The tank was the primary tank of the North Korean army in the Korean War and was the primary armor unit for many east European nations for the subsequent decades. Additionally, the tank had a much longer life among Soviet allies around the globe. The T-34’s heyday in the Red Army was relatively short (from 1941-44, at which point it began to be phased out), yet it played an outsize role in the Russians’ victory in WWII. While other tanks eventual bridged the engineering gap, the T-34’s relative simplicity and economy of production allowed it to be the most produced tank of the war. At its inception, the T-34 was the fastest and most powerful tank in its class. The T-34 both fundamentally reshaped the model of the medium tank, and reshaped the war, turning the tide against the Nazi’s in the east. There is a broad consensus among historians that the most influential tank in WWII, is not a member of the famed German panzer division nor one of the American tanks that liberated Western Europe, but, instead, it is a Russian tank: the T-34. “If I had known about the T-34, I would have delayed invading Russia” –Adolf Hitler
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