The appearance, in 1943, of the new German tanks, Pz.Kpfw.V Panther and Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger, created the need to increase the firepower of the Red Army's basic combat vehicle the T-34. It had become apparent that the shell of the 76.2mm cannon was not capable of penetrating the frontal armour of the enemy's tanks from long range. The idea of mounting a long barrel 76.2mm gun was deemed impractical, and the decision was made to design a new version of the tank armed with an 85mm canon. The new tank had a troublesome evolution, which was caused by various modernisation concepts for the 'thirty-four'.
The T-34-85 arrived at Soviet units in the spring of 1944, and took part in all operations on the Eastern Front, ending their journey in Manchuria and Korea. During the Second World War, Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Polish armoured units were equipped with tanks of this type. At the end of the war, 'eighty-fives' were to be found in the armed forces of every Warsaw Pact state, and were also exported to many African, Asian and even American countries. T-34-85's took part in local conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Africa, in the Near East and Cuba.
