T-28

The Soviet T–28 was a multi-turreted tank that was among the world's first medium tanks. The prototype was completed in 1931, and production began in late 1932. It was an infantrysupport tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T–28 was designed to complement the heavier T–35 (also multi-turreted), with which it shared turret designs. The type did not have much success in combat, but it played an important role as a development project for the Soviet designers. A series of new ideas and solutions were tried out on the T–28 which were later incorporated in future models.

Design history


The T–28 was in many ways similar to the British Vickers A1E1 Independent tank, which greatly influenced tank design in the period between the wars, even though only a single prototype of this trendsetter was manufactured, in 1926. The Kirov Factory in Leningrad began manufacturing a tank which was based on the design of the British Independent in 1932. The T–28 tank was officially approved on 11 August 1933. The T–28 had one large turret with a 76.2mm gun and two smaller turrets with 7.62mm machine guns. A total of 503 T–28 tanks were manufactured over a period of 8 years from 1933 to 1941.

Combat history
The T–28 was deployed during the Invasion of Poland and the Winter War against Finland. During the initial stages of the Winter War, the tank was used in direct fire missions against Finnish pillboxes. In the course of these operations it was found that the armour was inadequate and programs were initiated to upgrade it. Frontal plates were upgraded from 50 mm to 80 mm and side and rear plates to 40 mm thickness. With this uparmoured version the Red Army broke through the main Finnish defensive fortification, the Mannerheim Line.

According to Russian historian Maksim Kolomiets in his book ''T–28. Stalin's Threeheaded Monster'', over 200 T–28s were knocked out during the Winter War, but only 20 of them were irrecoverable losses (including 2 captured by the Finnish Army). Due to the proximity of the Kirov Plant, all other knockedout tanks were repaired, some of them over five times.



The Finns nicknamed the T–28 Postivaunu ("mail coach" or "post train") after a lone Soviet T-28 tank commander was captured with his knocked out tank that carried the monthly salary of and mail addressed to the 91st Tank Battalion (this occurred 19–20 December 1939, during the battle of Summa). The T-28 was also nicknamed Kivitalo ("stone building") by the Finns due to its large size.

The Finns captured two T–28s during the Winter War and five in the Continuation War, for a total of 7 vehicles. The Finns did not have tractors that could tow away vehicles as heavy as the T-28, and so captured T-28s that could not move under their own power were stripped of anything useful (machine guns, radios etc.) and left where they were.

The Soviets had 411 T–28 tanks when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. A large majority of these were lost during the first two months of the invasion, many of them abandoned after mechanical breakdown. Some T–28s took part in the 1941 winter defence of Leningrad and Moscow, but after late 1941, they were rare in Red Army service; a few were operated by enemy forces.

Today three T–28s remain, two in Finland and one in Moscow. One restored T–28 is on display in Finnish field camouflage in the Parola Tank Museum, Finland. A further wreck is stored at Parola, now awaiting restoration and a hull previously used as a bunker was discovered near St. Petersburg.

Assessment
Although the T-28 was rightly considered ineffective by 1941, it is worth remembering that when the Red Army was fielding the first T–28s in 1933, the French Army was still largely equipped with the Renault FT, the British Army had some inferior Vickers Medium Mark I & II and the German Reichswehr had no tanks at all. No army had a seriesproduction medium tank comparable to the T–28 for several years.

The T–28 had a number of advanced features for the time, including radio (in all tanks) and antiaircraft machinegun mounts. Just before the Second World War, many received armor upgrades, bringing its protection on par with the early Panzer IV, although its suspension and layout were outdated.

The T–28 had significant flaws. The plungerspring type suspension was poor, but many of the better suspension designs used in World War II tanks had not yet been developed. The engine and transmission were troublesome. Worst of all, the design was not flexible. Although the T–28 and early versions of the Panzer IV were comparable in armour and firepower, the sound basic design of the Panzer IV allowed it to be significantly upgraded, while the T–28 was a poor basis for improvement.

All multi-turreted tanks shared the same problem; the commander, who gives the order to open fire, could only focus his attention in one direction at a time and therefore the advantage of having weapons that could be fired in many different directions at once was nullified.

Unfortunately for the Red Army, by the time the T–28 saw combat in 1939, events had overtaken it. The 1930s saw the development of the first reliable highspeed suspensions, the first purposedesigned antitank guns, and a gradual increase in the firepower of tanks. The Spanish Civil War showed that infantry units with small, towed antitank guns could defeat most contemporary tanks, and made the underarmoured tanks from the early 1930s particularly vulnerable.

Despite heavy losses, in the Winter War the Red Army's 20th Tank Brigade, equipped with T-28s, fulfilled its mission to break the defensive Mannerheim Line. As an infantrysupport tank, designed to support infantry in breakthrough operations, the T–28 in general was successful for an early 1930s design.

Variants

 * T-28 Model 1934 or T-28A—main production model with the same machinegun turrets, and similar main turret as the T-35 heavy tank and Model 27/32 76.2mm gun.
 * T-28 Model 1938 or T-28B—version with improved L-10 76.2 mm gun (from 16.5 calibres to 26 calibres), improved gun stabilization system and improved Model M-17L engine.
 * T-28E or T-28C — 1940 addition of appliqué armour in response to poor performance in Finland. Total front armour was increased to 80 mm, weight to 32 t, and road speed dropped to 23 km/h
 * T-28 Model 1940 — the final batch of about twelve tanks had the same conical turret as lateproduction T-35 tanks.

Experimental models
Several selfpropelled guns, the IT–28 bridging tank, and an engineering vehicle with mine rollers were tested on the T–28 tank chassis, but none was accepted for production. The T–29 was a prototype medium tank, a modernized T–28 with Christie suspension – a later version of this vehicle was considered for the competition of prototypes which led to the T-34, but by then it was outdated (not to be confused with a Grotte tank project also called T–29). The T–28 also served as a testbed for the KV tank suspension.

Operators

 * Soviet Union
 * Museums and displays on the Russian federation: Central Armed Forces Museum. Moscow, model 1927/1932, a hull from T–28 in Museum "Sestroretsk Boundary" at industrial complex–1 "Elephant", Beloostrov
 * Finland – captured seven Soviet T–28 tanks during the Winter War and the Second World War.
 * Museums and displays in Finland: Register number Ps. 241–4 Parola Tank Museum, Ps. 241–? wreck, Ps. 241–? Mikkeli on the front yard of the former reserve noncommissioned officer school in Karkialampi near the landforce headquarters,
 * Hungary – the Hungarian Army used one captured T–28 tank in the summer of 1941.
 * Nazi Germany – Germany captured and made operational at least one T–28 during Operation Barbarossa, designated Panzerkampfwagen T–28 746(r).
 * Turkey – According to one source, two were sold to Turkey in 1935, along with 60 T–26, five T–27 tankettes, and about 60 BA–6 armoured cars to form the 1st Tank Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Division at Luleburgaz.