Russian medium tank T-34-85 COBI 2716 - World War II

You know that:

• The first idea to build a completely new tank was put forward by the Russian designer A. Firson, who was executed by the Soviet leader Stalin, and so the task was left to the young and ambitious engineer Mikhail Koshkin, who did not want to accept the mere improvement of long outdated technology.
• M. Koshkin, in contradiction to the orders of the management, drew in secret something that later became a real legend. 
• When the prototype was tested in 1938 before a committee of the Council of Defence, the new tank proved to be a very capable machine. However, it ran into fierce opposition from Marshal Kulikov, who tried to point out real or imagined flaws and did so until the committee rejected the T-34 tank prototype.
• Whether personal gain, total incompetence, or both were behind Kulikov's attitude is no longer known. In any case, the Constable was forced to take an unusual step that ultimately cost him his life.
• In order to push an innovative tank design in front of the army leadership, despite Marshal Kulikov's opposition, M. Koshkin personally set out with the T-34 prototype in bitter cold from Kharkov to Moscow to meet Stalin.
• In order to push the innovative tank design before the army leadership and despite the opposition of Marshal Kulikov, M. Koshkin personally drove the T-34 prototype from Kharkov to Moscow in bitter cold to meet Stalin.
• However, the young engineer made a fatal mistake when he forgot one important thing in the tank's design, the heater. 
• During the 800 km long journey, M. Koshkin caught a cold and died of pneumonia a few weeks later.
• Nevertheless, his mission was a success. When J. Stalin saw the new type of tank, he immediately decided to mass produce it.
• Its production was so simple that even unskilled labor (unfortunately women and children), who were not deployed on the front lines, could assemble it.
• The T-34 tanks were the most produced of all the tanks of World War II.
• In total, more than 80,000 units were produced in various versions, of which 44,900 were lost in combat.
• The 85 version of the tank had an improved 85 mm cannon
• At a meeting of the General Staff, German General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist described the T-34 as the best tank in the world.
• The T-34 tanks easily traversed even soft terrain due to their wide tracks.
• Even today it is still included in the decorations of 9 countries of the world.

Technical parameters:

• length 6.1 m (with gun 8.1 m), width 3.00 m, height 2.70 m
• weight 32 000 kg
• frontal armour thickness up to 90 mm
• propulsion 12-cylinder diesel engine V-2-34 38 8L V12 of 500 hp
• maximum speed 55 km/h on the road, 20 km/h off-road
• 5 forward and 1 reverse speed
• range 420 km
• consumption 250 l/100 km summer and 270 l/100 km winter
• wading distance 1.4 m
• main weapon ZIS-S-53 cannon 85 mm calibre (56 or 60 rounds), range 14 000 m
• secondary weapon 2x DT machine gun 7,62 mm calibre
• crew of 5