T-35 Tank

The T-35 was the Soviet Union’s five-turreted heavy tank, one of the most spectacular and impractical tanks ever built. Developed in the early 1930s, when multi-turreted tanks were fashionable in several countries, the T-35 had a main turret with a 76.2 mm gun, two turrets with 45 mm guns, and two turrets with machine guns, all mounted on a long hull and crewed by eleven men. Only about 61 examples were built, between 1933 and 1939, and the tank served in the Red Army’s heavy tank brigades, appearing in the parades on Red Square in Moscow. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the T-35s were thrown into battle, and they proved to be slow, unreliable and vulnerable: their armour was thin, their transmissions broke down, and most were lost to mechanical failure or abandoned for lack of fuel and spares, rather than to enemy fire. By the end of 1941 all of the T-35s had been lost, and the multi-turreted tank was abandoned by the Soviet Union in favour of the simpler, more effective KV-1 and T-34. The T-35 remains one of the most recognisable tanks of the interwar period, a symbol of an era when tank design was still experimental.

1. Key Facts

Type	Heavy tank, multi-turreted
Origin	Soviet Union
In service	1935–1941
Number built	About 61
Crew	11
Weight	About 45–50 tonnes
Armour	11–30 mm
Main armament	76.2 mm gun, plus 2 x 45 mm guns and 5–6 machine guns
Engine	M-17M, V12 petrol, 500 hp
Top speed	About 30 km/h on roads
Operators	Soviet Union

2. Development

The Multi-Turret Fashion

In the early 1930s, tank designers in several countries believed that the future of the tank lay in multi-turreted designs, with several guns pointing in different directions to engage multiple targets. The British built the A1E1 Independent, a five-turreted tank, in 1926, and the Soviet Union, which had bought British tank designs, was influenced by it. The Soviet design bureau at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory (KhPZ), under the engineer N. A. Astrov and others, developed a multi-turreted heavy tank, designated the T-35, which was intended to break through fortified lines and to support infantry attacks. The design was approved in 1932, and the first prototype was built in 1933.

Kharkov and the First Production

The T-35 was built at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory, which was also building the T-34’s predecessors and the BT series of fast tanks. Production was slow and difficult: the T-35 was a large, complex vehicle, with five turrets, a long hull and a complicated transmission, and it required skilled labour and large amounts of steel. The first production vehicles were delivered in 1935, and production continued until 1939, with a total of about 61 vehicles built. The T-35 was expensive, and its production was limited by the Soviet Union’s need to build large numbers of simpler tanks, including the T-26 and the BT series, and later the T-34.

Improvements and the T-35A

The T-35 went through several versions, designated T-35A, with improvements to the turrets, the armour and the engine. The early vehicles had a 76.2 mm gun in the main turret and 37 mm guns in the secondary turrets, but later vehicles had 45 mm guns in the secondary turrets, which were more effective against tanks. The armour was increased from 20 mm to 30 mm on the front, and the engine was upgraded to the M-17M of 500 hp. These improvements did not solve the tank’s fundamental problems — its size, its complexity and its unreliability — and production was stopped in 1939, when the Soviet Army decided that the multi-turreted tank was a dead end and that the future lay in the single-turreted KV-1 and T-34.

3. Design

Five Turrets

The T-35’s most distinctive feature was its five turrets: a central main turret with a 76.2 mm gun, two secondary turrets with 45 mm guns, one in front of the main turret and one behind it, and two machine-gun turrets, one at the front of the hull and one at the rear. The turrets were arranged in a line along the top of the hull, and each turret had a crew of one or two men. The main turret had a crew of three — commander, gunner and loader — and the secondary turrets had a crew of two each. The machine-gun turrets had a crew of one each. The five turrets gave the T-35 an impressive appearance, but they also made the tank complex, heavy and difficult to command: the tank commander had to coordinate five turrets, and the tank’s fire was dispersed rather than concentrated.

Hull and Armour

The T-35’s hull was long — about 9.7 metres — and it was made of riveted steel plates, with armour 30 mm thick at the front, 20 mm on the sides and 11 mm at the minimum. The armour was thin for a tank of 45 to 50 tonnes, and it was proof only against small arms and shell splinters, not against anti-tank guns. The tank’s size made it an easy target, and its long hull was vulnerable to damage. The hull was divided into several compartments, with the engine at the rear and the fighting compartment in the centre, and the tank’s interior was cramped despite its size, because the five turrets and their crews took up most of the space.

Crew and Command

The T-35 had a crew of eleven men, the largest crew of any tank of the Second World War, and commanding such a large crew was a major challenge. The tank commander sat in the main turret, and he had to communicate with the other turret crews by voice tube and by hand signals, because the tank had no intercom. The driver sat at the front of the hull, and the other crewmen were distributed among the turrets. The large crew meant that the tank needed a lot of training and coordination, and the loss of even one crewman could disable a turret. The T-35’s crew was its greatest weakness: eleven men were needed to operate a tank that was less effective than a T-34 with a crew of four.

4. Technical Specifications

Dimensions and Weight

The T-35 measured about 9.72 metres long, 3.2 metres wide and 3.43 metres high, with a ground clearance of about 0.5 metres. Combat weight was about 45 tonnes for the early vehicles and about 50 tonnes for the later T-35A. The tank could cross a trench about 3.5 metres wide, climb a vertical obstacle of about 1 metre, and ford water up to about 1 metre deep. Its large size made it difficult to transport by rail, and it required a special flatcar, and its weight made it hard on bridges and roads. The T-35’s dimensions were a result of its five turrets and its long hull, and they made the tank impractical for most operations.

Engine and Performance

The T-35 used the M-17M engine, a V12 petrol engine producing 500 hp at 1,450 rpm, a Soviet copy of the BMW VI aircraft engine. The engine was powerful, but it was also unreliable and thirsty, and it was mounted at the rear of the hull. The tank’s power-to-weight ratio was about 10 hp per tonne, which gave it a top speed of about 30 km/h on roads and about 14 km/h cross-country, which was slow for a tank of its time. Fuel capacity was about 900 litres, giving a road range of about 150 km. The engine’s reliability was poor, and the tank’s transmission, which had to drive a 50-tonne vehicle, broke down frequently, especially on long marches.

Protection and Armament in Detail

The T-35’s main armament was a 76.2 mm KT-28 gun in the main turret, a short-barrelled gun intended for infantry support, with a muzzle velocity of about 380 m/s. The secondary turrets each mounted a 45 mm 20K gun, with a muzzle velocity of about 760 m/s, and the machine-gun turrets each mounted a 7.62 mm DT machine gun. The tank also had a coaxial machine gun in the main turret and a rear machine gun. Ammunition stowage was about 96 rounds for the 76.2 mm gun, about 226 rounds for the 45 mm guns and about 10,000 rounds for the machine guns. The tank’s armament was impressive on paper, but its fire was dispersed among five turrets, and the 76.2 mm gun was a short-barrelled infantry support weapon, not an effective anti-tank gun.

5. Armament

The 76.2 mm Main Gun

The T-35’s main gun was the 76.2 mm KT-28, a short-barrelled gun originally designed for the T-28 medium tank, which was also a multi-turreted design. The gun fired a 6.5 kg high-explosive shell at about 380 m/s, and it was effective against infantry, machine-gun nests and light fortifications, but it was not effective against tanks, because its muzzle velocity was low and its armour-piercing round could penetrate only about 30 mm of armour at 500 metres. The gun’s short barrel and low velocity were a serious limitation, and the T-35’s main gun was outclassed by the German 3.7 cm and 5 cm anti-tank guns, which could penetrate its thin armour at long range.

The 45 mm Secondary Guns

The T-35’s secondary turrets each mounted a 45 mm 20K gun, the standard Soviet anti-tank gun of the 1930s, which fired a 1.4 kg armour-piercing round at about 760 m/s and could penetrate about 50 mm of armour at 500 metres. The 45 mm gun was effective against light tanks and armoured cars, but it was not effective against the German Panzer III and Panzer IV, which had thicker armour. The secondary guns were, however, useful for engaging multiple targets, and they gave the T-35 a capability that single-turreted tanks did not have. The problem was that the secondary turrets were small and cramped, and their crews had limited visibility and a limited field of fire.

Machine Guns and Close Defence

The T-35 carried five to six 7.62 mm DT machine guns, one in each machine-gun turret, one coaxial with the main gun and one in the rear of the main turret. The DT was a reliable weapon, a tank version of the DP light machine gun, and it was effective against infantry. The tank’s machine guns gave it a good capability against infantry, but they were not enough to compensate for the weakness of its main guns against tanks. The T-35’s armament was, in the end, a collection of weapons that were individually adequate but collectively ineffective, because they were dispersed among five turrets and could not be concentrated on a single target.

6. Variants

The T-35 Prototype

The first T-35 prototype, built in 1933, had a 76.2 mm gun in the main turret, 37 mm guns in the secondary turrets and a different hull design from the production vehicles. The prototype was tested in 1933–1934, and it revealed the tank’s fundamental problems: its transmission was unreliable, its engine overheated and its turrets were difficult to coordinate. The prototype was, however, accepted for production, with modifications, because the Soviet Army was committed to the multi-turreted concept and because the T-35 was intended as a propaganda weapon as much as a fighting vehicle.

The T-35A Production Version

The T-35A was the main production version, built from 1935 to 1939, with about 61 examples produced. The T-35A had 45 mm guns in the secondary turrets, thicker armour on the front and a more powerful M-17M engine. The T-35A was the version that appeared in the Red Square parades and that served in the heavy tank brigades in 1941. The T-35A’s improvements did not solve the tank’s fundamental problems, and production was stopped in 1939, when the Soviet Army decided to abandon the multi-turreted tank.

The T-35B and Other Proposals

The T-35B was a proposed version with a new engine and a different transmission, but it was never built. Other proposals included a version with a 76.2 mm L-10 gun and a version with thicker armour, but none entered production. The T-35’s design was, by 1939, recognised as a dead end, and the Soviet tank industry turned to the KV-1 and the T-34, which were simpler, more reliable and more effective. The T-35’s legacy was not in its variants, but in the lessons it taught about the futility of the multi-turreted tank.

7. Combat Record

The Parades and the Winter War

The T-35’s main service before 1941 was in parades on Red Square in Moscow, where its five turrets and its large size made it an impressive propaganda weapon. The tank also served in the Winter War against Finland in 1939–1940, where a small number of T-35s were used, though their service was limited by the winter conditions and by the Finnish terrain. The T-35’s combat record in the Winter War was undistinguished, and the tank’s unreliability was noted. The T-35’s real test came in June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Operation Barbarossa, 1941

When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union had about 48 T-35s in service, in the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments of the 34th Tank Division, in the Kiev Special Military District. The T-35s were thrown into the fighting in the Ukraine, where they faced the German Panzer divisions. The tanks proved to be slow, unreliable and vulnerable: their transmissions broke down on the march, their engines overheated, and their thin armour was penetrated by German anti-tank guns at long range. Most of the T-35s were lost to mechanical failure or abandoned for lack of fuel and spares, rather than to enemy fire. By the end of July 1941, only a handful of T-35s remained, and by the end of the year all of them had been lost.

The Last T-35s

The last T-35s were used in the defence of Moscow in the autumn of 1941, where a few vehicles were used as static pillboxes, and in the fighting around Kharkov in 1942, where a single T-35 was reportedly used. The tank’s service in 1941 was a disaster, and it confirmed the Soviet Army’s decision to abandon the multi-turreted tank. The T-35’s combat record was brief and inglorious, but it was also a lesson: a tank that was impressive in a parade was not necessarily effective in battle, and simplicity, reliability and mobility were more important than the number of turrets.

8. Operators

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was the T-35’s only operator. The tank equipped the heavy tank brigades of the Red Army, including the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments, and it served in the Kiev Special Military District. The T-35 was never exported, and it was never used by any other army. The tank’s crews were drawn from the Red Army’s most experienced tankmen, because operating five turrets and a crew of eleven demanded more training and coordination than any other Soviet tank of the period. The tank’s service was limited to the Soviet Union, and its loss in 1941 ended the multi-turreted tank in Soviet service.

Captured Vehicles

The German Army captured a small number of T-35s in 1941, and at least one was sent to Germany for evaluation, where it was displayed at the Kummersdorf proving ground. The Germans were not impressed by the T-35, and they did not put it into service. The tank’s large size and its unreliability made it useless as a captured vehicle, and the captured T-35s were scrapped or used for target practice. The T-35’s fate as a captured vehicle was the same as its fate in Soviet service: it was a curiosity, not a weapon.

Post-War Use

After the war, no T-35s remained in service, and the tank was not used by any army. The T-35’s design was abandoned, and the Soviet Union’s post-war tanks — the T-54, the T-55 and the T-62 — were all single-turreted designs. The surviving T-35 at Kubinka is maintained as a running exhibit, and it is driven on special occasions, which makes it one of the few pre-war Soviet heavy tanks that can still move under its own power. The T-35’s post-war legacy was in museums and in the memory of the Red Square parades, where it had been a symbol of Soviet power in the 1930s.

9. Legacy

The End of the Multi-Turreted Tank

The T-35’s main legacy is that it marked the end of the multi-turreted tank. The concept, which had been fashionable in the early 1930s, was abandoned by all major armies by the end of the decade, because multi-turreted tanks were too large, too complex, too unreliable and too difficult to command. The T-35, the British Independent and the German Neubaufahrzeug were all dead ends, and the future of tank design lay in the single-turreted tank with a powerful gun, thick armour and a reliable engine, as exemplified by the T-34 and the Sherman. The T-35’s failure was a useful lesson, and it helped the Soviet Union to focus its tank industry on the T-34 and the KV-1.

Survivors and Memory

Only one T-35 survives, and it is displayed at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia. The surviving vehicle is a T-35A, and it is one of the most popular exhibits at Kubinka, because of its five turrets and its large size. The T-35 is also a popular subject for modellers, and its distinctive appearance has made it one of the most recognisable tanks of the interwar period. The tank’s memory is tied to the Red Square parades of the 1930s, where it was a symbol of Soviet military power, and to the disaster of 1941, where it was a symbol of Soviet unpreparedness.

Assessment

Historians generally judge the T-35 as a spectacular failure: a tank that was impressive to look at but ineffective in battle, and that was built in small numbers at great cost. Its five turrets, its eleven-man crew and its 50-tonne weight were all symptoms of a design philosophy that valued appearance over effectiveness. The T-35’s story is a cautionary tale about tank design, and it is remembered as one of the most unusual tanks ever built, and as a symbol of an era when tank designers were still learning what a tank should be.

10. FAQ

How many T-35 tanks were built?

About 61 T-35 tanks were built between 1933 and 1939, at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory. The total includes the prototype and the production T-35A version, and production was slow because the tank was large and complex. Production was stopped in 1939 when the Soviet Army decided to abandon the multi-turreted tank, in favour of the simpler, more effective KV-1 and T-34. The T-35 had a main turret with a 76.2 mm gun, two turrets with 45 mm guns, and two turrets with machine guns, all mounted on a long hull.

Why did the T-35 have five turrets?

The T-35 was designed in the early 1930s, when multi-turreted tanks were fashionable, and it was intended to engage multiple targets with different weapons. It carried a 76.2 mm gun for infantry support, 45 mm guns for tanks and machine guns for infantry, so a single tank could do the work of several. In practice the turrets were difficult to coordinate and the tank’s fire was dispersed, and the tank was slow, unreliable and vulnerable in battle. The tank was crewed by eleven men, the largest crew of any tank of the Second World War, and commanding eleven men without an intercom was a major challenge.

What happened to the T-35s in 1941?

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the T-35s were thrown into battle in the Ukraine, and most were lost within weeks. Their transmissions broke down, their engines overheated, and their thin armour was penetrated by German anti-tank guns. Most were lost to mechanical failure or abandoned for lack of fuel, rather than to enemy fire, and by the end of 1941 all of them had been lost. The multi-turreted tank was abandoned by the Soviet Union in favour of the simpler, more effective KV-1 and T-34, and only one T-35 survives today.

What was the T-35’s crew?

The T-35 had a crew of eleven men, the largest crew of any tank of the Second World War. The crew included a commander, a gunner and a loader in the main turret, two men in each secondary turret, one man in each machine-gun turret and a driver. Commanding eleven men without an intercom was a major challenge, and the turrets were difficult to coordinate, so the tank’s fire was dispersed. The tank weighed about 45 to 50 tonnes, with armour only 11 to 30 mm thick, and it was slow, with a top speed of about 30 km/h on roads.

Was the T-35 a good tank?

No, the T-35 was not a good tank, and it was impressive in parades, but it was a failure in battle. It was slow, unreliable, thinly armoured for its weight and difficult to command, and its main gun was a short-barrelled infantry support weapon that was ineffective against tanks. When Germany invaded in June 1941, the T-35s were thrown into battle, and most were lost to mechanical failure or abandoned for lack of fuel and spares. Its design was abandoned in favour of the KV-1 and the T-34, and by the end of 1941 all of the T-35s had been lost.

Where can I see a T-35 today?

Only one T-35 survives, and it is displayed at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia. The surviving vehicle is a T-35A, and it is one of the museum’s most popular exhibits. No other T-35s survive, because all of the others were lost in 1941 or scrapped after the war, and only about 61 were built in all. The T-35 was the Soviet Union’s five-turreted heavy tank, one of the most spectacular and impractical tanks ever built, and a symbol of an era when tank design was still experimental.

11. Sources

• Bean, Tim and Fowler, Will. Russian Tanks of World War II: Stalin’s Armored Might. Zenith Press, 2002.
• Milsom, John. Russian Tanks 1900–1970. Arms and Armour Press, 1970.
• Zaloga, Steven. Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. Arms and Armour Press, 1984.
• Zaloga, Steven and Grandsen, James. Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. Arms and Armour Press, 1984.