T-54/55: The Most-Produced Tank in Military History

By Robert Jackson

A guide that blends the history behind this Soviet, Cold War-era battle tank with resources for military vehicle modeling enthusiasts.
 
During the Cold War, the T-54/55 series of tanks represented the most serious threat to NATO land forces in Europe. Available in huge quantities, it formed the core of the Warsaw Pact armored warfare doctrine, which envisaged massed tank attacks against the weakest point in NATO’s front-line defenses.
 
Yet the T-54/55 could be stopped by smaller numbers of tanks which had the benefit of better technology and training, as was demonstrated during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 when Israeli tanks dealt out appalling punishment to T-55s of the Syrian army. Despite these limitations, the T-54/55 was one of the most successful tanks ever produced, and this volume in the TankCraft series by Robert Jackson is the ideal introduction to it.
 
As well as tracing the history of the T-54/55, his book is an excellent source of reference for the modeler, providing details of available kits and photographs of award-winning models, together with artworks showing the color schemes applied to these tanks. Each section of the book is supported by a wealth of archive photographs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781526741394

Robert Jackson

Born in 1941 in North Yorkshire, Robert Jackson was educated at Richmond School, Yorkshire. He is a full-time writer and lecturer, mainly on aerospace and defence issues, and was the defence correspondent for North of England Newspapers. He is the author of more than 60 books on aviation and military subjects, including operational histories on famous aircraft such as the Mustang, Spitfire and Canberra. A former pilot and navigation instructor, he was a squadron leading in the RAF Volunteer Reserve.

Book preview

Introduction

During the Second World War, Soviet tank production had concentrated on two main categories, one heavy, the other medium. The heavy tank classification had produced the KV and IS series, while the other resulted in the excellent T-34. By mid-1944, however, it was apparent that the T-34 was reaching the end of its development life. Seeking a replacement, Soviet tank designers turned to a 1941 project called the T-34M, which was a T-34 with improved armour, a hexagonal three-man turret, torsion bar suspension, increased fuel capacity and greater ammunition storage. Five hulls were built, but the project was abandoned when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was resurrected in 1944 and development proceeded under the designation T-44, which had heavier armour to give better protection against large-calibre anti-tank guns. Attempts to fit the T-44 with a 122mm main gun were unsuccessful as the turret was too small to accommodate it, so the vehicle retained the 85mm gun of the T-34/85. Production of the T-44 began in August 1944 and in September the tank was issued to three Soviet Army tank brigades, which used it for training purposes before re-equipping with T-34/85s prior to the final assault on Berlin. About 150 T-44s were completed by the end of the war, but continued technical problems meant that the type did not see combat. Production ended in late 1945 after 965 examples had been produced.

It was therefore the T-34 medium tank that continued as the main equipment of the Soviet armoured divisions in the immediate post-war years, its potential opponents in the event of any confrontation with the western allies being the tanks that had spearheaded the advance through northwest Europe, the American Sherman and M46 Patton, and the British Comet and Churchill. These were capable of holding their ground against the T-34/85 during these years and indeed would have had no choice but to do so, because the next generation in the series of Patton tanks, the M47, intended to replace both the Sherman and the M46, would not be fit for deployment until 1952. The British were better placed, because 1946 saw the first European deployment of the Centurion, the tank that would alter the balance of western armoured capability in the face of a possible threat from the east.

In the Soviet Union, work had continued on seeking a viable replacement for the T-34/85, and in February 1945 a prototype was built, based on the T-44 and designated T-54. The latter closely resembled the T-44, but the upper frontal section of the glacis was raised to 120 millimetres (4.72 in), the driver’s observation slit being deleted and replaced by two MK-1K hatch periscopes, and the lower section to 90 millimetres (3.54 in). The turret rested on a new 1,800mm (5.9ft) turret ring and the vehicle was powered by a V-54 12-cylinder, 38.88-litre, water-cooled, diesel engine. Other new design features included the installation of an articulated TSH-20 optical sight for the commander and gunner, with electric traverse. A DShK 12.5mm heavy machine gun was fitted for anti-aircraft defence. The chosen main armament was a 100mm D10T gun with a rifled barrel.

A T-44 preserved as a museum piece. The vehicle was issued to three Soviet tank brigades in late 1944 and was used for training purposes. (Wikimedia Commons)

A well-preserved T-54-1 on display at Verkhnaya Pyshma, near Yekaterinburg. (Wikimedia Commons)

Design work on the prototype of the new main battle tank, designated Ob’yekt 137, proceeded at the OKB-520 Morozov Design Bureau, which was housed in the Malyshev Plant in Kharkov, Ukraine. The first prototype underwent field trials in 1946. These revealed all manner of snags, and before series production could begin many modifications had to be made to this vehicle and successive prototypes.

Limited production was authorized in 1948 with the T-54-1. Some 1,490 units were produced, but snags were still apparent and these had to be corrected before production switched to the improved T-54-2, 423 examples of which were built by the Stalin Ural Tank Factory No. 183 and issued in 1950. These were followed by a further 800 in 1951. Following further modifications, the definitive version, the T-54A, made its appearance in 1953. By this time, there had been changes in the T-54 design team: Morozov had departed, to be replaced by Leonid N. Kartsev in March 1953. Production started in 1954 and the tank entered service in 1955. It served as a basis for T-54AK command tank, with additional R-112 radio set (front-line tanks were equipped with R-113 radio set), TNA-2 navigational device, the AB-1-P/30 charging unit, which was produced in small numbers, and with the ammunition load for the main gun decreased by five rounds. In October 1954 a T-54A tank, designated as T-54M (Ob’yekt 139), served as a testbed for new D-54T and D-54TS 100mm smoothbore guns and Raduga and Molniya stabilization systems.

The T-54-2 incorporated many of the improvements that were found necessary in the T-54-1, but the tank still needed further refinement. (via J. R. Cavanagh)

The T-54A was the definitive production version of the T-54. It made its appearance in 1953 and entered full production two years later. (Military Images)

A new version, based on the