Tank Chats #104 | T-54 & T-55 | The Tank Museum

if you do like these tank chats do please subscribe to the tank museum's youtube channel this tank chat is going to be about the soviet era tank the t-54 and its successor the t-55 and to look at this tank like any weapon system if you don't give a context to it it's very hard to to say anything or judge that weapon system and with the t-54 we're really looking at a tank that starts its story almost in world war ii it's a bit like the centurion and then it goes on for such a long time and has certainly with the t-54 t-55 so many modifications and so many upgrades and so many variations because of the different countries that's used it over time it's very hard to be specific but we're going to start by looking at that context of how and why it was built in the first place and some later again some of those developments that go on through its history because it's a tank that even though it dates back to the second world war actually it's a tank that's still in service around the world today and it's probably a vehicle that's seen more action than most post-war tanks and it's also a vehicle as well that's quite simply we haven't got the complete records of how many were built but we're looking at from about 80 to 100 000 t 54s and t-55s have been built and if you look at that that probably means it's the most produced tank of all time so it's it's a big story with the t-54 and t-55 so what how does it come about if we go back to the second world war if you've watched our tank chat on the t-34 you'll know in that part of the the story with the t-34 when they want to move on to a new model tank they ponder the idea of stopping production and building a new tank or do they improve on the t34 with the 76 millimeter gun let's build one with a better turret and a bigger gun and that's the route they choose they actually go down the route of evolution with the t-34 rather than stopping and starting with a whole new production but they do develop a replacement tank and that is known as the t-44 tank and why the t-44 is really important it does go into limited production from about 44 to about 49 but it doesn't end up being mass-produced in the way that the t-54 is but a lot of ideas from the t-44 influence the design of the t-54 and what are those things well first of all they put they start off with an 85 millimeter gun they with some t-44s they end up then going to 100 millimeter gun they even tested 122 millimeter gun on it um so the fire powers there the number of rounds carried changes from the t-3485 um but the key elements that look different the hull becomes wider the turret becomes wider than the what goes on to be the t3485 but it's got undercuts either side but that turret there are some similarities you can start seeing that we then see appear in the t-54 they take the diesel engine in the back and instead of being online with the front of the tank they actually transversely mount it so it's going across in the engine bay and power has taken off that and again another key element that you see into the from the t44 into the t-54 is the idea of suspension they change from the t-34s famous christie suspension and they go to torsh and bar suspension instead and these elements they also get rid of by the way the co-drivers position that you can see in the t-3485 that position is actually done away with um at the space next to the driver is used for ammunition or fuel uh in the t-44 so some of these ideas are picked up on the t44 by the way c's limited service it's actually there in the invasion of hungary in 1956 so it's there in the background but they know that's not the tank they carry on building the t-34 but they go to that larger turret that's the tank that really is the vehicle that helps win uh the war on the eastern front for the russians uh and the soviet union with the red army so what about the t-54 the t-54 is designed um its first kind of iteration comes out there's a prototype in uh 45 first limited production in about 46 they they build a few of them and again it's this russian idea of experimentation but it's designed with the russian idea of how they are going to fight any tank warfare in the future in mind and this takes us on to the idea of looking at what is that russian tank philosophy because so often when we do tank chats you know comparing i've already mentioned the centurion is it fair comparisons when we take one type of tank for a certain era put it up against another without knowing that doctrine that theory that thoughts of how it was going to be used behind it and for the soviet union the great patriotic war as it's known as there the second world war is hugely influential on their military thought and doctrine after the war the the the red army never falls out of love with the tank in a way that western nations have doubts after the war uh especially with the idea of new holocharge weapons being used by an individual and the soviet union's yes they know about these new weapon systems they've come up against panzerfaust et cetera themselves but they don't have any qualms of continuing a build program to make more tanks because they think they are going to be fundamental for the soviet way of warfare for decades to come so they carry on the design and the development process and the t-54 by the way it's originally it's uh it's designed by the morrison bureau out in uh kharkov which is basically in the ukraine as it would be now and that tank is designed there but it's part of a theory and a thought structure that goes on for the 50s 60s 70s which is this longer term soviet doctrine and aim of what they want for their armed forces and that when you look at it is very different to what becomes the western or the nato doctrines which are very diverse from different countries they're influenced by new technologies and industries in a way that is just not the case in the soviet union so the soviet union this time don't forget it's again it's command economy it's based on marxist leninist theory and it is driven from the top and doctrine is followed all the way through and that doctrine of how they're going to fight war is heavily integrated so the idea of the weapon systems fight together it is based on what the red army thinks are the lessons and the facts learnt from the second world war and they actually set up a whole a whole historical study institute you know at one point it's got over a thousand historians and officers in to study warfare previous warfare mainly the great patriotic war to learn lessons now some of those lessons again for us in the west they're going to be fairly simple ones simple things like logistics how how much fuel is an armored unit going to need if it goes from this distance to that distance but what the soviets say take it a bit further they do things such as for example in a typical meeting engagement how much artillery fire how much is needed to suppress an enemy um that's of a certain scale for how long so they know they actually define all this and they put it into their doctrine which becomes their operational art how they're going to fight and there's key themes that come out there one of which is the soviet belief that attack is the best method of defense in other words you don't wait for the enemy to come to you you try and preempt an attack with your own all the time maneuver is highly important to the soviet army and they've had these massive advances from 44 onwards to the defeat of the germans in berlin in 45 they look at those as models for how they might fight in the future and that again becomes part of their doctrine firing on the move echeloning their attack what does that mean so it means that the unit the main thrust of the unit is up ahead but it is followed immediately by further waves of that unit as they're advancing so that there is a sense of momentum they want to keep in the soviet army when they attack and all of these ideas and theories you can see reflect in tanks like the t-54 they are acutely conscious that they have a conscript army um that is not going to be very sophisticated in this levels of education so they want purposely their equipment to be simple to be used and they want it reliable but they are also adamant that you don't over optimize things you don't keep playing with something to make it better and better and better because they pick up fairly early on as you can see they've done already with the t-34 tank production there are lots of things you can do with an armored vehicle you can add to but does it really fundamentally alter the main ability of that vehicle to fight and of course they contrast that or we can trust that typically in the west we could see our tanks in a very different light the soviets look at their tanks and think what's good enough in that role what meets the the requirement as opposed to in the west well we're always trying to make things a little bit better a little bit better going for that extra percentage all the time and the soviets realize that's that's a rule of diminishing returns you can spend a huge amount of time getting that extra five percent out of something why not actually keep it simple keep it cheap so we can make more of them and scale of course is vastly important to the soviet army the red army wants lots of these things so the fact again when we start comparing tanks like the t-54 you have to think of that design philosophy that's behind it the longer term issues that the soviet union they don't have they have the factories they have design teams that are around for a long time there is rivalry between the different design bureaus but actually in the sense of it fits in an overall very well thought through structure that is very different to the western nations where different companies are competing political influence different technologies come and go all sorts of things influence that so that sense of continuity in some of the nato tank production etc is just not there in the same way it is in the soviet union um so again looking at that t-54 the way it fits in with this design philosophy the fact that it's got a hundred millimeter gun on that was a very impressive gun when this first goes into production in the late uh 1940s they've done these tests once really it's early in the 1950s that the productions series start coming out and one of the problems when we're talking about t-54 this one next to me is a something that we tend to call a t-54m it's an improved model the issue is is so often with the t-54 as improvements come out they're retrofitted to some of the earlier models and as i mentioned earlier as well because the t-54 is used by so many countries to countries around the world that this idea that quite often they adapt or add or change the tanks for their own particular needs and nowadays what with upgrade packages etc you know it's very very hard to find a basic as it were t 54 tank um but those early ones so what what is it they're really looking at there so what we're looking at is a fairly traditional layout in a tank so what you've got you've got the driver at the front in the driving compartment he's on one side as you're facing forward he's on the left-hand side of the tank as you're facing forward he's got a hat that lifts up and swings to the side in front of him he's got a level of armor protection and they went out to about 98 millimeters on the first model this model m it's got extra armor put on later on in its production run um so about 98 of sloped armored about 58 degrees so again it's got good protection on the front there he has normally on the very early t54s what they did they did away with the bow machine gunner position so on this side there's actually ammunition stowage and fuel as well just like on that earlier t44 tank but instead of having a bowel machine gun they actually have a hole in the front of the glace with a 762 machine gun fading facing forward it doesn't actually traverse at all it just faces forward and the driver can fire that he's actually got a lever and a button on one of his driving sticks on the columns there either side which he uses to actually drive the tank along so that fires forward on the uh turret you've got here a three-man turret there so you've got a four-man crew overall and behind where the driver is in the turret you've got the commander and the gunner sits ahead of him commander has a capola that can rotate 360 degrees and again in simple terms the method of attack is that the commander will find a target he initiates a slewing of the turret onto that target he's got a sight there it's weaker side than the gunner the gunner then takes over he's got a site there which will you can do three and a half magnification or you turn a button it goes up to time seven magnification he does a fine aiming of this dt10t gun it's a hundred millimeter gun and when it goes into production on t-54 you've got to remember in the 1950s this is a very big gun um to go on a tank like this as is the level of armor protection 1956 when a t-54 is driven into the british embassy compound in the hungarian uprising um when the western intelligence has a chance to have a quick measurement to have a look at this they are worried by the levels of armor protection on this vehicle and that actually in britain initiates the program um to develop the l7105 gun because we don't think our 20-pounder at the time was really going to be up to this sort of thing so powerful gun it takes a range of different types of ammunition initially again as the production one starts off it isn't stabilized then they end up by getting stabilization in the vertical plane and then the horizontal pla again a number of those improvements are retrofitted to earlier model t-54s so it's got a range if it's firing just for high explosives maximum range about 14 800 meters uh it'll go through quite happily something like a 185 millimeters of uh normal steel at about a thousand meters step firing the standard armor piercing round and again different types of rounds are developed through the t-54 it's got a smoke round it the canister round rifle gun by the way and later on on the t-55 they even get it they get a missile system called bastion that can be fired out the end and it's guided towards the target by a laser sighting system which is is carried on the vehicle as well so a powerful gun later models end up you end up having your uh fume extractor at the end of the barrel this being an early 100 meter one it looks like a long smooth barrel there's no muzzle break on the end or fume extractor there that commander he's got a component they started off without the component but then they add a component as well for the loader who's on the other side of the turret and if you look at that classic turret shape this what we often called in the west the frying pan shaped turret at the front of it it's just over 200 millimeter thick cast armor so it's got a really impressive frontal armor on the the facing to where they expect the enemy to be up ahead of them that armor gets thinner in the casting as it goes around the side early models were undercut later models have that classic frying pan oval shape going down to the side which again often criticized in the west you know the internal volume the spacer is very small this idea that they are insisting on certain maximum sizes for tank crewmen in the red army and later on obviously in the warsaw pact also using the t-54 and t-55 um that was accepted that was accepted the you know the red army understands this that we are going to have a limited space and in turn that means the early t-54s have got uh they only carry sort of um just under 40 rounds later in the t-55 just over 40 rounds that's only the two-thirds of the average ammunition carried by a nato tank contemporary tank at the same time but again so back to that soviet philosophy there's going to be a lot of these they know they haven't got the same number of rounds they're carrying but that's perfectly acceptable to them because they know there's going to be more of their tanks coming in the way that they're going to be fighting that way so armor protection is very good on the front of the turret there i've mentioned about the loader he's on this side gunner on the other side one way you can identify the earlier t-54s is this mushroom shape which is in front of the loaders hatch there and that mushroom space got an air filter they do away with that when it comes on later in the t-54 run and onto the t-55 it's a classic one of those distinguishing features you can tell the difference between a t-55 and a t-54 55 loses that mushroom on the side you can see on the turret there's these bars welded on that's for when you're carrying tank riders infantry carrying on the side they've got something to hang on with and as with so many uh vehicles i mentioned earlier the stowage changes because not only is this vehicle made in the soviet union but it's also made in poland and it's also made in czechoslovakia and it's then made in a newer form out in china because when the soviet union and china are buddies at one point the plans are handed over to the chinese for the t-54 they make their own version of it copying it in essence and that becomes the type 59 tank so chinese copies type tanks they're called so type 59 is basically a copy of a t54 built by the chinese and they are exported from china all around the world as well so again when we're looking at t54 t-55s finding having to look at those nuances of the differences to know that this one is actually made by norinco industries in china compared to one made by poland where the stowage again sometimes the polish ones have a big box on the turret rather than the the traditional arrangements of the storage that the soviets are making the engine in the back with the t-54 it started normally by electric start there's a backup compressed gas starting system as a backup for the 55 it's the other way around in the t55 you actually start the engine by using compressed gas there is a compressor in the t55 so they think that's a better way of doing it and there's a backup electric start system as well if needed that will start this big what you've got a v54 engine in the back it's a diesel engine as i said mounted transversely gearboxes in the rear as well dry sprockets at the back and it's got it goes for a number of different variations on the track but what is often called in the west aggressive track it doesn't have rubber pads on it and again the soviets learning again they've looked at their experience the idea of the battles they think they're going to have to fight it's going to be off-road a lot of the time and again you only have to think of eastern europe and the soviet union you know very few metal roads still they're only being built in larger quantities roads out there at tarmac roads and these um you know they are what they call aggressive track because they will rip up tarmac um but that idea that they're wide to spread the weight on soft ground thaws frozen ground snow etc so they're very effective that way and this system with a dry pink track you'll hear that same noise that you hear with the t-34 which is the idea the pins are loose as they go round in the track if they work their way towards a they can come out one way that is towards the body of the tank there is a wedge just before the drive wheel at the back and that forces that pin back into its lugs and that's why you always get that classic tap tap tap sound as a as a tea tank's driving around all the time fuel on the vehicle uh just over half the fuel is stowed under armour but the soviets again because it's diesel they pick up on the fact that how we going to we're going to do long road marches they are looking at the logistics but they want the tanks to be as independent as possible of a major logistics supply chain so one of the things they do is they add extra drums to the rear of the vehicle and there's actually fuel containers on the outside on the tin work going up the side this one's missing one of the containers but there's normally four fuel containers about 93 liters in three of them of extra diesel one of those four is actually carrying oil uh for the engine and other components inside the vehicle so you've actually got fuel on the outside on the other side in those metal boxes going down the side that's basically stowage so you've got tools you've got gun kit you've got for later models infrared equipment which again was fitted to the vehicle later on so that actually to help the vehicle see at night when it was firing they would put an infrared spotlight on the side and this is certainly on the t-55s but there's also an infrared headlight in this bracket in the front because one of the drivers two's periscopes can be changed for an intra-infrared sight so that he can actually see when he's driving at night as well and again back to this philosophy the soviet army is looking at keeping momentum going so it doesn't want to stop for the night it wants to carry on keep fighting keep moving forward in its uh advance to contact and beyond hence they they like the idea of the infrared sighting systems now later of course with the sighting i mentioned there many different countries over time these earlier sighting systems are replaced by laser sighting and other ways of doing things so that technology changes as you look at the tanks going through in the 60s 70s and the tanks that are in service still around the world today so i mentioned the engine the power pack and the uh the gearbox is in the back there um there's grills on the top of the engine there it's for lifting but one of the things that again that is different from the red army to when you're looking at nato countries and tanks back to that design philosophy they see the red army sees these tanks as being a weapon that is used in warfare so often back in nato countries when we design a tank we're designing it for all that training etc that goes on and the use of it over a long period of time how do we keep it maintained so again it changes slightly throughout the whole cold war but really what the red army are looking at in the cold war period is you train on simulators or training tanks you keep your actual fighting tanks for best so the idea they might wear out relatively quickly they might be fairly simple they have issues about them but actually they've thought through that this is going to be this item that's going to be used in combat and combat really alone not for continuously like we do in the west and all those training exercises etc that way so the t-54 it's added to with the t-55 and the real difference there with the t-55 what you're almost looking at is it again part of that uh soviet philosophy the post war up to about 53 with stalin still in charge he's almost thinking uh wartime mentality then the soviets go to a nuclear type mentality and with the t-54 they start or the t-55 they start introducing nbc equipment so that the tank can fight later in the 1950s on a nuclear battlefield and that develops in the 1960s later there's almost there was a early in the 60s and almost an inevitability without the thought it was going to go to chemical or nuclear war if they had actually had to fight to nate with nato that changes again and actually they go back to the idea of yes there might be nuclear but it might be conventional as well and that changes in and how it affects the design so you're looking at a vehicle that comes in initially about 34 tons creeps up t55 gets to about 40 tons but that idea of a light speedy reliable but simple vehicle built in very large numbers and i mentioned earlier on we're looking at about 80 to maybe 100 000 variants or different vehicles actually built and of course there are variants as well we're not going to talk about all of them now but of course this becomes a hull that becomes the basis for a bridge layer an armoured recovery vehicle lots of other vehicles are based on the initial hull of a t-54 t-55 over time and because there's so many of them they've been converted one of the things well i mentioned the idea that actually the 55 replaces the t-54 as being wrong is the soviet also the way their system works is this is not like the west where if for example uh centurion comes out of service chieftain is there and replaces it actually these vehicles work in parallel so t-54s were still in service with frontline units this idea that only the frontline unit gets the next best quit even that was wrong as well um later model tanks are issued to different types of units across a spectrum normally the soviet look at about three categories you know for battle ready first line divisions um and they work their way through um other but but but actually the later tanks are sometimes issued to um reserve units not necessarily the frontline ones so this idea that actually these vehicles are going to complement each other in service not necessarily the idea that they go out of date and are therefore replaced and you're talking as well at one point in the cold war we're looking at about 56 000 tanks in the soviet arsenal you know that's a huge number of vehicles if you think of what the size of most modern tank fleets are around the world in these days now the t-54 i mentioned this idea it's still in service it's gone through lots of upgrades it's gone through lots of you can buy on packages we've actually got a t-55 here that has a british l 705 millimeter gun lots of companies have offered upgrades engine upgrades technology upgrades all sorts of things you can buy your basic tank relatively cheaply you can spend a lot on it and one of those other things i'd come back to as well is when we're judging these tanks as inevitably we do this idea again the the sort of unfairness of just doing a one-on-one with a nato western tank yes most of the time early days it wasn't the case but most of the time for the rest of the cold war the average nato tank had a higher specification individually it might have a more powerful gun thicker armor better crew conditions than your standard soviet tank but as i mentioned earlier it was how these tanks were going to be used and in many ways the irony of course is all of these tanks despite the fact they've seen huge amounts of combat all around the world in countless wars we're talking dozens of wars all around the world subsequently actually they were never really used in the intended way by the red army because fortunately for us that cold war never became a hot war and the idea of them being used in the way they were expected to be used and had been designed for to be used never actually occurs and so again at the time when tanks like this were used in the middle east or in other conflicts and it gave comfort to nato countries and in the west where we could see they weren't used in the optimum way they were supposed to be abused quite often they were being knocked out fairly easily at certain times by western tanks it seems superior that didn't really affect the red army high command because they were looking at that saying that's not how we're going to be using them if and when a hot war starts in europe at some time so that didn't affect it but the irony as well is even though these items were designed with the idea of conflict in mind for a short period of time to get a resolution on the battlefield for the for the red army actually what happens is these tanks are used in quite often penny packets in wars around the world they are because they're simple actually very reliable so they seem to go on uh for a lot longer they're cheap if you're going to buy a tank actually what can you buy for not that much money t-54 t-55 is it fits that category and the other thing is as well is when we look at the tanks and think well look they're old spec they're they said whatever some of the places they've been fighting in actually having any sort of tank gives you a considerable advantage over your opposition and your enemies so it's only this idea that in the west when we're judging uh you know western main battle gang tank against the t-54 or t-55 do we think well our ones were so much better actually these tanks in many of the conflicts they've been used in there is they are the better tank or the only tank that is being used there and of course as anyone will tell you having any sort of tank is going to give you an advantage and so however simple dated crude they may appear they can still make a difference on the battlefield because quite often there is a more sophisticated armored vehicle to fight against them in many of the conflicts they've been in so these t-54 t-55 tanks are going to be around for i have to say i expect decades to come they're going to carry on being improved on and there's so many tanks in the modern era very few countries are building brand new tanks all they're going to be doing is upgrading a basic chassis of an older tank adding on extra armor systems defensive age suites all sorts of things upping the firepower offering the armor protection so we will be seeing t-54s and t-55s i can guarantee you for decades to come in action all around the world even though they are not being used and they've never really been used for that original soviet design doctrine um in the way that they were going to fight if the cold war had become a hot war if you like these films please do subscribe to the tank museum's youtube channel and if you can please do support us on patreon

Channel: The Tank Museum

Views: 300,971

Rating: 4.9683342 out of 5

Keywords: the tank museum, tank museum, bovington tank museum, david fletcher, david willey, military tank, david fletcher tank chats, tank chat, tank chats, tank chats david fletcher, tank museum bovington, the tank museum tank chats, cold war, soviet, soviet tank, t-54, t-55, t-54 tank chat, t-55 tank chat, t tank, david willey tank chat

Id: s67D8FqNZRg

Length: 31min 58sec (1918 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/sickbeatzdb]

This man is living his best life, and I love it.

[u/murkskopf]

Still falling back to old stereotypes...