T34/85 Medium Tank : USSR

T-34/85 medium tank. Manufactured from cast and welded steel components and painted green. The drive sprocket is mounted at the rear with the idler wheel at the front. There are five rubber tyred, steel road wheels on each side of the hull with no return rollers. The road wheels are of the cast 'starfish', type and are post Second World War replacements, originally designed for the T-54/55 series of tanks. The track links are waffle pattern type with a width of 550mm. Five spare track links are stowed on the front glacis plate between the towing hooks, below the machine gun and drivers hatch. Stowed and fitted to the starboard superstructure side is a heavy guage steel wire towing cable with cast eyelets at each end, one blackout headlight, two long handled shovels, one pick, one rectangular steel storage box containing special hand tools and two cylindrical fuel drums mounted end to end towards the rear of the vehicle. There are also three hand holds made from steel rod welded at intervals to the superstructure side. Mounted on the port superstructure side, are two more long handled shovels, a headlight, a second identical tow cable with cast eyelets, one two handled saw, a short rectangular steel stowage box containing a refueling nozzle, hose and fittings, a longer rectangular steel stowage box containing the gun barrel cleaning kit, two steel shackles and a single cylindrical fuel drum with a pair of adjacent brackets for mounting a second fuel drum. There are also another three hand holds made from steel rod, welded to the superstructure side. The turret has been cast from two parts and welded together. The gun mantlet and barrel sleeve are also of cast steel construction.

This vehicle was produced at Zavod Nr.183 in Nizhni Tagil in the former Eastern Soviet Union. Of all the factories producing the T-34 series during the Second World War, this tank plant produced approximately 35,000 tanks to May 1945, making it the single largest producer of T-34 tanks in the Soviet Union.