T-34/85 (1945: USSR)

This is a T-34/85, which in Russia is considered to be as symbolic of the Second World War as the Spitfire is in the western world, particularly the UK.

Before the Second World War, in Russia the Red Army had been formed in 1918, but contains numerous officers who had been in the former, Tsarist army. One of the most influential was Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who developed the doctrine of Deep Battle and proposed Russia have a strong tank force. In the lead up to war Russia was the nation with by far the largest tank army, highly influenced by international tank developments, either legitimately - by purchasing the Vickers Export light tank and turning the Vickers 6-Ton into the T-26 under licence- or through espionage and copying the Vickers Independent. They also were highly influenced by American tank designer Christie and used his Christie suspension system in their BT light tanks. During this time they also taught the Nazi army tank tactics out of sight of Britain and France, who had outlawed German rearmament.

After learning lessons during the First Soviet-Japanese War (1932-9) and their engagements in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) led them to realise they needed to develop a more powerful, thicker armoured universal tank, which became the T-34. Meanwhile Stalin's paranoia led to the 1936-38 Great Purge, in which experienced army officers were killed, including Tukhachevsky, and so his effective tank tactics were considered treasonous by association. The Red Army had been purged of 35,000 officers, and only had 900 T-34 tanks in service by the time of Operation Barbarossa, which were crewed by a conscript army. Typically only the platoon commander's tanks had a radio, otherwise the tanks would communicate by using flags and typically would follow each other around.

During the Second World War the T-34 was by far Russia's most effective tank, mass produced by numerous factories churning them out as quickly as possible during Operation Barbarossa, concentrating on removing superfluous components - such as suspension - which resulted in the tank's cost halving while its armour and penetration power doubled, with 1,200 made a month. While the T-34/76 had great armour and a very powerful gun, poor training and leadership meant that the conscript army weren't really sure what to do with the tanks in combat. However they reportedly drove just like a typical Soviet tractor, so while the gunners had no idea what to do, anyone raised on a Soviet farm instinctively knew how to drive them. There are numerous records to say that a common tactic in 1941 was for the T-34s to drive straight at anti-tank guns and try to run over them.

By 1942 the T34 lost its effectiveness when Germany adapted the 75mm anti-tank gun as their standard anti-tank gun, which was also fitted to Panzer IV. 44,000 T-34s were lost, meaning that more T34s were lost than any other tank of the Second World War. This led Russia to start developing the T-34's replacement, which was the T-43. This had a larger and more powerful, 85mm gun, but the prototype T-43 had teething difficulties and particularly poor mobility. Instead of proceeding with the T-43, the plan was made to enlarge the turret ring on the T-34 and fit the new turret and more powerful gun on the proven T-34 hull, creating the T-34/85, which entered service from 1944. The larger turret had a Commander's cupola and turret basket so the crew can turn together and more tanks had a radio. While still not as good a tank one-on-one as the German tanks they encountered, the numbers made the difference.

The T-34/85 saw service with over fifty countries, seeing combat around the world and is still in use today. The T-34/85 seen at Tankfest was rebuilt in Czechoslovakia during 1970/71 for the Egyptian Army, though Egypt cancelled the contract following the Yom Kippur War, and the tank was placed in storage instead. In 1989 it was imported to the UK.

Funnily enough, in 2019 Russia swapped some more modern T-72 tanks with T-34 tanks that had been in service with the government of Laos that had been built in Czechoslovakia in the mid-1950s. Russia plans to parade these T-34s through Red Square on special occasions. When these T-34s travelled through Russia, thousands of Russians travelled to see the tanks as they passed by, having been told by state media that they all had been built in Russia in 1944 and had served during the Second World War, despite that being untrue.

Sherman (M4)

An often unfairly disparaged Second World War tank is the Sherman, known to the Americans as the M4 but as Churchill decided that American tanks should be named after American generals, in Britain it was renamed the Sherman, after a Civil War general famous for marching to the sea¹. Before America got round to finally joining the war both Britain and initially France made overtures to the US asking if they could purchase tanks from America (in Britain manufacturing capacity was concentrated on aircraft) and so Sherman tanks were built to initially sold, and later lend-leased, to Britain but later also served with the Canadian, South African, French, Chinese, Soviet and even American armies during the Second World War, and many were exported around the world with Shermans still in service in Paraguay until 2018.

The Sherman had a similar huge hull to the M3 Grant, an earlier stop-gap tank to help inexperienced car manufacturers learn how to make tanks². This huge hull was as a result of America not having a tank industry before the Second World War and thus no real tank engines, and so aircraft radial engines were adapted for use in these tanks, which needed the height to fit them³.

The Sherman was a 30-ton tank which means that when contrasted with Germany's heavy tanks such as the King Tiger there is no doubt that the armour and gun were inferior, however that is only one side of the story. Logistically, the Sherman was ideal whereas the King Tiger was a disaster. Firstly the King Tiger cost about as much as ten Sherman tanks. It required a vast of steel and needed huge amounts of fuel to move, but was built by the country with the least available metal and fuel so were a huge drain on resources. The Sherman was built to be 30-tons as that was the weight limit for standard dockyard cranes, enabling them to be transported easily. As Allied troops advanced across the continent, Germany destroyed all bridges to hinder the advance. Britain's portable Bailey Bridge was easy to use and its weight limit of 40 tons was no hindrance to the Sherman. While the German design philosophy was to over-engineer specific vehicles for specific circumstances, the American approach was 'the Sherman's good enough to do it' and use it for every circumstance. Sadly war often becomes a numbers game about who can sustain the highest attrition; while after D-Day an average of 12 Shermans were destroyed each day, 145 new ones were built.

Initially the Shermans had a problem when used in the North African campaign as there was no protected compartments for the fuel tanks needed to traverse the vast distances across the desert, leading to fuel tanks having to be stored outside the tank, where they were vulnerable to enemy attack. As so many Shermans caught fire it led to the German nicknaming Shermans 'Tommy cookers' and the Allied nickname 'Ronson' after the lighter with the slogan 'lights every time'. When this was addressed the main drawback was the Sherman's weaponry, which initially was ineffective against German armour. However when it was realised that the M18 Hellcat⁴ was too lightly armoured in the role of tank destroyer it had been intended for, the M18's gun was placed on later models of the Sherman to combine the M18's weaponry with the Sherman's hull. Best of all was the Sherman Firefly, which was the name given to Shermans in British service where they had installed Britain's 17-pounder anti-tank gun in the turret, allowing the Firefly to be able to stand up to and destroy even King Tiger tanks - though realistically only if they got the first shot. Other variations include the Crab with anti-mine flail and the 'Swimming' Sherman DD, which could indeed propel themselves from landing craft and land on the beaches on D-Day or cross rivers.

This particular M4A2 (known in Britain as the Sherman Mark III) is a film star, as the Tank Museum was asked in 2013 if it would be willing to allow some of its collection, particularly Tiger 131, the only running Tiger in the world, to star in film Fury (2014), which was the first film made since They Were Not Divided (1950) in which a Tiger tank was played by a Tiger - although in both cases the same Tiger tank. The Sherman pictured is the genuine Second World War tank that stars throughout that film and still is in the same 'costume' as appears in that film, which follows the adventures of a tank crew in Europe.

Think Tank

Last time I asked why British tank crews didn't suffer from dysentery as much as Italian and German tank crews during the desert campaign. The answer is because the British tank crews typically boiled their drinking water in order to make tea. In fact every British tank since the Second World War's Comet onwards has contained a Boiling Vessel (BV), which can be used as kettle and also for heating, washing and cooking. This led to jealousy from American tank crews during the Gulf War who have since copied the concept.

This week's question: during the Second World War, what destroyed more Allied tanks - Axis tanks or submarines?

Bluebottle

11.09.23 Front Page

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