Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt

GABTU – Glavnoe Avto-Brone-Tankovoe Upravlenie (Chief Department of Autos and Armoured Vehicles), 1940–45.

Gefechtstroß – Combat trains, including ammunition trailers.

Gepäcktroß – Baggage train, including field kitchens.

GKO – Gosudarstvennij Komitet Oboroniy (State Defense Committee).

Großtransportraum – Large transport (GTR).

HEAT – High Explosive Anti-Tank.

HKL – Hauptkampflinie (main line of resistance).

Instandsetzungsgruppe – Repair group.

Kradschützen – Motorcycle infantry.

LSSAH – Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.

MD – Military District.

NKO – Narodnyi Kommisariat Oborony (the People’s Commissariat of Defense).

NKTP – Narodnyi Kommissariat Tankovoy Promyslennosti (the People’s Commissariat of the Tank Industry).

NKVD – Narodnyi Kommisariat Vneshnykh Del (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs).

NPP – Neposredstvennaia podderzhka pekhoty (direct infantry support tank).

OKH – Oberkommando des Heeres (German, Army High Command).

OTB – Отдельные танковые батальоны (Independent Tank Battalion).

OTTPP – Otdelniy Tyazhelij Tankovij Polk Proriva (Independent Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment).

PP – podderzhka pekhoty (infantry support tanks).

Pz.Regt – Panzer Regiment.

PZAOK – Panzerarmee.

RKKA – Raboche-Krest’yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya (the Army of Workers and Peasants/the Red Army).

RVGK – Rezerv Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandovaniya (Reserve of Supreme High Command).

SAP – Samokhodno-Artillerijskij Polk (Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment).

SR – Schützen-Regiment [Motorized Infantry].

StZ – Stalingrad Tank Factory.

TSAP – Tyazhelij Samokhodno-Artillerijskij Polk (Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment).

TTPP – Tyazhelij Tankovij Polk Proriva (Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment).

UMM – Upravlenie Motorizatzii i Mekhanizatzii RKKA (Directorate of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army), 1929–34. Re-named ABTU.

VAMM – Voennaya Akademiya Mekhanizatzii i Motorizatzii RKKA (Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army).

V.S. – Verbrauchssatz. A basic load of fuel or amunition.

Vorausabteilung – Vanguard battalion (abbrev. V.A.).

Preface

In February 1986, amidst white-out conditions and sub-zero temperatures near the town of Yangpyeong in South Korea, I opened a wooden box that I was only supposed to open in the event of an emergency. Since my tank was alone on an independent reconnaissance mission with no other vehicles to assist, that emergency seemed to be at hand. In order to reach our battalion’s assembly area at the railhead, we had to climb a mountain road with a 30° slope, but every attempt had failed because our tracks slid on the snow and ice. The box came from Germany and it contained snow cleats that could be attached to the tank’s tracks for added traction on snow and ice. They were built by Rheinmetall, the same company which had rushed tank cleats to the Russian Front during the winter of 1941–42.

Forty years later, the US Army bought a few sets for trials and I had been fortunate to receive one, but was instructed to use them only if absolutely necessary. My crew and I mounted the cleats on our tracks in less than an hour and started up the hill. The cleats dug into the snow and ice like teeth and we started to make progress up the slope. However, the temperature was around –23°C (–10°F) and the metal in the cleats grew increasingly fragile and started to shatter. Every 20–30 meters, another cleat would shatter, with pieces falling off the track. Eventually, our tank made it up the slope and back to the assembly area, but every tank cleat was broken by that point and the US Army decided not to purchase more sets of what appeared to be a one-time use item. Nevertheless, I was thankful that modern tankers could benefit from technology that had been developed as a result of the brutal experiences in armoured combat on the Eastern Front decades prior. Indeed, I came to appreciate that there are many lessons to be learned from the armoured operations of that conflict, which will be useful for some time to come.