1935th year. The T-37A, the first Soviet amphibious tank, is still being produced, but the thoughts of the Red Army leadership were already aimed at improving this very peculiar machine.
During operation in the troops, it turned out that the T-37A had a bunch of shortcomings: the transmission and chassis were unreliable, the tracks often fell, the cruising range was low, and the buoyancy margin was insufficient.
Therefore, the design bureau of plant # 37 (headed by N. Astrov) began work on improving the T-37A at the end of 1934. It was supposed to eliminate the identified shortcomings of the T-37A, mainly to increase the reliability of the units of the new amphibious tank.
The first experimental tank was built in the summer of 1935 and underwent factory tests from July 3 to July 17. According to their results, the tank was practically no different from the T-37A, and the question of its further fate remained open. Oddly enough, the situation was "saved" by competing firms.
The tanks designed by P. Shitikov and TM from GAZ presented for testing turned out to be even worse. Astrov's tank was among the undisputed favorites.
As a result, a seemingly modernization of the T-37A was carried out, aimed at improving its running characteristics. "It seems to be" - because there was another tank at the exit.
However, compare yourself:
T-37A
T-38
The commander and driver were swapped. Honestly, I did not find clear considerations and reasons why this was done, and I do not want to voice the "versions". But the fact is, the main external difference between the T-37A and the T-38 is the location of the tower.
The other layout (engine, transmission, tanks) was left exactly the same.
However, the T-38 has changed (and greatly) in another way. The tank became lower and wider, which should have increased its stability afloat. Changes in the hull made it possible to abandon the fenders, however, the shelves returned. In addition, the suspension has been slightly changed, and it seems that the ride has become smoother and the speed has slightly increased.
The main change inside is the replacement in the control mechanism of the car differential with on-board clutches for turning.
The undercarriage was in many ways identical to the T-37A, from which the design of the suspension bogies and tracks was borrowed. The design of the drive wheel was slightly changed, and the guide wheel became identical in size to the road wheels.
A three-blade propeller and a flat steering wheel were used to move the car afloat. The propeller was connected with a power take-off gearbox mounted on the gearbox using a propeller shaft.
The armament of the T-38 remained the same - a 7.62 mm DT machine gun mounted in a ball mount in the frontal plate of the turret. The tower was structurally the same as that of the T-37A.
The vehicle was adopted by the Red Army BT in February 1936 and was in production until 1939. In total, the industry produced 1,382 T-38 tanks.
The assembly of the "new" T-38 proceeded in parallel with the "old" T-37A. This was not done by accident. It seems that a corresponding advertising campaign was carried out, the hero of which was the T-38, which was presented as "new, unparalleled …"
However, in fact, a lot of flaws and defects came out. Surprisingly a lot for a machine that was "bug fixing."
First of all, the T-38 amphibious tank turned out to be … not very floating. In general, he swam, but with a bunch of reservations and restrictions.
The photo shows that it is not so far from the water to the grille of the engine compartment.
When driving on water, it was forbidden to make sharp maneuvers at maximum propeller speeds or turn on reverse. In such a situation, the tank “nodded” and… sank! It was also undesirable to sharply give the steering wheel to the maximum left or right. The result could be like turning on the reverse.
As a means of landing, the T-38 was also not very good. To be honest - he was none at all! When crossing water obstacles on the propeller, two infantrymen were an unbearable weight for the machine.
When driving over rough or swampy terrain, the power of the car engine was clearly not enough, the engines overheated and failed.
They criticized the completely unchanged armor and armament, which clearly did not correspond to modern ideas.
The price of the tank has also increased significantly. Here, of course, is not the time to steal, you know. But something went wrong with the T-38. It is clearly worse than its predecessor, the T-37A.
All this led to the fact that in the spring of 1937 the production of the T-38 was temporarily stopped. However, it was continued again in 1939, when ABTU allowed Plant No. 37 to complete the construction of tanks from the existing stock of parts.
On the one hand, the situation is clear: there are details, why not collect them? Or send it to the furnace, metal was in short supply at that time.
On the other hand, the tank is definitely not the best. And its characteristics are under a huge question in terms of compliance. But the machine that was supposed to replace the T-38, that is, the T-40, has not even left the design stage yet.
And it's not a fact that it would be better. This is not one month of work.
As I understand it, they simply decided that "the good would not be lost" and collected a little more than a hundred more for the already available T-38s. 112 units.
The T-38 tank was intended to equip reconnaissance battalions of rifle divisions, reconnaissance companies of individual tank brigades. In general, exactly the same as its predecessor, the T-37A. Often, tanks were in service with separate units at the same time. Which was not surprising, given their unification.
TTX tank T-38
Combat weight - 3, 3 tons;
Crew - 2 people;
The number of issued - 1340 pieces.
Dimensions (edit)
Body length - 3780 mm;
Case width - 2330 mm;
Height - 1630 mm;
Clearance - 300 mm.
Reservation
Armor type - rolled steel homogeneous;
Body forehead (top) - 9 mm;
Body forehead (middle) - 6 mm;
Hull side - 9 mm;
Hull feed - 9 mm;
Bottom - 4 mm;
Hull roof - 4 mm;
Tower - 8 mm;
Armament
Machine gun - 7, 62-mm diesel fuel.
Mobility
Engine type - in-line 4-cylinder liquid-cooled carburetor;
Engine power - 40 hp;
Highway speed - 40 km / h;
Cross country speed - 15-20 km / h;
Afloat speed - 6 km / h;
In store down the highway - 250 km;
The climb to be overcome is 33 degrees;
The overcome wall - 0.5 m;
The overcome ditch is 1, 6 m.
The main modifications of the T-38 tank:
T-38 - small amphibious tank (1936, 1937, 1939);
SU-45 - self-propelled artillery unit (prototype, 1936);
T-38RT - tank with radio station 71-TK-1 (1937);
OT-38 - chemical (flamethrower) tank (prototypes, 1935-1936);
T-38-TT - telemechanical group of tanks (1939-1940).
There were also attempts to improve the T-38 in the form of modifications to the T-38M1 and M2 by installing the GAZ-M1 engine (50 hp) and increasing the displacement, but they remained single copies.
The T-38Sh tank, armed with a 20-mm ShVAK (TNSh) cannon, adapted for installation on tanks, remained in one copy.
Here you can clearly feel the size of the T-38 against the background of the "huge tank" BT-7 …
Combat use.
In principle, the T-38 took part in all the battles that the T-37A did.
The first campaign was the Polish one in 1939. Basically, tanks conducted reconnaissance, but on September 20-22, amphibious tanks were involved in the battles near the town of Holm. The losses were only three T-38s, but the general feedback on the T-38 was very critical.
Low speed and easily breaking undercarriage and transmission were noted.
In the Soviet-Finnish war, the active armies numbered 435 amphibious tanks of all modifications, which amounted to 18.5% of the total. In most cases, T-38s were used to guard headquarters, communications and escorting convoys of equipment, but from time to time they had to participate in direct clashes with Finnish troops.
One of the first episodes occurred on December 2, 1939. The 361st Tank Battalion of the 70th Infantry Division of the 7th Army of the Northwestern Front, which consisted of 10 T-26s and 20 T-38s, sent to reconnaissance Finnish positions at Ino station, carried out a difficult crossing of the river, but completed its combat mission.
When retreating to the initial lines, the tanks entered into battle with the Finnish infantry and artillery that was entering the rear of the Soviet units. During the battle, which lasted all night, three T-38s were knocked out by artillery fire, but in the end the tanks completed the task, frustrating the enemy's plans. Subsequently, the battalion supported the offensive of the infantry units, having lost only 10 tanks during the hostilities.
Also successful was the use of amphibious tanks as part of the 381st tank battalion of the 14th rifle division, which had one T-26 and T-38 company each. Once surrounded, the tankers buried them in the ground along the tower, turning them into improvised firing points. In case of attempts to break through the Finnish troops, T-38s moved to the most dangerous areas, supporting their infantry.
The total losses of amphibious tanks in the Winter War amounted to 94 T-37A and T-38 units, which could be considered a good indicator.
However, the tank quickly played "outdated", which, in principle, was not an exaggeration. On September 15, 1940, about 40% of the T-38 tanks required medium and major repairs, but due to the lack of spare parts and an outright reluctance to reintroduce obsolete equipment, they preferred to keep them in warehouses or in training units.
As a result, it turned out that a number of mechanized corps and rifle divisions had amphibious tanks only on paper.
Only the 6th mechanized corps (Western OVO, Volkovyssk region), in which there were 110 T-37A and T-38, turned out to be the most combat-ready in this regard, but no precise data has been preserved about their technical condition. Unfortunately, information about the combat use of T-38 tanks during the Great Patriotic War was also not preserved.
But the 6th mechanized corps, which quickly found itself surrounded, lost more than half of its equipment on marches or from attacks by German aviation. Not a single amphibious tank could be withdrawn from the encirclement.
Outcomes
No matter how funny it sounds, the T-38 practically has no analogues in the tank world of that time due to the absence of amphibious tanks in other countries at that time.
There were attempts to create such a machine in many countries, but the results were even more sad than ours. It was bad for us, but he swam, for the Germans, French and Poles, samples only dived. Once.
If we compare the T-38 with quite numerous non-floating light tanks, we can safely say that this is an ordinary mediocre machine-gun tankette. Many countries copied "Cardin-Loyd", so everything was more or less similar.
But the value of the T-37A and T-38 tanks (which we can safely call the T-37B, for example) is not that.
These machines made it possible to test on experience the very idea of increasing the combat power of air and water assault forces.
Lightly armed due to the specifics of their use, the landing troops, when capturing and holding positions, always needed mobile armored fire support.
It was the T-37A and T-38, in spite of all their shortcomings, that were the first machines that could be used quite successfully in this role. They could swim and could move through the air using the TB-3 carrier aircraft. Armored self-propelled machine gun for the landing.
I will not be very much wrong if I say that the T-37A and T-38 gave the Soviet designers an opportunity to get their hands on, which was expressed in the creation of such machines as the PT-76, BMD-1, BMD-2 and further on list.
