Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
The "from the factory into combat" story is AFAIK true, but happened in Stalingrad where the Sovs ditched everything for expediency for obvious reasons. The "Tank Factory" was one of the more contested locales, wasn't it ? I've read the tanks often weren't even fitted with even the simple sights they normally had, and the gunners had to aim through the holes...
It certainly wasn't ideal, but it just shows how simple they were to man (in many cases woman). That kind of tank crew wouldn't stand a chance against another tank, but tank armies were supposed to break into the rear, not fight other tanks. A classic instance of Deep Operations in action occurred when T-34s broke into Tatsinskaya airfield, far, far beyond the front line. They shot up any planes that didn't manage to escape, and made the airfield unusable for the Luftwaffe from then on. No tank to tank combat, just lots of mobility and independence taking them far into the enemy's rear, where they severely disrupted the enemy's communications. No need for experience or finesse when the enemy can't harm you.

Experienced crews would naturally be given the best equipment and would be on a level par with enemy tanks. Less experienced crews would either learn from their experience or die and be replaced.
The Germans tended to enjoy rather better communications and sighting aids (not to mention training), which resulted in the Soviets trying to compensate by turning tank fights into close-range melees whenever possible. This was naturally a bit of a challenge in itself every now and then on the steppes...
The usual tactic was to open up with Katyushas and artillery before probing with infantry, followed by a combined infantry-armour attack (with additional artillery) if needed. Those were the Shock Armies, designed to punch a hole in the enemy lines. The bulk of the armour and mobile infantry would be concentrated in Tank Armies, ready to go through that hole and deep into the enemy's rear. The destruction of the enemy's communications would lead to the crumbling of the enemy front, which were mopped up by following, more conventionally organised formations. That was Deep Operations as envisaged by Mikhail Tukhachevsky before he was purged by Stalin and his ideas with him.

The KV was upgraded to the SU-152 after Stalingrad showed the need for bunker destroyers. It was first used in numbers at Kursk, where it proved itself against the heaviest armour the Germans had (able to destroy Tigers from over 1km). Kursk also saw the introduction of the Panther. So the Soviets always had specialist Panther and Tiger killers whenever they suspected large formations of them were about. As Tigers and Panthers were specifically designed to counter the T-34, so the King Tiger was later designed to counter the ISU (formerly SU) tanks.