T-34/85:

From Stalingrad to Shanghai

T-34/85 welcomed into Seoul 1950

Described as the best tank at the start and end of World War Two, the design of the T-34 started in 1934 in the Soviet Union.  When production ended in the Soviet Union in 1956, over 80,000 tanks had been produced. As a soviet ally, the PRC naturally inheirited many of these superb fighting machines. Production of the T-34/85 was started in the PRC as the Type 58.  Few were produced before production of the Type 59 began.  These first Type 58 tanks had no sights installed initially but later Type 59 sight were retrofitted.  The total number of T-34/85 and Type 58 tanks accepted by the PLA is just over 700. Even today the T-34 fights on in Africa and the former Yugoslavia, and is still considered a reserve asset in North Korea.  Fortunately for the PLA, chinese T-34/85s were retired in the mid 1960s.  Armed with the 85mm ZiS S-53 gun and two 7.62mm MGs, the T-34/85 was a formidable foe in its day.  408 T-34/85 tanks of the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army completely routed the Japanese Kwantung Army and overran Manchuria in 1945, setting the stage for the formation of the PRC.

North Korean  T-34/85

T-34/85  Top View

Chinese 'volunteer' units went south into Korea to fight UN forces riding on the backs of T-34/85 tanks in 1950.  Some T-34/85 chassis did soldier on in the PLA until the mid 1980s as the Type 65 twin 37mm AA carrier.  Some of these AA vehicles were given to North Vietnam to fight the Yankees, only to later be recaptured by the PLA during the Sino-Vietnamese Conflict.   -Desperado6

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