Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: boulder!snoopy!scottmi@ncar.UCAR.EDU (SCOTT MICHAEL C)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: German had the best weapons (was Re: M4 Tank Info)
Keywords: Reliability of the T-34
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.202418.6997@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Jun 90 20:24:18 GMT
References: <16246@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
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From: boulder!snoopy!scottmi@ncar.UCAR.EDU (SCOTT MICHAEL C)

  
  In addition to the poor transmission and two-man turret (a tank commander
has better things to do than load a 76.2mm gun) the T-34's track shoes were
too large.  The great angular movement of each shoe as it rolled under the #1 
road wheel and hit whatever hard surface lay below exposed the tracks to more
wear than they could reasonably take.  The T-34 inherited this feature, in
addition to its suspension, from the earlier US-designed Christie tank.
  A fault (which could have only mattered when fighting the Germans) was that
the overhang at the rear of the turret on the 76.2mm models was just the right
size to accept any "Teller" mine that an enterprising grunt might chose to
shove into said gap.  Any attempt to traverse the turret would detonate the
mine (which would throw the turret off of the tank.)  According to my 
grandfather (who spent 20 years in the Soviet Army; 1935-1955), the Germans
frequently made infantry counterattacks against Soviet armor, usually with
disturbing (for my grandfather) degrees of success. 



  
  --don't like snow, miss Deirdre, and wish I was still in Santa Cruz.