T-34 in German Service
The T-34 in German Service, it was called Panzerkampfwagen T 34-747 (r). This video covers the Beutepanzer T-34, German experience reports using the T-34, why so few T-34 were used by German troops, problems with maintenance and handling.
DISCLAIMER D: I was invited by the Deutsche Panzermuseum in 2018, 2019 & 2020.
/ daspanzermuseum
DISCLAIMER A: I was invited by the Tank Museum at Bovington in 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2023.
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DISCLAIMER G: I was invited by Militärhistorische Museum der Bundeswehr Dresden in 2019 & 2021. www.mhmbw.de/
Cover: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101III-Hoffmann-023-11 / Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons; Modified and colorized by vonKickass.
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»» SOURCES ««
Vollert, Jochen: Panzerkampfwagen T 34-747 (r): the Soviet T-34 Tank as Beutepanzer and Panzerattrappe in German Wehrmacht Service 1941-45. Tankograd Publishing-Verlag Jochen Vollert: Erlangen, Germany, 2013.
Jentz, Thomas L./Regenberg, Werner: Panzer Tracts No19-2: Beute-Panzerkampfwagen: British, American, Russian, and Italian tanks captured from 1940 to 1945. Panzer Tracts: Boyds, Maryland, USA, 2008 (Panzer tracts / created by Thomas L. Jentz and Hilary Louis Doyle, 19,2).
BArch, RH 8/1661: Aktenverzeichnisse (Inhaltsverzeichnisse WaPrüf 6 St. VI und VIb).
Zaloga, Steven: Armored Champion: the top Tanks of World War II. Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, PA, USA, 2015.
Spielberger, Walter J.: Beute-Kfz und Panzer der Wehrmacht: Vollkettenfahrzeuge. Spezialausgabe, 1. Auflage, Motorbuch Verlag: Stuttgart, Germany, 2016 (Motorbuch Verlag spezial).
www.tankarchives.ca/2015/07/c...
00:00 Intro
00:24 Germinology: Beutepanzer = Captured Tank? Trophy Tank?
01:04 Foreign Vehicle Classification
02:40 Before 1941
02:56 In 1941
03:53 Why few T-34s captured & employed by Germans in 1941?
05:44 Limited Numbers
06:12 Experience Report
08:03 Various Events / Initiatives
10:04 German T-34s everywhere and nowhere?!
10:57 Preliminary Conclusions
#T34 #WW2 #germanarmy
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The grandfather of a friend of mine was in a special unit which used Beutepanzer to create chaos behind enemy lines. The last record of him is from the Kurlandschlacht/ Courland Pocket. Never returned home.
Is there somwhere more info about that unit or its name?
And there I was, thinking "He hasn't posted for months, what's happening?"
Answer is in the video :)
Russia attempted to start a SVO in Austria
@@looinrimsSVO?
Yeah,I was wondering what was up with him a few days ago
@@sebastiangundolf6740 that’s the Latinized spelling of what the Russians say special military operation afaik, I guess in Russian it goes SVO, at least that’s how I keep seeing it
Bernhard, thanks for all of the hard work. I hope that you get better soon.
Три месяца ничего нового не было! Ютуб не платит?
Чел, он в начале видео говорит, что были проблемы со здоровьем. Он руку повредил еще летом.@@user-rc6oo6tw9z
I remember reading that during a night attack during the battle of Kursk a German armored unit had used a captured T-34 to lead their column through Russian lines. It worked great until, as soon as they breeched the line, the t-34 broke down.
One of the things that Germans or anyone handling captured vehicles had to worry about was being knocked out by friendly forces. Example, German tankers would look at silhouettes or shapes,and not particularly markings when identifying enemy vehicles. So clearly marking tanks or vehicles was essential. Otherwise you could be shot up. This is a very detailed and enriching video. Very cool. Good job.❤
Less than you would think. The captured vehicles were usually well known by the local units because of their novelty. And of course they put big stars or crosses on each. I can't recall a single case of fratricide because of the use of captured equipment. Not even the 83rd Div's "Rag-Tag Circus" where they commandeered anything that would move. Far more cases of deception operations using them not going so well...
@@obsidianjane4413 Carius gives an example in his memoir of just that happening with 2 beutepanzer T-34 get shot when they return to their own lines following a morning patrol.
@@obsidianjane4413 yeah not to mention most cases of friendly fire are simply cases where proper ID is not possible no matter what silhouette is. Most important way to prevent friendly fire is just cooperation and units receiving proper info on where the friendlies and enemies are, that's all. Using captured equipment or not is negligible when it comes to increasing possibility of friendly fire.
A US Army unit captured a few T34 76mm versions being used for training in France during the Normandy campaign. One found its way to the Aberdeen testing location for the famous photograph with the Sherman and Pershing.
Recovered. Not captured. They were allied with the soviet back then.
The T34 (and KV1) formerly kept at Aberdeen were shipped over by the Russians for evaluation in 1942.
Don't know what happened to your hands - but hope they heal soon.
You nailed the logistics headache these T 34s would have been. Germany had a major problem just producing spare parts for its own equipment. T 34s were not made to last, they were made to run and get into the fight, not to last for 10,000 kilometers. If it broke, go get another.
Go get another? You are aware of the crew survivability rates for T34s, correct?
@@TigerBaron yes, I was talking about the Unit Commanders.
Not like german tanks where made to last 10000 km either
@@akriegguardsmanyes but they could pushed either by the machine spirit or produceable parts.
The germans knew T-34`s were deathtraps with terrible ergonomics and aoverall a poor design. Iknow " it had sloped armour"!!
1:03 I can only imagine the KZhead monetization algorithm having a stroke with this still
By now the algorithm should be much wiser than a typical know-it-all.
@@XtreeM_FaiL ‘should’ Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups
@@looinrims That is true and we have wrote a book about that. It's called history. Here is the catch (or should be)... AI learns!
I'd love to see a video on the German use of the KV-1 - the ones they fitted the Pz IV's L48 75mm gun and cupola to. They must have liked the KV to have gone to such efforts to modify them for German service
what a funny tale.
A friend of mine was 17 years old in the battle of Berlin. When they tried to break out of the encirclement via the spandau bridges over the river Havel, they captured T-34 tanks by ambushing them and threatening them with Panzerfausts. Almost like robbers. Well, the breakthrough attempt didn't went well. The bridge over river Havel was full of blood becaus the Russians were shooting on to it. He told me that many civilians were with them and own tanks ore halftracks were driving over their own guys in order to make it on the westside of the bridge. He was captured a few days later outside of Berlin and turned 18 another few days later on the way to russian captivity. He survived and returned to Germany and died a few years ago.
What happened to the t34 crews?
@@mrwhips3623They we're captured.
@@Miesepete how did they have time to capture and manage prisoners in those brutal last days in Berlin? I'm not doubting it but it seems like a nightmare
Glad that you're back! Yay!
Glad to see you back, we’ll pray for your recovery
i like the "disclosures" arranged as Panther versions lmao
:)
I remember in the book Tigers in the Mud, Otto Carius talks about a captured T-34. It came to their line with swastikas and a german flag. The Pak gunner didn't give a shit, knocked it out and killed all the crewmen. Otto says that from this day on no one wanted to use the captured tanks.
Yea, neither of those work if light conditions aren't sufficient.
Welcome back sir! I wondered where you got off to.
Very good to have you back - take care and get well sooon
Wir wünschen Ihnen eine gute Genesung
SLR107FR31 here, still watching buddy! Happy to see you upload again bro
Legend!
In the warmovie "Force 10 from Navarone" (1978) you can see several T-34/85 in German army colors.
9:50 The best way to entice the enlisted man to work, alcoholic payment
Hope you are doing well Bernhard. Was missing your videos
Gute Besserung, Bernhard!
really enjoy the time and effort you put into these. good luck with your hands
Another great video. Glad that you are back. Hope you're healing goes quickly and well. Thank you.
Wish you a speedy recovery with tendon problems - i still need to get around to reviewing your Stuka book 😅
I appreciate the quoted sources and excellent research. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks. I was aware that they were using captured equipment but not the details. .
Thank you, Bernard, for this issue on a very interesting subject. What a coincidence that I just asked Peter Samsonov this question only a week or two ago! Thank you, once again!
Get well soon!
He returns! We missed you.
I wish you had mentioned that germans have set up production lines for improved 7.62cm ammunition that improved this gun's anti-armour capability, compared to using standard soviet rounds.
These were mostly used in Marder tank destroyers I think.
@@markkringle9144 Well, yes, but they were also used in unmodified captured soviet 76mm guns. They were heavier shells, 7,6kg and were therefore fired at only 625m/s, but could penetrate 82mm/30° at 100m according to Jentz.
Thank you for this!!! Really hope you continue to do more videos about captured tanks and vehicles in Allied and Axis service. I had no idea how widespread using captured equipment was until i played Steel Division 2 and Stalingrad.
Welcome back. Hope the hands are doing better now.
@4:30 imagine being a Wehrmacht Gefreiter encountering that KV-1 monster for the first time in 1941. Your 37mm Pak is useless, the Panzerfaust hasn't been invented, your best Panzer III's and IV's can't penetrate the frontal armor.
Imagine being a Finnish soldier in 1939-40 winter when Stalin tested that monster. Only way to stop it was wait untill it run out of fuel or broke down, it got stuck or a log.
‘Experience has shown that a close quarters attack by a determined man against a tank will basically always succeed’
@@looinrims Odds are good if the tank has no support, but still not 100%
@@XtreeM_FaiL wrote: "Imagine being a Finnish soldier in 1939-40 winter when Stalin tested that monster." --There is only one(at least that I know) instance of KV-1 used as a recovery vehicle to T-28 as a test trial, after Stalin questioned engineers who design that tank, he put them in that tank to recover other tanks. That engineer wrote in his book, that Finish AT gun shells was slamming into KV like a giant sledgehammer, but never penetrated its armor. It was a very disconcerting experience for him...
@@RussianThunderrr Finns were completely powerless against the KV in Winter war. I believe that Finns "destoyed" first KV in -41 when it lost its tracks after it drove over couple AT-mines and crew set it on fire.
Thank you for another interesting video, I hope you get better soon!
Excellent disclosures at the beginning
Da isser ja wieder, ick freu mir😊 Hoffe es geht dir besser!
Must of been a nightmare working as a mechanic on all these different machines
Like Ukraine atm. Getting tanks n stuff with all different bolt sizes etc.
@@bastiaan7777777less bad than you think, they don’t exactly put 1 foreign tank in each company, it’s just one maintenance crew that has to bang their head against the computer screen reading all the manuals Besides most tough maintenance is sent out of country (by both sides) for safety (and the fact that nowhere in country can one have facilities for Leopards, T90s, or Challengers)
I mean, mechanics already do it everyday with cars from different companies. Same company has dozens of models. I guess once you work with a 52 tons behemoth that could only be towed by another 52 tons behemoth, anything is easy.
@@looinrims Dunno, challengers have English wrenches n such, German leopards use metrics... Diesel and gas turbine engines, also all diff parts are not interchangeable .. nightmare...
@@thiagorodrigues5211 Yet. try bringing your Mercedes to an Renault mecanic. Or vice versa.
Quality content; also worried as many presenters moving away from YT
I would think that fuel had to be an issue as well. Given that the T-34 had a diesel engine, where as the German vehicles ran on gasoline. Unless they captured a constant supply of diesel fuel, would it have been worth the effort to add to an already complicated logistics system?
The Germans used diesel extensively in their trucks, so I would think they would have a supply to the front.
Cut gas with oil
@@tomhenry897works with mechanical fuel pump diesel engines. Inline apparently better than rotary. I found that 75%hydraulic oil to 25% 91ron petrol gave similar viscosity to diesel and could run without changing settings on the injector pump. Downside is that I have to pull the injectors once a month and clean the carbon build up out of the precombustion chamber. If I don't do this it starts to rattle, which is detonations caused by improperly sprayed fuel which will, after a while, kill your head gasket. Took me about a year and a half to kill the gasket, only cleaning the injectors when it got bad. Now I do it before it starts rattling.
Hope you recover soon and well.
Take all the time you need to recover. As a patreon member, I'm glad to know how much my and others' support helps, though. Get well soon man and take things easy.
Thanks for the effort and the video. 👍 Gute Besserung weiterhin!
Tbh I've always felt like the best use for captured allied and particularly soviet equipment was to give it to major german allies like Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland. Rather then allowing it to slowly become obsolete, rust in the field awaiting melting that would never happen or forcing germans to diversify training, maintenance and supply. Italians were already looking at turning P75 ie predecessor of M26/40 into their own take on T-34, so why not just give them lots of captured T-34 and allow small italian industry to concentrate on supplying those with spare parts? Romanians did great with french R35, so why not give them S35 and B1 too? Hungarians already are producing czech designed Turan, maybe instead of dismissing czech T-25 proposals, someone should have directed them to hungarians? And so on.
Yeah, giving it to the Finns would have made the most sense, since they already had some Soviet equipment.
Yes the Axis military industrial coordination appears lacking
@@Silverstream-74 "lacking" You mean none? Germans had no idea what the word "ally" means. Thankfully for us all.
@@TheArklyte indeed. Poor forsight. I think they didnt even want to give production licences to their allies ...
Needed for themselves
Heal up Bernhard! Your health is very important.
We are jealous of the invites.... that we didn't get one.
Fascinating!
There is one interesting unique T-34 Beutepanzer... It was used in anti-partisan action as part of the 10th polizei regiment. There were used in Slovenia and area around Trieste. Yugoslav partisans managed to destroy and capture dozen of these vehicles, one with the marking 01 was then used in Yugoslav capturing of Trieste, nowdays that same tank is rotting in Barracks around Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am actually making a model kit of that same tank right now.
What happened to Bernhards hands? Sorry to hear it!
A deeper dive into nummer assignment and why using same the number for different vehicles would be nice.
Not sure if I understand what you mean?
@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized As in "747 without letter could refer to any captured tank ie T34 or Mathilda or M3 Lee" and later on "7xx number for tanks" was there a system? or did 3 different staff clerks randomly pick a number ?
tanks started with 700, halftracks with 300, so there was a system, not sure if there was one for the lower numbers. I suspect it was successive numbering.
@@MilitaryHistoryVisualizedSo random assignment. If successive then someone would have noticed 'oh 747 is taken this gets the designation 748'
@@BadByte NO! The letter (r), (b), etc. was used as well, else they might have run out of numbers since 701-799 was for tanks.
Gute besserung!
Still waiting for the Market Garden video.
Didn't realize it was so complicated taking your enemies things in war.
Gute Besserung!
If you are an infantry men and get your hand on tank, that would be a welcome addition to your firepower.
Sehr interessant. Vielen Dank und gute Besserung!
Just a crazy idea: Reading the books about the Luftwaffe, it looks like that only fighter pilots and Rudel and his Wottan like Stuka did something during the war and survive it. Anything, any book or documentary about the German bomber crews. Were they all shoot down during the war and anyone survived it? Why so many interviews with fighter pilots and any with a Ju-88 or a He-111 pilot? How was like flying a Ju-88 over the Russian front during 44/45, for instance. Finally, something about the mysterious Kampfgeschwader 200 :). Did they bomb the Soviets flying their bombers? Thank you.
What happened to your hands?
Tendon problems.
Stug life price.
My Chamberlain and Ellis book (purchased used in the early 80's) on German amoured vehicles states that when the Das Reich was a Panzer Grenadier Division, it's armoured component was the T-34, I was quite suprised to say the least, is this accurate?
The anti-tank company had T-34s yes, it was also the division that controlled the Kharkov Plant.
I recently found the channel World War 2 Diaries. Stories from a tank gunner on the Eastern Front...It makes the stories very personal and after years of hearing about the war on a larger scale. The narrator talks so casually as they use Russian equipment hat was abandoned....and then there are the lice and frostbite!
I was wondering where my favorite German channel went.
9:34 Though (with the fact that the Soviet tank companies were different), it was barely enough to equip two of them (14 tanks).
0:44 Technically correct, the best kind of correct.
nice
What happened to Bernard?
Best wishes
Is it 'Bismarck' with the soviet tank headgear riding the T - 34 ?
All hail 7.5 cm Pak 40 for get rid of those metal boxes of death
I could imagine a time traveler who is collecting tanks and has lots of money. "Yah, I have 6 creates of American bourbon. How many tanks can I get for that?"
Did this crew change void the Factory Warranty?
Wurden Ersatzteile tendenziell eher erbeutet oder selber produziert?
What happened to your hands? I hope you have a quick recovery.
Surprisingly few French tanks in the German panzer army. Is this because of lack of supply or did they simply not use them much in the east?
The Germans used a large number of French tanks in secondary roles such as training and rear area security. A large number were converted with German weapons for the battle of Normandy. Do an internet search for details.
I remember seeing one story that not only could the Germans not use captured Soviet tanks and vehicles in large numbers but they couldn't use captured Soviet fuel either, the octane rating being too low for the German engines.
Please do not believe every story. better think first about the fuel types.you know there is NO easter bunny?
Well yeah Soviet tanks mostly used diesel, probably a bad idea to put diesel in the fuel tanks of gasoline powered German tanks.
get well soon
Every time the T34 gun lined up to another vehicle, I said “bang!” In my mind…sorry.
wait what happened to your hands?
Tendon problems.
So 1,000 miles from home the Germans failed to reverse engineer a Russian tank, except the SS who jumped at the opportunity for an extra tank company of sorts. I’m less surprised than I thought, but this is great work.
Wait, you mean to tell me that Flames of War and War Thunder are inaccurate with how many Russian tanks are in German camo? 😉😆 thanks for the information 👍
Interesting how they dont change number of Pz35 in service betwen Poland and Barbarosa, in Poland total 7 destroyed and and similary in France, they had 244 in total from Czechoslovakia.
Did anybody catch that "Lada"s license plate? Came out of nowhere.😅
This is just my opinion. What did the panzer crews (who operated captured) think of the T-34? Pros: Good protection and firepower. Cons: Everything else! Abysmal ergonomische (highly awkward compared to any German built Panzer), (very) cramped interior, unintuitive and labor intensive drivers station, and bad situational awareness from any position. Even if the captured T-34 had it's ammo storage full, it could only be operated with what was remaining in the fuel tanks, since Wehrmacht's fuel of choice for it's combat vehicles was gasoline (Benzin), NOT diesel🚫 Natürlich, after running out of fuel, the only option for the crews of the captured T-34 was to ditch it into a body of water/mud or blowing it up.
We had many captured T 34s, "sotka" (duck).
What happened to you're hands?
Tendon problems.
@9:35 talk about a day late and a dollar short!
0:11 what happened ?
✌
Germans Divisions was always short on armor equipment They're have to use and convert everything They capture I am not the expert but the best was converted tank Chech-38in to the tank destroyer was Hetzer Low profile easy to camouflage with 75mm main gun 👍🤠
Не смотря на сильную нехватку бронетехники, трофеи немцы использовали очень мало и ограниченно.
Did the western allies and soviets use captured German equipment?
What happened with your hands!
Tendon problems.
Ein Panzer ist besser als kein Panzer.
It’s Harkov.
Are you hurt? What happened to your hands?
tendovaginitis de quervain
Read hitlers great panzer heist. It covers this as well as occupied nation's truck production, mostly france.
I dunno about that career shift to used tank salesman. I think I'd rather continue my Patreon support. BTW, do you know how to pronounce S A L E S M A N? Peddler!
Those Czech 35(t) and 38(t) panzers were made into "35 ton" and "38 ton" panzers by the Soviet propoganda, which unsurprisingly inflicted crushing defeats on the glorious Red Army at the beginning of the war. After all, the T-34 was only something like 25 tons..
Epic nazbol moment