T-34

History

The Red Army authorities were painfully aware that the BT series "fast tanks" were not a long-term solution for Soviet armored forces. This tank is lightly armored and lightly armed while still being designed to engage enemy armor from a distance.

These vehicles lacked almost all the facilities to perform their role effectively, especially on the modern battlefield of the late 1930s. The BT brand employed a rather novel track design, allowing them to run on nimbus if necessary, a feature that contributed little to their military might but was admired by the Soviet authorities for their versatility.

In 1937, the Soviet Army formally requested to officially replace them, which began with the development of a new front-line main battle tank based on the BT-IS "proof of concept" vehicle. Engineers produced several pilot vehicles based on the evolution of the BT Schnellpanzer series, each with increasingly thicker and sloping armor protection and weapons. A new diesel-powered engine was developed - a 12-cylinder V-2 type engine, this particular addition represented a departure from the gasoline-powered power pack used in the BT series, which tended to catch fire on impact explosions.

The final version - the A-34 - was accepted for service as the T-34 medium tank. Early production forms in 1940 were equipped with the L-11 series 76.2mm guns, which eventually gave way to the F-32 and eventually the excellent F-34 series 76.2mm guns.

Ballistic protection with heavily sloped armor was quite groundbreaking at the time.

T-34 is born

Production of the T-34 picked up quickly, especially after the massive defeat of Soviet armor in the Winter War (1939-1940) with neighboring Finland. However, due to the tight supply of new engines and radios, early T-34 forms, equipped with inferior Mikulin M-17 engines from BT tanks, and radios were assigned exclusively to "Assault Tanks".

The T-34 tankers were then trained to rely on fairly primitive battlefield signals provided by specialized flag movements, requiring accompanying tanks to be within sight of each other - somewhat reminiscent of ancient warfare.

T-34 walks

The T-34 entered service in 1940 and immediately became the most capable tank in the world. The vehicle is the perfect balance of speed, firepower and armor protection - three key aspects of any successful tank design, even those under development today.

The vehicle weighs 26 tons, has a travel length of 22 feet, a width of 10 feet and a height of 8 feet. The 76.2mm primary armament is complemented by a coaxial 7.62mm DT machine gun and a bow-mounted 7.62mm machine gun in the hull - both for anti-infantry use. Power will primarily come from a diesel-powered 12-cylinder, 500-hp V-2 once scheduled engine supplies are available. This boosts a top speed of 33 mph and a range of 250 miles on ideal surfaces before refueling.

The chassis is suspended on a Christie-based coil spring suspension system that provides excellent off-road performance. The key to the T-34's success was its heavily sloping, thick armorespecially on the sloping plate, turret, and sides of the hull.

Viewed from the side, the turret itself is deliberately undersized to encourage crouching aiming. Five large wheels and wide tracks will serve the genre well as it traverses the soft terrain of Central and Eastern Europe in the upcoming battle. The crew quarters consist of four people, including the driver, commander/loader, gunner and bow gunner. Note that in these early T-34 forms, the commander also acted as his own loader - an arrangement necessary due to the cramped conditions of the small turret.

Conversely, British, American and German Western tanks rely heavily on five-man crews for efficiency.

Germany invades the Soviet Union

In June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union as part of "Operation Barbarossa" - Hitler's grand plan to overtake the Communists in the east. For the German people, the campaign will be a short-lived event and a sweet victory, as Poland, France and the Netherlands did a year and a few months ago. While the initial harvest was considered excellent, the Soviet winter delayed the inevitable takeover of Moscow. This gave the Red Army time to regroup what was left, reform its armed forces and establish new manufacturing bases in the eastern Urals.

Although introduced in the fall of 1940, T-34 tanker training did not begin until the spring of 1941.

T-34 Restrictions

In the early battles, German tankers and anti-tank units were horrified to see their 37mm armor-piercing rounds "ejecting" from the thick hull and turret of an approaching T-34. However, the Soviet response became less effective due to the use of well-trained tanker crews, outdated tank combat doctrine and confusing responses. It was all the more shocking that Soviet troops were still relocating their new armored units at the time of the invasion. It didn't help that the training took place without T-34 tanks. In addition, on the battlefield, the T-34 suffered many mechanical failures (mainly due to inexperience of the driver), which made Destiny have more of these tanks than any other German weapon.

At the time of the German invasion, there were only 1,000 to 1,200 T-34s available (sources vary, Soviet records do not exist) and these were generally thinly distributed and concentrated on specific fronts - making the German odds entirely favorable , because these numbers are too small to achieve a coherent effect. Perhaps only 150 tankers were actually properly trained to operate their T-34s. Others saw the experience of a completely separate line of T-26 light tanks.

However, the T-34, when properly deployed and supported by KV-1 heavy tanks, was rarely successful in adopting the "German" armored warfare doctrine.

To make matters worse, the working conditions of the T-34 tanker were very basic, and the use of flag signals was embarrassing and deadly for both the commander and the tank. Early T-34 forms used a heavy hatch in the top of the turret, which tankers hated. The tank's visibility was poor at best, and the gunner's aiming equipment was on par with the ingenious tools used by the Germans on the other end.

With the shifting production lines quieting down, the disruption of key T-34 manufacturing plants would only lead to bad stop-gap measures - leading to less than perfect quality control.

NOTE: See dedicated T-34-85 entry on this site for full story and production marking notes.

Impact and Summary

Production of the T-34 continued until the end of the European campaign in 1945, when 57,000 T-34s were in circulation - in fact, the T-34 replaced all other Soviet MBT types in production at their peak in service 42 participating factories - this made the T-34 the most numerous of all Soviet armored vehicles used in the war. Plants No. 183 (Kharkov), No.

183 (Nizhny Tagil), STZ Plant, No. 112 (Kr. Sormovo), ChKZ, Uralmash and No. 174 - due to production differences, each The factory's final product was slightly different. Only 97 T-34s were produced in 1940, and another 3,000 were produced in 1941.

12,500 were delivered in 1942, but the 15,700 built in 1943 show this. Production eventually declined in recent years, adding "only" 4,000 in 1944.

The T-34 has primarily used the L-11, F-34 and ZiS-4 family of weapons throughout its career, with 746 examples of the L-11, 38,580 examples of the F-34 and 212 examples of the ZiS-4. Regarding powerplants, during the war, the factories produced some 96,182 V-2 diesel engines, which also employed women.

The tank became a symbol of the post-war Soviet-German struggle. While far from a perfect main battle tank, it is still considered the centerpiece of many war memorials. Although the T-34-76 largely fell out of favor after the war, the T-34 continued to serve as the T-34-85, as many were supplied to the Soviet Union and satellite states.

Total production ran from 1940 to 1958, with 84,000 delivered. Among other things, the chassis formed the basis of the bridge layer, the self-propelled artillery platform and the armored rescue vehicle. It was even used as an ad hoc "fast troop carrier" to the dismay of the Germans, and now the T-34s are swarming full of Soviet infantry. Other notable variants include flame tanks, minesweepers, and 100mm and 122mm tank destroyers (see variant list for full brand description).

The Germans claimed as many as 20,000 T-34s in battle, some captured and some destroyed.

Worldwide T-34 Operators

The operators of the T-34 turned out to be numerous, and their use extends far beyond Russia's borders. Finally, users include Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Congo, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Finland, East Germany, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq , Laos, Libya, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, North Korea, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Somalia, South Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe.

Czechoslovakia, Poland and China also started producing T-34s, while some smaller armies were still using T-34-85 tanks as of 2012.

T-34/85 in the Korean War

The North Korean army managed about 120 T-34-85 tanks during the invasion of South Korea, which began the Korean War (1950-1953). Tanks proved very effective in the early stages, but were less effective in a NATO counteroffensive, they were either destroyed or retreated. Nearly 100 of these tanks were later lost in battles with improved American M4 Sherman, M46 Patton and M26 Pershing tanks.

In particular, the T-34-85 failed to defeat the M26, which arrived in the European theater in the final weeks of World War II.

T-34 Legacy

For the Soviet Union, the T-34 laid the foundation for other successful Cold War tanks. The famous T-54/T-55 series became a direct descendant of the T-34 and became the most produced tank series in history, with over 85,000 tanks (possibly up to 100,000). This makes the T-34 the second most produced main battle tank in history.

A related T-34 development, the short-lived "T-44", intended as a direct successor to the T-34, was also armed with the ZiS-S-53 family of 85mm guns, although only a few hundred were completed, and these Came too late to see the war in Europe - and was plagued by mechanical problems until the line was completely taken out of service.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

77x76. 2mm projectile (T-34/76).

55x85mm projectile (T-34/85).

2,394x7.62mm ammo.

Changes