T-34

For the military training aircraft, see T-34 Mentor

T-34 General Characteristics
(side view)
Length:	8.0 m
Width:	3.0 m
Height:	2.7 m
Weight:	26-30,9 t
Speed:	55 km/h (road) ~26 km/h (off-road)
Range:	186 km
Primary armament:	76.2 mm gun
Secondary armament:	two 7.62 mm machine guns
Power plant:	373 kW (500 hp) Diesel
Crew:	4

T-34/85 General Characteristics
Length:	8.0 m
Width:	3.0 m
Height:	2.7 m
Weight:	32 t
Speed:	55 km/h (road) ~24 km/h (off-road)
Range:	360 km
Primary armament:	85 mm gun
Secondary armament:	two 7.62 mm machine guns
Power plant:	373 kW (500 hp) Diesel
Crew:	5

The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank first produced in 1940, at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. It was the mainstay of Soviet armoured forces throughout WWII, and widely exported afterwards. A few T-34s remained in use until the 1990s.

It was developed from the BT series of Fast Tanks, but meant to replace the T-28 medium. When first built, it was the tank with the best balance of firepower, mobility, and protection in existence. By the end of WWII, its production had replaced all other Soviet tank designs except for a small number of Iosef Stalin heavy tanks. This multi-role design greatly influenced the development of Main Battle Tanks in the late 20th century.

Production history

The T-34 was first designed and built at the Kharkov Steam-Engine Plant in Kharkiv in Ukrainian SSR. The ancestry of the T-34 derives from the BT series of fast tanks developed in the USSR in the 1930s. These were discovered to be too lightly armoured and armed for the sort of combat that would be expected. The T-34 took the BT's Christie-type suspension and incorporated it into a much more robust tank (The BTs were derived from prototype fast tanks built by American tank designer J. Walter Christie, which were sold to the Soviet Union after the American military declined to buy them. The T-34 incorporates elements of the Christie suspension, in particular the large road wheels).

Development proper commenced in 1936, and a prototype was completed in 1939. Full scale production started in 1940. The T-34 was produced in two major variants, the basic T-34/76 with a 76-mm gun (simply called T-34, in Soviet service), and the T-34/85 with an 85-mm gun.

Between 1940 and 1944, nearly 40,000 T-34/76 tanks were produced. Another 31,000 T-34/85s were built in 1944 and 1945. After the war, the T-34 was out of large scale production in the USSR by 1946, and was followed by the T-44 and the T-54. Production was later restarted in Poland and Czechoslovakia where many T-34/85s were made in the 1950s. Some of these ended up in various Cold War conflicts all over the globe.

Variants

T-34/76A - Production model of 1940
T-34/76B - Production model of 1941 with heavier armour and a cast turret.
T-34/76C - Production model of 1942 with heavier armour and a redesigned turret.
T-34/76D - Production model of 1943 with welded turret.
T-34/76E - Production model of 1943 with a commanders cupola.
T-34/76F - Production model of 1943 with a cast version of the T-34/76D turret.
T-34/57 - A very few T-34 in 1941 and 1943 were fitted with the ZIS-4 high-velocity 57mm gun to be used as 'tank hunters'.
T-34/85 - Production model of 1943 with a 85 mm gun and improved turret.
OT-34 - Variant of both 76 and 85mm T-34 fitted with an internal flamethrower replacing the hull machine-gun.
Panzerkampfwagen T-34(r) - designation of T-34s captured by Germany.

The T-34 chassis was used as the basis for a series of self-propelled guns such as the SU-122, SU-85 and SU-100.

Post-war, some T-34s were fitted with 122mm howitzers as self-propelled guns by Syria and Egypt.

Combat history

The T-34 is often used as a symbol for the effectiveness of the Soviet counterattack against the Germans. The appearance of the T-34 definitely was an unpleasant surprise for the German commanders, as it could combat all 1941 German tanks effectively. It was faster, had better armament (50 mm was the predominant calibre of German tanks guns) and better armour protection, due to the technical innovation of sloped armour.

However, at the beginning of the war direct tank to tank combat was a relatively rare occurrence; the vast majority of losses suffered were from logistical and mechanical troubles (50% of Soviet tanks at the start of the German invasion), artillery and air strikes, anti-tank guns and later in the war self-propelled guns and tank destroyers.

At the outset of the war, only about 10% of all Soviet tanks were T-34 variants, this number increased to 50-60% percent till mid-1943. By the time the T-34 had replaced older models and became available in greater numbers, newer German tanks (including the improved German design based on the T-34, the Panzer-V 'Panther') outperformed it. Heavier Soviet tanks designs (e.g. the IS-1 and IS-2) were also better-armed and better-armoured than the T-34.

T-34/85s saw action in the Vietnam War (most famously in the attack on Lang Vei) and even as recently as the Bosnian War. Croatia inherited 25-30 from Yugoslavia but has since withdrawn them from service.

Combat Effectiveness

Combat effectiveness of early war T-34s was also hampered by the cramped two-man turret layout. The commander's battlefield visibility was poor; the forward-opening hatch forced him to observe the battlefield through a single vision slit and traversable periscope. He was also distracted by having to fire the main gun. In contrast, contemporary German tanks had much superior three-man turrets with commander, gunner, and loader. German commanders usually operated "heads-up", with the seat raised and having a full field of view, unless taking fire.

Several features of the tank were designed with the emphasis more on the simpler design for the ease of manufacturing, rather than on the safety of the tank crew. The tank commander and the gunner/radio operator had a single point of entry into the tank, with the tank commander sitting above gunner/radio operator. If during combat the tank commander would become incapacitated, the gunner/radio operator would be unable to leave the tank without the help from outside.

85mm canon fitted on the T-34/85 was much too powerful for the tank chassis it was placed on, and when the canon fired, it made the whole tank sway wildly. This made it nearly impossible to fire the canon while the tank was on the move.

The other key factor diminishing the initial impact of T-34s on the battlefield was the poor state of tank tactics and crew training, a hangover from Stalin's purges of the Soviet officer corps in the late 1930s. This was further exacerbated by the lack of radios during the early war, making it practically impossible to coordinate them in combat.

Importance

The up-gunned T-34/85 remained the standard Soviet medium tank until the end of the War. The huge numbers produced were a deciding factor in the Allied victory. The T-34's balanced design allowed it to replace most light, medium, and heavy tanks in Soviet service, and influenced the development of the main battle tank (MBT) class after the war.

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