In the Soviet Army and the Warsaw Pact countries, mock-ups of military equipment were made, outwardly similar to tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles of NATO countries.
Os parecerá un #Leopard1, pero se trata de una modificación extrema hecha en Alemania del Este de un #T34 y entregada a #Polonia .
Fue usado por el famoso 1er batallón independiente de asalto polaco, hasta ser retirado del servicio.
???? #tanka #TANK #tankmen #Tanks #TankBattle pic.twitter.com/DddvVUduK4
— TRUFAULT 'Historia Militar' (@TRUFAULT) February 21, 2022
A typical example is the sample shown in the photo, which looks quite strongly reminiscent of the Leopard 1, which was in service with the Bundeswehr and many countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.
It can be seen that the chassis has big differences with the original: there are other support rollers, guide and drive wheels, track belts.
The gun is also much smaller and thinner than the 105 mm rifled L7A3 gun, although they did not forget to install an imitation ejector on it.
It is known that this unusual tank was made by specialists of East Germany based on the T-34-85. Then he was transferred to Poland, where he was involved during the exercises of the elite special forces unit - the first assault battalion. After decommissioning, it was used as a regular textbook.
At the same time, a special unit was formed in the army of the GDR itself, which was equipped with several dozen American M48A3 tanks and a large number of tracked M113s that fought on maneuvers for the enemy.
This formation was a kind of response to the release in Germany back in the late 50s of Soviet T-54/55 models on the chassis of Unimog all-terrain vehicles.
Alexey Brusilov