Anyone know where & when this photo was taken. I know it's a rather well known one . Must be fairly early in the GPW as there is a Model 1940 in the foreground.
All I've got from one book (Hughes & Mann - T34) is that these are in Byelorussia in the early stages of Barbarossa - July 1941. Sure I've got a better caption somewhere though. I wonder if the Germans standing on them helped recover them to use against their previous owners.
Cheers chaps, I remember seeing it many years ago in one of my brother's tank books. Always wondered what the story was behind the photo. I'm sure there's more to discover about it.
Pottered onto the original caption for the photo, presumably when first published, while looking for MG34 pictures in 'The best of Signal' book. "How an attempt at flight ended The drivers of the Soviet tanks had maps of Germany with them, but they were not familiar with their own country. Near Tolotshin on the Drut, these gigantic Soviet tanks, each weighing 42 tons, in attempting to break through the enveloping German forces, ran into the Marshy land near the river where they finished wretchedly by sticking in the mud. Whilst the Soviet soldiers thus fall into the natural traps of their own country, the German advance continues past all obstacles according to plan - Photograph: PK. Huschke" Doesn't say which specific edition of Signal it first appeared in though.
42 tons? This is typical Signal bullshit! These T-34s belonged to an experimental batch without lower hull/running gear to be integrated in the new Fortified Regions (Ukreplennye Raiony). One of the reasons for these modified models was in anticipation of the other weapon also being developed, the Anti-Tank Mice, first used at Stalingrad. As a curiosity, this was one of the few Reverse Lend-Lease contributions made by the Soviets, accepted and employed by the UK in the Western Desert and Italy and known as the Desert Rats.
There is a picture of what looks like the same vehicles in Zaloga's Osprey on the T-34/76 (page 10) and it's labeled as Toloshchin marsh near the Drut river east of Borisov in Byelorussia July-1941. That pic is most likely from the same film roll as the one posted. BTW Za the "mouse" concept was apparently copied by the Germans as well with similar results.
it's labeled as Toloshchin marsh near the Drut river east of Borisov in Byelorussia July-1941 Thank you for your sensible answer. [unlike Za's] :p
Anyone else have that book? Would love to see it if it's similar. You can see that picture here: T-34/76 Medium Tank 1941-45 - Google Books I think that those are the same tanks.
Speaking of Soviet tanks, how about these clangers? May 9th is Victory Day. Whose victory over what???
What is that "42-ton" bullshit?? A T-34 doesn't even weighs 40 (A T-72 does only 41 fully loaded!), and it surely does not sink in the mud! The guys who designed it cared about this! The German tanks on the other hand... We're talking about metric tons, right?
It's an original caption from a propaganda magazine. What would one expect? accuracy? And anything would sink in that mud/marsh, T34's were not designed to float...