Everyone knows the famous T-34 tank, which went through the entire Great Patriotic War and made a huge contribution to the victory of our country over the invaders. However, the T-34 did not appear out of the blue. His older brother and in fact the role model was the T-28 medium tank.
The T-28 is practically the first tank built by Russian designers independently, and not by copying English samples. In particular, almost all of the Russian tanks were copies of the English technology produced by the Vickers company.
The T-28 medium tank was launched into mass production in 1933. In total, about 500 tanks of this model were produced, due to their relative complexity of production. Compared to other models, this is a very small amount. For example, more than 11, 000 copies of the T-26 light tank were produced. But by the end of the 30s, the T-28 was one of the most modern tank models in the world and had sufficient armor and firepower to cope with complex combat missions.
In particular, this tank has proven itself in the Russo-Finnish War. The Finns had almost no tank units, but there were very fortified bunkers, surrounded by grooves (stone blocks).
The T-28 gnawed at the Finnish defense line, firing at the bumps, and sometimes passing over them from above. Tanks drove into the rear of enemy pillboxes and shot them from behind. However, due to the outdated equipment on which the T-28s were made, the tanks often broke down, and this model did not work out mass. The caliber of the 76 mm gun was similar to the caliber of the guns mounted on the T-34, but the short barrel did not give a good initial projectile speed, as a result of which the penetration was lower.
The shielded T-28 was not inferior to the T-34 in terms of security. But the Soviet government made the right choice in favor of the more modern T-34 tank, which absorbed all the positive qualities of its predecessor and became the most effective tank of World War II.
