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Further Reading

T-34 Medium Tank

The T-34 is an excellent design and a formidable weapon. It emphasizes the ability of the Soviets to design weapons while still dependent on the West for production facilities and basic technical advances. The T-34 was a technologically innovative design which addressed the short-comings of the earlier BT series of wheel/track tank.

In 1931 the Russians bought two Christie tanks from the US Wheel Track Layer Corporation in the United States. The Russians copied these, built Christie tanks, and then incorporated the Christie suspension system into the T-34. This was a further development of the T-32 tank. The first Russian Christies had the same engines as the U.S. Christie - a Liberty 12-cylinder V-type of 338 horsepower with forced-water cooling. the T-34 incorporated the Christie suspension from the United States, but generally used a 500-horsepower V-type diesel developed from the German B.M.W. diesel engine.

The T-34 was developed during the 1936-37 period, the prototype was completed in early 1939, and in September 1940 T-34 was put into series production mounting a 76mm gun. The T-34 had been put into production and accepted for service before the official trials were completed. The trials were carried out simultaneously with preparation of relevant production facilities at the Kharkiv Locomotive Plant. The T-34 became the most numerous tank of the Second World War, being manufactured at six plants. The tank was continually improved during its production.

The Model 1940, the first T-34 production variant, was armed with the L-11 76.2 mm gun, which was considerably shorter than the subsequent F-34 76.2 mm main gun of the 1941 and later models. The mantlet was also round in contrast to the more square mantlets of later models.

The welding work on the T-34 was at first immensely crude, but as The Welding Engineer (Dec. 1952) pointed out: "The T-34 was designed with one idea in mind - to provide firepower. Any humanitarian considerations, like protection of the crew, are purely secondary."

The T-34 was superior to the German Pz-III in terms of protection and firepower, but that was all. The Pz-III had a three-man turret with a commander's cupola. Each crewman had an internal communication device at his service. In contrast, the T-34 had a very cramped two-man turret without a commander's cupola. Only the tank commander and the driver had internal communication. The German tank had a very smooth motion and wasn't as noisy as the T-34: moving with maximum speed the Pz-III could be heard from 150-200 metres while the T-34 could be heard from 450-500 metres.

The T-34's main advantage was its simple design which made it easy to mass produce and repair. The T-34 was also small and comparably light, while the tank's water-cooled diesel engine minimized the danger of fire and increased the tank's the radius of action. The T-34 had a more powerful cannon than German tanks, a higher top speed (32 MPH versus 25 MPH), and superior sloped armor and superior welded construction. The design overcame the technological superiority of German forces during the Great Patriotic War.

Built in Ukraine in the Kharkov Steam-Engine Factory (KhPZ), the German general von Runstedt called the T-34 the "best tank in the world" and von Kleist said it was the "finest in the world."

The T-34/85 was the T-34 with significantly increased firepower. The German Tiger and Panther tanks outranged the T34's original 76mm gun, and subsequently a 85mm gun was mounted on a T-34 tank. The T-34/85 modification of the T-34 was also equipped with more powerful armor. T-34/85 had a flatter turret which gave this already inovative tank design the look that all tanks adopted after the wars end. Although not equal to the German Panther and Tiger tanks, the huge numbers of T-34s more than compensated for their technological shortcomings.

The T-34M Medium Tank was being developed in order to improve the reliability and operational capabilities of the T-34 tank. Development work on this ceased as the Second World War broke out.

The T-34 was followed by the improved T-44 and then by the T-54.