Tanks at the Iron Curtain 1946–60: Early Cold War armor in Central Europe

By Steven J. Zaloga and Felipe Rodríguez

A study of the Soviet and NATO armored forces that faced each other off in Central Europe in the early Cold War, and how their technology, tactics, and doctrine were all rapidly developed.

For 45 years, the most disputed point in the World was the dividing line between East and West in Europe; here the use and development of tanks was key. In this fully illustrated study, author Steve Zaloga, describes how Soviet and NATO tanks were deployed in the early years of the Cold War, and how a generation of tanks such as the Soviet T-44/T-54 and IS-3, British Centurion, US Army M26/M46 Pershing (all developed during World War II) saw extensive service after the war had ended. Initial post-war generation tanks including the Soviet T-54A, T-10 heavy tank, British late-model Centurions, Conqueror, US Army M41, M47, M48 and the French AMX-13 are examined in detail alongside the most important technical trends of the era: the development of shaped-charge anti-tank projectiles, the influence of anti-tank missiles, and the introduction of chemical/nuclear protection and night fighting equipment. The book also considers the influence of post-war doctrine and tactics on tank technology and the effect of regional conflicts such as the 1950 Korean War, the war in Indo-China, and the 1956 Mid East War on tank warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781472843302

Steven J. Zaloga

Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for three decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and history, including NVG 294 Allied Tanks in Normandy 1944 and NVG 283 American Guided Missiles of World War II. He currently lives in Maryland, USA.

Book preview

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE TANKS, DOCTRINE, AND ORGANIZATION

• Soviet Union

• Warsaw Pact

• USA

• United Kingdom

• France

• Federal Republic of Germany

• Other NATO armies

TANKS IN BATTLE

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

• Gun and ammunition performance

• Fire control

• Night fighting

TANK COMPARISONS

FURTHER READING

TANKS AT THE IRON CURTAIN 1946–60

Early Cold War armor in Central Europe

INTRODUCTION

This book is the first of three to survey the tanks facing each other along the Iron Curtain from the end of World War II to the demise of the Soviet Union. This first volume deals with the tanks that remained in service from World War II, as well as the first generation of postwar tank designs. The following two volumes cover the next generation of tanks between 1960–1975, and the 1975–1990 generations. Due to the large number of armies in NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the focus is on the more consequential armies, including the main protagonists and the forward deployed allies. So, in the case of the Warsaw Pact, greater attention is paid to the Northern Tier of East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and less to the Southern Tier of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

The immediate postwar period saw widespread demobilization of the wartime armies and a drastic reduction in tank production. Tensions in Europe between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies began to fester in the final year of the war, due to Stalin’s plans to Sovietize the countries of east central Europe by force. In March 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous Sinews of Peace speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri in which he remarked that From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

The first years of the Cold War saw little military expansion due to general war exhaustion in Europe. The Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in February 1948 marked the end of political autonomy in the Soviet-occupied region. In response to the growing political tensions, in 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed as a mutual defense agreement against further Soviet expansionism in Europe. The economies of the NATO countries were still suffering from the devastation of war, and so in October 1949, the US Congress authorized the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) which allocated $1.4 billion to help rebuild Western European defenses. As a result, the NATO armies, except for Britain, were primarily equipped with American tanks during this period.

The Communist victory in China in 1949 and the Korean War in 1950 accelerated the Cold War arms race. In 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany was accepted into NATO and in November of that year, the Bundeswehr was created. The Soviet Union reciprocated in March 1955 by creating a corresponding alliance network, the Warsaw Pact, and creating the National Volksarmee in East Germany.

Tank development during these fifteen years fell into three main periods. From 1945 to 1950, tank production stagnated as most countries recovered from World War II. There was widespread developmental work, but very low levels of tank manufacture. The Soviet Union and the USA built up their allies largely by the transfer of surplus World War II tanks. As the Cold War began to heat up in 1950, tank production again began to accelerate. This largely consisted of the first generation of postwar designs, mostly evolutions of late war designs. During 1955–1960, the armies of the Warsaw Pact and NATO began to adapt to the nuclear battlefield. This caused substantial doctrinal ferment as well as some technical changes to the tanks themselves. However, the larger impact was that most armies began to shift the balance in defense spending to missiles and tactical nuclear weapons, trimming back tank production from its peak around 1955.

THE TANKS, DOCTRINE, AND ORGANIZATION

Soviet Union

In May 1945, the Red Army deployed six tank armies, 24 tank corps, 14 mechanized corps, 64 separate tank brigades and numerous smaller armored formations. In February 1946, it was renamed as the Soviet Army (Sovetskaya Sukhoputnaya Voyska). There was a substantial demobilization after the war and the overall strength of the armed forces fell by about 8.5 million to 2.9 million personnel in 1948. After the war, wartime tank corps and mechanized corps were renamed as tank and mechanized divisions, in keeping with most other armies. During the reorganization of 1945–49, a total of 30 tank and 65 mechanized divisions were organized on the basis of the wartime formations. The large increase in the number of mechanized divisions was due to the conversion of rifle divisions. Only a portion of these divisions remained near full strength; most were reserve or cadre formations.

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No Soviet tank more worried