Red Machines Vol.1: The T-60 small tank and variants

The T-60 small tank was the third most numerous tank-type built in the Soviet Union during the 1941-45 “Great Patriotic War”, behind only the T-34 medium tank and the SU-76 self propelled gun in terms of production output. Though often maligned in later years as being under-armed and weakly armoured, the T-60 performed a crucial role during the difficult years of 1941-42 when Soviet manufacturing plants struggled to replace combat losses at the front.

The history of the T-60 is the history of a single tank type, set against a background of the initial months immediately following the launch of “Operation Barbarossa” on 22nd June 1941, with staggering losses of territory, troops and equipment at the front and the consequent Soviet struggle to maintain production at a time when the main Soviet military production facilities were being evacuated on rails to the Urals and Siberia beyond.