The T-34's Engine Is Still In Production. Its Designer Never Saw One.
The Engine Archives
57,650 views
In 1937, Soviet engineer Konstantin Chelpan was arrested and executed for "disrupting" a diesel engine program that no industrial power on earth had ever successfully completed. Four years later, the German army examined a captured T-34 tank and admitted, in their own official records, that they could not reproduce his aluminum diesel engine fast enough to matter. This is the story of the V-2 tank diesel: the engine that powered the T-34 through World War Two, the engineer who was shot for the delay it took to build it, and the direct descendants of that same engine still being manufactured today at the Malyshev Works in Kharkov.
This video traces the full arc of the engine's development: the economic crisis of Soviet tanks running on scarce aviation fuel, Chelpan's failed early prototypes, the four radical design decisions that made the V-2 survive nearly a century of use, the 1937 political purge that ended his life, and the wartime production record that turned a flawed prototype into one of the most influential tank engines in history. It also covers the German side of the story: Guderian's 1941 commission, the Maybach monopoly on German tank engine doctrine, and the late-war Simmering-Porsche diesel program that never caught up.
Topics covered: T-34 tank, V-2 diesel engine, Konstantin Chelpan, Kharkov Locomotive Plant, Soviet tank engineering, Stalinist purges, Great Terror, Guderian tank commission, German tank diesel engines, Maybach engine monopoly, Mikhail Koshkin, Ivan Trashutin, World War Two engineering history, Eastern Front armored warfare.
If you found this story compelling, consider liking the video and subscribing for more deep-dive military engineering history.
#T34Tank #WW2History #SovietHistory #TankHistory #MilitaryHistory #EngineeringHistory #EasternFront #ColdWarHistory #HistoryDocumentary #WorldWarTwo
Sources:
Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader (commission report on captured T-34, November 1941)
Zaloga, Steven J. T-34-85 vs M4 Sherman and related Osprey publications on Soviet tank development
Dzhukha, Ivan. The Greek Operation: Deportation and Persecution of Soviet Greeks in the Stalinist Era
FSB Central Archive, Directive No. 50215 (declassified April 12, 2006)
Mariupol Memorial Society archives, research by historian Galina Zakharova on the Chelpan investigation file
Schneider, Erich. Lieutenant General, wartime writings on German tank diesel development
Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at historymediachannel1@gmail.com for credit or removal.
20 Comments
Later in the War the Germans ran into the problem of trying to allocate fuel between their petrol fuelled tanks and aircraft, relying increasingly on horses and steam trains for land transport. They also had problems with self-igniting tanks as petrol resisting seal materials became less available.
While Soviet technology is simple and easy to fix, there is no room in the tank to do that. Just cleaning the oil filter is a pain, and everything requires removing something big. But it sure has wonderful rumbling sound. Neigbours are kilometres away, but still hear when we start it.
Actually, it would be nice to have a documentary of the V 6 engine of the BMP because it is small but has 300 hp from normally aspirated engine, and is almost Boxer engine with only shallow V form. Both have an electric pre-lube pump that must be kept running when starting them. Many videos show the wrong way of just priming it until the pressure builds up, stopping the pump and then connecting the starter. The oiling system in both is the "dry sump", like in racing cars. Or Harley Davidson... The 24 v generator is huge, and driven by fluid coupling, like a torque converter in cars.
As we can now see, today, Ukraine was the Brains of the Soviet Union. Now the brainless zombie is trying to win the one with brains.
Actually, I could use the right side up-turnable front fender, my brother forgot that the T-55 is 4 m wide and fell a tree with it.... I removed the left one to make the tank look symmetrical :D As I have the original Operators Manual , in Russian (from USA...!) that I have no idea of, and the tank is from Poland, I do not know all the switches yet. The translator app is...interesting... with almost hand written lookin Russian, and for some reason does not like Polish. At all.
And, if someone knows why there is that stupib useless center ring at the drive sprocket that no longer exists on new spare parts, I would like to know. It only prevents the track returning correctly to the drive sprocket if that ring goes inside the center teeth of the track. Removed a sector of it with an angle grinder to get the track on the sprocket again.
Four valves per cylinder, 2 overhead camshafts per bank, dry sump oiling, centrifugal fine oil separator/cleaner, distrubuted air start, electric pre-oiling system... From before I was born. Slava Ukraini with that too.
Советский Союз официально закупил лицензию, документацию и готовое оборудование у немецкой фирмы Robert Bosch. Топливный насос, который ставился на В-2 (знаменитый ТНВД типа «катапульта»), был прямой копией немецкого насоса Bosch PE12B.
Who wrote that funk up ?
The T-34's Engine Is Still In Production. Its Designer Never Saw One.
The Engine Archives
57,650 views
In 1937, Soviet engineer Konstantin Chelpan was arrested and executed for "disrupting" a diesel engine program that no industrial power on earth had ever successfully completed. Four years later, the German army examined a captured T-34 tank and admitted, in their own official records, that they could not reproduce his aluminum diesel engine fast enough to matter. This is the story of the V-2 tank diesel: the engine that powered the T-34 through World War Two, the engineer who was shot for the delay it took to build it, and the direct descendants of that same engine still being manufactured today at the Malyshev Works in Kharkov.
This video traces the full arc of the engine's development: the economic crisis of Soviet tanks running on scarce aviation fuel, Chelpan's failed early prototypes, the four radical design decisions that made the V-2 survive nearly a century of use, the 1937 political purge that ended his life, and the wartime production record that turned a flawed prototype into one of the most influential tank engines in history. It also covers the German side of the story: Guderian's 1941 commission, the Maybach monopoly on German tank engine doctrine, and the late-war Simmering-Porsche diesel program that never caught up.
Topics covered: T-34 tank, V-2 diesel engine, Konstantin Chelpan, Kharkov Locomotive Plant, Soviet tank engineering, Stalinist purges, Great Terror, Guderian tank commission, German tank diesel engines, Maybach engine monopoly, Mikhail Koshkin, Ivan Trashutin, World War Two engineering history, Eastern Front armored warfare.
If you found this story compelling, consider liking the video and subscribing for more deep-dive military engineering history.
#T34Tank #WW2History #SovietHistory #TankHistory #MilitaryHistory #EngineeringHistory #EasternFront #ColdWarHistory #HistoryDocumentary #WorldWarTwo
Sources:
Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader (commission report on captured T-34, November 1941)
Zaloga, Steven J. T-34-85 vs M4 Sherman and related Osprey publications on Soviet tank development
Dzhukha, Ivan. The Greek Operation: Deportation and Persecution of Soviet Greeks in the Stalinist Era
FSB Central Archive, Directive No. 50215 (declassified April 12, 2006)
Mariupol Memorial Society archives, research by historian Galina Zakharova on the Chelpan investigation file
Schneider, Erich. Lieutenant General, wartime writings on German tank diesel development
Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at historymediachannel1@gmail.com for credit or removal.