I must admit the animation quality has gotten a lot better. Solid work!

A thing about durability: Soviet studies investigated how much was the average life of a tank in the front lines. The result is that the T-34 was built to be as reliable as possible around said average. No need to build something that will be reliable for 10 years when it probably won't last 1 year, or less.

Best joke I have every heard applied to both the T-34 and the Sherman. "The Tiger tank was as good as seven T-34/Shermans. The problem was there was always an eighth."

They were not the best tanks of ww2. But they were simple to produce and easy to operate and repair. It was a huge advantage over German tanks.

Nice video, but I can't believe you didn't mention one of the Germans' biggest advantages against the Soviet tanks; that is, the Germans all had radios in their tanks; The Soviet Union did not. So the German commanders could communicate from the safety of their armor, while the Soviets had to expose themselves out the tops of their turrets, and hope that they were seen while using flags for signaling.

Considering how hyped this video is, I’m surprised that the late war variant T34/85 never made it into this video.

The armor of the T-34 had a high Brinell rating, meaning it was very hard. This was advantageous in defeating antitank rounds of caliber equal or lower to the armor’s thickness but had the disadvantage that it could lead to spalling. Combined with manufacturing flaws in the construction of the tank this meant that the T-34’s crew was often in danger even when hit by tank rounds that did not penetrate the armor. The study ‘Review of Soviet ordnance metallurgy’, p3-5 says: ‘The armor components of the T-34 tank, with the exception of the bow casting which was unheat-treated, were heat-treated to very high hardnesses (430-500 Brinell), probably in an attempt to secure maximum resistance to penetration by certain classes of armor-piercing projectiles even at the expense of structural integrity under ballistic attack.’ ‘The quality of the armor steels ranged from poor to excellent. Wide variations in production technique were indicated; some rolled armor components were well cross-rolled while others were virtually straightaway rolled………The bow casting of the T-34 tank was very unsound and would have been rejected under American standards.’ ‘Shallow penetration, poor fusion, severe undercutting, porosity, and cracking was observed in most of the welds and probably resulted from improper manipulation of electrodes which might not have had suitable operating characteristics….. These obvious defects, together with low strength and pour metallurgical structure of ferritic weld deposits, indicate that the welded joints would have poor resistance to severe shock.’ ‘The results obtained from the metallurgical examination of these early world war ii Soviet tanks have been described in some detail since they are exactly the same as have been obtained from all examinations performed since then of Soviet tanks which were recovered in Germany after the end of world war ii, and on Soviet tanks which were captured in Korea during 1950-52. The Ordnance Corps has examined several Soviet JS-II which were found in Germany and several Soviet T-34 tanks from both Germany and Korea.’ 'Some of the armor steels have surprisingly high toughness considering the very high hardness levels but many of the armor steels, even the softer ones, are very brittle.’ ‘The very high hardness encountered in most Soviet tank armor has caused much unnecessary concern regarding the relative ballistic performance of the hard Soviet armor and the softer American armor. Many people associate high hardness with high resistance to penetration. Although this is true, within limits, in the case of attack of armor by undermatching projectiles (i.e. caliber of shot is less than the tnickness of the armor) particularly at low obliquities of attack, it definitely not true when the armor is attacked by larger caliber shot at higher obliquities of impact’

My grandfather was a tank commander in the Soviet Army in WWII, including the Battle of Kursk. Thank you for this video!

A 32-minute documentary, superb animation, and great dialogue? This is definitely Simple History's magnum opus so far.

Hitler: "How can they possibly make that many tanks so quickly!?" Stalin: "Haha... Work force go screee!"

Losses during the war amounted to almost 45,000 T-34 tanks! The total losses of the Soviet armored forces in 1941-1945 amounted to 96.600 units of armored vehicles. This is not a typo. Almost one hundred thousand. (Not taken into account the lost tanks received under the Lend-Lease)

There is no such thing as a perfect tank, the T 34 was an effective tank for its time with armour armament and manoeuvrability but a lack of radios and inexperience crews reduced its effectiveness during the early fighting on the eastern front later upgrades and battlefield experience greatly improved it. My favour story on why they won involved a German anti tank gun defending a position the Russians couldn't out flank it so they had to do a frontal attack, they succeeded because the Germans ran out of ammunition before the Russians ran out of tanks.

Soviet Worker: “How many Tanks you need?” Stalin: *DA!*

The animation is so smooth and detailed

Its been an absolute pleasure to watch this channel and its associated channels grow and improve in every way over the years, more content and also higher quality and more detailed than ever, keep up the awesome work guys!!!

I really appreciate the length of this video. It's much better than the 5 minute vidoes you normally post.

One interesting tidbit about the T-34 design issues: often times, the large bolts connecting all the treads together would come loose as the tank was in motion. This of course threatened to cause the treads to collapse and fall apart, rendering the T-34 immobile. To address this problem, the engineers came up with a crude but effective solution: they welded a steel wedge near the rear sprocket! So any tread bolts coming loose would be pushed back into place by simple physics! Soviet engineering at its finest!

Simple History has come along way in telling History in Animated form. I am happy to say I have been watching them for a long time and I am proud with how far they've come. Keep up the amazing videos!

4:07 I love how that tank just slowly drives back xD

Putting the "What ain't broke, don't fix." philosophy into tank design. It was a well capable, all around tank.

I love the improved animation especially at 6:10 I really enjoyed the time and effort put into this grand beast of a tank 21:42 is also great, the visual representation makes so much more sense I can stop fanning over this video, 24:26 and it's representation is so clear and makes so much sense

This is by far one of the best videos released by Simple History. Id love to see the same type of thing but with all of the "big three" main fighting vehicles during WW2.

the quality control defects should really be touched more on. something like half the T34s made would fail before they even reached combat. it was a good tank, but the lack of skilled labor in the ussr really hurt the t34.

Your animations have gotten a lot better, and more historically accurate.

Its sort of strange that on one hand you hear how the germans struggled to beat the T-34 while on the other hand reports show that they took them out Day 1 of the war, even with 20mm guns which the T-34 should in theory be immune to. Some historians believe that it was infact the KV that gave the T-34 its legendary reputation. Some old german news reels talk about the T-34 while showing an image of a KV-1. Just like all german tanks was a tiger 1 to the americans, maybe the T-34 had a similar fate where it got credit for the KV-1's work. This sort of explains how documentaries and what not always claim that the germans had to use the Flak 88 to take out the T-34 while battle reports tells a different story.

WoT: "Historically Accurate vehicles!!!" Also WoT: *has hitpoints*

It's been forever sense I've watched this channel. The animation has gotten amazing! Nice job!

Another major problem was the unwieldy gearbox. It had poor reliability and it needed excessive force to change gears, leading to driver fatigue. The study ‘Engineering analysis of the Russian T34/85 tank’ says: 'Rough steering due to the use of clutch and brake steering control, and Difficulty in shifting due to the use of a spur gear clash-shift transmission (no synchronizers, no clutches) and a multi-disc dry clutch, undoubtedly make driving this tank a difficult and very fatiguing job.’ Initially the powerful V-2 engine (500hp) could not be used to the fullest due to the 4-speed gearbox. Changing gears required excessive force on behalf of the driver. The T-34 could use the 4th gear only on a paved road, thus the max speed over cross-country was theoretically 25 km/h but in practice it was only 15km/h because changing from 2nd gear to 3rd required superhuman strength. On later modifications there was a 5-speed gearbox which allowed for a cross country speed of 30 km/h. However it seems that even vehicles built late in the war were not guaranteed to have the new 5-speed gearbox. The tanks given to the Polish People's Army in late 1944/early 1945 and those used by the North Korean Army in 1950 had the old 4-speed setup

Great job covering the history of the T-34 tank. One small gripe though, however - you didn’t cover the version armed with 85 mm anti-tank cannon and you can’t talk about T-34 without talking about the T34-85, the tank that everyone thinks of when they hear the name T-34

Seen two of these in a museum here in Finland. That tank is quite cool. It's fun how tanks feels so small in videos and Video games, but once you see tanks in real you can realy see how big they are. Edit: Location of the Museum: Hattulantie 334, 13720 Parola.

Can we get a video on other tanks too? The M4 Sherman and its many variations come to mind. Excellent work!

One would think the Germans would have caught on to the fact their rounds weren't having much effect on T-34 and started going for mobility or firepower kills.

Superb content! Well done!

Excellent video. The longer format is appreciated.

The T-34 basic design had some good features. When it entered service the T-34 was possibly the best in the world. But the quality of production was low. The early T-34/76 turret was too small to hold a loader and had terrible ergonomics. They lacked many useful features. Most WW2 T-34s lacked radios and intercoms. On paper, the T-34 performance was good. But in reality, it was average to poor. The design was generally reliable but poor construction made it much worse. Like Soviet equipment, it was rugged, simple and easy to repair. If parts were available. The T-34/85 was a significant improvement. With over 50 000 built during WW2 it made a vital contribution to winning the war. But at a high cost. Loss rates of T-34s was much higher than Sherman tanks. One of the quality problems was inconsistent armor manufacturing. Many had strong heating to improve armor penetration. But with overly heating of the armor made it more brittle. That made internal fragmentation of the armor was more likely to hit crews and ammunition. Like the effect of high explosive HESH ammunition. This was a production problem, and not a failure of the design. . Post war T-34/85 production could have been built with much better quality and accessories. Such as with radios and internal communications, more optics and better quality armor. The T-34/85 with a loader could have greatly improved firepower with much better target tracking, sight acquisition, faster aim adjusting with follow-up shots, the commander's situational awareness, and reload time. Situational awareness is vital for tank crews. And good quality armor could greatly reduced casualties and ammunition fires. Much of our WW2 history needs to be checked by many countries to overcome significant post war misinformation, propaganda and poor research. The Chieftain does and other Utube historians are trying to find original documents to check what information is accurate. Translation between language is also a problem and there is a massive amount of history documentation that is not in English. The history of the Battle of Midway is a very good example of misinformation that is now being studied again from original documentation. Misinformation is sometimes intentional, but often poor quality research. Sometimes just historians wanting to simplify very complex events. Veterans are a rapidly disappearing source of WW2 information. But this can be unreliable when a soldiers view of the war is mainly from in a trench. Historic interviews is a very complex issue. Different soldiers from different trenches often have a very different view. In regards to trenches, is an example that can be applied with many situations. The views of a private and a general is another example of very different views of the same situation. Even with current events, this can be a problem for historians. And historians often have a different agenda. For some writers, it can just be written to be more entertaining or increase popularity. As well as cultural differences.

11:20 “even at point blank range, penetration was not guaranteed” Basically sums up my wedding night

Honestly this my most favorite tank other than the Panzer 4. Also, you might have forgotten one thing, during 1941-42, the Russians were thinking about putting the 57 mm gun on the 1940 version of the T-34, but it was scrapped (I learned this from a book about the T-34 and also the game, War Thunder). Other than that pretty cool video

I love this channel, with the animations, it always feels like I’m watching a movie while learning about some amazing history related stories and info

I would like to see a video on the development of the Churchill. Half of tanks lovers in my home town say its their favourite tank because its built in the very town we live in

Fun fact: protestors once hijacked one during a riot.

I don't understand how the animations can keep such awesome simplicity while continuing to gradually get more detailed, creative, and beautiful with every few videos. Seriously such an awesome channel.

2:27 Me after that first shot did nothing to stop the tank

This is the longest solo Simple History video I've watched, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

30 minute video, that must have been painfull to animate, thank you so much for putting time and effort into these videos

Some considerations: It was the T-34 chassis that made it such a versatile tank. Good speed, and excellent ground pressure to weight traction in rough terrain and snow . The T-34 chassis made conversions easy--T-34/85, Su-85, Su-122, and Su-100, all good AFV's. Their proven design and simplicity made it possible to pump them out in the tens of thousands. Sure, the Tiger sand Panther were superior, but keep in mind there were never enough of them, and they couldn't be everywhere in the vast front of Russia. Besides, where theT-34's really excelled was committed fast and massive deep strikes to encircle and hit the German's rear, like a flood. They could perform the blitzkriegs they learned from Germans who themselves could no longer do with their heavier tanks, fuel shortages, and on the defensive everywherre after their last offensives at Kursk and Kharkov.

The T-34, which was being tested at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, was built at the best Soviet factory, materials of the highest quality were used, but its engine stopped working after 72.5 hours. This did not happen due to American intervention - a Soviet mechanic (engineer Matveyev) was seconded from Moscow with the tanks, who was responsible for operation. The quality of these tanks was much better than that of conventional tanks as it covered a distance of 343 km. According to Fedorenko, head of the Red Army's armored vehicle department, the average mileage of the T-34 before major repairs during the war did not exceed 200 kilometers. This distance was considered sufficient, since the life time of the T-34 at the front was much shorter. For example, in 1942 it was only 66 km. In this sense, the T-34 was indeed "reliable" because it was destroyed before it could break.

I know another legend, that can stop T-34. It's the good ol' Birch log. Hello from Finland :D

Tank: "Sir, it'll take ten tanks to destroy a single tiger tank." Tank Commander: "Then bring 12 Tanks, comrade."

Wow! 32 minutes?? Dang SH did a lot of work on this one

Thank you for making this. I used this video to research my entire interest project

Did you really spend 32 minutes shouting "NOOOOOO...." into the mic? man that is both hard core and totally called for.

i like how over the years, every time I check on one of your videos the animation improves but I don't know how were going to top this

These are some nice animations. You went from 2d to a full-blown 3d animation house. What an amazing journey this channel is.

Ive seen quite a few T34s in person. And Ive literally seen T34s with massive gaps in Weld Joints. Place where a small 7.62 or even 30-06 round could pass through. So imagine a 75mm HV from the Panther could literally make the T34 a shrapnel fest. T34s were just so massed produced. There suspension was amazing thanks to an American Christie and his suspension the US Army didnt want. And the fact that T34s armor had an angle made it a tad more survivable.

What a lot of people tend to forget is that a shell does not necessarily need to penetrate a plate of steel to kill the crew, if not cause so much pain that they can't fight anymore. This is because of a little thing called spalling, which is when odd little bits and pieces of steel detaches from the plate as a result from an impact. Even an earlier model Panzer 4 with the howitzer was sufficient to kill a T-34 through spalling alone. But spalling doesn't exist in games like War Thunder because that wouldn't make for a fun game, so nobody thinks about it. APHE was not a good shell for the time because it explodes inside the tank like in War Thunder. It just caused more spalling because of the explosion.

This was a great video! Learned some new things about my favorite tank from WW2. I was disappointed you didn't cover the T-34/85 though. Maybe you can do a part two and talk about the Post-War uses of the T-34.

7:38 damn they even animated the low slung L-11 correctly :)

I don't know, but I seem to be killed by them way too much in War Thunder, even after taking a beating from my Sherman.

As an engineer, I admire the convenience and high technology of German tanks, but that's what ruined them. The German industry simply could not produce enough such expensive and complex tanks. In addition, heavy models often broke down and it was very difficult to repair them in the field. Here I really like the concept of the T-34 (simple, cheap, harsh, fast). This is truly the "best tank of wartime" (I mean, as a forced measure, it is beyond praise).

Also forgot to mention how the Panther tanks were also a response to the T34's and KV's. Produced in more numbers than the tiger and whilst not the most mechanically sound German vehicle either. It was still more reliable than the Tiger. I believe it's arguably better than the Tiger.

something he forgot to mention with bolting the armor together is that when molotovs were thrown onto one of these tanks the bolts left gaps inbetween the armor so if a molotov was thrown on a tank the flaming liquid would seep in and disable the tank

this channel is getting better after every video. Congrats!

These videos are so informative thank you for making them

My goodness, you have come a very long way. First your animations were simple then got more complex. I am proud, Mr. History. Your animation skill have gotten so much better.

You are putting so much effort into your videos. Great.

It wasn't, actually probably one of the worst for survivability. So there's your answer.

Not even a mainstreaming service could deliver such a clear and cohesive documentary about a tank. Awsome Job!

One of the biggest off putting things about the T-34 series is the amount of historical myth becoming historical fact and it's "fanbase" being rather extremist in their fanatical belief in those myths.

These new animations are so good! Keep it up!

Thank you very much for this video! It is very educational and good to study both tank history and English at the same time =)

This is very well done! It's nice to see that the now legendary T-34 is getting recognition unlike German heavies being so praised despite having little to no impact on the war. The T-34-85 going completely unmentioned is a questionable decision though as to why, perhaps the video is getting too long? This gives me hope that they'll remake their M4 Sherman video as their current M4 Sherman video is filled with myths such as: "American doctrine stated that the M4 Sherman is an exploitation vehicle and are not anti-tank" "Tank Destroyers like the M10 kill tanks, while the M4 Sherman kill everything else" "When it was first deployed to El-Alamein, the M4 Sherman is equal to the early Panzer IV variants" "The M4 Sherman is poorly armored" "Americans emphasized on mass-production rather than improving the M4 Sherman which is why it was obsolete by D-Day" "The true and best anti-tank Sherman is the British Sherman Firefly, not the M4A3E8 'Easy Eight' Sherman" I don't think I have to explain why such statements are false as anyone that hasn't been living under a rock knows already. It's about damn time the M4 Sherman got the recognition and praise it deserves

Great video. I think it depends how you look at the vehicle. If you are just looking at fire power and armor in a vacuum then it's easy to think tanks like the Panther and Tiger 2 are the best. However if you look at it in terms of what makes a good tank for an army involved in a massive land war. Then things like range, reliability, numbers produced, ease of manufacture and ease of repair/replacement come much more to the forefront. In these aspects the T-34 and Sherman are basically neck and neck in being the best tanks of the war. I think the T-34 wins out here with its superior off-road performance but there is a very compelling argument for the Sherman being the best. Basically my view is the Germans had tanks which individually were monsters. But too few in number. The Soviets and Allies had tanks which were good enough to get the job done and available in great numbers. Which was all the difference in the end.

these animations are getting so much better with every new vid

One interesting thing I noticed early on in the video... you mention the T-34s deployment coinciding with the Sept '39 German invasion of Poland... but you ignore the Sept '39 Soviet invasion of Poland--as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact--& especially the Nov '39 Soviet invasion of Finland. Both saw how ineffective the BT, earlier T-type, & the KV tanks were on rough terrain. It was the lessons learned there that made the T-34 design so effective (even if the rushed manufacturing compromised some areas).

Next video I’m hoping for is the Churchill tank. Very good history on t-34

What an amazing upgrade to visual production quality of this most recent vídeo. I loved the new improved version with in-depth 3d animation. Good job guys! I'm a big fan of your channel.

I'm kind of weird in the sense that I seem to find the little inconsequential things. Take for example, the bogie/road wheels. They show the rubber tire, and the detail showing the hollow tube structures that allowed flexing and also made them quieter. Pretty cool video.

Videos like this gives tankies so much confidence.

I'm very happy for you guys, after all these years following your channel I can say this was an outstanding video! Fantastic work! Congratulations!

This not a tank. This IS THE tank!!! 😍

Most of the t34 tanks didnt have mirror optics but polished steel plates. A lot of early t34 struggled to know where they took hits from. This was also bc the commander was the gunner even most of the t34-85's with the d5t cannon had a 4 man crew

Amazing video like allways, keep up the great work

1:19 to skip ad

An excellent video about what is probably my favorite series of tanks from World War 2! The ones with the 85 mm cannons were superb!

Could you do a KV series like this?? That would be awesome!🔥

You should do a video on the difference between WWI and WWII. Nations involved, number of deaths and casualties, areas of the world involved, weapons, fighting and tactics.

This is the nicest and highest quality video from this channel to date. Very nice work, keep it up!

Wonderfully made episode about a legendary tank. Animation quality is superb, I can tell a lot of work was put into this. Keep it up!

I still love the story of how when Stalingrad was invaded tanks where still being built and driven from the factory straight to the front line a few blocks away it’s like a top down multiplayer game when your land is being attacked and you send your factory’s to build vehicles and tell them drive to the fighting here

Yess we need more full documetaries like this

This is the most informative documentary on the T-34 I have seen, particularly with details regarding their construction. Very much worth watching.

A very well made and throughout video on this legendary WWII tank! I would really enjoy the same type of quality and lenght videos about more legendary WWII vechicles like the M4 Sherman, Panzer V and ofcourse the Tiger!

2:00 my 2.3 realistic battles experience

Panzer V Panther is my favorite, love the style and his looks are awesome.

This is definitely one of my favorite tanks right next to the Tiger II.

Great work on your animations! Really improving your channel, we all appreciate the extra effort you guys are giving

Lazerpig has a good video on the T34

Maus and T-95/28: *you have underestimated our power*

*"If you can't produce good stuff, then just produce a lot of stuff."* ~The soviets

I can only imagine the hype when the Trebuchet or Catapults first came into a war scene back in ancient times. The aura must have had the same feeling as this Tank dominating the war zone.