Barbarossa & the Great Patriotic War 1941 - 5
Barbarossa & the Great Patriotic War 1941 - 5
![IS-2 model 1943 (front) and IS-3 at the Great Patriotic War Museum, Minsk, Belarus. The KV series of Soviet heavy tanks was criticized by their crews for their low mobility, and lack of any heavier armament than the T-34 medium tank. In 1942, this problem was partially addressed by the lighter, faster KV-1S tank. The KV series remained much more expensive than the T-34, without having greater combat performance. The heavy tank program was nearly cancelled by Stalin in 1943. However, the German employment of large numbers of Panther and Tiger tanks at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 changed Soviet priorities. In response, the Soviet tank industry created the stopgap KV-85, and embarked on the KV-13 design program to create a tank with more advanced armour layout and a more powerful main gun. Because Marshal Kliment Voroshilov had fallen out of political favour, the new heavy tank series was named the Iosif Stalin tank [IS rather than KV].](files/russia/ostfront_ww2/300px-Belarus-Minsk-Museum_of_GPW_Exhibition-5.jpg)
