Tankograd Publishing KV KV Soviet Heavy Tanks: Prototypes, Pre-Series, KV-1, KV-2 (English, 728 pages)

The Soviet Tank that Paved the Road to Victory
Prototypes - Pre-Series - KV-1 - KV-2 and the German KW I/KW II Beutepanzer Captured Tanks

Previously, the Soviet KV (Kliment "Klim" Voroshilov) series of heavy tanks was often described in Western sources as a slow and cumbersome companion to the T-34, with only limited influence on combat during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, according to recent research, this perspective is no longer valid. In recent years, the author has carried out a fully updated and impartial evaluation of the KV and its actual role on the battlefields of the Eastern Front. By analysing new discoveries, it can now be confirmed that the legacy of the KV has been significantly underestimated. As a result, this book presents the author's completely revised and fresh view of a legendary Soviet tank design that caught its enemies by surprise, significantly slowing the German advance under extremely adverse conditions, and laying the groundwork for the Soviet victory four years later.

The author even argues that the KV's impact on the Eastern Front in 1941 was, in many ways, tactically and emotionally similar to the effect the German Tiger tank had on the Western Allies in Normandy in 1944.

This detailed publication offers fully updated research on the KV family of tanks, covering the development of its prototypes and pre-series vehicles, the series production models, and their deployment in combat, while also correcting previously published errors. Many new findings are revealed with remarkable, previously unknown details, including new variants shown for the first time. An additional and extensive chapter also revises the history of KV tanks that served in the German Wehrmacht as KW Beutepanzers.

In 728 pages, supported by 1,030 wartime photographs, 204 additional black-and-white photographs, 345 2-D and 3-D graphics, 18 1/35-scale five-perspective line drawings, 32 colour plates and graphics, and 45 colour photographs, this is the first extensive visual documentation of a tank design that has long been overshadowed by the T-34. The "Klim Voroshilov" tank family can now finally take its rightful place alongside the defenders of the Soviet motherland in 1941 and in global tank history.