T-34-85
In service 1944 - 1990s in foreign service
Based onT-34 (successor to)
The definitive wartime T-34: an 85 mm gun in a three-man turret, and the most numerous tank of the Second World War in its final year.
Built byFactory No. 112, Factory No. 183, Omsk; later Poland and Czechoslovakia
Development history
Fielding the 85 mm gun answered the Tiger and Panther without redesigning the tank, and the larger turret finally freed the commander from serving the gun. From spring 1944 the T-34-85 led every major Soviet offensive from Operation Bagration to Berlin and Manchuria. Postwar production continued in Poland at Bumar-Labedy and in Czechoslovakia, and the type served on four continents into the 1990s.
Variants
One canonical record, 4 recorded variants.
Factory No. 112 pattern
1944Gorky-built turret with distinctive casting seams and early ZIS-S-53 fit
Factory No. 183 pattern
1944Nizhny Tagil turret with improved commander's cupola and loader hatch
T-34-85 Model 1969
1969Postwar refit with night-vision equipment, new radios and improved road wheels
T-34-85M
1960sUparmoured rebuild programme with additional fuel and mine protection
Related vehicles
Separate records that derive from this vehicle, grouped by how they relate to it.
Licensed production of this vehicle
Notable actions
- Operation Bagration
- Vistula-Oder offensive
- Battle of Berlin
- Korean War