Soviet T-34-100

Hello everyone,

those of you, who are playing World of Tanks for a while do probably remember that at one point, the tier 6 medium tank, T-34/85, had an option to mount the 100mm D-10T gun. This was actually quite historical – there was an attempt (a prototype) to mount a 100mm gun in the T-34/85 turret and today, we’re going to have a look at it.

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The reason for the proposal to actually upgun the T-34/85 was the fact that even in 1944, it was clear that the 85mm-equipped tank was inferior to the Panther, when it came to guns and improvements were in order. The first step was to first install a high-power 85mm gun (ZIS-85-BM) with improved penetration capabilities. This happened in September 1944, when Factory No.192 developed this powerful gun with the muzzle velocity of 980 m/s. After the development, the gun, now designated as ZIS-1, was transferred to the Gorokhovetsk proving grounds, but the trials proved to be the a failure.

In the beginning of October 1944, the design bureo of the Factory “Bolshevik” tried to develop an 85mm high-power gun as well – this time it was an experimental 85mm V-5 gun with the muzzle velocity of 950 m/s. Additionally, the factory also developed a conical gun V-9K with muzzle velocity of more than 1150 m/s. But the characteristics of the gun were not satisfactory, the gun was barely able to keep up with the dreaded German 88mm L/71 and in the Spring of 1945, the development was cancelled.

Regardless of these failures, the development moved towards the equipping of the T-34 with a 100mm gun. This task of mounting a 100mm fun into a regular turret was given to the design bureau of Plant No.9 and the Department 520 of Plant No.183 in July 1944. However preliminary development showed that the standard 1600 mm turret ring would be insufficient. At the same time, the larger 1800 mm turret ring of the heavy IS tank was too large to fit on the T-34 without seriously reworking the vehicle, which was practically impossible. Either way, the developers of the Gorky Factory No.92 design bureau, led by A.Savinov, managed to relatively successfully implement a 100mm gun into a standard T-34/85 turret. They proposed a gun by the name of 100mm ZIS-100 for it, based around the earlier mass-produced ZIS S-53 model gun. Yet again, the trials of this gun were not successful, since the gun, when shooting during the testing, overstressed the transmission and suspension of the T-34/85 by its power. The installation of a muzzle brake did not solve the issue either.

The second part of the attempts to upgun the T-34/85 tank was connected with the development of the new modern T-44B medium tank (later on leading to the development of the T-54). From the initiative of A.A.Morozov and the Factory No.183, a hybrid experimental vehicle was created, with the suspension, transmission and other parts of the T-34/85 and with the turret of the T-44B. Since the turret ring was larger (1700mm), there were some changes made to the T-34 chassis as well. The hull machinegun was removed and so was one of the crewmembers. The bottom and the roof above the engine of the vehicle was made thinner, the fuel tanks were modified and there were some modifications in the suspension as well. In the end, the vehicle weight reached 33 tons and this tank was designated as “T-34-100″.

Between February and March 1945, this tank was trialed on the Sverdlovsk and Gorokhevetsk proving grounds, both with the 100mm ZIS-100 and D-10T guns (the latter being from OKV No.9). The testing was relatively successful, even though the accuracy of the guns was not good and firing the guns still proved to be quite a burden on the suspension. The Red Army liked the vehicle and they pushed the developers to further work on the vehicle and to fix the various faults, but unfortunately, various attempts to figure out and fix the aforementioned issues were not met with success.

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At this point, in the Factory No.92 in Gorky by the end of 1944, a new 100mm gun LB-1 was developed with a reduced recoil and they mounted this gun on the T-34 as well. Generally, the gun was similiar to the D-10T and the ZIS-100. The gun of the tank with this gun reached 9150 mm, with the gun barrel being 3340 mm longer than the dimensions of the tank itself. Between 6th and 14th of April, 1945, the T-34/100 with the LB-1 gun was tested, with 1000 rounds fired and over 501 km driven with this tank. The practical rate of fire of this gun was between 5,2 and 5,8 rounds per minute, the accuracy of this gun was higher than its predecessors and the stress on the suspension was lower. The trials were a success and the army liked this vehicle as well, but in the end, the T-34/100 was never mass produced – the war was practically over, there was no need for it anymore and new, more modern tanks (T-44 and T-54) were being developed at this point as well.

The LB-1 was later used in 1945 to equip the T-44 (T-44-100), because its original 85mm armament was considered insufficient after the war, but the two prototypes of T-44 proved to be unreliable and poorly maneuverable – in the end, they were never adopted in service. Further work on the T-44 made little sense, since in March 1945, first T-54 prototype was created. Even here, the three 100mm guns were used and tested, ending with the final victory of the D-10T gun, that served as a standard T-54/55 gun for a very, very long time.

42 thoughts on “Soviet T-34-100

    • T-43 is an awesome medium tank, I really loved it, I have about 1800 average damage per battle on that thing, I was really afraid of that tank at the begining but as I can say now, it is one of the best tier VII tanks in game, it has brutal DPM, accurate gun, and wil gold shells it has no problems with tier VIII tanks from front.

      • t-43 is an awesome tank, i dont know why people are hating on it… maybe stop rolling in 50% crew and no equipment, and play it properly, 144 pen is enough for t9 tank sides and rear

        • prolly because you’re stuck with the same top gun of T-34-85 but on a higher tier, where there’s more ebil tanks with the ability to oneshot your peashooter. in other words, you’re a big fokin scout, and not much ppl are masochistic nuff to like high-tier scouts, especially with a so-so gun on t7.personally i’m not looking forward to get T-43 since i’ve seen my clannies die faster than a Cunningham on the same tier match.

    • Oh yes! Thankfully I did the grind with the T-43 still with the 100mm, got it Elite a few days before the patch hit and it was removed. Really baffling decision as well, since nobody since the release has ever complained about it being OP.

  1. Cool, wonder if this will be a permium tank anytime soon (or at all). Sounds kinda fun, T34-85, but a bit slower, big gun, less gun depression/elavation and probabley a limited ammo supply. Id give it a try.

  2. So this can be another candidate of USSR MT premium?like tier 6 or 7. It make me think about T-34-1 from Chinese techtree with 100mm top gun

    • would make great tier 7 an alternative to choose rather than t 43, as for the chinese t 34 1 they said they put that canon on it to balance it!

  3. Good article, thank you. But it lacks clear statement: soviet medium tank T-34-85 have never been armed with 100 mm gun. There were attempts to do so but the all have ended in complete overhaul of turret and hull. T-34-100 is separate tank with different hull layout and different turret.

        • “there was an attempt (a prototype) to mount a 100mm gun in the T-34/85 turret and today, we’re going to have a look at it.”

          When you read ‘attempt’ and ‘prototype’ which are not immediatly followed by some confirmation that the attempt was succesful, it’s pretty safe to assume it never went into production.

          • Obviously I have spent too much time outside of society of clever educated people if I feel need for such clarification.

  4. Well that is why at one point they had the T-43 coming *before* the T-34-85 in the tech tree. Because the T-43 never mounted a 100mm gun, even experimentally, whereas they could legitimately make it an upgrade for the 34-85. Problem is that then you’re going backwards in terms of hull/chassis design when going up a tier and essentially staying the same for the turret design. (Late T-34-85 turret being essentially the T-43 turret)

  5. Nice, still guesstimating some historical data, gun depression would be +2* (yesss, positive :P lol) and gun elevation +8*.
    Of course it doesn’t matter when it comes to Russian tanks in wot…

        • Only Bchat?
          Damn, Lorraine at tier 8…it was better than the 50 100
          AMX 13 90 at tier 7…that 90mm gun raped asses with the old french scout mm.
          Even 13 75 and 12t were OP 1 tier lower.

          Hmm…tier 6 KV-3 and tier 9 IS-4 <3
          Pz4 with vaderturm….And…and…old T-50es…both of them

          Damn, old memories make me cry….

  6. Drop T-43 to tier 6 and add this to tier 7 so I would actually have some motivation to grind the T62A line.

  7. “The reason for the proposal to actually upgun the T-34/85 was the fact that even in 1944, it was clear that the 85mm-equipped tank was inferior to the Panther, when it came to guns and improvements were in order.”

    Well, since that is not the case here, it is historical not to put the D10T on the T 34-85 :)

  8. What is with the picture of T-34 chassis with IS-2 turret? The article states the turret wouldn’t fir, yet the scheme is there??

    • T-44B turret

      Edit:Read where the article talks about the t44B turret.They had to remove the gun port from the hull.
      Now check the picture, it has no machine gun.

      • Is this actually so hard to google for T-44? -_-
        T-44 turrets don’t have a rear MG like the one in the image!
        What we see there is actually (I stand corrected!) a KV-85 turret (which in fact later developed into KV-122 and then IS-1/2 turrets) with a gun that can hardly be D-10T or LB-1 since it is barely thicker than the original 85mm D-5T, yet it is much longer. Hence it’s rather a ZiS-85-BM barrel…. Total mess in the end.
        Compare to genuine KV-85: http://www.tankwar.narod.ru/img/us_kv_1.jpg

        • Well, I was talking about the first image…can’t see there any machine gun on the back of the turret…and I know how a T-44 turret looks like.
          But when watching your image and comparing it with the third image from this post, yeah, they look alike, althought the one from this post is missing that machine gun.