Monday 25 June 2018

Tanks in the Snow


Crossing of the snow obstacle by the German PzIII tank

Photo #25: Crossing the snow obstacles. The PzIII tank punches through the first obstacle.
Photo #26: Crossing the snow obstacles. The PzIII tank punches through the second obstacle.

The tank penetrated the first obstacle and reached the second in 7 minutes. After the eighth attempt, both obstacles were passed after accelerating in 3rd gear from 50-60 meters. Total time taken was 16 minutes.



Crossing of the snow obstacle by the M-3 English tank

Photo #27. Crossing of the snow obstacles. The M-3 punches through the first obstacle.
Photo #28. Crossing of the snow obstacles. The M-3 punches through the second obstacle.


Photo #29: Crossing of the snow obstacles. The M-3 punches through the second obstacle.

The tank penetrated the first obstacle after six tries after accelerating from 30-50 meters in second gear in 10 minutes. After 10 tries, the tank crossed both obstacles in a total time of 14 minutes. The engine stalled during obstacle crossing due to insufficient power.


Crossing of the snow obstacles by the English M-2a tank

Photo #30: Crossing of the snow obstacles. The M-2a punches through the first obstacle.
Photo #31: Crossing of the snow obstacles. The M-2a punches through the second obstacle.

After 3 tries in reduced speed gear, the tank penetrated the first obstacle in 6 minutes by accelerating from 40-50 meters. The tank penetrated both obstacles after 8 tries, taking a total of 21 minutes. The engine stalled during obstacle crossing due to insufficient power.


Photo #36: Crossing of the snow obstacles. The T-34 punches through the first obstacle.
Photo #37: Crossing of the snow obstacles. The T-34 punches through the second obstacle.

The tank crossed three snow obstacles after accelerating from 100 meters in second gear in 10 seconds."

CAMD RF 38-11355-804

12 comments:

  1. Clear example of what such a huge leap forward the wide tracks of T34 meant towards mobility, excellent data this

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  2. The T-34 was also FAST, especially compared to those British tanks. When it gets up a good head of steam, inertia is going to let it bust through snow obstacles.

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    1. Your totally right, you can see the snow cloud in the photo itself getting kicked up. Be interesting to find he sat on US lend lease tanks. Can't see the M3 doing well in this test.

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  3. Which M3? The Lee/Grant was actually pretty fast and about the same weight as the T-34. The M3 light was super-fast, but ... light. Not nearly as much inertia.

    Note that the Pz III is turret forward, while all of the other tanks have their turrets reversed. It may have taken a long time to get through, but at least it could fire.

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    1. Looks like a Valentine.

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    2. Baytor Agreed, and the M-2a looks like a Matilda 2. Neither tank was known for being fast. One aspect often ignored when people talk about the T-34's wide tracks is that despite the fact that it was wide, often they were just simple flat plates and often had trouble with traction on slick surfaces.

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    3. Hardly any T-34 tracks were simple flat plate. BT tracks were flat plates. Almost every T-34 track design (and there were a lot of them) had tread/cleats or some kind.

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    4. The "M3" is an Infantry Tank Mark III, or Valentine. The "M2" is an Infantry Tank Mark II, Matilda. This has been a source of confusion with some sources believing the USSR got US M2 medium tanks (they didn't) but in this case the photos make ti obvious.

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    5. Dat 34, I googled T-34 photos and it seems you are correct. I just dealt with a lot of those flat tracks myself when working on our T-54 tracks at Ft Stewart and assumed they were more common.

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  4. Why was T-34 accelerated from 100m when other only 30-60m?

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    1. Good observation. Perhaps the Soviets felt that the nature of the test was how well could the vehicle cross a snow hill wile driving at top speed. The T-34 which could go twice as fast as the British tanks most likely required longer to get to it's top speed.

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