| T-34 |
| T-34 Medium Tank Crew: 5 Armament: 76.2mm or 85mm gun, 2 DT mg's Armor: 60mm maximum, 18mm minimum Weight: 32,000 kg Performance: 31mph road speed, 186miles range History: Entered service with Red Army 1940. Still in use in some countries. The T-34, like the Sherman and Tiger tanks of America and Germany respectively, holds something of a celebrity status among armored fighting vehicles. It is unanimously considered an excellent example of a tank, and many consider it to be the best of the second world war. What made the T-34 so good was its balanced performance in mobility, firepower, and protection. The T-34 began its life in the Komintern Factory of Kharkov and in December of 1939, it was approved as the standard medium tank of the Red Army. The T-34 was built on a modified version of the famous Christie suspension. This suspension gave a smooth ride on the roughest of terrain, and was also built supporting an extra wide track, which reduced the tanks ground pressure and allowed it to go where other tanks could not. In order to fully exploit this mobility, the armor was not made exceptionally thick, however, it was placed at extreme angles, making it incredibly difficult to penetrate. Finally, the tank was armed with a 76.2mm gun, more powerful then most medium tank armament at the time, and as the opposition reformed and increased their armor, so to the T-34 was up gunned to a powerful 85mm gun. All in all T-34 was a finely balanced machine that could compete with almost anything the Germans had. Point for point the Panther may have been a superior machine, but it was never produced in mass quantities like the T-34, and this alone played the final part in completing Russian armor dominance in the war. |
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