T-34/76 (Model 1943)

Type: Medium Tank
Nation: Soviet Union
Period: World War 2
Location: Sowjetisches Ehrenmal im Tiergarten Berlin, Germany

The tank that killed its creator

Designed in the 1930s by Mikhail Koshkin at the Kharkiv tank factory in Ukraine, the T-34 was without a doubt the most important Soviet tank of World War II. In 1940 Koshkin personally drove one of the prototypes (which he had assembled in his spare time) all the way from Kharkiv to Moscow, then to Finland and back again to demonstrate his new masterpiece’s capabilities. Unfortunately on that journey he contracted pneumonia, of which he died in September 1940 – the very same month when the first of about 57,000 wartime production T-34s were leaving the factories. The relatively cheap and easy 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 come.

Improvements from day one

The T-34 was originally intended to replace the lighter BT series and therefore shared some design similarities with these „fast tanks“. It was powered by a new version of the BT-7M‘s 500 hp twelve-cylinder V-2 diesel engine, but it had thicker armour and a more powerful 76.2 mm gun. Another commonality was the Christie suspension system, named after its American inventor John Walter Christie. Running on individually sprung large diameter road wheels, it provided a very smooth ride, but the big internal coil springs considerably reduced the space in the T-34‘s already not particularly roomy hull. For that reason, the Soviets planned to quickly replace the T-34 with the improved T-34M in 1941. This version would have used a superior torsion bar suspension like the KV-1 heavy tank – but Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion in June, caused this project’s instant cancellation. Instead, all production efforts were focussed on the pre-existing standard T-34.

Legends die hard

When the German Army encountered the T-34 for the first time, they experienced a nasty surprise. Their standard 3.7 cm anti-tank gun, for example mounted on the Panzer 38(t)s and early Panzer IIIs, infamously gained the nickname “Heeresanklopfgerät” (= army’s door-knocking device) since many shells would simply bounce off the T-34’s sloped armour. It is also true that the “T-34 shock” made Nazi Germany speed up development of their new generation of armoured vehicles, especially Panther and Tiger. But in reality, like any other tank, the T-34 was by no means invincible. At the beginning of Barbarossa the Red Army had had 935 operational T-34s, but six weeks later there were only 160 left. In the meantime 525 replacements had been sent to the front, so that the actual loss number for that time period was as high as 1,300. Right from the start the Germans had found ways to destroy T-34s – just like they had done a year earlier when they had faced the tough Matilda IIs and Char B1 bis in France. Of course, the high losses of early T-34s were not only caused by the tank‘s constructional shortcomings such as its ineffective two-man turret. Other contributing factors were the lack of trained crews as well as severe structural problems in the Red Army after Stalin’s brutal purges of 1937.

Silent witnesses of history

These particular vehicles with the turret numbers 200 and 300 were participating the Battle of Berlin in late April and early May 1945 – allegedly being the first tanks to enter the encircled city to finally put an end to the Nazi regime. Both tanks are late-production 1943 models which had received drum-shaped commander‘s cupolas by that year‘s autumn. While „300“ has a smoothly rounded bow edge, the one on „200“ looks distinctly more rough and angular. As this was a common feature of mid-war T-34s, it is quite possible that „200“ was built later than „300“. Interestingly, their road wheels are a wild mix of four different production types. The tanks are part of the Soviet „Ehrenmal“ war memorial close to the Reichstag building. More than 2,000 Red Army soldiers from World War 2 are buried at this site. During the years of the Berlin Wall, the Ehrenmal would be curiously located in the British occupation zone, forming a Soviet enclave. The T-34s are overlooking the big parade street that connects the Brandenburger Tor with the Siegessäule (= victory column). The street name „Straße des 17. Juni“ commemorates the East German People’s Uprising of 1953, which had been violently suppressed by the East German police and the Soviet Army – who had sent several T-34/85s to disperse the crowd. On 27 February 2022 well over 100,000 people gathered on this street to peacefully protest against Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine that had started three days earlier.