Light tank BT-2. The first high -speed tank of the Red Army. Kolomets M.V.

Beautiful and swift tanks of the BT series were the most favorite combat vehicles of the tankers of the Red Army in the 1930s. It was about these light wheel-pushing tanks that sang in the famous song, whose words became winged: “Our armor is strong and our tanks are fast!”

the ancestor of the BT-2, which became the first Soviet high-speed tank, was the tank M.1931 American designer Walter Christie purchased by the USSR Government. Not a single army of the world was in service with a car with such dynamic characteristics outstanding for its time. It is no accident, having visited the maneuvers of the Belarusian military district in 1935, the British began to create a series of their cruising tanks - the impetus for this was the Soviet “flying tanks”, rapidly breaking through the front of a conditional “enemy”. The uniqueness of the BT-2 and the subsequent “Betheshek” is also that this is the only serial tank with a combined wheel-gosenic movement.

The new book of the leading historian armored vehicles based on archival materials in all details tells about the history of history creation, production, modifications, service and combat use (BT-2 participated in the Soviet-Finnish war) of the first Soviet high-speed tank, which laid the foundation for a whole series of combat vehicles, which became the basis of mechanized formations of the Red Army.

Edition illustrated by exclusive drawings and photos.