Does any one out there know anything about the T-34 with the panzer cupola in the top picture on page 50 , in Concord 's book Soviet Tanks In Combat 41-45. Caption says Leningrad,troops seem to be Russian.Was this a Russian field upgrade ,or a German Beutpanzer recaptured by USSR ? Was ther more than one of these conversions ? Think I've seen picture of one in German service. Dragon made a model so it's got to be true... lol . Thanks Jim '

Leningrad had a tank repair factory which carried on working through the siege repairing tanks (not just T-34s but also KVs and even old BT fast tanks), adding applique armour and so on, so it's very likely the conversion is Russian, converted tanks certainly appear in Red Army hands during the occupation of Finland.

David

Osprey modelling have the T34, with a few rarities like "Sniper"

I think that the mentioned caption is rather confusing. The city of Leningrad had been liberated by Soviets in winter 1944. The note about Finns and June 20, 1944 places it more likely to Vyborg, re-captured by armies of the Leningrad Front on that day when Finnish 20th Infantry fled. Although everything is possible in the war, I personally don’t think that Soviets would place PzKpfw III/IV cupola on their machines. So I would vote for re-captured beute one…

HTH

-A-

recaptured t-34 with panzer 3 cupola where quite common..i have seen at least 3-4 pictures of such machines...there is a good website about them, but i dont remember the URL...im sure someone will point out

there you go

http://beute.narod.ru/Beutepanzer/su/t-34/Recaptured/recaptured.htm

Thanks for your infomation ,guys . Great webside Daniel , thanks. So there was more than one converted. Looks to fit on the 43 hex turret a lot better than at the rear of the 42 low turret. Wouldn't want to be sitting in the hatch when the gun was fired.The recoil might take out your kneecaps. Any known photos of interior with this hatch ?? Sorry , every time I get a question answered it seems to bring up another question. Jim