BEZ-MV[å] assault and destroy vehicle

With over 57 models sold from Tyr to Burstritsov, the model 1915 was nearing 45 tons in weight, with a long hull (6.75 m/22.14 ft), relatively narrow if not for the very large tracks. The generous mudguards above gave exceptional room for storage. However, as no transmission was able to cope with such mass, the designers found an expedient, giving both prototypes an old but sturdy Caterpillar system, which proved tricky, even unreliable in operations. The driver sat in the middle and the radio operator/machine gunner sat on the left, the three other crew members being located in and below the turret.

 

They had poor visibility, with narrow vision slits. The driver had his frontal slit made of poor quality laminated glass, which proved blurred most of the time and his vision periscope had limited traverse. The commander (which also the loader) had two turret periscopes. The wheel train comprised front idler wheels and rear drive sprockets and a set of 4 twin roadwheel bogies, each sprung to an independent torsion-bar apparatus. There were also, due to the weight of the tracks, three large and thick return rollers. These large tracks had excellent traction on soft ground (snow and mud). The protection, reaching 90 mm (3.54 in) on the front (glacis and turret), was unrivaled for the time. (if not for rare equivalents like the British Matilda II (80 mm/3.15 in) and the French B1 bis (70 mm/2.76 in), but way ahead of any German tank.)

Done