National Interest (USA): Is the T-34 a formidable Russian tank that crushed Hitler and won World War II? | Society | Inosmi
2021-11-21T00: 07: 00 + 03: 00
2021-11-21T00: 07: 04 + 03: 00
2021-11-21T00: 07: 00 + 03: 00
2021
https://inosmi.ru/social/20211121/250917603.html
T-34 – the formidable Soviet tank that crushed Hitler
T-34 – the formidable Soviet tank that crushed Hitler
Society
news
ru-RU
https://inosmi.ru/docs/terms/terms_of_use.html
https: //russiasegodny.rf
The final verdict on the T-34 tank is less glorious than the legend created and disseminated by the Soviets. And nevertheless, the reviews about him are very flattering and commendable. T-34 changed … INOSMI, 11/21/2021
society, military affairs, history, usa and canada, usa, english, germany, ussr, tanks, world war ii, t-34
https://cdnn1.inosmi.ru/images/24544/86/245448624.jpg
3019
2048
truth
https://cdnn1.inosmi.ru/images/24544/86/245448624.jpg
https://inosmi.ru/m military / 20201129 / 248631527.html
https://inosmi.ru/m military / 20200320 / 247091325.html
https://inosmi.ru/m military / 20200103 / 246325007.html
National interest
https://cdnn1.inosmi.ru/images/23855/74/238557460.gif
The final verdict for the T-34 tank – less glorious than the legend created and disseminated by the Soviets. And nevertheless, reviews about him – very flattering and commendable. The T-34 changed the balance of power in the USSR when it came to tank battles, and with its mass production the Russians surpassed Germany.
Determined Soviet tank crews in their T-34s defeated the Germans at Kursk. It was the greatest tank battle in history.
The T-34 “was undoubtedly revolutionary, but it was not the first in anything, except for the combination of sloped armor, a diesel engine, wide tracks and a fairly powerful large-caliber weapon,” Belcourt said. “Everyone has done this before, but never in the aggregate.”
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, inflicting a massive blow on the Soviet Union. It was the largest invasion in history.
More than three million German soldiers, 150 divisions and three thousand tanks were combined into giant army groups, which created a front with a total length of more than 2,900 kilometers.
The Germans counted on a collision with an enemy weaker than themselves. Intoxicated by the victories in Poland and France, Hitler and many of his military leaders believed that the very destiny was predetermined to attack Russia. “The end of Jewish rule in Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state,” Hitler declared in his Mein Kampf manifesto.
For several months the Germans won one resounding victory after another. But suddenly the offensive stalled, the appearance of a new Soviet tank at the front stunned the Wehrmacht.
It was a T-34 tank. The new armored vehicle had an excellent 76mm cannon and thick sloped armor. He developed a speed of over 55 kilometers per hour. The T-34 possessed numerous design advantages of the time and could send German tanks straight to hell.
The T-34 had its own problems, which we often forget when talking about a tank with such a legendary reputation. The disadvantages of the T-34 are limited crew visibility and poor Soviet quality of work.
“They were good, but they weren’t some kind of miracle weapon, and they had their flaws,” writes Philip Kaplan (Philip Kaplan) in his book Rolling Thunder: A Century of Tank Warfare – But despite all its shortcomings, tank experts and historians today often call the T-34 the best tank of that war. “
The German field marshal during the Second World War, Ewald von Kleist (Ewald von Kleist) put it even more succinctly, calling the T-34 “the best tank in the world.”
The origin of the T-34 is quite simple. The Red Army had to find a replacement for the light tank BT-7, which had high speed and light armor, and was intended for maneuver warfare. It also had a Christie suspension that allowed the tank to increase its speed.
During the border war with Japan in 1938-1939, this tank showed itself not in the best way. Japanese tanks of the 95 type, even with their less powerful cannon, easily destroyed the BT-7. Anti-tank fighters also set fire to BT-7s with Molotov cocktails, turning them into flaming torches, because gasoline seeped through cracks in poorly welded armor and entered the engine compartment.
The T-34 solved the problem. He retained the Christie suspension, but the gasoline engine was replaced with a V-2-34 12-cylinder diesel power plant. It allowed the T-34 to increase its speed by 16 kilometers higher than that of the German vehicles “Panther III” and “Panther IV”.
In addition, a gun with a high initial projectile velocity could hit any tank of that time.
“When Hitler launched the Barbarossa in 1941, the T-34 was undisputedly the best tank in the world,” veteran US Army Tanker of the Year Jason Belcourt (Jason Belcourt) told War Is Boring. he surpassed everything that the Germans had at that time. “
By mid-1941, the USSR had 22 thousand extra tanks – more than all the armies of the world combined, and four times more than what was in the German arsenal.
By the end of the war, the Soviet Union had produced nearly 60,000 T-34 tanks, proving that quantity itself translates into quality.
At first, the Germans were at a loss when they had to face a battle with T-34 tanks. The anti-tank guns Kwk 36 of 37 mm caliber and 50 mm Kwk 38 that were in their arsenal could not penetrate the frontal armor of the Soviet vehicle.
Therefore, the Germans had few options for tactical actions. German tankers could shoot at the side armor of the T-34. The Wehrmacht could lay minefields. The soldiers risked their lives using knapsack blasting charges and Molotov cocktails.
In an act of despair, the Germans modified their 88mm anti-aircraft guns to stop attacking T-34s with direct fire.
However, the Russians have always lacked well-trained crews for the tanks that the Red Army is adopting. The Soviets were losing T-34s and their crews in large numbers.
By the time the Soviets had trained enough crews to man their tanks, the Germans had powerful cannons and improved anti-tank weapons such as the Panzerfaust grenade launcher with a cumulative warhead.
However, the Russians always had more T-34s than the Germans’ Panthers and Tigers.
“The production battle was decisive in this case,” Belcourt said. “From June 1941 until the end of the war, tanks were always made for sure, which were often good and always met the requirements.”
The final verdict on the T-34 tank is less glorious than the legend created and disseminated by the Soviets. And nevertheless, the reviews about him are very flattering and commendable. The T-34 changed the balance of power in the USSR when it came to tank battles, and with its mass production the Russians surpassed Germany.
Determined Soviet tank crews in their T-34s defeated the Germans at Kursk. It was the greatest tank battle in history.
“The T-34 was undoubtedly revolutionary, but it was not the first in anything, except that it had its combination of sloped armor, a diesel engine, wide tracks and a fairly powerful large-caliber weapon,” said Belcourt. “All of this has been done before, but never in the aggregate.”
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial board.