The KV heavy tank, named after Kliment Voroshilov, the People's Commissar for Defence of the USSR, entered service at the same time as the T-34 Medium Tank.
The first KV-1 tanks were armed with the same 76 mm L-11 gun as the early T-34s.
However, unlike the T-34, the Kliment Voroshilov tank has been almost forgotten here. Nor has enough been done to preserve the memory of the heroic tank crews who fought in this heavy tank. Until recently, even few professional military personnel knew about the KV-1 commanded by Senior Lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov, which knocked out 22 German tanks in a single engagement in August 1941. After the war, this hero worked unassumingly at a motor vehicle plant in Minsk, where he died in 1994. When a delegation from Germany came to visit his grave, they found that it did not even have a memorial! This absurd situation forced people here to ‘remember’ Kolobanov, and efforts to commemorate him have since gathered momentum. This was especially true after the developers of a popular online game introduced a virtual ‘Kolobanov's Medal’, awarded to a player who single-handedly defeats five or more enemy tanks.
We know about the feat of the crew of a lone KV-1 near Raseiniai, Lithuania, only from the writings of Colonel Erhard Raus of the Wehrmacht's 6th Panzer Division, which was advancing towards Leningrad. This KV blocked the only road supplying Raus's forward battle group and held up its advance for an entire day.
The KV-1 at Raseiniai and Kolobanov's tank were already armed with the F-32 gun and fought mainly against Panzer 35(t)s.
And how many people here know about Dmitry Sholokhov's KV, which knocked out 24 tanks in a single engagement in June 1942? This was a unique record among our tank crews, for which the young Sholokhov was even awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union!
While both these heroes managed to halt columns of German tanks and pick them off as if at a shooting range, Semyon Konovalov's disabled KV fought alone in the steppe against more than 30 German tanks and succeeded in knocking out 16 vehicles! His KV was hit by German 105 mm howitzers and caught fire. The following day, our reconnaissance troops found the disabled enemy vehicles and the burnt-out KV with its hatches sealed shut. Assuming that the crew had perished, they reported the outcome of the battle to their command, and posthumous award recommendations were drawn up for the tank crew. However, Konovalov himself, his gunner Dementyev and Senior Technician Serebryakov, who had remained with the crew to repair the KV after it broke down in the steppe, survived the battle and escaped from the burning tank through the emergency hatch in its floor.
A 1942 KV-1 with a long-barrelled ZiS-5 gun and its principal opponent, the Panzer III
Konstantin Savelyev's KV single-handedly engaged 15 German tanks and knocked out 10 of them. Savelyev was credited with 23 tanks in total.
Pavel Gudz's KV also knocked out 10 tanks in a single engagement. Gudz was credited with 18 tanks in total.
KV tanks were also crewed by such aces as Ivan Ivanovich Korolkov (34 victories), Pavel Maksimovich Khoroshilov (27), Georgy Sergeyevich Golovyashkin (18), Andrei Yefimovich Kozhemyachko (15), Zhumash Rakhmetovich Rakhmetov (11), Pavel Ivanovich Chervov (9), Alexei Petrovich Bosov (8), I. N. Zhabin (8), Fyodor Sergeyev (8), Grigory Nikolayevich Fokin (8), Iosif Borisovich Shpiller (8), M. I. Vedeneyev (7), Riven Volkovich Shkiryansky (7), Dashinsky (6), Maksim Ivanovich Yevdokimenko (6), Anatoly Mikhailovich Andreyev (5), Alexander Maksimovich Martynov (5) and Mikhail Pavlovich Frolov (5). These are only the names of those who fought exclusively in KV tanks, whose production ended as early as August 1942.
The recovered KV-1 turret and marks left by German shells
Shell impact mark on the turret's frontal plate
Shell impact mark on the front of the hull
Bullets and cartridge cases found inside the tank's hull
Part of the tank's hull with the emergency hatch in the centre
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