Friday 6 February 2015

Blockade Repairs

This listing of repair work works well to illustrate two things that I have mentioned in the past and one I have not. The first that I have mentioned is that the Leningrad Front was an odd mishmash of strange and obsolete vehicles, which you can see from mentions of BT-2s and machinegun-only BT-5s. The other is that it's a massive pain to keep track of how many vehicles were actually produced, as you can clearly see that it's not only the repair factories that are taking in damaged vehicles to restore them.

The thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Soviet factory nomenclature is incredibly annoying. This document lists all factories by their proper names, so you have both "Kirov factory" and "factory named after Kirov" (factory #185) mentioned on the same page. In order to prevent confusion, I refer to the latter by its number.

"Decree of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front #001311
Active Army
October 30th, 1942

Content: On the repairs of tanks, tank engines, and tractors at Leningrad factories

The Military Council of the Leningrad Front decrees that:
  1. The director of the Kirov factory, comrade Dlugach, must perform major repairs of 10 tank engines for factory #371 and 6 engines for Leningrad Front ABTU before December 1st, 1942.
  2. The director of factory #371, comrade Kozharinov must, before December 1st, 1942:
    1. Perform major and medium repairs on 10 KV-1 tanks.
    2. Assemble upper and lower turret rings for BT and T-26 tanks in the following amounts:
      1. For the Leningrad Front ABTU repair factory: 20 units.
      2. For factory #185: 10 units.
    3. Perform thermal conditioning and polishing of KV gearboxes for the Leningrad Front ABTU in the following amounts:
      1. Item #12-355: 50 units.
      2. Item #12-322: 50 units.
      3. Item #12-266: 30 units.
      4. Item #12-167: 30 units.
  3. The director of factory #185, comrade Muromets must, before December 1st, 1942:
    1. Convert machinegun BT-2 tanks into machinegun BT-5 tanks (10 units).
    2. Perform major and medium repairs on BT-5 tanks (5 units).
  4. The director of Yegorov factory, comrade Kolesnikov, must provide major repairs for 10 T-37 and T-38 tanks by December 1st, 1942.
  5. Repair factory #4 chief, Engineer-Colonel comrade Smirnov, must, before December 1st, 1942:
    1. Produce 10 new tanks.
    2. Provide major repairs for T-26 and T-60 tanks (5 items).
    3. Provide major repairs for T-26 engines (5 items) and gearboxes (10 items).
    4. Provide major repairs for 30 STZ tractors.
  6. Repair factory #27 chief, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel comrade Hoprov must, before December 1st, 1942:
    1. Convert machinegun BT-2 tanks into machinegun BT-5 tanks (10 units).
    2. Perform major repairs on 3 medium tanks (3 units).
    3. Perform major repairs on tank engines (5 units).
Coal, lubricant, fuel, electricity, and repair inventory is being distributed among factories.

Leningrad Front Commander, Lieutenant Govorov
Military Council Member, Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), A. Zhdanov
Military Council Member, N. Solovyev
Military Council Member, T. Shtykov"

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