T-34.76 Model 1940

After the succesful conquest of most of the Europe (except British Island, protected my multi-national RAF) German agressors turned to the East. Everyone were aware that Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact is only a temporary act between two military superpowers. In secret, the Soviet Union developed a plan to invade the Europe, a plan that was stopped 19 years before by Polish Army during Battle of Warsaw. An avalanche of tanks, planes and even marine vehicles was to overwhelm any army standing on the Red's way.

Except that Hitler made the first move.

On June 22nd 1941 German forces crossed the Soviet border (then stretching through the central Poland after the Nazi-Soviet invasion in September '39), crushing any signs of defence from the Soviets. Panicked soldiers and civilians rushed to the East, blocking the roads and making the counteroffensive very difficult. For three days the Germans were virtually unstoppable. But then something happened.

It was June 24th 1941, the third day of what will later be known in USSR as "The Great Patriotic War". As said by Alex Buchner, an officer from 1st Mountain Division, during the fights for Lviv:
...New attack? This time on our positions rush the tanks never seen before. They appeared out of nowhere, growing quickly in sights, and gunsights, massive giants with sleek lines, wide tracks, flat turrets and long barrels. They rush on us, inevitably. It seemed nothing can stop these fortresses of steel. Hopelessly are shooting corageous men with their "edelweisses", their anti-tank guns make no harm to the Russian machines. Pale crews of 37 mm cannons look in horror as their small-caliber shells simply bounce off thick armours, and the tanks rush unstoppable forwards. They storm the cannon nests, crush the guns, and keep driving.

Later German soldiers reported they encountered vehicles weighing over 52 tons, armed with at least 150 mm guns. Such information sent a chill down the gen. Guderian's, father of German armoured weapons, spine. He immediately ordered an examination of captured Soviet tanks to uncover the secret of their invincibility.

Soon Guderian's men found out that the tanks which attacked German troops were medium T-34 and heavy KV-1 and KV-2. These tanks were produced in large numbers in multiple Soviet factories and outmatched German tanks in almost every term. They had bigger guns with long barrels that allowed to fire more accurately on longer distances. Their wide tracks helped them crossing the harsh Russian terrain, whenever German narrow-tracked vehicles were stuck in mud. Also important was the fact that T-34s used different type of fuel - diesel. For some time Stalin was against this type of engines, convinced by some tank designers that they will be able to use captured German fuel during the invasion on Europe. However men from Kharkov factory made a simple test in Stalin's presence: they took a bucket of petrol and bucket of diesel fuel. Then they have thrown a burning cigarette into each one. The petrol bucket immediately caught fire, while diesel fuel did not. This convinced Stalin that diesel fuel should be chosen as an optimal tank fuel.

T-34s hull was also very upgrade- and redesignable. It served as a basis to multiple specialised vehicles: armoured tractors, flame tanks (typically armed with a single flamethrower while still having the main gun intact - unlike German flame tanks which had the Flammenwerfers placed in the turrets), ARVs, self-propelled bridges etc. Some of the tanks later recieved an extra aplique armour (T-34 s ekranami - with screens).

So, if T-34 was so superior to German tanks, why did the Nazis managed to make it almost to the USSR's capital? Why it couldn't prevent the situation when Moscow almost fell to the Third Reich? There were several factors behind it:
1. poor quality of the early tanks. T-34s suffered from the same things that later led to the failure of Panther and Tiger tanks. Pieces were breaking very often, sometimes in a middle of the battle. The clutch was rather hard to move.
2. obsolete tactics. Soviet leadership was training its men only with offensive tactics. They were not prepared for defensive actions. Moreover the armoured forces were scattered along the western boarders of USSR and the commanders had problems with cooperating their actions.
3. shortages in tank production during the first period. The new tanks, with welded hulls, had different construction than previous vehicles, so workers had to switch to the new methods of work. Even worse, after the invasion many tank factories had to be evacuated behind Ural mountains to keep them working. This further stopped the production, altough Russians did everything to keep it going, working in freezing rain and snow, under the sky, with nothing but hammers and pickaxes to set new factory buildings (sometimes the machines were already working even though the walls were not set yet).
4. two-men turret design. The tank commander was also a gunner and, aside from watching the terrain had to find and aim at the targets while giving commands to the rest of the crew. The overtasked commanders often failed to notice the danger until it was too late. Moreover the turrets had only single large hatch for both commander and loader (radiooperator and driver would escape through the hatch in the front plate) which was very heavy and hard to open. Many times the crew was trapped inside the tank when the hatch jammed after the hit. This was only improved in later version (Model 1943).

Germans have captured large quantities of the T-34 tanks and used them against their creators. These tanks were given large (and I mean it, LARGE) crosses to avoid friendly-fire incidents. Because the crosses were barely visible from the air, swastikas were painted on the hatches or the flagues were placed on the engine's covers.

At the same time the German designers were looking for a way to counter the new threat. It was discovered that the only guns able to pierce T-34s armour were PaK 38 (50 mm) and 88 mm anti-aircraft guns. But these were not very mobile (both were towed guns). Some progress was made with the appearance of Marder tank destroyers, armed with German or captured Russian 50- and 75 milimeters. But it was decided that only a new type of tank can lead to the succes of Operation Barbarossa. At first German tank designers almost copied the Russian T-34, creating VK 30.02. But Hitler wasn't satisfied with it and ordered it to be seriously re-designed. This prototype later spawned one of the best tanks of WWII - PzKpfw V Panther. Paralelly Germans designed new heavy tank armed with 88 mm gun - the Tiger.

With the introduction of heavy Tigers in 1942 and medium/heavy Panthers in 1943 it became obvious that T-34's 76,2 mm cannon cannot break the armour of new German machines. It was then decided to upgrade the armament of T-34. Much like the Tiger's 88 mm cannon, the new gun for T-34 was adapted from 85 mm anti-aircraft gun. Moreover, to improve the overall performance of the tank, it was decided that the new turret will carry three crewman instead of two, passing the aiming to the gunner. To differ the two versions, a new designation was given: T-34/76 for old and T-34/85 for new version. T-34/76 remained in service for a short period of time after WWII, but was later replaced by T-55 tanks.

Note, however, that no one has ever given an order to write the T-34 off the armament list of Russian Armed Forces. So, in fact, T-34 still remains a part of Russian Land Forces!
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I bought this little beauty in toy shop in Kalisz. When I came back home from Poznan on March's last weekend I still had some time before bus to Zakrzyn, so I decided I can visit the long-not-seen shop. As soon as I went inside the ladies running the shop looked at me and happily said that the sets I suggested to order should be somewhere on the shelf. I recalled that the last time I was there the owner asked me if I'm looking for some particular model and explained that they order the sets blindly, so if I have any suggestions they can also put the set on a list. So it wouldn't be much surprising except that the last time I was in this shop was, like, in February. Whoa, what a memory

The two sets I suggested to order were Revell's T-34/76 and Jagdpanzer IV L70, both in 1/76 scale. The T-34 was cheaper, so I took it first.

The kit is very nice and rather simple to build. The only thing I don't understand is why the centers of the wheel were to be placed separately. It just makes the assembly longer and has no effect on the overall look od the tank.

For once I decided not to put any weathering,. There are only exhaust trails on the back armour and metallizer on the engine cover. This tank has freshly rolled out of the factory and is now rushing to the battlefield, so it had no time to get dirty

There were decals for two versions, both labeled as "unknown unit". I strongly suggest to avoid placing the cyryllic inscriptions on the turret, as they are in fact not cyryllic, but normal letters modified to look like Russian writing

Like all Revell-Matchbox models there was a stand for the tank, but I found it rather uninteresting (a piece of ground with track trails, broken fence and soldier with PPSh-41 running alongside the tank).

Model: Revell
Paints: Pactra except the dark grey - Humbrol.
Scale: 1/76