Kama tank school

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kama tank school was a military training and testing facility for tanks in cooperation between the Soviet Union and the German Reich during the Weimar Republic . It was with Kazan in the Tatar ASSR .

history

background

After the First World War , the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the German Reich from owning tanks. In order to circumvent this ban, the German Reich signed the Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union in 1922 . The Soviet Union was also isolated in terms of foreign policy after the October Revolution of 1917 and the takeover of power by the Bolsheviks . This is how the flight test site near Lipetsk and the Tomka test site for chemical warfare agents were created on Soviet soil. The Soviet Defense Minister Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov also wanted to participate in modern armor technology and proposed cooperation in this area.

Hans von Seeckt , head of the army command, had favored cooperation with Sweden , but Sweden did not want to meet the German demands. Inspired by the 1926 Berlin Treaty , von Seeckt gave the green light for negotiations with the Soviet Union. From October 1926, Colonel a. D. Hermann Thomsen , head of the branch of the German troop office under the name of Central Moscow , and the head of the military reconnaissance service of the Red Army Jan Karlowitsch Bersin .

Planning, construction and operation

Wilhelm Malbrandt (1875–1955), a lieutenant colonel in the Reichswehr who had been released from active service , was commissioned by the German side to look for a suitable location together with representatives of the Red Army . This was found in a former barracks near Kazan. There was a suitable practice and test area near the barracks. The camouflage name "Kama" was a combination of the first two letters of "Kazan" and "Malbrandt". However, the camouflage name was not chosen carefully because there is a river of the same name not far .

The contract was signed in October 1926: the Soviet Union made the site available, Germany paid the construction costs and enabled Soviet officers to take part in the training courses. The responsibility for building the facility fell to Oswald Lutz , Colonel in the Reichswehr, on the German side and Josef Unschlicht , Deputy People's Commissar for Defense, on the Soviet side.

After the British Manchester Guardian had revealed the secret military cooperation in December 1926 and the ruling Marx III cabinet was overthrown at the instigation of Philipp Scheidemann, the Kama project was also stopped for the time being. A complete demolition was prevented by military circles in both countries, but the project was hardly pushed forward. Further movement only emerged when, in February 1928, Reichswehr Minister Otto Geßler convinced Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann to reactivate military cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The Soviet side expanded the facility from October 1926 to July 1929 with up to 400 craftsmen in accordance with the contract. Existing buildings were repaired, new buildings and workshops were built. On the other hand, only a few German representatives, including primarily Wilhelm Malbrandt, were initially present in Kama. The facility was not actually put into operation until 1929; the training began and the first German tank prototypes arrived. Trainers, technicians and course participants were dismissed from the Reichswehr for the duration of their stay in the Soviet Union.

Wilhelm Malbrandt was replaced as head of the facility in 1930 by Ludwig Ritter von Radlmaier (1887–1943). Josef Harpe followed him from the summer of 1930 until the facility closed.

closure

After the German Reich was assured military equality at the Geneva Disarmament Conference in December 1932 , secret cooperation with the Soviet Union was no longer necessary. With the National Socialist seizure of power in early 1933, the political framework also changed, and the Kama tank school was dissolved on September 15, 1933. The experimental tanks and other material were returned to Germany.

Training operation

The first course began in March 1929, and more followed between 1930 and 1933. German and Soviet participants were taught simultaneously; a translator was always present. The training was divided into a theoretical part, which was held in classrooms, and a practical part, the actual purpose of the facility. In addition to the trainers stationed in Kama, there were also occasional guest lecturers. One of the most famous trainers was Ernst Volckheim , an important theoretician of German tank warfare.

A total of 30 course participants were trained on the German side. These trained officers played a very important role in building the armored force and later in World War II . Some reached the rank of general, including Wilhelm von Thoma , Josef Harpe and Wolfgang Thomale .

The Soviet side used Kama as a training center even after the Germans left. However, many soldiers trained here as well as civilian employees (for example caretakers) fell victim to the purges in the Red Army in 1937–1938.

Trial operation

The first step in tank development in Kama was the conversion of agricultural Hanomag tractors into temporary self-propelled guns in 1927 . To this end, attempts were made with different guns and calibers, 3.7 cm and 7.5 cm. 7.5 cm became the standard caliber at the beginning of the Second World War, for example in the Panzerkampfwagen IV and the Sturmgeschütz III .

In 1929 the first prototypes of German tanks, camouflaged as agricultural tractors, arrived in Kama. From the large tractor and Leichttraktor several vehicles were delivered in different variants. They later served as a template for the Panzerkampfwagen I , II , III and IV . The M-28 combat vehicle, a German-Swedish cooperation, was also tested. The German side did not develop the tank with the combined wheel / chain drive, the Swedish side developed the Landsverk L-30 from it . The Red Army tested the British Carden Loyd Tankette , from which the in-house development T-27 emerged . In addition to tanks, prototypes of armored vehicles were also tested, which later became the Sd.Kfz. 231 led. Basically, different solutions on the gearbox and suspension of the chain drive were tested and also reworked on site. There was also a technology group in Kama. In addition to employees of the Reichswehr, several engineers from the companies involved were on site. Some Soviet craftsmen were under German supervision who installed parts or made changes to them.

The Germans put a lot of effort into testing radios , as it was recognized early on that communication and coordination would be a decisive factor in tank tactics. There were no bans on radio technology under the Versailles Treaty, but the practical use of the technology in a tank was difficult. The German radio and telecommunications company C. Lorenz supplied the radio technology for the tests in Kama and employees of the company were present in Kama. Lorenz later became the supplier of radio technology to the Wehrmacht . During the Second World War, radios in German tanks were initially crucial in fighting with French and Soviet tanks, some of which were technically superior and which relied on inefficient flag communication.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He took the name von der Lieth-Thomsen much later.
  2. ↑ Johnson pp. 29-31.
  3. ↑ Johnson p. 33.
  4. ↑ Johnson p. 31.
  5. ↑ Johnson p. 34.
  6. ↑ Johnson pp. 31-32.
  7. ↑ Johnson p. 37.
  8. ↑ Johnson p. 35.
  9. ↑ Johnson pp. 38-39.
  10. ↑ a b Hartmann p. 4.
  11. ↑ a b Johnson p. 44.
  12. ↑ Hartmann pp. 6-7.
  13. ↑ Johnson p. 41.
  14. ↑ Johnson p. 42.
  15. ^ Johnson p. 45.
  16. ^ Johnson p. 60.
  17. ^ Johnson p. 43.
  18. ↑ Johnson pp. 60-61.
  19. ^ Johnson p. 47.
  20. ↑ Johnson pp. 48-52.
  21. ↑ Johnson p. 39.
  22. ↑ Johnson pp. 54-59.