Russian medium tank T-34-85 COBI 2542 - World War II

You know that:

• T-34 tanks were produced the most of any World War II tank ?
• the first idea of a new and modern tank was laid down by the designer A. Firson, who was not a proper partisan and so Stalin had him executed ?
• the author of the final design was a young engineer Mikhail Koshkin ?
• to push through the innovative tank design in the face of Marshal Kulikov's opposition, Koshkin personally followed Stalin from Kharkov to Moscow in the bitter cold with the T-34 prototype ?
• the designer succeeded, and Stalin decided on mass production ?
• unfortunately, the designer died of pneumonia a few weeks later after an 800-km journey, because he had forgotten an important thing when designing the tank, the heater ?
• its production was so simple that even unskilled labour (unfortunately women and children) who were not deployed on the front lines could assemble it ?
• In total, more than 80,000 units were produced in various versions ?
• 44,900 were lost in combat ?
• german General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist called the T-34 the best tank in the world at a general meeting ?
• the T-34 tanks were able to drive easily over soft terrain thanks to their wide tracks ?
• It is still included in the decorations of 9 countries of the world today ?

Technical parameters:

• length 6.1 m (with gun 8.15 m), width 3.00 m, height 2.60 m
• weight 32 000 kg
• frontal armour thickness up to 90 mm
• propulsion 12-cylinder V-2-34 diesel engine with 500 hp
• maximum speed 55 km/h
• 5 forward and 1 reverse speed
• range 420 km
• consumption 250 l/100 km summer and 270 l/100 km winter
• wading distance 1.4 m
• main weapon ZIS-S-53 cannon 85 mm calibre (56 or 60 rounds)
• secondary weapon 2x machine gun DT 7,62 mm calibre
• crew 4-5