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Thousands of calls began to come out, today to introduce you to the famous Soviet T-34 medium tank.
T-34 Tank Lady, by Sfgrfnn
Mention the T-34 tank, people who know a little about the history of the Second World War will know that it was the pioneer of modern tanks, played a key role in the Second World War, and made great achievements. However, although the I-34 tank is known, few people know about his chief designer, the famous tank expert Mikhail Ilyich Kosygin. Fewer people will know the many stories behind this masterpiece.
T-34 (Type 85) in flames
Mikhail, Ilyich Kosygin was born in 1898, joined the Red Army in 1918, fought in the Soviet Civil War, and later studied at the Sverdlov Communist University and the Leningrad Institute of Technology. After graduating in 1934, he was assigned to work as a designer in the design room of the Kirov factory in Leningrad, and began his career in tank design.
The young team led by Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, a new arrival at the Kharkiv plant, considered increasing the tank's protective capabilities through a bulletproof shape and tilted armor. On May 4, 1938, at the Supreme Defense Conference of the USSR, Koshkin submitted the design of the A-32 (also known as the T-32) tank, which was approved by the leadership, including Stalin. Koshkin then said that the A-32 tank can be used as a general tank, integrating the high speed of the BT series tank, the firepower of the T-28 and the small size of the T-26, and the emergence of the universal tank can save the cost of the troops. Beginning in 1939, the A-32 did a lot of experiments, and finally received unanimous praise at Kubinka in September. While the National Defense Commission was not too satisfied with the A-20 designed by the Kharkov plant, Koshkin proposed to install a new BD-2 diesel engine on the new tank, taking into account the armor protection while being faster. The BD-2 engine, which has a power of up to 540 horsepower, is the predecessor of the later famous V-2 tank engine, and the suspension part has been adjusted accordingly, so that the A-32 can reach a speed of 70 kilometers per hour and also has a steering capacity of 40 degrees per second. Finally, with the addition of the L-10U 76.2 mm gun, the firepower was also outstanding. In September 1939, when Germany blitzed Poland, Stalin said that further protection of the new tank could be put into mass production, and the A-32 tank with armored reinforcements and guns replaced with L-11 76 mm guns had a more resounding name, the T-34 medium tank, in honor of the Soviet Union's 1934 decree on the large-scale development of armored forces. The Kharkov plant, in accordance with the requirements of the Defense Committee, used thicker armor for the T-34 tank than the A-32 tank, as well as more powerful artillery and more reliable transmissions. In January 1940, the factory produced two prototypes of the T-34 tank. In order to test this tank, Koshkin personally led 2 T-34 tanks to carry out a long-distance driving test of Kharkiv-Moscow-Smolensk-Kiev-Kharkiv, which impressed Stalin, who was observing the test in Moscow. Due to overwork, Koshkin died of pneumonia on September 26, 1940, and finally did not see the wonderful performance of the masterpiece T-34. His assistant Morozov took over his work and eventually completed development. Subsequently, the two prototypes were sent to the front line of the Soviet-Finnish War. But the fighting was over before the two prototypes arrived. However, the design team was still in Finland, demonstrating the power of the T-34 tank weapon system by bombarding the bunkers already occupied by the Soviets with T-34 prototype artillery. Subsequently, the prototype of the T-34 tank was further tested in Minsk, Kiev and Kharkov. The T-34 has excellent bulletproof shape, strong firepower and good maneuverability, especially the relatively high reliability and ease of mass production. Finally, the T-34 tank was completed in June 1940, and the production was immediately mass-produced. Although some vehicles have steering systems that need to be hammered to steer, the overall performance is good.
According to the caliber of the gun, the T-34 is mainly divided into two series, the T-34/76 and the T-34/85, of which the T-34/76 is divided into the 1940, 1941/1942 and 1943 types.
T-3476 in the museum
The body of the T-34 tank is welded and divided into 3 parts, the driver and mechanic are located in the front of the hull, the middle of the hull on the combat module, and the rear of the hull is equipped with engines and transmissions.
The turret is a cast structure, located above the middle of the hull. The T-34/85 turret had 3 crew members, the commander on the left, the gunner in front of the commander and the loader on the right. Behind the top of the turret there are two vents with dome covers. The T-34/76 uses a small two-person turret, which is generally a gunner who is also the commander, and others also have loaders, and even drivers who are also the commanders, which greatly reduces the combat efficiency. This weakness was gradually improved with the improvement of the T-34/85 tank's wireless communication equipment (and the addition of a radio messenger).
The T-34 is balanced in terms of armor, firepower and power. The thickness of the body armor is 45 mm, which is comparable to that of the German Iii and IV tanks, but the front armor has an angle of 32 degrees and the sides are also 49 degrees. The turret is a cast hexagonal type, the front armor thickness is 60 mm, the sides are also 45 mm, the body of the oblique angle extends all the way to the turret, so the T-34 from the front almost a right triangle. The bevel armor has two advantages, first of all, it is easy to bounce off after the shell hits (that is, "jumping bullet"), and the power is greatly reduced; secondly, according to the American armor-piercing bullet formula, the tilt angle is certain, and the penetration of the armor-piercing bullet is proportional to the caliber size. Therefore, when fired by the German 75 mm gun, the T-34 tank's 45 mm thick frontal armor at a 32 degree angle of angle has a protective capacity equivalent to 130 mm, and the side armor at a 49 degree angle is also equivalent to 100 mm. Such frontal armor directly led to the fact that any of the guns equipped by German tanks in 1941 could not penetrate at a distance of 500 meters, only the German 88 guns could block the tank guns of European countries still stuck at the level of 37 to 50 mm, and only the French B1 and German IV were equipped with 75 mm short-barrel guns, the T-34 tank was equipped with a 76 mm L/30.5 L-11 tank gun, and by 1941 it was replaced with a 76 mm F-34 L/42 cannon. When the F-34 cannon used ordinary armor-piercing shells, it could penetrate 69 mm of homogeneous steel plates at a distance of 500 meters and 61 mm of steel at a distance of 1000 meters, and no German tank at that time could withstand such fierce firepower. The F-34 cannon can also fire high-explosive and fragmented shells against soft targets, thus supporting infantry attacks. A T-34 tank usually has 77 rounds of ammunition, including 19 armor-piercing shells, 53 high-explosive rounds, and 5 armor-piercing shells. In 1943 the capacity of the improved T-34 was increased to 108 rounds. Soviet designer Morozov specially developed the famous 12-cylinder 39-liter V-2 diesel engine for the T-34, which was powered by 500 hp, bringing its road speed to a maximum speed of 55 km / h. The volume of the V-2 diesel engine is 1.87 cubic meters, the volume of the entire motor part is 4.4 cubic meters, and its engine auxiliary equipment and radiator arrangement are relatively compact. Another advantage of the V-2 diesel engine is fuel economy, the T-34 tank has a fuel tank capacity of 460 liters, and a 39 liters of backup fuel tank is hung on each side of the body, and the range can reach 540 kilometers. In contrast, the German Panzer IV had a maximum range of only 160 kilometers, while the Tiger had to refuel for 100 kilometers. In addition, diesel has poor volatility, so it cannot be ignited by ordinary flames at room temperature, which greatly improves reliability. At the same time, the diesel engine is powerful, the diesel engine speed is lower than the gasoline engine, the output is much stronger than the gasoline engine, and the modern heavy-duty vehicles basically use diesel engines. Although the T-34 main engine has a power of 500 horsepower, it has a speed as low as 1800 rpm, while the German Tiger's Maybach 230-P30 gasoline engine has 700 horsepower and a speed of up to 3000 rpm. Therefore, the T-34 has a high torque of up to 2653 Nm and wheel cycle power, while the German Tiger only has a minimum of 2228 Nm. The 500 hp diesel engine is far more powerful than the 700 hp gasoline engine.
The T-34 tank uses the U.S.-patented Christie suspension. The Christie suspension is a free-standing suspension device with large diameter load wheels that use coil springs. This suspension consists of two cylindrical coil springs connected to each other at the front and rear. Located at the front is an adjustable horizontal coil spring and a vertical coil spring at the rear, this design has a longer suspension stroke and can withstand violent up and down bumps to enhance off-road performance. The T-34's tracks were nearly 50 cm wide, while the tracks of German tanks were usually only 30 cm wide. The above advantages make the T-34 have super off-road maneuverability, which is the hardware basis of the large-depth attack tactics of the Soviet armored forces. On the icy Eastern Front, the T-34's wide tracks allowed it to roam freely on an ice field one meter deep in snow, and was called the "King of the Snow" by the German army.
T-3476 (1943 turret) in old photographs
The first batch of T-34/76A tanks was completed in 115 in 1940 and sent some to Finnish for combat testing, but was not able to participate in the battle. By the German invasion on June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union had built a total of 1,225 T-34 tanks, greatly exceeding the number of German Panzer IV tanks in the same period. On the eve of the Battle of Moscow, 1853 T-34s had been delivered to the troops. The Soviet Western Special Military District, facing the German Army Group Center, was equipped with 266 T-34s, and the Kiev Special Military District facing the German Army Group South had 494 T-34s. On June 22, 1941, Germany tore up the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact and launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, and the Soviet-German War officially broke out. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union had an absolute superiority in the number of tanks, with 25,000 tanks in the Soviet Union, mainly including T-26, BT series light tanks, T-28 medium tanks, T-35 heavy tanks, and the latest T-34 medium tanks, KV-1, KV-2 heavy tanks. Although the number is huge, the vast majority of them are old tanks such as T-26 and BT. Compared with the Soviet Union, most of the 3600 tanks that Germany put into the offensive were I, II, 35t, 38t light tanks, and basically did not have tank combat capabilities. The German army's more advanced Panzer III only had about 960 tanks on the Eastern Front, and the Iv tanks had only about 400 on the Eastern Front. However, the Germans were tactically appropriate and inflicted heavy losses on the Soviets in the early stages.
The T-34/76 first entered the war in Grodno, Belarus, on June 22, 1941, and in the series of battles that followed, the Germans could not find a tank to compete with, which was the "T-34 Crisis", which led to the obsolescence of a large number of German tanks and forced the introduction of newer tanks to cope with the situation. Compared with the performance of the two tanks, the T-34 and KV-1 both had 76 mm guns, which could penetrate the front armor of the German III and IV tanks 30-50 mm from a distance of 500 meters. The German anti-tank Panzer III 50 mm L/42 gun had to be within 100 meters to pose a threat to the T-34's 45 mm inclined armor. The KV-1 had 75–90 mm of frontal armor and 60–75 mm of rear armor, rendering no German tank gun at the time capable. As for the Panzer IV's 75 mm L/24 short-barrel gun, it was even weaker and more difficult to threaten the T-34 within 100 meters.
In the engagement report submitted by a German 37 mm anti-tank gun battalion, the T-34 tank was described as follows: "A never-before-seen tank appeared in front of our department, and our unit immediately began shelling, the firing range was shortened from 1000 meters to less than 200 meters, and it was never able to penetrate its armor, and only within 100 meters did it achieve sporadic results..." You know, at such a distance, the T-34 tank did not have to use tank guns, and with two 7.62 mm DP machine guns, it was able to sieve the German gunners.
T-3485 tank
As the Germans introduced the new Tiger, Panther, and Panzer IV with a long-barreled tank gun, the T-34/76 became increasingly vulnerable to German armored forces. In order to deal with the new tanks that appeared in Germany, in the autumn of 1943, the T-34 tank began to be modified with 85mm guns, and a gunner was added to replace the original gunner who was also the commander of the car, so that the commander could focus on command and enemy search. The turret of the T-34/85 grew larger with increased armor and firepower, and was called the "Big Head T-34" by German tank soldiers. On December 15 of the same year, the T-34/85 was approved for mass production, and a total of 283 vehicles were produced that year, and in 1944 it soared to 11,000 units. The T-34/85 was the soviet's proudest medium tank, maneuverable and durable beyond the reach of German tanks. The T-34/85 medium tank was armed with an 85 mm/56 caliber ZIS-53 tank gun, which was so powerful that it could penetrate 102 mm of steel plates at 1000 m (with a force of 110 mm when using armor fragments), far stronger than the American M4 Sherman with a short-barreled 76 mm gun (the M4 penetrated 89 mm deep, and the late M4A3 long-barrel 76 mm gun was as powerful as the 85 mm gun), The 85 mm tank gun was also one of the most feared medium tank guns of the German army in World War II. The T-34/85 also had two 7.62 mm DT machine guns, which had a strong melee capability, and even the German anti-tank infantry had difficulty approaching the T-34 tank. T-34/85 became the main equipment of the soviet tank force in the later period, compared with the "Panther", although the firepower and armor are slightly inferior, but the performance is reliable, the structure is simple, easy to produce, the full weight is also much smaller than the Leopard, the wartime output of up to 18,000 vehicles, so from the overall combat capability overwhelmed the German tanks, reaching the perfect realm of the T-34 series tanks. The total production of T-34 tanks during World War II exceeded 50,000 units, making it the largest tank type produced in the Soviet Union during the Soviet-German War. Far more than the sum of all German tanks, it became a guarantee of victory in the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union.
T-34 tanks at the Red Square parade
After World War II, soviet T-34 tanks were not replaced by T-54/T-55 medium tanks until the 1950s. The M1 and M2 T-34/85 tanks produced by Poland between 1951 and 1956 had the following improvements: the engine starting device was improved, the crew was reduced from 5 to 4, the ammunition base was increased, the wading equipment was better equipped, the range was increased, and the radio and optical equipment were improved. During the Korean War, the Korean People's Army was heavily armed with T-34/85 tanks. At first, the U.S. military was ill-prepared and mobilized three tank battalions of Japanese light tanks equipped with M24 "Xiafei". Shortly after the start of the war, the three battalions encountered the T-34/85 tanks in the corner, and the M24 tanks were obviously insufficient in firepower and protection against the T-34/85, which seemed to be a one-sided hunt. Soon the U.S. military sent M26 tanks to reinforce, and the M26's improved guns and engined M46 tanks also entered the war, while the M4A3E8 tank, which had been greatly modified, was more like a T-34/85 rival. The allies also provided powerful chariots such as the Black Prince and the Centurion. In August 1950, the M26 scored 4-0 against the T-34/85 for the first time. Statistics show that 104 of the 119 tank battles in the Korean War were Fought by American tanks. The M26 and M46 participated in almost half of these encounters. The U.S. destroyed 97 to 115 T34 tanks and other armored targets (more than 50% of which were counted on the M26 and M46). The M26 and M46 they lost were only 14. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union made further improvements to the T-34/85 tank, using the load wheels and engines of the T-54 main battle tank, and adding a submersible snorkel. This model is known as the T-34/85 Mod.1960. In addition, the T-34 also equipped the armies of many countries, and participated in battles in Korea, Vietnam, the Soviet Union's Middle East, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other battlefields.
It is worth mentioning that T-34 and China have a deep relationship, China introduced a large number of T-3485 and T-3476 Soviet tanks in the Korean War, because this tank tank has a large base in China and is the originator of new Chinese tank manufacturing and research and development, so the Chinese military has been full of enthusiasm for this tank for ten years, after the Soviet Union introduced T54 technology into China in 1955, due to the weak industrial base of China and the lack of full absorption of T54 technology and other problems, In order to fill the gap in domestic tanks, in 1956 China decided to mass-produce the T-3485 on a large scale, and in 1958 it was finalized and named the Type 58 tank, but less than a year later the Type 59 tank came out... The Type 58 was only produced in small quantities and was completely thrown into the trash.
T-34/85 tanks in the National Day parade
The Soviet T-34 medium tank was recognized as the best tank of World War II. The T-34's firepower, protection, maneuverability, and ease of productivity are optimally balanced. Between 1941 and 1942, the T-34's performance was completely superior to most German tanks at the time.
However, between 1941 and 1942, when the relative advantage of the T-34 was the most prominent, the T-34 tank still suffered heavy losses, and the battlefield losses far exceeded the German tanks of the same period (in 1942, the Soviet tanks lost 15,000 vehicles, six times that of the German army). In addition to the poor command ability of the Soviet Army and the weak maintenance of the maintenance of the strength of the objective factors, some of the weaknesses of the T-34 itself are also the reasons for the heavy losses.
First, the T-34's double turret had design flaws. In the T-34's four-man crew, the commander and loader were located in the turret, and the commander was also responsible for the gun commander, which caused the commander to be overburdened. In the fierce battle situation, the command of the tank group and the artillery shooting are very important, the former is responsible for controlling the overall situation, the latter determines the attack ability, and the division of labor between the two people is far more efficient than one person. It turned out that the two-man turret design greatly reduced the actual rate of fire of the T-34 gun. Compared with the German Panzer IV tank with a three-man turret, the theoretical rate of fire of the T-34/76 is not too bad, but the rate of fire in actual combat is often only 1/3 or even 1/4 of the former. Although the 76 mm gun was far superior to the German 50 mm and 75 mm tank guns before 1942, the command and firing efficiency was out of balance, making it difficult for the T-34 to fully utilize its gun power. An improved version of the T-34/76 has been trying to change this birth defect, but several designs have not been put into production. It was not until the end of 1943 that the T-34/85 was actually converted into a three-man turret, and the gun commander and the commander achieved an effective division of labor. Secondly, the T-34/76 was seriously short of radios. In its original design, the T-34 was designed with radio communications in mind. However, due to the insufficient production capacity of the Soviet electronics industry, the T-34/76 had only a small number of combat vehicles equipped with radios in the first year or two, despite the production of tens of thousands. Due to the lack of radio communication capabilities, the T-34 could hardly form effective commands when fighting in formations, and vehicles could only use flags to communicate with each other. In the case of poor inter-vehicle communication, the T-34 formation's combat methods were very rigid, and they could only act according to the actions of the command tanks, and their flexibility was extremely poor. In ambush and encounters, the T-34's lack of wireless communication is the most deadly. A small number of tanks that found a target or were attacked could not notify the entire formation, resulting in the entire T-34 formation of the Soviet army being broken. Compared with the poor performance of the large formations, some small T-34 units often played a better role. With the continuous improvement of the Soviet tank industry, the T-34/76 was gradually replaced by the T-34/85, and basically compensated for the above two major defects. Between 1944 and 1945, the T-34/85 had little of a performance advantage over the new German tanks, but the battlefield performance was much improved. It can be seen that it is not only the three indicators of firepower, armor and maneuverability that determine the performance of the tank, but also many design details can play an important role.
T-34 in the Battle of Berlin
If you are a tank commander and want to drive a tank to head-to-head with the enemy tank, the invincible "Tiger" is your best choice; if you are a battalion commander and want to lead an armored battalion to hold a gap, the "Panther" tank can also be competent; but if you are a marshal, you want to command a large army to travel thousands of miles and directly pound the enemy's lair, then choose the T-34 tank.
T-34, ppsh submachine gun (Bobosha), BM-13 rocket launcher (Katyusha), Il-2 attack aircraft almost became a symbol of the Soviet Union's World War II, as the star of World War II weapons, the works about the T-34 are really numerous, and now Xiaobian will simply list several games that Xiaobian is familiar with, please choose your own.
Real-time Strategy: Man of War series (Man of War, Man of War - Red Tide, Man of War - Assault Squad, Man of War - Assault Squad 2), Hero Company 2, Raid Series (Raid 3, Raid 4), Allied Death Squad.
First-person shooters: Call of Duty 1 (drivable), Call of Duty 5 (drivable), Allied Death Squad (animated only), War Thunder, World of Tanks.
Game T-34 in World of Tanks
Film works are reflected in the liberation of Soviet cinema and the defense of Moscow; the indestructible Russian cinema and the star commando; the French cinema soldiers descending into the city. Recently, a new movie, T-34 Tank, directed by Alexei Sidolov and starring Alexander Petrov, Vincent Kev, and Irina Statson's nanny, was released in Russia on December 27, 2018.