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Description
Ah, yes, the T-26. This tank is a lot like the Panzer 1 for Germany. Important for training crews and manufacturing, but very poor on the field. The tank was based upon the popular Vickers export tanks, The Vicker mark E, The Vickers 6 ton, in 1931, it was the most modern design around, and Russia with it's large fleet of first world war dinosaurs and ancient T-18s, felt it necessary to buy a few. They got about 15 of them and as Vickers built them, the soviet engineers came and watched them very closely. by 1932, Russia was ready with it's own domestic versions.

Let's skip to the interesting bit because from 1931 to 1939 there were a few changes to the basic formula. Right outta the gate of WW2 the T-26 was in the company it's little brothers, the BT-5s and BT-7s, it's bigger brothers, the T-28, the T-35, the KV-1, and kinda sorta the T-34. Great! However, most these tanks were missing a key component that would had paid dividends...Radios! All German tanks had radios, only a few Soviet tanks had radios, most had flags. Oh yeah, I can't imagine how that can go wrong. Long story short, HUGE amounts of Russian tanks are smashed to bits, the red air force was blown into the weeds and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were captured.

But a few Russian tanks tried to help themselves, most famously, slapping even more armor onto the tanks, the T-28s, KV-1s, and the T-26s bolted on even more armor to improve their chances. In hind sight, the major thing that was killing them wasn't ground fire, it was artillery and air attack, and a little more armor can't really help you if your a little T-26 which can get your roof knocked in by just about any German tank that cares to shoot at you.

Even with added armor, one by one the T-26s fall along with the T-28, the T-35s, even the BT tanks all are claimed by the relentless German advance. Only the KVs and the T-34s would live on to halt the German march and force them back to Germany.

The T-26, just like it's Polish cousin, the 7TP, was a tank from a rather modern source. And the idea was there, the T-26 and its kin were built with combined arms in mind, men and tanks working together with artillery and ground attack planes. In the 30s, this tank would have been alright. Not great, German and Russia had T-34s and Panzer 4s respectably, the T-26 was just a gap filler tank, a practice for industry to do something in peace time.

So yeah, the Panzer 1 and the T-26 have a lot more in common then at first glance. They both were mostly used to gear up their nations production capacity for serious production later on. Once the war starts the PZ 1 was pushed off the battlefield as soon as the war got hairy, relegated to rear line service. But not the T-26, The T-26 fought and fought, and didn't pull off the front line...Well, when they weren't being blown up, or breaking down, or getting lost, or getting captured...Yeah.

Description
Ah, yes, the T-26. This tank is a lot like the Panzer 1 for Germany. Important for training crews and manufacturing, but very poor on the field. The tank was based upon the popular Vickers export tanks, The Vicker mark E, The Vickers 6 ton, in 1931, it was the most modern design around, and Russia with it's large fleet of first world war dinosaurs and ancient T-18s, felt it necessary to buy a few. They got about 15 of them and as Vickers built them, the soviet engineers came and watched them very closely. by 1932, Russia was ready with it's own domestic versions.

Let's skip to the interesting bit because from 1931 to 1939 there were a few changes to the basic formula. Right outta the gate of WW2 the T-26 was in the company it's little brothers, the BT-5s and BT-7s, it's bigger brothers, the T-28, the T-35, the KV-1, and kinda sorta the T-34. Great! However, most these tanks were missing a key component that would had paid dividends...Radios! All German tanks had radios, only a few Soviet tanks had radios, most had flags. Oh yeah, I can't imagine how that can go wrong. Long story short, HUGE amounts of Russian tanks are smashed to bits, the red air force was blown into the weeds and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were captured.

But a few Russian tanks tried to help themselves, most famously, slapping even more armor onto the tanks, the T-28s, KV-1s, and the T-26s bolted on even more armor to improve their chances. In hind sight, the major thing that was killing them wasn't ground fire, it was artillery and air attack, and a little more armor can't really help you if your a little T-26 which can get your roof knocked in by just about any German tank that cares to shoot at you.

Even with added armor, one by one the T-26s fall along with the T-28, the T-35s, even the BT tanks all are claimed by the relentless German advance. Only the KVs and the T-34s would live on to halt the German march and force them back to Germany.

The T-26, just like it's Polish cousin, the 7TP, was a tank from a rather modern source. And the idea was there, the T-26 and its kin were built with combined arms in mind, men and tanks working together with artillery and ground attack planes. In the 30s, this tank would have been alright. Not great, German and Russia had T-34s and Panzer 4s respectably, the T-26 was just a gap filler tank, a practice for industry to do something in peace time.

So yeah, the Panzer 1 and the T-26 have a lot more in common then at first glance. They both were mostly used to gear up their nations production capacity for serious production later on. Once the war starts the PZ 1 was pushed off the battlefield as soon as the war got hairy, relegated to rear line service. But not the T-26, The T-26 fought and fought, and didn't pull off the front line...Well, when they weren't being blown up, or breaking down, or getting lost, or getting captured...Yeah.