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"NI" tanks at Odessa

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dragos	Posted: August 20, 2004 08:27 pm
Admin Group: Admin Posts: 2397 Member No.: 2 Joined: February 11, 2003	"October 2 [1941]. For covering its real intentions, the enemy counterattacks with forces of the 157th Rifle Division on the front of the 1st Frontier-guard Division after a powerful artillery preparation. The Soviet forces advance along the Dalnik-Perselenets road supported by ground attack aircraft and 24 tanks (including 18 NI tanks converted from agricultural tractors). At the sight of armour, the 8th Machinegun Battalion retreats in disorder and also causes the rout of the 36th Machinegun Battalion and then of the 1st battalion of the 5th Frontier-guard Regiment, from the left flank of the division. The gunners of the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment and of the 54th Artillery Regiment manage to destroy 12 tanks by direct fire of artillery pieces, the rest of armour continuing to advance along with the infantry. At 1300 hours, the Soviet forces are stopped at 1 km southwest of Hutor Dalnitki by the division's reserve." Source: Pe tarmul nord-pontic (17 iulie 1941 - 4 iulie 1942), Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999. Photograph of a NI tank of the type employed at Odessa: Source: http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/tractor/bronetr3.html

Iamandi	Posted: August 23, 2004 07:28 am
General de divizie Group: Members Posts: 1386 Member No.: 319 Joined: August 04, 2004	10x for the link, Dragos!

dragos

Posted: November 08, 2005 06:13 pm

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The article and captions regarding the NI tanks from http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/tractor/bronetr3.html translated in English using an online translation engine:

QUOTE

Bronetraktor, collected in Odessa. The picture is made on August, 20th, 1941

In 1941 armour protection of tractors was carried out not only under the instruction from above, but also in the initiative order " on places ". However, cases such was a little. Most popular of them are bronetraktory constructed in the besieged Odessa, more known as " tanks ". About tanks " " it is written much enough and at us, and abroad and their all history has acquired various legends. We shall begin that in one document of a military time of a designation " the tank " does not meet, and the specified machines are called as "tank-tractor" or " bronirovannyj a tractor ". Works on construction bronetraktorov in Odessa have begun in the middle of August, 1941 at active participation of naval base. First two machines constructed on the basis of transport tractors NOC-5 were ready on August, 20th. Their armour protection was executed with a factory it. October revolution. For acceleration of construction for this purpose bronetraktorov used towers from broken tanks T-26 of release of 1931. The arms of machines consisted of two machine guns. The former secretary of a lenin district committee of a party N.G.Lutsenko supervised these works, recollected the first constructed bronetraktore: " on August, 20th the first ready tank a cable have extended from shop in a court yard. Here already there were workers, engineers, the factory manager, militarians, seamen. One of workers has approached to the fighting machine and melom has written: " DEATH to FASCISM ". On N.G.Lutsenko's memoirs, " from August, 20th till October, 15th have made 55 tanks, having converted them from tractors NO3-5. " Other sources result other figure constructed in Odessa bronetraktorov - 69. In opinion of the author, these figures are overestimated as the Odessa defensive area (OOR) had no sufficient material resources and did not presume to use almost 70 tractors necessary in artillery, for booking.

user posted image

Tower Odessa bronetraktora (taken with O-26) close up

And authentic the Report on defense of Odessa ", made in 1943 without delay is represented to the clearest ". In it it is told: " In the middle of August at factories it. January revolt and to it. October revolution the equipment of tanks and armored cars from tractors and lorries has been organized. On them established 45 mm a gun and Maxim's two machine guns. Tanks became covered by the reservation from ship-building there were thickness of 14-20 mm, on armored cars the reservation reached up to 25 mm. Between the reservation and an internal covering wooden bars were laid. Armored cars in fight have appeared are vulnerable from a forward part as slopes of wheels were broken. It was necessary to make reliable protection from a back part and to drive armored cars in fight by a backing. It has given positive result. In the subsequent wheels of armored cars were equipped gruzolentoj, provided with it greater survivability. By September, 14th 31 machine that has allowed to generate a tank battalion has been made. Booking 15 more tractors on September, 14th has begun... " This document brings some clearness - into number shown bronetraktorov enter also the armored cars made of lorries. And how many actually it has been reserved tractors in Odessa - while it is not known. With full confidence it is possible to tell only that all of them differed both on arms, and on base the chassis. The photo and the staff of a newsreel have informed up to us only the image of two of the very first bronetraktorov. But despite of the imperfection, Odessa bronetraktory with success were at war. As the Romanian armies besieged Odessa had not enough anti-tank artillery. At evacuation of armies OOR to Crimea in October, 1941, bronetraktora have been thrown in Odessa and some of them were used by Romanians for the educational purposes.

dragos	Posted: November 08, 2005 06:32 pm
Admin Group: Admin Posts: 2397 Member No.: 2 Joined: February 11, 2003	Odessa, so called "Tank NI" ("Na Ispug" - "To cause consternation") equipped with T-26 type turret. It should be noted that 7.62mm machine-gun "DT" is mounted instead of original PS-1 gun [1] "NI" scheme [2] "NI" ("Na Ispug") Armored tractor. NEWOdessa, 1941 (NOT 1942 -AMVAS) [?] 1. Hull 2. Sides 3. Power bay section 4. Turret 5. Splash guards 6. Armored guard of running gear 7. Machine-gun mask 8. "DShK" Machine-gun 9. Assembly eyebolt 10. Tool box 11. Exhaust 12. Side console of chassis 13. Frontal plate of chassis 14. Rear plate of chassis 15. Hitch 16. Towing hook 17. Idler 18. Supporting roll 19. Carriage axis 20. Driving-wheel 21. Carriage 22. Road wheels 23. "DT" machine-gun Source: http://rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/galleri...ed_Tractors.htm

dragos	Posted: November 08, 2005 06:48 pm
Admin Group: Admin Posts: 2397 Member No.: 2 Joined: February 11, 2003	Tractor tank Razumovskaya 13 (Разумовская) Six blocks west of Cossack / Staro bazarny Square (Сквер Старобазарный), small park next to Razumovskaya 13 Located in a small park is a Tractor Tank from World War Two. During the 73-day Nazi siege of Odessa, industrial workers sheathed ordinary tractors in ship steel, mounted machine guns on them and sent them into battle. Many of the same workers who built these tanks, rode them into combat. It had a terrible clatter when storming enemy positions, usually causing a panic among Nazi troops. Odessites began to call it the "scare tank". The name stuck, so that even in official documents it was referred to as the "scare tank". The plaque on this monument reads: Odessa Tank - NI (Na Ispug ) (To Scare) Workers of the plant "Yanvarets" - to the battle-front 1941 Source: http://www.odessaguide.com/odessa_ukraine_...vel.php?page=79

Dani	Posted: November 08, 2005 11:28 pm
Sergent Group: Members Posts: 198 Member No.: 323 Joined: August 13, 2004	It is also a replica at Kubinka: http://www.jagdtiger.de/index2.htm?http://...Tanks/NI-01.htm

SiG

Posted: December 01, 2005 09:28 pm

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QUOTE (Dani @ Nov 8 2005, 11:28 PM)

It is also a replica at Kubinka:
http://www.jagdtiger.de/index2.htm?http://...Tanks/NI-01.htm

The vehicle in those photos is not an Odessa tank but a SU-45 made at Harkov

Edit: correction
While looking for info about this vehicle, I found out that it isn't really a SU-45 (Komsomolets tankette with 45mm gun), but a KhTZ-16 armored tractor with a 45mm 20K gun. See here:Soviet artillery prime movers of WWII - some info [AHF board]

This post has been edited by SiG on December 01, 2005 09:34 pm

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