“If the tanks succeed, then victory follows.” - Heinz Guderian, German general, author of Achtung – Panzer!
Nationality: Soviet Union (Russia)
Year of Production: 1933 to 1938
Number built: 61
Weight: 45 tons
Length: 9.72 m
Width: 3.20 m
Height: 3.43 m
Crew: 11
Engine: 1x Mikulin M-17M petrol engine, developing 500 hp, for a speed of 30 kph.
Armament: 1x 76.2 mm gun, 2x 45 mm guns, 5 to 6 7.62 mm machine guns
Background: After World War 1, many things had changed. A wide variety of these strange new, almost alien, weapons, called tanks were becoming more and more popular. Crushing wire, preventing infantry from being shot, causing enemy troops to run from these invulnerable new weapons, that spat death and ignored bullets.
Tsarist Russia, under Tsar Nicholas II, had fallen during 1917, with the Bolsheviks having taken over, after fighting against the White Russia movement, and becoming the Soviet Union in 1922, under Lenin.
Stalin took over in 1924, after a power struggle, and Russia began to advance (ish), under the First Five Year-Plan and Second Five-Year Plan, and started to develop new weapons, like this cute little toy.
This weapon was developed by the OKMO design bureau of the Bolshevik Factory, as two teams began to work on two different designs of multi-turreted tank, the other tank being the TG-5, which weighed in at 100 tons and had a 107 mm naval gun, which was soon cancelled. In July 1932, a 35 ton prototype was rolled out with a 76.2 mm gun and was given four smaller turrets, for 37 mm guns, and machine guns.
It was too complex and expensive for mass production, so a simpler prototype was built, with a new engine, gearbox and new turrets, as used on the T-28, which had 3 turrets. Production began in 1933 at a locomotive factory, and two batches of ten vehicles were built, with 35 being built by 1938, with some examples reported to have flamethrowers instead of one of the 45 mm guns. Probably to try to set fire to snow or something.
Anyway, the final batch was six more T-35s, putting the total at 61, since it was fairly expensive.
Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?
“Tanks come in two forms: the dangerous, deadly kind and the 'liberating' kind.” - Robert Fisk, journalist.
This tank immediately showed how it could crush and annihilate it's enemies by serving in parades in Moscow until 1940. Oh yes.
After Operation Barbarossa, the decision was made to use the T-35 in combat, instead of repurposing them as heavy artillery, of which 90% were lost due to mechanical problems or by being abandoned and blown up.
The last recorded action of the T-35 was during the Battle of Moscow, although I have not been able to find how it fared.
Some sources state that it did not fight in Talvisota, the Winter War, against Finland, instead, the tank was a SMK prototype, which was disabled by a landmine, and was believed to be another variant of the T-35, but other sources say that it did see action there, so yeah.
Despite the lackluster combat record and the fact that if you cut out some of the turrets, you could put more normal tanks on the battlefield, you have to admit that they look impressive, and that the idea of machine guns blazing as cannons roar from a single tank would look magnificent on TV.
For a reason to be afraid of it, the SU-7 tank, not to be confused with the SU-7 jet fighter, was planned to have a 254 mm gun, a 305 mm howitzer and a 400 mm mortar while clocking in at over 106 tons.
And finally, the T-35 tank has it's own Facebook page, but only 4 people like it so far. Pity.
Sources used:
Wikipedia: T-35
Soviet Empire.com: The Soviet T-35 tank
Heavy Soviet Tanks - Tank Museum
WWII Vehicles - Soviet Union's T-35 Heavy Tanks
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