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Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, its invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. The existence of the T-34 proved a psychological shock to German soldiers, who had expected to face an inferior enemy. For the most part these expectations were accurate, but the T-34 was a notable exception, superior to any tank the Germans then had in service. Initially the Wehrmacht had great difficulty destroying T-34s in combat, as standard German anti-tank weaponry proved ineffective against its heavy, sloped armour. The diary of Alfred Jodl seems to express surprise at the appearance of the T-34 in Riga, and Adolf Hitler later said, "If I had known about the Russian tank's strength in 1941 I would not have attacked".
At the start of hostilities, the Red Army had 967 T-34 tanks and 508 KV tanks concentrating them into five of their twenty-nine mechanized corps. In one of the first known encounters against a T-34, it crushed a 37 mm anti-tank gun, destroyed two Panzer IIs, and left 14 kilometres of destruction in its wake before a howitzer destroyed it at close range. The Germans' standard anti-tank gun, the 37 mm PaK 36, proved to be completely ineffective against the T-34; the Germans were forced to deploy 105 mm field guns and 88 mm anti-aircraft guns in a direct fire role to stop them.
Despite this, the Soviet corps equipped with these new tanks had lost most of them within weeks. The combat statistics for 1941 show that the Soviets lost an average of over seven tanks for every German tank lost. The Soviets lost a total of 20,500 tanks in 1941 (approximately 2,300 of them T-34s, as well as over 900 heavy tanks, mostly KVs). The annihilation of the Soviet tank force was accomplished not only by the glaring disparity in the tactical and strategic skills of the opponents, but also by the mechanical malignancies wich infected Soviet tanks of time. Beside the poor state of older tanks, the new T-34s and KVs suffered from teething problems particularly with regard to clutches and transmissions. Mechanical breakdowns accounted for at least 50 per cent of the tank losses in the summer fighting, and recovery or repair equipment was not to be found. The shortage of repair equipment and recovery vehicles, lead the early T-34s to enter combat carrying a spare transmission on the engine deck.
At the start of hostilities, the Red Army had 967 T-34 tanks and 508 KV tanks concentrating them into five of their twenty-nine mechanized corps. In one of the first known encounters against a T-34, it crushed a 37 mm anti-tank gun, destroyed two Panzer IIs, and left 14 kilometres of destruction in its wake before a howitzer destroyed it at close range. The Germans' standard anti-tank gun, the 37 mm PaK 36, proved to be completely ineffective against the T-34; the Germans were forced to deploy 105 mm field guns and 88 mm anti-aircraft guns in a direct fire role to stop them.
Despite this, the Soviet corps equipped with these new tanks had lost most of them within weeks. The combat statistics for 1941 show that the Soviets lost an average of over seven tanks for every German tank lost. The Soviets lost a total of 20,500 tanks in 1941 (approximately 2,300 of them T-34s, as well as over 900 heavy tanks, mostly KVs). The annihilation of the Soviet tank force was accomplished not only by the glaring disparity in the tactical and strategic skills of the opponents, but also by the mechanical malignancies wich infected Soviet tanks of time. Beside the poor state of older tanks, the new T-34s and KVs suffered from teething problems particularly with regard to clutches and transmissions. Mechanical breakdowns accounted for at least 50 per cent of the tank losses in the summer fighting, and recovery or repair equipment was not to be found. The shortage of repair equipment and recovery vehicles, lead the early T-34s to enter combat carrying a spare transmission on the engine deck.
Other key factors diminishing the initial impact of T-34s on the battlefield were the poor state of leadership, tank tactics, and crew training; these factors were partially consequences of Stalin's purges of the Soviet officer corps in 1937, reducing the army's morale and efficiency. This was aggravated by the loss of many of the best-trained personnel during the Red Army's disastrous defeats in 1941. Typical crews went into combat with only their basic military training plus seventy-two hours of classroom instruction; according to armour historian Steven J. Zaloga,
During 1941 about a quarter of the troops had no military training whatsoever. Most commanders felt lucky to have T-34 drivers with three to five hours instruction ... The tactics were also related to poor training. The individual tank commanders lacked situational awareness ... The enormous shortcomings in training and tactics demonstrated by Red Army tank units rendered the T-34 a very blunt sword.
German infantry began receiving increasing numbers of the Pak 40 75 mm as their invasion progressed, which were capable of penetrating the T-34's armour. Larger numbers of the 88 mm Flak guns also arrived, which could easily defeat a T-34 even at long range, though their size and general unwieldiness meant that they were often difficult to move into position in the rough Russian terrain.
In turn, the Soviets began incrementally upgrading the T-34. The Model 1942 featured increased armour and many simplified components. The Model 1943 (confusingly also introduced in 1942) had more armour again, as well as increased fuel capacity and more ammunition. Also added were an improved engine air filter and a new clutch mated to an improved and more reliable five-speed transmission. Finally, the Model 1943 also had a new, slightly roomier (but still two-man) turret of a distinct hexagonal shape that was easier to manufacture, derived from the abandoned T-34M project.
The T-34 was essential in resisting the German summer offensive in 1942, and executing the double encirclement manoeuver that cut off the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in December 1942. The Sixth Army was surrounded, and eventually surrendered in February 1943, a campaign widely regarded as the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front.
In 1943, the Soviets formed Polish and Czech armies-in-exile, and these started to receive the T-34 Model 1943 with a hexagonal turret. Like the Soviet forces themselves, the Polish and Czech tank crews were sent into action quickly with little training, and suffered high casualties.
In July 1943, the Germans launched Operation Citadel, in the region around Kursk, their last major offensive on the Eastern Front in World War II. It was the debut of the Panther tank with the high-velocity 75 mm KwK 42 L/70 gun although they arrived in insignificant numbers with the brunt of the burden carried by the Panzer III, Stug III and Panzer IV. The campaign featured the largest tank battles in history. The high-water mark of the battle was the massive armour engagement at Prokhorovka, which began on July 12, although the vast majority of armour losses were caused by artillery and mines not tanks on both sides. Over 6,000 fully tracked armoured vehicles, 4,000 combat aircraft, and 2 million men are believed to have participated in these battles.
The Soviet high command's decision to focus on one cost-effective design, cutting costs and simplifying production wherever possible while only allowing relatively minor improvements, had proven to be an astute choice for the first two years of the war. However, the battles around Kursk in the summer of 1943 demonstrated that the 76.2 mm gun of the T-34 was no longer as effective as it was in 1941. Soviet tank crews were unable to penetrate the frontal armour of the new German Panther or Tiger I tanks at standard combat ranges without tungsten rounds, and had to rely on tactical skill through flanking maneuvers and combined arms.
After upgunned German Panzer IVs with the high-velocity 75 mm (2.95 in) gun were encountered in combat in 1942, a project to design an entirely new tank was begun, with the goals of increasing armour protection while adding modern features like a torsion-bar suspension and a three-man turret. This new tank, the T-43, was intended to be a universal tank to replace both the T-34 and the KV-1 heavy tank.
After upgunned German Panzer IVs with the high-velocity 75 mm (2.95 in) gun were encountered in combat in 1942, a project to design an entirely new tank was begun, with the goals of increasing armour protection while adding modern features like a torsion-bar suspension and a three-man turret. This new tank, the T-43, was intended to be a universal tank to replace both the T-34 and the KV-1 heavy tank.
The German Tiger I tank appeared on the Eastern Front in late 1942, as a response to the T-34. Soviet firing tests against a captured Tiger in April 1943 showed that the T-34's 76 mm gun could not penetrate the front of the Tiger I at all, and the side only at very close range. An existing Soviet 85 mm antiaircraft gun, the 52-K, was found to be very effective against the frontal armour of the Tiger I, and so a derivative of the 52-K was developed for tanks.
Despite improvements, the T-43 prototype's heavier armour was still not proof against the Tiger's 88 mm (3.46 in) gun, while the prototype's mobility was found to be inferior to the T-34. Although the T-43 shared over 70% of its components with the T-34, manufacturing it would still have required a significant slow-down in production, even before installing the heavier 85 mm gun.[84] Consequently, the T-43 was cancelled.
The failure of the T-43 project left the Red Army without the upgrade to the T-34/76 it desired. The Soviet command then made the difficult decision to retool the factories to produce an improved version of the T-34, with a turret ring enlarged from 1,425 mm (56 in) to 1,600 mm (63 in), allowing a larger turret to be fitted (and thus a larger gun). The T-43's turret design was hurriedly adapted by Vyacheslav Kerichev at the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory to fit the T-34. This was seen as a compromise between advocates for the T-43, and others in the high command who wanted to continue to build as many 76 mm-armed T-34s as possible without interruption. The resulting new T-34-85 had the 85 mm gun and, finally, a three-man turret with radio (previously in the hull). Now the commander needed only to command the tank, leaving the operation of the gun to the gunner and the loader.
The improved T-34-85 became the standard Soviet medium tank, with an uninterrupted production run until the end of the war. A T-34-85 initially cost about 30 percent more to produce than a Model 1943, at 164,000 rubles; by 1945 this had been reduced to 142,000 rubles. During the course of the Great Patriotic War the cost of a T-34 tank was reduced by almost half, from 270,000 rubles in 1941, while in the meantime its top speed remained about the same, and its main gun's armour penetration and turret frontal armour thickness both nearly doubled.
The T-34-85 gave the Red Army a tank with better armour and mobility than the German Panzer IV tank and Sturmgeschütz III assault gun, though it could not match the Panther's armour or its 7.5 cm KwK 42 gun. However, the improved firepower made it much more effective against Panthers than earlier models. In comparison with the T-34-85 program, the Germans instead chose an upgrade path based on the introduction of completely new, expensive, heavier, and more complex tanks, greatly slowing the growth of their tank production and allowing the Soviets to maintain a substantial numerical superiority in tanks. By May 1944, T-34-85 production had reached 1,200 tanks per month. In the entire war, production figures for all Panther types reached no more than 6,557, and for all Tiger types 2,027. Production figures for the T-34-85 alone reached 22,559.
Just after midnight on August 9, 1945, under cover of a torrential downpour and through terrain believed by the Japanese to be impassable by armoured formations, the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Red Army combined-arms forces achieved complete surprise and used a powerful, deep-penetrating attack in a classic double encirclement pattern, spearheaded by the T-34-85. The opposing Japanese forces had been reduced as elite units had been drawn off to other fronts and the remaining forces were in the middle of redeployment to form a defence-in-depth. The few Japanese tanks remaining to face them were mainly Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks, whose low-velocity 57 mm gun was no match for them; and the Japanese had no artillery larger than 75 mm, no modern anti-tank weapons, and weak support from IJAAF forces, engineering, and communications. Japanese forces were overwhelmed though some put up resistance. The U.S. dropped the second atomic bomb on August 9, and the Japanese emperor transmitted a surrender order on August 14 but the Kwangtung Army was not given a formal cease fire until August 17.
Many Soviet-client and former Soviet-client states used T-34-85s after the end of World War II. A full brigade equipped with about 120 North Korean T-34-85s spearheaded the invasion of South Korea in June 1950. Additional T-34 tanks later joined the first assault force after it had penetrated into South Korea. The North Korean tanks had overwhelming early successes against South Korean infantry, Task Force Smith, and U.S. M24 Chaffee light tanks. The World War II-era 2.36-inch bazookas used by the Americans were useless against the T-34s, as were the 75 mm cannons of the M24 Chaffee.
The North Korean T-34s lost their momentum when they encountered U.S. M26 heavy tanks and ground-attack aircraft, and when the U.S. infantry upgraded their anti-tank weapons to 3.5-inch Super Bazookas hurriedly airlifted from the United States. The M4 Sherman (M4A3E8 model) and British tanks such as the Centurion, Churchill, and Cromwell also entered the war. The tide turned in favour of the United Nations forces in August 1950, when the North Koreans suffered major tank losses during a series of battles in which their foes brought their newer equipment to bear. The U.S. landings at Inchon on September 15 cut off the North Korean supply lines, causing their armoured forces and infantry to run out of fuel, ammunition, and other supplies. As a result, the North Koreans had to retreat, and many T-34s and heavy weapons were abandoned. By the time the North Koreans had fled from the South, a total of 239 T-34s and 74 SU-76s had been lost. After November 1950, North Korean armour was rarely encountered.
Just after midnight on August 9, 1945, under cover of a torrential downpour and through terrain believed by the Japanese to be impassable by armoured formations, the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Red Army combined-arms forces achieved complete surprise and used a powerful, deep-penetrating attack in a classic double encirclement pattern, spearheaded by the T-34-85. The opposing Japanese forces had been reduced as elite units had been drawn off to other fronts and the remaining forces were in the middle of redeployment to form a defence-in-depth. The few Japanese tanks remaining to face them were mainly Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks, whose low-velocity 57 mm gun was no match for them; and the Japanese had no artillery larger than 75 mm, no modern anti-tank weapons, and weak support from IJAAF forces, engineering, and communications. Japanese forces were overwhelmed though some put up resistance. The U.S. dropped the second atomic bomb on August 9, and the Japanese emperor transmitted a surrender order on August 14 but the Kwangtung Army was not given a formal cease fire until August 17.
Many Soviet-client and former Soviet-client states used T-34-85s after the end of World War II. A full brigade equipped with about 120 North Korean T-34-85s spearheaded the invasion of South Korea in June 1950. Additional T-34 tanks later joined the first assault force after it had penetrated into South Korea. The North Korean tanks had overwhelming early successes against South Korean infantry, Task Force Smith, and U.S. M24 Chaffee light tanks. The World War II-era 2.36-inch bazookas used by the Americans were useless against the T-34s, as were the 75 mm cannons of the M24 Chaffee.
The North Korean T-34s lost their momentum when they encountered U.S. M26 heavy tanks and ground-attack aircraft, and when the U.S. infantry upgraded their anti-tank weapons to 3.5-inch Super Bazookas hurriedly airlifted from the United States. The M4 Sherman (M4A3E8 model) and British tanks such as the Centurion, Churchill, and Cromwell also entered the war. The tide turned in favour of the United Nations forces in August 1950, when the North Koreans suffered major tank losses during a series of battles in which their foes brought their newer equipment to bear. The U.S. landings at Inchon on September 15 cut off the North Korean supply lines, causing their armoured forces and infantry to run out of fuel, ammunition, and other supplies. As a result, the North Koreans had to retreat, and many T-34s and heavy weapons were abandoned. By the time the North Koreans had fled from the South, a total of 239 T-34s and 74 SU-76s had been lost. After November 1950, North Korean armour was rarely encountered.
A few more tank engagements occurred when China entered the conflict in February 1951 with four regiments of tanks (a mix of mostly T-34-85 tanks, a few IS-2 tanks, and other AFVs). However, because these tanks were dispersed with the infantry, tank to tank battles with UN forces were uncommon. China produced T-34 tanks under the designation Type 58, though production soon stopped when the Type 59 became available.
A 1954 survey concluded that there were in all 119 tank vs. tank actions involving U.S. Army and Marine units during the Korean War, with 97 T-34-85 tanks knocked out and another 18 probable. The M4A3E8 was involved in 50% of the tank actions, the M26 in 32%, and the M46 in 10%. The M26 and M46 proved to be an overmatch for the T-34-85 as their 90 mm HVAP round could punch all the way through the T-34 from the front glacis armour to the back, whereas the T-34-85 had difficulty penetrating the armour of the M26 or the M46. The M4A3E8, firing 76 mm HVAP rounds, was a closer match to the T-34-85 as both tanks could destroy each other at normal combat ranges; however, the HVAP round gave the M4A3E8 an advantage in penetration.
The Soviet and Finnish armies used T-34s until the 1960s; the former included the 76.2 mm-armed versions until at least 1968, when they were used in filming the sequel to the movie The Alive and the Dead. The Finnish tanks were captured from the attacking Soviets or trophies purchased from Germany. Many of the Т-34-85s were enhanced with Finnish or Western equipment, such as improved optics.
T-34s equipped many of the Eastern European (later Warsaw Pact) armies, and armies of other Soviet client states. They served in the suppression of the East German uprising of June 17, 1953, as well as of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. Cypriot National Guard forces equipped with some 35 T-34-85 tanks helped to support a coup by the Greek junta against President Archbishop Makarios on July 15, 1974. They also saw extensive action against Turkish forces during the Turkish invasion in July and August 1974, with two major actions at Kioneli and at Kyrenia on July 20, 1974. The T-34-85 was also used in the Middle East, the Vietnam War, and even as recently as the Bosnian War.
On 3 May 1995, a Serb T-34-85 attacked an UNPROFOR outpost manned by the 21st Regiment of the Royal Engineers in Maglaj, Bosnia, injuring six British peacekeepers, one of them permanently. Croatia inherited 25 or 30 from Yugoslavia, but has since withdrawn them from service. T-34s were sporadically available in Afghanistan, but it is not known if T-34s were used against coalition troops, and Saddam Hussein had T-34s in the Iraqi army in the early 1990s.
Several African states, including Angola and Somalia, have employed T-34-85s in recent years. T-34-85s were deployed by Angola and Cuba during the Angolan Civil War in order to combat UNITA and the South African Defence Force. It was useful against light infantry, but showed to be vulnerable against the South African armoured vehicles.
The Soviet and Finnish armies used T-34s until the 1960s; the former included the 76.2 mm-armed versions until at least 1968, when they were used in filming the sequel to the movie The Alive and the Dead. The Finnish tanks were captured from the attacking Soviets or trophies purchased from Germany. Many of the Т-34-85s were enhanced with Finnish or Western equipment, such as improved optics.
T-34s equipped many of the Eastern European (later Warsaw Pact) armies, and armies of other Soviet client states. They served in the suppression of the East German uprising of June 17, 1953, as well as of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. Cypriot National Guard forces equipped with some 35 T-34-85 tanks helped to support a coup by the Greek junta against President Archbishop Makarios on July 15, 1974. They also saw extensive action against Turkish forces during the Turkish invasion in July and August 1974, with two major actions at Kioneli and at Kyrenia on July 20, 1974. The T-34-85 was also used in the Middle East, the Vietnam War, and even as recently as the Bosnian War.
On 3 May 1995, a Serb T-34-85 attacked an UNPROFOR outpost manned by the 21st Regiment of the Royal Engineers in Maglaj, Bosnia, injuring six British peacekeepers, one of them permanently. Croatia inherited 25 or 30 from Yugoslavia, but has since withdrawn them from service. T-34s were sporadically available in Afghanistan, but it is not known if T-34s were used against coalition troops, and Saddam Hussein had T-34s in the Iraqi army in the early 1990s.
Several African states, including Angola and Somalia, have employed T-34-85s in recent years. T-34-85s were deployed by Angola and Cuba during the Angolan Civil War in order to combat UNITA and the South African Defence Force. It was useful against light infantry, but showed to be vulnerable against the South African armoured vehicles.
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Did you knew that IS (Islamic State) had few SU 152's :0