In 1941–1945, the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant in Sormovo (disambiguation), then designated Plant No. 112, produced T-34 medium tanks and ammunition. Tank production was launched at the shipbuilding facility in the summer of 1941 and wound down after the war; over those years the plant delivered more than 13,000 tanks and over 3 million artillery shells [1][2].
Before the war: the first Soviet tank
The plant had experience building armored vehicles dating back to 1920, when it assembled the first Soviet tank, named "Fighter for Freedom Comrade Lenin" [3]. Two decades separate that machine from the production of the 1940s, during which the enterprise remained focused on shipbuilding and mechanical engineering.
The blueprints for the 1920 tank survived in the plant's archive. A 1:5 scale copy was made from them for the plant's history museum, and in 1980 a full-scale model was constructed [4].
Transition to tank production
In the summer of 1941, the enterprise retooled its production for the manufacture of combat vehicles. According to plant records, the conversion took approximately one and a half months [2].
The plant was assigned the number 112 — under this designation it appears in the documents of the tank industry of that period [5].
In the summer of 1942, output was increased beyond the planned targets: the first above-quota batch came off the line in July, and the number of T-34s produced grew again in August [2].
In the summer of 1941, the Sormovo workers accomplished an incredibly difficult task, retooling production in just one and a half months and beginning the manufacture of combat vehicles.
Flamethrower tanks
In addition to standard T-34s, the plant produced a flamethrower variant. Flamethrower, or chemical, tanks had been built in the USSR before the war on the basis of T-37, T-38, BT, and KV vehicles; a flamethrower modification based on the T-34 had not been developed before 1941 [5].
In the spring of 1942, production of the flamethrower T-34 was launched first at Plant No. 183 and then at Plant No. 112. It differed from the standard vehicle by the installation of the ATO-41 powder flamethrower in place of the hull machine gun; the flamethrower nozzle was concealed behind a movable armored mask [5].
- range with a standard mixture of fuel oil and kerosene — 60–65 metres;
- tank capacity — 100 litres;
- fire mode — single shots or bursts of three to four shots.
Production figures and distinctions
Over the course of the war, the plant produced more than 13,000 T-34 tanks and over 3 million artillery shells [1].
In August 1942, the enterprise received the Red Challenge Banner and held it for 33 consecutive months [2]. In 1945, the banner of the State Defense Committee was transferred to the plant for permanent keeping — in recognition of 33 victories in the competition among enterprises of the tank industry [3].
On 10 March 1945, the ten-thousandth combat vehicle — a T-34-85 tank — rolled off the assembly line [6].
Submarines
Alongside tanks, the plant built submarines. One of them, the S-7, was laid down in 1936 and entered service with the Baltic Fleet in June 1940 under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Sergei Lisin; during the war the submarine carried out five combat patrols [1].
The plant school and its graduates
The plant operated a factory training school, which later became the Sormovo Mechanical Technical College. Among its graduates was Pavel Afanasyevich Semyonov (born 7 November 1912 in Sormovo, into the family of a foundry worker at the plant), who went on to become a tank officer, a tank platoon commander, and a Hero of the Soviet Union. The technical college bears his name [7].
Legacy
Vehicles produced by the plant became part of the memorial complex on the Square of Glory in Sormovo, where monuments to the tank "Fighter for Freedom Comrade Lenin" and a T-34 are installed, along with a model of the conning tower of the submarine S-7 [1]. The T-34-85 tank built by the Sormovo workers in March 1945 has been preserved as a museum exhibit [4].
Sources
- krsormovo.nnov.ru — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — Opening of the S-7 submarine conning tower model in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- krsormovo.nnov.ru — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — Plant vessels to participate in the Victory Parade (archive)
- krsormovo.nnov.ru — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant turns 166 (archive)
- krsormovo.nnov.ru — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — 100th anniversary of domestic tank manufacturing (archive)
- biblmr.r52.ru — "Krasny Sormovich" — Plant flamethrower tanks: design and specifications (archive)
- sormlib.nnov.ru — CBS of Sormovsky District — Memorable dates of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (archive)
- biblmr.r52.ru — "Krasny Sormovich" — Pavel Semyonov and the Sormovo Mechanical Technical College (archive)