"Question for Soviet WW2 T34 Experts (are you there, Cuprum?)" Topic

Go to YouTube and search for "Captured Tanks in German Service – Beutepanzer", posted on 4 Mar 2021 by panzerarchaeology.

At approximately 1m 26s into the video, an image of a captured T34 will appear. Judging from a substantial aerial mounted on the right front track fender (stowed in a folded-down position), my guess is that it is a command tank of some sort.

What really piques my curiosity is the very unusual shape of its cast turret, which is unlike any others I have seen before. Its top has what appears to be a very rounded domed shape – as if an early cast Sherman turret and a classic T34 turret married and had a child.

Can anyone shed light on this mystery?

B

A T-34 Medium Tank w/UZTM Cast Turret?
See link:

link

That's what it looks like to me, BillyNM.

IIRC UZTM had a 2000ton brake press, & because of that asset & an inability to cast turrets, it modified the turret in such a way to take advantage of this. Essentially that is the reason for the difference. It was otherwise identical in performance to a T-34/76 M1943.

Damon.

Thanks, Billy.
It's always a good day when I learn something new and interesting.

B

There's something quintessentially Soviet about literally stamping out tank turrets.

Of course, if the United States had done it, it would have been some insane "record player arm" setup where a huge arm dropped the plate onto the press, then picked it back up, swung it over, on dropped it right onto a tank hull. Thunk-WHAM!-click-whirrr-CLANG. ("Look! We're producing two tanks per minute!")

I was late with an answer. I compensate with photographs of automatic welding of T-34 bodies on the coveyors of Soviet factories:

Excellent photos, thanks

They are. Thanks for posting them.

Not late, Cuprum. Best saved for last.

B

That's what I always imagine a Dalek factory would look like.

Pay attention to the first photo. Welding is carried out without direct human participation. Works automatic. The use of a automatic made it possible for workers of not very high qualifications to do work, significantly reduced the cost of production and made it possible to produce a huge number of tanks.
Although often the welds looked terribly rough)))

Great pics !

Cuprum:

Do your sources on the pics give an indication of the dates that are pictured?

I notice the particulars of the turret in the first pic -- in particular the dual ventilator domes at the turret rear and the shape of the cupola. Most English language sources that examine such levels of detail would identify those aspects as a post-war T-34-85. I would be very pleased to have that confirmed, or refuted (ie: were these features on wartime production tanks?) by Russian sources.

Tanks in advance.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Here is the dating of the photo – if it is correct, then it is 1944.

link

Thanks. The website claims the pic is from Nizhny Tagil plant No. 183 in 1944, and lists the original source as Russian State Archive of Economics. I'll have to give a nod to the credibility of the website -- they have been clear on their sourcing. The pic immediately prior shows another turret being welded at Plant No.112 in 1945 -- that pic is of the turret type more often identified in English languages sources as WW2 production (with ventilator domes front and back).

So this is at least one Russian source, which lists its sources, that shows both turret types in production during the war.

I'm good with that. Until some equally credible source comes along saying the opposite…

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)