LT vz . 34 The LT vz . 34 , formally designated as Lehký - Light , Tank vzor - Model 34 was a Czechoslovak - designed light tank used mainly by Slovakia during World War II . Its suspension was based on that of the Carden - Loyd tankette , of which the Czechs had purchased three , plus a manufacturing license , in 1930 . Dissatisfied with the prototypes of the Tančík vz . 33 tankette , the Czech Army decided that it would be easier to design a light tank from scratch rather than modify a tankette ' s chassis to carry a fully rotating armored turret . 50 were built , the last of which was delivered during 1936 , of which the Germans captured 23 when they occupied Bohemia - Moravia in March 1939 , but they promptly scrapped them . The Slovaks seized the remaining 27 when they declared independence from Czechoslovakia at the same time . In Slovak service it only saw combat during the Slovak National Uprising . Description . The " LT vz . 34 " was assembled from a framework of steel " angle iron " beams , to which armor plates were riveted . A firewall separated the engine compartment from the crew . A door allowed access to the engine from the crew compartment . It also had ventilation openings that could be closed . The driver sat on the right side using a observation port protected by two flaps . The inner flap had an episcope with a 25° field of view . It was connected to the armored outer flap so that opening one closed the other . The outer flap had a slit . To his right was an vision slit protected by of bulletproof glass . The inner flap was padded so that the driver could rest his head on it when driving . The radio operator sat on the left and had his own vision port with of bulletproof glass and an armored shutter . His radios were mounted on the left wall of the hull . The hull machine gun was between the driver and radio operator in a ball mount with 30° of traverse . It could elevate 25° and depress 10° . Most of the machine gun ' s barrel protruded from the mount and was protected by an armored trough . The mount had a spotting telescope or open sights could be used if the plug at the top of the ball mount was removed . If necessary the driver could lock the mount into position and fire it himself using a Bowden cable . The turret ring had a diameter of . The turret sides were thick and its roof had a thickness of . The turret was manually traversed ( 3° per rotation of the handle ) , but the gearing could be disengaged to allow the commander to shoulder the turret around as desired . The turret had a flat face in the center of which was mounted the main armament . On the right side was another machine gun in a ball mount . The commander had four episcopes in his cupola and a monocular mirror , 1 . 3 x 35° periscope which he could extend once he removed its armored cover in his hatch for vision while " buttoned - up " . This meant that the commander was responsible for loading , aiming and firing the main gun and the turret machine gun while simultaneously commanding the tank . The vertical front and side armor was thick , the slanted plates had a thickness of , the engine hatch was thick and the top and bottom plates were in thickness . This was deemed enough to deflect armor - piercing bullets fired from distances greater than . The , water - cooled , , inline 4 - cylinder Praga engine used a gasoline - alcohol mix . It had a top speed on the road of and about cross - country . One fuel tank was located on each side of the engine . The transmission had four forward gears and one reverse gear to drive the front - mounted drive sprocket s . The suspension was an enlarged and modified version of that used in the Carden - Loyd tankette s . It consisted of two small road wheels fastened together on a frame , two frames paired and sprung by leaf springs that made a wheel carrier , two wheel carriers per side . The track was guided by two return rollers and wooden , metal - lined frames . The rear - mounted idler wheel was used to adjust track tension . It had a ground pressure of only 0 . 5 kg / cm . It could cross a ditch wide , climb an obstacle high and ford a stream deep . It could uproot trees thick and breach a wall thick . The main armament was a Škoda " ÚV vz . 34 ( A3 ) " gun with a pepperpot muzzle brake and a prominent armored recoil cylinder above the barrel . It fired a armor - piercing shell at . It was credited with penetrating a plate inclined at 30° from the vertical thick at , thick at , thick at , and thick at . Another source quotes penetration of a vertical plate thick at . The machine gun ' s ball mount could be coupled to the main gun or used independently . Both weapons could elevate 25° and depress 10° . They both used 1 . 25x power sights with a 25° field of view . The tank used Zbrojovka Brno " ZB vz . 35 " heavy machine guns in both ball mounts . Development . One prototype was ordered from Českomoravská Kolben - Daněk in 1931 , but development was slow and it was accepted only in November 1932 . Its evaluations were very positive and an order for fifty was placed on 19 April 1933 . The first six of these were to serve as pre - production models and were to be delivered by 30 September 1933 . The delivery date for the next batch of twenty - four was a year after that and the final batch of twenty was due by 30 July 1935 . Production was delayed by quality problems with the initial batch of armor plates from Poldi and delivery of the pre - production series did not occur until 23 April 1934 . A bigger problem was that the Army had rejected ČKD ' s proposed armament of a Vickers " 44 / 60 " gun and two " ZB vz . 26 " machine guns so the contract was signed with no design work on the desired armament configuration . ČKD did not finalize its design until December 1933 and the first six tanks were delivered with only a pair of " ZB vz . 26 " machine guns . The last tanks were delivered on 14 January 1936 , but the six pre - production models had to be returned to the factory to be upgraded with the proper armament and otherwise modified up to the latest standards . The last one was delivered on 17 August 1936 . Operational history . Czechoslovakia . The Czech Army realized that the armor on its " LT vz . 34 " tanks was too thin and a program to replace it was quickly mounted which resulted in the " LT vz . 35 " . In the meantime they offered the Army an opportunity to train with more modern tanks than its few surviving World War I - era Renault FT - 17 s . Each of the three armored regiments received between nine and twenty - four until replaced by the " LT vz . 35 " from 1937 . After the Munich Agreement in October 1938 the army tried to sell them , but could find no takers . In November 1938 it decided to concentrate all of them in the " Third Armored Regiment " in Slovakia , but only eighteen had been transferred before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Slovak declaration of independence in March 1939 . Germany . The Germans captured twenty - three " LT vz . 34 " s and the prototype when they occupied Czechoslovakia , but there is no record of their use so they were presumably quickly scrapped . Ten " LT vz . 34 " s were captured after they were abandoned by the insurgents during the Slovak National Uprising in 1944 . They were shipped to Skoda for repairs , but the local military representative ordered them scrapped because of their poor condition and obsolescence . The Waffen - SS tried to overturn this order as it planned to transfer them to Nazi puppet state of Croatia . Two were saved from the scrapyard , but by March 1945 the others had their turrets salvaged to be rearmed with two machine guns and mounted in fixed fortifications . Slovakia . The twenty - seven " LT vz . 34 " s formed one company in the " Armored Battalion " Martin " " formed by the Slovak Army in mid - 1939 , which was later expanded into the " Armored Regiment " , but they were relegated to training duties once the Slovaks began to receive more modern tanks from Germany in 1941 . Ten were abandoned by the insurgents when the Slovak National Uprising began in September 1944 and were quickly captured by the Germans . The others were dug in on the approaches to Zvolen .