T-50
In service 1941 - 1943
The best Soviet light tank of the war and one of the rarest: a torsion-bar, diesel, commander-cupola design cancelled for being too expensive.
Built byFactory No. 174, Leningrad and Chkalov
Development history
The T-50 was designed to replace the T-26 with a modern light tank - sloped 37 mm armour, torsion-bar suspension, a diesel engine, a three-man turret and a commander cupola, features the T-34 itself lacked in 1941. It was also complicated and needed an engine no factory could spare, so with Leningrad under siege production stopped after fewer than eighty vehicles and resources went to the cheap T-60 and T-70 instead. Sources give between 69 and 75 built. A handful fought in the north and in Karelia, and one survives at Kubinka.
Notable actions
- Leningrad Front
- Karelia
- Continuation War (captured examples)