No T34 in the Soviet Union

The T34 was something of a private venture (in Soviet terms) design and was not an army requirement.

What if it went nowhere? What would the Soviet Union have to be their medium tank during the Great Patriotic War? Super BT? Extra KVs? As it was the early tank deliveries from the UK helped fill in the tasks whilst the T34 got up to speed IOTL.
 
The T-34 wasn't so much a private venture but more an iteration on a tank that was already being designed, the A-20 and T-50 which were smaller vehicles but still modern and still share much of the T-34's genetic history. To make the T-34 not happen you'd need to have Kalin Gol not happen or go differently AND the Finnish Winter War to go VERY differently for the Soviets to not go "you know what...The BT's and T-26 just ain't up to it."

The 'Super BT' was the A-20 and that was, in testing inferior to the A-32. The Soviets were not morons and they knew and realised that their current crop of tanks just were not up to the required standard. So you'd need some HUGE POD to have the T-34 not happen other than 'because'.
 
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Probably more T-50 and KV tanks at 1st, then probably introduction of the T-43?
Western tanks are sought after even more by Soviet tankists, and we might see Matilda and Churchill with Soviet guns, along with Soviet HE shell for the 6 pdr.
 
Try moving the POD back to 1930. Drop a hint to Washington about how much misery communism would create during the second half of the 20th century.
Washington refuses to allow Walter Christie to sell tank prototypes to Amscorg. Ergo no sloped armour, no high speed tracks, no BT tanks and no T-34 tanks.
 
A major complaint about British tanks supplied to the Soviet Union was the ineffectiveness of the 2 Pounder gun and they tried to fit larger Soviet guns into the turrets. Could this lead to a technology exchange of Soviet guns for British tanks? Is there anything which would fit into a British turret with the effectiveness of the 17 Pounder or at least the 6 pounder AP but with decent HE? The Valentine remained popular with crews throughout the war for it's reliability, small size and quietness.
 

marathag

Banned
A major complaint about British tanks supplied to the Soviet Union was the ineffectiveness of the 2 Pounder gun and they tried to fit larger Soviet guns into the turrets. Could this lead to a technology exchange of Soviet guns for British tanks? Is there anything which would fit into a British turret with the effectiveness of the 17 Pounder or at least the 6 pounder AP but with decent HE? The Valentine remained popular with crews throughout the war for it's reliability, small size and quietness.
Soviet test of ZiS 5 76mm was done on a Matilda
e105266675cfda4f42d56e830d24256b.jpg

 
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Try moving the POD back to 1930. Drop a hint to Washington about how much misery communism would create during the second half of the 20th century.
Washington refuses to allow Walter Christie to sell tank prototypes to Amscorg. Ergo no sloped armour, no high speed tracks, no BT tanks and no T-34 tanks.

Christie did not invent sloped armour. The advantages and disadvantages of sloped armor was well known to the soviets (hell everyone) since before the first FT clones including the germans.

Sloped armour on the T-34 was not revolutionary. If anything the T-34s layout represented a dead end in tank design with post-war tanks only being sloped on the front as the all around sloped layout seriously compromized interior space.
 
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A major complaint about British tanks supplied to the Soviet Union was the ineffectiveness of the 2 Pounder gun and they tried to fit larger Soviet guns into the turrets. Could this lead to a technology exchange of Soviet guns for British tanks? Is there anything which would fit into a British turret with the effectiveness of the 17 Pounder or at least the 6 pounder AP but with decent HE? The Valentine remained popular with crews throughout the war for it's reliability, small size and quietness.

If you positively want a good hole puncher that can fit where the 85mm can't, the Soviet 57mm is a very good choice. HE shell is there, too, that historically was retrofitted on British 6pdr cases to provide Churchills and Valentines with enough of HE ammo.
Granted, the 17pdr was another league, the Soviet equivalent in AP performance was probably the 100mm, and that one will not fit on any tank British sent to the SU.
 
Christie did not invent sloped armour. The advantages and disadvantages of sloped armor was well known to the soviets (hell everyone) since before the first FT clones including the germans.

Sloped armour on the T-34 was not revolutionary. If anything the T-34s layout represented a dead end in tank design with post-war tanks only being sloped on the front as the all around sloped layout seriously compromized interior space.

The famous Christie Suspension was something of a dead end as well as no one uses it anymore. Torsion bar suspension however is used even today.
 

marathag

Banned
The famous Christie Suspension was something of a dead end as well as no one uses it anymore. Torsion bar suspension however is used even today.
Look at the Merkava, like a cross of Horstmann and being an external Christie swingarm.
Just as Christie 'steals' hull volume from the sides, Torsion Bars takes away from the bottom of the hull
 
The T34 was something of a private venture (in Soviet terms) design and was not an army requirement.

What if it went nowhere? What would the Soviet Union have to be their medium tank during the Great Patriotic War? Super BT? Extra KVs? As it was the early tank deliveries from the UK helped fill in the tasks whilst the T34 got up to speed IOTL.

I rather think the Soviets would develop something in the T34's place, since it was pretty clear they had a gap that need to be filled that wasn't covered by their other designs. It is interesting to speculate what alternate paths they might have taken as the weakness of their existing designs became clear. A Soviet tank with good interior ergonomics could be a pretty interesting alternative to explore.

fasquardon
 

marathag

Banned
1937, the improved BT-7, the BT-SV
bt_sv_1-650.jpg

25mm armor basis 4 man crew, with him in the hull as a radio operator
Tsyganov's arrest during the purges put an end to the BT series
Mikhail Koshkin worked with Tsyganov, and was promoted, rather than being purged,

This is where the A-20 came from.
Still used a lot of BT parts(Kharkov was the factory) but wider tracks and the new V-2 engine
A-20-650.png
built in 1939

The A-32 was slightly larger, 5 road wheels, and bigger turret. 19 tons, 25mm armor basis, and L-10 76mm gun
A-32-650.png


A-34 got more armor(45mm) and wider tracks in 1940, and became the T-34, with series production planned for Kharkov and Stalingrad Tractor Plants
 
Maybe better/different T-28, then?
Like, it gets delayed and reworked until 1934-35, and in the process it loses MG turrets, gets better suspension and so on. And gets simplified to allow more production.

T-34 design process is started, but with it being delayed (due to resources rerouted to make T-28 work) and T-28 being more modern, it might be possible that soviets would decide to expand T-28 production instead of rushing production of another new tank, resulting in this timeline's T-34 appearing several years later and having different design.
 
Well what about lighter version of KV-1? Reducing armor to that of OTL T-34 by some 30% ? Lighter KV-1 (around 28-30 tons) with 76 and later 85 mm cannon being “medium” and OTL standard KV-2 Heavy tank?
 
Well what about lighter version of KV-1? Reducing armor to that of OTL T-34 by some 30% ? Lighter KV-1 (around 28-30 tons) with 76 and later 85 mm cannon being “medium” and OTL standard KV-2 Heavy tank?

They kinda did that with the KV-1S "A variant with higher speed, but thinner armour. A new, smaller, cast turret and redesigned rear hull with a new planetary transmission. 1370 built. "

 

marathag

Banned
Might the Sovs settle on the A-32 as good enough? Or close, then adding a more potent 76mm?
Or could have stayed with the lighter armor at first, and had two models, one, with the low velocity L-11 76mm as the support tank for tossing HE, and another with the ZiS-2 57mm gun for hole punching, an analog to what the Germans had done with the Panzer IV and III
 
They kinda did that with the KV-1S "A variant with higher speed, but thinner armour. A new, smaller, cast turret and redesigned rear hull with a new planetary transmission. 1370 built. "

Well KV-1S wasn’t on diet so much. I was proposing to thin it even more.
 
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