Galileo Russia: Tank Race! T-34 vs T-90! (English subtitles)

Well, this is a great thing. It's so superbly made. I still argue with my parents. They are elderly already and they keep saying "Take an old stool. An old stool is made very strong. It won't break." And I tell them "Hey guys! Look at this my dear parents! It's a perfect chair! People were thinking, inventing and they've made such an amazing construction. It's foldable... ouch... It is easy to fold and unfold. And it is strong. Anyone can stand on it. While they say that old things are better. Following their logic, T-34 tank can beat a modern tank. It's an absurd. I think it's impossible. Well, let's try it out. Let's take a modern tank and a legendary T-34 and organize a competition for them. Who Will Win? These are hippies. Children of the flowers. No one are so glad to see the Sun, as them. However, our subject won't be about beautiful girls at all. Listen! Some strange roaring. Nothing strange, really. It's a tank. And another one. Galileo show presents another crazy project of it to you. Meeting of two tanks on the same field - a legendary T-34, participant of the Great Patriotic War and its grandson, a modern T-90 tank. These combat vehicles are going to pass some competitions, which are not quite usual, as we have a habit in our show. Let's meet the contesters! Tank T-90! Year of production of this vehicle - 2003. It's a main battle tank of the Russian Army today. It's an unofficial World champion for accuracy of fire with its main gun, and for protection level from attacking means. Tank T-34! Year of production - 1944. By aggregate of its combat properties, it is acknowledged as the best tank of the World War II. It holds the first place in the World in number of monuments. So, where from did we dig out this treasure worthy for a museum? You might be surprised, but we dig it out exactly there, in a museum. We came to Kubinka - the Central Museum of Armored Vehicles. It hosts a very huge collection of armored combat vehicles; domestic ones and trophy ones. The first Soviet tank, an ancient armored train, and the only existing example of Fascist Germany's super-heavy tank "Mouse" are among them. We found what we need exactly in this museum. The T-34-85 tank started right from its place in the museum. In order to don't disturb the visitors, it drove out from the rear yard of the museum. Meanwhile it won't get back here soon and not exactly the same as when it was driving away, but you will find it out later. The competitions will pass on tank proving ground of the Scientific-Research Center, where all new models of country's armored vehicles are being tested. "Galileo" show set up its own track here. It's time to meet the crews of our tanks. T-90 tank has contract soldiers, who’s job is to test tanks. T-34 will have an employee of the museum and young members of Military Historical Club "The Eternal Flame". It seems that we have guests. Attention to the right! Now the tournament will pass following all the rules; under watch of beautiful ladies. Don't digress, comrade tankers! It's time to start the competition! The first mission: Getting of the crew in the tank as fast as possible. But what the dog is here for? It's simple. Dog "Sharik" was an equal member of the crew in the famous military movie "Four tanksmen and the dog". So, this will be ours difficulty multiplier. Experienced movie star, _ovcharka_ Vargo will play role of Sharik. TEST NUMBER 1 - FOUR TANKSMEN AND THE DOG Who will get inside the tank first, taking the dog with them? T-34 crew will start first. Here are 5 tanksmen for 3 hatches. Six to be exact... if counting the dog. 18 seconds. Now it's a turn for T-90. Three men... and everyone has its own hatch. Time: 11 seconds. The dog however, remained sitting outside. Something's wrong! Why tankers didn't take it with them? Let's find out! T-90 has three crew members; the Commander, the Gunner and the Driver. Space within the tank is divided to compartments and each one of them has space only for one. Driver... Gunner... and Commander. Everything else is taken by devices and armament. That's why the dog doesn't have space to sit anywhere. Meanwhile T-34 crew consists of 5 men. Commander sits here. Gunner sits in front of him. Loader stands to the right, close to the gun. There are two more seats in front; for machine gunner-radioman and for driver-mechanic. But they have only three hatches. That's why getting there took more time. This tank doesn't have compartments. The space is common for everyone. It also doesn't have so many devices and armament, and the armor thickness is much thinner. That's why it is much more spacious here. And the dog got into the tank. Stop! But why the famous movie is called "Four tanksmen and the dog" then, while one tank has 3 crew members and the other one has 5? The matter is that heroes of the book were fighting with earlier model of the tank - the T-34-76. The crew consisted of four men; Commander, machine gunner, Loader and Driver-Mechanic. The gunner didn't exist. Commander was doing his job. While the tank, which is on the field right now - the T-34-85 - was made later, in 1944. It got seat for the gunner. So, crew members became five. While three men are enough for T-90. Machine gunner is not necessary. The gunner fires both the main gun and the machine gun. Loader is also unnecessary. The gun of T-90 is getting loaded automatically. T-90 gets 1 point for this test. Its crew got inside quicker. However, the T-34 also gets 1 point. The dog got inside of this tank. Score 1:1 TEST NUMBER 2 - WHO IS LIGHTER ON HIS FEET? The next mission is on "tank's hill". It's an ascent designed for test of tanks and armored vehicles. The first part has 15 degrees angle of ascent. T-90 goes first. Theoretically moving up to the hill is easier for that one, who is lighter. Contrary to its competitor, which weights 32 tons, T-90 has to drag entire 47 tons, which is almost 1.5 times more. There is another property, however, and it is more important - the power of the engine. Power is bigger in T-90 - 1000HP vs 500HP. The T-90 climbed up in 20 seconds. It's the turn of T-34 now. Both mechanics use lower gear for better traction with the surface during the ascent. The T-34 has 5 gears, by the way. While T-90 has 7. Time of ascent for T-34 - 1 minute and 30 seconds. It's 4 times slower. You probably think "what's so difficult in this mission?" Reality is that tanks are not designed for driving on a concrete. Tracks slip on such surface and it is very easy to break away in uncontrolled descent. Meanwhile, the next ascent will be even steeper. We increase angle of ascent to 20 degrees. More than that. This ascent has parts of metallic surface, which is even more inconvenient for tracks. It is obvious even without a stopwatch, that T-90 moves much faster than T-34 again. But wait! What is going on? The tank stopped! The track started skidding and the tank started slipping backwards. This is exactly we were afraid of. They will have to start over. Attempt number 2. The tank moved a bit to the left, in order to make tracks to stay away from metallic surfaces. And now it is going up. The ascent has been overcome, but a minute and fifteen seconds were necessary for this. Now, it's T-34's turn. Will it be able to get up there at all? But saying the truth, the driver of T-34 already knows the same track. Don't forget however, that this tank is a veteran and its tracks are more worn out. What if suddenly this ascend will be proven backbreaking for it? We were ready for a moment, when the tank will fall back and we even regretted that we planned such a dangerous thing for it to do. However, slowly but surely was approaching the top of the hill... and it done it! What a great lad! Credits to the driver! Time - 1 minute and 30 seconds. One point goes to T-34 in this competition. Combined time of T-34 was lesser. Score - 1:2 Engines of both tanks are diesel ones. It was an advantage of T-34 during the war. German tanks had fuel-guzzling petrol engines. And that meant shorter autonomy. T-34 could move 230km off-road. Panther - 160km. Tiger - 90km. While T-90 has 300km autonomy off-road. We need assistants for the third test. Hey girls! Why don't you come over here! And what kind of delegation is this? WOW! Stop! Stop! Stop! We've got an idea! TEST NUMBER 3 - BOUQUET FOR HIPPIES With help of these bouquets we will learn about one of the main properties of tanks right now. Let's place a flower bouquet in the barrel of each tank. And let's move it off by 90 degrees. The task for every tanker is to turn the turret in the shortest time possible and to aim the gun at the target. Excuse me! The task for every tanker is to present the bouquet to the girl. And in order to not let the third girlfriend boring, let's give her to do something useful. Start! Tankers go inside tanks; they turn them on and... The barrel of T-34 started moving! While T-90 is delaying for some reason. The first lady got her bouquet; while the second one is standing there, boring. Finally, her flowers got to the right address. Let's compare times. 19 seconds are here and 43 are here. How did that happen? Why a more modern tank lost so badly to an old one? Let's do it again. We have to find out what is going on. We give the "Start" command again. Tanks moved their turrets simultaneously now. The time is the same - 12 seconds. It's a tie. But why the modern tank wasn't so quick at the first attempt? The matter is following. Both tanks were starting operating from being cold at the first time. T-34 can start moving its turret right after turning the engine on. It has an electro-mechanical drive here. But saying the truth, the final aiming on target has to be done manually anyway. Electronics of T-90 do everything by themselves and they do it more smoothly. Gun stabilizer is responsible for this. It's exactly the stabilizer keeps the gun on target in the battle, no matter what bumps the tank has to drive over. But time is needed in order to turn it on, just like a computer needs time in order to load data. That's why the tank was "thinking" so long at the first attempt. Meanwhile the tank was already turned on for the second attempt, so it didn't need time to turn the stabilizer on. Even so, the second attempt resulted in a draw. So, only T-34 will get one point for this test. Total score 1:3. By the way, what is encrypted in tanks' names? The letter "T" stands for "tank". Also, index T-34-85 hosts a tank gun. The index "85" is its diameter in millimeters. By the way, main enemies of T-34 during the war were not "Tiger" or "Panther", which we see often in movies. These are heavy tanks and there were not many of them. The main enemy of T-34 was Panzer-IV. It was a medium tank. Its gun had diameter of 75 millimeters. Meanwhile T-90 has a 125mm caliber gun. And it's not just a gun, but an entire weapon system, which can defeat even enemy helicopters. T-34 doesn't have anything like that of course. However, this anything like this doesn't exist in any modern foreign tank too. Our competitors will have to pass another two tests. But we will present them in our next episode. You will learn how to tear a tank's track. Why isn't it simple to drive backwards in a tank? And the most important thing. Who will finally win in our competition? Hmm! Here it is! Tank T-34 model 85. It features in every movie about the War. Absolutely in every one of them. But it was produced only in December 15, 1943. And another tank was fighting for us before that. Tank with modification 76. Why everyone likes tablet PCs so much? Because it is not necessary to spend time to learn how to work with this tablet. It is intuitive. That's how we zoom out. That's how we zoom in. One picture, another picture, the third one. Beautiful. I think the same principle must apply to military technology. Why? For example... everything can happen in a battle and let's say driver-mechanic got killed. Who can replace him? He must be able to be replaced by any Private! A man gets in the tank and intuitively he understands what to grab, where to drive, where to fire. And what if the tank is modern? What if it is entirely computerized? How will you know what to do? For example, a modern T-90 and a good old T-34. I am sure that T-34 is _na poryadok_ simpler to drive. Don't you believe me? Let's try it out! Who Will Win? "Galileo" show continues trials of combat vehicles. We started unusual competition of two tanks in one of our previous episodes. A modern tank - T-90. And a veteran of the war - T-34. Tests were going on at tank proving ground in Kubinka. It's not just a test range, but a Scientific-Research Center, where tanks are being tested. T-34 tanks were passing first trials here. Trophy vehicles were tested at this proving ground during the war. Weak spots of fascist tanks had been discovered here. Today, they test the newest armored vehicles of the country. Well, we set our own track here. During the competition we tested the tanks for capacity. We found out which one is lighter on its feet. We also found out how fast turrets of both tanks can turn. The score is 3:1 in favor of T-34 for now. As paradox it might sound, the old tank is winning the modern one for now. Let's continue the competition. TEST NUMBER 4 - DRIVING EXAMS We'll need _veshki_. They must be set at 10 meters from each other. Or to count 12 steps between them. This is a distance for a real tank driving exams. Competitors must pass the "snake" first: 5 _veshek_ placed 10meter away from each other. And then, they must park moving backwards in a _uslovnij_ box. Limits of this box are also set by ___. And these are our drivers. Andrey Chernyaev will sit behind levers of T-34. He's First Lieutenant in Reserve and the Head of Military-Historic Department of the museum. Tank driving experience - 11 years. T-90 will be driven by Junior Sergeant Roman Shaplyakov. He is a tank test driver. Tank driving experience - 1 year. T-90 starts first. Maneuverability is required from the heavy vehicle in order to don't touch the _stick_. The smaller are dimensions of the tank, the easier it will pass this test. T-90 tank is by 78cm wider and by 70cm longer than T-34. That's why it needs to drive longer distance in order to fit between sticks. However, the T-90 has another trump card - the power of its engine. Because the bigger the power - the higher speed the tank will achieve. The last stick is behind. Parking now. Any tank needs help in order to get into the box moving backward. The Commander gets out and shows the driver how to move. The matter is that tanks are not intended for such car maneuvers. Their main task in battle is to move forward and hit enemy targets. The test is over. Total time - 56 seconds. T-34 is next on the start line. It's strange. It is delaying for some reason. It even turned the engine off. As it was proved, a track got broken. Well! We ruined museum _exponat_! However, everything is not so terrible as we learned later. Tanksmen were repairing damaged vehicle right on the battlefield, during the war. Because the tank brings everything with it, including set of tools and spare parts. Spare tracks are placed right on frontal armor. Almost nothing has changed till our days. T-90 also fights carrying its spare parts, but it has it behind below. The track of T-34 got torn out, because of _starost_. Museum employees drove till here in order to help with repairs of the legendary tank. Two hours passed for repairs. And now our war veteran is on the start line again. T-34 has more compact dimensions that its competitor, but it is physically more difficult to drive this tank. If driver-mechanic almost doesn't need to apply force on lever to control the tank, then T-34 needs about 48kg of force for every maneuver. Anyhow, the T-34 also didn't touch any stick. Young participant of Military-Historic Club was helping the tank during parking. While the stick fall down because of fear of Russian Army. Total time - 65 seconds. Victory is for T-90 in this competition. The score becomes 2:3. T-34s were the most maneuverable tanks of the World War II. They were hunting in packs on clumsy German Tigers. And the latter, despite they were from a different _weight category_, had to run away from medium T-34s. TEST 5 - JOKES ASIDE Everything is serious now. Competitors have the most extreme test in front of them - an obstacle course. They have to drive 100 meters on ground, to overcome a one meter deep and two meters wide trench, to overcome an obstacle named "a wall", with height of about one meter and to finish at specific line. T-90 starts first. The first part of the test - driving off road. It's not an asphalt. Tank is in its environment here. Its main quality works here - the passability. It depends on engine power and traction of tracks with the surface. T-90 moves with speed of 55km/h. Its adversary doesn't have modern _gruntozacep_ and the engine is not so powerful. T-34's speed off-road is 25km/h. That's why in clean competition for speed, the modern tank beats the old one. However, there is a second part of the track ahead - the trench. T-90 has its center of mass displaced toward the stern. That's why the tank managed to jump over the trench without having time to ditch down with its frontal part and almost without loosing its speed. Meanwhile center of mass of T-34 is right in the middle. It must get down and then get up. That's why it passed the trench couple of seconds slower. It's all vice versa with the high obstacle. Displaced center of mass and heavier weight made the job for T-90 more difficult. It got up the wall almost for entire length of its body and then it smashed down with all of its weight. T-34 overcame the wall faster than the competitor... and smoother. It drove over by half of its body and it rolled over relatively smoothly. Last meters to the finish line. It did it! The T-90 finished first. 1 minute and 45 seconds. T-34 is second with 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Total score 3:3! It's a tie! So, despite that the competition was long, tough and spectacular the modern tank didn't manage to beat the veteran tank. Now we know why T-34 still is in service in Armies of some countries. However, we didn't compare the vehicles by all properties. We didn't bring either the fire power, either the protection of T-90. In these parameters it is better not only against T-34, but against any tank in the World as well. However, the competition wouldn't be interesting then. But we also learned that main tank building principles didn't change much in last 70 years. Thank to everyone. Especially to those who are in tanks. I have a friend, who have served in Armored Forces. He was a driver-mechanic and he was driving tanks superbly. So, when he got back from the Army, he decided to go to driving school to learn to drive a car. He put a machine gunner... oops, I mean instructor next to him and he drove to the city... in same manner as he was driving the tank. Instructor screams to him "What are you doing?! Why do you drive over people? Especially on _zebra?!" And the guy answers "Relax! I never let Infantry in front of me when I was driving the tank!" Instructor says: "You are driving on the wrong way!" The guy: "I don't know what “wrong way” means! I have only one way... To Berlin!"