Epic show, guys. I have a platoon of BT-7s in Zvezda 15mm and they’re some of my favorite pieces. I also appreciate the shout-out at 11:30, although I had this episode playing in my car driving to work when it came up, so I couldn’t get a cup of tea just then. 😀

Another area where the BT-7 performed well, where I always wanted to “explore,” were the pre-war battles between the Soviets and the Japanese (Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 and the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939). Tanks like the BT-7 positively stomped anything the Japanese had in these engagements. The terrain was also on the BT-7’s side . . . these wide, flat, seemingly endless, Genghis Khan-style Mongolian steppes were perfect for such a fast tank.

They also did better than many people talk about in the 39-40 Winter War with Finland. I know there is a lot of “Finn-love” on this site . . . and they certainly deserve a lot of it . . . but in 1939 their army was commonly afflicted with a real “tank terror,” and that includes the BT-7. There’s a documented case of a whole Finnish company breaking and running because they heard a single tank coming, turns out it was one of their own trucks. Understandable, since the Finnish army had virtually no tanks of their own at the time, and I think a grand total of 6 45mm Bofors antitank guns . . . and they did overcome this fear quickly.

Even when the Germans first went into Russia in 1941, the BT-7 gave a **reasonably** good account of itself. My favorite Soviet general, Mikhail E. Katukov, was at the time a colonel commanding the 20th Tank Division (yes, colonels command divisions in Soviet OOB at the time), with half his division made up of these BT-7s (rest were T-26s). He came up with pretty good ambush tactics making good use of the 45mm, which was pretty powerful for the day. The German panzerwaffe at the time was still rockin’ the 37mm in the PzKpfw-IIID and PzKpfw-38(t) at the time.

Of course Katukov’s division was basically annihilated at the Battle of Dubno and the July 41 battles that followed. He was promised a new unit. The Soviets were switching from division to brigades, so Katukov was basically being “demoted.” His boss (K. K. Rokossovsky) consoled him, promising his new 4th Tank Brigade would be ALL T-34s. They were not, he still had half BT-7s . . . Katukov was no fan of the BT-7, he called his brave but unfortunate crews: “Knights in Plywood” because of the very thin armor @johnlyons mentions. Even the 2.0 cm autocannon of the PzKpfw-II could punch through it, assuming the Pz-II wasn’t impaled itself by the longer-ranged Soviet 45mm first.

I only go through all that story because the painted BT-7 in the still before the video MIGHT be one of Katukov’s BT-7s. The clue is the “Guards” crest painted on the front of the turret. Katukov’s 4th Tank Brigade was one of the very first Soviet units upgraded to “Guards” status (1st Guards Tank Brigade, I think October 41?) By the time the Soviet Army really started upgrading more units to “guards” status, the BT-7 was largely phased out . . . so a “Guards” BT-7 is actually pretty rare.

Pretty sure that another selling point of these early Christie-type suspension tanks was the ability of some models to take off the tracks and simply run the tank on its wheels. ON ROADS, this resulted in truly astonishing speeds. I think this was why the outside of the wheel rims are darker, some kind of hard rubber. Not sure how useful this was, and was soon dropped in later later Christie-inspired designs like the T-34/76.

Also, the tall springs that @johnlyons mentions meant that many Christie-style tanks (BT-7, Crusader, A-13, etc) had some scary-high silhouettes. Like John says, they’re really tall. Not a good thing on a battlefield, especially when you’re carrying as little armor as the BT-7 did. 😀