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Finnish Army inventory of armoured vehicles year 1954, these were probably the ones had never been
repaired and re-issued. The other seven T-34/76 tanks remaining in Finnish use until year 1961. Apparently
five of the Finnish-used T-34/76 tanks have more or less survived to this day. From those five tanks T-34
model 1941 Ps. 231-1 and T-34 model 1943 Ps. 231-7 are can now be seen in Parola Tank Museum, while T-
34 model 1942 Ps. 231-4 is stored in museum depot. Two tanks remaining outside the museum are T-34
model 1941 tanks Ps. 231-2 (R-105) in Mikkeli and Ps. 231-3 (R-111) in Kontioranta garrison.
T-34/85 "Pitkäputkinen Sotka"
PICTURE: T-34/85 Ps. 245-2. Unfortunately colours of the camo paint job are all wrong. (Photo taken in Panssarimuseo). CLICK
THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (152 KB).
Weight: 32.0 tons
Length: 6.10 meters (about 7.5 meters with gun)
Width: 3.00 meters
Height: 2.60 meters
Max. Speed: 55 km/h on road
25 km/h off road
Engine: 500hp V-2 12-cylinder diesel engine
Armour: 20 - 75 mm (*)
- Turret front 75 mm (*)
- Turret sides 75 mm
- Turret rear 52 mm
- Turret top 20 mm (rear) / 25 mm (front)
- Hull front 45 mm
- Hull sides 45 mm
- Hull top 20 mm
- Hull bottom 20 mm
Ground Clearance: 40.0 cm
Ground Pressure: 0.85 kg/square cm
Gradient: 35 degrees
Trench: 2.50 m
Fording: 1.3 m
Range: 250 km
Weapons: 85 mm ZiS-S-53 (L/51.5) tank gun (56 rounds)
2 x 7.62 mm DT machinegun, coaxial and hull (1.827 rounds)
Crew: 5 men
Country of Origin: Soviet Union
Production: 1943 - 1946, total number manufactured about 23,000 tanks. (**)
(*) Early T-34/85 had turret front armour that was 75-mm thick. This was increased to 90-mm in August of 1944, but it is unlikely that
any T-34/85 manufactured that late was captured before Finnish - Soviet war ended in the next month.
(**) Only Soviet mass-production included.
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Finnish use: Seven tanks captured in summer of 1944 taken to Finnish use. First of these tanks were
captured in July of 1944 and the last of them remained in Finnish use until year 1962.
As mentioned T-34 started an arms race of tanks in German - Soviet front. German Tiger I and Panther tanks
introduced in 1942 - 1943 as German countermove to T-34 and KV-1 proved very difficult to destroy with
76-mm F-34 tank gun used in T-34 tanks at that time. Hence the Soviets needed to find a more powerful tank
gun and took their existing 85-mm anti-aircraft gun model 1939 (52-K) as a starting point. The development
work resulted first to 85-mm D-5T tank gun, which was used in first production run of T-34/85 tanks
manufactured in late 1943. After development of 85-mm ZiS-S-53 was completed, it was it was introduced
to production with new larger improved three man turret in early 1944 and replaced in production earlier
version equipped with D-5T. While ZiS-S-53 was not as effective against armour as German 7.5 cm KwK 42
L/70 (Panther) and 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56 (Tiger I) tank guns, it was still an improvement and fired also very
effective high explosive shells.
Another major improvements that one could have expected from the Soviets to T-34 design would have been
heavier armour, but T-34/85 had armour protection not much heavier than what T-34/76 had already offered.
The reason for this was Christie suspension system, for which T-34/85 was already in absolute upper limit as
far as size and weight of the tank was concerned. The Soviets had experimented with T-43 prototype which
had torsion beam suspension and because of this could be equipped with heavier armour, but this prototype
also proved notably less mobile than T-34 and would have required large changes to production, which
would undoubtedly effected to production numbers. Hence T-43 did not get beyond prototype stage and T-
34/85 equipped with Christie suspension replaced earlier T-34/76 in production in winter of 1943 - 1944.
But other than that, many of the major shortcomings of earlier T-34/76 had been fixed in T-34/85. It had the
larger three-man turret, which finally allowed tank commander (located in left side inside turret) to
concentrate in commanding the tank instead of having other duties. This was possible because gunner (in left
side in turret) would take care in using the main gun and its coaxial DT machinegun while loader (in right
side of turret) would take care loading the main gun. The other two crew members (driver and
machinegunner) remained in front hull as in earlier T-34. Since all T-34/85 were equipped with radios
(usually type R-9 transmitter-receiver) and interphone systems commanding tank units equipped with T-
34/85 was also notably easier for tank commander than with T-34/76, which often lacked radios. Early on
radio was in front hull and used by machinegunner, but in March of 1944 it was transferred to turret to
provide tank commander personal access to it. At the same time commander's cupola gave him much better
view of events outside the tank and allowed him to have much more clear picture in situation around the
vehicle. Late 1944 the Soviets added these tanks even smoke system, which with its two smoke canisters
allowed them to provide mastirovka when needed. Tanks manufactured by early 1944 had manual turret
traverse, while later manufactured T-34/85 tanks were equipped with electric turret traverse. Also location of
main gun ammunition had been improved, which shows also in maximum rate of fire that could be achieved.
PICTURE: T-34/85 Ps. 245-4. Notice the gun collar, which is non-standard model. The reason for this probably related Finnish Army
using this individual tank for experimenting installing of German 75 mm Psv.K/40 (7.5 cm StuK 40 L/48). Once this experiment
proved unsuccessful this tank was equipped with its original 85-mm ZiS-S-53 main gun, but apparently not with its original gun
collar.(Photo taken in Panssarimuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (112 KB).
Finnish Army captures T-34/85 tanks:
When Soviet offensive in Finnish front begun in June 1944 Finnish Army found itself fighting against
massive number of tanks - much of them T-34/85. First T-34/85 tanks taken to Finnish use were captured in
Portinhoikka (part of Tali-Ihantala battlefield) 25th of June 1944 after large counter-attack made that day and
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were taken to Finnish use immediately after repainting them with Finnish nationality markings. Finnish
Army took seven T-34/85 tanks to its own use, all of them were tanks captured in summer of 1944. When it
came to Ps-number system, which Finnish Army use for identifying individual armoured vehicles, Ps. 245
was the number that was reserved for captured T-34/85 tanks. As noted the total number of T-34/85 tanks
taken to Finnish use was seven. In addition of those seven tanks two more tanks were captured, one in
Portinhoikka around 25th - 26th of June 1944 and another in Vuosalmi 31st of August 1944. Apparently these
two additional tanks were included to inventory of armored vehicles, but never actually taken to Finnish use,
even if at least the one captured in Vuosalmi (marked as "slightly burned") even got its own Ps-number - Ps.
245-9.
Finnish-used T-34/85 tanks, where and when they were captured:
Ps-number Captured where: Captured when: Other:
Ps. 245-1 Portinhoikka 25th June 1944 Captured in driving condition
Ps. 245-2 Portinhoikka 25th June 1944 Captured in driving condition
Ps. 245-3 Vakkila 3rd - 4th July 1944 Captured in driving condition
Ps. 245-4 Vakkila 3rd - 4th July 1944 Captured in driving condition
Ps. 245-5 Vakkila 3rd - 4th July 1944 Captured in driving condition
Ps. 245-6 Portinhoikka 25th - 26 June 1944 Arrived 1st of September (*)
Ps. 245-7 Portinhoikka 25th - 26 June 1944 Arrived 21st of September (**)
Notice: Information gathered from variety of sources, which have some contradiction concerning exactly which T-34/85 was captured
when.
(*) Repaired before being taken to use, arrived from Central Armour Repair 1st of September 1944.
(**) Repaired before being taken to use, arrived from Central Armour Repair 21st of September 1944.
As with T-34/76 tanks, in summer of 1944 also captured T-34/85 tanks were issued to 3rd Tank Company of
Tank Brigade. Finnish-captured T-34/85 tanks saw only quite limited use during rest of Continuation War.
One of the main reasons for this was probably the shortage of ammunition. Since the tank guns used in these
tanks were the only 85-mm guns in Finnish use, only ammunition available for them was captured
ammunition and number of captured 85-mm gun shells was rather small. Finnish T-34 tanks took also part of
Finnish - German Lapland War, for which 2nd Tank Company of Tank Brigade was equipped with T-34/85
tanks and 3rd Tank Company of Tank Brigade with T-34/76 tanks. Due to thoroughly demolished roads,
countless blown up bridges and massive number of landmines the role that they played in this war was rather
minimal. During the long advance in route Oulu - Pudasjärvi - Ranua - Rovaniemi - Sodankylä the number
of still operational T-34 became smaller one by one. After Pudasjärvi their most important role became
transporting supplies to frontline and evacuating the wounded gathered to their decks from the frontline. As
mentioned last three T-34/76 tanks of 3rd Tank Company got 159-km north of Rovaniemi before stopped by
mechanical problems, 3rd Tank Company with its T-34/85 tanks wasn't much behind, since also it had
advanced north of Sodankylä by the time it was called back. During Lapland War Finnish tank crews noted
that good wading capability of T-34 proved highly useful with numerous shallow creeks and rivers so
common in Finnish Lapland. None of the Finnish T-34/85 tanks was lost in war.
PICTURE: T-34/85 Ps. 245-1. This particular tank gives good idea what the typical Finnish-captured T-34/85 looked like in post
World War 2 era. Notice that some of the road wheels have been changed. T-34/85 Ps. 245-3 on the background. (Photo taken at main
gate of Parola garrison). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (160 KB).
Finnish soldiers had already earlier given T-34/76 tanks a popular nickname "Sotka" (pochard) and coming
from this, they nicknamed T-34/85 simply as "Pitkäputkinen Sotka" (Sotka with a long gun-barrel).
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