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T-35

1935 WORLD WAR 2

History

Despite its impressive appearance by 1930 standards, the T-35 heavy tank turned out to be an unfortunate adventure in Soviet tank design before WWII, perhaps better suited for parade display than battle the strength of the Soviet Union. The genre proved too slow, clunky, and mechanically unreliable throughout its career, and was never considered a serious threat on the modern battlefield.

His designs blended post-World War I and pre-World War II ideas to create end products that were ultimately forgotten.

Before the T-35 came the T-28 medium tank, a design that appeared in 1922 with a top speed of 22 mph, a weight of nearly 29 tons, a multiple turret design (this approach was also popular in the 1920s) welcomed by other countries). It was a bulky vehicle, properly armored for this type, and projecting good firepower for the time. Some were used by Soviet troops during the Spanish Civil War and the upcoming Russo-Finnish War, although their tactical limitations eventually began to become apparent. Their inherent shortcomings, poor service on the Soviet battlefield, were manageable and negated any tactical utility in combat.

In addition, this model serves as the design direction for the later heavy tank, the new T-35.

Basically, the T-35 is designed to work with the existing T-28 tanks. The basic idea - building on the accepted doctrine of armored warfare that emerged in the 1920s - was to use the heavier T-35 as a frontline offensive "breakthrough" vehicle capable of breaking through enemy defensive positions and defenses the T-28 entered Fortifications can come in to take advantage of these gaps that have arisen.

A heavy tank's main gun can help against enemy armor, while a small-caliber gun can counter lightly armored vehicles and troop concentration, enabling machine guns to counter aggressive infantry trying to attack the tank from close range. However, the war changed in the 1930s and this style of tank warfare was in many ways obsolete with new technologies and doctrines - the German invasion of the Soviet Union through Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941 certainly made Soviet tank engineers understand this.

Work on the design of a new heavy tank began in 1930 with a series of design studies, apparently stemming from Soviet interest in the 1925 British Vickers A1E1 "independent" tank project - a "disposable" heavy tank with several A tower tank prototype. The resulting initiative resulted in the 1932 "T-32 Heavy Assault Tank", a similar multi-turret build that weighed 45 tons and traveled at 17 miles per hour. Mechanical problems with its hydraulic drivetrain ultimately doomed the T-32, forcing work on a simpler concept - the "T-35". The T-35 inherited some design cues from the T-32, including its multi-turret layout.

In August 1933, the new car was evaluated and officially put into mass production for the Red Army. Initial production took place at the Kharkiv Locomotive Works, to which about 20 of the first vehicles were delivered.

Production proved timely as each T-35 system was itself a complex machine to assemble and proved quite expensive in the long run, so much so that only 61 cars were completed - each production batch had Minor differences - already done. Production ended in 1939.

The final six machines feature sloping armor, improved skirts, and new wheels.

The T-35 was initially only supplied to one armored brigade outside Moscow, the 5th Independent Heavy Armored Brigade, and was more of a showpiece than a full-fledged main battle tank. In this regard, the T-35 was really nothing more than a core component of the proposed Soviet armored force, but somewhat represented a false symbol of their lack of capability compared to the German tanks they would eventually face .

In 1941, the Soviet Army stumbled from the German invasion and opened up the Eastern Front, and every valuable tool of war was sent to the battlefield. However, many T-35s suffered mechanical failures (gearbox, engine, brake clutch or otherwise) and fuel shortages, and appeared to be incapable of action prior to the fight - the crew simply left their mounts on the road.

The German crews then either took over the examples or destroyed them in situ, while some actually lost their way in direct confrontation. Most of the available T-35s are stationed in and around Moscow for security duties and defending the capital, which limits their operational range.

While the T-35 might be impressive in person or on paper, the genre was obsolete at the time. For its classification, the T-35 is fairly well-armed, if under-armed. Her weight competes with the available transmission and engine linkages and chassis components that are under stress, making her a compelling, slow-moving battlefield target. The design consisted of a forward stepped hull with a fixed superstructure on which no less than five individual turrets were mounted. Her crew consists of 10 to 11 specialists, including a vehicle commander who oversees her efficiency in the heat of battle, a driver, dedicated gunners and machine gunners.

The T-35's layout consists of a series of long-running track systems on either side of the fuselage, each with eight wheels mounted on each track, each running from a pair of bogies (two wheels to a bogie) Upper suspension (coil spring suspension). The upper half of the track is covered with "rock" armor for some point ballistic defense.

The turrets were placed together along the front of the hull and superstructure, controlled by the main turret on top of the hull. A smaller turret was mounted behind the forward tilt plate and moved to the right side of the vehicle, while a smaller machine gun turret was mounted on the left.

At the rear, this similar arrangement was repeated, seeing a small turret offset to the left of the tank and a smaller machine gun turret on the right. Through this arrangement, it is believed that any possible battlefield threats to the breakthrough role can be avoided. What it does, however, is to increase efficiency on the battlefield, where seconds can mean victory or total disaster - the commander is tasked with coordinating the firepower of the five turrets while checking the driver's orders. In the cramped tank conditions, the crew is further separated into individual compartments, doing little to improve ergonomics, creature comfort or communication between crew members.

The armor protection thickness of various fairings ranges from 10mm to 30mm.

Weighing 50 tons, the T-35 had a barrel nearly 32 feet long, over 10 feet wide, and 11 feet 3 inches higha massive, imposing tank with an even bigger target. Power comes from a single 12-cylinder Mikulin M-17M series gasoline engine producing 500 hp at 2,200 rpm.

Speed ??is a respectable 18.6 mph, although this can only be achieved in ideal conditions and on paved roads. Off-road driving is extremely limited, and mobile shooting of any accuracy is very optimistic. The range was limited to 93 miles, limiting even the tank's inherent tactical usefulness.

Primary armament initially consisted of a 76.2mm 27/32 gun (based on the Army field gun) in a mobile main turret, although it was eventually replaced by a 76.2mm KT-28 gun - essentially the same The same is used in the T-28 medium tank. This weapon is further supported by 2 x 45mm 20K series guns in a small hull turret.

Infantry defense is supported by up to three 7.62mm DT general purpose machine guns - one mounted in the small front turret, one in the rear turret and one mounted on a coaxial mount next to the main gun. The aircraft carried a 96 x 76.2mm main battery, a 226 x 45mm small turret and 10,000 rounds of 76.2mm machine gun ammunition.

The T-35 was outdated and painfully obsolete as the war progressed, and was last used during the Battle of Moscow in the winter of 1941, where it slowed Hitler's offensive in the Soviet capital. During the German invasion alone, about 90% of active T-35s were lost (mostly due to transmission failures).

The deadly Soviet winter finally gave enough time for a well-planned Soviet response, which created many new problems for the German army, which ended up having to deploy on two bloody Eurasian fronts during the war. Improved Soviet tank designs - like the T-34, KV and IS series (note, single turrets) eventually pushed Soviet tank design in a whole new direction and paved the way for many of the Cold War successes.

If the T-35 rose to prominence at the time and in our time, it was because it became the only production tank with five separate turrets in its design. Today, there is only one museum-grade T-35, and this one is at the Kubinka Tank Museum outside Moscow.