The interwar period was a time of new technical solutions, and tanks were no exception. Even though tank development was allocated a limited budget, experiments never stopped. The budgets began to swell in the early 1930s, which coincided with a rapid growth of tank characteristics. Various improvements were implemented, including those that improved the crew's working conditions.  T-34 in Crimea, 1944. Factory #112 was the last to keep the turret with a single hatch in production. One of their tanks can be seen in the foreground. One of the characteristic features of Soviet tan ..read more

The T-34 tank might look like it started and ended the Second World War with more or less the same level of armour protection, but things are more complicated than they first appear. In this video, I take a look at how the tank's armour evolved to deal with new threats on the battlefield ..read more

The tank was initially conceived as a mobile fortress; huge and slow. However, the army had to rein in their appetites from a 300 ton monster to just 28 tons. This didn’t mean that the idea of a mobile fortress died off. The mass of tanks continued to grow and the development of the K-Wagen clearly suggested that not only Lebedenko was thinking about Tsar-tanks. Only the prompt end of the First World War stopped these giants from reaching the battlefield. Although, the monstrous projects that were built by 1919 were about as useful as the rest of the Tsar family: a tank that doesn’t fight in a ..read more

The T-34 tank was upgraded with an 85 mm gun in a new enlarged turret in 1944. The true story of how the new gun and turret ended up on a 4 year old chassis is an interesting and complicated one. Find out how it happened in my latest video ..read more

We all know that Scotch was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad, but there were Soviet inventions that had foreign roots and not necessarily the ones you might think. Check out this video to see which of the Red Army's weapon originated abroad and which are surprisingly original.   ..read more

A search for methods to combat tanks began as soon as the tanks themselves reached the battlefield. The first anti-tank rifles and anti-tank cannons were already created during the First World War. They turned out to be quite bulky and could not be used by an individual to combat armoured vehicles. The Germans were the first to design improvised anti-tank grenades that could be used by one person. Bottles of incendiary fluid came later. They also turned up during the First World War, but then they were used for a very different purpose. These bottles were first used against armoured vehic ..read more

The IS-2 and King Tiger were equipped with some of the most powerful tank guns used in the Second World War, but which one of them takes the top prize? I compare the penetration power of these two legendary weapons in my latest video.   ..read more

As Tank Archives nears the conclusion its eleventh year, I've decided to bring up the traditional year-end summary from the blog's birthday on February 28th to New Year's Eve. Without further ado, let's jump in to see what I've been up to for the last twelve months. You may have noticed that there are fewer and fewer articles going up on this blog. I'm not getting tired of writing, in fact, in 2023 I've written more than ever! Earlier this year, I published my third book through Military History Visualized's new publisher: Military History Group. The book itself is a resounding success ..read more

 "Report on use of foreign MK-2 [Matilda] and MK-3 [Valentine] tanks in combat 1. General characteristics Since the brigade was created on March 25th, 1942, it was armed with MK-2 and MK-3 tanks. The latter showed themselves well in battle as infantry support tanks in all sorts of battles. There were also cases of using them to combat enemy tanks (Pz.Kpfw.III, Pz.Kpfw.IV) at close ranges (200-600 meters), especially from ambush in defensive fighting. The off-road mobility and maneuverability of the MK-2 and MK-3 tanks is insufficient compared to the T-34 in all types and periods ..read more

Foreign tanks began arriving in the USSR in October of 1941 and reached the front lines a few weeks after. Were these tanks pivotal to saving Moscow from the Germans? Find out in my latest video ..read more