Surely everyone noticed the mysterious oblong cylinders behind the T-34 tank. Many people mistake them for extra fuel cans. Is this really so or is there something else in the cylinders? As you might have guessed, with a simple design element of the most famous Soviet tank, not everything is so simple.
“Do not spare the machines, they are still working hard!” - this, unfortunately, is how the attitude of the Soviet command looks like during the Second world war to the subordinate and entrusted to the use of resources, including military equipment, in the eyes of a considerable part compatriots. The Soviet industry really riveted war machines in the thousands, but this says "somewhat" about other things.
Interesting fact: starting with perestroika, a rather "amusing" system of calculating the ratio of losses between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht took root. For some reason, a number of "historians" compare directly to each other the losses of the Red Army and the Nazi army Germany, without taking into account the losses of the Reich allies from the Axis, operating in the eastern direction against the USSR. Meanwhile, the formations of Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, even Spaniards were present in a fairly representative number on the eastern front. There were more than 200 thousand Romanians at Stalingrad alone. If we consider the losses of the axis, and not separately taken losses of the German Wehrmacht, then the ratio of losses throughout the war as a whole, it will tend to a value of 1 to 1, which is very typical for the conditions of total war.
Although the T-34 tanks were sharpened precisely for mass production, the command and the country as a whole were, of course, interested in keeping the vehicle in service. Since in a war the most important resources are not steel and oil, but time and people, it was to save the lives of personnel that intricate cylinders were installed on the T-34. Many fellow citizens mistake them for fuel tanks. In fact, it is BDSH-5 or "combat smoke bomb".
READ ALSO: Why did German soldiers need a metal cylinder on their belt?
Used BDSH-5 to establish a smoke screen. It could be applied in a number of situations. For example, if a tank was hit, then its crew had the right to put up a curtain for further retreat, or at least survival. In addition, smoke screens were used to distract the enemy during maneuvers or when creating sheltered for the advancing Soviet infantry.
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It is noteworthy that the tank smoke bomb was actually a slightly revised sea smoke bomb, which was installed on ships and boats even before the war began. The BShD worked from 5 to 7 minutes, creating a curtain with an area of up to 2 hectares. The checkers were filled with an anthracene smoke mixture. As a rule, the system was driven by an electronic fuse. There were also mechanical and chemical options, but these were more expensive and, oddly enough, less reliable.
Continuing the topic, read about why was the German self-propelled gun equipped with such obscenely short barrel.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/300420/54335/