The T-70 was a

light tank A light tank is a tank variant initially designed for rapid movements in and out of combat, to outmaneuver heavier tanks. It is smaller in size with thinner armor and a less powerful main gun, tailored for better tactical mobility and ease o ...

used by the

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

during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, replacing both the

T-60 The T-60 scout tank was a light tank produced by the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1942. During this period, 6,292 units were built. The tank was designed to replace the obsolete T-38 amphibious scout tank and saw action during World War II. The Ki ...

scout

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

for

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops ( skirmishe ...

and the T-50 light infantry tank for

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

support. The T-80 light tank was a more advanced version of the T-70 with a two-man turret—it was produced only in very small numbers when light tank production was abandoned. The T-90 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was a prototype vehicle with twin machine guns, based on the T-70 chassis. The T-70 was armed with a 45-mm L/46 gun Model 38 with forty-five rounds carried, and a

coaxial In geometry, coaxial means that several three-dimensional linear or planar forms share a common axis. The two-dimensional analog is ''concentric''. Common examples: A coaxial cable is a three-dimensional linear structure. It has a wire conduc ...

7.62-mm

DT machine gun The Degtyaryov machine gun (russian: Пулемёт Дегтярёвa Пехотный, Pulemyot Degtyaryova Pekhotny literally: "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun") or DP-27/DP-28 is a light machine gun firing the 7.62×54mmR cartridge that was ...

. The tank was operated by a driver and a commander who loaded and fired the gun. Armour thickness on the turret front was 60 mm, turret sides and rear: 35 mm, hull front and sides: 45 mm, roof and bottom: 10 mm.

Production history

By 1942,

s were considered inadequate by the Red Army, unable to keep up with the

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 Chri ...

medium tank and unable to penetrate the armour of most German tanks, but they could be produced by small factories that were unable to handle the large components of medium and heavy tanks. The T-70 was an attempt to remedy some of the shortcomings of the T-60 scout tank, which had very poor cross-country mobility, thin armour, and an inadequate 20-mm gun. It also replaced the very short production run of the T-50 light infantry tank, which was more sophisticated, but also much more complicated and expensive to produce. The T-70 was designed by Nicholas Astrov's design team at

Factory No. 38 A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. The ...

in Kirov. The first batch of T-70s were built with a GAZ-202 automotive engine on each side of the hull, one driving each track. This arrangement was seen to be a serious problem, even before the first tanks were issued. It was quickly redesigned as the T-70M (although it continued to be referred to as just ''T-70''), with the engines in-line on the right side of the tank and a normal transmission and differential. The conical turret was replaced by one more easily welded out of plate armour, and moved to the left side of the hull. Curiously, even after the T-70's production line was redesigned,

SU-76 The SU-76 ('' Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76'') was a Soviet light self-propelled gun used during and after World War II. The SU-76 was based on a lengthened version of the T-70 light tank chassis and armed with the 76 mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS- ...

self-propelled guns started to be built with the same unsatisfactory unsynchronized two-engine layout, and all of them were later recalled for factory rebuilding as SU-76Ms. T-70s were put into production in March 1942 at

Zavod No. 37 Zavod (Cyrillic: завод, : závod) is a generic word in Slavic languages, meaning ''factory'' in Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Slovak; ''institution'', ''section'' in Serbian and Croatian; and ''race'' (competition) in Czech. It may refer ...

, and along with T-60 production at GAZ and

Zavod No. 38 Zavod (Cyrillic: завод, : závod) is a generic word in Slavic languages, meaning ''factory'' in Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Slovak; ''institution'', ''section'' in Serbian and Croatian; and ''race'' (competition) in Czech. It may refer ...

. They completely replaced T-60 production in September 1942, although that tank remained in use until the end of the war. Production ended in October 1943, with 8,226 vehicles completed. In April 1942, the conical turrets on early-production machines were replaced with new welded turrets. The end of the T-70's production run was built with two 85-hp GAZ-203 engines, a Mark 4 commander's

periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

replacing a vision slit, and other improvements. The T-70 remained in service until 1948.

Decline of light tanks

The one-man turret of the Soviet light tanks made co-ordinating a tank platoon nearly impossible, because the commanders were kept busy acquiring targets, loading and firing the main gun and machine gun, and commanding their drivers. The

infantry tank The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily armoured to ...

role was already considered obsolete. The SU-76 self-propelled gun was better suited for infantry support, its 76.2-mm gun capable of firing a larger high explosive shell. Industrial resources could be redirected from light tanks to building SU-76s. In an attempt to compensate, the T-80 light tank was designed, a more robust version of the T-70 with a two-man turret. But there was enough

lend-lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

equipment available to fulfill the reconnaissance role of the light tanks, and armoured cars were better suited for light scouting and liaison. All light tank production was cancelled in October 1943, after only about 120 T-80s were built. No further light tanks would be built during the war. In November 1943 Red Army tank units were reorganized: light tanks were replaced by the T-34 and the new T-34-85 variant, which started production the following month. Light tanks continued to be used in self-propelled artillery and some other units. The Soviets did start development work on an amphibious light tank in 1945, resulting in the post-war

PT-76 The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious light tank that was introduced in the early 1950s and soon became the standard reconnaissance tank of the Soviet Army and the other Warsaw Pact armed forces. It was widely exported to other friendly states, lik ...

, introduced in 1954.

Combat history

On 6 July 1943, a T-70 commanded by Lieutenant B. V. Pavlovich of the 49th Guards Tank Brigade destroyed four German tanks (three

medium tank A medium tank is a classification of tanks, particularly prevalent during World War II which represented a compromise between the mobility oriented light tanks and the armour and armament oriented heavy tanks. A medium tank's classification ...

s and one Panther) near the village of Pokrovka. On 26 March 1944, Sergeant

Alexander Pegov Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

of the 3rd Guards tank army, commanding a single T-70, saw a column of approximately 18 German tanks approaching. He took an ambush position hidden by foliage and then he waited. After a German PzKpfw V “Panther” tank came within , the T-70 suddenly opened fire with APCR ammunition and set fire to one Panther and immobilized another. The knocked-out Panthers blocked the road while the T-70 retreated. Pegov was promoted to a lieutenant and decorated as a

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

Variants

self-propelled gun:

tank destroyer A tank destroyer, tank hunter, tank killer, or self-propelled anti-tank gun is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a direct fire artillery gun or missile launcher, designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often w ...

with a 76mm

ZiS-3 The 76-mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) (russian: 76-мм дивизионная пушка обр. 1942 г. (ЗиС-3)) (GRAU index: 52-P-354U) was a Soviet 76.2 mm divisional field gun used during World War II. ''ZiS'' was a factory design ...

cannon mounted on a T-70 chassis. *T-90 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun: the Soviet Union lacked tracked, armoured self-propelled anti-aircraft guns at the beginning of World War II. The first serious design of a real air-defence vehicle was in 1942, when a twin 12.7 mm DShK machine gun turret with optical sights was built for mounting on the

T-60 scout tank The T-60 scout tank was a light tank produced by the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1942. During this period, 6,292 units were built. The tank was designed to replace the obsolete T-38 amphibious scout tank and saw action during World War II. The K ...

. The T-70 became available in the meantime, and was adopted as the basis for the T-90 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. The program was cancelled in 1943, in favour of the

ZSU-37 ZSU-37 was a Soviet-made, light, self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG), developed by the end of 1943 and produced at Works No. 40 in Mytishchi. It was the first Soviet series-produced tracked SPAAG. ZSU stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Us ...

37 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, built on an SU-76 chassis.Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:119 The ZSU-37 used the cannon developed for the

M1939 The 37 mm automatic air defense gun M1939 (61-K) (russian: 37-мм автоматическая зенитная пушка образца 1939 года (61-К)) is a Soviet 37 mm calibre anti-aircraft gun developed during the late 19 ...

towed carriage. * ZUT-37: prototype anti-aircraft tank armed with a Sh-37 cannon. The tank passed field tests but was not accepted into production.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links