The Soviet T-34 is considered a masterpiece of world tank building. Its design used technical solutions that were far ahead of their time, used by developers of armored vehicles to this day. Especially interesting are the comments made by engineers from the United States, who had the opportunity in 1943 to get acquainted with this machine at a military base in Aberdeen, Maryland, where it was transported from Murmansk by a transport vessel. They were interested in knowing what parameters the T-34 is superior to the American Sherman tank, which was mass-produced at that time, including for Lend-Lease deliveries to the USSR.
First of all, engineers from the United States, according to reports published in our time, drew attention, oddly enough, to the secondary details. In the conditions of super-mass production of the war years, the workmanship of individual units and metallurgical materials, unfortunately, left much to be desired. The comments related to the durability of the T-34 tank transmission, the direction of its exhaust pipes, which create a lot of dust, the lack of waterproofing of the hull, and the low level of comfort for the crew.
The peculiar understanding by the Allies of the nature of the military operations against Germany affected. In preparation for the landing in Europe, American military experts assumed a fairly calm and well-planned military operation in which the tanks would only play a supporting role, acting approximately according to the same tactical scheme as in Africa.
However, there were also sensible remarks regarding the quality of welds and the T-34 air filtration system, the insufficiently effective operation of which reduced the motor resource. This was also manifested by some naivete of American experts, who greatly overestimated in their calculations the life expectancy of equipment, both Soviet and German, in conditions of intense military operations. As a rule, combat vehicles did not have time to wear out, and there was no time to think about the convenience for tankers, as well as about the dust raised by tank columns.
Subsequently, Soviet engineers finalized the air filters. Underestimated was the V-shaped 400-horsepower diesel engine V-2-34, made of aluminum, mounted on the T-34. It was also a masterpiece, and to create something similar in none of the Western countries - and the allies and opponents of the USSR - did not work for many years.
The report of the Aberdeen group did not say anything about the revolutionary layout. The rear arrangement of the driving rollers creates a huge advantage in lowering the profile of the tank and reduces its weight, but to make sure of this, Western experts took a few more years.
All-steel caterpillars in the USSR were forced to produce due to a shortage of rubber, but this technical solution turned out to be optimal.
The Christie spring pendant is an American invention that was not at all appreciated in the USA either in the twenties or after studying the experience of its practical application in the USSR. But the Soviet tanks T-34, BT-7, BT-5 are equipped with just such a depreciation system.
The American research team pointed out the shortcomings in welded joints at a time when the US industry was in full swing producing tanks with riveted hulls.
Pointing to the small power reserve, tank builders from the United States somehow forgot that the Sherman had it even less. In other words, due to their own snobbery, American engineers received little useful information from the equipment received. A copy delivered from the USSR was used as a target and destroyed. But the results of their research were used by Soviet specialists to further improve our military equipment. And only after the war, in 1946, did the Americans understand that in order to win, one had to learn a lot from the Russians, including how to build tanks, having launched the campaign to rearm their ground forces.