- Yes please
- No thankyou
In short
R-132 Viku was an up-armored T-26C captured from Soviets and operated as a command tank by Finnish forces. It was slightly different to the Soviet up-armored T-26 already in game, because it’s add-on armor was bolted, instead of welded. Even the driver’s port had an additional armor plate.
Note: Most photos have Finnish tank swastikas.
R-132 Viku. Notice the bolted on extra armor and long whip antenna.
Spoiler
Vickers E and T-26 in Winter War
Renault FT-17 was the beginning of Finnish tank forces, just like it was for many other countries. By mid 1930s Finland’s 32 Renaults were worn and even by their standards considered obsolecent. These were replaced with just as many Vickers 6-ton tanks as that count was considered suitable size for a tank battalion.
These tanks saw little combat use in the Winter War as Eastern Finland’s already poor tank terrain was even more difficult in winter conditions. The narrow tracks and small ground wheels were unsuitable for deep snow, which usually bound the tanks on roads. Getting stuck on objects under the snow was also a serious issue. Furthermore the Finnish tankers and their commanders had no real experience to base their tactics on. In one of their only fights multiple tanks were lost and damaged by friendly artillery fire.
Fortunately for the Finns, the Soviet tankers with their BT tanks and license build Vickers, the T-26s had just as much problems. Even so the Finns initially had trouble dealing with the Soviet tanks as their 37mm AT-guns were very few and the 20mm Lahti-39 anti-tank rifle wasn’t ready. Molotov cocktails and other improvised methods only had a chance if the tanks came too close without infantry support. Foreign AT-rifles proved fairly effective, even if they often needed numerous hits to really disable a tank.
T-26E and T-26E
After the Winter War Finland had dozens of captured T-26 tanks on their depots and a few heavy BA-3, BA-7 and BA-10 armored cars, which used a very similar turret as those T-26 tanks. In the opening months of the following Continuation War those Winter War trophies were joined with more loot. The total count of T-26 tanks reached over 100 and nearly the same with BT tanks. Naturally many of those battle damaged tanks were beyond repair and were instead used as spare parts. Besides the BT steering was considered unfit for Finnish terrain and the Mikulin M-17 too fuel hungry, thus the BTs saw only very limited service.
Some of the surplus turrets from all the unrepairable vehicles were mounted on the remaining 26 Vickers E tanks. Their designation was changed to T-26E, where E stood for “Englantilainen”, (English). It was mainly done for logistical reasons, though it also provided a small firepower improvement. There still remained a significant visual difference to T-26 as the T-26E had it’s turret on the right side of the hull and had a hull machine gun port next to the driver.
Meanwhile Soviets were busy starting the production of the KV-1, which had been shortly tested in the Winter War and also the brand new T-34. Neverheless by 1941 they had build over ten thousand T-26 tanks, which were expected to serve for many more years. The Winter War had shown how vulnerable those tanks were to AT-rifles and light AT-guns, so there was desire for more armor.
The first up-armored T-26 tanks were made by Leningrad Tank Factory No.174, who also later worked on up-armoring KV-1 and T-34 tanks. In addition various military workshops up-armored T-26 tanks, including flamerthrower variants, known as OT-133. The T-26E “Ekranirovanny”, (screened) designation was apparently never official, but popularized by post-war literature. It is a practical abreviation after all and commonly used with the other up-armored Soviet tanks.
Different up-armored T-26 and OT-133 tanks
One more Finnish T-26 variant
It is not known if Finns ever up-armored other armored vehicles than StuGs, but during the starting phase of the Continuation War, they at least captured some from the Soviets. Likewise several flamethrower T-26 variants were captured. Less than a dozen of these went to use as such, while the rest were converted back to normal tanks with 45mm guns. However the flamer T-26s had their turret on the right side, just like the original Vickers E, thus the “back converted” tanks became an another peculiar model. Just like the Finnish T-26E, these tanks had a machine gun on the left side of the hull front, operated by 4th crewman. The machine gun port was clearly different style to the earlier one.
Finnish OT-133 and T-26 advancing
Spoiler
OT-133 at work
T-26 which used to be an OT-133 flamertank. Notice the machine gun port.
Up-armored Finnish T-26s
Finns also captured at least a single up-armored OT-133 and converted it back to a gun tank, but strangely enough it didn’t get the machine gun port. It was used as a company command tank, suggesting that the extra space was used for additional radio equipment. This was the Ps.164-3.
It’s not known how many up-armored T-26s Finns captured. The one and only known normal up-armored T-26 was the R-132 Viku. It was used as an armored briged’s command vehicle. In few photos it appears with the lonely up-armored T-50, which was likewise used as a command tank.
Only known photos of Viku are from 1942. It was likely captured during summer or autumn 1941, repaired and put into use the following winter. For couple of years the Finnish front remained stagnant and armor use on both sides low as the Soviets concentrated fighting the Germans and Finns had no interest pushing deeper into Soviet Union.
In summer 1944 Soviets launched a massive assault. Finnish T-26 tanks took part in multiple local counter attacks, where they were often outmatched by T-34s. Likely R-132 Viku was also lost in these fights. After the war many T-26 tanks in poor condition were scrapped and used for spare parts. Remaining few dozen T-26Es and T-26s would remain in training use until 1960s. Several of them were converted to T-26T turretless artillery tractors.
Only known photo of Ps.164-3, taken by Soviet after it’s destruction.
Spoiler
Viku from close 15.2.1942 at tank repair depot at Varkaus
Viku and Niki
T-26C with additional armor
Crew - 3
Weight - 12 tons
Enginepower - 95hp
Gears - 5 forward, 1 reverse
Top speed - 30km/h foward, 3km/h reverse
Main gun - 45 mm 20-K
Armor 15mm + 30mm all around
Sources
Spoiler
The Finnish armoured vehicles 1918 - 1997, Esa Muikku & Jukka Purhonen, 1998,
Finnish T-26 variant designations were the same as German ones:
T-26A = T-26 model 1931
T-26B = T-26 model 1933
T-26C = T-26 model 1937