The Road to the T-55 - T-44-100
After encountering heavily armoured German tanks towards the end of the war, Soviet designers came to the reasonable conclusion that the best solution was more firepower. In October 1944, Factory 183’s KB-520 had developed the SU-100, armed with the high velocity D-10C, it was capable of defeating all but the heaviest of german armour in a head-on engagement.
Since the 85mm was already beginning to show its age, studies on increasing the T-34’s firepower had already been conducted, and in early 1945, one had been fitted with a powerful 100mm LB-1 for testing. However, it was painfully clear that the T-34 was not suited for such a powerful weapon, as the violent recoil forces caused damage to the transmission and running gear.
Given that work on the T-44, the T-34’s intended successor, was already well underway by this time, it was only natural that KB-520 would look into mounting such a powerful gun onto their new tank. Indeed, even before the T-34-100 was built, in the summer of 1944, KB-520 had already produced a draft for mounting a 100mm gun into a T-44A. By October, a modified turret had been designed to accommodate either the LB-1 or D-10T, and the loader received a 12.7mm DShK to fend off aircraft or mow down enemy infantry. Compared to the production variant of the T-44, which took the turret from the T-34-85, the T-44-100 seemed to use the T-44 No.2 Turret as a basis, featuring it’s low profile commander’s cupola, but it also moved the fume extractor from the rear of the turret, nearer to the front. In February of 1945, the two prototypes were ready, one mounting the LB-1, the other using the D-10TK. Both were identical apart from the main armament, and splashboard.
By this time however, the need for a further evolution was recognised, and around the same time, a similar project with yet more protection was not only designed and built, but would soon be accepted as the T-54.
Source(s):
Tank Archives - Herald of a Revolution
Tank-afv.com - T-44
Tank-afv.com - T-54
Wikipedia - T-44
Accompanying CTSFD Build:
CTSFD - T-44-100
I wish we had the WW2 Soviet 100mm gun for RP purposes, people can’t be trusted not to use the postwar HEAT rounds on the molotok.
So true, though to be honest, nowadays, WW2 servers have arguably bigger issues than people using 100mm HEAT as they tend to be filled with superheavy slop or tanks that neither existed as full-metal prototypes, or even worse, at all, outside of the imagination of some random Wargambling Employee.
T-44-122 would also work for a WW2 Larp, the IS-2 turret even fits better with the T-44-122’s turret design