Many Faces of the T-26

"Condition of SPGs and artillery systems on the T-26 chassis

T-26-8: 37 mm AA gun on the T-26 chassis.

According to instructions from the NKSM and tactical-technical requirements developed by the 20th department of the GAU, an experimental prototype of a 37 mm AA gun on the T-26 tank chassis was developed in July and tested.

Trials gave a positive result. Presently blueprints are being developed that include improvements requested by the ANIOP. Production of two prototypes to send to the front is being finished.

Final work on blueprints for mass production will conclude on August 25th, 1941.

SU-26 Production

"Decree of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front #001336

November 13th, 1942

Active Army

RE: production of SPGs on the chassis of the T-26 tank

In order to supply the Front's tank units with SPGs, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front decrees that:

1. The director of factory #174 comrade Muromtsev to produce 10 SPGs on the T-26 chassis for the Front Tank and Automotive Directorate before January 1st, 1943.
2. The director of Kirov factory comrade Dlugach must supply factory #174 with the following before December 1st, 1942:
1. 10 76 mm guns, fully assembled.
2. 10 upper and lower gun mounts without mechanical finishing
   Dispatch two artillery assembly specialists to factory #174 for the term until January 1st, 1943.
3. The Chief of the Front Tank and Automotive Directorate, Major-General Baranov, must select and deliver 20 T-26 tanks for conversion into SPGs by November 20th, 1942.

Commander of the Leningrad Front, Lieutenant-General [text is cut off]

Member of the Military Council, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik All-Union Communist Party, A. Zhdanov"

Via Yuri Pasholok

Project 423

Project 423 was an ersatz SPG designed by the artillery chief of the Kirov factory, Lev Izrailyevich Gorlitskiy. The SPG consisted of a 76 mm regimental gun on a cruciform mount, surrounded by an armoured shield, similar to the one used on the T-26-6 (more commonly known as SU-26). 

Leningrad SPGs

Remember the SPG on the T-26 chassis that showed up on the Leningrad Front? For the sake of convenience, it was referred to as SU-26, but it turns out that's not the real name at all, nor was it a wartime improvisation.

"USSR NKSM
Order of the Red Banner Voroshilov factory #174
Department #1
June 3rd, 1941
#2440

To the factory director

I ask you to order the Planning Department to begin preliminary development of the following:

1. SU-51: ZiS-4 gun on the T-50 chassis.
2. SU-52: AA SPG on the T-50 chassis.
3. T-26-6: SPG with a KT-28 gun on the T-26 chassis.
   This work is to be done on the orders of Marshall of the Soviet Union, comrade Kulik
4. T-26-8: AA SPG on the T-26 chassis.
   The project is open, but no work has been done."

Here are the SPGs being assembled.

"Tank assembly in a plant inside the S. M. Kirov Factory"

Via V. Lehn collection

SU-26 Sighting

This rather innocent sounding list of vehicles and their conditions in various tank units assigned to the 55th Army seems pretty boring at first, some KVs, some T-26es, some BTs. A few T-50s, I guess that's rarity.

CAMD RF 217-1221-94

Ah, what is this? The 125th Tank Brigade has a footnote! "Out of the 7 T-26 tanks, 6 are SPGs and one is regular." Wow! A single SU-26 is rare enough, but these guys have a whole battery of them! 

"Zoo" on the Eastern Front

"Tank marching into battle. Leningrad Front. 1941."

The fierce nature of the Eastern Front required the Soviet Union to use every tank in its disposal. The majority of the obsolete light tanks were lost in the early days of the war, but various small units were somewhat heterogeneous even later on.

CAMD RF 3098-1-11 reveals the summary of an attempt to knock the Germans out of Laryushino (next to Zvenigorod, in the Moscow region) in December of 1941. The infantry regiment was reinforced with one KV, one T-34, one BT-2, and one T-26. Despite the obsolescence of half of the assigned tanks, the attack was successful. 

The 124th Tank Brigade had an even more heterogeneous makeup. CAMD 204-113-11 lists them as in possession of the following tanks on October 28th, 1942:

• 2 KV tanks
• 1 T-34 tank
• 5 BT-7 tanks
• 2 BT-7M tanks
• 1 BT-5 tank
• 2 BT-2 tanks
• 1 T-70 tank
• 1 T-26 tank with AA gun
• 1 T-40 tank

Not surprisingly, the brigade's stock of spare parts for its tracked vehicles is listed as 0%. The T-26 with AA gun is a rarity, a field improvised 37 mm 61-K AA gun on the T-26 chassis. Only two were made in Leningrad, and both were used by the 124th.

Another BT-2 is spotted at STZ's repair base. The following photograph was published in "Komsomolskaya Pravda" on November 13th, 1942. The presence of hexagonal turret T-34s in the background suggests that the photograph is not very old at that point.

CAMD RF 3273-1-15 describes another rag-tag group, in December of 1943. The list is a little more homogeneous.

"The brigade has the following tanks combat-ready:

• T-34 tanks: 33
• T-26 tanks: 21
• T-70 SPGs: 3
• T-26 SPGs: 1
• BA-10 armoured cars: 4
• T-26 medical transports: 2"

The T-70 SPG is obviously a SU-76, but what is a T-26 SPG? The answer may surprise you.

It's a SU-26, a field modification of a T-26 to accept a 76.2 mm regimental cannon in an open turret.