“Well, at present, we assign a full armored brigade to our Guards Mech Corps. Leave that alone, but for the Motor Rifle Division conversions, integrate the armor within the new infantry battalions using the ZIS-42M. This way they will always have support at hand when they fight, and not have to wait for the armor brigade to send tanks when needed.”
“Will this not disperse the striking power of the armor?” asked Zhukov.
“Yes, but this new Motor Rifle Corps will not be a breakthrough force. It is an exploitation force, with both speed and staying power, like our Mech Corps. Let me build one such Corps and battle test it in the field.”
“Very Well, do so. I will see that you get the next shipment of the new ZIS-M42’s, but for this role, what tank will you select?”
“It will not need the breakthrough armor, only the T-34, and the latest models if available. That said, I will take whatever I can get. If we had a real armored personnel carrier, and one with a decent main gun added for support, then we would not have to shuffle in tanks as I now suggest. We would be solving the problem by building the fighting quality we want into the infantry vehicle, instead of by simply restructuring an existing Mech Corps.”
That remark caught Zhukov’s attention. “A real APC? The ZIS-42 is not enough? Explain.”
“What I would like is an infantry carrier, but not a halftrack. It should be built on a fully tracked tank chassis, which has much better armor to protect the infantry from both small arms, mortars, and enemy artillery as it advances in an attack. The ZIS-42 is good for cross country movement, but it has a very high silhouette in combat, and becomes an easy target. We need a new design—with a low silhouette, and better armor than a halftrack. Put a 76mm gun on it somehow, and we’ve got a real Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty —an infantry fighting vehicle! It would be fast enough to stay in close contact with conventional armor, more durable than any infantry carrier we now have, and it would have real punch, as much hitting power as a T-34. Only with this vehicle, the infantry rides inside, instead of jumping on top of the tank as they often do now.”
That was a far-reaching concept, years, perhaps decades ahead of its time, but Katukov had seen the strengths and liabilities of the Soviet armored forces first hand, and he knew instinctively what was needed. General Zhukov was deeply impressed.
“I like this idea,” he said. “If we could build such a vehicle, how would you design it?”
“It must be an infantry carrier, fast, with good protection, and with a main gun on it of at least a 76mm caliber. Being fully tracked, it will have good cross-country performance, and make the tracks wide like those on the T-34 for winter conditions. It must not be too heavy, so the front must be sloped to improve the defensive capability of its armor. Since it will have a gun turret, I would incline that slope forward, and not backward as in our T-34. Then the turret could be moved forward, allowing more room for the infantry squad behind it in the main body. There would then be a hatch in the back, not on the top, to allow the infantry to deploy safely while under fire, and they should all have SMG’s.”
“Interesting,” said Zhukov. “Very interesting…. Let us try to build such a vehicle. Yes? In fact, go to Siberia yourself, to Chelyabinsk, and direct the design of this vehicle. I can spare you from the front for a few months this winter.”
That conversation had taken place in June of 1942, and a prototype that was known only as “Object 700” was drafted and designed at the Kurgan Machine Building Plant, east of Chelyabinsk. A certain intelligence officer, Tyrenkov, soon became aware of the project’s existence, and when he brought the matter to Vladimir Karpov, the cagy Siberian decided to speed things along. He approached Sergei Kirov, who was desperate for Siberian manpower throughout 1942, and made a deal with him that his Siberian Army would get tank production support in exchange.
“I can even assist your design process in that regard,” he told Kirov. “You have seen things, from another way this history could have played out. You have seen the Russia that Stalin would have built, the gulags, the mass executions and purges, the assassinations. Well I must tell you that others have seen these things as well. Volkov calls himself the “Prophet,” and not without good reason. He has long sight, and even as you have, he has seen things from days that have not yet come to pass.”
“Yes,” said Kirov. “I was warned of this by Admiral Volsky and Mister Fedorov. “He is from the upper floor of the inn, in a manner of speaking.”
“A clever way of putting it,” said Karpov. “You should also that I am from the upper floor of the inn as well. I have seen things from another time.”
That conversation had set Soviet tank design off in the right direction, and the initial aim was to get the better tank designs conceived and built earlier than they were in the real history. The Kirov-I was already over six months early, but when Karpov learned about Object 700, he was quite surprised. “That idea wasn’t realized until the late 1950s,” he told Tyrenkov. “Let us see what we can do to help it along.”
A year had passed since these events took place. The SU-76 Self Propelled Gun had been a starting point, but that chassis had its frontal armor sloped the wrong way, and it had a rear mounted turret. But a similar chassis was designed, and shepherded along by Karpov. Within that long year, prototypes were produced and tested, and alterations were made, adding gun ports so the mounted infantry could fire from inside the vehicle if necessary.
Instead of trying to provide heavy armor against main tank guns, it was deemed that protection from shell fragments, small arms and machineguns would be sufficient, which kept the weight down to 15 to 18 tons. Against enemy tanks, the vehicle would look to deploy hull down, and take advantage of its very low silhouette. It took time and sweat, but the urgency of the war, and Karpov’s ability to aid in the design, pushed it along. By mid-1943, the Soviets were going to have what Mikhail Katukov had asked for so long ago, and they would call it by the initials of the words he had used to first describe it to General Zhukov—Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty —the B.M.P. While it was not the same vehicle that the Soviets would build after the war, it incorporated similar ideas in design and function.
So, after Volkov Yar, the Soviets decided to discontinue building more Motorized Rifle Divisions, and converted any remaining in the field to the new Mechanized Corps concept. As Zhukov had promised, Mikhail Katukov would get the first production run on the AFV he had asked for, and by May of 1943, there were just enough to equip nine battalions. The first thought was that they could use those brigades to replace the motorized infantry troops in three separate Tank Corps, but Katukov protested.
“No,” he said. “Let me build one new fast Mech Corps, the 5th Guards. We already have three Motorized Rifle Brigades in Popov’s old group that are trained to operate with armor. There is my infantry. All they need now is this new B.M.P. and some support assets.”
The 5th Guards Mech was created, and it had been held in the Voronezh Front reserve by Rokossovsky. Now, after learning of the heavy losses to 5th Shock Army, and the destruction of the 24th and 25th Tank Corps, he sent it to Katukov to augment his already powerful 1st Guards Army. A written message was handed to him when the Corps commander reported to Katukov for duty.
“Here now is the force you conceived and built after a long year of trial and effort. Use it well.”
It was signed Sergei Kirov, General Secretary of the Soviet Union.
With this new Corps in hand, and with the Germans pulling most of their Panzer divisions south to defend Kharkov, Rokossovsky now ordered Katukov to reclaim the ground he had taken in April during Operation Red Star. “After reorganizing, you will continue your assault with 1st Tank Army, Chiukov’s 8th Guards, and adjacent infantry armies, with the aim of breaking the enemy front, retaking Tomarovka, and pushing south to compel the enemy to yield his position on the upper Donets.”