5-vehicle T-35 platoons?

[Digger]

They actually made around 61 T-35's. 59 were listed as operational on June 22nd 1941. Most (38) were allocated to the 34th TD which was engaged in the SouthWest Front, (11) were allocated to the 12th TD, both of 8th Mech Corps. The remainder (8-10)were kept around Moscow.

90% actually broke down before seeing action, due to transmission failure or other mechanical issues. All of the 34th TD and most of the 12 TD T-35's were listed as non-operational or lost by 9th July 41.

2 surviving 8th Mech Corps T-35's were were used as Static pillboxes in the defense of Kharkov. The T-35's in Moscow were not used in combat, though several still managed to break down

After 1941 only 4 of the original 59 remained, these stayed in Moscow for the duration of the war.

5 Vehicles was pretty much a Russian standard in 1941, with a few exceptions, for a heavy or light tank company. In reality though you would be lucky to see more than 1-2 at once in combat, as the rest would most likely be non-starters.

There is little doubt these vehicles are over represented in CS EF scenarios. Not surprisingly the Germans made no attempt to use these heaps of junk. Regardless of the actual OOB, these vehicles were so bad that they really should only be represented as 2 vehicle platoons in CS IMHO, though 1 would be more realistic as it is doubtful that vehicles of this size would have been able to cooridinate in any real fashion.

Perhaps a 1 and a 2 vehicle platoon could be added for the Matrix edition.

Great for parades, but in reality little else.

Matt