T-50

Because of its complicated features and relatively high cost to produce, Soviet industry built only 69 examples of the T-50 light infantry tank from 1941 to early 1942. The type reflected a broader attempt to integrate lessons from the Spanish Civil War and devise indigenous Soviet light, medium, and heavy tanks. Envisioned to replace the T-26 and operate alongside the BT fast tank, the T-50 was an advanced design for its time, with torsion-bar suspension, diesel engine, well-sloped, all-welded armor, and a commander's cupola. Its fully-rotating, three-person turret contained a 45 mm (L/46) Model 1932/38 20-K gun plus a coaxial 7.62 mm DT machine gun. The tank weighed 14 tonnes, carried a crew of four, and could attain a top speed of 37 mph. T-50 tanks first became operational just months before the German invasion of June 1941.The T-50 was of an excellent design, but still suffered from technical problems, and was as expensive to build as the more capable T-34; further, industry had alredy begun producing much simpler T-60 light tanks. The Red Army deployed some of the few T-50s available to the Leningrad front. Twenty-seven examples served with a Soviet tank batallion on the Transcaucasian Front until January 1943. Finnish forces captured one T-50 in 1944.