A tank turret emplacement is an anti-tank firing point. The constructions of this type were built near roads and on armour approach routes, in other words in the places were the attack of hostile armoured vehicles was highly probable. Tank turret emplacements were built in the Belorussian Military District only, 9 of them are in the Minsk Fortified Region and 11 can be found in the Polotsk Fortified region.
The tank turret emplacement consisted of two main elements - a specially designed concrete bunker almost fully embedded into the ground and a turret of a Soviet light infantry tank T-26 mounted on it.
The concrete bunker included two casemates (which were special compartments for the crew) and the crew’s emergency escape hatch. Right behind the entrance there was a casemate with air filters, specifically there was ventilator KP- 4A and two columns with two filters FP-60. On the right wall there was a standard bracket for a military radio station 6PK. The ammunition supply was stored in a small casemate under the turret. On the front wall there was a grab rods ladder with a hatch leading into a turret platform above it. The main ammunition of the tank turret emplacement was a twin gun mount of the 45 mm anti-tank gun with the 76- mm Degtyaryov machine gun, which were operated by fool-pedals situated under the pointer’s right leg. The elevation angle of the twin gun mount was ranging from -8 to +25 degrees.
Extremely low silhouette and proper camouflage of the construction allowed it to remain unnoticed and therefore invulnerable to hostile fire for a long time. Painting the turret and the visible part of the concrete bunker in ground colours was the simplest way to conceal the emplacement. The other and more sophisticated way to avoid detection included covering framework structures with masking nets.
Natural materials like stones and branches were also used, especially if there were no special camouflage materials.
