As one of the most produced tanks in history the T-34 unsurprisingly has been the victim
of its fair share of fake variants.
One of these which has become widespread in more recent years is that of the T-34 with
an 88mm cannon.
Unlike other fake vehicles though this tank isn’t just a one off, with at least 3 different
designs being put forward supposedly having been made.
Are any of these real or is this yet another example of the internet making things up?
Join me today as we look into this topic.
As I just mentioned there are 3 primary examples of the T-34 with an 88mm you’ll likely run
into, these consist of the T-34 flak 88, T-34 with a rebored 85mm, and a T-34 with its gun
swapped with that of a Tiger.
We’ll go over each of these in this video but to start with let's look at probably the
most well known of them, the T-34 rearmed with the Tigers 88mm.
You’ve likely seen this particular tank in the game World of Tanks as it was added
as a premium in the console edition of the game.
Unlike some of the other fakes wargaming has introduced though this is not actually the
origin of this design as its existence goes back all the way to the second world war,
or at least that's how the rumor goes.
According to the sources which talk about this machine it was created in mid 1944 at
a shipyard in Latvia using the 88 from a damaged Tiger I.
This tank would go on to see use by the 12th Panzerdivision in Kurland with a large cross
painted on the turret to prevent friendly fire.
Contrary to this, Wargaming's description of the tank claims the tank allegedly served
with the 7th Panzer division in East Prussia.
Likely the truth behind these rumors will never be known for certain but we can use
the information we know about both vehicles to consider if this is actually a viable design.
From previous videos we have seen that it is indeed possible to upgun tanks and this
was something the Germans did using captured equipment.
Obviously with these vehicles using foreign ammo it makes sense that using a cannon that
has a ready supply of ammo would be beneficial.
In fact a similar example of this can be seen when we consider the example of a captured
KV which was modified to house a 75mm cannon.
However is this realistic when we change this to the T-34 and the 88mm gun?
Well on the surface it seems plausible with both vehicles actually being relatively similar
in size especially in regards to their turrets.
Although this may seem to support the concept at first when we start to look closer and
consider the internal layout of the turrets it quickly becomes apparent that the internal
layout is distinctly different.
I have no doubt that given the right conditions this modification could indeed be done, but
it would more than likely require significant modifications to the turret and gun breech
to allow the gun to move properly and be balanced well enough.
With the likelihood of those conditions being met in the field being fairly low I think
it's safe to say that this tank is almost certainly a fake.
This sort of gun swap is quite common in post war modeling and tank discussions but contrary
to popular belief it is a much more complex process which is why you rarely see it outside
of modernization projects done in peacetime or to upgun domestic designs.
The next, and probably most interesting, concept for an 88mm armed T-34 comes from an interview
with a German tank commander by the name of Wolfgang Kloth.
According to him a captured T-34 had its gun rebored to be capable of firing 88mm ammunition.
Just like our last example this was reportedly done in Latvia with the reboring being done
at a shipyard at around the same period the 88mm gun swap is said to have been done.
This is certainly intriguing as this shared story could indicate some level of truth to
them however it could just as likely be due to someone confusing Kloth’s story and assuming
the gun was swapped instead of modified.
Either way despite this account coming from a source who did actually serve at the area
in question the existence of the T-34 is more than likely not true.
Reboring the cannon is certainly plausible but the ammunition sizes are different.
This would mean that it would also require modifications to the breech, which although
possible, would require manufacturing capabilities that really only existed in Germany.
This does seem to have been done in some cases with captured Soviet AA guns including 85mm
ones.
Perhaps this is what caused the rumor of the T-34 88 in the first place with Kloth merely
misunderstanding what gun was modified.
I don’t know enough to say for certain that this is the case but it does seem to make
sense when you consider the time period.
So given what we know it's quite likely that not only is this vehicle a fake, but it probably
is the origin of the T-34 armed with the Tigers 88 as well.
Last but not least we reach what is possibly equal parts the most believable of the tanks
we’ve talked about today as well as the easiest to disprove.
The main image you will see supposedly proving this vehicle's existence is this one.
This picture seems to show a T-34 rearmed with an 88mm flak gun and the housing.
This is certainly a realistic scenario given the effectiveness of the 88mm as well as the
availability of T-34 hulls.
We can even see some examples of similar rearmaments with at least one T-34 being given a turret
to house 20mm flak guns.
However with some relatively quick digging we can quickly find the actual image behind
this swap which is just a normal T-34 with a flak gun from another photo edited onto
it.
This design may be fake but I’d argue out of the three we’ve looked at today this
one is probably the most likely of all of them to be made.
We see similar looking modifications done later to mount 100 and 122mm cannons onto
the hull so mounting an 88 would certainly be doable but there does not seem to be any
evidence of it being done.
So that about wraps it up for the T-34s with 88mms.
If I somehow missed another vehicle which fits that description be sure to let me know
in the comments as well as telling me what you thought of the video.
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