Sitting in a ditch alongside a dirt road, somewhere in Russia, is the abandoned hulk of a Soviet T-26A-2 light tank. The T-26A-2 was the Soviet license built version of the Vickers 6-ton Type A, the tank having been a successful private venture by the British Vickers firm. While the British Army wasn't interested in the tank, many nations were and the largest users were Finland, Thailand, and Poland. Like the Soviets, Poland would eventually license the 6-ton, producing an improved model as the 7TP. The Soviets purchased at least six examples of the Vickers tank in 1931 and these tanks were sometimes given the designation T-26A-1.
There were a number of variants of the T-26A, usually changing armaments in one of the two turrets to either a 12.7mm heavy machine-gun, a 27mm gun, or a 37mm gun. The idea of having two turrets was to enable the tank to have a far wider engagement range that would be the case with a single turret. A lock in each turret ring prevented the two turrets from having their weapons entangle but this still provided each turret with 265 degrees of rotation. The T-26A-2 was equipped with a air-cooled 7.62mm Degtyaryov DT machine-gun in each turret. In the photograph, the DT machine-guns are missing and the lack of any apparent combat damage suggests that the tank had suffered mechanical difficulties and the crew removed the weapons before abandoning the tank.
By the model of the T-26, it is reasonable to place the year and general time the photograph was taken to the summer of 1941, specifically, after the commencement of Unternehmen Barbarossa (Operation Barbarossa). This was the invasion of Russia by Germany which began on June 22, 1941. The T-26 light tank made up a significant portion of the tanks which equipped Soviet armor forces. Starting in 1933, the Soviets ceased production of the twin-turret T-26 tanks and switched to a single-turret design. In all, 2,038 T-26A tanks were constructed. By 1941, a large number of these tanks still remained in Soviet service, the majority without the heavier armament as previously mentioned and thus they were greatly outmatched by most German tanks. The all-around armor thickness of 15mm was able to afford some protection from the 2cm KwK 30 cannon which equipped the Panzerkampfwagen II light tank but against the Panzerkampfwagen 35(t) and 38(t) light tanks, the 3.7cm KwK 34(t) and KwK 38(t) guns could punch through up to 24mm of armor out to 1,500 meters.
The photograph also tells us that a specific unit, or at least elements of it, had passed by the T-26 and elected to use it as a road sign. The unit was the 12. Panzer-Division (nicknamed the Pommerische Division (Pomeranian Division) and this can be told by the symbol painted on the turret. Consisting of a circle with a “Y” inside it, the 12. Panzer-Division used the symbol on their vehicles as an identifier. In this case, it was left on the T-26 with an arrow pointing down the road, informing anyone who saw it (and knew what the symbol was) that elements of the 12. Panzer-Division were somewhere ahead. The division was created in October 1940 from another unit, 2. Infanterie-Division (mot). For the Russian invasion, 12. Panzer-Divsion was under the LVII Panzerkorps which was commanded by General der Panzertruppe Adolf-Friedrich Kuntzen. LVII Panzerkorps itself was under Panzergruppe 3, the latter under Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Center) whose commander was Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock. 12. Panzer-Division's initial commander was Generalmajor Josef Harpe and he remained in command through the initial Operation Barbarossa actions before being replaced on January 12, 1942. The unit saw combat in the taking of Minsk and Smolensk but when the Soviets launched their winter counteroffensives in 1941-1942, the 12. Panzer-Division suffered significant casualties and was withdrawn to Estonia for refitting. The division was put back into action under Heeresgruppe Nord before seeing battle at Kursk. The unit would eventually become trapped within the Courland Pocket by July 1944 and what remained of the division surrendered to the Soviets on May 8, 1945.
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