History, Development, and Use
of the
T-60 Light Tank

This section will cover the history, development, and use of the T-60 light tank.  In this section you will find where the vehicle has been used, when it was designed, its limitations and abilities, and how the tank functions.

 

Brief Operational History

The T-60 was hastily designed during the early days of the Great Patriotic War as German armor stormed into the Soviet Union.  Its development team, under the leadership of N. A. Astrov  completed the basic design in a short 15 days.  It was chosen over the more complex T-50 tank because it was easier to produce, but both evolved from the T-40 light amphibious tank.

Unlike the earlier T-40, it was not to be amphibious and was to mount an anti-tank gun.  One of the initial designs had called for a 45mm cannon, but the vehicle was too light and the turret ring was not capable of handling such a weapon.  Redesigning the tank to use the 45mm gun would take far too long, so the designers decided to use the 20mm ShVAK aircraft machine gun.  With the right armor piercing incendiary ammunition it was found that the cannon was comparable to the German 37mm gun.  In addition to this, the weapon was fully automatic.

The turret and gun were not the only difference between the T-60 and the earlier T-40.  The hull of the tank had also been reworked.  This armor was heavier and placed at sharper angles.  The armor plates were first riveted, but this was changed to welded armor.  The tank's engine was placed in the right side of the vehicle, while the two crewmembers sat on the left.  Its fuel tanks were located in the rear of the tank.

As the Germans advanced the Main Defense Committee (the GKO) headed by Stalin ordered 10,000 T-60 tanks as a stop-gap measure until more T-34 tanks could be made.  Production was very erratic at first, this was due to many factories being relocated East of the Ural mountains.  Even so, over 6000 T-60's would see action by mid-1942.  Almost immediately the tank ran into problems.  It was to light, not powerful enough, and couldn't keep up with the T-34 medium tanks that it was supposed to support.

As the war progressed several changes were made to the basic design of the T-60.  Its road wheels were changed from the spoked models to disk wheels..  Rubber shortages also caused the tank's wheels to be of all metal construction, but this had little impact on the tank.  Track extensions could be added to improve its performance on swampy or snow covered terrain.

Despite these problems, the T-60 would be used on all areas of the Eastern Front.  This was largely because there were so many of them.  Production ended in 1942 with the introduction of the T-70.  Still, its designers attempted to find other uses for it.  There were attempts to fit the tank with wings and a tail section so that it could be dropped into battle along with paratroopers, but this proved to be unsuccessful.

  

Tactical Use and Limitations

In combat the T-60 light tank was intended to be used in independent tank battalions that would punch through the enemy line and cause chaos in the enemy rear areas.  These battalions were to have one company of heavy KV tanks (to cause the breakthrough), one company of medium tanks, and two companies of T-60 light tanks.  

Unfortunately, the heavy tanks were not usually available, so even more T-60 light tanks would take their place.  This had disastrous results.  The tank had very light armor and a relatively weak gun and was no match for German tanks or anti-tank guns.  In fact, the German army reported that the T-60 was easy to fight against, even with the light 3.7cm gun.  Even Soviet tank crews complained of the tank's weak armor.  Another disadvantage was that the tank had poor ground clearance and during the battle of Moscow they often had to be towed from place to place.

The greatest advantage of the ill fated tank was its ease of production.  They could be manufactured in automobile factories in great quantity, this allowed the heavy machine factories to produce heavier tanks.  This enabled the Red Army to throw a wave of (thin) armor against the advancing German army as thousands of the tanks were produced between 1941 and 1942.

   

Deployment Chronology

The T-60 light tank had a very short service life.  This was partly due to the rapid increase in tank size on the Eastern front and partly to the way it was used in combat.  In this section you can see what vehicles the T-60 light tank replaced and what tank eventually replaced it.  You will be able to find more about each vehicle if we have them on our site by clicking on the links below.

The T-60 replaced... T-60 Light Tank The T-60 was replaced by...
T-40 Light Tank T-70 Light Tank

 

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.