T-18, the first Soviet Tank

The T-18 is notable for being the very first Soviet designed and produced tank. (Up until the introduction of this tank, the RKKA - Red Army - had used only foreign designs, captured during the Civil War, like the Mk V, the FT-17 and the Whippet.) The story of the T-18 starts in 1926, when a high placed conference ordered the design of a small "Escort" tank, replacing the FT-17's and FT-17 clones (KS-1) in Soviet service.

The FT-17/KS-1 was considered to be too heavy, too expensive and with a less than optimal armament. As the competence of the Soviet Industry still left much to be desired, foreign designs were still looked into, specifically the Italian FIAT3000, probably the best tank in the world at that moment, being both much lighter, better armed and faster than the design it was supposed to better, the French FT-17. And many original details of the FIAT3000 was copied and used by the Soviet Designers in the so called OAT Bureau (that did the actual design), so one can say that the Soviet T-18 was a clone of a clone.

There were many difficulties both in the design and not least the building of the new tank - which was done in the "Bolshevik" plant in Leningrad. The first design was called the T-16, but was soo problematic, that it was immediately redesigned - e.g. both the hull and the running gear was lengthened, at the same time that both the engine and transmission was modified. The result of this was the T-18 (also called MS-1).

The prototype T-18 was finished in late spring of 1927, and shipped to Moscow, where it underwent its first trials. In february 1928 an order was placed for 108 T-18 for the RKKA. The first production batch was delivered in time to participate in the in parades held in Moscow and Leningrad in November 1929. The production, however, went ahead at a slow pace, the bottleneck being the supply of engines, and up until the end of 1929 only 96 tanks had been delivered.

The T-18 was a disappointment. Although having a better trench crossing capacity than the T-16 (which was almost a joke in this respect) it was still very limited. In order to improve it, a trench-crossing tail was fitted, and it improved things a bit, but it still had problems, so it was tried to fit a skid at the front as well, but it severely reduced the forward view of the driver, and had to be dropped. Also the engine was too weak, giving it a top speed of less than the 25 km/h that was aimed for, the fuel tank too small, the cross-country capacity weak. A meeting in 1929 decided to "terminate the production of the T-18 as it was obsolete for the conduct of combat operations under new conditions".

Until new designs could arrived, it was decided to try and improve the T-18, for instance by redesigning the track plates and idler wheels, increasing the engine power. Also the turret was given a rear rear boxlike bustle. This was called the "T-18 Model 1930", but it was just a small improvement. (Speed was still too slow.) Production was not halted until 1931, when the new T-26 was ready to take its place.

The T-18 was first used in combat during the border disputes with China in 1929. All in all 959 were manufactured, and at the outset of Operation Barbarossa some 160 T-18's were still in service. Many were employed simply as static pillboxes (and then their 37mm guns had often been replaced by 45mm ones) but not too few were used in actual combat against the German invaders, and this obsolete design not surprisingly suffered heavy casualties during the summer and autumn of 1941. It was last used in the Battle of Moscow in late 1941, by the 150th Tank Brigade, which (surprisingly so) still had nine T-18 in service in February 1942.

Technical Details of the T-18 mod. 1930

If you want to find out more about this tank you MUST get hold of Andrey Beskurnikovs and Mikhail Svirins truly excellent "The First Soviet Tanks" (Armada Series No.1).

  
The following photos have been kindly supplied by Michel Boer, from the Netherlands. They were taken by him in the the Central Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow. (This vehicle is pretty unique, as it is - to the best of my knowledge - the only one around that is correct in it's details, but there are a number of T-18 survivors that aren't, including the T-18 outside the museum, which, like most of them, has an incorrectly restored running gear.)

For more photos of surviving (or reconstructed) T-18's, click here!

How to Model this Tank

There are currently two 1/72 resin kits available of the T-18, one made by AER, and one by Bull Models, which is the better one of the two.