Танк Т-34

The T-34 (colloquial "thirty-four") is a Soviet medium tank of the period of the Great Patriotic War, it was mass-produced since 1940. During 1942-1947, the main tank of the Red Army and the USSR Armed Forces. It was the main tank of the Red Army until the first half of 1944, before the T-34-85 was modified by the troops.

Developed by the design office of the tank department of the Kharkov factory number 183 under the leadership of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin. The success of the project was predetermined by the use of the newest, highly economical diesel engine B-2, thanks to which the medium heavy-armored T-34 inherited an extraordinarily high specific power (the ratio of engine power to combat weight) from the light, light-armored BT, which ensured the absolute superiority of the T tank throughout the Great Patriotic War. -34 in terrain, maneuverability, mobility. For the first time in the practice of the world tank building, the long-barreled (30.5 caliber) 76-mm gun L-11 (model 1939) was installed on the medium tank T-34, which significantly surpasses all existing in the initial speed of an armor-piercing projectile (635 m / s) years of foreign tank artillery systems.

The T-34 tank had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the war and on the further development of world tank design. German troops did not expect such powerful equipment from the USSR. Due to the combination of its combat qualities, the T-34 was recognized by many experts and military experts as one of the best tanks of the Second World War.