Q: KV-series heavy tank with timber logs on sides?

Have you looked at

? I was just there and they seem to have loads of information. It seems like the Soviet Army was "had" by German disinformation about the armor and firepower of German tanks, and had a crash course in uparmoring and upgunning their own. The irony is that a large share of the loss rate among Soviet armored units early in the War was caused by tanks that were so overloaded they broke down or overheated or ran out of fuel and ammo.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922 "I don't know whether to be comforted or appalled that the Grace of God extends to a man so undoubtedly wicked as Ronald Reagan. I feel both my nation and my God have been taken away for me for all time."--Tepid 6:05

Yes, battlefield.ru has been sort of my "first site" when it comes to researching Soviet tanks. Although even that site has some controversy in facts.

Well it's also possible that I've gotten confused by some other tank... or even different nation's tanks.

Not sure where that came from but the conclusions are wrong.

The KV-1 and -2 were overloaded and overstressed the second they rolled off the production line. The transmission was a copy of a 20 year old Caterpillar bulldozer one and did not hold up to the task.

The T-34 originally had a poorly designed 4-speed transmission that was soon replaced with a very serviceable 5-speed and stopped breaking down.

Most of the logs piled on tanks were unditching balks, chained to the tracks so that the tanks could get themselves unstuck.

As it was it was mid 1942 before the Germans had enough capable antintank guns out there (Pak 38) and learned how to combat Soviet tanks. Some Soviet designers overreacted and wanted to put applique on the tanks, but it was only for a short period of time (July 1941 for the KV, and about four months for the T-34 but standardized armor did not meet state approval, and so only locally designed applique was used by the individual factories.)

Cookie Sewell

The logs weren't necessarily armor--tanks often carried logs to provide traction when the vehicle became mired in deep mud. Most postwar Russian tanks all carried a creosote-coated log on the tailplate for exactly that purpose. GPO