The Soviets were big believers in flamethrowing tanks. In fact, such tanks were an integral part of Soviet tank doctrine even before the start of World War Two. These specialized tanks were deployed in their own chemical tank battalions and attached to other units as needed. The typical mission for such battalions was to be attached to infantry units and provide support to them by bringing their fire down on enemy bunkers, hardened positions, and other manned obstacles or entrenchments. However, the flamethrower has, even today, a very real psychological impact on those who have to face it and so the chemical battalions were also used in other operations to take advantage of this fear.
Many of the main models of tanks deployed by the Soviets in the first two years of World War Two had a flamethrowing variant. The most numerous were those based on the T-26 light tank. The T-26 made up the bulk of Soviet tank forces and thus there were no less than four flamethrowing variants. The first was the OT-26. Fielded in 1933, the OT-26 (OT stood for Ognemetniy Tank; flamethrowing tank) was based on the early twin-turreted T-26 mod. 1931. The left turret was removed and within the right turret, a flame gun was fitted. However, the OT-26 was not very successful as the cramped turret made using the flame-projector difficult and the amount of fuel able to be carried was paltry. It was soon replaced by the OT-130. This was the T-26 mod. 1933 single turret tank with the 45mm gun replaced by a flame-projector. OT-130 tanks saw action against the Japanese during the September 1939 Battles of Khalkhin Gol and later against the Finnish in the Winter War which ran from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. Survivors then met the Germans at the start of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, that kicked off on June 22, 1941. The OT-130 was supplemented with the OT-133 that was the T-26 mod. 1939, again with the 45mm gun replaced with the flame-projector though the flame-projector was much shorter than the one used in the OT-130. The final model was the OT-134 and it was the more radical, but more useful, variant. Like the OT-133, it used the T-26 mod. 1939 but was fitted with the same turret as used on the T-50 light tank. The flame-projector was fitted centrally in the hull. Unlike the other T-26 flamethrowing tanks, the OT-134 retained its tank gun which meant once all the fuel was expended, it still had a weapon to fight with. Only a small number were built in 1941. Typically, the OT-130, OT-133, and OT-134 carried 400 liters of fuel in the hull along with four compressed air tanks that provided the propelling force on the fuel. At best, the range was only 40 yards.
Another numerous tank in Soviet forces was the BT fast tank and to a lesser degree, the T-28 medium tank. There was a flamethrowing version of the BT-7, the OT-7, which had the flame-projector fitted to one side of the hull, facing forward. The OT-7 remained a prototype. The Germans, following their invasion of the Soviet Union, made reports of the existence of an OT-28 but no such variant of the T-28 was ever made, even in prototype form. The T-28 had two machine-gun armed supplementary turrets in the front of the tank along with the central, main turret. Some believe the larger, five-turreted T-35 heavy tank carried a flamethrower, replacing one of the two machine-gun armed turrets (the other two supplementary turrets housed 45mm guns). This was not a factory fitted armament but was one done in the field and thus not an official model. It could be that the Germans believed the more numerous T-28 might also carry a flamethrower and gave it the spurious OT-28 designation.
Finally, the Soviets created the OT-34 and the KV-8. The OT-34 was simply the T-34/76 medium tank with the hull machine-gun replaced with a ATO-41 flamethrower. The KV-8, and the subject of the photograph, was a variant of the KV-1 heavy tank. The Soviets learned that when the enemy sees a flamethrowing tank approaching, that tank attracts a high degree of attention. With the exception of the OT-134, the Soviet flamethrowing tanks had obvious differences from their regular T-26 counterparts. Thus, they suffered accordingly, especially when they had to get very close to the enemy to effectively deploy their weapon. The OT-34 was, more or less, the T-34/76, and the hull mounted flame-projector meant the turret could retain its 76mm gun. The same could not be said for the KV-8. Instead of mounting the flame-projector in the hull, it was decided to fit the flame-projector in the turret. This would give the advantage of being able to bring the flamethrower to bear anywhere the turret was facing rather than being limited to strictly straight ahead as with hull-mounted flamethrowers. Unfortunately, the flamethrowing apparatus was too large to fit alongside the KV-1's 76mm gun. A compromise was made and in place of the 76mm gun was the smaller, 45mm Model 32/38 gun. To make it appear that the KV-8 had the KV-1's original gun, a tube was fitted around the 45mm gun's barrel that matched the length of the 76mm gun. This also helped to camouflage its true nature if deployed with other KV-1 tanks. The KV-8 carried 960 liters of fuel along with the compressed air tanks. The ATO-41 could fire three bursts every 10 seconds with each burst draining 10 liters of fuel. If using plain kerosene, the range was no more than 71 yards but if firing a kerosene/oil mixture, the range was out to 109 yards. Another benefit of the KV-8 was its thick front and turret armor which was difficult to penetrate by the majority of German anti-tank weapons. Thus, it was better able to close with the enemy and unleash its flame. Production commenced in 1942 and some 42 examples of the KV-8 were built. Another 25 were built as the KV-8S which utilized the KV-1S tank as the basis and upgraded the flamethrower to the ATO-42 model. A chemical battalion, at the time the KV-8 was deployed, consisted of two companies of KV-8 tanks (10 per company) and one company of OT-34 tanks (11 per company).
The photograph depicts one of the original KV-8 tanks, belonging to the 500th. Independent Flamethrower Tank Battalion, and it appears to have been stopped just before crushing a German 8.8cm Flugabwehrkanone 18, better known as the “88”. It was not unusual for Soviet tank crews, especially at the early stages of the war, to simply crash into and run over German guns. The reasons were many but the more common was not having ammunition left (or being sent into battle without it) or a gun malfunction. The KV-8 appears to have been knocked out, likely by another Flak 18 gun, and the tank had caught fire as indicated by the dark patches on the front and rear of the turret and hull side. The tank hit the Flak 18 just enough to crumple the fender before it came to a halt. The Flak 18 appears to have been in a prepared position judging by the leveled ground it is emplaced on and the small berm in front of it. There is a slogan on the KV-8's turret which translates as "Onwards...to the West!" and the photograph was taken sometime between August and September 1942 near Voronovo, Russia.
