T-34 tank with the eyes of American experts

The Soviet T-34 is considered a masterpiece of world tank building. In its design, technical solutions are used that are much ahead of their time, used by the developers of armored vehicles to this day. The more interesting are the comments made by engineers from the United States, who were able in 1943 to get acquainted with this machine at a military base in Aberdeen, Maryland, where it was brought from Murmansk by a transport ship. They were curious to know what the T-34 American Sherman tank, which was mass produced at that time, including for Lend-Lease shipments in the USSR, surpasses the T-34.

First of all, engineers from the United States, according to the reports published in our time, paid attention, oddly enough, to minor details. In the conditions of the super-mass production of the war years, the quality of execution of individual units and metallurgical materials, unfortunately, left much to be desired. The remarks concerned the longevity of the T-34 tank train, the orientation of its exhaust pipes, creating a lot of dust, insufficient waterproofing of the hull, and a low level of comfort for the crew.

The Allies had a peculiar understanding of the nature of the military operations against Germany. Preparing for the landing in Europe, the US military experts assumed a rather calm and planned military operation in which the tanks will play only a supporting role, acting approximately according to the same tactical scheme as in Africa.

However, there were some sensible remarks concerning the quality of welded joints and the T-34 air filtration system, the ineffective operation of which reduced the motor resource. This also showed some naivety of American experts, greatly overestimating in their calculations the lifetime of technology, both Soviet and German, in the face of intense fighting. As a rule, combat vehicles did not have time to wear out, and there was no time to think about the convenience for tankmen, as well as about the dust raised by tank columns.

Subsequently, Soviet engineers refined the air filters. The V-shaped 400-strong V-2-34 diesel engine, made of aluminum, installed on the T-34, was underestimated. This was also a masterpiece, and it did not work for many years to create anything like that in any of the Western countries - both allies and opponents of the USSR.

In the report of the Aberdeen group, nothing is said about the revolutionary layout. The rear location of the leading rollers creates a huge advantage in lowering the profile of the tank and reduces its weight, but to verify this, Western specialists took several more years.

All-steel caterpillars were produced in the USSR due to a rubber deficit, but this technical solution proved to be optimal.

The spring suspension "Christy" - an American invention, not at all appreciated in the US in the twenties, nor after studying the experience of its practical application in the USSR. But the Soviet tanks T-34, BT-7, BT-5 are equipped with just such a system of depreciation.

The American research team pointed to the shortcomings in the implementation of welded joints at a time when US industry was full of producing riveted tanks.

Pointing to a small reserve of moves, tank builders from the United States somehow forgot that the Sherman is even smaller. In other words, due to its own snobbery of useful information from the received technology, American engineers received little. The specimen delivered from the USSR was used as a target and destroyed. But the results of their research were used by Soviet specialists to further improve our military equipment. And only after the war, in 1946, the Americans realized that in order to win, one must learn a lot from the Russians, including how to build tanks, launching a campaign to re-equip their ground forces.