Finnish Forces

T-28

T-28 was designed by the Soviets to be used in support of infantry against strong enemy positions. According to Red Army statistics, the Finns destroyed 97 T-28s in the Winter War. Seven units were captured, two during Winter war and five early in the Continuation war. This tank had some serious drawbacks, slow and big, it was an easy target and tended to be an anti-tank gun "magnet". Poor visibility hampered the commander, and it was mechanically unreliable. Even worse, this tank's main gun could not penetrate the armor of the Soviet T-34 or KV-1 tank. Although obsolescent by 1941-42, a heavy tank platoon was formed with the captured seven T-28s. The Finns nick-named them "the mail train" owing to the capture of one filled with Soviet mail, and the huge size of this tank reminded soldiers of a railroad train. The T-28 had a main armament of a 76.2mm low-velocity gun and six machine guns. Some of the captured Soviet tanks were the newer T28E-models (uparmored), later, all T-28s in Finnish service were upgraded to this standard. The T-28 was used until the end of WW2.