During the nearly forty-eight-hour standoff, the KV-2 had survived eight 50mm direct hits.
When most military history buffs think of Soviet tanks during World War II, chances are they think of the T-34. This is understandable, since it, along with America’s M4 Sherman, were the two Allied tanks that played the biggest role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
However, the T-34 was far from the only Soviet tank to take the fight to the Wehrmacht. There was the Klimenti Voroshilov KV-2 heavy tank, which was first “blooded” in combat fighting the enemy hordes in the early days of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s ill-advised invasion of the Soviet Union. Indeed, during one engagement early on in the Barbarossa campaign, the Battle of Raseiniai in Lithuania, which took place June 23 to June 27, 1941, a lone KV-2 crew immortalized itself by holding up an entire panzer division for nearly two days.
The initial inspiration for this story came from an April 2025 video segment on MSN’s Dark Docs channel titled “The Invincible KV2 Russian Tank of the Battle of Raseiniai.”
KV-2 Initial History and Specifications
Based upon the KV-1, designed by Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin (who was eventually awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor) between 1938 and 1939, and manufactured by the Kirov Plant in Leningrad, the KV-2 made its operational debut with the Red Army in 1940. The heavy tank had the following specs and vital stats (courtesy of Patrick M. Johnson of Tank Historia):
- Crew: Six
- Mass: 57 tons
- Height: 4.9 meters (16 feet)
- Powerplant:
- V-2K based on the Model V-2 V12 diesel engine, generating 600 hp (450 kW)
- Holt-Caterpillar gearbox with five forward and one reverse gears
- Combat Range: 175km (110 miles)
- Max Speed:
- 25.6 km/h (15.9 mph) on level ground
- 175km (110 miles) cross-country
- Armor Thickness: 110mm (4.33 inches) on the turret front; 75mm (3 inches) on the sides and rear
- Armament:
- Primary Armament: M-10T 152 mm (5.9 inch) howitzer
- Secondary Armament: two 7.62 mm DT-29 machine guns (one mounted in a ball mount at the rear of the turret, one in the hull front)
A total of 203 specimens were built.
The Battle of Raseiniai and a Lone KV-2 Crew’s Last Stand
The battle was an attempt by the Red Army to destroy the German units that crossed the Neman River, taking place in the city of Raseiniai, 75 km (47 miles) northwest of Kaunas (Lithuania’s second-largest city). The engagement was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps and the 12th Mechanized Corps, with 245 Wehrmacht tanks vs. 749 of the Red Army’s.
The tank used by the Germans in this engagement was the Panzer 35(t), which had a measly 37mm main gun, which was wholly inadequate against the KV-2’s armor, as were the Panzer Group’s anti-tank guns. Moreover, when the KVs ran out of ammo, they would sometimes just drive up and run over the German antitank guns! Ergo, the KV-2s crews initially took a heavy toll on the invaders, but soon the latter discovered that they could defeat the Red Army tanks with 88mm flak guns and sticky bombs, and before long, the Germans regained the momentum.
That loss of momentum didn’t stop one brave daring KV-2 from making a famous stand. As noted by Tom Laemlein in a December 2023 article for The Armory Life:
“[T]he German 6th Panzer Division was held up for most of two days at the bridgehead by a single Soviet tank … The KV-2’s 152mm gun blasted away Germany’s latest 50mm AT guns, vainly detailed to knock out the Soviet giant. German reports spoke of the KV-2’s armor plates glowing red after repeated strikes from the 50mm AP shells skipping off the 110mm armor on the turret front, and 75mm armor on the hull front and turret sides. German field artillery was brought up, the howitzers firing at the armored giant over open sights to no avail. The final answer came in the form of multiple 88mm AA guns, de-tracking the vehicle and achieving a few penetrations to temporarily incapacitate the crew. Even so, the KV-2 did not submit and was finally subdued by a close assault by German combat engineers.”
Those two engineers finally finished the job by dropping hand grenades through the 88mm shell hole on the lower part of the turret, killing all six of the Soviet crewmen. During the nearly forty-eight-hour standoff, the KV-2 had survived eight 50mm direct hits, and moreover, only two of the seven 88mm shells that struck the tank actually penetrated the armor.
Aftermath and Remembrance
The Germans ended up winning the Battle of Raseiniai, but at the cost of two-thirds of their forces, and moreover, the delaying action gave the Soviets sufficient time to bring up reinforcements for the Siege of Leningrad. And, of course, Operation Barbarossa would turn out to be a disaster for Hitler.
Due to expense and mechanical inefficiencies, KV-2 production was curtailed in favor of more T-34 production as well as the IS-2 heavy tank. As far as I can ascertain, only one bona fide KV-2 has been preserved for historical posterity, housed at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow. Meanwhile, there is a replica, built from a combination of KV and IS tank parts, at the UMMC Museum Complex, located in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk region.
As for that KV-2 crew, Colin Fraser of War History Online notes the following:
“The Germans buried their fallen enemy [with full military honors], out of respect for such a great foe. This single tank crew was the fiercest Soviet warriors they probably encountered between the start of Operation Barbarossa and the assault on Leningrad … The marker at the grave the brave six were moved to in 1965 in Raseiniai has two names, Yershov, P.E., Smirnov, V.A., one set of initials, Sh., N.A., and three unknown warriors.”
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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