Found this on the net, makes some interesting reading.. certainly about the way T-34's were constructed and more importantly how badly they were built..
T-34 Engineering Analysis pdf
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The production of the T-34 was a remarkable story - the removal of factories to beyond the reach of German bombers meant that assembly lines were set up on 'green field' sites in the less civilised areas of the USSR. THe USSR had no history of mass production ( unlike the US & their car industry ), and a worker population that were mostly unskilled. To set up production facilities in remote areas, and produce the number of tanks they did was astounding - only possible in a totalitarian regime. It's not at all surprising that they were badly made, they were going by numbers - production quotas had to be met, regardless of quality! Instead of improving the quality, they countered this by increasing production numbers, accepting high failure rates. After the major crises were over, the Soviets introduced better processes & higher standards - but only when it didn't affect the numbers going through the gate.
DaveComment
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Well done Chris.
Will make a good bedtime read :smiling3:
The model in question was a late version. Interesting to read that the inspection people found some good well engineered parts made of quality materials and some pretty bad points as well.
As Dave has rightly said about the way factories were moved away from the on coming Germans was amazing. Complete factories were taken down , including foundries and moved along with workers to new sites. They must have been a hardy lot as at first they worked outside to produce tanks until the factories were built .Comment
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