Stalins Wonder Tank: The Truth Behind Hitlers Nemesis, the Soviet T-34 Tank

ISBN: 1399066757

Author: Zubov, Dmitry

Condition: New

An examination of the T-34 tank myth, revealing its flaws, propaganda, and harsh wartime reality.The Soviet T-34 tank is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable symbols of the Red Army and its struggle against the Third Reich in the Second World War. Not surprisingly, over the years a considerable number of books and films have been dedicated to Stalins so-called wonder tank.Many historians, especially those in Russia, peremptorily call the T-34 the best tank of the war. In so doing, they often refer to the authoritative opinion of Heinz Guderian and other German generals. Von Kleist, for example, is stated to have once referred to the T-34 as the finest tank in the world. But, as Dmitry Zubov sets out to explore in this book, was this the true picture?The reality of the summer of 1941, following Hitlers invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, revealed that it took the Wehrmacht only a couple of months to turn Stalins tank armada into little more than a pile of scrap metal. Despite this inauspicious beginning to its combat service, the myth of the T-34s invincibility was already being born. It was a development that, argues Dmitry Zubov, was in part driven by the Soviet propaganda machine, but also by their enemy. As the fighting wore on, the Germans became increasingly bogged down in endless operations to cover their flanks from the mythical counterattacks of Stalins Red Army, which by that time had actually lost most of its combat capability. But to hide the consequences of Hitlers incompetent command, German generals had to explain the collapse of Operation Barbarossa by the incredible resilience of Soviet soldiers, the appalling Russian winter, and finally, by the vast superiority, to quote Guderian, of the T-34 tank. Between them, Hitlers commanders argued, they had torn apart their excellent plans.These facts motivated the author to examine the real history of the creation, production, and combat use of Stalins wonder tank. Under the numerous layers of Soviet secrecy, myths, propaganda and outright lies, he has exposed a bitter reality. The T-34 tank was not a masterpiece of Soviet engineering, but in fact a design that, in reality, was based on plans borrowed by Soviets from designers in the West. Produced in an incredible hurry by unskilled workers, Stalins wonder tank often presented an easy target for the German panzers and anti-tank gunners, and battlefield graves for their Soviet crews.