Page 65 - The Chief Culprit

42 y e Chief Culprit

catch up with this innovation until 1942. e L-10 Soviet tank gun in 1941 was unrivaled in
Germany or anywhere else in the world. “In terms of arms, the T-28 absolutely surpassed all
German tanks. e L-10 gun (as well as the KT-28, by the way) could effectively destroy the
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tanks of the Wehrmacht Heer at distances out of range for their weapons.”
e Germans installed the HL-120TR 300-horsepower engine on the later models of
their most powerful tank, the Pz-IV. But they still did not catch up with the Soviet 500-
horsepower engines. e Germans enhanced the armor to 30 mm. e Soviet response was
the T-28 E, with a maximum thickness of 80 mm. e T-28 had sufficient allowances in
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its design to permit the installation of the 85-mm F-39 gun with a 52-caliber length. e
tank successfully passed all tests with that gun model. However, at that time, the Soviet
tank industry made another breakthrough: it created the T-34. Its classic design became the
sire of the future development of tanks worldwide. Further modernization of the T-28 was
unnecessary.
After the war, Soviet generals and historians called the T-28 obsolete. But the T-28 was
obsolete only by Soviet standards, only compared to the T-34. In comparison with all foreign
tanks, the T-28 was still outstanding. If in the summer of 1941 a foreign tank had had a 76-
mm gun with muzzle velocity of 555 m/s and four or five machine guns, it would have been
the national pride of that country. But nobody had such a tank. If a foreign tank had had a
frontal armor of 80 mm, it would have been considered an outstanding design achievement. 6
If anyone in the world in 1941 had had a 500-horsepower tank engine, this would have been
a world record. e “obsolete” Soviet T-28 was a combination of three world records, each of
which even taken independently would have been the national pride in any other country.
After the war, the Soviet historians excluded all T-28 tanks (and many others) from the
statistics, and put them in the “obsolete and worn-out” category. However, the “obsolete”
T-28 tanks captured by Finland in 1939 and 1941 were used by the Finnish army, served
until the very end of the war, and were successfully used against the Red Army. One of the
“worn-out” T-28s was remodeled into an evacuation vehicle and served until 1951. By the
way, there were no spare parts for these tank models in Finland. But the T-28 was designed in
such a way that even without spare parts it served for several years in a war in terrible climates,
almost impassable terrain, against a powerful enemy—the Soviet KV and T-34 tanks. And it
even served six years after the war.
On December 19, 1939, the Red Army enlisted in its ranks the T-34. Following are
German reviews of its performance. General Field Marshal von Kleist said: “ eir T-34 was
the best in the world.” Major General von Mellentin agreed: “We had nothing equal to the
T-34.” General Field Marshal von Rundstedt also thought that the T-34 was the best tank in
the world. Colonel General Guderian remembered: “A large number of T-34 tanks were used
in battle [Guderian is referring to the hostilities in October 1941 near Mtsensk, northeast of
Orel], causing significant losses among our tanks. Previously existing hardware superiority of
our tank forces was now lost and shifted to the opponent. erefore, a prospect for rapid and
continuous success disappeared.” “Our 50-mm and 37-mm anti-tank guns were completely
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useless against the T-34.” 8
Lieutenant General Westphal admitted: “ e arrival of Soviet weapons that surpassed
the German ones in quality was a very unpleasant surprise. One such weapon was the T-34
tank, against which the German anti-tank weapons were powerless.” 9