Inspired by Spookston’s ‘‘If _____ was historically accurate’’ I wanted to do research on my favorite WT tank, the T34 Heavy Tank, I was originally going to make a video and post it on my YouTube but I doubt I’ll do that anytime soon so I figured why not post it here.
I want to start off by saying finding information on the T34 Heavy, is very scarce, and mostly overshadowed by the soviet T-34 when looking it up online, so I have to resort to the few sprinkles of information I can find.
The T29 and T30 will be brought up a few times since the T34 is essentially just a T30 but with a 120 mm. So fast forward to 1944, 4 heavy tank pilots were ordered, two fitted with the 105 mm, the T29, and two fitted with the 155 mm, the T30, the T34 was the result of two of the T30s being refitted with the 120 mm
The 120 mm on the T34 was, like the 88 mm and the 128 mm, an anti-aircraft gun, refitted to be an anti-armor gun, called the 120 mm T53, however, unlike the Germans who fielded the 128 mm on tanks such as the Jagdtiger as well as installing it on the only prototype of the Maus, the Americans favored focusing production on more readily available guns such as the 90 mm,although it would be soon discovered that the 120 mm was a capable candidate for being converted to a tank cannon.
The turrets of the T34 and its siblings were based on the turret prototype found on the M6A2E1, which would house the gunner, commander and two loaders. However, when installing the 120 mm, it was found that the guns weight made the turret dangerously unstable, to rectify this, a 102 mm plate was welded to the back of the turret, mainly to act as a counter weight, but also be additional protection to the ammunition.
For Armor, as much as I don’t want to rely on Wikipedia, was the only source available to me that I could get information on the armor of the T34.
The front hull had 102 mm or 4 inches of cast angled at 54 degrees
The sides of the hull has 76 mm or 3 inches cast
The rear of the hull has 50 mm or 2 inches cast
The turret front varied as the gun mantel has 203 mm of cast, while the turret itself was 158 mm from the cheeks to the sides
The turret rear although has 102 mm, the added 102 mm plate brought it’s effectiveness up to 204 mm.
As for other armaments, it had four machine guns, 3 12.7 mm Browning machine guns, one acting as Anti Air on the turret roof, the other 2 being housed in the turret itself and the machine gunner receiving a 7.6 Browning bow machine gun.
For propulsion, the T34 used an Air Cooled 27 litre Continental engine that gave it a respectable 810 horsepower, with the tank weighing 72 tons, it gave it a power-to-weight ratio of 11.26 hp/t, paired to the engine was a general motors crossdrive transmission 3 speed, two forward, one reverse, and used a torsion bar suspension, the T34 could reach speeds of 26 mph [42 km/h] on road, while offroad it can do 23 mph [37 km/h].
The T30s, which would be transformed into the T34s, arrived in 1948, as you can guess, the war was long over with, but when the T30s were transformed into the T34s at the Detroit Tank Arsenal, due to the T30s 155mms being deemed unnecessary, the T34 was used as a test bed for the 120 mm which allowed for its trail life to last until 1955.
Like most tanks in World War 2…or for the T34 it would be after, it was not a perfect vehicle, the first run on the first T34 prototype, showed disappointing results in the mobility trials, I couldn’t find any sources saying that such issue was fixed so we’ll go with the assumption that it wasn’t.
So in conclusion, the T34’s chassis wasn’t anything impressive, and was outdated by the time trials were conducted. However the 120 was far from disappointing
At the trails, the 120mm impressed the army, being able to punch through a 198 mm plate angled at 30 degrees from 1000 yards away, which is just under 1 kilometre, which is 228 mm, which does mean that at a closer range, the T34 would be able to punch right through the Maus’ cheeks in real life.
The HVAP round had an even more impressive number, being able to punch through armor at 318 mm at 2000 yards, this means the T34 could deal with german armor at the time with little trouble, all of this coupled with a maximum reload of 5 RPMs per minute or 10 seconds. However, the IS-3, which was the US army’s biggest concern at the time of testing, could shrug off both the HVAP and regular round frontally, thanks to the slopped armor.
Another issue at trials was discovered when it was found out that the T34 kicked up twice the amount of fumes the T29 did, which over time could impair the crew, in fact, the two T34s hospitalizing its two loaders while being tested at two different grounds. This is what caused one of the two T34s to receive the fume extractor, another issue was found, that being the recoil being so significant it was putting stress on literally the entire tank, especially its suspension, and the the breech itself being dangerously close to the ready rack ammunition stowage. The first T34 was eventually scrapped, while the second T34, the one with the fume extractor survived and is still around to this day, and is on display at the National Armor and Cavalry Collection, Fort Benning in Georgia.
In conclusion, while the T34 was a test bed for the 120 mm which would soon become the armament on the M103, and much later down the line the MBTs of the US Army [not the same gun I might mention], the T34 itself as a tank was too heavy to be fielded, and obsolete by the time it was operational.