T-26

The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many wars of the 1930s as well as during World War II. It was an improved version of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank. It was one of the best and last tank designs of the 1920s. The tank started to have problems when new anti-tank guns were invented. The tank had thin armor which the new guns could fire holes in.

More T-26s were produced than any other tank of the period. More than 11,000 were manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR made 53 different types of T-26.

The T-26 together with the BT was the main tank of the Red Army in the 1930s. Even though it was no longer good enough to be used in battles at the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War. It was also used during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 and in the Winter War in 1939–40. The Red Army mostly had T-26s during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.*  The T-26 was used against the Germans in the Battle of Moscow in winter 1941/1942, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus in 1942–1943. Some tank units of the Leningrad Front used their T-26s until 1944. The Soviet T-26 light tanks were last used in August 1945, during the defeat of the Japanese in Manchuria.

The T-26 was sold to Spain, China and Turkey. In addition, captured T-26 light tanks were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies.

The T-26 was reliable and simple to maintain Its design was improved between 1931 and 1941. However, no new models of the T-26 were made after 1940.

References

Category:Tanks