There are many cases in history where a tank that remained a prototype helped out another one that went into mass production. In part, this happened with turrets which lost their chassis but found a new home on another tank. Sometimes whole new tanks grew out of the turret, like the Pz.Kpfw.IV. These "centaurs" often grew into true workhorses that were built in huge numbers and remained in service for decades.
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| A T-34 tank with the T-43 turret, fall 1943. |
Two such turrets came into being in 1943. One was the result of work on the Medium Tank T23, a prospective vehicle that was supposed to replace the Medium Tank M4. The replacement didn't pan out for a number of reasons but the turret came in handy when developing the Medium Tank M4(76). A similar thing happened in Soviet tank building. Trials of the turret taken from the second T-43 variant and transplanted on top of a T-34 tank led to the creation of the T-34-85.
