Know Your Steel: KV-1

Tuccy, on 07 November 2013 - 03:12 PM, said: One interesting thing re. KV is how the Soviets managed to get things wrong after getting things right :)
The T-28 and T-35 had already a "modern" turret crew layout - Commander, Gunner and Loader, with radio operator tucked away outside the turret. Thus they reached the "!golden standard" - actually in time when most countries had 1-2 men turret crew.
Surprisingly, though, KV-1 messed it up. While the turret crew was still 3, the roles were different. Gunner stayed, but Commander, apart from commanding the tank, also loaded the gun. No. 3 was "Assistant driver/mechanic" - weird function indeed, even weirder to have him in the turret, with generally one role - to fire rearwards machinegun. Not only he did not load the gun - he could not from his position - he had to move away from his seat when commander needed to load gun in combat, as he was getting into the way. Thus the nominally 5-man KV-1 often operated with a crew of 4 even before manpower shortages begun to show (first to go was the Assistand Driver / mechanic. Second was radio operator - in 1942/1943 KV-1 often operated with crews of only 3).
Based on these lessons, one of main changes in KV-1S in 1942 was redesigning the turret for a crew of 3 with normal functions (commander, gunner, loader), moving the commander behind gunner on the left side.