T-28
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 T-28 at the Finnish Tank Museum in Parola | |
| T-28 | |
|---|---|
| General characteristics | |
| Crew | 6 |
| Length | 7.44 m |
| Width | 2.87 m |
| Height | 2.82 m |
| Weight | 28 tonnes |
| Armour and armament | |
| Armour | 30 mm |
| Main armament | 76.2mm gun with 70 rounds |
| Secondary armament | 4 or 5×DT 7.62mm machine guns with 8,000 rounds |
| Mobility | |
| Power plant | M-17 12-cylinder 500 hp (373 kW) |
| Suspension | twin bogies with plunger springs |
| Road speed | 37 km/h |
| Power/weight | 18 hp/tonne |
| Range | 220 km |
The Soviet T-28 was among the world's first medium tanks. The prototype was completed in 1931 and production began in late 1932. It was an infantry-support tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T-28 was designed to complement the heavier T-35, with which it shared many components.
Production history
The T-28 had one large turret with a 76.2mm gun and two smaller turrets with 7.62mm machine guns. A total of 503 were built over a period of 8 years from 1933-1940.
Variants
- T-28
- T-28A - With thicker armour.
- T-28B - Longer gun. (From 16.5 calibres to 26 calibres)
- T-28C - Improved armour.
- OT-28 - Flamethrower version.
Combat history
The T-28 was deployed during the Invasion of Poland, the Winter War against Finland and against the Japanese in 1939. During the initial stages of the Winter War, the tank was used in direct fire missions against Finnish pillboxes. In the course of these operations it was found that the armour was inadequate and programs were initiated to upgrade it. Frontal plates were upgraded from 50 mm to 80 mm and side and rear plates to 40 mm thickness. With this up-armoured version the Red Army broke through the main Finnish defensive fortification, the vaunted Mannerheim Line. Shortly thereafter, production was halted to focus on the new T-34 medium tank. Most T-28s were lost during the first two months of the German invasion, where they fared poorly against Panzers.
The Finns knew the T-28 as the "Postivaunu" ("mail wagon" or stagecoach), a name which alluded to Finnish troops' discovery of Red Army field mail sacks inside the first destroyed T-28. Another explanation is that the high profile of the tank resembled the stagecoaches used during Wild West times in the western United States. Finns captured ten T-28s during the Winter War and Continuation War. They were used until 1944.
Today five T-28s remain, four in Finland and one in Moscow. One restored T-28 is on display in Finnish field camouflage in the Parola Tank Museum, Hämeenlinna, Finland.
Evaluation
Although the T-28 was rightly considered ineffective by 1941, it is worth remembering that when the Red Army was fielding the first T-28s in 1933, the French Army was still largely equipped with the FT-17, and the Wehrmacht had no tanks at all. No Army would have a series-production medium tank comparable to the T-28 for several years.
The T-28 had a number of advanced features for the time, including radio (in all tanks) and anti-aircraft machine-gun mounts. Just before the Second World War, many received armor upgrades, bringing it on par with the early Panzer IV.
The T-28 had significant flaws. The plunger-spring type suspension was poor, but many of the better suspension designs used in WWII tanks had not yet been developed. The engine and transmission were troublesome. Worst of all, the design was not flexible. Although the T-28 and early Pzkpw IV were comparable in armour and firepower, the good basic design of the Pzkw-IV allowed it to be significantly upgraded, while the T-28 was a poor basis for improvement.
Unfortunately for the Red Army, by the time the T-28 saw combat in 1939, events had overtaken it. The 1930s saw the development of the first reliable high-speed suspensions, the first purpose-designed antitank guns, and a gradual increase in the firepower of tanks. The Spanish Civil War showed that infantry units with small, towed anti-tank guns could defeat most contemporary tanks, and made the under-armoured tanks from the early 1930s particularly vulnerable.
Variants
- T-28 Model 1934 — main production model with the same turrets as he T-35 heavy tank and Model 27/32 76.2mm gun.
- T-28 Model 1938 — version with improved L-10 76.2mm gun, improved gun stabilization system and improved Model M-17L engine.
- T-28E — 1940 addition of appliqué armour in response to poor performance in Finland. Total front armour was increased to 80 mm, weight to 32 t, and road speed dropped to 23 km/h
- T-28 Model 1940 — the final batch of about twelve tanks had the same conical turret as late-production T-35 tanks.
Experimental models
Several self-propelled guns, the IT-28 bridging tank, and an engineering vehicle with mine rollers were tested on the T-28 tank chassis, but none was accepted for production. The T-29 was a prototype medium tank, a modernized T-28 based on a BT tank chassis—a later version of this vehicle was considered for the competition of prototypes which led to the T-34, but by then it was outdated (not to be confused with a Grotte tank project also called T-29).References
- Zaloga, Steven J., James Grandsen (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two, London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0-85368-606-8.
See also
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