Vehicles · Soviet Union · 1944-1945
T-34-85
medium tank
The T-34-85 was the up-gunned redesign of the T-34, produced from January 1944 after Soviet tests showed the original 76mm gun could not penetrate a Tiger I's frontal armor. It replaced the cramped two-man turret with a larger three-man turret carrying an 85mm gun (initially the D-5T, then the S-53/ZIS-S-53 from February 1944), moving the radio into the turret and adding a commander's cupola so the commander could lead rather than also serve as gunner. The new turret and gun brought the T-34 much closer to parity with German Panthers and Tigers, and the T-34-85 remained in uninterrupted production through the end of the war.
| armament | 1x 85mm gun (D-5T or S-53/ZIS-S-53), 2x 7.62mm machine guns |
|---|---|
| crew | 5 |
| weight | ~32 tonnes |
| produced | ~22,559 (wartime) |