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 described in many Western sources as being a slow and cumbersome sidekick to the T-34, and that it had only limited influence on combat during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, based on the most recent research, such a view can no longer be considered feasible today. Over recent years, the author has undertaken a completely updated and unbiased assessment of the KV and its true role on the battlefields of the Eastern Front. Analysing new findings, it can now be claimed with certainty that the KV’s legacy has been severely underestimated. Consequently, this book is the author’s fully updated and completely fresh take on a legendary Soviet tank design that came as a total surprise to its enemies, which slowed down the German advance under the most adverse circumstances and to such a degree that it laid the foundation for Soviet victory four years later.

The author goes as far as to say that the KV’s role on the Eastern Front of 1941 had, in many respects, similar tactical and emotive impacts on the enemy as the German Tiger tank did on the Western Allies in Normandy in 1944. This comprehensive publication provides fully updated research on the KV family of tanks, development of its prototypes and pre-series vehicles, the series production batches and its deployment in combat, as well as correcting previously published mistakes. Many new findings are illustrated in astonishing hitherto unknown detail and include new variants that are shown for the very first time. An additional and extensive chapter also rewrites the story of KV tanks serving in the German Wehrmacht as KW Beutepanzers.

In 728 pages, supported by 1,030 wartime photographs, 204 other black&white photographs, 345 2-D and 3-D graphics, as well as 18 1/35-scale 5-perspective line drawings plus 32 colour plates and graphics and 45 colour photographs, this is the first ever extensively visual coverage of a tank design that has lived far too long in the shadow of the T-34. The “Klim Voroshilov” tank family can now finally take its deserved place alongside the defenders of the Soviet motherland in 1941 and in world tank history.