Is it true that during World War 2 there was a Soviet tank factory located so close to the front lines that tanks were driven directly into combat after leaving the assembly lines, sometimes without even being painted?

Zbeckabee

STALINGRAD: "The Germans pushed forward. The 62nd Army was cut in two. Chuikov, the Soviet commander of the city, then ordered his fighters into the factory strong points themselves. Nazis and communists fought each other from behind lathes and mazes of machinery. Chuikov organized small groups of 6 to 8 men each, trained in hand-to-hand combat. The defense was based on them. Unbelievably, unimaginably, the heroic workers continued production at the tank factory. They drove each newly built tank directly from the assembly line into battle." http://www.plp.org/misc/ww2cd852.html Oct 18 09, 4:45 PM

BRY2K

Well, I found this note but it is not precisiely as you suggest: The battles for the Red October Steel Factory, the Dzerzhinsky tractor factory, and the Barrikady gun factory became world-famous. While Soviet soldiers defended their positions, factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons close to the battlefield, sometimes on the battlefield itself. http://www.paralumun.com/warstalingrad.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad Oct 18 09, 4:47 PM