"T-26 1937 Top Hatches" Topic

I bought some T-26 M1937 from Battlefront recently and it came with two sets of hatches… one type had square hatches, both left and right. The other set had a square left (loader) hatch and a round right (gunner/commander) hatch with pintle mount for the AA DP gun. Which is the correct hatch for 1939-1940? Most of the photos I have found show the latter square/round combo on M1939 (with its distinctive sloping turret armour) and the square hatches on the M1937, but I have also seen some admittedly blurry photos that seem to indicate some M1937's also had round gunner hatches. Does anyone know the answer?

Example of the hatch variants on M1937:

And M1939:

link

‘Soviet Tanks & Combat Vehicles of WWII' by Zaloga and Grandsen has a very clear photo of a T-26S Model 1937 with the round gunner hatch. The turret sides are sloped however, but the text indicates that this was the case with the T-26S, so maybe not everything you think is a Model 1939 is actually a Model 1939?

Interesting, by T-26S do you mean T-26 Screened (ekranami)?

I have no idea. You'll have to ask Mr. Zaloga!

But to be more constructive part of that photo's caption says "In 1937 the T-26 was heavily redesigned The most obvious change was the use of a new turret with sloping armour to offer better protection. This version was called the T-26S Model 1937".

Ah, OK. I have always heard that called the M1938 or M1939, aka the conical turret version of the T-26 (which had the round hatch).

The same book says that the T-26S Model 1939 had a new turret, closely related to the original type, with a cast or drop forged forward section. The hull was redesigned with new upper superstructure which was wider, better armoured, and had angled sides for better protection.

So it looks like;

Conical turret, straight sides = M37

Conical turret, angled sides = M39

Just to further confuse the situation, I've read in several publications over the decades, that us Westerners have created and/or misapplied several different systems of allocating designations to WWII Soviet armor, some never used by the Russians themselves. Apparently, the Russians were far less interested in the minutiae of labeling and keeping track of the differences between separate production runs of vehicles, and their subsequent modification(s).

I would imagine this doesn't help, when one is seeking "definitive" information on what fixtures may have appeared on which vehicle, either at it's initial introduction, or through it's service life.

True though, some of the detail differences are obvious and undisputed, but by no means all…

Duck

For some reason, one of my favorite Soviet tanks. I have many books, and loads of photos, and compiled my own list of which models had what, when. Discounting the T-26 that had twin turrets from the mix, you are left with four basic models:

Model 33: had two equal square hatches
Model 36: had left square and right round hatches
Model 38: had left rectangle and right round hatches
Model 39: had left rectangle and right round hatches

So the answer to your question is this. If you want to model the 36, go with the square and round hatches.

Doesn't sound like you have a top turret configuration for the later models, which is fine. There were still M33, M36, M38 and M39s facing off against the Germans in the summer of 1941.

The M33 and M36 turret was cylindrical (straight sides). The M38 and M39 turret was conical (sloped sides).

Not to be picking nits, but if the turret top you have has a square hatch and a round, and not a rectangle hatch and a round, then you have an M36 turret top there. And that makes sense to me, because the M33 and M36 turrets were the same, so the top piece would be the same size. The top piece for a conical turret would be a different size and shape.

So make yourself an M33 or an M36 and head off into battle. Like I said, both were still around in numbers when the Germans invaded.

BTW … That photo at the top is not a T-26 M37 because there really wasnt such a thing. As has been pointed out, Western folks have come up with designations to try and keep clear the different models, but the Soviets didn't use all of them.

The M36 was a model year, and it was produced in 1936-1937. During the builds in 1937 they started to run out of cylindrical turrets but still had chassis. So they started to put the new conical (sloped) turret on the T-26 M36. But the M36 has 3 MGs, a coaxial, a rear turret, and a turret top for AA purposes.

Soviets think of that as an M36. The M38 had other changes, including the turret. So that same turret on an M38 chassis becomes an M38 to the soviets. By that point, they were welding over the rear turret MG, so an M38 has two MGs.

Really picking nits here, but the conical turret on the M36 still had the 1934 45mm l/46 gun. The turret placed on the M38 chassis had the 1938 45mm gun. Not that anybody is going to notice or care with 15mm minis.

Hope that was helpful.

Also … your link to an M39 is an M39.

Notice that hatch next to the round one is NOT square. It is rectangle, with the outer edge slightly curved because the turret curves there. If that hatch were really a square, that would be an M36 turret.

So that is an M38/M39 turret. What makes the tank itself an M39 is because the superstructure on which the turret rests has sloping sides, and extends a bit over the track fender. If the superstructure had straight sides and no extension over the track fender, it would be an M38 tank.

So that is a properly identified T-26 M39 tnak.

@SeattleGamer, Very helpful, thanks! The T-26 is slightly edged out by the BT fast tank for me, but I am a big fan nonetheless. I should also note that these are for Winter War, not Barbarossa!

@DuckanCover, yep, and only made more complicated by the fact that vehicles built at different factories were also different, even if the model was supposed to be the same.

By the by, I checked Osprey's T-26 book and they seem to call the M1933's with rounded hatch an "Anti Aircraft T-26" (or T-26 LTZ, for lineyniy tank zenitniy). This is apparently because the purpose of the round hatch was to fit a revolving mount for a pintle-mounted DT MG (which could slide around the entire hatch to shoot at enemy airplanes). Not a ton of use for that in the Winter War, but I've seen pictures that have the round hatch so apparently it was an option.

Osprey identifies the following types of single-turret T-26:

Cylindrical Turret:
Model 1933 (no rear turret MG)
Model 1935 (added rear turret MG)
Model 1937 (some or all had the round hatch with PU-40 AA machine-gun mount)

Conical Turret:
Model 1938 (sloped armour introduced, resulting in the conical look)
Model 1939 (rear turret MG removed)

The Osprey book also has a single picture of a tank it calls a "Model 1936" (a radio tank with cylindrical turret and the AA mount, and thus presumably a round turret). The book doesn't describe the M1936 at all, however, but to say that in 1936, some tanks received the AA machine-gun mount with the round hatch.

The interesting thing is that the Battlefront models I have are clearly the 1933-1937 cylindrical turret (the turret side armour is vertical, not sloped), and the particular pieces I am working with are "screened" with 20mm appliqué armour (variously termed "ekranami" or "ekranovka"). From other sources, though, I have only heard of appliqué armour being applied to M38 tanks (the conical turret), at least during the Winter War. The model is clearly not that. In any case, Battelfront doesn't make an up-armoured conical turret model, so I am stuck with what I have.