Avoiding the Bomber B project

[Aozora]

Stalin built (or modernized) 4 large tank factories during 1929 to 1931. Ten years before Germany and USA built similar tank factories. So it's hardly surprising the Soviets were first to mass produce medium tanks.

Correction - the Russians were the first to design tanks with fully sloped armour, the first to devise production and assembly techniques that allowed such tanks to be mass produced, and, BTW, they also understood the need for wide, weight spreading tracks well before the Germans, and the need for powerful a/t weapons. Otherwise, you give the Russians far too little credit for the innovations they introduced.

 

[parsifal]

finally, someone to give credit to an army that in the end was responsible for defeating what is populalry touted as the most powerful army in the world. But gentlemen, we digress I fear.......

 

[Shortround6]

To be totally fair 2 to 3 of the 'tractor' factories which were later used to produce tanks were designed and built in the US and then transported and erected in Russia. In 1929-31 the Soviets were doing darn little in the way of building much of anything that had to do with infrastructure without lots of western help.

 

[tomo pauk]

Translation of German war-time report about the 'swirl throttle' that is installed on captured AM-35A and AM-38 Many thanks for fellow meber rinkol in pointing me to the NACA treasure chest.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) - Description of Russian Aircraft Engines "AM 35" and "AM 38"

 

[DonL]

Translation of German war-time report about the 'swirl throttle' that is installed on captured AM-35A and AM-38 Many thanks for fellow meber rinkol in pointing me to the NACA treasure chest.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) - Description of Russian Aircraft Engines "AM 35" and "AM 38"

THX tomo for posting this document.

 

[davebender]

I doubt that. Stalin's Soviet Union had great difficulty producing anything except human misery.

CHAPTER XII: Tanks
Chelyabinsk, Stalingrad and Kharkov T-34 plants were constructed in USA, shipped to Soviet Union in pre-fabricated sections and reassembled under supervision of American engineers. Leningrad KV tank plant was also modernized with foreign assistance.

Post-WWI Soviet coal mines were modernized largely with German assistance.

Russian artillery and shell plants were constructed with British and French assistance during WWI. I suspect post-WWI modernization also employed foreign help.

 

[Shortround6]

. I suspect post-WWI modernization also employed foreign help.

It did. By the late 20s the Soviets could not even manage the national telegraph system. The civil wars of the early late teens and early 20s and the upheavals and purges of the 20s caused a massive "brain drain" in which many of the rather small "middle class" (including many mid/low level managers and 'technicians') were killed, imprisoned or fled the country. There were not enough educated Russians left to run the infrastructure that they did have let alone modernize and expand it, at least in anything approaching a timely fashion, so many western engineers and mangers were brought in and contracts placed with Western companies for the construction of factories, mining improvements, steel mills and other industry.

The Russian people deserve a great deal of credit for the sacrifices and hard work that made victory possible. The Soviet leadership (Stalin.etc) deserve a great deal of blame for the purges, upheavals and policies that killed/drove off many of the best and brightest of the Russian people.

 

[Aozora]

I doubt that. Stalin's Soviet Union had great difficulty producing anything except human misery.

For sure Stalin's Soviet Union was under an evil regime, but Hitler's Germany was also responsible for producing a huge amount of human misery, yet that doesn't seem to stop people giving due credit to the designers and manufacturers who developed the weapons that allowed the Nazis to inflict so much misery. Yes, the Soviets were the first country to design and mass produce tanks with proper sloped armour, and to try and deny that is just burying your head in the sand.

Don't forget also that some of the Soviet Union's best WW2 aircraft were designed by people who were detained in prison, in appalling conditions, on trumped up charges; some credit is also due there.