T34-85Well, now the time has come to build my last T34 in this project. Of course, I could endlessly continue to build more subvariants, but after almost a year of only building T34´s it´s time to do something else in the near future.
T43But before I will speak about the T34-85, I have to set a step back in history. In the summer of 1942, when the worst crisis was over for the Soviet Union, the Soviet supreme command ordered the development of a new tank, combining the mobility of the T34 with the armour protection of the KV1, and equipped with the same succesful 76mm gun as its predecessors.
T43 prototype
The new tank was baptised T43, after the year of its intended introduction. However, before the T43 was in production, the German Tiger tank appeared on the battlefield, and intelligence about the oncoming Panther tank was intercepted. The T43 offered no answer to this new generation of German tanks, because of the limited power of its 76mm gun. Production of the new tank was cancelled.
T34-85It was clear the Soviets needed a tank gun that could deal with the Tiger and Panther tanks at reasonable combat distances of 1000m-2000m. The answer was found in the tried 85mm anti-aircraft gun, which had high velocity, a flat trajectory and a suitable calibre. The gun did'nt fit into any existing tank turret however. And developing a complete new tank would be too time consuming for the ongoing battle. What to do?
Two engineering companies were ordered to redesign the 85mm gun to make it fit into a tank turret. Therefore it was important to shorten the recoil, and make the gun more compact. In short time this led to usable gun called DT-5. As a starter this was built into the SU-122 self-propelled howitzer, leading to the potent tank destroyer SU-85. At least the Tigers and Panthers could be succesfully engaged now. Next a smart Soviet engineer proposed to combine the tried and reliable hull of the T34 with the much bigger turret design of the T43. This proved a golden combination. Using existing components a tank was now available that combined the mobility of the T34, with a firepower equal to the new German tanks. Only in armour protection the tank lagged a bit behind, but this was partly compensated by its good mobility.
Early T34-85 model 1943 with DT-5 gun.
The first T34-85's were delivered in early 1944. They can can be recognised by the bolted on mantlet ring, a shorter gun (by appr. 1 feet), rounded of front mudguards and a commanders cupola in the middle left side of the turret. In the meantime the other engineering firm, called ZiS, succesfully developed an improved version of the 85mm gun. This was used to produce an improved version of the T34-85 later in 1944. This version had the longer gun, rounded off mantlet, squared off mudguards and the commanders cupola placed further behind to accomodate a radio in the turret. This second version was produced only with some very small changes in ten thousands of numbers until the end of the war.
T34-85 model 1945
The T34-85 was a great succes: easy to produce, reliable, good mobility and good firepower. From Operation Bagration in June 1944 it formed the backbone of the Soviet armoured divisions. Until halfway the 1950's it remained the most important tank in the armies of the Soviet Union and it's allies. When replaced by the T54/55 in the frontline units, it remained in the reserve until 1967. Production was continued with only small innovations until 1969, and the T34-85 saw action in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and many conflicts in the Middle-East and Africa. The last known operational use was in the conflict in Yugoslavia in the early 1990's.
T34-85 in North Vietnamese service.
Disabled Serbian T34-85 in Croatia in 1991.