![]() ![]() The two prototypes underwent factory and state tests at Kharkov, ending on 3 March 1940. ![]() Later in 1940 representative of the Red Army would officially criticise this practice. They were built using a significant number of imported parts, especially in key parts of the transmission, and would prove to be rather more reliable than the mass produced version. These two machines were produced to a very high standard, with precise measurements of every part, something that would not be a feature of the production tank. The first prototype was completed on 16 January 1940, the second at the start of February. The new name is said to have been chosen to commemorate a 1934 decree announcing a massive expansion of the tank force. This order was drawn up as Resolution 443 of the Defence Committee, in which the new tank was referred to as the T-34. On 19 December, after the production of a new set of factory drawing, the Defence Committee approved the new design, and ordered the production of two prototypes. In September 1939 the Defence Commissar agreed to the production of ten prototype A-32s with 45mm frontal armour. The success of the A-32 encouraged the creation of an even heavier version. Both performed well, with the A-20 reaching a top speed of 85km/hr and the A-32 managing 70km/hr. The A-20 began state trials on 15 July, the A-32 two days later. This was originally designated the A-20G ( Gusyenichnyi or tracked), but eventually became the A-32, reflecting the increased thickness of armour allowed by the removal of the wheel-and-track system.īoth prototypes were ready in May-June 1939. The Kharkov design team received permission to built a second prototype of the A-20, without the wheel-and-track suspension. The A-32 evolved from the A-20 after the Kremlin meeting of May 1938. The designs were ready by February 1939, and on 27 February the Defence Committee approved the construction of both prototypes. On the Defence Committee met at the Kremlin, and gave KB-24 permission to design two prototypes of the A-20 – one with the track-and-wheels suspension, and one without. This carried 20mm sloped armour, would use the V-2 diesel engine, and had 4 pairs of road wheels. In March 1938 the Kharkov designers submitted the first design for what was then designated the BT-20. While the military still wanted this system, the tank designers were starting to see it as obsolete. This allowed it to move much faster on roads, and without damaging the unreliable tracks, but made the suspension much more complex. The wheel-and-track system used on the BT tanks allowed the tracks to be removed, turning the vehicle into an armoured car. The exact details of these arguments are now difficult to reconstruct, but the main focus appears to have been on the suspension. A series of three-way arguments about the design of the new tank followed, between the designers at Kharkov, the military and the Communist Party. These were similar to those of August 1937, but did add a requirement for sloped armour. In October 1937 the new design team received the official specifications for the new fast tank. Koshkin soon became chief designer for this new bureau, and would play a major part in the design of the T-34. A new design bureau KB-24 was created, with twenty one engineers from Kharkov and forty six moved in from Moscow. This specification reached the No.183 Factory at Kharkov just as its design team was being reorganised. This called for a tank with wheel-and-track suspension, as used on the BT series, 20-25mm of armour, a 45-75mm gun and a 400hp Diesel engine. The high command of the Armoured and Motorized forces of the Red Army (ABTV or Avto-Bronetankovye Voyska) wanted to replace the BT tanks with a new fast tank, and on 15 August 1937 issued Resolution No.94. In 1937 a large part of the Soviet tank force was made up of obsolete BT fast tanks. The T-34 emerged from three years of often confused development work, and was a very different vehicle to the one originally required in 1937. After this inauspicious start, the T-34 began to appear in ever larger numbers on the Eastern Front, and during the crucial battles around Stalingrad and at Kursk was almost the only tank in use with the Red Army. In 1941 it was the most advanced tank then in mass production, and nearly 1,000 were present on the front line at the start of Operation Barbarossa, but like every other Soviet tank the T-34 was swept aside in the first phase of German victories. The T-34 Medium Tank is by far the most famous Soviet weapon of the Second World War, and has become a symbol of the Red Army’s desperate struggle against the Germans. ![]()
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