A question that comes up quite a lot is “why
didn’t the Germans just copy the T-34”.
That is a very interesting question for many
reasons, first off, this was actually suggested
by German officers at the front lines:
"On November 18, 1941, the Panzer Special
Commission from the Army Weapons Office arrived
at the headquarters of the 2nd Panzer Army
in Orel.
On the basis of the latest combat experience
it was to be clarified which measures should
be taken against the absolute superiority
of the T-34.
The front-line officers suggested that the
Russian tank should be rebuilt immediately.”
Interestingly, the last sentence the source
referred to is already from October 1941,
so before the Panzer Commission arrived at
the front.
Second, as discussed in my previous video,
the Germans used a lot of captured equipment.
Third, they also copied at least one Soviet
Weapon System namely the 120 mm mortar and
put it in service as well.
So, the question is, why didn’t the Germans
copy and produce the T-34 as well?
After all, we know that they used the T-34
in service, it was called “Mittlerer Panzerkampfwagen
747 (r) - russ.
T 34” according to Jentz.
It was used in front-line units, not just
rear area units like some other equipment.
Yet those were captured T-34s, not T-34s that
were produced by the Germans.
When it comes to producing the T-34 by the
Germans, we have 2 possibilities here:
One option would be producing the T-34 in
the occupied territories in the Soviet Union
itself.
Another option would be producing the T-34
within Germany.
So, first what about the production in the
Soviet Union.
Well, sadly there is not much information
out there.
From all we know, it was not done.
Yet, while in the German military archive,
I stumbled across a file directory of WaPrüf
6, whereas WaPrüf stands for Waffenprüfamt,
which roughly means Weapons Review Office.
Now, WaPrüf 6 was the department for Tanks
and Motorization.
Now that file directory had a very interesting
entry for December 1941 with the title:
“Production possibilities for Pz.Kpfw.
T 34 in the USSR”
Sadly, I could not find the report itself,
yet, it shows that there was at least enough
consideration given to producing the T-34
in the occupied areas of the Soviet Union
to create a report on it.
Now, several problems come to mind producing
the T-34 in the occupied regions:
First, a large part of the Soviet industry
was evacuated in 1941:
“Between August and October [1941], 80 percent
of Russian industry was ‘on wheels’ (na
kolesakh): ammunition plants, tank-engine
plants, armor plate mills.
[…] The railroads were jammed with the movement
of two and a half million men westward to
the front and fifteen hundred industrial plants
trundling east.”
Second, even if the factories would have been
available, it would also be necessary to have
enough qualified personnel, which was unlikely,
since those were probably evacuated as well.
Third, complexity.
Usually certain parts of a tank were produced
at certain factories, remember a tank is extremely
complex, you have optics, turret, hull, gun,
engine, transmission, etc. this would not
require one factory, yet several, which would
also mean different kinds of personnel and
also different locations, which brings us
to next point, the all-time favorite of everyone.
Fourth, logistics.
Considering that the German supply system
on eastern Front was generally extremely stretched
and infrastructure not necessarily up to scratch,
shipping around tank parts and/or the various
resources to produce them would put another
huge burden on the German logistical system
and thus likely further reducing the flow
of supplies to the front-line.
Now, before we look at the next case, namely
of producing the T-34 in Germany, we also
must take a short look at one of the initial
designs for the Panzerkampfwagen V. Namely
the Panzerkampfwagen VK 3002 (DB), where the
DB stands for Daimler Benz.
As you can see, this one design looks rather
similar to the T-34.
If the Germans would have produced that vehicle
in large quantities, I am rather sure that
most people would call it a copy of the T-34
nowadays.
Yet, let us move on to the case of producing
the T-34 in Germany itself.
As mentioned in the intro the front-line officers
wanted that the German industry copy the T-34.
Yet, the German engineers were not so happy
with the T-34:
"On September 11, 1941, a delegation of German
constructors inspected in Kummersdorf the
enemy armored vehicles captured during the
summer.
The experts come to a rather negative judgement
about the quality of the Soviet tanks;"
Now, it is also important to note that Guderian
in his memoirs noted that it was not possible
to recreate several components of the T-34
in a short time, most notably the Diesel Engine.
The issue is, Guderian’s memoirs are known
for various errors.
I am quite skeptical about the statement,
since using a German engine in the T-34 with
some adaptions should be possible.
After all, the US Sherman tank is rather well-known
to be used with a wide range of different
engines, e.g., radial gasoline engine, twin
in-line diesel engine, 60 degree vee gasoline
engine, and a multibank gasoline engine according
to Hunnicutt.
As such, it is not so unreasonable to think
that the Germans could have copied the T-34
while using a domestic engine, if they really
wanted.
So, what were the problems that German engineers
had with the T-34?
This is especially important, since the reports
of the troops from the front-line are usually
very positive about the T-34, although they
were fighting the T-34 not using it.
It is important to keep in mind here that
the grass is always greener on the other side.
One of the first aspect that comes to mind
is the visibility.
If you look at photos of T-34s in German service,
quite often they had the typical German commander’s
cupola mounted on the top of the turret.
Another issue was, the T-34 had a 2-man turret
not a 3-man turret, as such the commander
was also the gunner at the same time, which
created an overload on the commander, thus
reducing combat effectiveness.
This becomes even more apparent, if we look
at Czechoslovakian LT Vz. 38 that was used
by the Germans, yet only after some adaptions
and is well known as the Panzer 38 (t).
"In order to accommodate the gunner required
by the German Armor Branch, it was necessary
to reduce the original ammunition supply by
three magazines with six rounds each = 18
rounds."
Yet, there were other problems with the T-34.
Although the firepower of the 76mm gun was
generally seen as very positive, Kavalerchik
points out that there were some issues here
as well:
“One of the main design flaws of the T-34
tank, which significantly reduces its combat
power, is the low rate of fire, low speed
aiming, and low accuracy of the tank’s fire.”
There were further issues, which are discussed
in more detail in my Panzer III vs. T-34 video.
Now although a few people claimed in the comment
section that I bash the T-34, it is known
that the Soviets were clearly aware of these
shortcomings.
As such they had planned to produce an improved
version of the T-34 namely the T-34M in September
1941.
The issue is, in June 1941, the Germans invaded
the Soviet Union.
And as you all know Germans tend to complicate
things.
Considering that some people get quite anxious
if Germans are looking in their general direction,
imagine them shooting in your general direction.
As such, the Soviets shelved the T-34M and
put the T-34 into mass production, while also
continuously improving it, because it was
clearly good enough.
But back to copying the T-34, one major issue
is, copying such a complex piece of equipment
is not so easy, as Michaelis points out:
"Probably in line with the critical attitude
of the other members of the Panzer Commission,
Saur [State Secretary of the Reich Ministry
of Armaments and War Production] later emphasized
that 'a replica would have required almost
the same start-up time' as a new development.”
So, the answer is rather simple, why copy
a weapon system that has some flaws, when
you can likely produce a better piece of equipment
in about the same time.
As pointed out by Roman Töppel:
"In fact, even if the Germans wanted to, it
would be a considerable effort for them to
copy the T-34.
This is because it would first require the
manufacture of production machines to be able
to reproduce the parts of the Soviet tank.
And why go to such an effort when the T-34
is defective in many ways anyway?"
To summarize, the Wehrmacht had no issues
with using foreign equipment and weapons of
all kinds in their armed forces.
In some cases, they also copied it and produced
it in foreign or domestic factories.
Yet, copying the T-34 was too much effort
due to the complexity of the weapon system
and some inherent design flaws.
Additionally, producing the T-34 in the occupied
regions of the Soviet Union was problematic,
due to the requirement of qualified workers,
production facilities, resources and of course
logistics.
I hope this answers this question.
Thank you here to Roman Töppel for providing
me with sources, thank you as well to Military
Aviation History for feedback and thanks to
Andrew for reviewing the Script.
A big thank you as well here to my patreon
and subscribestar supporters that make videos
like these possible.
As always, sources are listed in the description.
Thank you for watching and see you next time!
