The T-38 amphibious scout tank was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

amphibious light tank that saw service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Developed as a modernized version of the earlier T-37A light tank, the T-38 proved to be only a moderate improvement over its predecessor, and was eventually replaced in 1940 by the

T-40 The T-40 amphibious scout tank was an amphibious light tank used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was armed with one 12.7 mm (0.5 in) DShK machine gun. It was one of the few tanks that could cross an unfordable river without ...

History

Early trials of the T-37A revealed many deficiencies in its design, including limited range, sub-par buoyancy, and an unreliable transmission and running gear that could cause its tracks to fall off while on the move.Baryatinskiy, p. 15-19 Development of an improved version of the tank that would fix these flaws was begun in late 1934 at Factory No. 37 in Moscow, under the direction of Chief Designer N. Astrov and Chief Engineer N. Kozyrev.Zaloga, p. 77-79 The redesign proved to be so extensive that the project was given the independent designation T-38, and a prototype was completed by June 1935. The T-38 retained many design features of the T-37A, including its repurposed

GAZ-AA The GAZ-AA was a truck produced at the Gorki Auto Plant from 1932 to 1938, as the company's first truck produced under the ''GAZ'' brand name. History In 1929 the Soviet Union made an agreement with the Ford Motor Company to produce the Ford ...

engine and hand-operated turret. The turret was moved from the right to the left-hand side of the tank, switching the driver and commander positions compared to the T-37A. The T-38 also had a slightly wider and lower profile than its predecessor, providing an advantage in buoyancy that made the cork buoys used on the T-37A unnecessary. While the production-model T-38 was only armed with a 7.62mm DT machine gun, the initial prototype vehicle also included a 20mm ShVAK cannon mounted on the driver's position. This was removed after it was determined the additional cannon impaired the driver's ability to control the tank.Milsom, p. 91 Like other light tanks of its time, the T-38 was designed for reconnaissance and infantry support roles. As a scout tank the T-38 had the advantages of a very low silhouette and good long-range mobility through its ability to swim. The T-38 was also intended to be air-portable; during the Kiev maneuvers in 1936, the tanks were transported by

Tupolev TB-3 The Tupolev TB-3 (russian: Тяжёлый Бомбардировщик, Tyazhyolyy Bombardirovshchik, Heavy Bomber, civilian designation ANT-6) was a monoplane heavy bomber deployed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1930s and used during the early ...

bombers, mounted under the fuselage. Infantry battalions were each issued 38 T-38s, with 50 being designated for each airborne armored battalions. However, the thin

armor Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or f ...

and single machinegun armament made the tank of only limited use in combat and the lack of a radio in most T-38s was a serious limitation for a reconnaissance vehicle. The T-38 also struggled with carrying any excess cargo across water. The tank was incapable of supporting the weight of two infantrymen while floating, and overloads of 120-150 kilos would cause the commander's hatch to flood, sinking the vehicle. These flaws were to be fixed by the T-38's successor, the T-40, but only a small number were built before the outbreak of World War II, leaving the T-37A and T-38 to form the bulk of the Red Army's amphibious tanks. A total of 1,228 T-38 tanks were built from 1936 to 1937, with an additional 112 made in 1939 after a two-year break in production.

Service history

The tank served with the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

in the

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

with

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in 1940, but was unsuccessful due to its light armament and thin armour, which was easily penetrated by rifle and

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the sa ...

fire. In the confined terrain of Finland, the tank was a deathtrap; it also did not do well in the early stages of World War II, and large numbers were captured by the Germans during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. The T-38 was rarely seen in direct combat after 1941 and mostly relegated to other roles such as

artillery tractor An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked. Traction There are two ...

, although it was reported to have been used in the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

crossing of 1943. During World War II, the main amphibious scout vehicle of the Red Army was the

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

GPA amphibious jeep, an open unarmored vehicle provided through Lend-Lease. The German Army did not generally use captured T-38s as gun tanks (unlike captured

T-26 The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light ...

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The C ...

s, or other more valuable vehicles). Romanian forces had captured three T-38s as of 1 November 1942 and four more in March 1944.Mark Axworthy, Cornel I. Scafeș, Cristian Crăciunoiu, ''Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941-1945'', pp. 220 and 221

Variants

* T-38RT (1937), version equipped with 71-TK-1 radio. * OT-38 (1937), flamethrower-equipped version, prototype only. * T-38M1 (1937), prototype with superior planetary transmission, considered too complex for production. * T-38M2 (1938), modification improving the gearbox and replacing the engine with GAZ M1. 10 pilot series tanks built, rejected in favor of

. * T-38TU, command version with extra radio antenna. * SU-45 (1936), experimental 45 mm self-propelled gun. * T-38TT (1939), experimental remotely controlled tank (

teletank Teletanks were a series of wireless remotely controlled unmanned tanks produced in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and early 1940s so as to reduce combat risk to soldiers. They saw their first combat use in the Winter War, at the start of World Wa ...

). *T-38 with ShVAK (1944), upgrade of existing tanks with ShVAK cannons reused from T-40 or T-60 tanks. Approximately 120 converted, including identically converted T-37A, nothing is known about their service.

References

Bibliography

* Baryatinskiy, Mikhail (2006) ''Light Tanks: T-27, T-38, BT, T-26, T-40, T-50, T-60, T-70''. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. * * Bishop, Chris (1998) ''The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II'' * Chamberlain, Peter & Chris Ellis (1972) ''Tanks of the World, 1915-1945'' * Fleischer, Wolfgang (1999) ''Russian Tanks and Armored Vehicles 1917-1945'' * Milsom, John (1970) ''Russian Tanks, 1900-1970'' *

External links

T-38, World War II vehicles

T-38 tanks in museum and monuments {{DEFAULTSORT:T-38 Tank Amphibious tanks World War II light tanks Reconnaissance vehicles Interwar tanks of the Soviet Union World War II tanks of the Soviet Union Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s Light tanks of the Soviet Union