The T-26 is a Soviet light tank of the interwar period and World War II. The first prototypes of this machine were made in 1931, and the machine entered service in 1931-1932. Approximately 12,000 cars of this type were produced during the production process, as well as derivative versions and specialized cars! The combat weight of the T-26 tank in the basic version was up to 8.2 tons. The drive was provided by one 12-cylinder carburetor GAZ engine with a capacity of 90-91 hp. The main armament consisted of one 45-mm gun wz.1932 or wz.1934 and from 1 to 3 7.62-mm DT machine guns. In fact, the T-26 was a far-reaching development of the British Vickers 6-Ton. The machine was also the main Soviet infantry support vehicle in the 1930s and early World War II. It is also worth recalling that the first prototypes of the machine and the first serial batches had two towers (T-26 models of 1931 and 1932), only from 1933 the tank was produced in a single-turret version with a 45-mm gun as the main one. armament. In the production process, several variants of the T-26 and specialized versions were created, including: T-26 of the 1938 model (a version with a new tower, with sloping walls), ChT-130 and ChT-133 (specialized flamethrower vehicles) and a wagon ST-26 (bridge tank). T-26s were involved in numerous conflicts of the 1930s, including border incidents in Manchuria in 1934-1945 and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). On a significant scale, tanks of this type were also used during the aggression against Poland in September 1939, during the Winter War (1939-1940), and also during the war with Japan in 1939-1940. They were also widely used at the initial stage of the German-Soviet war in 1941. It is worth noting that there are opinions that the latest versions of the T-26 (for example, models of 1938 or 1939) were not significantly inferior to German tanks during operations "Barbarossa" or "Typhoon".
