Everyone is well aware of the famous T-34 tank, which went through the entire Great Patriotic War and made a huge contribution to the victory of our country over the invaders. However, the T-34 did not appear out of the blue. The T-28 medium tank became its elder brother and, in fact, the model to follow.
The T-28 is practically the first tank built by Russian designers on their own, and not by copying English models. In particular, almost all Russian tanks were copies of British equipment produced by the Vickers company.
The T-28 medium tank was put into mass production in 1933. In total, about 500 tanks of this model were produced, due to their relative complexity of production. In comparison with other models, this is a very small amount. For example, more than 11,000 copies of the T-26 light tank were produced. But by the end of the 1930s, the T-28 was one of the most modern tank models in the world and possessed sufficient armor and firepower to cope with complex combat missions.
In particular, this tank performed well in the Russian-Finnish War. The Finns had almost no tank units, but they had very fortified pillboxes, surrounded by nadolb (boulders).
The T-28 bit into the Finnish line of defense, firing at the holes, and sometimes driving over them from above. Tanks drove into the rear of enemy pillboxes and shot them from behind. However, due to the outdated equipment on which the T-28s were produced, the tanks often broke down, and this model did not turn out to be mass-produced. The caliber of the 76 mm cannon was similar to the caliber of the guns installed on the T-34, but the short barrel did not give a good initial projectile speed, as a result of which the penetrating ability was lower.
The shielded T-28 was not inferior to the T-34 in terms of security. But the Soviet government made the right choice in favor of the more modern T-34 tank, which incorporated all the positive qualities of its predecessor and became the most effective tank of the Second World War.
