280021 – T-34/85 – Mid & Late War

The T-34 had well-sloped armour, a relatively powerful engine, and wide tracks.  The initial T-34 version had a powerful 76.2 mm gun, and is often called the T-34/76.  In 1944, a second major version began production, the T-34/85, with a larger 85 mm gun intended to deal with newer German tanks.

The German Tiger I tank appeared on the Eastern Front in late 1942, as a response to the T-34. Soviet firing tests against a captured Tiger in April 1943 showed that the T-34’s 76 mm gun could not penetrate the front of the Tiger I at all, and the side only at very close range. An existing Soviet 85 mm antiaircraft gun, the 52-K, was found to be very effective against the frontal armour of the Tiger I, and so a derivative of the 52-K was developed for tanks.

In 1943, T-34 production had reached an average of 1,300 per month; this was the equivalent of three full-strength Panzer divisions.  By the end of 1945, over 57,300 T-34s had been built: 34,780 T-34 tanks in multiple variants with 76.2 mm guns in 1940–44, and another 22,609 of the revised T-34/85 model in 1944–45.

The improved T-34-85 became the standard Soviet medium tank, with an uninterrupted production run until the end of the war.