Tank T-34-85: modification of the famous "thirty-four"

The Soviet T-34 tank is rightfully considered a Victory weapon.

The history of the T-34

The appearance of the Soviet T-34 was caused by the need for a tank equipped with counter-armor, powerful engine and weaponry - which was well recognized by the leadership of the Soviet country in the late 1930s of the last century. The story of the birth of the T-34 is interesting and complex, many books have been written about it. In short, the tank, known worldwide as the T-34, was adopted on December 19, 1939.

In 1940, the mass production of this machine began. By the beginning of the war with Hitler Germany, the USSR had 1225 T-34s, of which more than nine hundred were in the western districts. The T-34 was originally conceived as a medium tank with anti-missile booking and a powerful weapon capable of penetrating the armor of any tank.

To say that the appearance of the T-34 was a big surprise for the Nazis was to say nothing. The Russian tank was superior to everything that the Wehrmacht had at that time. None of the German anti-tank guns did not penetrate the front armor of a Russian tank, for combat it had to use an anti-aircraft 88-mm cannon. They could not penetrate the armor of the "thirty-three" and German tanks, and the 76-mm cannon of the Soviet tank crashed the armor of any German armored vehicle.

However, as early as November-December 1940, during the tests of the first production T-34 vehicles, many flaws of this tank were noted. First of all, noted the closeness and inconvenience of the fighting compartment. The T-34 tank also suffered from "blindness", that is, it had a very bad review. Observation devices and tank sights were of poor quality and inconveniently located.

At the beginning of 1941, a new modification of the T-34 M was created in which it was possible to get rid of most of the shortcomings of the T-34, but after the start of the war all the work on the T-34 M was curtailed. Before the manufacturing plants they set the only task - to maximize the production of tanks for the front and not be distracted by modifications.

Reasons for upgrading

On the issue of modernization of the T-34 returned in 1942, having behind them the experience of practical use of the tank. Moreover, the Germans refined their main tank Pz.IV - a 75-mm long-barreled gun was mounted on it and armor protection was seriously strengthened. In addition, in 1943, Germany began mass production of medium and heavy tanks Pz. VI "Tiger" and Pz. V "Panther", who had a serious booking, significant firepower and in many ways superior to the Soviet tank.

Soviet tanks were supposed to come close to the minimum distance to German cars, and only in this case the thirty-four gun had a chance to penetrate the armor of the panther or tiger. It became obvious that the T-34 urgently needs to be upgraded - and quite deep.

Modification of T-34-85

That such an upgraded version was the model T-34-85, in which a number of innovations were applied, significantly improving the performance characteristics of the machine. First of all, the main drawback of the previous modifications of the T-34, the closeness of the tower, was eliminated. Because of this, the crew of the previous models of the T-34 consisted of four people, and the tank commander served as the gunner. The view from inside the car has been improved.

The T-34-85 received a new tower, within which three tank crews could already fit. Her ergonomics has become more comfortable. The turret of the T-34-85 tank was increased, including due to the expansion of the tower shoulder strap, but no significant changes were made either to the hull or to the tank layout itself. The weight of the tank increased to 32 tons. The S-53 cannon, 85 mm in caliber, was mounted on it, which allowed the modernized Thirty-Four to successfully fight new German tanks.

After the T-34-85 was adopted, all earlier models of this tank received the designation T-34-76. The layout of the new car had no fundamental differences from its predecessors.

It was hard to book, which increased the weight of the tank. A cylindrical commander turret appeared on the roof of the tower. The crew received more sophisticated observation devices, which gave an improved overview.

However, in the conditions of war, they did not dare to go for a full modernization of the tank with a deep change in its layout. The suspension device did not change, did not begin to change the position of the engine, which would increase the combat compartment of the tank and move the turret back.

The epaulet of the turret became maximum, that is, it was impossible to install an even larger turret on it for a more powerful gun. In other words, in terms of armament, this tank has reached its limit.

Main TTX T-34-85 tank

Total information

• Tank weight, t - 32.2
• Layout - Classic
• Crew, pers. - five
• Production time - 1943-1958
• The total number of tanks produced is 35,000.

Tank dimensions

• Case length - 8600 mm
• Case width - 3000 mm
• Case height - 2700 mm
• Clearance - 400 mm

Video: T-34 85 in action

Armament

Armor

Movement speed

Engine

Chassis

T 34 85 appeared on the front in early 1944. The car went through all the major battles of 1944-1945. and took part in the war with Japan.

Despite some shortcomings, the T-34-85 tank is the most advanced modification of the illustrious T-34. It was this tank that became the symbol of victory. He had excellent maneuverability, decent armor protection, and his powerful gun allowed him to stand up for himself in battle. In addition, the tank had a simple construction, was cheap to manufacture and had excellent maintainability.

Video: T-34 85 story

Watch the video: T-34 85 RC Battle tank 116 Heng-Long ABR-2 (April 2024).