Tank Killing Tractor, the ZIS-30 | Cursed by Design

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Tank Killing Tractor, the ZIS-30, a Cursed by Design video by ConeOfArc on a Soviet vehicle that mounted the ZiS-2 57MM anti-tank gun on top of the Komsomolets armoured artillery tractor.

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/jarrad960 📅︎︎ Jun 28 2023 🗫︎ replies
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When you think of Soviet tank destroyers the first  thing to come to mind is most likely vehicles   built on the chassis of the T-34 or the IS. These  certainly played an important role in the defense   of the U.S.S.R as well as the advance back west  into the German homeland. However despite these   achievements these more well known vehicles have  stolen the spotlight away from some of the true   heroes of the early defense of the Motherland.  Today we will embark on the first of several   videos documenting these early self propelled guns  which helped slow the rapid advance of the Nazi   forces. Our journey begins with a vehicle you may  be familiar with, commonly known as the Zis-30. Often the subjects of my videos are vehicles  which are known only to a small portion of   the tank enthusiast community. This can make  it difficult to find examples of how they may   have performed when they saw combat as no one  has bothered to find footage of them or it has   been lost to history. That would be the case for  today's topic as well if it weren't for games like   War Thunder who is the sponsor of this video.  If you’ve somehow watched my videos and still   don’t know what War Thunder is, it's a free to  play vehicle combat game featuring over 2000   tanks, planes, naval vessels, and helicopters  including the Zis-30. Unlike many other games,   War Thunder’s vehicles don’t have health bars  and instead have individual components modeled   which you must destroy in order to knock out your  enemies. War Thunder is available for free on PC,   PS5, Xbox Series X & S, as well as the previous  console generation. Try out the game for yourself   using my link in the description and get a  special bonus to help you on your way to the   Zis-30 or whatever vehicle you choose including  free premium vehicles, premium account time,   boosters and more. Thanks to them for sponsoring  now let's get into today’s main topic. The Soviet Union had experimented with the concept  of the tank destroyer and self propelled guns for   well over a decade. It could even be argued  that there were several designs prior to the   Communist revolution which may have been  considered tank destroyers. However most   of these were little more than concepts or  prototypes which never saw combat. For this   reason I have chosen the Zis-30 as the place to  start this series of Cursed by Design episodes   on the evolution of the Soviet tank destroyers.  Before we look at the vehicle itself though let’s   consider the situation in which it was created. Following the conquest of most of Western Europe   by the Third Reich, Hitler set his eyes eastward  on the communist controlled territories of the   Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. War  would finally break on the 22nd of June,   1941 as Operation Barbarossa began and the Nazi  war machine began to move rapidly across the   border. Among these forces were around 3,000  German Panzers with many crewed by veteran   tankers from previous conquests. This was indeed a  tremendous force backed by both the Luftwaffe and   around 3 million men without counting non-German  manpower. Regardless of this, if one were to   look solely at the paper statistics of both armies  they likely would come to the conclusion that the   Soviets would send the German’s packing in short  order. Looking at their numbers of tanks alone   they had nearly double the vehicles ready  for battle on the day of the invasion with   estimates putting their total armored vehicles in  stockpiles at nearly 30,000 with 24,000 of those   being tanks. In reality though the majority  of those were inoperable with only around   7,000 being able to fight for even a  short time without significant work.  This was still double the number of German  vehicles and contrary to what some may lead   you to believe the Soviet armor in many cases  was superior to their German counterparts. This   can be seen when the wehrmacht encountered  vehicles like the KVs with their thick armor   being extremely resistant to the 50mm cannons of  the German panzers. This advantage did not result   in the Soviets stopping the invaders, but it did  hinder their advance significantly. It would not   be without heavy losses though and the Red Army  would hemorrhage thousands of tanks with around   5000 being destroyed or captured by August of  1941. Clearly the invasion was an utter disaster   for the Red Army as the Third Reich crawled  further and further across their territory   thanks in no small part to their armored forces.  What the Soviet Union needed was a cheap vehicle   which could be produced quickly. This would  in the long term end up being the venerable   T-34 but in the early days of the invasion  these were not yet available in large numbers.   This is where the Zis-30 enters the story. The program that would eventually lead to   the Zis-30 actually began in the spring  of 1941 before Operation Barbarossa when   the idea of tank destroyers built on artillery  tractors was proposed. Several of the vehicles   put forward as potential candidates included  the STZ-5 and Voroshilovets heavy artillery   tractor with the former mounting a 57mm and the  latter carrying an 85mm armament. Most of these   ideas would be discarded in early June due to  a variety of issues with the vehicles which   made them unsuitable for the job. We will see  in the next episode in this series that there   was another design, known as the HTZ-16, which  saw production simultaneously with the ZiS-30,   but it deserves a video of its own. All of  this planning went out the window just a   few weeks later when the aforementioned German  forces made their unwelcome entry into Soviet   land. With tank production now absolutely  critical to the war effort the production   of artillery tractors was cut heavily to avoid  using up previous resources which could instead   be made into tanks. One of these unassuming  vehicles to encounter the chopping block was   that of the small tractor known as the T-20. On July 1st, 1941 the previously shelved idea   of using tractors and trucks for tank destroyers  was restarted in earnest. Now the two candidates   for this were the T-20 and the GAZ-AAA truck. It  should be obvious by now which option they went   with considering the Zis-30 was not built on a  truck. However this was not the end for truck   based tank destroyers as we will consider in a  future video in this series. Back to the T-20 it   was found that conversion of this vehicle  to a tank destroyer was not only simpler,   but would result in better off road  performance than its wheeled counterpart.  The first prototype of the ZIS-30 was available by  July 20th, 1941 only about a week longer than the   two week timeframe given to the actual designing  of the tank destroyer. This speaks to how simple   the conversion was with it requiring minimal  changes from the original tractor. Carrying the   57mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun this vehicle certainly  had the firepower to deal with its German foes.   When firing HVAP this cannon could defeat  140mms of armor at 500 meters compared to   the 94mms of the F-34 76.2mm which the T-34  and many other vehicles were equipped with.   This made it perfect for a tank killing gun  as the High Explosive shell performance was   terrible compared to the armor defeating ability.  It was also noted that if necessary the new ZIS-3   76mm cannon could be fitted to the tractor. The design was clearly looked upon favorably   with an initial request for 3,000 of  the tank destroyers in only 5 months.   Considering production of the tractors  they were being built on had been largely   eliminated this was wishful thinking. Before  a decision was made though field trials would   need to be conducted with the new prototype.  This would result in several improvements to   the ZIS-30 so let's now take a peek at what  that final production vehicle looked like.  The T-20 tractor or as its sometimes called the  Komsomolets was a tracked light artillery tractor   consisting of a thinly armored hull with around  7-10mms of armor powered by a 4 cylinder GAZ   engine, the same as found in several Soviet cars  and trucks and was essentially a copy of a Ford   engine. From this base vehicle the seats in the  rear were removed, being replaced by the ZIS-2 gun   mount. Along with the gun it received the attached  gun shield which, similar to the hull armor,   was only around 7mms thick. This was not enough  to stop much but would still provide the crew   a reasonable amount of protection. The remaining  space was used for ammunition storage and the crew   who would man the gun. The driver and hull gunner  remained in their original location. Following   the field trials folding legs were added to  the back which would help manage the recoil   from the gun. Folding sides were also added to  allow the gun crew some additional foot space.  Despite the early expectations for mass  conversion of the T-20 the actual numbers   produced from September to October was only  around 100 vehicles. Part of this issue is   similar to what happened with the 57mm armed  T-34 project where lack of cannon production   added to the other issues reducing production.  These ZIS-30s were reportedly given a tricolor   camo and immediately were sent into combat. Combat performance of the ZIS-30 appears to   have been good with the small size allowing it  to easily be concealed allowing for engagements   with less chance of being spotted and receiving  return fire. One report claims a single ZIS-30   was able to knock out three German vehicles at a  range of 2 kilometers causing the rest to abandon   their advance and retreat. As I have said in  the past it can be hard to trust first hand   accounts without the matching reports from the  opposing side but against the German vehicles of   that period this was well within the capabilities  of the tank destroyer. Exact reporting of where   ZIS-30s were assigned and fought is difficult  to find as they were often referred to by other   names including just being called anti-tank  guns. Despite their hasty construction some   of these vehicles reportedly survived in combat  for several years with ZIS-30s possibly still   around in 1944 and one even surviving the war  and now on display at the Museum of Military   Equipment "Battle Glory of the Urals". There  are also a handful of original T-20 Tractors   in collections in both Russia and Finland. This reported success does not mean the vehicle   was without flaws though with one major one being  the engine. The small 4 cylinder engine struggled   in more adverse conditions, not a surprise  given it only had around 50 horsepower. One   unit even submitted feedback on the vehicle to  the GAU Artillery committee reporting that in   combat the gun was fired without folding down  the coulters due to quote “no time to deploy”   which resulted in cases of them flipping over. I  find it hard to blame the vehicle itself for that   as despite the short length causing instability  not deploying the thing specifically designed to   prevent that is really just user error. All things  considered though the performance of the small   tank destroyer is remarkable given how cludged  it was, to borrow a term from forgotten weapons.  The ZIS-30 was far from the only vehicle of its  type as we will see in future videos but it did   not really have a long impact on Soviet tank  destroyer designs. The design lives on today   within a variety of model kits and video games  including War Thunder as I mentioned at the start   of the video. I want to know what you think of  this little tractor which carried such a large   gun so leave your thoughts in the comments. While you’re down there don’t forget to try   out War Thunder using my link to get that free  bonus and maybe you’ll run into me playing my   ZIS-30. Thanks as always to all of you for  watching and especially to those of you who   have joined as YouTube members. I want to give a  special shoutout to these members who have been   supporting my channel for over a year which  is incredible and much appreciated. That's   all I have for you today though so be sure to  like and subscribe so you don’t miss the next   video on another early Soviet tank destroyer,  that being the HTZ-16. Hope to see you there.
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Channel: ConeOfArc
Views: 99,052
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: ConeOfArc, cursed by design, cursed by design tanks, cone of arc cursed by design, cone of arc cursed tanks, cursed by design cone of arc, war thunder, tank history, cursed tanks, world war 2, ww2 tanks, ww2 history, tanks cursed by design
Id: ZwF4eDrvNvQ
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Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)
Published: Tue Jun 27 2023
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