Was the T-34 Really the Best Tank of WW2?

T-34: An armoured legend. Learn who created this legendary tank, it's long road filled with different and difficult challenges, from defeats to victory. The iron fist of the Red Army, the T-34 became one of the synonyms for the victory in WWII, paving the way for the modern battle tanks yet having a very humble start even before WWII.

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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script and Animation: Aleksandar Djokic
Narrator:

Chris Kane

[coleman]

I must admit the animation quality has gotten a lot better. Solid work!

[GrimpakTheMook]

A thing about durability: Soviet studies investigated how much was the average life of a tank in the front lines. The result is that the T-34 was built to be as reliable as possible around said average. No need to build something that will be reliable for 10 years when it probably won't last 1 year, or less.

[jmanj]

Nice video, but I can't believe you didn't mention one of the Germans' biggest advantages against the Soviet tanks; that is, the Germans all had radios in their tanks; The Soviet Union did not. So the German commanders could communicate from the safety of their armor, while the Soviets had to expose themselves out the tops of their turrets, and hope that they were seen while using flags for signaling.

[Zztoph]

They were not the best tanks of ww2. But they were simple to produce and easy to operate and repair. It was a huge advantage over German tanks.

[edrickang]

Considering how hyped this video is, I’m surprised that the late war variant T34/85 never made it into this video.

[musicloverandclassicalmusi]

A 32-minute documentary, superb animation, and great dialogue? This is definitely Simple History's magnum opus so far.

[kadentam]

I love the improved animation especially at 6:10
I really enjoyed the time and effort put into this grand beast of a tank
21:42 is also great, the visual representation makes so much more sense
I can stop fanning over this video, 24:26 and it's representation is so clear and makes so much sense

[brianschwatka]

Best joke I have every heard applied to both the T-34 and the Sherman. "The Tiger tank was as good as seven T-34/Shermans. The problem was there was always an eighth."

[ekparatrooperfilms]

The animation is so smooth and detailed

[wanekiacook]

Simple History has come along way in telling History in Animated form. I am happy to say I have been watching them for a long time and I am proud with how far they've come. Keep up the amazing videos!

[RippinBeefers]

This is by far one of the best videos released by Simple History. Id love to see the same type of thing but with all of the "big three" main fighting vehicles during WW2.

[MaximIl]

My grandfather was a tank commander in the Soviet Army in WWII, including the Battle of Kursk. Thank you for this video!

[Sierra]

One interesting tidbit about the T-34 design issues: often times, the large bolts connecting all the treads together would come loose as the tank was in motion. This of course threatened to cause the treads to collapse and fall apart, rendering the T-34 immobile. To address this problem, the engineers came up with a crude but effective solution: they welded a steel wedge near the rear sprocket! So any tread bolts coming loose would be pushed back into place by simple physics! Soviet engineering at its finest!

[bbb]

Its sort of strange that on one hand you hear how the germans struggled to beat the T-34 while on the other hand reports show that they took them out Day 1 of the war, even with 20mm guns which the T-34 should in theory be immune to. Some historians believe that it was infact the KV that gave the T-34 its legendary reputation. Some old german news reels talk about the T-34 while showing an image of a KV-1. Just like all german tanks was a tiger 1 to the americans, maybe the T-34 had a similar fate where it got credit for the KV-1's work. This sort of explains how documentaries and what not always claim that the germans had to use the Flak 88 to take out the T-34 while battle reports tells a different story.

[CsImre]

The armor of the T-34 had a high Brinell rating, meaning it was very hard. This was advantageous in defeating antitank rounds of caliber equal or lower to the armor’s thickness but had the disadvantage that it could lead to spalling. Combined with manufacturing flaws in the construction of the tank this meant that the T-34’s crew was often in danger even when hit by tank rounds that did not penetrate the armor.
The study ‘Review of Soviet ordnance metallurgy’, p3-5 says:

‘The armor components of the T-34 tank, with the exception of the bow casting which was unheat-treated, were heat-treated to very high hardnesses (430-500 Brinell), probably in an attempt to secure maximum resistance to penetration by certain classes of armor-piercing projectiles even at the expense of structural integrity under ballistic attack.’

‘The quality of the armor steels ranged from poor to excellent. Wide variations in production technique were indicated; some rolled armor components were well cross-rolled while others were virtually straightaway rolled………The bow casting of the T-34 tank was very unsound and would have been rejected under American standards.’
‘Shallow penetration, poor fusion, severe undercutting, porosity, and cracking was observed in most of the welds and probably resulted from improper manipulation of electrodes which might not have had suitable operating characteristics….. These obvious defects, together with low strength and pour metallurgical structure of ferritic weld deposits, indicate that the welded joints would have poor resistance to severe shock.’

‘The results obtained from the metallurgical examination of these early world war ii Soviet tanks have been described in some detail since they are exactly the same as have been obtained from all examinations performed since then of Soviet tanks which were recovered in Germany after the end of world war ii, and on Soviet tanks which were captured in Korea during 1950-52. The Ordnance Corps has examined several Soviet JS-II which were found in Germany and several Soviet T-34 tanks from both Germany and Korea.’

'Some of the armor steels have surprisingly high toughness considering the very high hardness levels but many of the armor steels, even the softer ones, are very brittle.’
‘The very high hardness encountered in most Soviet tank armor has caused much unnecessary concern regarding the relative ballistic performance of the hard Soviet armor and the softer American armor. Many people associate high hardness with high resistance to penetration. Although this is true, within limits, in the case of attack of armor by undermatching projectiles (i.e. caliber of shot is less than the tnickness of the armor) particularly at low obliquities of attack, it definitely not true when the armor is attacked by larger caliber shot at higher obliquities of impact’

[calthepeacelovingclover]

Hitler: "How can they possibly make that many tanks so quickly!?"
Stalin: "Haha... Work force go screee!"

[Robbstark]

11:20 “even at point blank range, penetration was not guaranteed”
Basically sums up my wedding night

[Frosty_tha_Snowman]

I don't understand how the animations can keep such awesome simplicity while continuing to gradually get more detailed, creative, and beautiful with every few videos. Seriously such an awesome channel.

[brandonly]

I really appreciate the length of this video. It's much better than the 5 minute vidoes you normally post.

[DSMCasual]

Soviet Worker: “How many Tanks you need?”

Stalin: *DA!*