Engines of the Red Army in WW2

M3A1 in Combat on the Stalingrad front - Death of a Tank Brigade

In late summer of 1942, A.I.Eremenko's newly established Stalingrad Front launched several major offensives north of the town.
The objective was to cut off the German XIV.Corps and to join the 62^nd Army.
One of the four Russian armies to go into combat was the 24^th to which the 241^st and 167^th Tank Brigade had been assigned.

From the start, the 241^st was facing two problems :
It had not yet been in combat before and it was almost totally equipped with foreign materiel (23 M3 " Lee " and 25 M3 " Stuart" ) that it had yet to get accustomed to.
The 167^th, though partially equipped with foreign materiel as well (29 MkIII "Valentine" and 21 T-70), already participated in the battles in the great bend of the Don in July, but with domestic tanks.

Early gasoline M3A1 with riveted hull and sponson machine guns still in place

» We broke the Back of the Fascist Beast «

The start of the offensive was scheduled for 4a.m. on Sept.30.

As usual and due to the lack of Armoured Personals Carriers ("APC") in the RKKA, the infantry entered the combat as "tank desants" and as such suffered heavy losses.
The dismounted infantry fell back as the roughly 100 tanks of the two brigades disappeared behind the crest heights and rapidly went out of sight.

cal. 0.30 M1919A4 Browning AA machine gun in M20 cradle

Radio contact with the teams was maintained until 11.30 of September 30, the last message being :

» Infantry left behind and apparently getting into heavily fortified anti-tank area, heavy losses «
In fact, only three tanks could be recovered the next day, the fate of the other machines remained unknown.

Red Star markings widespread on Lend-Lease tanks

Embleme of 3.Inf.Div.(mot.)

German reports finally shed light on the fate of the two Red Army Tank Brigades.
According to the papers of Paulus' 6^th Army and the LIV.Corps, the fatal attack of September 30 was repulsed by the German "3.Inf.Div.(mot.)" (3rd Motorized Division).

In just a few hours the Germans claimed the destruction of no less than 24 Soviet and almost 100 non-Soviet tanks :

2 T-34
3 T-60
19 T-70

8 M3 "General Lee"
47 M3 "Stuart"
24 "Valentine"

The report indicates a mix-up of "Lee" and "Stuart" tanks which was based on the fact that foreign tanks had rarely appeared in combat so far.

As not unusual at that stage of the war, German losses were rather modest in comparison, as

out of 6 Pz.II, 10 Pz.III lang, 4 Pz.IV kurz, 4 Pz.IV lang :
only 1 Pz.II, 1 Pz.III lang and 1 Pz.IV lang

had been destroyed at the end of the day.

» Under the Banner of Lenin — Forward to the Victory «

Zhukov's memoirs quite accurately describe the situation and the reasons for the failures of the Stalingrad Front :

» Having taken a number of key positions, he [ the enemy ] had good artillery observation and could fire in all directions.
Under heavy enemy fire, infantry fell back, so tanks had to move ahead alone and became sitting ducks.«
Source : " Dr.Guillotin ", in Russian

Two M3 Lee with identical slogan

M3 Lee followed by late M3 and early M3A1 Stuarts

Medium Tank M3 "Lee", gasoline engine, riveted hull

"Fz.Stb.41" meaning : "Stab, Feldzeug-Bataillon 41"

Slogan : Soviet Hero