The T-34 tank is considered the most famous Soviet tank and one of the most recognizable symbols of the Second World War. This medium tank is rightly called one of the symbols of victory. The T-34 became the most massive medium tank of the Great Patriotic War; many experts recognized it as the best tank of the war. This combat vehicle combined good technical characteristics and combat capabilities with high technological design and ease of production, which ensured the mass production of the tank even in difficult military conditions using low-skilled labor.
The tank was mass-produced in the USSR from 1940 to 1945, starting in 1944, the factories assembled the T-34-85 variant, which received a new turret and a more powerful weapon - the S-53 85-mm tank gun. This version of the legendary "Thirty-four" is found especially often today, it can be seen on numerous monuments in many countries of the world. The T-34-85 was mass-produced in the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1950, that is, before the mass production of the T-54 tank began. Under the license of the USSR, another 3185 tanks of this type were produced, they were assembled in Czechoslovakia in 1952-1958, another 1980 tanks were assembled in Poland from 1953 to 1955.
The tank proved to be excellent during the war years. Remaining in service with the Red Army throughout the Second World War. For example, by the end of 1943, the T-34 accounted for 79 percent of all tank production in the Soviet Union. By the end of 1944, its share had grown to 86 percent of the total tank production in the USSR. The T-34 took part in almost all combat operations of the Great Patriotic War, and was widely used by Soviet troops in the storming of Berlin. After the end of World War II, T-34-85 tanks were supplied in significant quantities to various countries in Europe and Asia, where they were widely used in numerous military conflicts, including the Korean War, the Six Day War, and numerous military conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. years.
T-34-85 and the Korean War
The first major armed conflict after World War II, in which armored vehicles were widely used, including the Soviet T-34-85 medium tanks, was the Korean War of 1950-1953. Tanks played a key role in the fighting during the first 9 months of this conflict. The success of the invasion of North Korean troops into the territory of South Korea was largely due to the massive and skillful use of the available armored resources, as well as the weak anti-tank defense of South Korea.
It is worth noting that the tank forces of North Korea began to form only in 1948, they were created with the active participation of China and the USSR. So in 1948, in Sadong, with the participation of Soviet troops, the 15th training tank regiment was formed, which was stationed in the suburbs of Pyongyang. In the created unit, there were only two T-34-85 tanks, while the Korean tankers were trained here by about 30 tank officers from the Soviet Union. In May 1949, the regiment was disbanded, its cadets became officers of the new 105th Tank Brigade. This unit Kim Il Sung hoped to use for the main attack on South Korea. Neither effort nor funds were spared to prepare the brigade for combat operations. The 105th tank brigade consisted of three tank regiments, which were subsequently numbered: 107th, 109th and 203rd. By October 1949, the brigade was fully equipped with T-34-85 medium tanks. The brigade also included the 206th motorized infantry regiment, the 308th armored battalion, consisting of 6 SU-76M self-propelled guns, was supposed to provide support to the infantry. Throughout the spring of 1950, the fighters and officers of this brigade conducted intensive exercises.
By the time of the invasion of South Korea, NASK - People's Army of North Korea was armed with 258 T-34-85 tanks, of which about half were in the 105th Tank Brigade. About 20 more medium tanks were in the 208th training tank regiment, which was planned to be used as a reserve. The rest of the "Thirty-fours" were distributed among the newly formed tank regiments - 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 45th and 46th (in fact, they were tank battalions, which sometimes had 15 tanks), as well as the 16th and 17th tank brigades, which, in terms of equipment with tanks, were more likely to correspond to tank regiments (40-45 combat vehicles).
The enemy, represented by the South Korean army, was much worse armed. The South Korean military had extremely few effective anti-tank weapons, the army was less well equipped and poorly trained. The available anti-tank weapons were mainly represented by inconvenient and ineffective 57-mm anti-tank guns (American copy of the famous British 6-pounder cannon).
The Korean War began in June 1950, when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel (the border along which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to partition Korea), invading the territory of their southern neighbor. Due to the rapid offensive of North Korean troops, the Americans hastily had to transfer part of their troops from Japan to South Korea, in particular one of the companies of the 78th heavy tank battalion, which was equipped with M24 Chaffee tanks, which turned out to be almost completely useless against the T-34 -85.
At the initial stage of the war, luck was accompanied by NASK, on the side of which there was both initiative and superiority in technology. Most of the South Korean soldiers had never seen tanks in their lives, and the extremely low efficiency of 60-mm bazookas and 57-mm anti-tank guns only increased the demoralizing effect of the use of North Korean armored vehicles. To combat tanks, the South Korean military resorted to improvised knapsack high-explosive charges and TNT bombs tied with grenades. Trying to blow up tanks with such charges, a large number of South Korean soldiers died, only in the 1st Infantry Division about 90 people were lost. The helplessness of the South Korean infantry in front of the T-34-85 caused panic fear of tanks, which significantly weakened the defense.
After months of excruciating battles, the Americans began to deploy large quantities of modern armored vehicles to Korea. The rapid offensive of UN forces from Busan in September 1950 was due primarily to the mechanization of American combat units, which was their forte. Heavy fighting with tanks continued in Korea from August to October 1950. In November, it was already difficult to meet a North Korean tank on the battlefields. By the beginning of the war, NASK had an advantage in tanks over the enemy, but by August, the numerical superiority was already behind the Americans. If by the beginning of the war the DPRK had 258 T-34-85 tanks, plus another 150 were received from the Soviet Union after the start of the war, then by the end of 1950 the Americans received 1326 tanks: 138 M24 Chafii, 679 medium tanks M4AZE8 Sherman, 309 M26 Pershing and 200 M46 Patton. At the same time, "Thirty-fours" could fight on equal terms only with the first two, M26 and M46 surpassed them in their technical characteristics.
Until the end of the Korean War, 119 tank battles took place, 104 of which involved US Army tanks and 15 US Marine Tanks (1st Marine Tank Battalion). Most of these battles were in the nature of small skirmishes, only in 24 battles from North Korea more than three tanks participated in the battle. In total, North Korean tankers and self-propelled guns knocked out 34 American tanks, of which 15 combat vehicles were irretrievably lost, the rest were repaired and put into operation. In turn, American tankers knocked out 97 T-34-85 tanks.
The T-34-85 medium tank was more susceptible to tank fire. Its armor could penetrate all the guns of American medium tanks, while the Thirty-four could hardly penetrate the armor of the M26 and M46. Tank battles demonstrated the lack of training of Korean crews. Acting well enough against enemy infantry and his light tanks, the North Korean tankers were poorly prepared for oncoming tank battles. They fired slowly and inaccurately. For some unknown reason, some Korean crews fired at enemy tanks with high-explosive shells and, even getting hits, did not cause them significant harm. At the same time, the American Pershing's 90-mm cannon disabled the T-34-85 in one hit, and the American tank crews were perfectly trained. Often they fired several shots at an enemy tank in order to cause a fire or detonation of ammunition, this led to the fact that the losses among the North Korean crews reached 75 percent. At the same time, American tank losses were mainly caused by mine explosions and the impact of anti-tank artillery. So of the 136 American tanks lost in the battles of 1950, 69 percent were blown up by mines.
In general, the T-34-85 proved to be an excellent tank, but the training of North Korean tankers could not be compared with the training of the Americans. In terms of its combat characteristics, the T-34-85 roughly matched the American M4A3E8 Sherman and was superior to the Chaffee in everything. Despite the fact that the M4A3E8 was armed with a smaller caliber gun than the T-34-85, the widespread use of sub-caliber shells (T4 HVAP-T) made up for the difference in caliber. Thanks to the more powerful cannon, the Soviet T-34-85 medium tank penetrated the M4AZE8 armor at normal combat ranges without any difficulty. At the same time, due to the difficult terrain conditions (hilly terrain and mountains), tank battles were often fought at close distances. American tanks M26 and M46, which the T-34-85 had to face, belonged to the vehicles of a new generation and clearly outperformed the "Thirty-four", rather corresponding to the heavy Soviet tank IS-2M.
T-34-85 in battles in the Middle East
After the end of the Korean War, T-34-85 tanks were widely used in the Arab-Israeli wars. In particular, this tank was widely used during the 1956 Suez Crisis. After Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power in Egypt, the state changed its foreign policy, rebuilding itself to cooperation with the Soviet Union and socialist countries. In 1953, Nasser signed an agreement on the supply of weapons, including 230 tanks (most of the T-34-85) from Czechoslovakia. They all took part in the Suez War, which lasted from October 1956 to March 1957. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which did not like Great Britain and France, which did not tolerate such an infringement of their political and economic interests in the region.
T-34-85 at the parade in Cairo
All this resulted in full-scale hostilities. On October 31, 1956, Anglo-French aviation attacked Egyptian airfields, and on November 1, Israeli troops went on the offensive in the Sinai Peninsula. During Operation Cadet, the Israelis destroyed, among other things, 27 T-34-85 tanks, losing 30 of their vehicles. The Israelis fought in French AMX-13 tanks and American Shermans. On November 5, the intervention of the French and the British began, but there were no military clashes between the tanks of the European armies and the Egyptian troops.
The Suez crisis pushed Egypt to even closer cooperation with the socialist countries in the military sphere. By the end of the year, another 120 T-34-85 tanks were delivered from Czechoslovakia, and in 1962-63 Egypt received another batch of "Thirty-fours", in 1965-67 Egypt received the last 160 T-34-85 tanks, later only more modern T-54 and T-62.
In the early 1960s, a significant number of T-34-85 tanks were also in service with the Syrian army. In Syria, T-34 tanks fought side by side with their recent opponents - German PzKpfw. IV tanks and StuG. III assault guns, German captured equipment came to Syria from France. Soviet T-34-85, together with the former German "fours" took part in the battles with the Israeli "Shermans", this happened in November 1964 in the Golan Heights.
The last war in the Middle East, in which T-34-85 tanks were used for their intended purpose, was the 1967 Six-Day War. This conflict ended with the defeat of the Arab armies. As a result of the war, Israel gained control over the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. The battles in Sinai ended with the defeat of the Egyptian troops. In the battles, the Israelis destroyed more than 820 Egyptian tanks, including 251 T-34-85, the Israeli army's own losses amounted to 122 Sherman, AMX-13 and Centurion tanks. On the Syrian front, the casualty ratio was in favor of the Arabs, who lost 73 tanks here (T-34-85, T-54 and PzKpfw. IV), destroying 160 Israeli tanks in the process.
Destroyed and abandoned Syrian T-34-85, Golan.
After this conflict, the T-34-85 were never again used in the Middle East in direct clashes and tank battles; they were replaced by more modern combat vehicles. "Thirty-fours" were no longer used as tanks, the remaining combat vehicles were often used as fixed firing points, a significant number of T-34-85 tanks were turned into chassis for various self-propelled guns.
T-34-85 in conflicts in the Balkans
In 1991, hostilities began on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1991, the war began in Croatia, during the conflict, the parties used tanks, artillery and aircraft. These hostilities then escalated into a full-scale civil war, the cause of which was the rise to power in Slovenia and Croatia of nationalists who took a course to secede from Yugoslavia, as well as the decision of Belgrade to prevent the disintegration of the country by force.
Along with the tanks created after the Second World War (the Soviet T-55 and M-84 - the Yugoslav version of the T-72 main battle tank), the T-34-85 tanks that remained in combat took part in the battles. At the same time, "Thirty-fours" were used in battles by all sides of the conflict. Some of these tanks were captured by the Croats from the Serbs, and some of the vehicles were literally hijacked by the crews that deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army to form the Croatian National Guard.
In the fall of 1991, T-34-85s were used in battles in the Dubrovnik and Konavle area, they were used by both Serbs and Croats. At the same time, due to the low combat readiness of obsolete tanks, they were used as means of fire support, mainly as self-propelled artillery installations, most of their ammunition was high-explosive fragmentation shells. Despite the fact that tanks by that time were already hopelessly outdated vehicles, they showed themselves well in combat. For example, a Croatian tank with the inscription "MALO BIJELO" survived two hits by ATGMs "Baby", and its crew destroyed a truck, two armored vehicles and one T-55 Serb. The Croats tried to compensate for the weakness of the T-34-85 armor by hanging sandbags on the armor of the sides of the turret and tank hull.
The T-34-85 were also used during the battles on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their use was sporadic. This period includes a photograph of an unusual shielded Serbian tank T-34-85 with the inscription "With Faith!" on the tower, he went through the entire Bosnian war. After the end of hostilities, all the remaining "Thirty-fours" in the armies that emerged on the site of the former Yugoslavia states were withdrawn from service after a short time.
