Re: [DS] Monster Tanks - My beloved T-35

----- Original Message -----
From: Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@webone.com.au>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: [DS] Monster Tanks

> From: "John Leary" <john_t_leary@yahoo.com>
>
> > > > Soviet T35 tank (1 76mm gun, 2 45mm, 5-6 MGs)
> > >
> > > I don't think this saw operational use, did it ?
> >
> > Both this monster and the T28 saw limited operational
> > use in the initial German offensive.   I have read
> > accounts of the Germans finding abandoned T-35 and
> > T-28 tanks that had broken down.   Combat usage?
>
> "As for T-28, the more numerous tank, actual engagement
SNIP>  use of T-28 in Leningrad up to 43 and Kharkov 42 and 43
>  is documented."
>
> T35 - only about 50 production models made.
SNIP
> I've seen exactly one photo of a T-35 in action in 1942, during
> the counteroffensive round Moscow. This may have been the last
> one still going.
>
> T-28
> http://www.battlefield.ru/t28.html
>
> T-35
> http://www.battlefield.ru/t35.html
>
> Another interesting monster is the T-100 and competitor SMK:
> http://www.battlefield.ru/smk.html
>
> And the T-35's predecessor, the T-32/ M-II
> http://www.skalman.nu/soviet/ww2-equipment-tank-t32.htm
>
> The one that inspired them all, the Vickers Independent
> http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/7413/a1.html
SNIP

Ah, T-35, my favourite tank! On the outbreak of war, the RKKA had 61
T-35
tanks on strength. Forty-eight were at the front, in the 67th and 68th
Tank
Regts. as described. Four were destroyed by enemy action, 25 (!)
suffered
drive train failures and were abandoned, amongst other losses. Tank No.
744-62 of the 67th was lost after "all ammunition expended" so it
presumably
fought.

Two T-35s took part in the battle of Moscow, but no accounts of actions
survive. One of these is the survivor at the Kubinka Museum. A
sloped-turret
Model 1938 was used by Ukrainian nationalist partisans, presumably for
poncing around in as it would have been spectacularly hopeless as a
partisan
chaser.

The "T-32" is really the lone T-35-1 prototype.

Ichabod!
Rob Paul