces, located in Modlin. The company consisted of 11 7TR tanks. Another 11 tanks of this type were part of the 2nd company of light tanks of the Warsaw Defense Command, which was formed a little later.

It is worth noting that the Polish light tanks 7TR had the best weapons than numerous German light tanks Pz.I and Pz.II and better maneuverability, not inferior to German tanks in armor protection. As a result, the 7TR tanks managed to take part in the hostilities, destroying and damaging about 200 German tanks during the entire battle. In particular, these Polish tanks took part in the counterattack of the Polish army near Piotrkow Trybunalski, where on September 5, 1939, one 7TP tank from the 2nd battalion of light tanks knocked out 5 German lungs tanks Pz.I. The tanks from the 2nd tank company, which defended Warsaw, fought the German troops the longest, they took part in street battles in the city until September 26, 1939.

Most of of these combat vehicles was lost in battles, some were blown up by their crews or even drowned in the Vistula. But a certain number of tanks (up to 20) were captured by the Nazis, who then used them during World War II. At least 4 more wrecked 7TP tanks and one tractor based on it were captured by the Red Army in the process of joining Western Belarus and Western Ukraine to the USSR in September 1939. Soviet engineers paid close attention to these Polish tanks. All the tanks captured by the Soviet units were damaged, so they were first repaired at Repair Base No. 7, located in the capital of Ukraine, as well as at the Scientific Testing Armored Range in Kubinka.

After that, the tanks went through a series of tests in the Soviet Union. Based on the results of the tests, the designers noted that for the tank industry of the USSR they are of interest the following elements Polish "Vickers": armor protection of the mask of the gun-machine gun installation in the tank turret, a diesel engine manufactured by the Saurer company, as well as viewing devices. In the latter case, we were talking about a 1934 all-round viewing device, which was created by engineer Rudolf Gundlach. Starting from 1936, similar devices were produced in Lvov, the Poles put them on TKS tankettes and 7TP light tanks. The patent for the production of this tank periscope was later sold to the British company Vickers Armstrong. During World War II similar devices surveillance were equipped with all British tanks. Soviet engineers also copied the Polish periscope, then using it in their combat vehicles.

Tactical and technical characteristics tank 7TP:

Overall dimensions: length - 4.56 m, width - 2.43 m, height - 2.3 m.
Combat weight - 9900 kg.
Reservation: hull forehead - 17 mm, hull sides - 13 mm, turret - 15 mm, hull roof and bottom - 5 mm.
Armament - 37 mm Bofors cannon (80 rounds) and 7.92 mm WZ machine gun. 30 (3960 rounds).
The power plant is a 6-cylinder Saurer CT1D diesel engine with an HP 110 power.
The maximum speed is 37 km / h (on the highway).
Power reserve - 160 km (on the highway), 130 km (cross country)
Fuel supply - 130 l.
Crew - 3 people (driver, commander-loader, gunner).

Information sources:
http://www.aviarmor.net/tww2/tanks/poland/7tp.htm
http://www.istpravda.ru/research/5110
http://szhaman.com/polskie-tanki-7tr
http://www.opoccuu.com/7tp.htm
Materials from open sources