page_title: T-26
section_title: Combat history
hierarchical_section_title: T-26 / Combat history
caption_attribution_description: English: T-26 light tanks during the Battle of Moscow.
context_page_description: The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 units manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR developed 53 variants of the T-26, including flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models.
  The T-26 and BT were the main tanks of the Red Army's armoured forces during the interwar period. The T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, as well as in the Winter War in 1939–40. Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Army's armoured force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
context_section_description: The T-26 entered active service for the Red Army (RKKA) in 1932; it was used in many conflicts of the 1930s as well as during World War II. The T-26 together with the BT was the main tank of the RKKA armoured forces during the interwar period.
  The T-26 first saw action in the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union provided Republican Spain with 281 T-26 mod. 1933 tanks starting in October 1936. T-26s were used in almost all Spanish Civil War military operations against the Nationalists from 1936-1939 and demonstrated superiority over the German Panzer I light tanks and the Italian CV-33 tankettes, both of which were armed only with machine guns. During the battle of Guadalajara, T-26s outclassed the Italian tankettes, inspiring the design of the first Italian medium tank, the Fiat M13/40. During the war, Nationalist forces would attack the tanks with petrol bombs, the first time such weapons were used in war.
  The next military operation the T-26 light tank participated in was the Soviet-Japanese border conflict, commencing with the Battle of Lake Khasan, in July 1938. The 2nd Mechanised Brigade together with the 32nd and the 40th Independent Tank Battalions had 257 T-26s, from which 76 tanks were damaged and 9 burnt towards the end of battle action. A small number of T-26 tanks, as well as some flame-throwing tanks based on the T-26 chassis, participated in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol against Japanese forces in 1939. The T-26 was vulnerable to Japanese tank-killing teams armed with Molotov cocktails; poor quality welds left gaps in the armour plate, and flaming petrol easily seeped into the fighting compartment and engine compartment. The 37 mm gun on the Japanese Type 95 light tank, despite its mediocre performance, was also effective against the T-26. Portions of the armour plating on earlier models of the T-26 used riveted construction and were very vulnerable to both types of attacks. The use of riveted armour on some older T-26 models led to "spalling", when the impact of enemy shells, even if they failed to disable the tank or kill the crew on their own, caused the rivets to break off and become projectiles inside the tank.
  
  On the eve of World War II, T-26s served mainly in separate light tank brigades (each brigade had 256–267 T-26s) and in separate tank battalions of the rifle divisions (one company of T-26s consisted of 10–15 tanks). These were the type of tank units that participated in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 and in the Winter War from December 1939 – March 1940. The Winter War proved that the T-26 was obsolete and its design reserve was totally depleted. Finnish 37 mm antitank guns and even 20 mm antitank rifles easily penetrated the T-26's thin anti-bullet armour and tank units equipped with the T-26 suffered significant losses during the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line, in which the flame-throwing tanks based on the T-26 chassis played a significant role.
  By mid-1941, most of the Red Army's vast numbers of tanks were suffering from serious wear and tear. Poor quality roads, the vulnerabilities of track design in the early 1930s and inadequate maintenance, recovery and repair services all took their toll. In some of the front line armoured units, up to half of the T-26, T-28 and BT tanks had major drive train components (engine, drive train or suspension) that were broken down or worn out and these disabled tanks were parked and cannibalised for spare parts to keep the rest running. Tanks damaged during the 1939 Winter War with Finland were also cannibalised for parts.
  On 1 June 1941, the Red Army had 10,268 T-26 light tanks of all models on their inventories, including armoured combat vehicles based on the T-26 chassis. T-26s composed the majority of the fighting vehicles in the Soviet mechanised corps of the border military districts. For instance, the Western Special Military District had 1,136 T-26 tanks on 22 June 1941 (52 percent of all tanks in the district). The T-26 (mod. 1938/39, especially) could withstand most German tanks in 1941 but were inferior to the Panzer III and P
caption: A column of T-26 mod. 1939 and T-26 mod. 1933 light tanks from the 20th Tank Brigade move towards a front line. The Western Front, Battle of Moscow. December 1941.
exif: {}