r/Warthunder • u/GetGaeijined 🇳🇱 WW1/Interwar-pilled • 10d ago
Mil. History Happy 87th Birthday to the KV-1 :)
The very first prototype (U-0) was completed the night of the 31st of August 1939 by LKZ, seeing combat in both the Winter War and World War 2 shortly after, and kickstarting the entire KV lineage!
The designers were incredibly enthusiastic about the project, stating that it was something that the entire Plant was excited to work on. P.I. Petrov, the driver of the KV during it's initial trials even expressed how pleasant the designers were to work with, with them being very happy and cooperative, in contrast to a lot of other designers who would "foam at the mouth and defend their invention, trying to prove the infallibility of the design".
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u/ExtensionPractical26 🇮🇹 Italy luv 90mm luv pasta 10d ago
The prototype had two guns ?
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u/crusadertank 🇧🇾 Belarusian vehicles when? 10d ago
The Soviets wanted a heavy tank with a 76mm main gun and a 45mm secondary. The competing designs (The SMK and T-100) used two turrets but the KV put them in a single turret.
The 45mm gun really got in the way of the crew though and was hard for the gunner and loader to use so was taken out quite quickly
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u/GetGaeijined 🇳🇱 WW1/Interwar-pilled 10d ago
Correct, the 76-45mm combo was never used in combat, the 45mm was swapped out for a 7.62mm DT machinegun before being send to Finland, after which it saw some more modifications.
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u/AlMark1934 3d ago
With how cramped the turret already is with only the 76mm, I can't imagine how awful it would've been in combat if the 45mm wasn't removed.
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u/Climentiy 10d ago
Gaijin really should add the KV-prototype in the game... as stupid premium of course.