T-34

T-34 Model 1943
General characteristics
Crew	4
Length	6.75 m
Width	3.00 m
Height	2.45 m
Weight	30.9 tonnes
Armour and armament
Armour	70 mm
Main armament	76.2mm F-34
Secondary armament	2×7.62mm DT machine guns
Mobility
Power plant	12-cylinder diesel model V-2 500 hp (373 kW)
Suspension	Christie
Road speed	55 km/h
Power/weight	16.2 hp/tonne
Range	465 km

The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. It was the world's best tank when the Soviet Union entered the Second World War, and is credited as the war's most effective and influential design. First produced in 1940, at the KhPZ factory in Kharkov ( Kharkiv, Ukraine), it was the mainstay of Soviet armoured forces throughout WWII, and widely exported afterwards. It was the most-produced tank of the war, and the second most-produced tank of all time, after its successor, the T-54/55 series. A few T-34s remained in use until the 1990s.

The T-34 was developed from the BT series of Fast Tanks, and was intended to replace both the BT tank and the T-26 infantry tank in service. At its introduction, it was the tank with the best balance of firepower, mobility, and protection in existence, although initially its battlefield effectiveness suffered from the unsatisfactory ergonomic layout of its crew compartment, lack of radios and poor tactical employment.

In late 1943, the improved T-34-85 was introduced, with a more powerful gun. The design and construction of the tank were continuously refined during the war to improve effectiveness and decrease costs, allowing steadily greater numbers of tanks to be fielded. By 1945, the versatile and cost-effective T-34 had replaced many light and heavy tanks in service, and accounted for nearly all Soviet tank production. It was influential in the development of the late twentieth-century concept of the main battle tank.

Production history

Revolutionary design

"We had nothing comparable" — Friedrich von Mellenthin (1956)

In the 1930s, the most numerous Soviet tanks were the T-26 light tank and the BT series of fast tanks. The T-26 was a slow-moving infantry tank, designed to keep pace with soldiers on the ground. The BT tanks were cavalry tanks, very fast-moving light tanks, designed to fight other tanks but not infantry. Both were thinly armoured.

In 1937, engineer Mikhail Koshkin was assigned by the Red Army to lead a new team to design a replacement for the BT tanks, at the Kharkov Komintern Locomotive Plant (KhPZ) in Kharkov. The prototype tank, designated A-20, was specified with 20 mm of armour and a 45mm gun. Koshkin convinced Stalin to let him develop a second prototype, a more heavily armed and armoured "universal tank" which could replace both the T-26 and the BT tanks. The second prototype, designated A-30 but shortly renamed T-32, had 30 mm of armour and a 76mm gun. Both were tested in field trials at Kubinka in 1939, and the heavier T-32 proved to be as mobile as the A-20. Resistance from the military command and concerns about high production cost were finally overridden by anxieties about the poor performance of Soviet tanks in Finland and the effectiveness of Germany's Blitzkrieg in France. A still heavier version of the T-32 with 45 mm of front armour was approved for production as the T-34.

T-34-85
General characteristics
Crew	5
Length	8.15 m
Width	3.00 m
Height	2.60 m
Weight	32 tonnes
Armour and armament
Armour	90 mm
Main armament	85mm ZiS-S-53
Secondary armament	2×7.62mm DT machine guns
Mobility
Power plant	12-cylinder diesel model V-2 500 hp (370 kW)
Suspension	Christie
Road speed	55 km/h
Power/weight	15.6 hp/tonne
Range	360 km

The first tanks were completed in September 1940, completely replacing the production of the T-26, BT, and the multi-turreted T-28 medium tank. Koshkin died of pneumonia at the end of that month, and Alexander Morozov was appointed Chief Designer at the KhPZ.

The T-34 had the coil- spring Christie suspension of the BT, but dispensed with the weighty but ineffective "convertible" feature, which allowed a tank to run on wheels without track. It had well- sloped armour, a relatively powerful engine, and wide tracks. The initial version had a 76.2mm gun, and is often called T-34/76 (originally a WWII German designation). In late 1943 a second major version began production, the T-34/85 (or T-34-85) with a larger turret mounting a larger 85mm gun.

Establishing and maintaining production

The T-34 posed new challenges for Soviet industry. It was the most heavily-armoured medium tank produced to this point, and subassemblies originated at several plants: Kharkov Diesel Factory No. 75 supplied the model V-2 engine, Leningrad Kirov Factory No. 185 made the original L-11 gun, and the Dinamo Factory in Moscow produced electrical components. Tanks were initially built at KhPZ No. 183 and the Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ), and later at Krasnoye Sormovo Factory No. 112 in Gorki. There were problems with defective armour plates. Due to a shortage of new V-2 engines, many tanks in the initial 1940 production run were equipped with the BT tank's inferior MT-17 engine, transmission, and clutch. Only company commanders' tanks could be afforded to be fitted with radios. The L-11 gun did not live up to expectations, so the Grabin design bureau at Gorki Factory No. 92 designed a superior F-34 76.2mm gun. No bureaucrat would approve production, so Gorki and KhPZ started producing the gun anyway; official permission only came from Stalin's State Defence Committee after troops in the field sent back praise for the gun's performance (Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:130).

There was political pressure to redirect resources into building traditional infantry tanks, or to cancel T-34 production pending completion of the more advanced T-34M design. Germany's surprise attack against the Soviet Union in June 22, 1941 ( Operation Barbarossa) forced the Soviet Union to shift into full production of tanks.

Germany's fast advances forced the monumental evacuation of tank factories to the Ural mountains. KhPZ was re-established around the Dzherzhinski Ural Railcar Factory in Nizhny Tagil, renamed Stalin Ural Tank Factory No. 183. The Kirov Factory was evacuated just weeks before Leningrad was surrounded, and moved with the Kharkov Diesel Factory to the Stalin Tractor Factory in Chelyabinsk, soon to be dubbed Tankograd ("Tank City"). Voroshilov Tank Factory No. 174 from Leningrad was incorporated into the Ural Factory and the new Omsk Factory No. 174. The Odzhonikdze Ural Heavy Machine Tool Works (UZTM) in Sverdlovsk absorbed several small factories. While these factories were relocating at record speed, the industrial complex surrounding the Stalingrad Tractor Factory produced forty percent of all T-34s until it was completely surrounded by heavy fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, in autumn 1942 (Zaloga 1983:13).

Barring this interruption, the only changes allowed on the production lines were to make the tanks simpler and cheaper to produce. New methods were developed for automated welding and hardening the plate, including innovations by Prof. Evgeny Paton. The design of the 76.2mm F-34 gun Model 1941 was reduced to 614 parts, compared to the earlier model's 861. Over two years, the production cost of the tank was reduced from 269,500 rubles in 1941, to 193,000, and then to 135,000, even though the majority of experienced factory workers were replaced by women, boys, invalids, and old men. From 1941 to 1942 new T-34s went from "beautifully crafted machines with excellent exterior finish comparable or superior to those in Western Europe or America" to much more roughly-finished, although mechanical reliability would not be compromised (Zaloga & Grandsen 1983:17).

Evolutionary development

"The technological pace-setter of World War II tank design" — Steven Zaloga et al. (1997:3)

In 1942, a new turret design derived from the abandoned T-34M project started to be built, improving the cramped conditions, and eventually adding a commander's cupola for all-round vision. Limited rubber supplies led to the adoption of steel-rimmed road wheels and a new clutch was added to the improved five-speed transmission and engine.

In 1943, the Soviets also encountered the new German Tiger and Panther tanks. Based on experience at the Battle of Kursk, and requests from the front for longer-ranged firepower, the Soviet command made the difficult decision to retool the factories to produce a new model. The T-34-85 had a much superior 85mm gun and finally, a three-man turret with radio (which had previously been in the hull). Now the commander could command the tank, leaving the operation of the gun to his gunner and loader.

Cost-effectiveness

"You need five of your tanks to destroy a single German one, but you always have six" —anonymous German tank soldier

The cost to produce a T-34-85 tank was initially about thirty percent higher than a Model 1943, at 164,000 rubles, but by 1945 it was down to 142,000. During the course of the war, the cost of a T-34 tank had been reduced by almost half, while in the meantime its mobility remained nearly the same, and its main gun's armour penetration and frontal armour thickness nearly doubled.

By the end of 1945 over 57,000 T-34s were built: 34,780 original T-34 tanks in 1940–44, and another 22,559 T-34-85s in 1944–45 (The Russian Battlefield 1998a, 1998b). After the war, the T-34 was out of large scale production in the USSR by 1946 when 2,701 were built. Production was restarted in 1951 in People's Republic of Poland and Czechoslovakia, where 1,380 and 3,185 T-34-85s were made, respectively, by 1956. In the late sixties Soviet T-34-85s underwent a modernisation program (T-34-85M) for export and reserve service, being retrofitted with drive train components from the T-54/55 series tanks—a testament to the level of standardisation in Soviet tank design.

Estimates for total output of T-34 tanks are as high as 84,070, plus 13,170 self-propelled guns built on the T-34's chassis (Zaloga & Grandsen 1996:18). Some of these ended up in various Cold War conflicts around the world.

Variants

Identification of T-34 variants can be complicated. Turret castings and superficial details, and equipment differed between factories. New features were added in the middle of production runs or retrofitted to older tanks. Knocked-out tanks were rebuilt, sometimes with the addition of newer-model equipment and even new turrets. Some tanks also had appliqué armour made of scrap steel of varying thickness, welded on to the hull and possibly the turret; these tanks are called s ekranami ("with screens").

Model naming: German intelligence in World War Two referred to the two main production models as T-34/76 and T-34/85, with minor models receiving letter designations such as T-34/76A—this nomenclature has been widely used in the west, especially in popular literature. Since at least the 1980s however, many academic sources (notably, AFV expert Steven Zaloga) have been using Soviet-style nomenclature: T-34 and T-34-85, with minor models distinguished by year: T-34 Model 1940. [This system is used in this article.]

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, newly-declassified sources have demonstrated that all T-34s with the original turret and F-34 gun (conventionally known as Models 1941 and 1942) were officially called Model 1941, and hexagonal-turret T-34 (Model 1943) was officially called Model 1942.

Captured T-34s in German service were designated Panzerkampfwagen T-34(r).

Tanks

The T-34 (German designation: T-34/76) was the original tank with 76.2mm gun.

• Model 1940 (T-34/76A)—Early production run with interim L-11 76.2mm tank gun in a two-man turret.
• Model 1941 (T-34/76B)—Main production with heavier armour and the superior F-34 76.2mm gun.
• Model 1942 (T-34/76C)—Many minor manufacturing improvements.
• Model 1943 (T-34/76D, E, and F)—New cast hexagonal turret, nicknamed " Mickey Mouse" by the Germans because of its appearance with the twin, round turret-roof hatches open. Main production had a new commander's cupola.
• T-34/57—A very few T-34s in 1941 and 1943 were fitted with the ZIS-4 high-velocity 57mm gun to be used as tank hunters.

The T-34-85 was a major improvement with a three-man turret and long 85mm gun.

• Model 1943—Short production run of February–March 1944 with D-5T 85mm gun.
• Model 1944—Main production, with simpler ZiS-S-53 85mm gun, radio moved from the hull into a turret with improved layout and new gunner's sight.

Various technical improvements continued to be made to the T-34-85, including major refurbishing programs in 1960 and 1969. All T-34-85 models are externally very similar.

Pre-war development of a more advanced T-34 tank was resumed in 1944, leading to the T-44. The new tank had a turret design based on the T-34-85's, but a new hull with torsion-bar suspension and transversely-mounted engine. It had a lower profile than the T-34-85 and was simpler to manufacture. Between 150 to 200 of these tanks were built before the end of the war. With some drive-train modifications and a new turret and gun, it became the T-54, starting production in 1947.

Other AFVs

• Flame-thrower tanks—OT-34 and OT-34-85 were fitted with an internally mounted flame-thrower replacing the hull machine-gun.
• PT-34— Mine roller tank, mostly built on T-34 Model 1943 or T-34-85 chassis.
• Self-propelled guns—The T-34 chassis was used as the basis for a series of self-propelled guns
  • SU-122
  • SU-85
  • SU-100

After WWII, some T-34s were fitted with 122mm howitzers as self-propelled artillery by Syria and Egypt.

Support vehicles

There were many support vehicles and even civilian tractors and cranes built on the T-34 chassis starting during the war and continuing at least into the 1990s. The vast majority of these were conversions of old or damaged tanks and self-propelled guns.

• Bridging tanks—Old tanks rebuilt in the field or at repair facilities. These were simply driven into water two abreast for special river-crossing operations, to be recovered later.
• Armoured recovery vehicles—During WWII, some old tanks were rebuilt as armoured recovery vehicles (ARVs), by plating over the turret ring or adding a superstructure. After the war, this repurposing program was formalized in successively more elaborate models.

Table of tank models

Soviet medium tank models of World War Two

	T-34 Model 1940	T-34 Model 1941	T-34 Model 1942	T-34 Model 1943	T-34-85	T-44
Weight	26 t	26.5 t	28.5 t	30.9 t	32 t	31.9 t
Gun	76.2mm L-11	76.2mm F-34	76.2mm F-34	76.2mm F-34	85mm ZiS-S-53	85mm ZiS-S-53
Ammunition	76 rounds	77 rounds	77 rounds	100 rounds	60 rounds	58 rounds
Fuel	460 L	460 L	610 L	790 L	810 L	642 L
Road range	300 km	400 km	400 km	465 km	360 km	300 km
Armour	15–45 mm	20–52 mm	20–65 mm	20–70 mm	20–90 mm	15–120 mm
Cost		270,000 rubles	193,000 rubles	135,000 rubles	164,000 rubles
Notes: dimensions, road speed, engine horsepower did not vary significantly. References: Zaloga & Grandsen (1984:113, 184), Harrison (2002:181).

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 in the summer of 1941 was a psychological shock to German soldiers, who had been prepared to face an inferior Soviet enemy; this is shown by Alfred Jodl's diary, who seems to have been taken by surprise at the appearance of the T-34 in Riga. The T-34 could take on all 1941 German tanks effectively. However, the new tank suffered from severe mechanical problems, especially with its transmission and clutch—at least fifty percent of the first summer's total tank losses were due to breakdowns rather than German fire, although this also included old tanks in disrepair (Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:127). There was a shortage of recovery and repair equipment, and it was not uncommon for early T-34s to go into combat carrying a spare transmission on the engine deck. The mechanical troubles were eventually sorted out.

During the winter of 1941–42 the T-34 again dominated German tanks through its ability to move over deep mud or snow without bogging down. German tanks simply could not move over the same terrain the T-34 could handle. The German infantry, at that time armed mostly with PaK 36 37mm and PaK 38 50mm towed antitank guns, had no effective means of stopping T-34s. Only the poor level of Soviet crew training and the ineptness of Soviet commanders prevented the T-34 from achieving greater success.

The emphasis in the Red Army in 1942–43 was on rebuilding the losses of 1941 and improving tactical proficiency. T-34 production increased rapidly, but the design was 'frozen'—generally, only improvements that sped production were adopted. Soviet designers were well aware of the need to correct certain deficiencies in the design, but these improvements would have cost production time and could not be adopted. By mid-1943 T-34 production was running at about one thousand tanks per month, much higher than the German rate. However, Soviet losses greatly exceeded German losses due to continued tactical inferiority.

In response to the T-34, the Germans were beginning to field larger numbers of high-velocity PaK 40 75mm guns, both towed and self-propelled. They were also able to put the Tiger heavy tank into the field in late 1942 and Panther medium tank by 1943. By mid-war the T-34 no longer held technical superiority over German tanks. Loss ratios remained unfavourable to the Soviets; as their technical superiority waned, their tactical proficiency was not catching up fast enough.

By the last years of the war, the Soviets' improving tactics remained inferior to the Germans', but the Red Army's growing operational and strategic skill and its larger inventory of tanks helped bring the loss ratios down (Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:223). The appearance of the T-34-85 in early 1944 gave the Red Army a tank that had better armour and mobility than German Pzkw IV and Sturmgeschutz III but it could not match the Panther in most respects. To the Soviet advantage there were far fewer Panthers than T-34s. However, the T-34-85 was good enough to allow skilled crew and tactical situations to tip the balance.

At the outset of the war, only about five percent of all Soviet tanks were T-34 variants; this increased to fifty or sixty percent by mid-1943 and was even higher by the war's end. 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. The Soviets' late-war Iosif Stalin heavy tanks were also better-armed and better-armoured than the T-34.

An obvious comparison can be made between the T-34 and the US M4 Sherman. Each tank formed the backbone of the armoured units in their own and allied armies. Both were good designs at the time they debuted. Both were improved significantly without much loss of effectiveness. Both could be manufactured in large numbers and maintained in difficult conditions. Neither could take on the best German Tiger and Panther tanks on equal terms, but too much has been made of this fact, as these heavy vehicles were both in a class more comparable to the Soviet IS-2 heavy tank (Zaloga & Grandsen 1983:37). Tanks were expected to have many roles on the battlefield, the foremost being infantry support and exploitation. The tank-vs-tank role is nonetheless very important. That German tank production was limited to relatively small numbers of superior but complex vehicles (in part because of production diversion into self-propelled guns) told against them. The Soviet decision to build large numbers of T-34s, gradually improving and simplifying the design, was a much better decision and helped to win WWII.

Since the Second World War, T-34-85s have been in use in many Soviet-client and formerly-Soviet client states. The North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 was spearheaded by a regiment of T-34-85s. There they were pitted against the M24 Chaffee, M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing but not the Centurion tanks of the UN forces. In general though, tank warfare was a minor part of that war. T-34s equipped many of the Warsaw Pact Armies and were employed in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956. They were also used in the Middle East, the Vietnam War (most famously in the attack on Lang Vei) and even as recently as the Bosnian War. Croatia inherited twenty-five or thirty from Yugoslavia but has since withdrawn them from service. T-34s were sporadically available in Afghanistan (it is unknown if T-34s were used against coalition troops) and Saddam Hussein had T-34s in his army in the early 1990s. Several African states, including Angola and Somalia, have employed T-34-85s in recent years. Cuban T-34-85s have also seen action in Africa.

The T-34 has been employed by the following 39 countries, as late as 1996 by 27 of them indicated by asterisks * (Zaloga 1996:34).

Combat effectiveness

“The finest tank in the world” — Field Marshal Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (Liddell Hart 1951)

Combat effectiveness of early war T-34s can best be evaluated in terms of 'hard' factors—armour, firepower, and mobility—and 'soft' factors: ergonomic features such as ease of use, vision devices, crew task layout and so forth. The T-34 was outstanding in hard factors and poor in soft ones.

The 'big three' of tank design have always been armour, firepower, and mobility. The T-34 was an outstanding balance of all three throughout its World War Two life cycle. In 1941 its thick, sloped armour could defeat all German anti-armour weapons at normal ranges. T-34s could be knocked out only by the towed 88mm Flak guns or at close range by 50mm and 75mm short-barrelled tank guns. The majority of German tanks in 1941 did not have 75mm guns; indeed 37mm guns were far more common. By mid-1942 the T-34 was vulnerable to improved German weapons and remained so throughout the war, but its armour protection was equal to comparable tanks such as the US M4 Sherman or German Pzkw-IV.

In terms of firepower, the T-34's 76mm gun could penetrate any 1941 German tank with ease. This gun also fired an adequate HE round. In 1943, the 76mm was out-ranged by the Panther's long 75mm and the Tiger's 88mm. The introduction of the Soviet 85mm gun in 1944 did not make the T-34-85 equal in firepower, but the 85mm could penetrate both Panthers and Tigers at reasonable ranges.

In terms of mobility, the T-34's wide track, good suspension and large engine gave it unparalleled cross-country performance. First-generation German tanks could not begin to keep up.

Overall then, in hard factors the T-34 was the worldwide trend-setter for tank development in the first half of the war.

In terms of ergonomics, the T-34 was poor, despite some improvements during the war. All 76mm-armed versions were greatly 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 over-tasked by having to fire the main gun. In contrast, contemporary German, British and US medium tanks had much superior three-man turrets with commander, gunner and loader. The three-man turret layout allowed the tank commander to concentrate on leading his crew and co-ordinating his actions with the rest of his unit, without having to manage an individual task such as laying or loading the gun. This makes an enormous contribution to crew effectiveness. The T-34-85 corrected this problem, which had been recognised before the war. German commanders usually operated "heads-up", with the seat raised and having a full field of view, unless taking fire. In the 76mm-armed versions of the T-34, this was impossible.

Visibility from the driver's seat was also poor, with some drivers reporting that their optics were so bad they kept their hatch open slightly even in combat. Tactically, this affected the driver's ability to use terrain to their advantage, since they could not see folds in the ground as well, or have as wide a range of vision as in some other tanks. The loader also had a difficult job due to the lack of a turret basket (a rotating floor that moves as the turret turns). This problem was shared with many other tanks, for example, the US M-3 Stuart. The floor under the turret was made up of ammunition stored in small metal boxes. There were nine "ready rounds" of ammunition stowed in racks on the sides of the fighting compartment. Once these initial nine rounds were fired in combat, the loader had to pull additional ammunition out of the floor boxes. This slowed the rate of fire.

Other key factors diminishing the initial impact of T-34s on the battlefield were the poor state of leadership, tank tactics, and crew training, a hangover from Stalin's purges of the Soviet officer corps in the late 1930s, which were aggravated by the loss of the best-trained personnel during the disastrous defeats suffered by the Red Army in 1941. Many crews went into combat with only their basic military training plus seventy-two hours of classroom instruction. These problems were exacerbated by the T-34's poor ergonomics and lack of radios during the early war, making it practically impossible to co-ordinate tank units in combat. German tank soldiers found that the Soviet armour attacked in rigid formations and took little advantage of terrain (Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:126–27, 135). By 1943–44 these problems had largely been corrected, although Soviet crew training never reached the level of German training.

Importance

"The impression that it made was to influence greatly subsequent tank development throughout the world" — John Milsom (1975)

The T-34 was among most important weapon systems in the Red Army in the Second World War. Since the Soviet-German front was the decisive land theatre of WWII, the importance of the T-34 can hardly be exaggerated. At the time it was first fielded in 1940, it was easily the finest tank design in the world. By mid-war it was no longer technically superior to all its opponents, but it was still better than most, and it was available in huge numbers.

The improved T-34-85 remained the standard Soviet medium tank with an uninterrupted production run until the end of the war. The Germans responded to the T-34 by introducing completely new, very expensive and complex second-generation tanks, greatly slowing the growth of their tank production and allowing the Soviets to maintain a substantial numerical superiority in tanks (Zaloga & Grandsen 1983:37).

The T-34's balanced design allowed it to replace most light, medium, and heavy tanks in Soviet service. Its evolutionary development would lead directly to the T-44 and T-54/55 series of tanks, built until 1981 and still operated today. Its service history would influence the introduction of the main battle tank (MBT) concept in modern armoured warfare.