The T-34 was a Russian made Medium Tank used in the Western Front to fend off the German charge in Operation Barbarossa. The tank was considered the savior of WW2, even though during its time in WW2, it was one of the worst tanks at the time. Most of the welds put on the T-34 were done very poorly, creating weak points between the turret and the chassis, meaning that you could easily destroy the horizontal and vertical turret drive, possibly killing crew members. The welds between the transmission and the tracks were poor, so if you drove the tank for too long or went too far, the welds would break and the T-34 would be unusable. There was one Russian test that made the T-34s drive 50 miles, and only 7% of the tanks survived the test, while 78% of the same test done on German tanks would be successful. Another problem was that when the T-34s broke down, there were no spare parts to replace the broken ones, so tank crews would have to leave their vehicle behind. The inside of the T-34 was very cramped due to the sloped armor the T-34 had, and it was very uncomfortable during long missions if it didn’t break down. Many T-34s were lost - 54,000 in total - compared to the Panzer IV - only losing 8,400 even though it was created in 1936 - before the start of the war - and remained as the main battle tank for the germans, while the russian T-34 was created in 1940, but really only used to fend off the Germans in Operation Barbarossa, lost about 6.5 times the amount of the Panzer IV. The Panzer IV had 83mm of penetration, while the T-34 had 100mm of penetration. That was really the only advantage the T-34 had over most German tanks, (excluding SPGs,) because even its sloped armor had setbacks. The sloped armor made the T-34s 47mm armor go from 47mm to 96mm, however the area the sloped armor took up was the main reason the inside was so cramped. Most of the reasons the T-34 was lost in combat was because either the crew was not trained well, had not enough ammunition to fight, or welds breaking during combat. Another reason was because it was made by the Russians, and used by the Russians, so whenever the T-34 was put into combat, it wasn’t supporting infantry, or had any support from friendly artillery, and whenever it was near infantry was usually because they were being encircled by the Germans. The main reason why the T-34s in Russian parades are not breaking down is because the T-34s in the parades are manned by train crew, built by professionals, and also aren’t being shot at by Germans. If the designers had put a little more effort on their welds, maybe more tanks would have been able to survive WW2. Better types of steel could’ve been implemented, however there were shortages of steel, so I don’t blame them for that. The T-34 had a 76.2mm cannon, later updated to a 85mm cannon on the T-34-85 to deal with the newer German tanks. So many flaws were in all the versions of the T-34. The T-34 you see in western culture is not the base T-34, it is the T-34/76A, which never really saw combat, it was just a placeholder for the T-34-85. The armor slope on the T-34 was an insane 60 degrees, bouncing most shells off of the armor unless the shell was lucky and recorrected itself into it. Most of the time this front plate didn’t do anything, as the opposing forces would just fire in between the hull and the turret, where any poor weld could just break the turret right off. The turret was also a formidable force, having 2.61 inch thick armor, however the welds putting the armor pieces together, again, would just break in combat. It did have some advanced armor at the time, boasting anti projectile armor on all areas, meaning that some shells hitting the T-34 would break upon impact with the T-34s armor. One problem with the steel they used was that it was cast-iron, so it offered little resistance to rapid-fire anti aircraft shells that kept beating it down until it broke.
The T-34s sloped armor made it able to deflect incoming shells. It had 15-45mm thick armor, thinner than the Panzer. IV's armor. It did have the benefit of being able to bounce shots straight off of the armor, however the welds done on the T-34 were lackluster, some breaking down after just a little bit of traversing. If you look at photos of T-34s at the time, you can see the grainy welds from more than 10 feet away. If the welds got hit by any projectile, they may break and disconnect certain parts of the tank from the tank. You can easily see the welds on the T-34 between the tracks and the hull, making them very weak and
The T-34 had a 76.2mm main gun on it, with two 7.62mm DT machine guns. The main gun was pretty powerful for the time, and could take out tanks from 1.2 miles, below average at the time, and extremely outclassed by the German StuH, Stug, or Marder III. Most of the time it got outclassed by German SPGs or German Panzer IV or Panzer III N. The gun was still pretty good, and still was effective if it got into close range, or took the enemy by suprise.
There were many flaws in the T-34, some being horrible welds, some being cramped interior, and some just being the fact that the inside was not the safest and comfiest. The inside was cramped due to the sloped armor of the T-34, making the crew less moralized than the opposition. Due to this, crew members could be less active during combat, and just less effective in general.
The engine was one of the best tanks in terms of the engine, and the transmission war very good for the time. It had 1.50 miles per gallon, outclassing many German and Italian tanks at the time. It could drive at 33 MPH, so it was still very fast, and could easily push back the German forces invading Russia. It doesn't matter if your engine is amazing, because even though the engine was the best at the time, it had a very good transmission, being able to go into its max gear in very little time. Sadly the amount of time it took was not recorded. (or it's not very easy to find). It was on the loud side, however the engine that was used on the T-34 is still used to this day, being the V12 diesel engine.