Nice page Egorka ¡¡.
Topic merged with a early one.
The russian flirted ( as many other nations) with the multiturred tank concept in the 1930s, but also found that the armor was too muych spread to actually resist AT weapons. Also the coordination between guns was very dificult.
Other desings of soviet multiturrets were the SMK and the T-100, eventually the army chose the less complicated and heavily armored KV-1.
T-100.
Hm…interesting…
More links with pictures of T-35: http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/BeforeWWII/T35/
Here are pictures of the sister tank CMK: http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/BeforeWWII/SMK/
And here T-100: http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/BeforeWWII/T100/
The Medium T-28:
T-28 tanks on their way to the front. The Winter War. January 1940
A pair of T-28 go into action in the late summer 1941. Both vehicles are fitted with P-40 anti-aircraft machine guns mounting on the roof.
The ex-Soviet T-28e. It was captured by the Finns in 1942.
T-28 knocked out on the roadside during the fighting in Ukraine in July 1941.
The first 10 tanks were sent to the 2nd Independent Regiment of RGK of the Leningradsky military district. In fact, independent tank units of RGK were represented since 1924. The 2nd Independent Regiment was formed in 1929. Later, due to production of new T-28 tanks another four tank regiments of RGK were formed: in Smolensk, in Kiev, in Kharkov, and in Slutzk. Organization of these regiments was changed several times.
By the end of 1935, each regiment consisted of three battalions of 30 tanks (T-28 and T-35) per battalion. In December 1935 these regiments were collected into independent heavy tank brigades. In these brigades, tanks of different classes weren’t mixed with each other. In other words, a brigade might have T-28’s or T-35’s but not both types at the same time.
A heavy tank brigade of T-28’s consisted of a three common tank battalions, a training battalion, supply battalion and some other units.
This organization was created on 12 December 1935 by the order of Minister of Defense. However on 21 May 1936 all these brigades were assigned to the RGK. In 1939 there were four heavy tank brigades: the 4th, 5th 10th, and 20th tank brigades. In a deviation from the policy of matching tank types to units, the 5th tank brigade had both T-28 and T-35.
The 4th and 10th tank brigades were the first tank brigades which took part in military conflict. In September 1939 they took part in the occupation of Bessarabia (West Ukraine). After analysis of the first deployment of these brigades, ABTU ordered the reorganization of all tank brigades: now they were to consist of three tank battalions of 156 tanks per battalion (117 T-28 and 39 BT). There were also future plans to replace them with the KV-1.
On 30 November 1939 the Russo-Finnish war began (also known as the Winter War). The 10th and 20th tank brigades took part in this war. When the war ended, the 20th Brigade (commander - kombrig Borzilov) was awarded with the Red Banner Order.
During the Winter War, T-28 tanks were used first for direct gunfire on embrasures of a Finnish pillboxes. However the standard 30 mm armor couldn’t protect the tanks from Finnish AT-guns. That’s why Soviet losses of T-28’s were so high. Immediately after those battles, the T-28’s were equipped with additional armor.
During the Winter War a couple of T-28 tanks were captured by the Finns. In 1941 they’ve captured another five vehicles. Those ex-Soviet tanks served up to the end of the war in the one Finnish tank brigade. In 1944 one of those vehicles was modified (all turrets removed) and used as an armored evacuation vehicle up to 1951.
There are rumors, that in 1955 two tanks were sold to Turkey. However, not one archival document confirm that.
In March 1940, the Red Army started its new reorganization and formed several mechanized corps. Each mechanized corps consisted of two tank divisions and one motorised regiment. In that time all tank brigades were disbanded and their tanks were added to the new tank divisions. For example, on 22 June 1941, the 8th Tank Division (4th Mechanized Corps) had 75 T-28 tanks, another 5 vehicles were in 10th Tank Division (15th Mechanized Corps). Both corps were attached to the Kiev military district.
On 15 July 1941, the 16th Mechanized Corps received an order from the commander of South-West Front to make a strike on Zhitomir. The 29th Tank Regiment (15th Tank Division) took part in this battle. During a counter-attack at Semenovka (a village near Berdichev) one platoon of T-28’s under the command of 1st Lieutenant Vasiliy Sumtzov destroyed three German tanks, two AT-guns, one mortar, 7 trucks and about 100 German soldiers.
The fate of T-28 tanks was the same as for all other Soviet tanks - most them were lost in first two months of war. Some of the surviving T-28’s served up to 1943 on the Leningradskiy Front and during the Moscow counter-offensive (1941).
In the summer of 1941 the design of the T-28 became obsolete due to the drawbacks of multi-turret vehicles. German Pz-III and Pz-IV had an equal armor protection but were much more maneuverable, but the T-28 was better armed than any German tank in 1941 and could hit any German tank from long distances.
Experimental tanks had mine-clearing equipment TM-35 or equipment for crossing rivers under water T-28PKh.
Only one turret left in this destroyed T-35.
Just a quick note, the larger gun in the M-3 is mounted in what is called a “Sponson” a term used in the early days of iron Battleships, when naval guns were mounted in the sides of ship’s hulls.
Not exactly, the .30 Browning in the commander’s cupola was only capable of a maximum elevation of 47 deg, as I recall, and even that is obtained by dropping the pintel locking pins clear of the gunmount, otherwise the elevation was limited to between 28 and 35 deg, with depression being -8 deg.
Given the comparatively low elevation, despite the fact that tank crews were told they could engage attacking aircraft with the weapon, in reality most knew doing so was a “long-shot” at best, especially with the cupola being traversed in hand, and whoever was occupying it having to elevate, aim, lead the target, fire and often load as well since there was room for one man only.
If used in action at all (and rare recorded examples do exist) the cupola MG, like the fixed bow MGs, were used to engage infantry.
Regards, Uyraell.
Ask, and you shall receive 
It is reasonably plain the vehicles are related in external features at least, if not entirely in design terms, though it appears the Russian T35, vehicle is at least better armed, for the same or slightly more armour thickness.
Regards, Uyraell.
(Further article below.)
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Nice pictures, seems the british “landship” was the grandfather of all this multiturret, semi-maniac tanks.
if you look at this site
http://www.chars-francais.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202&Itemid=99
You will see the French first approached the idea with the FCM 21 in the 1920s. Multigunned but not a true multi turreted tank. It appears to be a grandfather of the later ‘B’ tanks. In the 1930s the French created many prototypes of multi turreted tanks. My favorite is the monster with the 90mm high velocity gun.
