This is just the tip of the spear of the long life of what is now the world’s most prolific and oldest battle tank still in use!
This is about the T-34 series battle tank specifically armed with the 85mm gun. The main gun was a modification of the high velocity 85mm anti-aircraft gun. At first the D-5T version of the 85mm was used, but was quickly replaced by the slightly more compact Zis-S-53 gun.
Great Patriotic War (World War Two): June 1941 to May 1945.
The first T-34-85s, with the D-5T gun, are sometimes called the Model 1943 even though their production was from January-March 1944.
Early T-34-85 with D-5T gun. Note rounded fenders and mish-mash of two styles of roadwheels. One style of roadwheel uses a solid rubber tire, the other style has no rubber tire.
Production of the T-34-85 with the better Zis-S-53 gun began in March 1944, and was called Model 1944. Improved versions were called Model 1945, Model 1946, etcetera, and these model designations did not necessarily refer to the year of production.
Germans use a knocked-out T-34-85, with D-5T gun, as a forward observation post.
During the Great Patriotic War (World War Two), the shape of the turret of the T-34-85 varied depending on which Soviet factory made it. The turret had to be enlarged to accommodate a radio and another crewman. Also, the positions of the turret ventilators shifted. Early on, the fenders were rounded, by the end of the war they were squared-off.
The early, smaller, turret of the T-34-85.
Silent German film, destroyed T-34-85s, 1944:
More silent German film, lots of burning T-34-85s, makes you wonder how the Germans lost:
Yugoslav T-34-85 in the village of Vinkovci, sometime in 1945.
Torgau, Germany, April 1945, Soviets show-off their T-34-85 to a U.S. Major General Reinhardt, who is accompanied by Russian General Rossovsky (divisional general of the First Ukrainian Army):
Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).
After the Great Patriotic War, a standardized version of the T-34-85 was developed and several Eastern European countries got the job of upgrading and standardizing as many T-34-85s as they could. Some of the East German and Czechoslovakian upgrades could be identified by the use of the German Notec (Notek) light and different styles of headlight brush guard. Czechoslovakia also designed their own style of exhaust pipe covers, which reduced the amount of steel used to make them.
Silent Soviet film, Moscow Victory Day parade, 09MAY1949:
United Nations’ Korean Police Action, First Battle of the Naktong Bulge, August 1950. Silent U.S. Marine Corps film (dated 17AUG1950) of U.S. Marines and U.S. Army soldiers inspecting knocked-out North Korean T-34-85 in Yongsan Myon (aka Yeongsan-myeon):
South of Suwon, Korea, a T-34-85 that got knocked out when the bridge it was on was bombed by the U.S. Air Force. Photo dated October 1950.
Silent Soviet film, Soviet troops and their T-34-85s supposedly leave Berlin, Germany, early 1950s(?):
Silent film, T-34-85s parade in Budapest, Hungary, early 1950s(?)
Putting down the East German uprising, June 1953.
Silent film, T-34-85s put down worker riots on Potsdamer Platz, in what would become East Berlin, East Germany, June 1953:
This photo shows Soviet General Dibrova standing on top of a T-34-85, imploring protesting Germans to go home.
1953 was a bad year for the Soviet occupiers of what would become East Berlin.
This photo shows protesting Germans trying to break into a Soviet T-34-85.
The 1953 Berlin Crisis would not be the only time Germans rebelled against Soviet occupiers.
Film, D.D.R. (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, German Democratic Republic) NVA (Nationale Volks-Armee, National Folks’ Army aka East German army) shows-off their T-34-85s to the public, 1955-56(?):
Knocked-out Syrian T-34-85, Golan Heights 1957. This is a Czechoslovakian upgrade, the identifying feature are the ‘wavy’ style of exhaust pipe covers, which were specific to Czechoslovak upgrades.
Czechoslovak T-34-85 with Notek, huge external fuel drums and two styles of roadwheels.
Experimenting with water fording.
U.S. Embassy photo. The first tanks deployed in the crisis that led to the building of the Berlin Wall were former Soviet but now East German T-34-85s, on 13AUG1961.
The 1961 Berlin Crisis was the last straw, resulting in the division of Berlin and the building of the Berlin Wall. (Cold War 1961: BERLIN KRISE, ‘GAME OF CHICKEN’ M48A1 vs T-54/55!)
A Cuban T-34-85, supposedly during the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Sometime in the 1960s, a T-34 recovery vehicle was used to position Czechoslovak T-35-85s for the Dukla Battlefield Military Open-Air Museum. Photo via Slovak Republic Ministry of Defense.
Sometime in the 1960s, a T-34 recovery vehicle was used to position Czechoslovak T-35-85s for the Dukla Battlefield Military Open-Air Museum. Photo via Slovak Republic Ministry of Defense.
In the late 1960s, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) built the May 16 Square, in Seoul. They used captured North Korean tanks, including this T-34-85, as a display. 27 years after the completion of the square (in 1971) it was torn-up to make the larger, greener, Yeouido Park.
Fresh T-34-85s for Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam (North Vietnam), in 1971, during training for what would become the 1972 Offensive against South Vietnam.
More preparations for the 1972 Offensive. This T-34-85 has two styles of roadwheels.
Knocked-out Cypriot T-34-85s, with U.S. M2 .50 caliber heavy machineguns, during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
I took this photo during a California Army National Guard drill weekend on Fort Irwin, California.
T-34-85 monument, Kiev, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 20SEP1985. Photo by Don S. Montgomery.
Yugoslavian (possibly JNA, Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija) T-34-85, sometime late 1970s or 1980s.
Yugoslavians preferred the U.S. Browning M2 .50 cal heavy machinegun, over the Soviet version. Contrary to popular western belief, Yugoslavia was never a part of the Warsaw Pact.
The digital watch this guy is wearing indicates the photo was made probably in the 1980s. Also, notice the position of the turret ventilators, instead of two located next to each other, they are separate, one at the turret rear, the other at the turret front.
Post Cold War, Balkan Wars, War on Terror, Battle for Ukraine, 1992 to present:
An abandoned JNA-Serb T-34-85. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Glenn W. Suggs, 29FEB1996.
A rubberized Bosnian-Serb T-34-85.
Supposedly this photo shows a JNA-Serb T-34-85 withdrawing from Macedonia in 2001.
September 2010 video of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) T-34-85 museum exhibit:
Revealed in October 2015, North Korea still uses the T-34-85, it has been upgraded, including new tracks with rubber shoes/pads.
Restored T-34-85 in Zagan, Poland. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Shiloh Capers, 21OCT2017.
In the ongoing civil war in Yemen, it is reported that both rebels and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia backed militias are using T-34-85s.
Photo from 2018 or 2019 showing a Saudi backed Yemen militia T-34-85 being fired from outside the tank.
CGTN video, during a 2018 parade in Moscow the driver of a T-34-85 got antsy while loading onto a tractor-trailer, and drove off the trailer rolling the tank:
A train-load of Laotian T-34-85s heading for Russia, to be used in parades and movies.
CGTN video, Laos returns 30 operable T-34-85 tanks to Russia in January 2019 (the video incorrectly shows T-34-76 during WW2):
At the beginning of September 2020, the Institute of Military History decided to move the old T-34-85 ‘gate guards’ at the Dukla Battlefield Military Open-Air Museum to a new location in the village of Kapišová, that will make public viewing easier. Photo via Slovak Republic Ministry of Defense.
At the beginning of September 2020, the Institute of Military History decided to move the old T-34-85 ‘gate guards’ at the Dukla Battlefield Military Open-Air Museum to a new location that will make public viewing easier. Photo via Slovak Republic Ministry of Defense.
Video of Yemen rebels destroying a government/Saudi militia T-34-85, sometime in 2022:
Russian ‘Z’ force BRDM drives past the T-34-85 monument in Armyansk, Crimea, 24FEB2022.
Restored T-34/85 takes part in parade rehearsals in Moscow, Russia, honoring the end of The Great Patriotic War. Photo by Bai Xueqi, 07MAY2022, via Xinhua News.
In 2022 and 2023, several news sources reported that both Ukraine and Russia were using T-34-85s in combat!
See more about T-34-85: Czech from Russia