Incoming! Supertest facts! Info on the M4A2 T-34.

KRZYBooP: Howdy Boom Jockeys!  The latest super test tank brought up a lot of questions about WoT and how they find some tanks. Some think it is a fever dream of mashing tanks together like the M4A2 T-34. I certainly did after checking online and only finding the Sherman with a turret on top which doesn't match the picture at all. On behalf of all the curious, I asked the Super-test team to show their work and this is what came back.  In 1943-44, the Central Artillery Design Bureau (CADB) studied the issue of improving the characteristics of tanks in service with the Red Army. This concerned, first of all, weapons, the profile work of the CADB. In addition to initiative projects, the design bureau also worked on instructions from above, in particular, the issue of installing more powerful weapons on tanks supplied under Lend-Lease was raised. This was not the first such case: the design bureau of Factory №92, the backbone of which later moved to CADB, was already working on this topic. It resulted in the appearance of the Matilda and Valentine tanks, rearmed with Soviet guns. The tanks successfully passed the tests but did not go into production. The leading role in the work of CADB on the topic of rearmament of tanks was played by engineer A.S. Chasovnikov. In January 1944, he presented a project for re-equipping foreign tanks with domestic weapon systems. One of the proposals was the conversion of the American M4A2 medium tanks for the installation of the turrets of the Soviet T-34 medium tanks. At the same time, the turret was re-equipped with an 85-mm tank gun. Theoretically, CADB already had experience in installing 85-mm guns in standard tank turrets, in addition, in the spring of 1942, a project was developed for an 85-mm ZIK-1 tank gun, which also used, with minimal changes, the F-34 gun cradle. The idea was considered at a meeting convened on February 15, 1944, at the initiative of Guards Colonel E.A. Kulchitsky. On it, Chasovnikov's projects were criticized, partly fair. At the same time, Chasovnikov's projects should not be viewed as a private initiative. In the same year, 1944, the KV-1s with an 85 mm F-28 cannon entered trials; this work was also supervised by Chasovnikov. The armament has been successfully tested and was recommended for serial production. It did not take place because that there were already very few KV-1s. Hope this information helps out and lets everyone learn something new for the day.