T-34: The Tank that won WWII

Hey tank nuts, what did you think of this video?

The relocation of virtually all of the Russian heavy industry, the dismantling and reconstruction of so many factories over 1000 km away is one of those logistical superhuman feats that gets scant attention in WW2 history. That’s a shame.

The T-34 was the first Tank I ever got to see IRL up close and personal. I even got to crawl around inside of it. It was an old Cuban T-34/85 to be exact. This was around August of 2021.

It is worth mentioning that many T-34s and other Soviet tanks were made in Czechoslovakia under a license after the war. These typically have much better welds and overall craftsmanship and interestingly feature some leftover German parts. These were then sold to third countries and with great irony got reimported to Russian Federation for ceremonial purposes a couple of years ago. So the T-34 you might seem on the Red Square during Victory Day parades is actually a Czech-built tank with German headlights that didnt serve in the war but was in Laos until 2018...

Not sure if it's been mentioned but the red highlights you use to display the current talking point is really helpful!

The most amazing thing to me about the T34 is that the Soviets lost 35k+ of them and that they still came out ahead.

A great example of never letting perfection get in the way of "good enough".

That poor gearbox. Talk about Grind it till you find it!

Working the flight line at Washington Dulles, I was exposed to many Soviet Era airframes. What was always interesting was the logic behind a design. Visual inspections of wing roots landing gear vision ports cargo doors and engines revealed simple functional operations with limited intelligence man power. Placement of servicing acces was almost always at ground level and could be preformed in unimproved airfields or very remote areas.. it's no surprise these tanks are almost identical in design assembly and d function to the airframes.

My grandfather's tank... He never talked me about war. It was too hard memories for him... He joined battles near Balaton lake (Hungary).

T-34/76, Finnish registernumber Ps.231-2 (earlier R-105 in finnish service), was captured 2-3nd of October 1941 near Svir power plant. It had been abandoned by its Soviet crew after getting stuck on two tree stumps, from which Finnish soldiers got rid of with a saw and little bit of explosives. Vehicle was a factory new STZ-manufactured T-34 model 1941 which was completely intact with only four shells missing from it's ammunition racks. In December 1941 the tank played pivotal role in Karhumäki-Poventsa offensive operation, during witch the tank fell in to the river. Recovered and used untill the 1961.

Thanks for the explanation on the markings. In Finland it's known as a hakaristi. In many places it has been removed because of its resemblance to the other marking.

Hard to judge the craftsmanship when the tank actually had to go to the front straight to the front from the factory floor in stalingrad. American tank factories didnt have to face similar conditions hence had the time, material and luxury to put the best thing forward

Grew up watching a old Ww2 Polish tv show called “ four tankers and a dog”( English translation: Polish is, czterech pancernych i pies) that series got me into world war 2 and made me Fall in love withrbeb t-34. Obviously this machine ain’t perfect but it definitely stint the wort thing out their.

Great video! I have seen the T-34 in the tank museum in Munster (Germany) and first I was amazed on how sleek and sharp the design is in persona. Also on how small it actually is in real life. But the closer I got to it the more I realised how incredibly crude the weld was and how it really was just crudely cut metal plates bolted together without care. In closeup nothing about this tank looks like it was made to last more than a year. But seen from afar it all blends into a piece many (myself included) find aesthetically pleasing. Truly a masterpiece of pragmatism and mass production. But I don’t want to imagine the horror of beeing crew in such a vehicle… even if you survive the war in that thing, you are probably still partially crippled from living in it.

It is possible to realise that the T-34 was a good tank if you only look at hard factors (armour, firepower and mobility) and in the way it was designed, a terrible tank if you consider how the tank was actually built and also many of the soft factors such as crew comfort, reliability, quality of manufacture, visibility and coordination, but it was absolutely the tank that the Soviets needed. It was simple enough that it could be built (to a terrible but functional standard) by mostly untrained peasants, cheap enough to produce that they could be built in their tens of thousands and easy enough to operate that training could be reduced (at massive detriment to the crews). Its similar to the Panther in that people will argue back and forth whether it was a good or bad tank and both sides being right.

Amazing work to the Bovington Tank Museum on detail review on the T-34

"One death is a tragedy, but a million is statistic". That's not a quote from Josef Stalin. It is taken from Erich Maria Remarque's "Black Obelisk" book and attributed to Stalin falsely. Just like some other parts of the video not directly related to the tank.

What's remarkable to me is the first prototype was made in 1937, but the fundamental design was sound enough that not only was it the mainstay of Soviet forces throughout the war but upgraded variants of this design dominated every major communist and post-communist tank arsenal through the entire cold war and beyond. No other pre-WW2 design can come close to such a boast.

The usual very high quality video we expect from Tank Museum. Nice clips of tank in action. Enough info to understand the tech, but not too much. Nicely paced descriptions. Highlighting in red the components the narrator was talking about is a very nice touch. Very important insights into the political environment these tanks operated in. I have been to the Tank Museum 3 times. It is a great visit as it is always very informative as they seem to change the displays regularly.