Tankopedia
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38M Toldi

In service 1940 - 1944

Hungary's first domestically built tank, a licensed Swedish Landsverk design that fought in Ukraine and at home.

Built byMAVAG, Ganz

38M Toldi
38M Toldi IIa with 40 mm gun — Alfred Szabo, via Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Development history

The Toldi was built under licence from the Swedish Landsverk L-60, whose torsion-bar suspension was advanced for the late 1930s. Hungarian units took Toldis into the Soviet Union in 1941, where their 20 mm gun proved useless against T-34s and losses mounted. Later vehicles were rearmed with a 40 mm gun and thicker armour as the Toldi II and IIA, and some hulls became Toldi páncélvadász tank destroyers and ambulances. They fought on Hungarian soil against Soviet forces in 1944.

Variants

One canonical record, 3 recorded variants.

  1. 38M Toldi I

    1940

    20 mm 36M gun, 13 mm armour

  2. Toldi II / IIA

    1942

    Thicker armour, 40 mm 42M gun on IIA

  3. Toldi pancelvadasz

    1944

    Tank destroyer prototype with 75 mm gun

Notable actions

  • Operation Barbarossa
  • Eastern Front 1942-44
  • Defence of Hungary (1944)