Favorite Russian light tank? - Armchair General and HistoryNet >> The Best Forums in History

Emil_G · #1 13 Jan 08, 00:01

Vote for your favorite Soviet tin-can and say why! Just for fun.

TRDG · #2 13 Jan 08, 01:21

Not quibbling, but would that really mean the best, or, really your "favorite"? Which might mean not the best from what people "like".......

Cheers, any thoughts?

Tom

Emil_G · #3 13 Jan 08, 01:38

no, just your favorite, for whatever reason, I picked Tank-NI just because it's an armored tracktor that looks super funny that scared those nasty Romanians sh*itless during the defense of Odessa.

TRDG · #4 13 Jan 08, 02:31

"think on" this a bit, then post my vote and thoughts, fair enough for ya?

Cheers, ya gotta love some "poll" action on the forum here!

Tom

F4UCorsair · #5 13 Jan 08, 05:29

The T-40 "could have been" what a light tank should be: a small armored vehicle that can go anywhere (amphibious) to conduct recon. Stay small, stay quiet, fire only to suppress a threat, radio back (yes, it had a radio) and leave. Events overwhelmed it (need to push anything looking like a tank into the main battle) at which point less sophisticated, but equally light, tanks were a better ruble per kilo deal. And it is cute.

Emil_G · #6 13 Jan 08, 15:06

Good pick, F4UCorsair! What I like about the T-40 is that unlike it's DP-sproting cousins it boasted a fat DshK as armament!

Bruno · #7 13 Jan 08, 15:30

T50 cos' it was armored like a medium.
It's look is funny, it wasn't a very good tank (unreliable engine) but I like it !
A lot of time have been spent to conceive this dead-end tank, a new engine was built, it used torsion bars suspension (new on a Russian tank !), its gun was equal to its opponent's mediums (Pz III).
And Finns did use some !
Good subject for modellers...

Emil_G · #8 13 Jan 08, 15:34

I like the T-50 too, it was like a baby T-34! Definitely one of the toughest of the bunch, engine trouble or not. But yeah only 100's were made I think...

Whiterook · #9 13 Jan 08, 15:37

Don't know enough about these types, but after reading Jeff's, the T40 looks good to me too! Looked it up and it is indeed a cool little scout tank.

Emil_G · #10 13 Jan 08, 15:42

Whoa! T-40 out of the gates!

Cmde.Slavyanski · #11 13 Jan 08, 19:28

The T-40 flying tank, or that one(I can't remember off the top of my head) that could be dropped from a TB-3. I just imagine dropping a tank on a group of soldiers.

If I had to vote I'd go for the BT series, because according to Viktor Suvorov they were some kind of super-weapon, since they could like, you know, go REALLY fast on roads.

Emil_G · #12 13 Jan 08, 21:17

So vote! I'm appalled at the lack of voting so far! C'mon light tanks!!! FUN!

I love the BT's too. Esp. BT-7's. Suvorov also thought the T-38 was a super weapon that was going to fjord all European rivers. Well it had a propeller...hehe, super weapon? Not likely

P.S. I think the T-60 was the the tank the prototype plane was designed for but a T-40 would work too. Sadly I believe all the tests ended badly and the flying tank never materialized.

Cmde.Slavyanski · #13 13 Jan 08, 22:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emil_G

So vote! I'm appalled at the lack of voting so far! C'mon light tanks!!! FUN!

I love the BT's too. Esp. BT-7's. Suvorov also thought the T-38 was a super weapon that was going to fjord all European rivers. Well it had a propeller...hehe, super weapon? Not likely

P.S. I think the T-60 was the the tank the prototype plane was designed for but a T-40 would work too. Sadly I believe all the tests ended badly and the flying tank never materialized.

Everything is a superweapon to Suvorov- so long as it doesn't break apart upon rolling off the factory line or removing it from a crate.

What the Lubyanka-NKVD-Stalinist historians never mention, is a secret weapon the Soviet Army had called the Mosin-Nagant. This rifle was known to be VERY durable. It's 7.62x54mm round was so powerful, that it actually exceeds the modern 5.56mm and even .308 caliber rounds used by NATO and US forces today, not only in stopping power but range!!! The rifle was sighted to 1000 meters, making it easy for aggressive Soviet troops to fire up to 1 kilometer into the territory of German-occupied Poland. Imagine that, the supposedly peaceful Soviet Union in the 1930s was armed with a rifle more powerful than those used by American soldiers in Iraq today. Clearly this is yet another smoking gun proving Stalin's intention to invade and conquer Europe.

Luckily the Germans pre-empted this attack with their own invasion, and the Russian soldiers were not able to fight back effectively because they had never been trained to shoot. Soviet plans called for the massive armies to rush the barracks of European forces and shoot their enemy at point blank range.

Emil_G · #14 13 Jan 08, 22:50

better put a :

: there, sometimes things get wild here...but yeah, LOL!

Emil_G · #15 13 Jan 08, 23:26

Here's a cool, humorous artist's rendition of a BT-7 I always liked (from http://www.armor.kiev.ua):