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The T-34 in WWII: The Legend vs.The Performance

on Tue, 02/26/2013 - 02:14

By Nigel Askey*

The technical superiority of the T-34 (with a T-34/76 pictured here) in 1941,and during WWII in general has become the stuff of legend. Its apparent superiority has become so entrenched in the psyche of post WWII authors that it is now assumed without question. Some go as far as to claim the T-34 as “the finest tank of the twentieth century”, and that the T-34 “rendered the entire fleet of German tanks as effectively obsolete”.[1]

However, if battle performance was, and indeed still is, the ultimate determinant of the effectiveness of any weapon system, then unlike some