The T34/85 tank was first produced during the winter of 1943-44 as a response to the growing presence of German Panther and Tiger tanks. It had a new 85mm gun mounted in a cast steel turret originally developed for the KV-85 heavy tank. The rest of the tank was virtually unchanged from the original T-34/76 apart from an enlarged turret to provide space for three crewmen. This enabled the commander to fulfill his main function of commanding the tank rather than helping to serve the main gun. The wide tracks enabled the vehicle to traverse all types of ground including soft mud and snow, which allowed it to operate in areas some of the older German tanks could not travel.

Like the T-34/76, the T-34/85 was employed both as a tank and as an infantry carrier. Hand rails were welded around the hull so that troops could hang onto the vehicle at higher speeds. Later variants included a flame-thrower tank with the flame gun mounted in the bow machine gun position, self-propelled guns, mine-rollers, and bridgelayers. Widely exported after the war, the T-34/85 saw front-line service in Africa as late as the 1980s and some are still in use in the former republics of Yugoslavia and Albania.

Based upon the recently released Corgi T-34/85 tank, this particular T-34/85 medium tank is painted in the livery of the Egyptian Army when it was used in the Sinai Desert during the 1967 Six Day War. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 6 inches
Width: 2 inches

Historical Account: "On the Seventh Day" - The Six-Day War of June 5th-10th, 1967, was a war between Israel and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. It is also known as the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Third Arab-Israeli War, Six Days' War, an‑Naksah (The Setback), or the June War. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces.

Egypt's president Nasser expelled the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from the Sinai Peninsula in May 1967. Nasser knew that the Soviet claims were false, but used them as a pretext to evict the peacekeeping force that had been stationed there since 1957, following a British-French-Israeli invasion which was launched during the Suez Crisis. Egypt amassed 1,000 tanks and nearly 100,000 soldiers on the Israeli border and closed the Straits of Tiran to all ships flying Israeli flags or carrying strategic materials, receiving strong support from other Arab countries. Israel responded with a similar mobilization that included the call up of 70,000 reservists to augment the regular IDF forces. On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Egypt's airforce. Jordan, which had signed a mutual defence treaty with Egypt on May 30th, then attacked western Jerusalem and Netanya. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.