Despite the fact that already at the end of the war work was underway on the next-generation Soviet medium tank T-44, attempts to quickly, and at minimal cost, get an effective tank destroyer armed with a 100 mm cannon continued. Still, the shortcomings of the SU-100, which was at that time the most effective tank destroyer in service with the Soviet Army, associated with the location of the gun in a fixed wheelhouse, did not disappear.
This work began in July 1944 with a task to install a 100-mm cannon in the standard T-34-85 turret, which was immediately received by two design bureaus: OKB number 9 and department 520 of plant number 183. But literally the very first estimates showed that the regular the turret ring of the serial T-34 with a diameter of 1600 mm is not enough for this.
However, the designers of the Gorky Design Bureau No. 92, headed by A. Savin, were still able to correctly install the 100 mm ZIS-100 cannon in the T-34-85 turret. The ZIS-100 cannon was developed on the basis of the serial 85-mm ZIS-S-53 cannon. But the tests of the T-34-100 with this gun were disappointing. The recoil of this powerful weapon was so great that the transmission and chassis of the T-34-85 could not stand it. An attempt to solve the problem by installing a slotted muzzle brake did not help. A radical alteration of these units was required, and this is practically a new machine.
A. A. took a different path. Morozov at the plant number 183. At this time, the design of the T-44V (the future T-54) was in full swing at this plant, and he proposed to install on the T-34 a ready-made turret from a promising tank. True, the diameters of the shoulder straps of the T-34 turret and the new tank, although not significantly, differed 1600 mm for the T-34, and the turret was designed for a shoulder strap of 1700 mm for the T-44V. This problem was solved by some reworking of the body of the serial machine. These changes consisted in the removal of the course machine gun, and thanks to this, the crew was reduced by one person, the thickness of the bottom and roof above the engine was reduced, the fuel tanks were moved to the control compartment, the driver's seat had to be lowered, the suspension of the 2nd and 3rd The first track rollers are made in the same way as the suspension of the first rollers, five-roller high drive wheels are supplied. In this form, this vehicle received the designation T-34-100. The mass of the new tank rose to 33 tons.
In February - March 1945, this machine was tested at the Sverdlovsk and Gorokhovets proving grounds. Moreover, during the tests, two different guns were installed in the T-354-100 at once - ZIS-100 and D-10, which was used from OKB No. 9. During the tests, it turned out that the accuracy of fire was low, and the load on the transmission when fired, although noticeably decreased, but was still excessively large. But despite this, the military liked the tank and they demanded further work on it. But it was not possible to quickly eliminate these seemingly small shortcomings.
At the end of 1944, a new 100-mm LB-1 gun was designed at the design bureau of plant No. 92 in Gorky, which had a noticeably lower recoil. Naturally, they also tried to install this gun on the T-34-100 under development. The design of the LB-1 gun was identical to the D-10. The barrel of the gun consisted of a monoblock tube, a screw-on breech and a muzzle brake of the same design as that of the ZIS-100. Because of this, the length of the tank, together with the cannon, increased to 9150 mm, since the barrel of the gun was 3340 mm beyond the dimensions of the vehicle, which had a very bad effect on the tank's cross-country ability.
Nevertheless, on April 6-14, 1945, the T-34-100 tank with the LB-1 cannon was tested at the Gorokhovets test site. During the tests, 1000 shots were fired and 501 km covered. The rate of fire of the LB-1 was 5, 2 - 5, 8 rds / min. The accuracy of the new gun turned out to be higher than that of its predecessors, and the load on the chassis and transmission is noticeably lower. The vehicle was completely superior to the previous versions of the T-34-100 tank.
The selection committee concluded that "after the elimination of the identified shortcomings, the gun can be recommended for adoption." However, despite the great interest of the military in the T-34-100 tank, its serial production was never started. The war was coming to an end, and the T-44, superior to the T-34-100, was on the way out. The meaning of the production of this machine simply disappeared.
Could such a machine be put into production? It would be if only at the tests it showed itself as in the spring of 1945. And so the elimination of shortcomings, it just dragged on.
