T-24 tank

"T-24" redirects here. For other uses, see T24 (disambiguation).

T-24 Medium Tank
Type	Medium tank
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Production history
Designer	Ivan N. Aleksenko, T2K design bureau
Manufacturer	KhPZ
Produced	1931
No. built	25
Variants	T-12 tank prototype, Komintern & Voroshilovets artillery tractors
Specifications
Mass	18.5 tonnes
Length	6.50 m (21 ft 4 in)
Width	3.00 m (9 ft 10 in)
Height	2.81 m (9 ft 3 in)
Crew	5
Armour	8–20 mm
Main armament	45 mm gun Model 32
Secondary armament	3 × DT machine gun
Engine	M-6 250 hp (190 kW)
Power/weight	13.5 hp/tonne
Suspension	vertical spring
Operational range	140 km
Maximum speed	25 km/h (16 mph)

The T-24 was a Soviet medium tank built in 1931. Only twenty-four tanks were built, and none saw combat. This was the first tank produced at the KhPZ factory in Ukraine, which was later responsible for the very successful T-34 and T-54 Soviet tanks. The T-24's suspension was used successfully in the Soviet Union's first purpose-built artillery tractors.

The T-24's main armament was a 45 mm gun. It had a ball-mount 7.62 mm DT machine gun in the hull, another in the turret, and a third in a secondary turret atop the main turret. The tank was well-armoured for its time, but suffered from problems with the engine and transmission.

Production history

A tank design bureau was established at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory (KhPZ) in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine, in 1928. The first tank project of the factory was the T-12 (or T-1-12). This was a larger version of the T-18, with a more powerful engine (the T-18 was based on the Renault FT-17). One prototype was built and production of thirty tanks in 1930 was authorized, but automotive performance was so disappointing that it was decided to do further development work.

The project was re-designated T-24, work was completed fixing problems with the transmission and fuel system, and a larger turret was designed. Initial trials were conducted, during which performance was found satisfactory, although the prototype's engine caught fire, and the turret had to be transferred to a T-12 prototype for further testing. Only a total of twenty-four were built during 1931. The T-24s were originally armed only with machine guns, until the 45 mm guns were installed in the following year.

The T-24 was found unreliable, and was used only for training and parades. Although the T-24 tank was a failure, it gave the KhPZ its initial tank design and production experience, which was applied much more successfully in adopting production of the U.S. Christie tank as the BT tank series, starting in 1931.

Artillery tractors

Voroshilovets heavy artillery tractor

Komintern artillery tractor

The KhPZ's Komintern artillery tractor was based on the suspension of the T-12 tank (50 built from 1930) and later the T-24 (2,000 built from 1935 to 1941), powered by a 131-hp diesel engine. Despite the dismal fate of its predecessor tanks, the tractor was more successful and was put into mass production. The Komintern inherited several of the T-24's disadvantages, but some of them were fixed by designers, others were not as significant for tractor as for a tank. The Komintern was used to tow medium artillery such as the 152 mm gun-howitzer.

The Voroshilovets heavy artillery tractor was also based on the T-24's suspension, using the same but detuned Model V-2 diesel engine as the BT-7M and T-34 tanks. About 230 were built at KhPZ from 1939, and after the German invasion of 1941 production was shifted to the Stalingrad Tractor Factory until August 1942.

References

• Zaloga, Steven J.; James Grandsen (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0-85368-606-8. 

External links

• Komintern at battlefield.ru
• T-12, T-24, Komintern, Voroshilovets at KMDB design bureau's official site
• T-24 Medium Tank at battlefield.ru
• Первые советские танки (First Soviet tanks), at M. Svirin's Soviet Tanks, in Russian
• Первые Средние (First Mediums), from Modelist-Konstruktor, no 9, 1989, in Russian