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The first clashes fighting vehicles of the red army and the German invaders in the summer of 1941 caused the last major surprise. And to wonder what was: the T-34 was superior to any German tanks in armament, armor and maneuverability. The Germans gave the nickname invincible machine of "wunderwaffe" or "wonder weapons." Most military historians agree that the T-34 was the most successful tank of the Second world war. So what was the secret Soviet "miracle"?

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The birth of "thirty"

Around mid-1931, the red army began to receive the wheel-track fast tanks (BT) or BT. These tanks differed little from its ancestor - an American tank, developed by Walter Christie. The main advantage of the series machines BT was high top speed and maneuverability, mobility and tracked, and wheeled. His first baptism of fire BT-2 and BT-5, adopted in 1936 during the Civil war in Spain, and then came the Soviet-Finnish war.

Despite the overall successful picture of the use of the machines, it was a lot of claims: armor protection was clearly inadequate, and the instrument is weak. Moreover, Soviet intelligence reported a possible conflict with Germany, which were in service armored tanks PzIII and PzIV. A series of BT tanks required extensive modernization, and in 1937 the country's leadership instructed the design Bureau of the Kharkov plant for the creation of a tank, able to resolve engineering disadvantages of prototyping. The design of the new tank began in late 1937, the work was headed by a famous designer and engineer Mikhail Koshkin.

By early 1938, the new tank was ready, he got a double breed name BT-20/A-20, 25-mm frontal armor, the innovation engine, a new gun and would like their "ancestors" to move as on wheels or on crawler. Overall war machine was good, however, still bore the weaknesses of their predecessors - armor 25 mm could not be perceived as worthy of protection from guns in 45 or more millimeters. So in may 1938 at a meeting of the defence Committee of the USSR was announced, the modernisation plan of the prototype A-20 - another increase in armor protection and the refusal to turn the wheel for the sake of the simplicity of the design.

The new tank received index A-32, it was similar in weight to the A-20, but after all the upgrades received a 76-mm gun, strengthened armour - 45 mm - and an incredibly powerful engine which allowed "thirty" almost "dance" on the battlefield. In the future, the last modification was named A-34 or T-34, under this designation, she made history. The first of 115 pieces T-34 rolled off the Assembly line in January 1940, but before the war their number had risen to 1110.

During the war production of the T-34 actually was transferred to the Urals, the Ural tank factory (UTZ, now "Uralvagonzavod"), was the main understudy Kharkov plant that you are leading, for obvious reasons. From 1941 to 1945 in Nizhny Tagil had built thousands of T-34. According to historians, every third combat vehicle were made in the Urals.

A modification of the T-34-85 started to come off the Assembly line Uralvagonzavod 2 months after being put into service. In the summer of 1944 Ural constructors was awarded the order of Lenin for outstanding achievements in the creation of the design of T-34 and over a further refinement and improvement of its fighting qualities.

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Equipment "the miracle machine.

T-34 had a classic layout for the Soviet school of tank - aft of the transmission. Inside the tank was divided into four departments - management, combat, engine and transmission. In the frontal part of the hull housed the seat of the driver and radio operator, monitoring devices, cylinders with compressed air for emergency starting of the engine, fastened on the frontal armor of the gun. The fighting compartment was in the middle of the tank, there was a space tank commander, who also was a gunner, and an arrow tower, also acting as loader. In the tower, in addition to the guns, and was part of the ammo rack, and additional vision devices and a hatch for the landing crew. The motor compartment is also located in the middle, but for the safety of the crew was shielded from him the special removable partition.

The armor protection of the hull was made of homogeneous rolled sheets steel, located under a strong inclination, which gave frequent ricochets of enemy projectiles. Circular protection case equal to 45 millimeters, which, coupled with the slopes of the armor provided protection from the guns of a caliber of 75 millimeters.

Armed with T-34 stood a 76-mm gun f-34, which in the first phase of the war penetrated all German tanks in any projection. Only with the emergence of "Tigers" and "Panthers" from the weapon became difficult, which, however, were often decided maneuvering fight. The Arsenal of ammunition were the following:

- high-explosive long-range grenade OF-350 and OF-350A

- explosive grenade old Russian models f-354

- armor-piercing tracer projectile BR-350A

- bernareggi shell BP-353А

- bullet shrapnel sh-354

In addition to tank gun of T-34 was equipped with two machine guns DT of 7.62 mm, which are usually used to suppress manpower in urban environments.

"Miracle machine" installed 12-cylinder diesel engine capacity of 450 horsepower. Given the small mass of the tank - about 27-28 tons, this engine allows you to feel equally confident and at spring and autumn floods, and fields, and on arable lands. Military reports keep many memories of the crew "thirty", which combat maneuvering at higher speeds and small distance to enemy tanks - worked miracles. For example, the feat of the crew of a modification of the T-34 - T-34-85 under the command of Alexander Oskina. In the summer of 1944 they combat maneuvering destroyed three newest tank "Royal Tiger". Because the frontal armor of the German "cats" was not the teeth tank Oskina, he decided to get as close to the opponent and hit him in the less protected side, what success did.

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Modernization of legends.

The latest technical processing "thirty" has become the T-34-85, which was adopted by the USSR in 1944, and legally lifted only in 1993. Despite the much changed look of the car, practically new was only the tower, which carried a more powerful 85-mm gun - hence the name tank. Due to the larger turret in the tank freed space for additional crew members - the gunner, which allowed to "unload" the tank commander. Slightly increased mass is offset by the increased engine power, and the new weapon became a worthy answer to the "Panthers" and "Tigers."

This latest modification of the legendary T-34 is considered the crown of creation Soviet medium tanks of the great Patriotic war: the perfect combination of speed, maneuverability, firepower, and simplicity of use. The tank was used in the Korean and Vietnam wars, the clashes between Israel and Egypt in African conflicts.

In the postwar period, "the miracle of Soviet engineering" was delivered in the Eastern bloc countries, Austria, Germany, China, and currently still is in service in more than 20 countries. By the way, T-34 fighting machine "China" have appeared. In the early 50-ies of the last century, the Soviet Union actually gave a friendly China all the documentation on the production of T-34. And inquisitive minds the hard-working Chinese people made to stream various modifications of this tank, which until recently bore a recognizable index of "34" in the title.

The Soviet and later the Russian school of tank designed machine, one way or another based on ahead of its time the creation of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the legendary T-34.

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source: https://rg.ru/2014/03/30/tank34-site.html

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