OBAT 37 Czechoslovakia

[Marek_Tucan]

I solemnly take guilt for those things reported lower as they were on my "to mention" list and somehow, in the confusion joining Christmas and school exams etc. I forgot to post this before version 3.0 came out. So, better late then never, for the next SPMBT supplement, I'd use this thread as a storage of info I think could be useful. I'd take each issue to a separate post.

So the first one:

Unit 8 T-34/85 M1951cz - shall have crew of 4

[PN79]

Hallo
This is something strange in CS T-34.
The latest army instructions about T-34/85 really said that it have crew of 4.

But I have found that the first produced CS T-34 had crew of 5.
And I heard (I can not confirm) that later BMGs were removed. So it is possible that about period 1960-70 was crew reduced together with removing of BMG.

Possible this change was made in early '70 when T-34 was removed from active service (and was than only in stores to late '80).

[blazejos]

The crew was reduced from 5 to 4 in the rusian model T-34 M1947 because was use new radio device and this tank don't need a special crew member for maintence the radio. So this bug is not only in Czech OOB but in all oobs. I think all T-34 produced after 1947 should have 4 people crew.

[Marcello]

"The crew was reduced from 5 to 4 in the rusian model T-34 M1947 because was use new radio device and this tank don't need a special crew member for maintence the radio. So this bug is not only in Czech OOB but in all oobs. I think all T-34 produced after 1947 should have 4 people crew."

The thing is, wouldn't the BMG become useless as soon as you switched to a 4 men crew? After all it is a conventional ball mount, not a driver operated fixed MG. And if so, why keeping the mount in new production tanks ?
It looks like something that could be easily omitted, saving resources and strenghtening the glacis plate, instead of being a modification requiring a substantial redesign.

[DRG]

blazejos said:
The crew was reduced from 5 to 4 in the rusian model T-34 M1947 because was use new radio device and this tank don't need a special crew member for maintence the radio. So this bug is not only in Czech OOB but in all oobs. I think all T-34 produced after 1947 should have 4 people crew.

Blaz

Please...you're not serious are you......ALL?? There are dozens of photos on the net taken after 1947 that show 5 man T-34 crews. Here's one taken in 1995 in Bosnia




http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-.../1065955/posts

Don

[Marek_Tucan]

Sorry for delay, my ISP went belly up for a day or so, then worked for some sites only, and even then I had to prepare for exam...

Got today finally to the library just to find the book that referred to 4-man variant (OK, atlest that I think referred to it) is not available ATM so will have to find it later, however I found that in '34 variants there is also a pretty good mess. Most likely PN79 is right with the fifth man being removed as late as in 1970's with transition to variant I found being referred to as T-34/85 model 1969 or, in Poland, T-34/85M2, which received also unspecified night vision equipment, so I dare guess it received the kit used on T-55 series.

[Marek_Tucan]

So, finally got to the second (rather minor) issue... wrong LBM's used.
Units 099, 310-312, 362, 390, 438, 450, 460, armed with weapon 7 - vz.52 Rifle - are using LBM of Soviet Mosin rifle (11098) while they should be using LBM 37098 (vz. 52 or 52/57 rifle)

Units 100-102, 106, 109, 110, 316, 317, 320-326, 328-332, 335-340, 356-359, 364, 365, 392-395, 439, 440, 452-454, 462, 463, 471, 472 using vz.58 Rifle are using AKS-74 LBM (11102) while they should be using LBM 37099.

If you want, I may prepare and post here an OOB with these pictures changed (and no other changes made) for changing is unqualified work