CONCORD - 2017 - Arsenal for Aggression - Armored Vehicles of the Warsaw Pact.pdf

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Robert Michulec
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PUBLICATIONS COMPANY
Editor: James R. Hill
Copyright
©
1994
by CONCORD PUBLICATIONS CO.
603-609 Castle Peak Road
Kong Nam Industrial Building
lOjF, B
1,
Tsuen Wan
New Territories
,
Hong Kong
All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a re-I-rieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical
,
photocopying or otherwise
,
without
the prior written permission of
Concord Publications Co
.
We welcome authors who can help
expand our range of books. If you
would like to submit material, please
feel free to contact us.
We are always on the look-out for new,
unpublished photos for this series.
If you have photos or slides or
information you feel may be useful to
future volumes, please send them to us
for possible future publication
.
Full photo credits will be given upon
publication.
ISBN 962-361-917-0
Back Cove
r
In this photo is the right side of a Kub. On the rear part of the roof is
,
lowered brace for keeping the missiles stable when driving
_
Note the
"sho
down" aircraft emblem painted on the front side of the superstructure_ In thE
background is another launcher vehicle being reloaded_
Front Cover
A good overhead study of a unit of Poli
sh
T-72M tanks_ The T-72M was
c
hybrid type, having the thinner armor of the Soviet T-72 tank, but thE
improved laser rangefinder fire
controls
of the Soviet T-72A.
Printed in Hong Kong
2
INTRODUCTION
-"e
armed forces of the Warsaw Pact,
posed of the armies of seven diverse
_
untries,
deployed most powerful ground
=
c
es in the history of 20th century Europe.
--'e
most important elements of the Warsaw
~
c
t armies were their armored forces.
-
~
igned
to fight in western Europe, they were
d
er the complete control of Soviet
::;enerals.
From the end of the 1940s, to the
te
1980s when the Warsaw Pact
.... sintegrated,
their ostensible objec1-ive was to
:o feguard
the Communist bloc. But their real
-8 sk
was to carry the war onto the territories of
-
e
neighboring NATO countries. This was the
-eason
for their need for strong armored
:
rees.
The specific tasks of the non-Soviet
a
rsaw Pact armies depended on their
c
ation
.
The East German NVA was an
tegral
part of planned Soviet operations
g
ainst West Germany. The Czechoslovak
SLA
was given a significant role in Soviet
p
erations towards Austria and southern
---ermany. Poland was assigned the task of
~
i
zing
and holding the Danish straits, as well
s
operations against Sweden, hence its
sig
nificant amphibious warfare capabilities.
The armed forces of the Warsaw Pact
.vere
neither well motivated nor parl-icularly
./ell
equipped, with the possible exception of
-'
e
East Germans. In many cases, particularly
-' e Balkan countries of Romania and Bulgaria,
-' ey were armed with second-rate weapons.
T
e quality of their armored vehicles left much
f
O
be desired. For example, the thickness of
rmored
plates on the standard Warsaw Pact
ormored
infantry transport used from the 1960s
-'-'
rough
the 1980s- the BTR-60 and BTR-70 was
nly
a thin 6mm. Many armored vehicles
::uffered
engine problems, and during field
exercises,
commanders had to halt attacks
ue to the
large
number of vehicles which
ad
broken down in a field or were helplessly
;stalled
in the middle of a river.
By the mid- 1980s, there were about 39,000
Nheeled
and tracked vehicles in the 40 first­
ine
Warsaw Pact divisions posted at the
ATO-Warsaw Pact border, with some 19,000
::::ombat
vehicles in the second-line divisions.
3
Opposing them were about 40,000 NATO
combat vehicles, some of which were of
better quality. While many NATO armies
consisted of well-trained and well-equipped
professional troops, the Warsaw Pact forces
did not hold all of the NATO forces soldiers in
high esteem. Some of the NATO armies were
not considered a major challenge. Many
people in eastern Europe, whether specialists
in military affairs or not; thought that the
armies of Warsaw Pact could simply plow
through western Europe by brute force to win
a war if needed. Whether this view was
correct or not, such a war in Europe could
have been the bloodiest war Europe ever
experienced. It is fortunate for the Warsaw
Pact, and all other nations that would have
been involved, that such a war never
occured.
This book is not meant to be an
encyclopedia of all the armored vehicles of
the Warsaw Pact. So many different types of
vehicles were built, often in small numbers,
and many vehicles were modified during their
service. To cover all these permutations would
be very difficult and is not the intention of this
book. Instead, in this book you will find a
review of the main types of combat vehicles
used by
-~he
armored and mechanized units of
the Warsaw Pact from the 1950s until the
1990s, with a special focus on those used by
the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact countries. It is my
intention to provide readers with a visual
picture of what war in Europe might have
looked like from the perspective of photos
taken during Warsaw Pact wargames.
I would like to
-~hank
Mr. Staszynski, Vadim
Siesarev, Inga and my mum for their materials,
information and help. I would also like to offer
a very special word of thanks to Miss Paciorek
for her time and patience.
1:-
is
a
"
-shot
the
The first standard tank in all the Warsaw Pact armies was the T-34-85 in its 1944 version. It was armed with a 85mm ZIS S-53 gun and two mach·­
guns. The T-34 Model 1944 served to the end of 1950s when it was, theoretically, replaced by the T-34-85 Model 1960. The T-34-85 in this photo is in .
service of the East German Army (NVA).
The T-34-85 was in service up to the beginning of 1970s. So
countries used them even until the middle of the 1970s. In th
is
photo,
Bulgarian Army T-34-85 drives through a shallow river. Note the red-whit
blue Bulgarian national emblem visible on the turret.
The NVA's T-34-85 Model 1960s were configured with an addition
storage box at the rear of the turret. The metal boxes on the right fender a
chocks used to prevent the tanks from moving during rail transport.
Ti
white bands painted on these vehicles identify them as opposing fore,
during wargames.
4

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