T26 Light Tank (Model 1933)

The T-26 Light Tank was used during the many conflicts of the 1930s and in WWII. Developed from the British Vickers 6-Ton tank it was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until the newer anti-tank guns became available. Produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 built including many variants such as flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers, they along with the BT7 series were the main tanks of the Red Army's armoured forces during the interwar period. The most important tank of the Spanish Civil War, they also played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, the Winter War in 1939–40 and although nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was still the most numerous tank in the Red Army's armoured force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The T-26 was used during the Battle of Moscow in 1941–42, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus in 1942–1943; some tank units of the Leningrad Front used their T-26s until 1944. They last saw action in August 1945,during the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. Exported and used extensively by Spain, China and Turkey, captured T-26s were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies.[8] The tank was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernised between 1931 and 1941. No new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940.