The Truth About the Soviet T-34 Tank
If you are a Red Army Fan Boy…. Please leave now.
The Mythical Aura of the T-34
When it comes to WW2 era tanks, the Soviet T-34 has a mythical aura surrounding it. It’s seen as the “Revolutionary” tank that stopped the Germans in their tracks and pushed them all the way back to Berlin.
While the later variations of the T-34 were decent, the ones produced during the war itself were absolute rubbish. Let me stress this: the T-34s built after the war were okay, but the ones built between 1940 and 1945 were plagued with issues that destroy the myth of them being superior to what the Germans had.
Flaws During the War
For one thing, the T-34 was not exactly a match for the German tanks. Early T-34s first faced off with the German tanks in 1941 and were absolutely slaughtered by the German Panzers. With 2300 T-34s being lost in 1941 alone. Also, build quality was really poor. The cast iron hull was brittle due to poor heat treatment practices while being built. This made the steel hard, but also brittle at the same time, meaning a high-impact round would weaken the hull considerably.
They had a nasty habit of breaking down on a regular basis. At one point, T-34s would carry spare transmissions for when (not if) the original ones failed, and that happened a lot! Thus, the T-34 only had an average speed of just 9.3 miles per hour. It’s not that it couldn’t go fast; it’s just that their sketchy transmissions would not let them.
Design and Safety Issues
The main gun, though a good design, was seriously hampered by the quality ammunition the crews were made to use. Though on paper, it should have been able to wreck a Tiger Tank, in reality, it was only slightly better than the one used on the American Sherman.
Oh, T-34s were also death traps, as for some reason the designers thought it was a good idea to put the fuel tanks in the same space as the crew. Add to the fact that it was next to impossible to exit the tank in a hurry, and you can see why it could be an issue. Remember when I said the armor became brittle?
Post-War Improvements
Now, the T-34s produced after the war would sort out many of these issues and become decent tanks in their own right. No tank is perfect. But the idea that the T-34 was a force to be reckoned with during WW2 is simply not true.
~NC
