In the mess that one finds in RUclips with all those amateur historians/gameboys, having Mr. Willey, with his calm, knowledgeable, and professional experience , is an absolute joy. Well done Mr. Willey, please keep it up. You and the staff at the "Tank Museum" are outstanding. Greetings from America!
Yes, absolutely! Thank you soooooo much Mr.Wiley🤝👏👍🇺🇲 Informed, well spoken factual, and why things were important, it's called an EXPLANATION🤔😯 My father who, with his dad, had several thousand acres of farm land and a small highway construction company, knew how to drive just about every type of heavy equipment, decided after he graduated from high school that working for Pullman Standard railway passenger car company paid better than working for my grandfather, and was hired by them to test the M3 Grant and Lee tanks they were making for about 2 yrs for the British and Russians before Pearl Harbor, and for a short time the Sherman.They had an obstacle course where each tank was tested after final assembly which had pools of water, hills, ditches, mud traps, etc. and a 40 some mile road test with police escort which i have pictures of. When he was drafted into the Army he though surely he'd be in an armored unit because of his experience, but like he said, "the militarys' job was to fill holes with people, i filled the hole of an Army infantryman, maybe the next hole was for a 'tanker'." Anyway his first day of combat was with the 5th Rangers on Omaha beach 6, June 1944, and his last was as a squad/section leader with the 106th Infantry Div. in Germany 21, Dec.1944 when captured by the 1st. SS Panzer Regiment near St.Vith Belgium and spent Christmas eve in StalagIXb in Bad Orb Germany, 'such are the fortunes of war'. He passed away on Sept. 20th 2012 at the age of 90.
@@thomasschoon8407 What an interesting story and ironic your father was'nt utilized as a 'tanker' with his knowledge/experience. My father spent the war as a motorcycle despatch rider at home in the UK and in the middle east (Egypt/Libya etc) and his father fought in the Boer war (S'Africa) at the turn of the century. Respect to them all.
100%..too many videos on these topics have inaccurate commentary and then deluges of comments by either people who think its the best thing ever or far more commonly, the btns of Wehraboos with their basic whine of 'it was unfair - they(we!) only lost due to the weather, lack of fuel etc etc'
My Grandfather was a 20 year old tank commander, driving the 34-85 to the gates of berlin.Thank you so much for putting together a comprehensive piece on a fundamental part of the russian mythos and general cultural imprinting.
@@AKUJIVALDO Nein. He's right. Those Tigers don't stand a chance, as they lack support in any way. No artillery, no air support, no fuel, nothing. The Germans were in a dire situation at the end of the war, and Tigers don't get the support they need too operate as often.
@@AKUJIVALDO thing is most of time by late war they didnt prowl much due to Jabos, fuel shortages, breakdowns and sheer lack of numbers. As said above, this kind of YT by a Brit who knows his stuff is far better than either the type of hagiography by all Glory to the Red Army types or equally and more commonly, Wehraboos of the 'its so unfair, they had such cool tanks and uniforms'
Apart from the technical and production factoids, I appreciated the bit at the end about the cultural significance of this beastie for the Russians.. But you're right; as always Dave (et al) is(are) solid.
falconeaterf15 The only thing that he doesnt talk about is the cost of human life using such an almost useless tank. 40.000+ knocked out T-34... good lord.
@@bingobongo1615 Not so much a useless tank as that the Germans they were facing were just that much better. Soviet Russia just kinda zerg rushed...which of course won the war in the long term
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This is the third presentation of the T34 I have watched today, and by far the best. Having seen a spitfire in flight I can appreciate how iconic it is. I'm sure it will be used again.
I second that. It was the first tank that I could name, and tell the difference between variants. And 4 tankista was probably the most popular show until the 2ks
Brilliant! I've not paid so much attention to a lecture since I was at uni 20 years ago, and it was well worth it. Willey never fails to deliver on outstanding content.
Fun fact: We Finns called t-34's "Sotka". Witch means literally means bluebill duck. But the name came from a Finnish tank crew man named "Suominen" who before the war served on board of a steam ship witch was named "sotka" and hi told his comrades how tall the smokestack of ship was. And when the first captured t-34's came to Finnish service one of Suomise's comrades said when he saw tank's long barrel he said: "there come that Suomise's Sotka" and that's where it got its name.
I recommend watching Lazerpigs video on the t-34. (If you want a crude an humorous video). Although it’s a comedy video it’s still quite informative and he raises some points against the T-34 that aren’t discussed here. I think the truth of the tank is somewhere between Lazerpigs video and this one. The biggest points he raises are that the reliability issues and bad construction were MUCH worse than many people claim. (“T-34 is rugged and simple” as an excuse for poor build) what is a tank good for if it can only make it a few dozen miles before needing extensive repair? Cost cutting and simplification is good, but if you go too far it is bad and then you end up having to produce 4x the tanks you should’ve. And that even though producing A TON of tanks ended up working for Russia, producing double the tanks also means double the support units, double the tankers dying, and double the fuel. Because if this the T-34 as it was produced wasn’t a war winner token, and Russia couldn’t have won the war without the help of other allies. (Contrary to what is often claimed. The t-34 being “gods tank” and that “Russia won the war by themselves with sheer numbers”.) The original T-34/85 design is great, but cost cutting to the point of them being almost useless by themselves is why they were the most destroyed tank in WW2, and that should be seen as a bad thing, not “Russia won the war with numbers”.
Thank you for a balanced and thorough review of the T-34. There was no single 'perfect tank' in WWII. But many combatants had the tank that was right for them at various points in the war. The T-34 was the right tank fir the USSR at that time and it was critical to the USSR success. The Chieftan did a great chat on the M4 Sherman and why it was the right tank for the USA which is also good. Tank Museum Bovington always delivers. Cheers from the USA.
Keep in mind that Wiley teaches the why of tank to the British Army teams, not just the how, and does so with a depth of the history of tank use. His commentary is always simple, precise and to the point as to what is the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly of each and every one of the specimens that the Tank Museum has managed to collect over the decades. Always a pleasure.
My granddad Alexey Scherbakov was a military engineer who accepted and commissioned T-34/76 and T34/85 tanks at Chelyabinsk tractor factory (ЧТЗ) before they was sent to the frontlines since 1942 until 1945. AFAIK some of this production improvements which was mentioned by mr. Willey was done by him. As well he was responsible for the training of the tank drivers. By the way I hope to visit Bovington tank museum this year and spend there whole the weekend. Could you advise when is the best time to pay a visit, please? As well would be great to get a discussion and to go for a pint with mr. Dave Willey. Thanks for the great videos
@@haroldfiedler6549 Yeah....How was USA created and how it spread? Genocide ! From starvation and war by using infected blankets and such(Brits also used this once,but punished the general that did it in the end..unlike Americans) and slaughter.Shall we talk about conquest of Philippines? 600 000 civilians,by words of your own general. Shall we talk about forbidding food and medicine trade and help to Iraq,causing a lot of death? We could also talk about Yemen,when US helped bloodthirsty Saudi to block all food and medicine shipments to Yemen < Same with Venezuela,thou Saudi's are absent and US did not block it physically. Shall we talk about bloody dictators supported in South America,Central America,Africa and Asia? Just official ones...Slavery? Yeah,bloody,evil Russians.....Also,Stalin was not Russian ;) ,thou he did consider himself as Shall we talk about Britain and its colonial past? As for Stalin,most of what you learn is illogical propaganda. First,Holodomor...Funny part,whole of USSR had problems with starvation and RUSSIANS lived mixed with Ukrainians and died with them...But it was a genocide against Ukrainians? Well,by the words of US and British government,who's source of information were ex high ranking Nazis that escaped to US and Canada...Key one being ex chief of propaganda for Reich in Ukraine,who is also a grandfather to one of top Canadian politicians(forgot her name,but she even brags about him...).Funny part also,Ukrainian population grew A LOT durring 30s,as did whole of USSR.Small problem with "Stalin only killed his people and only focused on the army" is that USSR had more medical staff than US and Canada combined(as well as women pilots,among other things).Reason for this was that during first 5 year plan,they also put emphasis on education and building A LOT of hospitals,as well as building a huge pharmaceutical industry.Vaccination became the norm in 30s.Not only that,but after first reform of agriculture,problems of starvation popping up in USSR(problem since 1916) was gone,thou it was a brutal reformation. Also,building a huge public transport was also a thing in 30s...just look up how many busses they made.Actually,the living standard of 1940 wasn't repeated until well into 60s and it wasn't at all bad. As f or army clean up and "paranoia" of Stalin....completely wrong on paranoia part.Stalin was brutal and cold in his decisions(at least most of the time),but far from being paranoid and irrational like West managed to portray him.Do you know how situation was in 20s and early 30s in USSR? First,you had 6 big political factions fight for power and doing "sweeps" whenever taking power in any place...masses died and suffered due to this.Then there was problem of MANY small groups working for themselves and tightly connected,due to the how Revolution happened...it was an uncontrolled fire and wasn't centralized nor well controlled.This lack of control was up to Stalins era.Only one that had true firm hold was Trotsky...and he was bloody insane,even worse than how Western propaganda portrayed Stalin.He wanted to "liberate" people from luxury and give them soul purpose in life...of serving what he considered the best for the country and community.Trotsky was known for his terrorist acts and terror tactics all too well ... . and yes, unlike Stalin,he wanted to wage the war with the world.Problem with getting rid of Trotsky was that he had a fanatical fallowing,basically utter radicals at his side and in masses(WWI and Civil War proved fertile ground for him to exploit) and a lot of them were i n Red Army.....Also,remember how I said how Red Army and USSR was formed? Well,that also meant a lot of unchecked groups were there..Add to that growing corruption and abuse of power,you got quite a hell of a country.And due to all of that,USSR was barely functional outside of its image.Stalin fixed threat of new Civil war due to factions,ended starvation(common since 1916 all around USSR at one point or another),population grew far bigger under him,living standards improved quite a lot,highest educational rise in history of USSR and Russia and so on. Yeah,small problem with ignoring all of that...Gulags were normal,but most Westerners do not even know you had various types,depending on punishment.Some of them were "light" and while they were forced to work,conditions were bearable...basically a normal prison with forced labor.Then there were those that were meant to be the end of its prisoners,with barely a shelter to sleep and in far off places with horrible climate conditions(thou,many were sent there by need to build something and rotated,while some were there to stay...forever).Funny part about 20-30 million in gulags is that it was actually first "revealed" by US(even Khrushchev never claimed something like that,despite his demonization of Stalin and deep complex about him),without any evidence to it ..literally no information on where did they get that figure.Then later on,after fall apart of USSR,Georgian investigator with US team found evidence that it was indeed 30 million,but never shared with anyone...Also,his research through i t was short,but somehow managed to search all USSR/Russian archives and did not want to share any evidence about that figure...nor US team. In reality,if we look fall of population and archives,no m ore than 13-14 million were sent to Gulags,not including Nazi soldiers.And since not all gulags were meant as death sentence,we can surely say that those 13-14 million is not the number of dead either...Of course,this did leave a bitter memory to many,but such were the times and it did save them from self destruction of their country. There are more common myths about Stalin and USSR,that I would GLADLY bust....
nikolai Vasilev this was in the times when common people still has no rights it was era when human rights did not exist. Soviet Russia is a modern history. Its absolutely idiotic to compare these two.
Great video and Mr Willey is even better in person, I had a tour of the tank museum with him and his knowledge is outstanding. He know so much and is a real nice guy.
My great granddad died in this tank when he was fighting Nazi Germans in 1944 not far from Warsaw , Poland , he was a Russian commander . This tank is legend like my great granddad .
That was a truly excellent presentation, particularly as it dealt with the meaning of the T34 for russians. As Mr Willey says, it's an icon of the "Great patriotic war" in russian society and as such, it's meaning goes far beyond the - incredibly impressive - facts and figures. Wonderful job. Thankyou.
I did a tour of Russia back during the summer of 2006, and I remember see newly wed couples getting wedding photos taken in front of their local war monuments to the Great Patriotic War. I saw this several times during my 2 weeks there, and it really hammered home how much that war is culturally ingrained in the Russian mind. I've never seen anything like that here in Canada, that is for sure.
It wasn't the perfect tank, but they won the war with it. And while we Americans went "over there", the "there" was "here" for them, in their homes, cities, farms, etc, and not only did far more of their boys not come back, ever, a whole lot of CIVILIANS also perished. The "Great Patriotic War" left a LOT of emotional scars on the peoples of the then-Soviet Union, so if they seem to get a tad emotional about it, well, they have GOOD REASON.
@@garlkurzer That because they have to fight on their territory for survival and not on other side of the planet. There is no family in Russia that not somehow connected to war. Immagine 200 millions people all suffered from this for 5 years.
Excellent video. Point of note: in the summer of 1941 most front line T34's went into action bereft of any armour piercing ammunition what-so-ever. The lucky few were issued a couple of APCBC rounds at best, but so chronic was the shortage of anti-armour projectiles that most had only HE rounds with which to take on the Panzers. An APCR would've been like the golden egg.
Fun story about the Finnish Swastika, it was adopted when the Swedish nobleman Eric von Rosen donated an airplane to Finland in 1918 - and thus started the Finnish Air Force - and he was a fan of the national romanticism of the time, and used a swastika - what he considered a viking symbol for good luck - on pretty much everything he owned. Including his plane. A Blue swastika on a white roundel, in this case, also became the official symbol for the Finnish Air force. It predates the German NSDP adoption of the symbol. Later, his son, would go down to Africa and support the rebel country of Biafra and help design a light attack air craft for their use, and used to great effect it was!
Swastika or hakaristi is old and important part culture of Suomi and different folks in Suomi. It is symbol of constant work and fight against evil in tursaansydän and symbol of cyckle of sun in aurinkopyörä and many many other meanings. Hitler probably stolen hakaristi from Suomi - it is ofcourse very international symbol but Suomi used it already in vehicles and that was the key. German facists copy almost their all symbols from others in easy way. So Germans get Finnish symbol banned for their abuse of it. Swastika needs rehabitilation for its great historical value and importance for so many cultures from today to stone age. I hate Germas for screwing that up...
Well, Carl Gustaf von Rosen(the son of Eric von Rosen) didn't design a Light Attack Aircraft, he instead imported a couple Malmö MFI-9s which he helped adopt into the light strike role.
@@teaser6089 He was part of the process to adopt the training planes into LCAS. Designing might have been the utmost extreme usage of the word, but it was definitely upgraded with RPG-launchers with the aid of French military intelligence IIRC.
Your knowledge of Nostradamus' quatrains is recognised! Nostradamus had the great gift of predicting either everything or nothing all at the same time... Write millions of predictions but keep it nice and vague and high on metaphor...
One of the pact what happened with early pact with Hitler from Brits & France? Allowing tearing apart Czechoslovakia and deleting Austria as a country?
Thank you for such an informative video. Lots of new information...new to me. I am still puzzled and amazed that the SU could produce a V12 cast aluminum diesel engine in such quantities. That engine deserves it's own video-in my opinion.
Yeah that part is totally overlooked. The V2-34, and other variants was an aluminum block!!! Even the British Meteor still used non aluminium steel alloys for cost savings, and the Meteor cane well after the V-2.
28:01 Great shot of the T34 and Tiger I. Both of them were such formidable foes on the battlefield and dare I say, beautiful! Polar opposite ideas in design and philosophy, yet executed in such a way to further each army's tactical applications of tank warfare.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! As a Russian I can say - very well said! Maybe you could also mention why the designer Koshkin died. He spared his life for the testing and production of this tank. Caught cold during the first winter test run to Moscow and later made a second test run back to the factory at spring and later supervised production instead going to the hospital. One could say - a fool... Yes! this tank is an icon! It is a symbol of the whole country fighting for its freedom. And yes this is an example of business and technical effectiveness that allowed to win the war with the country where Ferdinand Porshe was among the tank designers. And is it the fastest real tank of the war? I am not speaking about the toys like BT26 and others.
The T-34 had a rated top speed of 33 mph and the M4 Sherman top speed was set at 28 mph by using an engine rpm governor. The M4 users would tinker with their tank's governor so it could go faster, especially when in top gear, which was a true overdrive designed to be used for sustained high speed travel over roads. The M4 driver/mechanics found they could raise the top speed to 35 - 40 mph and why the Army limited the speed to 28 mph after their top heavy tanks began tipping over when taking curves too fast.
Sounds like pneumonia. Its fun. Right until your left lung fills with fluid and you can't breathe. Flu > pneumonia > collapsed lung > 6 month+ recovery.
I listened like as i'm student of university in proffessor's lesson... Very very good lesson, i learn so much real issues.. Ty for all.. I wish one day i can come to England for Bovington Museum..
Great work! One of the best and most informative videos about the T-34 on youtube. I really liked the emphasis on the symbolic value of the T-34 for the Russian people.
arno nühm which is like so many things in Russia a very dubious symbol... A terribly flawed tank getting destroyed more often than any other tank in history costing 10.000s of lives and yer it is somehow a „good“ symbol. Not to mention its role in suppressing the whole of eastern Europe after WW2.
"Destroyed" is a major term that is confused by alot of people. Most people when they hear of; "Destroyed" it means it can not be used again, it is FUBAR. What the soviets classified as destroyed in WW2 was "The engine expierenced a malfunction with the airfilter and it won't feed enough air into the engine to run, but we don't have the supply lines to fix it." which they couldn't bring up a vehicle to recover said tank, so it was written off as complete lose. Same way with alot of Tiger 2s. Or Tiger 1s. Maybe some Sturmtigers. For all those "destroyed" tanks it's odd how many tanks got recovered by the Germans in WARTIME REPAIRABLE condition and was warrented for upgrades and a redisignation in the German Army. I'm not rooting for the T-34 in anyway shape or manner, but there is a reason why german generals held the T-34 to great asteem. Only a fool will underestimate their enemy in their capabilities and capacities.
Although I'm Russain, I didn't know those details about T-34. So, it looks like T-34 was not a single model, but about 10 to 15 different tanks. Like, say, Toyota Land Cruiser. Thank you for the lecture. It clears out many questions that, when are not understood clearly, foment holy wars in the tank community.
Note* the Hull armor for all T-34's is ~45mm +- 5mm when he's talking about 90mm of armor he means the Turrets armor has gone from 45 (original turret) 53(1942 turret) to 90mm on the 85
I like watching these tank chats about the ones in your museum. this one part of the T-34/85's history was when that tank went up against the Germans in the battle of Seelow Heights of the 3rd shock army. that's my favorite part of that one's history. you guys do a great job of making these videos.
@ Maybe you shouldn't *invade sovereign nations* if you can't handle *the consequences!* I can see that you're not the sharpest tack in the box, so I'll make this as simple as I can: It's strategically a bad idea to let enemy troops and materiel inside *a fortified transportation hub* that also happens to be *the 2nd most important city* to your enemy!
@@angusgow1887 That is absolutely correct, although I have to admit that Finland contributed significantly to the overall situation in that area of operations.
This was a magnificent documentary. It covered the build up of the USSR, tank development, tactics and answered some very good questions overlooked by others. Namely, how were the Germans in 1941 able to defeat the T-34 with their mostly light tanks. Comprehensive, yet concise. Well done!
This political censorship by Google is a teenie little skirmish in the slow developing war between globalists and nationalists. The neo-socialist Democrats want open borders to build a dominant majority of voters to capture the White House and onward towards a virtual one party system. The corporate board room wants open borders for the cheap labor. They make a bundle that way. Also, that same board room understands that the onerous regulations that socialists love, will help to eliminate their smaller competitors who can't afford the lawyers and accountants that the big cats can afford.
Well done Mr Wiley, another excellent Tank Chat. I really enjoy the economic and political context that you provide as well as the technical and historical background to the vehicle, it’s performance in battle and what it was like to fight in the tank.
Ok, I learned something from this video and I want to share as it ties into the obvious theory that is not hobby fun but historical truth, that wars are often won by preparation BEFORE the wars even thought. Mr. Willey mentions Albert Kahn, the Prussian born US emigree Jewish Architect who is responsible for most of the Soviet and US Industrialization that allowed these two nations to win WWII. Mr. Kahn died in 1942 but had perhaps the greatest architectural impact on Soviet and American industrialization in the critical period of 20's-early 40's.
thank you for clearing up the marking, getting mildy annoyed by people assuming my home countrys old military marking is a nazi symbol. phenomenal video, as always
The ancient Roman mosaic builders had a pattern called the "everlasting knot" it is a very ornate swastika. Ummmm.....about 2000 years before Nazism raised its ugly head! Probably a lot older in reality as a sun symbol.
I could listen to Mr. Willey all day. His breadth of knowledge and articulation is superb. I would love to visit this museum some day. We have many great Armor museums here in the States, but even then I don't know that they really compare to the Tank Museum in the UK. Let me know otherwise.
I used to love looking at machines as a child. Anything about them, I soak up and can speak about as if watching an expert. Down to velocity, engine Temp etc minute details. I don't know any job where that's useful. It's not for all things...
@@muhammadnursyahmi9440 The Panzer 4 Never had a 57mm gun. It always had a 75mm; at the start of its production, it had a low velocity cannon for infantry support. Years later, it was fitted with a long 75mm high velocity cannon. The Panzer III started out with a 37mm, then upgraded to a 50mm, then to a long-barreled 50mm. Never a 57mm.
From what I've read of the Soviet decision to not mass produce the T-43, it came down to that it'd require extensive retooling which in turn would cause a near shutdown of tank production for about three months. Considering the losses they sustained at Kursk, Operation Kutusov, the efforts to capture Smolesnk (which ultimately succeeded), and the advance to the Dnieper river, the Soviet Army needed what tanks they could get ATM, not a better tank in the future, and give the Germans TIME to recuperate. The solution to marry the new 3-man, 85-mm gunned turret to the existing chassis (with an larger turret ring and other modifications), while it wasn't "perfect" (the ergonomic problems were slightly alleviated, and the TC could simply do his main job, but the vehicle was still cramped, nose-heavy, and hard to drive), it was still a significant improvement. At least the T-34/85 could fight with the upgraded Mark IV on even terms, and had a chance against the big German "cats" that the T-34/76 vehicles didn't. And with 11,000 vehicles produced in 1944 alone, quantity indeed did have it's own "quality".
2 year old comment, but worth adding that the most important aspect of tanks is having them where there aren't any. I think because of modern movies, and video games we as a culture of history and military nerds are absolutely obsesed with "this tank vs that tank", gun vs gun, comparative armor thickness etc. In reality the most important thing was just having tanks in a area at all, it was a huge force multiplier compared to just having infantry, and many times tanks weren't just duking it out tank vs tank. Ideally you would move your tanks into a area where the enemy lacked tanks, their armor and HE shells being truly devastating as a support weapon. Having greater numbers too means you can outmaneuver the enemy, out flank them and bypass their tanks completely. With this in mind, numbers are extremely important, because the more you have, the more you can saturate the line with support, and in turn exploit breakthroughs. You could have the greatest tanks ever but if you don't have them in great enough numbers to be impacting the entire front line, or to exploit weaknesses then it's just a wasted effort. This is something the Soviets understood extremely well, and honestly we in the west could learn from to this day.
W Another typical outstanding Mr. Willey presentation of armor warfare. Listening to him I realize I know very little about the subject matter. Always a pleasure to watch. Thank you.
the last segment of this video is vitally important. the USSR was facing extermination, and i can definitely understand feeling pride for the tank that helped win the war
Very interesting video yet again. I knew the T-34 was an important tank, but never realized ust how important i actually was. Also the wide shot of the T-34 and Tiger 131... Bit of a size difference there. The Tiger is a lot larger than you realize, and seeing them next to one another like that really puts it home.
@@Conserpov This is gradually being addressed as more Russian archival documents are accessed and translated, but myths and misinformation have had decades to get comfortable.
@@chungusbooper I read recently on some "serious" tank-themed site that T-64 had all-steel road wheels. And that its engine was a copy of British Leyland L60, even though it predates it and both are based on German Jumo 205. Too many people just do not care about facts at all, even if they can be found in the freaking Wikipedia. "Russian archival documents", you wish.
@ _> TS3 engine (that formed the basis for the L60) was from 1948_ And... Jumo engines were from 1930-s? 5TD predates L60 and is in no way even remotely a copy of neither L60 nor TS3. 5TD was based on M-305 from 1947, in turn based on Jumo, and the decision to put it into a tank was made in 1954. The claim that 5TDF is a copy of L60 is a blatant, egregious falsehood. Especially considering how much more advanced and superior on every level 5TDF was. It's just a fact. What is your problem? Functional illiteracy AKA poor reading comprehension?
As to the swastica: The first aircraft in the Finnish air force, was given them in 1917 or -18, by the Swedish count von Rosen - father of the legendary Carl Gustaf von Rosen, known e.g. from the Biafra civil war and from the "food bombings" in Ethiopia. The swastica - was his personal symbol, of Indian origin. The aircraft carried a swastica, and was named kreivi von rosen" Count von Rosen. Ever since ONE aircraft in the Finnish Air Force carries that name. The swastica in its Fnnish version, which differs from the Nazi one, was the official emblem of all Finnish armed forces till 1944, when the present white and blue cocard was adopted. Hans Stromberg
Very, very, VERY good! Lovely afternoon entertainment. Really would like to see more of this format talks - would definitely get me to Patreon. Thank you. (Must buy in more tea and biscuits for the next one.)
Excellent Tank Chat, Mr. Willey! I just saw a RUclips video by Mark Felton Productions about WWII armored vehicles that are still in active use by militaries to this day (November 2021). The T-34/85 is one of the most numerous.
Great video! I've started to be intrested with tanks because of my older cousin years ago. He used to make paper and plastic models of tanks, planes and ships from WW II era. In my opinion this is most intresting times when technology was quite balanced between opponents. Thank you for sharing with us that precious knowledge. I am thinking now about taking that cousin to this museum. It would be great experience for both of us and i would like to see his face then. :D Cheers! ;)))
there were no pressing need for that. The US had far superior aircraft engines. They were also quite happy with the mobility of their petrol-driven Shermans
This has been the best half an hour I've spent at work in a some time. If only I had someone like mister Willey during my history lessons 30 years ago, I would have paid a lot more attention!
The tenacity and resiliency of the people of the Soviet Union were shown to be ultimate in spite of Stalin's detrimental bungling, hesitancy, ineptitude and otherwise ridiculous egotism that almost gave victory to the Nazi state in the east. The Soviets were able to achieve victory in spite of, not because of the "man of steel".
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Half an hour Tank Museum video on the T-34? “Clear my schedule.”
Harmon1ca what schedule?
The empty one
22:30 on a work night. My boss will be furious! anyway, I watched it all.
It's 30 minutes why are you acting likes it's 3 hours
@Mikey Tee solution: put couch in front of pc boom fixed your life
Half an hour of tank chat goodness? What did we do to deserve such a gift?
Matthew Forth you got it for being yourself.
*cough* Patreon *cough*
Luke Bunyip okay that helped too.
Our gifts to the tank museum
By being tank nerds and love and cherish these beautiful tanks.😃
In the mess that one finds in RUclips with all those amateur historians/gameboys, having Mr. Willey, with his calm, knowledgeable, and professional experience , is an absolute joy. Well done Mr. Willey, please keep it up. You and the staff at the "Tank Museum" are outstanding. Greetings from America!
Yes very good videos. Love in depth study of armored calvary. More greetings from America . Keep up the good work .
Yes, absolutely! Thank you soooooo much Mr.Wiley🤝👏👍🇺🇲
Informed, well spoken factual, and why things were important, it's called an EXPLANATION🤔😯
My father who, with his dad, had several thousand acres of farm land and a small highway construction company, knew how to drive just about every type of heavy equipment, decided after he graduated from high school that working for Pullman Standard railway passenger car company paid better than working for my grandfather, and was hired by them to test the M3 Grant and Lee tanks they were making for about 2 yrs for the British and Russians before Pearl Harbor, and for a short time the Sherman.They had an obstacle course where each tank was tested after final assembly which had pools of water, hills, ditches, mud traps, etc. and a 40 some mile road test with police escort which i have pictures of. When he was drafted into the Army he though surely he'd be in an armored unit because of his experience, but like he said, "the militarys' job was to fill holes with people, i filled the hole of an Army infantryman, maybe the next hole was for a 'tanker'."
Anyway his first day of combat was with the 5th Rangers on Omaha beach 6, June 1944, and his last was as a squad/section leader with the 106th Infantry Div. in Germany 21, Dec.1944 when captured by the 1st. SS Panzer Regiment near St.Vith Belgium and spent Christmas eve in StalagIXb in Bad Orb Germany, 'such are the fortunes of war'. He passed away on Sept. 20th 2012 at the age of 90.
@@thomasschoon8407 What an interesting story and ironic your father was'nt utilized as a 'tanker' with his knowledge/experience. My father spent the war as a motorcycle despatch rider at home in the UK and in the middle east (Egypt/Libya etc) and his father fought in the Boer war (S'Africa) at the turn of the century. Respect to them all.
100%..too many videos on these topics have inaccurate commentary and then deluges of comments by either people who think its the best thing ever or far more commonly, the btns of Wehraboos with their basic whine of 'it was unfair - they(we!) only lost due to the weather, lack of fuel etc etc'
An incredible about of fact checking and knowledge goes into putting out a "correct" youtube video
My Grandfather was a 20 year old tank commander, driving the 34-85 to the gates of berlin.Thank you so much for putting together a comprehensive piece on a fundamental part of the russian mythos and general cultural imprinting.
Please accept our thanks from the UK for everything your grandfather did to help defeat the nazis.
Победа ✌
@@marijomutavdzic9813 you meant: when German Cats prowled, T-34s trembled...
@@AKUJIVALDO Nein. He's right. Those Tigers don't stand a chance, as they lack support in any way. No artillery, no air support, no fuel, nothing. The Germans were in a dire situation at the end of the war, and Tigers don't get the support they need too operate as often.
@@AKUJIVALDO thing is most of time by late war they didnt prowl much due to Jabos, fuel shortages, breakdowns and sheer lack of numbers. As said above, this kind of YT by a Brit who knows his stuff is far better than either the type of hagiography by all Glory to the Red Army types or equally and more commonly, Wehraboos of the 'its so unfair, they had such cool tanks and uniforms'
Wehraboos..... brilliant 😃
I love the subtitles.
3:45 Curator : "He's going to back Tukhachevsky"
Subtitles : "He's going to back Took-a-Chiefs-key."
That's RUclips subtitles for you!
Speech interpretation by computer, hard enough to deal with a thick English accent, let alone Russian names.
Outstanding Mr. Willey, thanks to you and the staff.
Apart from the technical and production factoids, I appreciated the bit at the end about the cultural significance of this beastie for the Russians.. But you're right; as always Dave (et al) is(are) solid.
Dude knows his stuff, and brings it to life.
Salute.
falconeaterf15 The only thing that he doesnt talk about is the cost of human life using such an almost useless tank. 40.000+ knocked out T-34... good lord.
@@bingobongo1615 Not so much a useless tank as that the Germans they were facing were just that much better. Soviet Russia just kinda zerg rushed...which of course won the war in the long term
Loving this longer format of tank chats!
Likewise
even at 30 minutes, do they think we're ammatures? I could easily watch 30 hours on the t34 😂
Absolutely right!
Lord Inter cswsxxddddfffrfffrs!bhmp
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Pm
Thanks Dan!
This is the third presentation of the T34 I have watched today, and by far the best.
Having seen a spitfire in flight I can appreciate how iconic it is. I'm sure it will be used again.
Just helping the algorithm
this channel is criminally underrated.
Hungover on a Saturday and a 30 minute Tank Chats pops into my inbox, this is exactly what I needed
And I thought I was the only one.....
Same but Sunday by now. My spicy snack from last night is a literal PITA right now
Don't forget the hot chocolate and duvet. You should pull though OK!
We hoped David soothed you through your hangover!
White Tiger great movie on RUclips !
As a Russian i can confirm that everything said in the end about the cultural meaning of this tank is very true.
I second that. It was the first tank that I could name, and tell the difference between variants. And 4 tankista was probably the most popular show until the 2ks
Zenus Pridgen Yet you have a photo of a IS-2
@Zenus Pridgen Sherman suk, T-34 win
@@ivankrylov6270 4 tankists and dog! Dont forget about the dog named Szarik!
@@firepower7017 IS-2 is like a T-34 but bigger...
Brilliant! I've not paid so much attention to a lecture since I was at uni 20 years ago, and it was well worth it.
Willey never fails to deliver on outstanding content.
Fun fact: We Finns called t-34's "Sotka". Witch means literally means bluebill duck. But the name came from a Finnish tank crew man named "Suominen" who before the war served on board of a steam ship witch was named "sotka" and hi told his comrades how tall the smokestack of ship was. And when the first captured t-34's came to Finnish service one of Suomise's comrades said when he saw tank's long barrel he said: "there come that Suomise's Sotka" and that's where it got its name.
I recommend watching Lazerpigs video on the t-34. (If you want a crude an humorous video). Although it’s a comedy video it’s still quite informative and he raises some points against the T-34 that aren’t discussed here. I think the truth of the tank is somewhere between Lazerpigs video and this one.
The biggest points he raises are that the reliability issues and bad construction were MUCH worse than many people claim. (“T-34 is rugged and simple” as an excuse for poor build) what is a tank good for if it can only make it a few dozen miles before needing extensive repair? Cost cutting and simplification is good, but if you go too far it is bad and then you end up having to produce 4x the tanks you should’ve.
And that even though producing A TON of tanks ended up working for Russia, producing double the tanks also means double the support units, double the tankers dying, and double the fuel. Because if this the T-34 as it was produced wasn’t a war winner token, and Russia couldn’t have won the war without the help of other allies. (Contrary to what is often claimed. The t-34 being “gods tank” and that “Russia won the war by themselves with sheer numbers”.)
The original T-34/85 design is great, but cost cutting to the point of them being almost useless by themselves is why they were the most destroyed tank in WW2, and that should be seen as a bad thing, not “Russia won the war with numbers”.
Thank you for a balanced and thorough review of the T-34. There was no single 'perfect tank' in WWII. But many combatants had the tank that was right for them at various points in the war. The T-34 was the right tank fir the USSR at that time and it was critical to the USSR success. The Chieftan did a great chat on the M4 Sherman and why it was the right tank for the USA which is also good. Tank Museum Bovington always delivers. Cheers from the USA.
Keep in mind that Wiley teaches the why of tank to the British Army teams, not just the how, and does so with a depth of the history of tank use. His commentary is always simple, precise and to the point as to what is the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly of each and every one of the specimens that the Tank Museum has managed to collect over the decades. Always a pleasure.
I liked that comparison between the T-34 and the Spitfire in terms of symbolism. I never saw the T-34 that way.
Yes, visions of a flying T34 are certainly nightmare fuel.
My granddad Alexey Scherbakov was a military engineer who accepted and commissioned T-34/76 and T34/85 tanks at Chelyabinsk tractor factory (ЧТЗ) before they was sent to the frontlines since 1942 until 1945. AFAIK some of this production improvements which was mentioned by mr. Willey was done by him. As well he was responsible for the training of the tank drivers.
By the way I hope to visit Bovington tank museum this year and spend there whole the weekend. Could you advise when is the best time to pay a visit, please? As well would be great to get a discussion and to go for a pint with mr. Dave Willey. Thanks for the great videos
Hi Michail, you have to be so proud of your grandfather. I hope you can see Mr. Willey..
Wow such history we USA people lov Russia great family
Was your grandfather killed for his service to the glorious soviet union or did he get a pin?
@@haroldfiedler6549 Yeah....How was USA created and how it spread? Genocide ! From starvation and war by using infected blankets and such(Brits also used this once,but punished the general that did it in the end..unlike Americans) and slaughter.Shall we talk about conquest of Philippines? 600 000 civilians,by words of your own general. Shall we talk about forbidding food and medicine trade and help to Iraq,causing a lot of death? We could also talk about Yemen,when US helped bloodthirsty Saudi to block all food and medicine shipments to Yemen < Same with Venezuela,thou Saudi's are absent and US did not block it physically.
Shall we talk about bloody dictators supported in South America,Central America,Africa and Asia? Just official ones...Slavery?
Yeah,bloody,evil Russians.....Also,Stalin was not Russian ;) ,thou he did consider himself as
Shall we talk about Britain and its colonial past?
As for Stalin,most of what you learn is illogical propaganda. First,Holodomor...Funny part,whole of USSR had problems with starvation and RUSSIANS lived mixed with Ukrainians and died with them...But it was a genocide against Ukrainians? Well,by the words of US and British government,who's source of information were ex high ranking Nazis that escaped to US and Canada...Key one being ex chief of propaganda for Reich in Ukraine,who is also a grandfather to one of top Canadian politicians(forgot her name,but she even brags about him...).Funny part also,Ukrainian population grew A LOT durring 30s,as did whole of USSR.Small problem with "Stalin only killed his people and only focused on the army" is that USSR had more medical staff than US and Canada combined(as well as women pilots,among other things).Reason for this was that during first 5 year plan,they also put emphasis on education and building A LOT of hospitals,as well as building a huge pharmaceutical industry.Vaccination became the norm in 30s.Not only that,but after first reform of agriculture,problems of starvation popping up in USSR(problem since 1916) was gone,thou it was a brutal reformation. Also,building a huge public transport was also a thing in 30s...just look up how many busses they made.Actually,the living standard of 1940 wasn't repeated until well into 60s and it wasn't at all bad.
As f or army clean up and "paranoia" of Stalin....completely wrong on paranoia part.Stalin was brutal and cold in his decisions(at least most of the time),but far from being paranoid and irrational like West managed to portray him.Do you know how situation was in 20s and early 30s in USSR? First,you had 6 big political factions fight for power and doing "sweeps" whenever taking power in any place...masses died and suffered due to this.Then there was problem of MANY small groups working for themselves and tightly connected,due to the how Revolution happened...it was an uncontrolled fire and wasn't centralized nor well controlled.This lack of control was up to Stalins era.Only one that had true firm hold was Trotsky...and he was bloody insane,even worse than how Western propaganda portrayed Stalin.He wanted to "liberate" people from luxury and give them soul purpose in life...of serving what he considered the best for the country and community.Trotsky was known for his terrorist acts and terror tactics all too well ... . and yes, unlike Stalin,he wanted to wage the war with the world.Problem with getting rid of Trotsky was that he had a fanatical fallowing,basically utter radicals at his side and in masses(WWI and Civil War proved fertile ground for him to exploit) and a lot of them were i n Red Army.....Also,remember how I said how Red Army and USSR was formed? Well,that also meant a lot of unchecked groups were there..Add to that growing corruption and abuse of power,you got quite a hell of a country.And due to all of that,USSR was barely functional outside of its image.Stalin fixed threat of new Civil war due to factions,ended starvation(common since 1916 all around USSR at one point or another),population grew far bigger under him,living standards improved quite a lot,highest educational rise in history of USSR and Russia and so on.
Yeah,small problem with ignoring all of that...Gulags were normal,but most Westerners do not even know you had various types,depending on punishment.Some of them were "light" and while they were forced to work,conditions were bearable...basically a normal prison with forced labor.Then there were those that were meant to be the end of its prisoners,with barely a shelter to sleep and in far off places with horrible climate conditions(thou,many were sent there by need to build something and rotated,while some were there to stay...forever).Funny part about 20-30 million in gulags is that it was actually first "revealed" by US(even Khrushchev never claimed something like that,despite his demonization of Stalin and deep complex about him),without any evidence to it ..literally no information on where did they get that figure.Then later on,after fall apart of USSR,Georgian investigator with US team found evidence that it was indeed 30 million,but never shared with anyone...Also,his research through i t was short,but somehow managed to search all USSR/Russian archives and did not want to share any evidence about that figure...nor US team.
In reality,if we look fall of population and archives,no m ore than 13-14 million were sent to Gulags,not including Nazi soldiers.And since not all gulags were meant as death sentence,we can surely say that those 13-14 million is not the number of dead either...Of course,this did leave a bitter memory to many,but such were the times and it did save them from self destruction of their country.
There are more common myths about Stalin and USSR,that I would GLADLY bust....
nikolai Vasilev this was in the times when common people still has no rights it was era when human rights did not exist. Soviet Russia is a modern history. Its absolutely idiotic to compare these two.
Great video and Mr Willey is even better in person, I had a tour of the tank museum with him and his knowledge is outstanding. He know so much and is a real nice guy.
My great granddad died in this tank when he was fighting Nazi Germans in 1944 not far from Warsaw , Poland , he was a Russian commander . This tank is legend like my great granddad .
now russians are the nazies
Your great grandad was a war criminal.
Shame that Putin pissed all over his legacy.
That was a truly excellent presentation, particularly as it dealt with the meaning of the T34 for russians. As Mr Willey says, it's an icon of the "Great patriotic war" in russian society and as such, it's meaning goes far beyond the - incredibly impressive - facts and figures. Wonderful job. Thankyou.
I did a tour of Russia back during the summer of 2006, and I remember see newly wed couples getting wedding photos taken in front of their local war monuments to the Great Patriotic War. I saw this several times during my 2 weeks there, and it really hammered home how much that war is culturally ingrained in the Russian mind. I've never seen anything like that here in Canada, that is for sure.
@@colinkelly5420
Because they have so many of them everywhere
It wasn't the perfect tank, but they won the war with it. And while we Americans went "over there", the "there" was "here" for them, in their homes, cities, farms, etc, and not only did far more of their boys not come back, ever, a whole lot of CIVILIANS also perished. The "Great Patriotic War" left a LOT of emotional scars on the peoples of the then-Soviet Union, so if they seem to get a tad emotional about it, well, they have GOOD REASON.
@@garlkurzer That because they have to fight on their territory for survival and not on other side of the planet. There is no family in Russia that not somehow connected to war. Immagine 200 millions people all suffered from this for 5 years.
Excellent video. Point of note: in the summer of 1941 most front line T34's went into action bereft of any armour piercing ammunition what-so-ever. The lucky few were issued a couple of APCBC rounds at best, but so chronic was the shortage of anti-armour projectiles that most had only HE rounds with which to take on the Panzers. An APCR would've been like the golden egg.
I had the pleasure of Interviewing David about the museum some years ago, really very happy to see him and the museum creating great content.
Fun story about the Finnish Swastika, it was adopted when the Swedish nobleman Eric von Rosen donated an airplane to Finland in 1918 - and thus started the Finnish Air Force - and he was a fan of the national romanticism of the time, and used a swastika - what he considered a viking symbol for good luck - on pretty much everything he owned. Including his plane. A Blue swastika on a white roundel, in this case, also became the official symbol for the Finnish Air force. It predates the German NSDP adoption of the symbol.
Later, his son, would go down to Africa and support the rebel country of Biafra and help design a light attack air craft for their use, and used to great effect it was!
Swastika or hakaristi is old and important part culture of Suomi and different folks in Suomi. It is symbol of constant work and fight against evil in tursaansydän and symbol of cyckle of sun in aurinkopyörä and many many other meanings. Hitler probably stolen hakaristi from Suomi - it is ofcourse very international symbol but Suomi used it already in vehicles and that was the key. German facists copy almost their all symbols from others in easy way. So Germans get Finnish symbol banned for their abuse of it. Swastika needs rehabitilation for its great historical value and importance for so many cultures from today to stone age. I hate Germas for screwing that up...
@@KA-jm2cz Those Bas**rds tainted it, current ones taint a lot as well, they used it in the Apec logo.
Well, Carl Gustaf von Rosen(the son of Eric von Rosen) didn't design a Light Attack Aircraft, he instead imported a couple Malmö MFI-9s which he helped adopt into the light strike role.
@@teaser6089 He was part of the process to adopt the training planes into LCAS. Designing might have been the utmost extreme usage of the word, but it was definitely upgraded with RPG-launchers with the aid of French military intelligence IIRC.
The symbol was also used by Carlsbergs brewery in Denmark and so on..
12:59 "pact with Hister" Nostradamus confirmed!
But honestly great video, love the depth in this one.
Your knowledge of Nostradamus' quatrains is recognised! Nostradamus had the great gift of predicting either everything or nothing all at the same time... Write millions of predictions but keep it nice and vague and high on metaphor...
You Noticed:-)
One of the pact what happened with early pact with Hitler from Brits & France?
Allowing tearing apart Czechoslovakia and deleting Austria as a country?
David Willey has the inside information.
@@hydorah Watch enough History Channel in the 00's and you'll see that you know a lot of Nostradamus too!
Thank you for such an informative video. Lots of new information...new to me. I am still puzzled and amazed that the SU could produce a V12 cast aluminum diesel engine in such quantities. That engine deserves it's own video-in my opinion.
Yeah that part is totally overlooked. The V2-34, and other variants was an aluminum block!!! Even the British Meteor still used non aluminium steel alloys for cost savings, and the Meteor cane well after the V-2.
28:01 Great shot of the T34 and Tiger I. Both of them were such formidable foes on the battlefield and dare I say, beautiful! Polar opposite ideas in design and philosophy, yet executed in such a way to further each army's tactical applications of tank warfare.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! As a Russian I can say - very well said! Maybe you could also mention why the designer Koshkin died. He spared his life for the testing and production of this tank.
Caught cold during the first winter test run to Moscow and later made a second test run back to the factory at spring and later supervised production instead going to the hospital.
One could say - a fool...
Yes! this tank is an icon! It is a symbol of the whole country fighting for its freedom. And yes this is an example of business and technical effectiveness that allowed to win the war with the country where Ferdinand Porshe was among the tank designers. And is it the fastest real tank of the war? I am not speaking about the toys like BT26 and others.
The T-34 had a rated top speed of 33 mph and the M4 Sherman top speed was set at 28 mph by using an engine rpm governor. The M4 users would tinker with their tank's governor so it could go faster, especially when in top gear, which was a true overdrive designed to be used for sustained high speed travel over roads. The M4 driver/mechanics found they could raise the top speed to 35 - 40 mph and why the Army limited the speed to 28 mph after their top heavy tanks began tipping over when taking curves too fast.
Sounds like pneumonia. Its fun. Right until your left lung fills with fluid and you can't breathe. Flu > pneumonia > collapsed lung > 6 month+ recovery.
The picture from 23:52 is in Belgrade! Nice choice! Kind regards from Serbia, love this series!
Branko Milicevic Do you happen to know where in Belgrade? I only found pictures from the Terazije in your Military Museum
This is a superb video. The definitive T-34 guide. And continues the great Tank Museum tradition of superior facial hair. Double win.
Hello from San Diego, CA. I love your videos and The Tank Museum is now on my bucket list!
I listened like as i'm student of university in proffessor's lesson... Very very good lesson, i learn so much real issues.. Ty for all.. I wish one day i can come to England for Bovington Museum..
Great work! One of the best and most informative videos about the T-34 on youtube. I really liked the emphasis on the symbolic value of the T-34 for the Russian people.
arno nühm which is like so many things in Russia a very dubious symbol... A terribly flawed tank getting destroyed more often than any other tank in history costing 10.000s of lives and yer it is somehow a „good“ symbol. Not to mention its role in suppressing the whole of eastern Europe after WW2.
So making 84,000 T-34s and having 49,000 of them be destroyed in combat is a "good symbol"?
"Destroyed" is a major term that is confused by alot of people. Most people when they hear of;
"Destroyed" it means it can not be used again, it is FUBAR. What the soviets classified as destroyed in WW2 was "The engine expierenced a malfunction with the airfilter and it won't feed enough air into the engine to run, but we don't have the supply lines to fix it." which they couldn't bring up a vehicle to recover said tank, so it was written off as complete lose.
Same way with alot of Tiger 2s. Or Tiger 1s. Maybe some Sturmtigers.
For all those "destroyed" tanks it's odd how many tanks got recovered by the Germans in WARTIME REPAIRABLE condition and was warrented for upgrades and a redisignation in the German Army.
I'm not rooting for the T-34 in anyway shape or manner, but there is a reason why german generals held the T-34 to great asteem. Only a fool will underestimate their enemy in their capabilities and capacities.
Although I'm Russain, I didn't know those details about T-34. So, it looks like T-34 was not a single model, but about 10 to 15 different tanks. Like, say, Toyota Land Cruiser. Thank you for the lecture. It clears out many questions that, when are not understood clearly, foment holy wars in the tank community.
Могу порекомендовать более подробный анализ танка Т-34 на русском языке: ruclips.net/video/1wgW4bces7E/видео.html
Trying to cope with a mental image of A Holy War In The Tank Community ... I presume it would have to be near a pub?
Cricket by day, tank chat at night. Civilisation won. Thank you for a great channel
What a pleasure of the mind, to hear mr. David Willey lecturing. Thank you sir . A regiment of thumbs up.
Thanks!
Fantastic video guys, cracking knowledge and information. Really opens your eyes to the plight of WW2 that all the nations went through. Keep it up!
Note* the Hull armor for all T-34's is ~45mm +- 5mm
when he's talking about 90mm of armor he means the Turrets armor has gone from 45 (original turret) 53(1942 turret) to 90mm on the 85
Also some T 34 variants had extra Arnie added on, STZ
These guys keep pumping out the BEST content on RUclips. ❤️❤️❤️
These longer tank chats are just fantastic. Thanks to all involved, and of course the two top blokes doing the talking. Cheers.
Thanks
I like watching these tank chats about the ones in your museum. this one part of the T-34/85's history was when that tank went up against the Germans in the battle of Seelow Heights of the 3rd shock army. that's my favorite part of that one's history. you guys do a great job of making these videos.
This is a vast amount of data and colourful insight,
thank you for that grand presentation!
Thanks from Finland for clearing up the difference between the Nazi and Finnish (von Rosen) swastikas!
@ Maybe you shouldn't *invade sovereign nations* if you can't handle *the consequences!* I can see that you're not the sharpest tack in the box, so I'll make this as simple as I can:
It's strategically a bad idea to let enemy troops and materiel inside *a fortified transportation hub* that also happens to be *the 2nd most important city* to your enemy!
wape1
Hahahah, well said🥂
@@wape1 From what I understand the Fins stopped their advance on Leningrad, much to the anger of the Germans. The starvation tactic was a German plan.
@@angusgow1887 That is absolutely correct, although I have to admit that Finland contributed significantly to the overall situation in that area of operations.
@@wape1 Yes after the winter war they were after revenge
An over 30 min Tank Chat! Fantastic! Tea and biccies at the ready! Thank you David and the Tank Museum team for this ongoing awesome content!
This was a magnificent documentary. It covered the build up of the USSR, tank development, tactics and answered some very good questions overlooked by others. Namely, how were the Germans in 1941 able to defeat the T-34 with their mostly light tanks. Comprehensive, yet concise. Well done!
Tank you for getting the situation between Finland and Germany in WW2 correct.
Whitewashing.
The Tank Museum: Swastika
Google: Demonetizes video.
Finnish Defence Force: Swastika
Google: Demonetizes Finnish Defence Force.
The Tank Museum: Hammer and Sickle
Google: Monetize this channel 10 fold!
Crazy Mixture
I wish!
This political censorship by Google is a teenie little skirmish in the slow developing war between globalists and nationalists.
The neo-socialist Democrats want open borders to build a dominant majority of voters to capture the White House and onward towards a virtual one party system.
The corporate board room wants open borders for the cheap labor. They make a bundle that way. Also, that same board room understands that the
onerous regulations that socialists love, will help to eliminate their smaller competitors who can't afford the lawyers and accountants that the big cats can afford.
mu99ins
Take your Meds my friend.
@@danielalvarez-galan3702 - Mount a rebuttal.
I did not expect to learn so much about such a well-known vehicle. Well done!
Expected the British to be p.c. and spray paint the symbol before sending back to Finland.
Just had to watch this episode again. Timeless quality.
Well done Mr Wiley, another excellent Tank Chat. I really enjoy the economic and political context that you provide as well as the technical and historical background to the vehicle, it’s performance in battle and what it was like to fight in the tank.
Ok, I learned something from this video and I want to share as it ties into the obvious theory that is not hobby fun but historical truth, that wars are often won by preparation BEFORE the wars even thought. Mr. Willey mentions Albert Kahn, the Prussian born US emigree Jewish Architect who is responsible for most of the Soviet and US Industrialization that allowed these two nations to win WWII. Mr. Kahn died in 1942 but had perhaps the greatest architectural impact on Soviet and American industrialization in the critical period of 20's-early 40's.
I had a number of tank toys when I was a kid. My favourite was of course T-34.
thank you for clearing up the marking, getting mildy annoyed by people assuming my home countrys old military marking is a nazi symbol. phenomenal video, as always
Just ignore them ignorants
Allying with nazis.
Wearing swastikas.
Annoyed for getting confused with nazis.
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
In america, native Indians from various tribes use a backwards form of the same symbol, and yet folks give it the ugly eye.
The ancient Roman mosaic builders had a pattern called the "everlasting knot" it is a very ornate swastika. Ummmm.....about 2000 years before Nazism raised its ugly head! Probably a lot older in reality as a sun symbol.
didnt the hindus use the same symbol as well, just at a different angle?
I could listen to Mr. Willey all day. His breadth of knowledge and articulation is superb. I would love to visit this museum some day. We have many great Armor museums here in the States, but even then I don't know that they really compare to the Tank Museum in the UK. Let me know otherwise.
Wonderful talk! Anyone who lives in a country which has these amazing tanks and is able to see one in person, is incredibly fortunate. I envy you lol
There are a lot of them about all over the world ; whereabouts are you ?
I used to love looking at machines as a child. Anything about them, I soak up and can speak about as if watching an expert.
Down to velocity, engine Temp etc minute details.
I don't know any job where that's useful. It's not for all things...
"Quantity has a quality all its own."
just like the M4 Sherman
Stalin never said that
@@garlkurzer Yes he did
@@atomicpunk520
No, he didnt. It was said by Thomas Callaghan
@@garlkurzer didn't say he coined the term juast said Stalin said it about russia war output.
Excellent talk , very enjoyable and a lot of information included that I had no idea about this iconic fighting machine. Thank you so much!
His not being biased one way or the other is what I like about him.
As a ex REME A mech these series are fascinating, its on my to do list to visit the museum sometime i am back in the uk.
One of the best scenes from one of the best war films is the T-34 assault in Cross Of Iron
The philosophy here is quite literally: ''What is tank? Big gun and thick armor. Everything else is just extra''
It was also _very_ fast; much faster than the German tanks.
T34 was a medium sized tank
@@joecramp2987 At the beginning of the war, a 76mm gun was a big gun, and it had VERY thick armour (45mm thick angled at 60 degrees).
@@leeham6230 especially considering German's Panzer IV only have 57mm gun at the time. Yeah, they're in for a nasty surprise.
@@muhammadnursyahmi9440 The Panzer 4 Never had a 57mm gun. It always had a 75mm; at the start of its production, it had a low velocity cannon for infantry support. Years later, it was fitted with a long 75mm high velocity cannon.
The Panzer III started out with a 37mm, then upgraded to a 50mm, then to a long-barreled 50mm. Never a 57mm.
From what I've read of the Soviet decision to not mass produce the T-43, it came down to that it'd require extensive retooling which in turn would cause a near shutdown of tank production for about three months. Considering the losses they sustained at Kursk, Operation Kutusov, the efforts to capture Smolesnk (which ultimately succeeded), and the advance to the Dnieper river, the Soviet Army needed what tanks they could get ATM, not a better tank in the future, and give the Germans TIME to recuperate. The solution to marry the new 3-man, 85-mm gunned turret to the existing chassis (with an larger turret ring and other modifications), while it wasn't "perfect" (the ergonomic problems were slightly alleviated, and the TC could simply do his main job, but the vehicle was still cramped, nose-heavy, and hard to drive), it was still a significant improvement. At least the T-34/85 could fight with the upgraded Mark IV on even terms, and had a chance against the big German "cats" that the T-34/76 vehicles didn't. And with 11,000 vehicles produced in 1944 alone, quantity indeed did have it's own "quality".
2 year old comment, but worth adding that the most important aspect of tanks is having them where there aren't any. I think because of modern movies, and video games we as a culture of history and military nerds are absolutely obsesed with "this tank vs that tank", gun vs gun, comparative armor thickness etc. In reality the most important thing was just having tanks in a area at all, it was a huge force multiplier compared to just having infantry, and many times tanks weren't just duking it out tank vs tank. Ideally you would move your tanks into a area where the enemy lacked tanks, their armor and HE shells being truly devastating as a support weapon. Having greater numbers too means you can outmaneuver the enemy, out flank them and bypass their tanks completely. With this in mind, numbers are extremely important, because the more you have, the more you can saturate the line with support, and in turn exploit breakthroughs. You could have the greatest tanks ever but if you don't have them in great enough numbers to be impacting the entire front line, or to exploit weaknesses then it's just a wasted effort. This is something the Soviets understood extremely well, and honestly we in the west could learn from to this day.
W
Another typical outstanding Mr. Willey presentation of armor warfare. Listening to him I realize I know very little about the subject matter. Always a pleasure to watch. Thank you.
the last segment of this video is vitally important. the USSR was facing extermination, and i can definitely understand feeling pride for the tank that helped win the war
A 30 minute tank chat?
I'll go to the pub later.
Very interesting video yet again. I knew the T-34 was an important tank, but never realized ust how important i actually was.
Also the wide shot of the T-34 and Tiger 131... Bit of a size difference there. The Tiger is a lot larger than you realize, and seeing them next to one another like that really puts it home.
Indeed. 26 vs 54 tonnes.
Amazing, very in depth video about one of the truly classic tanks of WWII.
Loved your video :) I am an Aussie - I have driven a T34/85 and BT and T55
I really enjoyed your video it was accurate :)
Great video which is an actual history lesson about the entire war! Lots of insight here.
30 minute chat on my favourite tank! You folks are amazing.
Just a fabulous presentation. No stammering, fumbling, arcane/moronic idioms such as 'like' and 'you know what I mean'.
At 5:00 it is Albert Kahn. He was from Detroit. I finally have something to add of value to a Tank Chat!
Also an important point about mythologization.
There are more "black" myths about T-34 than "white" myths in the West, and they are rarely addressed.
@@Conserpov This is gradually being addressed as more Russian archival documents are accessed and translated, but myths and misinformation have had decades to get comfortable.
@@chungusbooper
I read recently on some "serious" tank-themed site that T-64 had all-steel road wheels. And that its engine was a copy of British Leyland L60, even though it predates it and both are based on German Jumo 205.
Too many people just do not care about facts at all, even if they can be found in the freaking Wikipedia. "Russian archival documents", you wish.
@
_> TS3 engine (that formed the basis for the L60) was from 1948_
And... Jumo engines were from 1930-s?
5TD predates L60 and is in no way even remotely a copy of neither L60 nor TS3.
5TD was based on M-305 from 1947, in turn based on Jumo, and the decision to put it into a tank was made in 1954.
The claim that 5TDF is a copy of L60 is a blatant, egregious falsehood. Especially considering how much more advanced and superior on every level 5TDF was.
It's just a fact. What is your problem? Functional illiteracy AKA poor reading comprehension?
Thank you sir!!! It was interesting to watch. You are so right on your last remark about T-34
You are a gifted speaker! IT's a pleasure to listen to your talks.
30min long video?? Heaven!
As to the swastica: The first aircraft in the Finnish air force, was given them in 1917 or -18, by the Swedish count von Rosen - father of the legendary Carl Gustaf von Rosen, known e.g. from the Biafra civil war and from the "food bombings" in Ethiopia. The swastica - was his personal symbol, of Indian origin. The aircraft carried a swastica, and was named kreivi von rosen" Count von Rosen. Ever since ONE aircraft in the Finnish Air Force carries that name. The swastica in its Fnnish version, which differs from the Nazi one, was the official emblem of all Finnish armed forces till 1944, when the present white and blue cocard was adopted.
Hans Stromberg
Finnish Air Force still uses black, horizontally oriented swastika in its flag surrounded with white wings on blue background.
when this started ,with the guy standing by the 34 , that tank just looks AWESOME!!
The longer videos with so much information and history of the tanks are amazing
I am also loving the longer tank chats. !!!!
Tremendous work!
21:45 My God look at the size of that Tiger I in comparison. O_0
Well you heard the guy - 44.000 destroyed T-34. most destroyed vehicle in history.
Very, very, VERY good! Lovely afternoon entertainment. Really would like to see more of this format talks - would definitely get me to Patreon. Thank you. (Must buy in more tea and biscuits for the next one.)
Excellent Tank Chat, Mr. Willey! I just saw a RUclips video by Mark Felton Productions about WWII armored vehicles that are still in active use by militaries to this day (November 2021). The T-34/85 is one of the most numerous.
Great video!
I've started to be intrested with tanks because of my older cousin years ago. He used to make paper and plastic models of tanks, planes and ships from WW II era. In my opinion this is most intresting times when technology was quite balanced between opponents.
Thank you for sharing with us that precious knowledge. I am thinking now about taking that cousin to this museum. It would be great experience for both of us and i would like to see his face then. :D
Cheers! ;)))
The neck on the t-34 85 is larger than a giraffe.
Finally a documentary on the t-34 that doesn’t claim the Russians invented sloped armour ❤️❤️
Like Apple sensor screen phone or graphics OS
9:06 The Soviets were able to mass produce aluminium block v engines back in the 30s while America couldn't do it for sports cars until the 90s.
In 40s and it was diesel tank engines, not high performance petrol engines of 90s...
there were no pressing need for that. The US had far superior aircraft engines. They were also quite happy with the mobility of their petrol-driven Shermans
If we judge a person by their friends and enemies then let's judge the T34 by the tanks that were built to fight it.
This has been the best half an hour I've spent at work in a some time. If only I had someone like mister Willey during my history lessons 30 years ago, I would have paid a lot more attention!
I love that mirror on the left wall in the presentation room. Thought it was a painting at first. Beautiful art installation.
Such a good tank that often the crews would drive around with a spare transmission on the back deck !😁
Loved the video , as always. Pete 🇬🇧
Thanks Pete
*Do my eyes deceive me (grabs glasses) THIRTY (30) MINUTE TANK CHAT !!!*
*Christmas came early this year!*
Hemi204 30 min. 17 s.
Get a new pair of glasses.
There's so much to be said about those vehicles. I really like the extended time of the videos. More information is always a good thing.
The tenacity and resiliency of the people of the Soviet Union were shown to be ultimate in spite of Stalin's detrimental bungling, hesitancy, ineptitude and otherwise ridiculous egotism that almost gave victory to the Nazi state in the east. The Soviets were able to achieve victory in spite of, not because of the "man of steel".
So, the T-34 is the embodyment of russian resilience and fighting spirit during WW2, that's incredible.
And that's why so many of them were destroyed.
@@GECKOZFTW why?
@@GECKOZFTW But Russians were still fighting and won, this is indeed very Russian thing and big difference with western countries
@@swietoslaw You are missing the point completely. We're not on about who won, we're talking about the T-34 here.
@@GECKOZFTWYes, the embodiment of "nas mnogo!" doctrine.