Type: Medium Tank
Nation: Soviet Union
Period: World War 2
Location: Gedenkstätte Zuchthaus Brandenburg-Görden, Brandenburg a.d. Havel, Germany
This monument tank is located next to the local prison which is by no means a coincidence. Between 1933 and 1945, the “Zuchthaus und Sicherungsanstalt Brandenburg-Görden” held criminals, political prisoners, jews and other “Unerwünschte” (unwanted people). Interestingly, even Erich Honecker, the later leader of East Germany was a prisoner from 1937 to 1945.
Conditions in the often overcrowded prison were characterised by a lack of food, forced sterilisations, systematic racial discrimination and, eventually, executions. For this purpose, a guillotine was placed in one of the garages in the summer of 1940. The increasing number of death sentences in the Third Reich led to other prisons (which didn’t possess the capabilities of carrying them out) sending their prisoners to Brandenburg-Görden to be executed. 2,032 men from all over Europe were killed until 1945 – many of them for resisting the Nazi regime in some way, e.g. alleged defeatism or refusing to serve in the military.
On 27 April 1945, the prison was liberated by Soviet forces to whom the plaque beneath the T-34/85 is dedicated. The tank itself had been in service with the East German NVA long before the monument was unveiled in 1980.
tanks_butnothanks 
8 responses to “T-34/85”
[…] to the development of the KV-85 which had a 85 mm gun – which also turned out to fit into the T-34 with a new turret in 1943/1944. The KVs were eventually replaced by the IS heavy tank […]
LikeLike
[…] – thus creating the SU-85, the Soviet Union’s first dedicated tank destroyer. But when the T-34/85 with the same gun was put into service in early 1944, the SU-85 became somewhat redundant. It was […]
LikeLike
[…] final design would be heavily influenced by the Wehrmacht‘s unpleasant encounter with the Soviet T-34 during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The concept of sloping armour to increase its effective […]
LikeLike
[…] The Allied soldiers praised the Panther for its wide tracks that gave it excellent mobility over soft terrain. Even though the Sherman was a third lighter than the 45-ton Panther, it often got stuck in places where its German opponent still could operate. The Panther‘s wide tracks were one of the design features which had been directly copied from the Soviet T-34. […]
LikeLike
[…] Union in 1941, when the Germans realized that their vehicles were being outclassed by the Soviet T-34 and […]
LikeLike
[…] American M26 Pershing. Originally the Panther had been designed to weigh 30 metric tons like the T-34 and the M4 Sherman, but as requirements changed, the combat weight went up accordingly. At one […]
LikeLike
[…] to build vehicle would remain in service for the rest of the war and – in upgraded form as the T-34/85 – would be used by many countries for decades to […]
LikeLike
[…] on 31 January 1945 on their final thrust towards Berlin. However, on that day there weren’t any T-34s going across the frozen river at all, since it was deemed too risky for heavy vehicles. The […]
LikeLike