The T34 Heavy Tank was an American design for a

heavy tank Heavy tank is a term used to define a class of tanks produced from World War I through the end of the Cold War. These tanks generally sacrificed mobility and maneuverability for better armour protection and equal or greater firepower than tanks ...

. It evolved from the

T29 Heavy Tank The Heavy Tank T29 was an American heavy tank project started in March 1944 to counter the appearance of the German Tiger II heavy tank. The T29 was not ready in time for the war in Europe, but it did provide post-war engineers with opportuniti ...

and

T30 Heavy Tank The Heavy Tank T30 was a World War II American tank project developed to counter new German tanks, such as Tiger I, Tiger II, and tank destroyers, such as the ''Jagdtiger'', or Soviet heavy tanks, such as IS-1 or IS-2. The T30 was designed at th ...

in 1945, using the same chassis, but sporting a modified 120 mm Gun M1

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

. Extra armor plating was applied to the rear of the turret bustle as a counterweight for the heavier 120mm T53 main gun. No production orders were placed for the T34, which was felt to be too heavy.

Development

In 1945, encounters with German heavy tanks and tank destroyers such as the

Tiger II The Tiger II is a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' Tiger ''Ausf''. B,''Panzerkampfwagen'' – abbr: ''Pz.'' or ''Pz.Kfw.'' (English: " armoured fighting vehicle"), ''Ausf.' ...

and

Jagdtiger The ''Jagdtiger'' ("Hunting Tiger"; officially designated ''Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf. B'') is a German casemate-type heavy tank destroyer (''Jagdpanzer'') of World War II. It was built upon the slightly lengthened chassis of a Tiger II. Its or ...

led to a new project to create a vehicle that could counter these new threats. The result were the T29, armed with a 105mm gun, and the T30 armed with a 155mm gun. Both were built around a lengthened version of the T26E3 chassis., and apart from the different use of guns and engines, they were originally almost identical. Early in 1945 the Ordnance Department began work on turning the 120mm anti-aircraft gun into a tank gun. It soon became clear that this gun would have better armour piercing abilities than the high velocity 105mm gun of the T29 or the lower velocity 155mm gun of the T30, and in May 1945 the Ordnance Department recommended that two of the T30 pilots be armed with the 120mm gun instead, as the Heavy Tank T34. The two pilot models of the T34 weren't delivered until 1947, and they went for tests at Fort Knox and the Aberdeen Proving Ground. However, the 120mm gun was found to be problematic due to the powder gases which leaked into the turret. This problem was addressed by the installation of an aspirator type bore evacuator. Despite solving the problems with the gun, the tank was deemed too heavy for the US Army and the Marine Corps requirements, so no production orders were placed. However, in 1948 a work began on lightened version of the design, the Heavy Tank T43, which later entered production as the

M103 Heavy Tank The M103 Heavy Tank (officially designated 120mm Gun Combat Tank M103, initially T43) was a heavy tank that served in the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps during the Cold War. Introduced in 1957, it served through 1974, b ...

Survivors

There is at least one surviving example on display in the National Armor and Cavalry Museum,

Fort Benning, Georgia Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama–Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees ...

References

Heavy tanks of the United States Abandoned military projects of the United States History of the tank {{mil-vehicle-stub