Duel 096 - T-34 vs StuG III Finland 1944 (2019).pdf

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T-34
StuG III
Finland 1944
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
T-34
StuG III
Finland 1944
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Combatants
The Strategic Situation
Combat
Analysis
Further Reading
Index
4
7
8
29
37
52
59
74
78
80
INTRODUCTION
The T‑34 medium tank is the best‑known Soviet tank of World War II. A revolutionary
step forward in tank design when it made its combat debut in the summer of 1941, it
went on to become the backbone of the Red Army’s tank force, and was manufactured
in larger numbers than any other tank of World War II. (The early development of
the T‑34 has been extensively detailed elsewhere, and this account will focus on the
4
The T‑34 Model 1941 appeared in
small numbers on the Finnish
Front in 1941; this example was
captured between Kaukola and
Räisälä on 14 August 1941 and
shows the standard configuration
built in Stalingrad, with the 34.30.
sb‑10 narrow welded turret and
the 76mm F‑34 gun. One T‑34
nearby was hit 109 times with
only eight penetrations.
(SA‑kuva)
mid‑war years that resulted in the versions that saw combat in Finland in 1944.) By
the summer of 1944, there were two principal versions of the T‑34 in service: the T‑34
Model 1943 was still armed with the 76mm F‑34 gun introduced in 1941; the new
T‑34‑85, featuring an enlarged turret and an 85mm gun, made its combat debut in
March 1944.
The Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) assault gun was the principal infantry support
vehicle of the Wehrmacht, serving in the same role as the infantry tanks used by other
armies in World War II. Although it was originally armed with a short 7.5cm gun for
direct fire support, the threat posed by the T‑34 in 1941–42 prompted the Wehrmacht
to shift to a longer 7.5cm gun that was suitable both for fire support and anti‑
tank missions.
While it might seem awkward to compare a tank with a turret and an assault gun
with a fixed casemate, both the T‑34 and StuG III, though they might not have been
technically similar, were widely used in the infantry support role; and because both
types were manufactured in such large numbers, they frequently saw combat against
one another on the battlefields of the Eastern Front. Indeed, StuG III units claimed
to have knocked out 20,000 Soviet tanks, the majority of which were T‑34s.
The theatre of combat selected for this book is one of the lesser known campaigns
of the war: the battles between the Red Army and the Finnish Army in the summer of
1944 during the Continuation War (June 1941–September 1944). Finland was allied
with Germany in 1941–44, and had been equipped with the StuG III in 1943. In the
summer of 1944, Stalin decided to knock Finland out of the war once and for all. As
part of the summer 1944 offensives along the Baltic, the Red Army staged a massive
The Finnish Army generally
referred to its assault guns by the
early German designation of
Stu.40, or by the nickname
‘Sturmi’. This is the crew of Sturmi
Ps. 531‑9 ‘Toini’ with gunner
Lance Corporal Kalle Muona in the
commander’s hatch and loader
Pentti Laitinen to the left. This
view shows the Finnish use of
captured Soviet DT machine guns
over the loader’s hatch instead of
the usual German MG 42. This
photo was taken near Enso on
4 June 1944 when the battalion
conducted a display for Marshal
Carl Mannerheim, commander‑in‑
chief of Finland’s defence forces
during World War II, and President
Risto Ryti. (SA‑kuva)
5

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