MisterCraft 05007 E04 T-60 “Battle of Stalingrad”

MisterCraft E04 T-60 “Battle of Stalingrad”

The first prototypes of the T-60 light reconnaissance tank were made in 1941. In the same year, mass production started, which ended in 1943 with the production of over 6,000 copies of this car. The T-60 tank was powered by a 70 HP GAZ-202 engine or an 85 HP GAZ-203 engine. Its main armament was a 20mm automatic cannon (housed in a rotating turret), and its auxiliary armament was a single 7.62mm DT machine gun. The T-60 tank was developed as the main reconnaissance tank of the Red Army. It had many advantages: above all, high maneuverability, a decent degree of mechanical reliability and good suspension. Its main disadvantage – very poor armor – can be explained by the tank’s intended use for reconnaissance. Based on the basic version, several derivative versions were created, for example: the BM-8-24, which was a self-propelled unguided missile launcher, or the A-40 KT, which was a tank adapted to… glider flights! The T-60 tank was used on a large scale by the Red Army from the end of 1941 until 1945, e.g. in the Stalingrad operation in 1942-1943 or in Operation Bagration in 1944.

The Battle of Stalingrad is widely regarded as the bloodiest single battle World War II. It was fought between the Red Army and the Axis forces – especially the Wehrmacht – on the Eastern Front from August 1942 to February 1943. It happened as a result of the implementation by the Wehrmacht of a plan code-named Fall Blau, which was aimed at taking over the southern areas of the USSR, reaching the Caucasus and seizing oil fields in Maykop and Baku. However, in the course of the implementation of this plan, as a result of, inter alia, the intervention of Adolf Hitler, the seizure of the city of Stalingrad became one of the main objectives of the operation. For Nazi Germany, this decision turned out to be one of the worst in the history of World War II. The Stalingrad battle turned into horribly bloody and very heavy city fights, during which every house or street was fought, and the front line often ran through rooms or staircases in apartment blocks! Ultimately, as a result of it, the Wehrmacht suffered a great defeat, and the entire 6th Army was taken prisoner by the Soviets, including Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. It is estimated that during the entire Battle of Stalingrad, the Axis forces lost about 850,000 soldiers – killed, wounded and captured. The Battle of Stalingrad also marked a turn in the war on the Eastern Front, which from then on began to take a favorable turn for the USSR.