Imposing as the T-35 may have appeared in person or on paper, the type was obsolete for the day. For her classification, T-35s were considerably well-armed though inadequately armored. Her weight worked against the available transmission and engine mating and running gear components were stressed, making for one high-profile, slow-moving battlefield target. The design consisted of a stepped forward hull with a fixed superstructure that mounted no fewer than five individual turrets. Her crew constituted 10 to 11 specialists including the vehicle commander - charged with managing their efficiency in the heat of battle - a driver, dedicated gunners and machine gunners. The T-35 layout included a set of long-running track systems to each hull side, dotted with eight road wheels to a track, each sprung (coil spring suspension) from paired bogies (two wheels to a bogey). The upper track portions were covered in "skirt" armor for some point ballistics defense. The turrets were collectively set along the forward portion of the hull and superstructure, dominated by the main gun turret on the hull roof. A smaller gun turret was set aft of the glacis plate, offset to the right side of the vehicle while a still-smaller machine gun turret was set to the left side. At the rear, this similar arrangement was repeated and saw a small gun turret offset to the left side of the tank with a smaller machine gun turret to the right. With this arrangement, it was believed, every conceivable battlefield threat could be countered for the breakthrough role. What it did, however, was complicate battlefield efficiency where seconds would spell victory or complete disaster - the commander was charged with coordinating the fire of five turrets while considering orders for the driver. The crew was further segregated into separate compartments within the tank's cramped conditions which did little to improve ergonomic, creature comfort or communications among the crew. Armor protection was 10mm to 30mm in thickness across her various facings.
The T-35 weighed in completely at 50 tons and sported a running length of nearly 32 feet, a width of over 10 feet and a height of 11 feet, 3 inches - a large imposing tank yet a larger target still. Power was derived from a single Mikulin M-17M series 12-cylinder gasoline-fueled engine of 500 horsepower operating at 2,200rpm. Speed was a respectable 18.6 miles per hour, though this could only be accomplished in ideal conditions and on paved roads. Cross-country driving was drastically limited and firing on the move with any accuracy was highly optimistic. Operational range was limited to 93 miles which, itself, limited the inherent tactical usefulness of the tank.
Primary armament originally consisted of a 76.2mm Model 27/32 main gun (based on an Army field gun) in a traversing main turret though this eventually gave way to a 76.2mm KT-28 model gun - essentially the same as that used in the T-28 Medium Tank. This armament was further backed by 2 x 45mm 20K series cannons in smaller hull turrets. Anti-infantry defense was held by up to 3 x 7.62mm DT general purpose machine guns - one in a small forward turret, one in a rear turret and one in a coaxial fitting next to the main gun. 96 x 76.2mm projectiles for the main gun were carried aboard as were 226 x 45mm projectiles for the smaller turret cannons and 10,000 rounds of 76.2mm ammunition for the machine guns.
As the war progressed, T-35s were painfully obsolete beasts and last saw operational service in the Battle of Moscow during the winter of 1941, slowing Hitler's advance against the Soviet capital. Some 90% of active T-35s were lost during the German invasion alone (most to transmission deficiencies). The lethal Soviet winter ultimately supplied enough time for a calculated Soviet response which brought about many new problems for the German Army - eventually to be committed along two bloody Euro-Asian fronts for the duration of the war. Improved Soviet tank designs - such as the T-34, KV and IS series (with single turrets mind you) ultimately thrust Soviet tank designs into all-new directions, paving the way for many successes in the Cold War years.
If the T-35 held any claim to fame for its time and ours, it was in that she became the only production-quality tank to feature five independent turrets in her design. A single museum-quality T-35 exists today, this at the Kubinka Tank Museum outside of Moscow.
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