T-26 Tank Speeding On Road - Panssarikillan kiltapäivät 2012

T-26 at the Finnish Armed Forces / Armour Bridage’s Armour Guild’s annual meeting 2012. T-26 panssarikillan kiltapäivillä 2012. Tankspotting (TV) is dedicated for the heavy metal battlefield. If you enjoy tanks and other awesome things then please subscribe - just click here: Video: Niko Juvonen (C) Tankspotting / Mediapalvelut 2019 T-26 The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 units manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR developed 53 variants of the T-26, including flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models. T-26 was very similar to Vickers 6 ton tank, which the Finns had selected as their new standard tank model in year 1936. Finnish military captured T-26 in large numbers during Finnish - Soviet Winter War (1939 – 1940) and Continuation War (1941 - 1944). Captured T-26 tanks were repaired and re-issued by Finnish Army in large numbers. During World War 2 captured Soviet T-26 tanks became the most common tank type in Finnish use. During Continuation War (1941 - 1944), along T-26E tanks, they served as de facto standard tank model for only tank unit of real size of Finnish Army - Panssaripataljoona (Tank Battalion) expanded as Panssariprikaati (Tank Brigade) in year 1942. While some captured T-26 tanks were issued to companies of Tank Battalion already during Winter War, apparently none saw combat use with Finnish troops yet at that time. By the time Continuation War started in June of 1941, Tank Battalion had received 34 of these captured tanks, which now went to battle against their former owners. When Tank Battalion was mobilised in June of 1941, each of its tank companies were equipped about half-and-half with captured T-26 (m 1933 and m 1938) tanks and T-26E tanks, with in addition two or three T-26 m 1931 in each tank company. While old-fashioned and obviously out-gunned against latest Soviet tank designs like T-34 and KV-1 year 1941 these tanks were very useful for Finnish Army. This was because at that time grand majority of the Soviet Red Army tanks used in Finnish front were still T-26 and other comparable tank models like BT-5 and BT-7. The total number of captured T-26 tanks to serve with Finnish Army in World War 2 was 114 tanks. While the great majority of T-26 was obviously captured during Winter War and first year of Continuation War (1941), but the last T-26 was captured as late as 26th of August 1944 in Ilomantsi. Even if the swift tank development resulted them becoming outdated, even in summer of 1944 still 77 of these tanks remained in use of Tank Brigade and many more in training use. While T-26 tanks were officially declared obsolete in 7th of July 1944 (likely at least partly due to plans of replacing them with more modern tanks to be acquired from Germany), they still remained in use. They had no real fighting change against modern Soviet medium and heavy tanks, so their use had been as much as possible limited to areas where the Soviets didn’t have tanks. But the combat use of T-26 tanks in Finnish use didn’t end even to ending of Continuation War. Lapland War against the Germans begun in September of 1944. The real shooting war in Lapland begun at full swing when Finnish troops landed to Tornio 1st of October 1944. Among the troops shipped to Tornio then was 1st Tank Company of Tank Brigade, which was equipped with T-26 tanks. The company took part in heavy fighting around Tornio in the following days, with their tanks seeing plenty of combat action. T-26B (T-26 model 1933) Weight: 9.4 - 9.8 tons Length: meters Width: meters Height: meters Max. Speed: 35 km/h on road / 15 km/h off-road Engine: 90 hp GAZ T-26 4-cylinder gasoline engine Armour: 6 - 15 mm - Hull front and sides 15 mm - Turret front 15 mm - Turret sides 15 mm - Hull deck 6 mm - Turret top 10mm Weapons: 45 mm Soviet (L/45) tank gun (107 or 147 rounds) (*) mm DT coaxial machinegun (3,087 rounds) ( mm DT hull machinegun) (**) Crew: 3 men (4 men) (***) -- Thanks so much for watching. Wouldn’t it be nice if you subsribed us also? You can do it easily here: For more information please see: Tankspotting: Facebook: Twitter: