I am doing research before starting a 1/16th scale T-34. One of the build articles I have found talked about the kit being short one of the ammo cases to completly cover the floor. Question number one is the kit short or was this space there in real life to give the loader a more solid footing? Question two did the crews use the "ready rack" ammo then retire to restock the racks from the cases on the floor? It would seem very difficult work from the cases during a fight, not mention a long reach for a heavy object up under the gun mount.

iu'm no experst and i dont know the answer, but i think it matters if its a /76, /85, and so on

sorry a T-34/85

From the operating manual on T-34/76 mod.1944: there was 100 shells in the tank plus 8 ammo cases on the floor with 86 more shells. If I am not mistaken, /76 and /85 in the end of war had the same hull, just different turret, but I will check that info just to be sure.

No, I was wrong. This is T-34-85





Hope, it helps

Thanks Alex
So they did walk on the cases

Unfortunately the illustration, though "generally" similar to the storage in a T-34-76, does not seem to be based on any real arrangement found on the tank regardless of year produced.
No -76 that I've found to date has more than 9 rounds (3x3) on the ready racks (the illustration shows 12) nor have I found any floor storage boxes that hold more than 9 rounds (three shells three layers deep).
Remember also that two of the boxes on the floor held two fewer rounds than the others due to the fact that they had to be "notched" in order to fit over axle studs.

So far the only "hard" evidence of 100 rounds being kept in the T-34-76 is a tank that was recently recovered from a lake in Russia (?).
There appears to have been something on the order of 110 main gun rounds removed from this particular vehicle. HOWEVER, it still had ready racks capable of holding only 9 rounds and the floor storage boxes appeared no taller than the "normal" 9 or 7 round types. (I really wish someone would publish photos of the interior now that it's been, I'm going to assume, cleaned up! It would go a long way to clearing up this question).
At this point I believe that 33 of the rounds removed from the tank must have been stored OUTSIDE of the floor boxes (the stowage for all of the T-34-76's I've seen or have photos of have room for only 77 main gun rounds), perhaps in the hull machinegunner's position. ( )

Very late -76's and batches of -85's from Factory 112 did share the same hull (not that there were many "really significant" differences between any war time T-34 from the introduction of the "simplified hull" in early 1942 onwards), but they differed in the upper hull plate that held the turret ring (the -85 had a notably larger turret ring) along with some other details on the engine deck.

As for walking on the floor boxes, yes indeed they did. Early on the -76 at least was provided with a neoprene mat that had to be rolled back in order to get to the floor boxes but I have the feeling that these were probably discarded at the soonest opportunity because that had to be more of a hindrance than help.
I do not think the -85 was provided with anything similar though.

Mark

Thanks, Mark, I have made a mistake. Not 100 shells plus cases, but 100 shells all together. This is the true with F-34 (76 mm) as the main gun. With S-54 (85 mm) on the same turret there was only 56 shells. The manual I have is for a tank with hexagonal turret and it had no shells stored in the turret itself.

Ah, and that's the point; it does not appear to be true. No T-34-76 that I've found so far (and the "so far" thing is important to note) appears to have stowage for more than 77 main gun rounds.
Admittedly I've only actually been inside two T-34-76's (APG's small turret cut away and Littlefield's hex turret) but I've examined photos from a fair number of others from various manufactures both restorations and recovered and the story always seems to be the same.
What this suggests is that the idea that all F-34 gunned T-34's had 100 rounds on hand inside the tank is either wartime propaganda or a myth.
Interesting, eh?
With luck we'll find some hard evidence soon to prove which, if any, -76's were outfitted with the larger number or shells and how exactly they were arranged in the tank.

Mark

As I mentioned above, I got my numbers from the operating manual on T-34-76 (mod. 1944). Not everything in former USSR was propaganda or a myth.

No, not everything

However, I also have a copy of that same manual (or at least one from the same year with the same illustration), plus an English translation of the short service manual, an E-copy of a 1943 field manual, and a French language copy from the 1950s for the T-34-85.
But at the risk or repeating myself, I have seen and no researcher I have spoken with has seen actual, real, hard evidence of a T-34-76 outfitted to carry more than 77 rounds of main gun ammunition. The sole exception being the afore mentioned late model Gayka turreted T-34 recently recovered in Russia.
I am not saying that NO T-34-76 were so equipped but it is a demonstrable fact that not all were and that evidence for tanks with 100 rounds is very, very hard to come by so far.

Mark