OSPREY· VANGUARD 14

THE
~ .T-34TANK

Steven J. Zaloga and James Grandsen

Colour plates by
Steven J. Zaloga and Mike Chappell
Published in 198o by
Osprey Publishing Ltd
Member company of the George Philip Group
12- 14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP
©Copyright 198o Osprey Publishing Ltd

This book is copyrighted under the Berne Convention.

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Bibliographic Note
The main sources used in this book were numerous
Soviet and Polish corps and brigade histories,
published over the past decade. It would be pointless
to list them here not only because they are not
generally available, but also because of the language
barrier they present to most readers. Unfortunately,
there is no detailed study of the development of the
T-34 available either in English or Russian.
For a more detailed historical study, the a uthors
highly recommend John Erikson's superlative The
Road to Stalingrad (H arper & Row, 1975), the fin est
study of the R ed Army during World War II to have
appeared in English; its single flaw is that the
second volume, The Road to Berlin, has not appeared
as of this writing.

In trod uc t ion
As the machine gun had dominaLcd trench
fighting on the Western Front in the Great War,
so the tank ruled the ste ppes or the Easlcrn Front
in 1941 45. :"Jo tank was more successfu l there
than the kgcndary 'tridsatchetverka', * the T-34
medium tank. The engineering brilliance of the
T-34 design gave the R ed Army a solid technical
bedrock on which to rebuild its shattered armoured
forces aner the 1941 debacle. le ruled the battle-
field for two bitter years or fighting; and even
when it was eventually chall enged by the heavier
Tigers and Panthers in 1943, itwasablcto holdits
own through progressively improved versions
such as the T -34/85. Its simple, robust construc-
tion was well suited to the needs or mass produc-
tion and it was manufactured in larger numbers
than any other tank of \Vorld \i\'ar II. In fact,
more T-34s were manufactured from 1941 to 1945
than tlH' combined number of British and G er-
man tanks produced during the whole war, and
• T111· 1li111i1n11iw lor111ofth1· Ru~sian for'34' , and tlw popu lar Russian
nirk11.1nw lor thi~ iank.
The T-34 Model 1940 came as a rude s hock to the Germans in
the sw:nmer of 1941. It s armour was largel y invulnerable to
German tank guns, and this m.achine was only knocked out
b y a s hot through its thinner rear armour.
this in spite of the fact that Soviet heavy industry
was sma ller than that of either nation. The T-34
fought in every major battl e in wh ich the R ed
Army was engaged during the 'Great Patriotic
War', and saw combat service in a great majority
or the conflicts of more recent decades.
With uch a prodigious outpouring of vehicles,
it would be impossible to present a detailed tech-
nical history of the T-34 in all its variants in this
short book. Likewise, its combat record is so com-
pletely intertwined with th e whole vast history of
the Russo-German War that this story ca n barely
be scratched here. Th e aim of the authors is to
offer a selection of b rief glim pses taken from major
actions during the war. T hey arc not necessarily
representative of the conduct of the war as a whole,
and in fact the authors have consciously sought
out accoun ts of decorated Soviet tankers where
photographic evidence was available to illustrate
the text and to prepare the colour plates. It is
hoped that this approach will help in some small
measure to li ft the vei l of anonymity from what
has long been, to Western readers, a faceless war.
3
Conception
I n September r 936 the first boatloads of 50 Soviet
T-26 light tanks and their crews disembarked al
Cartagena to take part in the Spanish Civil War.
Eventually, these would be fo!Jowed by more than
Boo other armoured vehicles, including BA-10
armoured cars and BT-5 'Betushka' fast tanks. The
war in Spain gave Soviet military engineers an
opportunity to test their vehicks against contem-
porary German and Italian designs fighting with
Franco's :\ationalist forces. The T-26 and BT-5
were armed with a 45mm gun which easily dis-
patched the machine gun-armed ationalist
Pz Kpfw Is and L-3 tankcttes, but their thin
armour proved vulnerable to the new German
Rhe inm ctall 37mm anti-tank gun. Soviet crews
were critical of the balky M-5 aero e ngin e used in
the BT-5, and felt that th e alternative trac ked or
wheeled propu lsion system was useless.
Soviet designers at the Kh arkov L ocomotive
Works (KhPZ No. 183) under Mikhail Koshkin
took their suggestions to heart in designing the
Betusltka's replacement. T he new design would be
thickly armoured to proof it against the latest in
anti-tank guns; it would be powered by the excel -
lent new V-2 diesel; and it would be fitted with a
potent new gun capable or defeating an enemy
tank with as thick a skin as its own. The resulting
T-32 prototype of 1939 had si mple, elegant lines
fostered by Tarshinov's well-angled armour lay-
out. The Russian tank losses in the Finnish cam-
paign of D ecember 1940 prompted the addition of
even more armour. The up-armoured version was
finally unveiled in 1940 as the T-34 srednii lank
(medium tank) a nd accepted by the R ed Army for
mass production. The T-34 was not without its
teething problems or detractors, and in fact was
nearly shelved. Lts transmission was capricious,
its original L-1 1 gun was inadequate, and it was
as expensive as three T -26 light tanks. Yet the
more far-sighted officers within the upper ranks
of the R ed Army recognized the design as a really
revolutionary advance in tank engineering which
would set the pace for the rest or the world's
armies. By the spring or I 94 1 the • bugs' in the
powertrain had been corrected , and the assembly
lines at KhPZ were beginning to switch over from
the T-34 Model 1940, with the ineffective L-11
4
gun, to the T-34 Model 1941 with th<' long bar-
relled F-34 gun. The original 45mm thick welded
turret was joined on the assembly lines by a 52mm
thick cast turret for both the M odel 1940 and the
Model 1941.
Brilliant as was the neation of the ovict
miJitary engineers, the pictun· in the armoured
force itself was not so bright. Until 1939. the Red
Army's tanks had bC'cn divided between larg<'
tank corps with an establishment of 660 tanks,
and smaller brigades and regiml'llls serving as
support units for the infantry and cavalry. At the
time, the Red Army adhered to a progressive view
of the tank force as a major offensive tool in
military strategy. With tht• execution or the
armowed forces' chief advocate, Tukhachevskii,
during the murderous purges or the late 1930s,
more conservative forces under the kadcrshi ID or
men like D. G. Pavlov and G. 1. Kulik took over.
scallcring the large formations into smaller
brigades. ThC'se brigades wC'r c still formidabl<· in
size, having 258 T-26 or BT tanks in the standard
tank brigade, and 156 T-28s in tht• medium tank
brigades; but thC'ir rc)le was completely sub-
ordinate to the infantry. 'ovict military doctrine
<>tagna ted a<; the cold ''incl of' tlw purges crept
down everyone's back, and ' talin' !> old canllry
c ronies from tht• 1920 war rc·igncd supreme in
their reactionary ignorance.
The stunning victorit's of the German Panzer
divisions in France in ~lay and June or 1940
greatly shocked ·oviet military kadcrs; and, not
to be outdone, they began re-forming the ar-
moured force once again. The basi<i \\'a<i to be-
come the new and massive mechanized corps with
two tank and one motor rifle clivi. ion. each total-
ling 1,031 tanks and 36,000 men. Each tank divi-
sion was 10 receive 63 KV lwavy tanks, 2 1o nt'w
T-34 medium tanks and 102 new prod union T-26s
and BT-7 M light tanks. s if' thi weren·t am-
bitious enough, they decided to form no less than
29 of these corps , besides additional independent
formations. This would have required 16,600 new
model tanks at a time when there wt·re only 5,500
new tanks available, even counting tht• T-26s and
BT-5s.
By the outbreak or th e war, seven mechanized
corps had been formed more or less completely,
thirteen more were in the process of forming and
al lea~t four more were nominally in ex istence.
~ l ost wer<' ·paper' forma ti ons a t best, an d even
the compktt' corps were in fac t very short of new
model tanks, and had to make do with o lder T-26s
a nd BT-5s. The officer cadres were a mere g host
of ,vhat they had been five years before; the purges
had left most of the best officers either dead o r
rotting away in th e gulo,~s. There were o nl y 20-40
per cent of the o fficers needed for th e corps and
divjsiunal staflS. Altho ug h th e Red Army co uld
boast or having more tan ks tha n th e res t of th e
world combin ed, th<'y were in d isma l shape. Of the
23,oou ta nks in existence, 29 pe r cc n t required
maj ur repair work for which th ere were no spare
pans, and 44 per cent req uired majo r reb uilding
for which th ere were neither th e parts no r the
fac iliti es. There were on ly 39 per ce nt of the
trucks, 44 per cent of the trac tors and 29 pe r cent
of the repair vehicles needed for the new corps
a lready in existence.
T-3+ production was below the goals set, but by
the o utbreak of war 1,225 had been produced ,
about goo of wh ich were in th e troops' hands. The
The early mechanized corps which fought in the Brody-
Dubno battles w ere equipped with a mixture of vehicles like
this T-34 Model 1941 With the new long-barrelled F-34 gun,
entrenched in the for1~~!°d, and the o lder BT~TU in the
b ackground. (Charles · ent)
Wehrmacht a t the time had about 965 PzKpfw
I II a nd 439 PzKpfw IV medium tanks. There
were serious ammunition shortages for the T-34's
76mm g un, and most crews had onl y recentl y
been issued their vehicles. Very few c rews had any
more than a few hours' training on the T-34, and
there were few if any j oint manol!uvres a t corps
or divisional level. Some corps had received a
handful ofT-34'i, wh ile o thers received none at a ll
and had to rely on worn-out T-26 'sparrow
shooters'. The T-2 6 and BT-7 were certainly no
worse than the g hastl y littl e German PzKpfw I or
the ma rgi nall y beller Pz K pfw 11. Their main
problem was their wretched sta te of repair. Maj.-
Gen. ~- V. Feklenko's 19th M echanized Corps
had only two T-345, Mostovenko's 11th Mechan-
ized Corps had 24, and many of the rest had none.
5

Operation 'Barbarossa'
On 22 June 1941 the Wehrmacht struck. German
pincers raced deep through eastern Pola nd, and
the R ed Army's half-formed mechanized corps
entered the field to challenge the m. The biggest
encounter loomed up in the southern region,
where von Klcist's 1st Panzer Group of Army
Group South raced past Berestechko towards the
railway junction at R ovne. There were five
Soviet mechanized corps in the area, the 8th, 9th,
15th, 19 th and 22nd M echanized Corps. The 8th
M echanized Corps should have been in good
shape with its 600 tanks. of which 170 were T-345
or KVs. M o reover, R yabyshev's corp had in its
ra nks the 34th T a nk Divisio n, which was th e best
in th e R ed Army and the unit that usually
paraded in Moscow at the May Day celebration.
Unfortunately, it was not co nce n~ratcd and o nly
210 of its tanks were in the area. R okossovskii 's
9th Mechanized Corps had only one of ics divi-
ions, and its 300-odd tanks were a ll BT o r T-26
pea-shooters. K arpezo's 15th Ylechanized Corps
had 135 T-34s or KVs, but Feklcnko's 19th
M echanized Corps had only a sing le partial
divisio n with 160 tanks, of whi ch o nl y two were
T-345. K ondrusev's 22nd M ech a nized Corps was
littl e b etter off, a nd its only modern vehicles were
31 KV-2swithoutanyammunition.
On 25 .J une the South-Western Front com-
mander, G en. Kirponos, ordered the corps to con-
tain and destroy the Pa nzer wedge. For the next
four days, the fi ve oviet corps slugged it out with
four G erman Panzer divisions as the Russia ns
tried to link up a t Dubno. The battle al Brod y-
Dubno was the la rgest single ta nk battle o f the
war before 1943. The G erman advance was
slowed a nd the Panzer divisio ns in volved were
weakened. The di a ry of Col.-Gen. H a lder , C hief
of the German General Staff, remarked: 'The
Army Group outh is advanci ng slowly, unfor-
tunately suffering considerabl e losses. The enemy
acting against the Army Group outh is reported
to be directed with firmn ess and vigour. The
enem y is constantl y movin g up fresh forces aga inst
our Panzer wedge.'
Altho ug h they had infli cted h eavie r losses on
the Germans than at any o ther point in Operation
6
' Barbarossa', the Soviet units \\Cl't' battered
beyond repair. The elite 34th Tank Di\·ision \\'as
enci rcled and wiped o ut by tlw 16th Pan.t:<'r
Division. B) 29J une the batlle began to pt·tl·r out.
I n the fighting, the 15th ~kchanizt•d Corps had
lost I I 9 tanks, 58 of these for lack of part:. or fuel.
By 1Jul y the 8th Mechanized Corps had only 140
tanks lcf't a nd o nl y 20- 25 rounds pcr tan k. B> 7
Jul y the gtli Mechanized Corps was do\\'n tn 64
ta nks and the 22nd Mechanized Corps was down
to twenty. Most units had lost O\Tr lialf'tlH'ir tanks
to mechanical failure and were threatened with
losing most of'tlw rest from lack ofrud.
The auacks had falLe rC'd for a \·arict~ of
reasons. The most important factor "a'> the ex-
perience of the German crews. Onl> a fraction of
the Russian tanks were radio-equipped, and
therefore tactics were inevitably ce ntred a ro und
rigid geometrical formations. T he crews followed
their troop or p lalOon comma nder a nd d irected
their fire against the largecs his tank pointed
out. The more experienced GC'rman crews
easily took advantage of the limitations of t·hese
tactics. Operationally, the m ech an i/.ed corps
were poorly co-ordina ted. Field radios at com-
mand level were few in number and unreliable.
In spite of the bravery a nd ten acity of the Russia n
a ttacks, the Soviet units were badly mauled.
None or thl' o ther mech a nizl·d corps ma nagccl
to strike the Germa n a rmo ured sali en ts in a-; co-
o rdina ted a fas hion as at Brody-Du bno. l\lajor
tank actio ns fl a red up a t hauliya, t\litius, on the
rivers D vina a nd Berezina and o utside: ~lin s k.
b ut the results were always th e same. Th e Ger-
mans took losses, a t times heavy, but inexorably
push ed on. Long columns of Soviet tanks
littered th e roadways, sc uttl ed for lac k 0 1· pans o r
lack o r fuel , o r d estroyed by mara uding German
a ircraft. By the end ofj ul y, th e mechanized corps
had a ll but CC'ased to exist, and with them most
or the Soviet l.J nion 's 23,000 tanks.
Th e T -34 had littl e impact on the cour'>e of
these actions and docs not figure as prominentl y
in German reports of t he period as did the heavier
KV tank . lts notoriety would come later in the
year. l ts lack or impac t was in la rgt' measure due
to the poor state or tra ining of mos t o r the new
crews, a nd th e diffusion of th e T -34s a mo ngs t
d ozens of sm all units in m eagre q uantities. T he
infantry was far more intimidated by the T-34
than was the Panzerwaffe, as its thick, wcll-
slopcd armour was virtually invulnerable to their
3. 7cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun, and was highly
resistant e\'en to the new 5cm Pak 38 gun. The
tank cn·ws that did engage in duels with the T-34s
were very impressed. It was invuln erable at most
ranges lo everything but a luc ky sho t, and its
armarnt•nt even lhc short Makhanov L-1 1 gun
on the i\ lodcl 1940- was very potent. I ts mobility
was far superior to the narrow-tracked German
vthicles, particularly on soft marshy ground such
as in the Pripet region. I n the hand of a good
crew, it was a weapon to be greatly feared. T he
lridj(//rhell'erka was clearly uperior, on paper at
least, to any German tank; but the human factor
was the key to the eq uation. After the summer
disaster, the R ed Army had th e near-impossible
task of building up a force of combat-experienced
tank crews to face the Panzerwaffe.
In vie\"' of the horrendous losses in men and
equipment, on 15 J uly Stauka* began disbanding
the remnants of the mechanized corps. By the
year's end, their only remains were seven tank
divisions, four of which were in the Far East. In
their placr. tank brigades and independent tank
battalions wrrc formed to fight under the control
• ,\"tmAn Sovi«l ll igh Command.
In the summer of 1941 the first new independent tank bri-
gades w ere formed, some of them with new T -34 Model 41s
like this rot. Tbe vehicle in the fore~ound, number 62, is
named ' Pobeda' (Victory); besides the thrtt extra crates of
76.2mm ammunition and unditching beam on the s ide, it also
has a roll offascines on either side. (Sovfoto)
of infantry divisions or Front commanders. The
first 22 tank brigades began forming in late sum-
mer , mainly with new T-345, K V-1s and T-60
light tanks. This was no mean feat, as in September
the tank factories in European R ussia had been
uprooted and began their long trek into the Urals.
T he Kharkov Locomotive Works, the primary
producer of Lhc T-34, had closed shop before the
Germans entered the city , and would not re-
open its assembly lines in Nizhni T agil until
D ecember. By now only the Stalingrad Tractor
Works (STZ) was still producing the T-34,
and even then at a fraction of the J unc output
owing lo the disruption of other sub-contracting
factories by the German advance. 1n O ctober,
rubber supplies became so critical at TZ that an
all-steel road wheel was adopted on the T-345
produced there. This modificaLion was adopted
elsewhere.
Among the young brigade commanders who
received their firs t big command in August were
a number who would rise to great prominence in
the turbulent years to follow. Col. Pavel A.
7
During the defence of Moscow in 1941, one battalion of T-34
witted commander. They wo uld soon deve lo p a
Model 41s, probably oftbe 11th Tank Brigade, was repainted
reputation for both th emselves and th e T-34.
in winter finish, with an unusual crosshatch banding, in a
tank repair shop. These are late production Model 415 withDriving on Moscow was Gude ri a n's '2 nd
some of the new features, like hanunerhead tow hooks and
Panzer Group; Operatio n ' Ta i.fun', the ca pture of
simplified idler wheel, that were s tandard on the later Model
42. (Sovfoto)
Moscow, see med nearl y a t ha nd. Resista nce was
crumbling, though at Orel and Tula R ussian
Rotmistrov was given command of the 8th T ank in fantry were being stiffened with reinforcements
Brigade; and Col. Mikh a il Katukov received the a nd were fightin g doggedly. Th e thic k mud of
4th T ank Brigade, whic h was form ed at Prudboi September was starting to congea l and solidil'y,
on the Don above Stalingrad. On paper, the new a nd promised a ha rd a nd earl y winte r to follow.
brigades were supposed to have 93 tanks. In fact, T emperatures plummeted, and the Pa nzers
some had as few as fifte en ; K atukov's unit was started acting capri ciously. Oil in the deli ca te gun
lucky a nd received 60. Being near ST Z , th ey sig h ts jelled ; other pa rts froze sol id ; and th e tracks
received '2'2 new T-34 Model 4 1/42s, which served st uck to the g round in th e cold autumn eve nings.
with Capt. Gusiev's 1st Battalion a long with seven It was a n inauspicious start for a n a rm y so ill-
KV-1 s. The 2nd Battalion of Senior Lt. A. equipped to ha ndle th e cold winter of the end less
R aftopullo had 3 1 Betuslzkas, mostly BT-7s and steppe.
BT-8s, but some BT-5s and eve n a fe w of the old On 4 O cto ber, K a tukov's 1st Battalion was
BT-2 with the small turret and 37mm g un. On ordered towards th e smal I tow n of Mtsensk nea r
'28 September, the brigade was put aboard flat- Tula. Two patrols were se nt out to ge t a fee l lo r
ca rs and sent to Kubinka outsid e M oscow to join the terra in. T he next day, th e patrol s a tt acked
Gen. D. D. Lclyushenko's 1st Guards Ri fle Corps a German armoured column and wiped it out
fo r the defence of th e ca pital. lt was a determi ned without loss, claiming eleven ta nks and a few
a nd well-trained unit with a n energetic a nd quick- trucks a nd guns. On the night of 6/7 O ctober. the
8
briKack ma ck its way to th e Pi crvy i Voin woods
astride the Orcl-~ftscns k hi ghway. U nde r cover ,
they watched the approach or a la rge column or
German ta nks from tht· 4th Panze r Division
escort in g infantry in Hanomag d K lz 251 ha lf-
1racks .. \ s 1hc convoy came within range th e o rder
10 fire was gi\'en. and a sa lvo ripped ii apa rt. A
pla toon of three T -34<; under Lt. K ukarin left
the woods at full speed into the midst or a group of
thoroughly confused Pz Kpfw 11 l s. I n quick suc-
cession. fo ur were hit. The ba ttle raged inter-
minably. Lyubushkin 's tank accounted for nine.
K ukarin·s whicle suffered some minor damage
and ran low on ammunition. so it pulled back into
the woods to resu pply. On the rig ht, a platoon
of fo ur T-345 und er Lt. 0 . Lavrinienko, supported
by a nother g roup of three K V-1 s under Sgt. K.
.\ntonov, joined into th e m r lec. Lavrini en ko's
vehi cle hit fo ur ; :\ntono \•'s cla imed seve n plu s a
pair of anti-1an k g uns he ra n over; K a potov's
K V- 1 destroyed one, and Pola nski got anoth er
three a lo ng \\'ith lou r molorcycks. The fi g hting
raged until noon, by wh ich time lh<' field was
littered with 13 Grrman tanks. -;ixlc-en guns and
six trucks. The 4th T ank Brigade lost six tanks, of
which two were damaged beyond repair a nd four
were to\\ed off lor rebuilding. I n 1Tcalling this
encounter. Gen. Heinz Guderian singled .it ou t
for lhe impro\·ecl U\ctics or the T-34<;, and called
it ·very worrying·. H e r<'mark('d in his memoirs
lhat lhe baulc at .\ltscnsk had been the first occa-
sion when the vast SU pcriori t y or the T -34 to the
Gnman tanks had l)(·com c 'plain ly apparen t·. I n
thc- ensuing eight days, K atu kov's brigade fo ug ht
a costl y sc·ri cs or delayi ng actions agains t Guder-
ian's armour.
The Germans continued their advance , but th e
4th T ank Brigack pu l 133 tanks o ut of action, two
a rmo ured ca rs. two self-propelled g uns, 49 gu ns,
27 lrucks and tractors, and the equivalen t or a
regimen t or in fantry. I n the process, seve ra l of the
crr' s of the brigade became tank aces. D .
Lavrinienko l killed a t Volokolanski on 18 D ecem-
ber 1941 ) knocked out 52; A. Burda·s crews ac-
counted for 30 though Burda had six tanks s ho t
out from under him in the prOCl'SS) ; I . Lyubush -
kin got fifteen. and "as among the first to win the
coveted award · Hero of the oviet nion· (GSS) :
Capt. A. amokhin. ten; Lt. L ugovo\·, thirteen:
Sr. g t. P. Molkhanov, seve n ; a n d Sr. L t.
Ra khmetov, eleven (posthumous GSS) . No t sur-
prisino-ly, th e 4th Tan k Brigade was th e first
Soviet tan k unit to be redesignated with the
honorific 'Guards· title, and bccamr the 1st
Guards T a nk Brigade.
The success or the 1s t Guards Tank Brigade was
attributable both to the improving qua lity of tank
crew training and leadership, and to the tech -
nical superiority of the T-34. I n the fight at the
Picrvyi \loin woods. many or the T-3+s recci\-cd
numerous hits from 37mm and 5omm fire with no
effect. ,\ t such close ranges. the T -34's 76mm gu n
"'Tcaked havoc among tlw more thinl y a rmoured
Germ a n tanks. Thi s techni cal supe ri orit y lasted
well in to 1942 , a lthough it was often overcome by
superior training a nd tactics. The G erma ns did
not sit idly by ; a nd by the battle of Kursk, Sovie t
ta nkers rouncl t Iw shew 0 11 tlw ot ht· r foot.
Operationsin1942
l n the spri n~ or 1942, ·1avka breathed a deep sigh
of reli ef. Catastrophe had been n a rrowly avoided
by the repulse or tllC' German advance o n .\fos -
cow. K atukov's unit and a f<.-w others like it had
been an important fac tor in blunting the armoured
edge of the German as ault. :'\cvcrthclcss. or the
8go ovict tanks in the battles, just under 800
were old T-26s and BTs, a nd German accounts
of waves or T-34s ar(' mistaken. J ust as to Allied
ta nkers in ~ ormancly, every German A F V was
a ' Tiger', so to th e Pa nze r crews in Russia every
Soviet tan k was a 'T-34'.
Th e SUCC'('SS or Sovi(' t ta 11 k uni LS i 11 th e wi nler or
194 1 and the renewed production of th e new Ural
facto ries led Stavka to consider the re-forma tion or
large tank unit:-.. Tl it· tank facto ries, af"tcr months
of horrible work in th e most appalling of con -
ditions, began to reach and t'xceed their pre-war
production lcn·I. b~ tlw middle of 1942. I n April
and M ay eleven new tank corps were formed , and
fourteen more wne planned. Th e new corps were
nowhere near as large and unwieldy as the pre-
war mechanized corps, and were, in fact, div-
isional sized units. Each new lank corps had a
9
paper strength or 5,600 men and 168 tanks,
di\'ided into three tank and o n e moto r rifle
brigade. Th e earl y brigades were s uppo. ed to
havc24 KV-1 s,88T-34sand69 T-6os. They were
inte nded to be used as rapid, co ncentrated strike
anci explo itation for ces. The firs t four . the 1s t, 3rd ,
+th and 16th Tank Corps, entered comba t for the
first time o n the Bryansk F ront in .\ pril 1942. I n
:\ lay 1942 fo ur more, the 12th, '2 rs t, '22nd and
23rd Tank Corps, were committed to the abortive
Kh arkov offensive. Good equipment dots not
au toma tically lead to a poten t military forcr. I n
pite o r the marked superiority of th e T-3 1~ over
its G erman opponents, the early tank corps were
not ver y succcssf'u l. The 23rd Tank Corps was
totally wiped out, a nd man y o r the re t were
g utted by their mo re experienced o pponent .
T he inept handling of the tank corps at front
a nd corps level forced G en. Ya. . F eclorc11ko,
Chier M arshal or the T an k and \lk cha nizcd
Forces, to issue a doctrina l o rde r in Jun e 1942
outl ining the accepted operational tactics under
whi ch th e new ta nk corps were to be employed. in 19,12, the T-39 d id 110 1 pl a)' a pi\'01 a l r tilc i111h e
Feclorcn ko was partic ula rly critica l or S<' Vera l lig hting inside Sta lingrad in the autumn or 19_12.
Front commanders who had divid ed up corps and Once the fig hting rntcrcd th e eit y itself. Ii.' " o l' tlw
sent brigades to s upport in fant r y diYi. ions. He 120 tanks i nvol\'ecl wer<' T -:H!>. The bru1a I busi ncss
n·itcra ted the need to keep th e corps together as a o f street-lighting was lcf'l to the infantry. and what
co hC'siw force for use in s trategic envelopment, lcw tanks were lhricd across 1he \ 'olga t o suppor1
and hr stressed th e need t o l(il lo w up the tank Lh e rifk compa ni(·s and shuck groups ,,·c1T us ual I)
corps' penerra tio n or enem y lines with in[~1ntry the lighter T-6os and T- 7os. These were hope-
10 secure a nd consolida te th e advance, since the kssly ouu~unncd by the nurm·rou~ German tanks
ta nk corps we re weak in infantry. Th e Fedorenko a nd S1uG I I ls in till' r i1y. and many we're dug in
orde r had li ttle impact on th<' use of tan k corps in as sta tic fir ing po ints. While von Paulus's Sixth
<>tra tcgic o ffensive o pera ti o ns, beca use in the .\ rm y im paltcl ils(·ll' 0 11 th e jaggl'cl rubbk or thl'
summer o r 1942 th ey were deeply cntangkd in burnC"d-out tractor works. the so,·ict . \ rm~
de pcratc battles t o wear clown th e spectacular secretl y planned a mas ive co unter-ollt.' n:-.in· 10
German thrus t into th e C aucasus a nd towards cnwlope the city a nd cut off th e \\'ehrmal'ht's
Stalingrad . The experi ences u r the s umm e r of advance into tht· Caucasus. Fi n· tank corps :rnd
1942 prompted Slrwkn to form new meclta nizc·cl O IH' or t ht· I le \\' llH'C ha n izC"d corps. a" \\ d I t\S 11\':l rl y
corps in eptcm lw r 1942. Tl u·;;e r<'Hrsccl the two dozen indc p cnd em tank bri~acks. \\l' l"l'
o rganizational emphasis of the tank corp. , a nd poised for Opera tio11 · ( ·ran· 1 L. ran us .
comprised three motor rifle· bri gades a nd O lll' tank Som<' 01' 1hesc units had h t'l' l1 badl y chnn·d up
brigad e instead of' th e olhn wa y aro und. 1\ s l'ar h in l llf' demoralizing rea rg uard anions or Ila·
motor rifle brigade ha d its own tank regime nt , the prc\'io us s ummer. a nd a kw hri,11;a(ks wen· cit)\\ 11
ml'chanizcd cor ps had more tanks tha n tlw rn11k lO on l) ten o r fifteen tanks. :'\c\'t'rthele -s. the lank
corps and was th e most poten t di,·i. io nal orga 11i1.a- corps were brought up to strength , and an in-
tion o f' the R ed Arm y in World W ar I I. rusio n o r VCtcran tTt'\\'S returnin g from hos pital
Although the "fZ ta nk facto r y in ·1a lingracl added sinew ant: confidence to the fl l'clglin g uni ls.
was inextricabl y Ii nkccl with th t' can ·er of th e T- 3~ M ore importantl y. aboul l\\O-tl1ird;; or the H91
10
A pair ofT-34 Model 41 s c arry ta nk infantry forward during
a counte r-attack in the Sevastopol r egion in March 1942.
(Sovfoto)
tank. an1ilahk were T-3.1. ~ l ode! 4 1s a nd M ode l
.~'2s.and the re wne eve n som e or the b ra nd new
.\ !odd +3s. I n the winter mo nths, the T- 3 <~ was
fo r mo re at home un the s now than th e Germans'
Pz K pf"w 11 1 and IV or the Ruman ia ns' hopd essly
o utd ated S-I l a 1 Pz K prw 35 t ).
At 7.2oam on 19 :'-iovcrn ber 1942, a rtillery of
the Do n Fro nt r('ceived the rad io code-word
·siren ' a nd wi I hi n moments tht· bansh ee screa m or
th e 1i ·a{rusha rocket batteries a nno unced the
opcningo l" Cran' a ll a lo ng the fOurtc'Cn - mik fro nl.
Romanenko's 5 th T a nk Army sm ashed s trai g ht
!or th e heart ol" thc briulc Rumanian Third Arm y.
Gc·n. R adu's 1s t Ru man ian Armoured Di vision
made a va lia nt c ha rge against th e wave of T-34s
a nd T-7os. but his S- llas were m ercilessly
s<wagcd . l n just (our days th e two Fro nts me t west
of Stalingrad, signalling the first majo r d isaster
ol' tht• \Vehrmac ht during the Second W o rld \N a r.
Tt was a stunning tribute to the recupera tive
powers of" the So\·iet a rmo ured force.
The T-34 Described
: \ 1 this poirll, it is worth digressing to exam in t' the
T-34 in a littk more detail.
When sitting insid e a T-34/76 o ne immed iately
notices how s ma l I th c crnv ar<"a is, compa red with
th e German P zKprw 111 or th e s pacious J\me)·ica n
S herma n. Th e driver, in th e kf"t front or th e hull ,
and the machine g unner / rad io operator to his
rig ht , h ad a bit mo re room to stretc h than the
gun layer/comma nde r a nd loader bchjnd them
in the two- ma n turret. The T-34· s tr ans missio n
was loca ted in th e rear ol" the veh icle, so a large
assembl y did no t provide a clumsy separation as
it did in mos t tan ks. Even though the front com-
partment was mo re spacious than th e turret , th e
driver still had lo be ra the r s hort l o be co mforta bl e
- in the neighbourhood or 5ft 5in. ! A stocky
physique did not hurt, as th e vehicle's clu tc h and
brake steering system required a grea t dea l or
ph ysical exertion to op erate, and i l was very tiring
a ft er a few mil es in roug h t errain. Whe n o utside o r
the battle zone, the large front h atch could b e left
o pen for better vision ; when closed , visio n was
t hrough two periscopes and a protected slit on th e
M ode l 40 and 4 1, or through two periscop es pro-
11
tcctcd b) a rmoured flaps o n the Model 42 and 71-TK radio was frag ile and requi red an experi-
suh-;C'quent type's. l nstruments were few , and most enced operator. Thr later 9R SC'l was more robust,
''<'r<' located on the shelf to the driver's kft, h111 i.till could bl' tcmpcranwmal. The operator
formed where the hull pan sides met th e bollom of was also responsible ((lr th e intn11al communica-
th e supcrslructurc . At the driver's fee t beside the tions network in the tank , which consisted or a
clutch and accelerator were la rge compressed air convrntional TPU laryngophonc unit. Th e hull
tank!> which were used to starl the engine. In the machine gun was in a ball-and-socket mount and
\'arious linlc cracks and crevices a nd under his had a two- power telescope mounted abo\'e it. T he
scat the driver stowed personal items. a few tools, gu nner placed his shoulder agai nst a telescoping
forage tools like a small wood axe, and a seakd tin shou lder-stock a nd poked his eye againsl a padded
or F-1 fragmentation grenades LO ward off Ger- sight. Firing accuralcly on the mO\'C was virtua ll y
man infantry. impo siblc. I n thr ewnt the \'('hick had to be
The hull mach inr gunner served as radio opera- abandoned, it was the gunner's duty to rcmovc
tor in the platoon commande r's tank, tho ug h by the DT fro m th e veh icle and bring a long the
the Model 43 nearly a ll T-34<> had radios. Those stowed bipod mou nt, so that th e gu n cou ld be
ea rly vehicles without radios had extra magazine fired outside the tank. On e of the good things
racks for the DT hull machine gun. The original about the OT was lhat it had small circular drum
magazines which were rea. o nably easy to c hang(·
A colwnn of T-34 Model 41 /42s in the marshalling yards of whi le the veh icle was in action. There was a cn-
the Stalingrad Tractor Works are inspected before being
s ent out to t h e fighting on the outskirt s of the city in the ta in amount or 'splash' through the ball mount.
sununer of 1942. The lead vehicle has the 6omm cast turret , and eventuall y, beginning with the M odel +2, a
while behind it are vehicles with the modified 45mm welded
turret. (Sovfoto) mantlet was fined ovrr the g un barrel.

12
 The vehic le commander sa t immediately be-
hind the driver in the le ft half of th e small turret.
The position was very c ramped, due LO the size of
the gun and th e safety cage built around th e
breech. The T-34 did not h ave a turre t basket, and
the loader and g unner sa t on small sq uare mats
suspended from the turre t ring, with a strip of
padding a t their backs. Th e turre t Aoor was in
fact made up or thin pressed stee l ammunition
contain ers. To prevent th e containe r lid s from
being continuall y bange d about, a thi ck neoprene
mat was laid over th e fl oor and could be rolled up
to gel at the rou nds. There were nin e read y
rounds stowed on the hull wall s at about knee
heigh t, as well as a number of extra m agazin es
fo r the co-axi a l DT turret machin e g un.
Until thcadventoftheT-34/85, thccommandcr
was also th e gun layer. With his left ha nd h e could
operate the turret traverse manually, or he cou ld
use electric traverse. With his right hand h e
The crew of a T-34 Model 42 cook soup near their v ehicle: a
lull in the battles of sUilllJler 1942. (Sovfoto)
could adjust the TMFD g un telescope or the PT-
4-7 roof' perisco pe. Firing was usuall y by m eans
of a foot pedal, thoug h a leve r was provided on
the breechblock for em ergencies . Th e turret rear
bustle was filled with racks of machine gun maga-
zines, thoug h space was left for access Lo a rear
firing port. The comma nde r was close enough to
the driver to be able to tap him on the shoulders
with his feet to give him steering instructions. J\t
shoulder height on his left was a sm a ll glass- pro-
tcc lccl view slit, and another pistol port with a
tampon that cou ld be removed in order to fir e al
infantry clambering aboard th e tank.
The load er sat o n the right side, and had a bit
more space lh an the comma nd er since he had no
fire contro ls. He need ed every bit of this space to
13
wn. Pavel Rotmistrov, s tanding o uts ide his tank wearing
the traditional g eneral's papakha cap , watches the opera-
tions of his 5th Guards Tank Arrny in the winter of 1942/43.
His tank is a n ew, whiteW11s h ed T-34 Model 43 with a s rnall
square tactical rna.rking in red paint. This unit was involved
in the fighting around Kharkov in January and February.
bend over to get ammunilio n , and loading could
involve real acrobatics, especially in a moving
vehicle. T o complicate the maner, he had to slam
the rounds home will1 his lefr arm. rHil the
.\lodcl 43, the T-34 had a one-piece turn·t hatch,
sin ce the smal l roof arC'a would not prrmit two
singk halches large e nough for a man lO sq uc<'zc
throug h. Above th l' loackr was a small ci rcu lar
hatch which he used to unfurl sma ll si~na l flags
or lO fire a flare pistol. B) the .\1odel 43. n>m-
munications were b) means or radio, . o these
crude methods were no longer needed.
The T-34 was a cramped a nd uncomfortable
vehicle by today's standards. It required a small ,
but strong and dexterous crew. The Christie inde-
pendent suspension gave a roller-coaster ride. The
engine was shielded by on ly a thin bulkhead,
which made the vehicle very noisy. Fumes from
14
the g uns were extracted by only a single f'an, and
these factors Could lead lO th e quick OllSl't of
motion and noise exhaustion in combat.
The most serious ddcct or the T-34 "as tlw
two- man turret. It was too small to allo" the gun
to be served efficiently and quickly: a nd more im-
portantl y, the commandn was obliged to con-
centra te his efforts on laying and firing the main
gun instead or directing the actions or his Cl'('\\'.
This gave the German tanks with a threc--man
turret a decided tactical advarHage. \ 'ision ck-
viccs were marginal at best, until the addition of'
a cupola for th e commander o n later production
Model 43s. (I ncidentally, the hoary old tale of"
German anti-tan k teams being able to lodge
grenade bundles and mint's under the rear turret
overh ang is false. The authors can confirm the
difficulty of'sticking even a couple offingers under
the overhang, let a lone a mine. )
In spite of these shortcomings, the T-34 had
som e less obvious virtues. I lS die cl ruel was far
less explosive than the petrol used in German tank
engi nes, a nd the T-34 was thu less liable to 'brew
up' than German tanks. Its designer. "l're far
more aware or cold weather req uire ments than
the German engineers, and as a res ult its lubri-
ca nts and engine caused far fewer problems in
frigid te mper atures. The T-34's wide trac k gave
excell ent fl o ta tion o n snow and other poor ground,
and gave excellent traction with the special ice
cleats bolted o n.
The T-34 Model 1940 was produced with
both the 45mm-thick welded turret and the
1 isenko-Buslov 52mm cast turret. Its primary
cha racteristic was the short-barrelled M achanov
L-1 1 g un. I t was referred to by the G ermans as
the T -34f76A. The Model 1941 originally entered
service as a platoon commander's vehicle,
eq uipprd with the more poten t Grabin F-34 g un.
Tt soon became the sta nda rd produc tion model ,
and a lso a ppeared with both the welded and cast
turret.
The T-34 Model 42 was a simpl ifi ed version
developed lo cut down on production time and
save material. Although some earl y machines
used the old 45mm welded turret, most were fitted
with an improved cast turret 6omm thic k. The
characteristic features oC th c Model 42 are th e new
A colu.Dl.ll of T-34 Model 42s of the type produced at Zavod
No. 1 12, and some T-34 Model 43s are handed over to a brigade
in May 1943. The vehicles w er e paid for by s ubs criptions of
Estonian workers in the USSR, and the inscriptions read 'For
Soviet Estonia' in Russian with ' Long Live Estonia' in
Es tonian below. (Sovfoto)
hull front with simplified driver's hatc h and
hammerhead tow-hooks, and the new rear pla te
with a circular instead or rectangular transm ission
access panel. Th e later production vehicles from
Zavod No. 1 12 Krasnoye Sormovo had box-style
fuel containers at th e rear, and so me final produc-
tion machines even had the cylindrical fue l cans.
D etails on these machines varied from factory to
factory, and STZ produced a hybrid M odel 41/42
which incorporated some but not all of the new
modifications. The Germans did not distinguish
between the Model 41 and Model 42 , but referred
to both as the T -34/ 76B.
In the late summe r and early autumn or 1942,
th e assembly halls began to turn out the first
examples of the T-34 Model 43. These were the
same as the late Model 42s except that they were
fitted with a new, larger hexagonal turret. This
15
turret ga\'e the crew more room to move about
and had two roof hatches. In the earl> spring or
1943, a modernized version was introduced with
a cupola for the commander. This was added
after troop complaints about the inadequacy or
the dsion devices on the earl ier production models
of the Model 43. J\t the same- time, pistol ports
were added. The Mode l 1943 remai m·d in pro-
duClion until the spring of 1945, and was the most
widely produced or the 76m m gun versions or the
T-34.. The early type without commander's
cupola is occasionally refrrred to as Model 42/43,
and was ca lled th e T-34f76C by the Germans. l t
first saw action during Operation' Uran'.
A T-34 Mode l 43 and Lend-Leas e M-3A1 (Diesel) light tank
take a breather on Lenin Street in Byelgorod in March 1943,
after the hard fighting around Kharkov. These tank s a r e
p roba bly of Rotm.istrov's 5th Guards Tank Army. (Sovfoto)
16
The German Response: 1943
TIH' (;l·rmans did not sit idl) b) and let the T-3+
run amok. The PzKpfw II I and PzK pfw I were
rearmed and up-armoured to restore the balance,
though they remained in!Crior in mobility to the
T-34. 'T-34 panic' had been so great in the winter
of 1941 that some German officers had S(·riously
suggested that German industr) simpl) start
manufacturing exact copies. >Jational pride dic-
tated against the adoption of a product or 'sub-
hum a ns'; a nd in any event, German industry did
not have the- technology to produce the aluminium
crankca<;c u cd in the T -34's \ '-2 diesel engine.
Two new tank designs ''ere initiated to ml'et the
threat of the T-34: the PzKpfw V Pa nther
medium tank, which enlercd service in the summer
of 1943 a nd the PzKpfw Vl Tiger heavy tank,
which L'lllt' ITd service in the \\'inter or 1~)42 +3·
The Pa nther, althoug h call ed a medium , was
nearly twice as heavy as a T -34, and about equal
in size and weigh t to th e la te r Soviet IS-2 heavy
ta nk.
T he Tiger mounted the vaunted 88mm gun,
a nd its a rmo ur was proof against th e T-34's
76mm gun except at close ra nges or from th e side
and rear. It was first committed to ac ti on o n the
Eastern Fron t in A ug ust 1942, when sPzAbt 502
(sclnvere Panzer Abteilung = H eavy Tank Bo. ) was
sent to the Le ning rad a rea . I t sa w very littl e
fighting until J anuary 1943, wh en the R ussians
launched Opera tio n ' Iskra' (Spark) to link up
encircled Len ingrad with the Volkh ov Front to
the cast below the shores of L a ke L adoga. H eavy
Batta lion 502 savaged the Sovie t 6 rst Independ ent
T ank Brigade, wh ich was eq uipped mostly with
T -60 lig ht ta nks armed with a la rgely useless
2o mm g un . l n a sing le engage ment o n 1 3J a.nua ry,
four Tigers of rst Company claimed twelve T-34s,
though in fact these were T-6os. During the
fie rce fighting around the key tow n of R a bochii
The 112th Tank Brig ade of the 6th Tank Corps is presented
with new T-34 Model 43 tanks on 12 January 1943 from
donations collected in the Mongolian SSR. The inscriptions
on the turret are in red and the bottom line reads 'Revolu-
tionary Mongolia'. (Sovfoto)
Poselck No. 5, a column of two Tigers a nd one
Pz Kpfw IIIN under Sgt. J oha nnes Bolter was on
pa trol when , in the late afternoon , they ran into a
scouting party of th ree T-6os from the 61st Inde-
pendent Tank Brigade and knocked the m o ut in
quick succession . As luc k would have it, the burn-
ing wrecks illuminated th e German tanks and a
nearby Russia n a nti-tank gun slammed two
rounds into the engine compartment of Bolter's
Tiger. Sovi et infan try in th e area reported the
incident to divisional headquarters, and men-
tion ed that one of th e tanks knocked o ut was muc h
la rger than the other a nd had a very long gun.
A t the time, Gen. G eorgi Zhu kov was visiting
the Volkhov Front comma nder, G en. M eretskov,
as a representative of Stavka during the 'Iskra'
operation, a nd he quickl y realized tbe sig nifi-
17
cance or the report. Zhukov ordered the vehicle
captured at all cost. The assignment was given to
eighteen men under Lt. Kosarev of the 86th
Independent Tank R egiment. K osarev's T-345
were fitted with extra tow-cables, and set out on
the night of 17 J anuary. The Tiger was in no
man's land, and the Germans had the area under
observation. As Kosarev's group approached, the
area was illuminated with a narc and the tanks
were lashed first by machine g un fire, and then by
mortars and artillery. Some of the tanks were hit.
Kosarev arrived first and quickly jumped out. H e
had hoped to drive the tank back, but one look at
the engine convinced him othenvise. Cables were
attached, and the wreck was towed away.
A column ofT-34 Model 438 moves to the from in the s ummer
of 1943 a1 the time of the Kursk battles. The lead tank i s com-
manded by Lt. Dmitri Zernov, a nd the ins cription r ead s
'From the Trade Union of Co-opera tive Centres'. (Sovfoto)
18
Zhukhov immediately ordered it to Moscow for
inspection. Besides the bteilung's elephant insig-
nia, it carried thr tactical number 'o 1' and thr
factory srrial 250 003.
The captured Tiger was carefully examined. lt
did not precipitate an immcdiatr response among
Soviet engineers assigned to .\1orozo,· ·s GK B-T-34
design bureau at Nizhni Tagil, since Kotin 's
GKB-2 bureau at Chelyabinsk was developing the
potent new KV-85 to handle the new German
heavy tanks. The decision against up-arming thr
T-34 at this stage was due both to the adequacy of
the T-34 in handling the majority of existing
German tanks, and the desire of the N KTP
industry representatives not to interrupt the
steady flow ofT-34s from the Urals for the sake or
a heavily revised new version. The R ed Army
was crying out for more T-34s for the forthcoming
summer's offensives, and 110 stumbling blocks

were lo be pul in Lhe way of ma ximum produclio n.
Th e cc nlra l encounte r o r lhe summe r loo med
up in th e a rea a round Kursk-Orel. A dee p salient
j utted o ut in to G erma n lines, a nd in o rde r to re-
tain stra tegic ini tia tive in th e Eas t Hitler was de-
termined to sha tter th e Red Army units which
held it. Sovie t intelligence was a wa re o r these
pla ns in detail , a nd th e R ed Army responded by
a massing a deepl y laye red bel l of infa ntry a nd
a rtillery a l the no rth ern a nd south ern bases of the
salient to a bsorb th e initi a l Germa n pun ch. Once
lh e G erma ns were wo rn do wn , huge reserves of
tanks would pour out into a genera l counter-
offensive. The northern ha lf of the sa licnl.was con-
trolled by the C entral Front while the southern
sector was ha ndl ed by the sta ff of the Vo ronez h
Front. Inside the salient, a nd in the reserves to the
east or i l, were a bout 5,000 a rmo ured vehicles,
which was over ha lf the a rmo ured streng th or the
R ed Army. In the flanking Steppe a nd Bryansk
Fronts there were a nother 2,500, so tha t in this
central region the R ed Army had over 78 per cent
of its ta nks a nd self-propelled g uns concentra ted
to confront Opera tion 'Zitadelle'. The G erm a ns
.~
••
••
A T -34 Model 43 of the Finnish 1st Armoured Division sits
after a parade in Aanislinna in O ctober 1942. The Finnish
Army used mainly Russ ian manufactured tanks which were
either captured in combat or purchased from the Germans.
(Klaus Niska via Esa Muikku)
mustered a bout 2, 700 La nks, which constituted 6 1
per cent or the Pa nzerwaffe on the Eastern Front.
The Soviets had a very decid ed qua ntita ti ve ed ge
over the G erma ns, thoug h the G erma ns held a
qua lita tive ed ge. A bout a third or the Russia n
force was made up of the light T-7os a nd o lder
T-6os, a nd there were o nl y small numbers of
KV-i s. Kursk wo uld be th e first major ba ttl e in
which sizeable numbers of Tigers, Pa nthers a nd
Ferdina nds would be employed.
The experiences of the previo us winle r aro und
S ta lingra d ha d give n th e R ed Army new con-
fid ence in ha ndling la rge a rmo ured fo rma tio ns.
Just before Kursk, the T a nk Armies were re-
formed ; a nd for the ba ttle, fi ve Tank Armies with
a streng th of fiftee n ta nk a nd mecha nized corps
were read y for action. The mo re ma ture a nd pro-
fessiona l a tti tude of th e R ed Arm y in 1943 was
nicely summed up by N ikita Khruschev, a t the
19

·.
During the battle of Kursk tbe Russians dug in a portion of
their tank strength, like this STZ T-34 Model 41/42, w hile
others, like the T-34 Model 43 in the background, w e re u sed
in mobile counter-attacks.
A column of T-34 Model 43s and SU-85s moves through the
town of Mogilev on the way to Minsk during Operation
' BagratioJt'. The motor column con sists of wnd-Lease US
Dodge ! -too trucks. (Sovfoto)
. ,
20
time chit-I' political oniccr of the Military Council
of the Voronezh Front. H e lectured the officers:
'You've really got to take care of these young
people more efficiently. :"Jone of that stupid, stale.
vague propaganda ... Don't waste ti me making
them learn slogans. But ma kc sure that every si nglc
one of th em knows th e vul 11cra bl e spots on the nc·w
German Tiger tanks, just like we once knew the
Lord's Prayer.'
The Germans struck on 5 Jul y 19+3 and madl'
rapid but costl y inroads on the northern flank of
the salient. R okossovskii 's Central Front h ad the
2nd T an k Army with the 16th T a nk Corps arou nd
Samodurovka in the centre, the 3rd Tank Corps
around Zolomukhina on the right flank and the
19th Tank Corps on its O\\ non the left. The flr"t
day's attack penetrated six to eight kilometres, but
was met the following morning by a vigorous
attack by Gen. Grigoycv's 16th Tank Corps, wh ich
regained perhaps a quarter or this ground. :\
battle developed between about 100 oviet tanks
ofthe 16th Tank Corps and 107thand 164thTank
Brigades a nd 200 G erman tanks. Col. . 'T elya-
kov's 107 th T a nk Brigade claimed 30 ta nks, four
of them Tigers, but their own losses were seri ous.
The counter-a ttac k did not live up to expectations,
but seriously d iminished th e threat in tha t sector.
T he ta nk u nits withd rew to the second defence
line a nd continued to launc h loca l sallies. On 7
July, the Germa ns again a ttacked in fo rce with
nearl y 300 ta nks against the 16th and 19 th T a nk
Corps. The foll owing day , 80 tanks struc k Pon' ri
and were met by T-34s of the 51 st and 103rd Tank
Brigades of th e 3rd Tank Corps a nd were thrown
bac k. This a ttack, whic h invo lved the use of the
massive Ferdina nd self-pro pelled g uns of H eavy
T a nk Des troyer Bns. 653 and 654, was th e hig h-
wa ter ma rk of the a ttacks o n th e northe rn fl a nk of
the Kursk salient. After a wee k of toug h fig hting
the Germa n uni ts were emaciated, and poorl y pre-
pared to ha ndle the fl ood of armour tha t wo uld
soon cascad e out of the Bryansk Front towards
Orel in their rear.
Col. Shurenkov's 5th Guards Tank Brigade attack s north-
wes t of Novorossis k in September 1943. The tanks are a T-34
Model 41 on t h e right and a T-34 Model 43 on the left.
The Germa n assault in the south had better
results. Th e 48th Panze r K orps smashed into the
Russian in fa ntry di visio ns aro und B' kovki. The
little 245 th Tank Regiment cla imed 42 enemy
tanks in the fi g hting, but was soo n overrun itself.
Counter-attacks were la unched by th e 23oth T a nk
R egim ent a nd the g6th Tank R egime nt , a nd the
la tter claimed seventeen ene my ta nks befor e being
pushed aside . Th e fo llowing day, G en . N. E.
V a tutin committed G en . M . E . K a tukov's 1st
T a nk Army to the fray. Katukov's Arm y con-
ta ined the 6th a nd 3 1st T ank Co rps a nd the 3 rd
M echa nized Corps. The fig hting was incredibly
intense, with as many as 400 ta nks milling about
and blasting a way at each other from ver y short
ranges . Col. Bedemichev's 22nd T a nk Brigade of
the 31 st T a nk Corps had its perimete r betwee n
21
An OT-34 Bame-throwing tank on the Ukrainian Front in the
late s ummer of 1943 carries the number D-50 and the s logan
' From the Tartar A.S.S.R. to t h e Front'. Th e OT-34 can b e
distinguished b y the stubby Baine-thrower mount in f ront, or
in the ca se of a r ear photo like this, from t h e radio p ot on the
turr et rear. (National Archives)
Tank number 116 'Leni.ngradyets' of the 3och Guards Tank
Brigade was one of the firs t into Kras noye Se lo outside Lenin-
grad in January 194+ This unit was formerly t h e 6ut Tank
Brigade, and made the transition from T..OOs to T-34 Model
43s in the s ummer of 1943. See cover illustration.
22
Zavidovka a nd She pelcvka assau lled fo ur times
on 6Jul y by forces of up to 70 Tigers and Pa nthers.
Nor was there a ny respite on 7 Ju ly. Th e 124th
Tank Batta lio n of the 3rd T an k Corps was re-
peated ly sent o n local cou nter-a ttacks and claimed
21 enemy tanks including six Tigers: but it was
being worn thin , and the men were ex hausted.
Maj. S. Bobchenko's 2nd Tank Ba tta lion. 1st
Guards T an k Brigade at Yakovlev was hit by a
wave of 70 e ne m y ta nks. Th e c rews had been told
to wait until the Tigers closed to a t least goo
metres, at whi ch point they o pened fire. Th e
Germans pressed in , but eventuall y retreated. A
T-34 commanded by Lt . V . S. Shalandrov was
credited with two Tigers and a Pz K pfw IV ; he
received the GSS.
On 9 July, the threa t towards Oboyan seem ed
serious and Kravch enko's 5th Guards Tank Corps
was sent to h elp the 1st Tank Arm y. Intense
fighting continued , with th e 48th Pa nze r Korps
and the 2nd SS Panzer K orps forcing back the
Soviet tank brigad es and infantry kilo m etre by
bloody kilometre. T h e Luftwaffe's Hs 129 and
Ju87G 'tuka tank-busters roamed the area, and
caused serio us casualties on many occasions. But
fo r every Russian lank lost to th e air attacks, lh e
Germans lost tanks to th e mine fields and to the
de termined work of Russian anti-tan k rifle teams.
The 1st T ank Army brought clements of the 3rd
Ytechanized Corps and th e 31s t Tank Corps from
the second echelon, which helped stabilize the
front against the 48th Panze r Korps. The Rus-
sians developed tac tics of d igging in a proportion
of their T -345 to take advantage of defilade fire
while parrying the G ermans' thrusts with forays
by o lhcr T -345 from immediale ly behind the first
line of attack. On 10 July, the ' Totenkopf' D ivisio n
o f' the 2nd SS Pa nzer Korps succeeded in forcing a
bridgehead over the River Psel. Th e 48th Panzer
Korps seemed to be checked at Novoselovka by
the 5th Guards Tank Corps, and the main threat
was seen as com in g from the three eli te divisions
of the 2nd SS Panzer K orps. On the rig ht was
'Totenkopf', in the centre was the ' Leibstandarle
Adolf Hitler', and to the left was ' Das Reich' . As
th e route through Oboyan had been denied th em,
they pressed on towards Prokhorovka. G en. Pavel
Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army had been
brought 36okm from the reserves for a major
countcr-o fTensive towa rds Ya kovlcv, but the
dangerous G erman drive of' 1 1 Jul y ga vc the
Russians no choice but to commi t his tanks to-
wards Prokhorovka co smash the d1rcat.
Ro tmi strov's 5th Guards T ank Army consisted
of' th (' 18th a nd 29th Tank Corps and the 5t h
Guards Mechanized Corps. The army had a
streng th of a little over 800 tanks. These consisted
of 50 1 brand new T-34 Mod el 1943s, and 264
light T-7os. T he heavy tank n·giment attach('d to
the a rmy had only 35 Br1tish-su pplied Churchill
tanks, which th c Russian cn•ws viewed vt'r) dis-
parag1ngly due to their slow speed and poor fire-
pow('r. Each of th(' corps had a regiment of'SU-76
Suka scl f:-propcl lecl g uns, but none of' the U- 152.
On either side of the 5th Guards Tank Arm y was
the 2nd Guards T a nk Corps and che 2nd T a nk
Corps. Th e 5th Guards Tank Arm y set off for
Prok ho rovka in the earl y morning of 12 J uly with
th e 18th Tank Corps on the rig ht flank , the 29th
Tank Corps in th e centre and th e 2nd Guards
Tank Corps on th<' left. 5th Guards '.\kchanized
u111t111ued 011 p1111r :16
A late production T-34 Model 43, with commander's c upola,
belonging to the 109th Tank Brigade of th e 16th Tank Corp11,
knocked out in the fighting of winter 1943- 44.
23
Cutaway ofT-34 Model 1942 cf. Plates F a nd G. (RAC Tank Museum)
 K ey, Plate F : T-34 M od el 42 hull positions. fixed to the right side wall butted against the rear and top of the
See also cutaway on page 24 : first suspension housing. Aft of this was upright stowage, in clips,
1 H ull gunner/ radio operator's scat for two rounds of85mm ammunition.
2 Belly escape hatch
3 Magazine stowage for OT machine gun - single row of four Key, Plate G: T-34}85 turret:
drums 1 85mm gun with deAeccor shield
4 Gear shift 2 Venti lator
5 H and throttle 3 Main turret light
6 Foot throttle pedal 4 Co-axial DT machi ne g un
7 Driver's seat 5 Periscopes
8 Foot brake 6 DT drum stowage
9 foot brake locking ratchet 7 4 x 85mm rounds
10 Compressed air cylinders 8 Turret traverse hand lock
11 Manual air pump 9 Loader's scat, slung from gun and turret ring
12 Clutch pedal 10 Gunner's cat, ftxcd to gun
13 Grease gun 1 1 Gun elevating wheel
14 Air distribution control valve 12 Power traverse mechanism
15 Electrical distribucor panel. Invisible from this angle, but 13 Commander's tip-up scat, fixed to turret ring
mounted on the side wall just a head of the top corner of this 14 Shaded light over calculating table on top of traverse
panel was the starter button. mechanism
16 Driver's hatch counter-weight assembly 15 Pistol port, tampon in place (note second port opposite,
17 Tachometer (left) and speedometer (right) forward of ammunition stowage)
18 I nstrument panel 16 Radio equipment
19 Steering levers 17 Electrical distributor box
20 Intercom · 18 Telescope sight
2 1 Ball-mounted DT machi ne gun with telescoped butt, drum 19 Telescope sight illumination
magazine, and empty cartridge bag
I n the T-34/76 the rear turret bustle was filled with DT drum racks
22 Type gR radio equipment
- see cutaway on page 24. In the T-34/85 the bustle housed main
23 front suspension housing. The photo from which we take the
ammunition stowage; a rack held four layers of four rounds each,
radio set shows a cut-out in th is housing, revealing the spring
heads to right as viewed from inside turret, with a plywood
inside, but this was not normal.
bu lkh ead coming ro rwa rd from the rear turret wall to shield the
I n the T-34/85 the area bet ween the first and second suspensio n left-hand end of ttic rack. The heads of the single set of four rounds
housings on the right of the hull gunner's position wa~ u ed for on the right rear side wall, no. 7 above, fitt ed into the space
extra ammunition stowage, since the radio eq uipment had moved between this plywood shield and the turret side wall. Apart from
to the left wall of the turret. On the deck beneath the ball mounting the right side of the hull gunner's position , and small details of the
was a two-row rack for OT ammunition, 2 x 5 drums stowed belly hatch clipping, etc., the hull positions of the ~lodrl 42 and
on edge. A rack holding a single ,·ertical stack of seven drums was the T -34/85 were largely identical.
N
<J1
 The Wehrmacht u s ed a number of captured T -34s, like t his
T-34 Model 43 s omewhere in Rumania in the s umm e r of 1944.
The ve hicle is heavily marked and repain t ed in German
thre e-tone c amouflage. The a ddition of side skirt s over t h e
s uspension is note worthy. (National Archives)

th e smou ldering carcasses of hundreds of tanks.

The G erma ns launc hed a lase counter-attac k in
th e earl y evening with about 200 tanks, but were
thrown back. The next morning, the Russians
were reinforced and began their cou nter-attacks.
Th e 29th Tank Corps had lost 60 per cent of its
tanks destroyed or damaged a nd the 18th T an k
Corps los t 30 pe r cent. D uring the battle around
Prokhorovka both sides suffered loss('s of about
Corps a nd the 2nd Tank Corps rema ined in 300 tanks each, though both sides were able to
the rear. The actual front echelons that would recover and repair a proportion of them. This
be involved in the fighting amounted lO about 500 battle has justly been cal led the death ride of the
tanks, of which 200 were T;7os and the remainder Panzerwaffe. It marked the turning point in the
T -345. Kursk battle, and sig nalled the final loss ofGerman
As it ha ppened , H ausser's 2nd SS Panzer Korps strateg ic initiative in the East. Th e tid e of war had
was intent o n launching its final drive on th e same inexorably swung in favour of the Red Army.
morning a nd in the same area that R o tmistrov's Whil e both sides had suffered appalling losses.
tan ks were approaching. H ausser's forces had these could more readily be absorbed by the Red
abou t 700 tanks in the fore a nd r eserves, of which Army than by the Wehrmacht. The news of the
about 100 were the new heavy types. H a usser had Allied invasion of Sicily provided th e Germans
a distinct techni cal advantage as th e battle began, with a face-saving excuse to call off the offensive.
while Rotmistrov had potential quantita tive a d- By 23 J uly, the R ussia ns had recovered most of
vantage with reserves in the second echelon of the lost territory in the K ursk salient ; a nd after a
attack. R econnaissa nce o n both sides was poor week-long breather to regroup, they lashed o ut
due to the chaotic si tuation in the front lines. By with a massive counter-offensive which propelled
10.ooam both sides had madly raced into each them into Kharkov a nd Orel.
o ther's clutches and a vicious, close-range mc lce The victory at Kursk was the turnin g point of
was developing. the European War, and much of the cred it was
On rea lizing that they had met the Germans owed to the tank crews who blunted H ausser's
head-on, the Russian units lost no opportunity to dangerous advance. While historians have often
approach as close as possible. In th e opening
stages of the K ursk battle, R ussia n tank units had
taken stiff losses by allowing the Germans to slug
it out at long ranges. By a ttacking at close range,
the R ussian crews eliminated the G erma ns' long
range edge; at point-blan k range of 500- 6oo
metres, the Tigers and Panthers were vulnerable
to the T-34's 76mm gun, especially o n th e side.
By sunse t, the fi elds for miles around g lowed with

Tank infantry armed with PPSh s ub-machine guns s ta nd b y

their T-34183 Model 43 durin~ pres entation ceremonies with
Patrurc h Sergei of the Russ ian Orthodox Churc h in March
1941. These are t h e early T -34 83s a rmed with the 0-:;T gun,
as is evid e ru f r om the ir heavy mantlet s . The turret s log an
is ' Dmitri Dooskoi'. (Sovfoto)

26
belittled lh c Soviet successes as viclorirs of sheer
mass against small er and more skilled G erman
units, it should not be forgolte n lhat at Pro k-
horovka Russian numerical superio rity was
illusory, and in face this was true in ma ny olher
key stages of the Kursk battle. ll was no t until the
cou mer-offc nsive got into full swing that th e mas-
sive reserves of armour would be le t loose. The
success at Kursk rested upon the improved train-
ing of the Russian tank crews as co mpared with
th e two previous dismal summers, and th e more
mature handling of the tank brigades by corps
a nd front sta ffs.
Following th e Kursk victory, 180 of the men
who made it possible were awarded the Hero of
the Soviet Union decoration. Th e G , which
had been given out so sparingly in th e previous
two yea rs of war, was now more lavishly distri-
buted. Many survivors of th e horrible summer of
194 1. oflh e battles of Brody-Dubno, of the Bere-
zina River, a nd of the first and second battles of
Kharkov, could think of many a brave tanker
whose heroism had gone unrecognized in those
years of despair and natio nal agony. The summer
of 1943 was one of relief a nd great joy, and the
flow of medal s marked it.
Our colour plates reflect these trends. As more
medals were g1vcn out, more attention was
focused on th e crewmen. Unit clan led to th e more
A T-34/85 of the z nd Guards Tank Corps enters the Byel~
russian capital of Minsk in July 1944. The corps' white arrow
insignia is barely evident under the legs of one of the c rew-
men. (Sovfoto)
widespread use of brigade insign ia, and ma rkings
proliferated. Of the 10,000 G decorations
issued during th e war, I , 140 we re won by tankers.
Sixteen men won th e award lwice, among the m
Gen. A. G . Kravehenko of th e 5th Guards Tank
Corps, whose co mmand tank during th e Kursk
battle is shown as Pla te B 1 in o ur colou r pages.
During the war 73 women soldier won the
decoration, one of these a tanker, g t. M a ria
Vasilcva Oktyabr'skaya.
During the late r years of th e war, about a tenth
of the R ed Army was made up of women. Revo-
lutionary bla ndishments about eq uality aside, the
real reason for the Ii fling of this tradition a l social
barrier was the desperate need for manpower. In
194 1 a lo n<', the Wehrmacht had captured ove r
three million Russian soldiers, of "hom fc,...· would
survive starva tion, disease and extermina tion in
G erman ca mps. l t was a very bruta l connict, a nd
twelve millio n oviet soldiers would die in the
four years of war. In the middle of the war there
was a R ussia n saying to th e effect tha t or 100 men
to go to the front, four would return a li ve. At first,
women were accepted for the less a rduo us non-
comba ta nt tasks, especiall y as staff aids, com-
27

Gen. Heinz Guderian inspects a T-34 85 of the 2nd Guards
Tank Corps knocked out in East Prussia in October 1944.
The MDSh smoke canisters have fallen oO'the rear plate and
are behind the vehicle.
munication troops a nd as nurses. As th e war
dragged on , nurses became front lin e medics; and
others beca me snipers, mortar crewmen , fighter
and bomber pilots and eventuall y tankers. They
began to enter the ranks of tank units in small
numbers in 1943, usuall y as driver/ mechanics.
At the time, the pool of mechanically adept
young men had been drained. The two previous
summers' campaig ns had sacrificed many of the
soldiers who in peacetime had been tractor and
truck drivers. The work crews in the Ural ta nk
factories were 50 percent women a t the time, and
there was a trained pool of young gi~l s who had
served with mechanic squads, test driving the
tanks around the factory tracks or driving them
co railway sid ings to send them to the front. This
was more training than most or the young male
driver recruits would ever get before being sent
into combat. The women , often only L<'enagers,
were siphoned off in small numbers in 1944 and
1945, and by th e time of the Berlin operation some
had become tank commanders.
Maria Oktyabr'skaya was born in 1902 in the
Crimea to a peasant family, and after completing
schooling worked in a can ning factory. he mar-
ried a young officer cadet and became a celephone
operator. H er husband was killed in 1941 while
serving as a commissar with an artillery unit. She
was badly shaken a nd embittered by his loss. She
began to pool her savings to subscribe for the
purchase of a tank, which was a popular patriotic
gesture at the time. Whil e working in an arma -
28
ment factory in Siberia, she was accepted into the
Army and trained as a tank mechanic. 1n October
1943 she received the ra nk of sergeant, and was
assigned to the crew of a platoon commanckr. Lt.
Chebotko or a Guards tank brigade. ,\ ceremony
was held that month when her crew was presented
its new tank, a T-34 \,fodtl 43, purdrnst·d with
contributio ns from the Sverdlovsk n·gion, and
prominentl y marked with the name 'Bo)'eva_ya
Podruga'. *
The crew first saw action at . ovoyc Scio in the
Vitebsk area in November, where Oktyabr'skaya
distinguished hersclfby knocking out an an ti-tank
gun by running it over. On 17 J anuary 1944, in
the a rea or Krnki Lioznenski , the tank was dis-
abled by a mine and she was severely wounded ,
dying in M arch. he was honoured with a po. t-
humous H eroine of the Soviet Union award, a nd
her memory was fostered. Publicity of her explo its
led to public con tributio ns for new tanks, inc lud-
ing a second T-34 'Boyevaya Podruga' , whic h served
at Minsk, and an lS-2 which served at Berli n.
T he custom of subscribing for weapons began
in 1941 as a patriotic gesture, and b) the war's end
some 5.8 billion roubles had been donated for
tanks, providing enough funds for th e manu-
facture of 30,522 armoured vehicles. Generally,
the prac ti ce was for a collecti ve farm (1' .oll.ho<. ),
school, or factory to pool its savings and 'purchase'
an en tire battalion or brigade or tanks. In some
cases, a formal presentation ceremon) was held
and the subscribers· names would be painted on
the tank turrets. For example, the collective farms
of the T am bov region contributed forty thousand
roubles towards the manufacture or a brigade or
T-345. These were presented to the 133rd Tank
Brigade commanded by Col. N. Bubn o\' and the
turrets had the nam e 'Tambovsk1 h't1/khoz111k'
painted on the sides in red. ;\lot all subscription
vehicles had th ese markings so conspicuously
painted, and in most cases they were limited to a
small plaque attached inside the tank.
I n some cases, regions purchased tank. speci-
fically for local boys. The ~rem council ) of a col-
lective in Voroshilovgrad subscribed to a T-34/85
for Lt. I van Kisen ko, who had been adopted as a
*This name do\'s no1 1ransla1c easi ly inw English . l'oclruga is 1hc
feminine form or I h<· Russian word for frimcl, hul lht• Engli~h phra ~.­
'Figh1ing F'ri ('ncl' doN 1101 ronvry the Sfn'!f ofllw 1•xpn·~~io11.

The tank o f Lt. Alek s ander Oskin enters th e Polis h villag e of
Re bow s hortly after O s kin's encounter with the K onigstigers
at Ogledow in August 1944. Oskin is the s miling fellow with
his hand on the driver's hatch (Sovfoto)
young child b~ a local farmer. Yakov Shulgi, and
had grO\\ll up in the area . On its side was painted
' From fathe r Shulgi to my son Kisc nko' along
with th e rampant bear insignia of th e 36t h Tank
Brigade (sec Pla te C3) . The Russian Orthodox
Church sold off ma ny or its precio us gold sacra-
mental vessels a nd paintings to pay for a n inde-
pendent flam e-thrower tank brigade se rving with
the 1st Guards Tank Army. On th e turret sides was
painted the name or the legendary Russian prince
Dmitri Donskoi.
1944: New Cun, New Victories
While Stavka was reasonabl y ha ppy with the per-
formance or the ta nk armies at K ursk, in th e fol-
lowingoffensive it became immedia tely apparent
that they had a lo t to learn about strategic ad-
vances. Th e Kursk-Orel battl e also strong ly im-
pressed on 'oviet officers the need to up-arm the
T-34 as soon as possible. For nearly two yea rs, the
T-34 had reig ned supreme; but a t its greatest
victory, it was shown wanting. Th e R ed Army
had a T iger sin ce J anuary 1943, but a suitable
opponent for it was not immedi a tel y available.
Two of the Kanigstig ers knocked out by O skin blew up, and
the third, a PzBe fWg collllWUld tank, number 502, w as sent
back t o M oscow. Barely legible on the s ide s kirt s is a chalked
inscription c r editing O skin's unit with the capture.
At several post-operational meetings, ta nk officers
bitt erly questio ned why a new version with a
'longer arm' was not ready. The winter offensive
wrenched muc h or European Russia o ut or Ger-
man hands, but it would not be unti l early spring
1944 that the designers' response would be forth-
coming.
inn· sum me r 1943 ~l orozov's d<:sign teams, in
conj unction with eng ineers at thc- K rasnoye
Sormovo Pla nt and the artillery bureaux of
Grabin a nd Petrov, had bee n developing a new
versio n or the fridsatchetverka a rm ed with a potent
new 85 mm gu n. Grabin 's Z I -53 g un was
selected, bu l owing to teething problems in pro-
duction, the first of the new T-34/85s manu-
factured in December 1943 were a rmed with the
runner-up, the D-5T g un from the Petrov bureau.
The D-5T was the same gun used in the U-85
a nd th e KV-85. Th e T-34/85 first saw comba t in
Marc h a nd April 1944, and crews were unanimous
in their pra ise of the ne w vehicle. T he T -34/85
marked the culmina tion or th e lndsatchelverka
family. While it was a bit more sluggish tha n the
T-34 Model 43, it em bodied a ll the mechanical
advances or th e previous series a nd housed a far
more potent a nti-ta nk weapon. Equally im-
portant, the new ta nk had a three-man turret
which was better suited to the more sophisticated
tactics a nd betler trained crews of th e 1944
period . The comma nde r could now focus on his
main ro le of' directing the veh icle in co mba t, and
by now a ll vehicles were radio-eq uipped.
29
 pecting another la rge offensive in th e south
around the Ukra ine, the Baltic a nd Byclorussian
Fro nts were secretl y built up with much of the
new T -34/85 production oppo it<' the so-called
'Byclo russian Balcony". BC'twcen 23 a nd 28 .June.
Opera tion ' Bagralion' kicked off on !Our fronts,
a nd the hopelessly harried Army Grot1p Centre all
but disintegrated. The R ed Arm r's adva nce dis-
played an elegance and precision ol'execu tio n lhat
had not previously bee n seen, and the e nsu ing
advance was matched in speed o nl y by the Ger-
man advance of 1941.
Among th e units ta king part in· Bn.f!.ra/1011· was
the 2nd Guards Tank Corp . ll had originall y
fought at talingrad as the 24th Tank Corps. and
A T -34 Model 43 of Lhe Polish 2 pNlk c::olgow, r brigada its success in the vi tal capture of the Tatzinsk air-
palU:.,.,..., taken at t h e time oi"6ghting around the Studzia.nki
folwa rk in August 1944. Th.e driver has a typical Russ ian port earned it the Guards designation. Most ofits
tank crewman's padded helmet, while the turret crew is crews were veterans, but there were ne wcomers.
wea ring the Polis h rogaty wka field cap .
L L D mitri Frolikov was no greenho rn , bu t his
The T-34/85 d id not enter service in lime to route into th e corps' 4th Guards Tank Brigade
take part in th e great encirclement or th e Korsun was more circ uitous than most. Fro likov had en-
pocket, thoug h this operation did mark th e d ebut listed in the ·oviet Navy in 1939. saw ca duty in
of its new stablemate, th e IS-2 h eavy tank . The the Russo- Finnish war, and at th e war's outbreak
IS-2 was about the same size and weight as the Ger- in 194 1 was in command of a G-5 mo to r torpedo
man Panther, and carried a 122mm g un whjch boat of the Ba lti c Fleet. T orpedo boat duty was
could disembowel any existing tank. It generally tough and hazardous, and Frolikov was wounded
equipped independent tank regiments, while th e on three occasions, always returning to hi s boat
T -34/85 became the new staple or the tank shortly a fter. On the fourth suc h occasio n, he was
b rigades. so badly wounded that th e doctors declared him
With hardl y a breather after their ha rd-won unfit for any further mjlitary service. Frolikov did
crossing of the Dniepr and the adva nces into not find this premature retirement to his liking,
Byelorussia, lavka planned another major offen- and began visi ting a lank training school near the
sive. Whil e confusing the \Veh rmach t into ex- hospital where he was recovering. After making a
general nuisance of himself with constan t letters
A column ofT-34 Mode l 42 a.ad Model 43s lead b y a G A.Z-6?B
jeep are c alled to a halt during the drive int o the Carpathian to the base officers, the school waived the medical
Mountains in eastern Slovakia in t h e suIDme r of 1944.
(Sovfoto)
decision and a ll owed him to stud y as a n office r
candidate. In 1944., he was assigned as a tank
platoon commande r.
On the first day of the offensive, Frolikov's three
tanks were sent to try to cut the Minsk- Moscow
highway behind the Ge rman lines near Orsha.
Under the cover or woods, they approached
the road and spotted a long G erm an motorized
column moving forward towards the main body
of the 2nd Gua rds Tank Corps. At th e- front of dw
column were three tanks, and two mo re followed
up a t th e rear. Frol ikov's tank took o n th e forward
cl eme nts, whi le he se nt th e oth er two tanks
thro ugh th e woods to wipe o ut th e rea rg uard.
30
Frolikov's tank 'Chervonyets' (see Pl ate C2 ) raced
forward at full speed, drawing inaccurate fire
from the leading German tanks. Frolikov halted
his tank, and his gun crew quickly knock<'d out the
cwo leading tanks. Simultaneously the other two
T-345 knocked out the last two Panzers, and
then ran amok amongst the trucks and half-
tracks. On 24 July, Frolikov was once again
assigned advance duty; his T-345 were sent to cut
a river ford past Orsha where German vehicles
were retreating. The fighting at the ford was at A pair of T-34/85s of the Polish z bataliott motocyklowego,
close range and was intense. At one point, 'Clzer- 1 korpus pancernego s top for refuelling during the drive into
Czechoslovakia in 1945. The tanks carry the white Polis h
vonyets' and a German tank ran into each other. eagle ins ignia besides their tactical number markings. The
Frolikov a nd his men destroyed two tanks, two trucks in the foreground are a Lend-Lease Studebaker US6
11!-tonner, and a captured M.agirus.
self-propelled guns and several dozen German
trucks that had been caught in mid-stream. His
skill and determination led Col. 0. A. Losik, the
brigade commander, to recommend him for the
GSS. On 2 July, when the corps reached the
suburbs of the Byelorussian capital of Minsk, the
corps commander assigned the 4th Guards Tank
Brigade the honour of being the first into the city.
Losik chose his best crews to fight their way into
the city centre, and Frolikov's crew was the first to
succeed on 3 J uly 1944·
The destruction or th e German Army Group
Centre was an unmitigated disaster for the
Wehrmacht, of the same order as the destruction
ofthc Normandy Army at Falaise. T he Red Army
also advanced simultaneously along the southern A T-34/85 of the 36th Tank Brigade, 11th Tank Corps, be-
decked with beds prings, is parked near the Brandenburg
front through the Ukraine, and on 22 Jul y 1944 Gate following the surrender of Berlin in May •9i5· The bed-
s prings w er e welded on during the street-fighting to act as
finally reached the outskirts of Lvov. Among the iinprovised Panzerfaust protection.
tank units breaking into the suburbs was the ioth
Guards Tank Corps of Gen. E. E. Belov. The humously decorated with the GSS.
corps' 63rd Guards Tank Brigade was assigned As the summer offensive petered out in August
to break into the centre. Its commander, Col. 1944 on the banks of th e River Vistula in Poland,
M. G. Fomichev, handed one of his veteran crews a series ofhard-fough t tank battl es ensued . Several
a special assignment. Th e crew of th e tank re-equipped Panzer units were thrown into the
'Gvardia' was commanded by LL A. Dodunov, fray, including some with the la test Konigstiger
and its radio operator, A. P . Marchenko, had heavy tanks. The first combat experience of the
been a resident of the city before the war. Fomi- Korugstiger in the East was not to be a pleasant one.
chev gave them a red flag, and told the m to plant On th eeveningof 11 August,Jr . Lt. Aleksander
it on the roof of the ratush (city council hall) at the Oskin was ordered to report to 53rd Guards Tank
first opportunity . During the subsequent fighting Brigade's headquarters. H e was briefed and sent
the crew managed to do so, though Marchenko out on a scouting patrol to the small village of
was wounded in the process. Dodunov's crew Ogledow, where the brigade commander, Col. S.
knocked out five German tanks during the fighting Arkhipov, believed his 2nd Battalion to be. Be-
inside Lvov, but 'Gvardia' was hit in a duel with a sides his own crew of four men in the T-34/85,
Panther and Dodunov was killed. He was post- Oskin was assigned the same group of tank in-
31
IS-2s and T-l4185s of the 9th Tank Corps pour over the Spree
heavy tank. Early the next morning. a colum n or
River bridge into Berlin, May 1945. On the roadside are a
Komgstigers with infantry riding on them roll ed
number of dereli.c:t ISU-1!)2, ZIS-2 anti-tank gun s and a pair
o fT-34185s of the 95th Tank Brigade. Tank nw:nber 183 s hows
out of the village a long the road towards O skin's
the white turret bands and roof c roH adopted in April 1945
to act as air identification for Soviet ta.I lks . (Sovfoto)
tank. The G erma ns showed no sig n of no ticing the
camoul1aged T -34/85, and con tinued o n thei r
fantry which had ridden on his tank through the way. The g un crew in O skin's tank could no t make
Byclorussian and Polish campaigns. On approach- out if they were Tiger l s or Pa nthers, bu t O skin
ing the village, it was o bvious that the 2nd re membered a report by the brigade's intelligence
Battalion was nowhere to be seen, and the far end officer about new Ge rman heavy tanks, and so
of the village was swarming with Germans. Before decided to wait until th e ta nks were wry close
the Germans could open fire O skin pulled his tank before firing . O skin ordered ' ub-caJibn··, and
back, moving some way down the road past a deep the loader, A. Kh a lyshev, rammed home a BR -
ravine and into a large fi eld of ri pe corn. H e 365P high-velocity tungsten core AP round imo
radioed his findin gs back to Brigade, and was told the breech. The Tigers had closed to about 200
to rema in and watch the activi tics of the G erma ns. metres and were broadside on when O skin gave
The hull was already awash in sta nding corn, so the order to fire. Th e g unn er, ~ fe rkh ayga rov,
O skin got the idea of covering th e rest with corn slammed the firin g pedal, and while the round
stalks. The tank infantry clambered off and com- seemed to hit th e second vehicle squ a rely, there
plied, also building a couple more large hea ps of was no visible effect. 1n seconds, anothe r round
corn so that the ruse would no t be too transpa rent. struck ho me, al o without apparent effect. The
Before sunset a German tank column had entered third hit th e turret side and th e vehicle shuddered.
the village and shoti t up, but advanced no further O skin shouted to Khal yshev, ' ub-caJibrc hit
befo re encamping for the night. th e f'u cl tank.' T he fourth round hit the sid e of' Lhl'
Th e unit in the village was sPzAbt 501, th e fi rst eng ine area, a nd smo ke quickl y e nveloped the
German tank unit in the East with the R oyal Tiger vehicle. By now the lead Ko111gst1ger was swingi ng
32
its awkward turret, seeking out its tormentor. The
T-34/85 pumped three rounds harmlessly off the
front armour, but just moments before the Ger-
man tank was able to take aim, the fourth round
penetrated the turret ring, a nd flames sprouted
out. The third tank was blinded by the smoke
from the second, and began backing off across the
field al top speed. Oskin detonated the MDSh
smoke canisters on the rear of the T-34/85 to give
h_imself cover, and set off after th e last Konigstiger.
He closed the range somewha t, and knocked out
th e last tank with a si ngle shot through the thinner
rear armour. On returning to the road , he saw
that the first Konigstiger had stopped burning after
a very short time, so Oskin ordered the gun c rew
to hit it with their last round of hig h-velocity AP.
Two of the tanks soon exploded from internal
ammunition fires, and their enormous turrets
went toppling through th e air like careless!y tossed
frying pans. A few pri oncrs were taken, and
Oskin set out for brigade headquarters to report
his find. He was ubsequently decorated with the
GSS for his cool-headed performance in th_is
episode. The Kdnigstiger apparently had serious
mechanical shortcomings at this stage of the war,
as on Gen. Konicv's front alone the R ed Army
captured more than fifteen more or less intact.
Several were sent back to ~loscow for study, whlle
the remainder were used during the summer by
T-34/85 and I -2 crews to try out methods to
defeat its thick armour. The T-34/85 had prob-
lems except on the sides of the hull and rear, while
the IS-2 disposed of it more easily.
Besides service with ovict troops in World War
II , the T-34 equipped th e armoured formations of
allied Polish, Czechoslovak and Yugoslav un_its.
It eq uipped both the Czechoslovak 1.cs tankoua
brigada u SSSR and the Yugoslav 2-a lankouska
brigada. Th e Poles initi a ll y had a si ngle tank regi-
ment, but by th e war's end the y fielded a tank
corps, two independent tank brigades and nu-
merous supporting armoured formations.
The T-345 of the Polish / pulk rzo/gow ( 1st
Tank R egiment) entered combat at Lenino
in the summer of 1943. The regiment was re-
formed as a brigade in the summer of 1944 with
7 1 T-34 Model 42s, Model 43s and T-34/85s as
well as fo urteen light T-7os, and was sent to the
Magnuszew-\Varka bridgehead south of Warsaw
in August 1944. The bridgehead was a narrow
33
A pair of T-34 Model 43s drive into Leipzig following the
German s urrende r , to take over the c ity from the US Army.
The vehicle in t h e foreground is in fact a PT-34 equipped
with mounting lugs for a mine-roller attachment. (US Army)
corridor on the left bank of the Vistula held by
Soviet infantry, and had come under repeated
attack by armour of the 19th Panzer Division and
the ' Herman11 Goring' Pa nzer Division . The
brigade was ferried across the Vistula , a nd on 10
August began operatio ns with Soviet infantry
regiments in the area. The ' H ermann Carini was
the most immediate threat, a nd had made serious
inroads into the bridgehead a rou nd the Studzianki
folwark (manorial farm) . The brigade fought a
serie of sharp engagements with Panthers and
PzK pfw IVs, and eventually succeeded in pushing
the Germans out of the folwark. By 16 August the
bridgehead had been secured, and furthe r 'ovie t
reinforcements wen' poured in. The brigade's
losses had been heavy, amoun ting to 26 tanks, or
which eleven were damaged and later repaired,
and fifteen were burned out and were total losses.
The G ermans had left behin d twenty a rmo ured
vehicles (not counting H a nomag Sd K fz 25 1s)
which the brigade records claim were two T igers,
twelve 'T-45' a nd six ' Ferd inands'. Like the
Russians, th e Poles call ed th e Pz Kpfw IV 'T-4',
a nd also had a ha bit or callin g any o r th e large
German self-propelled g uns ' Ferdinands'. l n fact,
34
from examining photos of the battlefield, one ca n
identify ma ny of the 'T-45' as Panthers, and th e
'Ferclinands' as H ornisse.
By the time that the Janua ry orTensive of' 1945
was unleashed, most oviet tank corps had been
heavily re-equipped with T -34/85s. Some inde-
penden t tank brigades still had th e o lder T -34
Model 43. By this point in the war entire G erma n
Panzer divisions were smalle r in strength tha n
Soviet tank brigades, and German tanks were
seldom e ncountered in very large numbers. Some
of th e heaviest tank-versus-tank actio ns occurred
a round La ke Ba lato n o utsid e the H ungarian
capital of Budapest. The Germans sti ll had a few
aces up their sleeves, and th e 26th Panzer Di vision
had a num ber of infra-red-equi pped Pa nthers
which gave the Russian mechanized corps in the
area a very rough time. I n a single e ngagemen t
around tuhlweisscnburg the R ed Army lost over
6o tanks, most of them Shermans, in one night.
Some German wonder-weapons did no t en ter
actio n in time to have any erTec t. The Russians
found one Maus supcrheavy tank at tlie provi ng
g rounds at Kummcrdorf, and another guarding
the approaches to O KH staff headquarters a t
Zossen.
Even afte r the fall of Berlin , heavy fi g hting
continued in Prague. The first ovic t tank to brea k
into the centre ol'thc city and link up with Czech T -34/85s purchased from Czechoslovakia, was
insurgents was the T-34/85 of LL l. G. Gon- roughl y ha ndled by the Israeli Army in th e ina i.
charenko of the 63rd Guards T ank Brigade (see Some o r the survivors ro ugh t again in 1967. The
Plate 0 2) . H e was d ecorated with the G S for his yrian Army had also purchased T-34 /85s fro m
role in the Prague fighting, but was killed late r in Czechoslovakia, but the battles on th e G ola n
the city when his tank was hit by a n anti-tank gun. H eights in 1967 did not in volve the prodigious
With the conclusion of th e war in Europe the numbersof' tan kscngagcd in the in a i th a t year. A
Soviet Union began shifting forces eas twards into number o f' T -34/85s were knoc ked o ut in the
Manchuria. Hundreds ofT-34/85s, mostl y of the heig hts south of' th e town or Banias, and these
6th Guards Tank Army, were employed in the were probably from the Sy ri an 44th Armoured
lightning war against the K wangtung Army in Brigad e stationed in th e area. A number of' re-
August 1945. The J apane e had marshalled most manufactun·cl T-34/85 Yls were suppli ed to :'\o rth
of their a rmo u r for a counter-stro ke, but due to Vi etnam during its war with th e Uni ted tales. l t
J apan's surrender this did no t occur and there did no t sec as muc h action in th e 'outh as did the
were no major tank-versus-tank enco unters in this T-54, T-59 or PT-76. though a pparently it was
theatre. This was j ust as well, as the o utdated committed in rough ly brigade strength to the
Japanese T ype 97s and T ype 95s wo uld have been fig hting in Quang Tri province during the 1972
near-useless aga inst the T -34/85. Most or the
ca ptured J apanese tanks wer e turn ed over to
M ao T e-Tung's g uerilla forces.

Post-War Service
The T -34/85 again made headlines in th e summer
of 1950 when the North K orean 1st T a nk Brigad e
spearhead ed the invasion of South K o rea. The
T-34/85s were a major factor in th e ca ~I y successes
of the North K oreans, but o nce th e influx of
American herma ns and Persh ings began, they A T·34f85 of the Yugos lav 11-a ta.Jcoska bri8ada stands idle
were contained . T he larger portion of the m were while its c rew takes a break in Vinkovci in the s pring of 1945.
The red s tar m a rking on t h e turret is in the ' b loated' style
destroyed by air strikes, and large-scale tank en- typicaJ of Yugoslav ins ignia of the period. (USAF via Dana
counters, like those in the ' Bowling Alley' . all Bell)
ended in o ne-sided victories for the U Army. Apri l o flc nsive. There are few re ports of these
Foll owing th e brigade's d estructio n , neither the tanks being e ncountered b y eith er th e US Army
l orth Koreans nor Chinese made a n y major use or th e A R VN , a nd this brigad e may have bee n
of armour. th e column of 35 ta nks wiped o ut a long H ig hway
In the post-war years the T-34/85 became a One north of Dong H a by a s in~lc B-52 strike.
staple export item o f th e oviet Un ion to its allies T-34/85s crewed b y C uban and Angolan soldie rs
and satellites. Production started in both Poland fought in th e ngolan civi l war; and a handful of
and Czechoslovakia , and tota l output of the T-34 Yugoslav-suppli ed T -34/85s were used by the
cries, not counting its self-propelled gun versions, Greek militia around Famagusta in Cyprus against
a mo unted to about 80,000 vehicles. R ussian T-34/ the Turkish invasio n force during Operation
85s, T-54s and IS-3s fought against insurgent 'Atti la' in Aug ust 1974. Th e T-34/85 has not been
Hungarian T -34/85s in the bloody H ung arian used as a first lin e tank in the Soviet Arm y since
uprising or 1956. T hat sa me year, th e Egyptian th e 1950s, but it docs linge r on in the arsena ls of
4th Armoured Division, newly equipp<?d with ma ny Third World countries.
35
 In ils forty years o[ com bat use, the T-34 has
proven itself one o[ the mos t effecti ve lan ks in
history. ll set the pace for tank design in World
War II , a nd onl y the M4 herman has rivalled it
for leng th ofservice life a nd quantityof production.
Like the S herman, its se nsibly austere design
mad e il better suited to mass production than the
more fin ely crafted G erman tanks; and in th e end
it swamped the e maciated G erman Panzer
divisions in one of the mos t rapid advances in
mi litary history.

T-34/85
BASIC TEC H NICA L DETAILS

Crew: 5
W eigh t (metric tons) : 32
Dimensions : length - 26ft 7in. (815mm )
width -gft Sin (3oo mm ) Tank 1-23 of Lt. I. Goncharenko of t h e 63rd Guard s Tank
Brigade enters P rague asn.id cheering c rowds on 9 May 1945.
height- 8ft gin. (272mm) This tank was s ubsequ ently knocked out in the s creet -
figbting tbtt followed. Uiri H ornat)
Armour: o.8in.-3.5in. (2o-gomm)
Engine: V-2-34 d iesel, 5oohp at r ,8oorpm, 12
cylinder, 4 stroke
Maximum R oad Speed: 34mph (55km /h) A2: T -34 M odel 1942 of]r. lt. A. F . .Na)'llmo1•GSS;
Road R a nge: 223.6 miles (36okm) 133-ya lankovaya brigada; Novqya Nat(vn:.hda.
T errain R a nge: 192.6 miles (3 1okm) Stalingrad area, Janum~y 1943
Main Gun: 85mm ZiS S-53 Model 1944 Nayumov's tank was of the Krac;noye ormovo
(L/54.6) Pla nt type, characterized by extensive handrails
Supplementary Armament : Co-axial and hull and other small fittin gs. 1L is uncommon in having
7.62mm DTM machine gu n both the early style hull panniers a nd th e lat er
Ammunition: 85mm, 60 ro unds; 7.62mm, box-type fu el containers a t th e rear. Th e finish is
1,920 rounds whitewas h over facto ry gree n. Th e largt' turret
marking is' Tambovsk11 A"olkltoz.11ik' and brio" it is
the sma lle r legend •Rudovsk11 Ra_>·on' l R udov
region) presentation markings from Lhe collec-
tive farm whic h subscribed for Lh e brigade's tanks.
The Plates
A3: T-34 Model 1941 , Finnish 1. Panssaridivisioo11a11
A1: 1-34Model 1941 / 420J]r. lt. l. T. lyubushkin (3. / 1/ Ps. Pr.); Aamslmna, Finland, October
CSS ( = Hero of the Soviet Union); 4-ya 1942
lankovaya brigada, 1-i batal'on; i\11tsensk, Octo- Like A1 above, th.is is an T Z model. I l is finished
ber 1941 in the da rk g reyish green typical of Fi nnish tanks
Lyubushkin 's T -34 was one of th e STZ-style tanks of' the period, a nd bea rs th e Finnish lwkrms/1
.,.\Tith a fl at rear turret plate a nd som e new 1942 emblem in black with white sha dowing; thi s a lso
features such as hammerhead tow shackl es. This appeared on the turret rear, a nd the white tan k
brigade carri ed no markings at a ll ; the scheme is number was repeated on the hull rear, centra ll y.
whitewash crudely applied over factory da rk The Finns modified this capture with new fenders,
green, the white seldom ex te nding to the suspen- new turret periscopes and new headlights, like
sion or lhe rear of the hull. those ofa T -28 medium tank.
36
B1: T-34 .\lode/ 1943 q/ Lt. (:e11. A.(;. A'rnvchenko
GSS; 5-i gvardyeiskii tankov'i korpus; Kursk I 943
Kravch<.'n ko's comm and tank during the Kursk
fighting had a two-tone ca mouflage of factory
green patterned with earth-brown patches, as did
most of the tanks of his unit. The boxes o n the hull
side are cartons of extra 76mm a mmunition. This
tank has the com mon, facto ry-installed mixed
wheel arrangement characteristic of intermed iate
production M odel 43s.
B2: T-34 Model 1943of gt. Maria V. Oktyabr'skaya
G ; presenla/1011 parade, Sverdlovsk, October
1943
This T-34, driven by the onl y woman tank soldier
to win th e GSS, is in the la rge presentation mark-
ings see n when the vehicle was ha nded over to her
crew by a del egatio n from th e Ordzhonikdzevski
area. The slogan ' Boyevaya Podruga' is repeated
twice; the hul l marking, and perhaps both mark-
ings, were probably removed whe n th e tan k en-
tered combat.
B3: T-34 .\lode/ 1943 of Lt. A. N. Dodunov GSS;
1o-i gvardye1skii lankov' i korpus, 63-ya gv.
tankovaya brigada; Lvov, 23 July 1944
Dodunov's tan k \vas th e la te r production style
with the com ma nder's cupola. It is i n plain dark
green, wi th the red turret slogan 'Gvardia' -
Guard. Thjs brigade did not carry a unit insign ia
at this date.
C1: T -34 .\!lode[ 1943 of Lt. Mateusz Lach; Polish
1 br_J•gada pancema, 2 pulk czolgow, 1 kompania;
S111dz.1a11k1. A11.t~11sl 1944
Lach's tank was a la te produc tion Model 1943
with the co mma nder's cupola. Th e Poles ap-
parenlly followed a Russian n umberin g sys te m:
-o indicated th e compa n y commander, a nd - 1 , -4
and -7 the pl a too n co mmanders. The turret
numbers '21 7' thus identify 2nd regiment, xst
company, 3rd platoon leader. They are followed
by the Piast-style Po lish n a tio na l insig nia, also in
white. This tan k was in fac t more heavil y camou-
flaged with branches th an we show h ere; a large
log is strapped to th e left of th e hull for an unditch-
ing beam. Lach's crew were credited with thirteen
kills.
C2: T-3 4/ 85 Model 1944 of Lt. D. G. Frolikov GSS;
2-i gvard)•eiskii lankov' i korpus, 4:Ya g11. lanko-
vaya brigada; M insk, 3 Ju~)' 1944
The stand ard factory dark green is reli eved by the
slogan 'Chervonyels', the veh icle's unit number , and
the corps insignia. The emble m of the 2nd Guards
T ank Corps was Lhe white arrow, in Lhi s case with
a Cyrillic ' L ' above it, apparenll y referring to the
initial of th e brigade commander's name - in the
4th Brigade, Col. Losik .
C3: T-34/ 85 M odel 1944 of Lt. I. A. h'1se11ko; 4-i
mekham;:,irovann' 1 korpus, 36-ya gv. lankovaya
brigada; Belgrade, May 1945
Kisenko's tank carri es the presenta.tion sloga n 'Ot
otsa Shulgi- sinu Kisenko', a nd th e ra mpant white
bear insignia of th<' 36th Guards Tank Brigade. A
la rge armour patch is evident immed ia te ly behind
the fu el tank.
D1: T-34/85 M odel 1944 of !.1. Sapunkov GSS;
9-i l.ankovi korpus, 95:Jla lankovqya brigada;
before Berlin, Apnl 1945
Sapunkov's tank carri ed the m a rkings of the 95-
ya lankovaya brigada during th e battle for the
Seelowe H eights outside Berlin. D uring the Berlin
fighting the brigade carried th e white turret bands
a nd white roof cross used for aerial ide ntification.
T-34 85s of the 6th Guards Tank Arrny pause in the Chinese
s unshine following the lightning war a gains t the J a panes e
Kwangtung Arrny in Augus t 1945. Besides the two T-34 l85s ,
there is a Dodge i -ton truck . (Sovfoto)
37
D 2 : 1-34/85 .\1odel 1944 of Lt. I. G. Gu11dtlire11ko
(; ; 10-i gvard_ve1sk11 tankov'1 korpus, 6J:>'a .f!,l'.
lcmkoua)'a brigada; Prague, .\ /a_J• 1945
The white insig nia was adopled · by the 63rd
Guards T ank Brigade before the Prague opera-
tio n ; it is markc:-d below the vehicle number ' 1-23' .
Thi La nk has a 55-gallon fu("I drum lashed over
Lhe regular fu el lank , and an cxLra ammuni Lio n
case is carried o n the fender.
D3: T-34/85 M odel 1953 of the Syrian 44lh
Annoured Brigade; Ein Fite, Syria, 10 June 1967
This lank was finished in a very dark green. The
turre t roof b ears lh c white aeri a l recognilion ring
used by Syria in the 1967 W ar, and on both lurrct
sides arc a red tria ngl e and an Arabic inscri pL io n.
The vehicle has a large, counter-balanced mo unl
for the D ShK heavy a nti-aircraft mac hin e gun,
and four large slowage bins a rc fastened to the
hull sides.
E1: 1-34/ 85 .\lode/ 1953 of the Eg>'fltian 4th
Armoured D w1.1 11111: Cairo, ]1111 1' 196)
While Egyptian T-34s on pa rade ofte n carried
hera ldi c in ig ni a like this n·d horsem a n , these
A couple of infantrym en from the US 5th Marines loo k o ver
a pair of T -34185s of the North K o r ean rs t T ank Brigad e
knock ed out in 6ghting around the Naktong Rive r in the
s ummer of 1950 . (US M a rine Corps)
38
wer e no t of"tcn Sl'{"n i11 combat. '' hen a plain. u111T-
li tvccl coat of d ull sand colour \\ai. normal. \\' hen
markings were added, Lhc insignia wnc some-
times repealed on the hull front immedia tel y be-
low the d1·iver's h a tch .
E2: 'f-34/ 85.\/ (reln11/t .\lode/ 1944) of tltr. \ "11rtlt
Vietnamese Am~v; QJLang Tri province, 'outh
Vu tnam, A/ml 1972
On<' of"thc re ma nu fact ured M odel 1944s ofZavod
No. 183 style supplied LO :'\ orth Viet na m with T-
55 tyk wheels and a new engine. Thr n ationa l
insig ni a in red and yellow is painted well fo rward
on th<' Lurrct, while the numbers' 117' a rr ca rriC'd
afL Orig in all y Nonh Vi etnamese tanks op('ra ting
in the outh did not carry naLional insignia. to
ma intain Lhc prrtcncc that i\onh \"ieLnamcsc
troops were no t engaged in South \ ' ietna m ; but
by 1972 this c harade had been dropped.
E3: T-.14/85 .\lode/ 1945 r1f the (;reeA ( 'rpnot
. \'at1011al Guard: Operation •. ltt1la ". Fa11u1.t1,11.1ta.
C)prus, August 1974
Finished in dark gre<'ll with ra rth-bro wn pat ches,
this ta nk bears a crude ly painted repr('<;(· ntatio n
of the Greek flag on Lhe turrn. The Browning .50
cal. machine gun on a high pedestal mount 1s
ch aractcristir or th<' Greek T -34s o n Cyprus.
F : Interior of hull positions, T-34 M odel 1942 see
key on page 25.

G : In tenor of turret fro11l, T-34/85 sec key o n

page 25.

H: Crew c/olhlll.f!,, 1941- 45:

R ed Army tank crews presented a fairly mo tley
appearance during the war years. Al lhe o utbreak
ofhosti lities mos t seem to h ave worn a dark brown
leather version or th e weU-known padded crew
helmet, and a one-piece overall of either black or
dark blue. This was worn over the universal
khaki service d ress of fly-fronted pullover shirt-
tunic, Aared breeches, and soft leather knee-boots.
:'\COs and officers often wore their collar patches
of rank and branch on the collars of the overall ,
and/or visible in its open neck on the fa ll coll ar of
the shirt-tunic - in th e case of orficers thi s latter
was piped red. H1 d isplays this style, with patches
of tank black, piped in the gold of an officer, bear-
ing the brass tank branch badge and the single
red-on-brass bar of a captain. \Ve take the very
light brown revolve r holster and cros belt from a
photo. H e holds the dismounted D T hull gun, with
infantry bipod.
The overalls were norma ll y ma11u!acturc:d in
khaki drab d uring the period 1942 -45, but o ld
black ones occasionall y appear in photos. Th e
padded hdmet went from lea thcr to black canvas,
and occasionall y it even appeared in a most un-
appealing shade of blue. Th e standard overall
de ign was a worn by H1 , with concealed fasten-
ing, and single left breast and right thigh pockets;
but given the vast and dispersed procurem~nt of
Soviet clothing during th e chaotic war years,
man y minor variations were seen.
Th e 1943 uniform regulations c ha nged the
appearance of the ser vice dress. Th e sergean l-
major in lh wears the simple pilotka sid ecap worn
throughout the war, with th e remodelled shirt-
tunic of 1943; it has a stand collar, and ranking
ha moved to the traditional shoulder-boards,
here in their field service form of stiff khaki cloth
piped red a nd with red ranking and brass branch
badge. Breast pockets were supposed to be ex-
clusive to officers, but we tak e thi s figure from a
photo. H e carries an o-365 K H ig h Explosive
rou nd for the 85mm g un. Soviet ammunition did
A T-34185 p a r a d es in Lua nda , Angola, in February 19 76 fol-
lowing the Communi st victory. (Sovfoto )
not bear the carcl'ully regulated system or head
colours and cod ings used by the \\'estern allies,
and was normally painted either grey or olive
green with bare metal driving bands and black or
white ste11cill i ng.
l n cold weather the grey cloth and Oct'C<' ushanka
cap was widely seen ; H3 wears one, with an exam-
ple of' the three-q uarter-leng th leather jacket
which began to appear in the mid-war years. I t
became quite common by the end of the war, and
was apparently standard issue in the 1950s. De-
tai lsseem to have varied. The bulky trousers, insu-
lated versions of the service dress breeclw , appear
in many photos. H e carries a round of U BR -3658
Armour Piercing ammunition for th e 85mm gu n.
The helmet appeared in a longer, fleece- lined
version for winter use, and this is scl'n , with
regulation tan k crew goggles, in H4. This crew-
man also wears kha ki drab overalls, and the khaki
quilted winter jacket common to all branches of
the oviet army. Captured German clothing and
equi pment, such as the belt and Walther auto-
matic worn here, was frequently pressed into
service much of it was superior to ovict equiva-
lents. The shell is another 85mm AP round ,
UBR -365.
39
 T-34 Mode l 1941/42 (STZ style)
of Jr. Lt. I. T. Lyubushkin GSS;
4-ya tankouaya brigada, J batal'on;
Mtsensk, October 1941

A2: T-34 Model 1942 (Zavod No. 112 style)

of Jr. Lt. A . F. Nayumov GSS;
113-)'a tankouaya brigada; Novaya Nadyezhda,
Stalingrad area, January 1943

A3: T-34 Model 1941/ 42 (STZ style)

of Finnish J Pan8BaridiuUlioonan (3.111 P11.Pr.);
Aanislinna, Finland, Octobe r 1942

STEVEN ZALOGA A
 Bl: T-34 Model 1943 (early Zavod No. 183 style}
of Lt.-Gen. A. G. Kravchenko GSS;
6-i gvardyeiekii ta.n kov'i korpua;
Kursk, July 1943

82: T-34 Model 1943 (early Zavod No. 183 8t.Yle)

of Sgt. Maria Vasil eva Okt;xabr'skaya GSS;
presentation parade, Sverdlovsk, October 1943

83: T-34 Model 1943 (later Zavod No. 183 style)

of Lt. A. N. Dodunov GSS;
10-i gvardyeiekii tankov'i korpua,
63-ya gv. ta.n kovaya brigada;
Lvov, 23 July 1944

STEVEN ZALOGA
B
Cl: T-34 Model 1943 (later Zavod No. 183 style)
of Lt. Mateuaz Lach; Polish
1 bry11ada pancerna, 2 pul#t czotgow, 1 kompania;
Studz1ank1, August 1944

C2: T-34/86 Model 1944 (Zavod No. 183 style)

of Lt. D. G. Frollkov GSS;
2-i gvardyeiskii tankov'i korpus,
4-ya gv. tankovaya brigada; Minek, 3 July 1944

CS: T-34/86 Mode l 1944 (Zavod No. 112 style)

of Lt. I. A. Kieenko;
4-i mekhanizirovann'i korpus,
86-ya gv. tankovaya brigada;
B elgrade, May 1946

STEVEN ZALOGA
c
01 : T-34/85 Model 1944 (Zavod No. 112 style)
of Lt. B. P. Sapunkov GSS;
9-i tankov'i korpuel 96-ya tankovay a brigada;
before Ber lin, Apr i 1945

02: T-34/85 Model 1944 (Zavod No. 174 style)

of Lt. I. G. Gonchare nko GSS;
10-i l(Vardyeitkii tankov'i korpus, 63-ya gv.
tankovaya brigada;
Prague, May 1945

03: T-34/ 85 Model 1953 (Czechoslovak produc tion)

of Syr ian 44th A rmo u red Brigade; E in Fite, Syria. 10 June 1967

STEVE N ZALOGA
D
El: T-34/85 Model 1953 (Czechoslovak production)
of Egyptian 4th Armoured Division; Cairo, June 1967

E2: T-34/85M (rebuilt Model 1944, Zavod No. 183)

o f North Vietn amese Army;
Quang Tri Province. South Vietnam , April 1972

E3: T-34/85 Model 1945 (Zavod No. 112 sty le)

of Greek CjYpriot National Guard;
Operation Attila', Famagusta,
Cyprus , August 1974

$1EV€N ZALOGA
E
 21
22

23

Interio r o f front hull cr e w positions, T -34 Mo d e l 1942 - see k ey o n page 25

Interior ofT-34/ 85 turret, looking forwards - see key o n page 25
 Cr e w clo thing, 19 42-45:
1. C a ptain, 194 1
2. Ser geant- m ajo r , 194 3
3 . C rewman , 1944- 45
4. C r e w ma n , 19 4 4 - 45
1 2

H M IKE CHAPPf ll