The appearance of German PzKpfw V 'Panther', PzKpfw VI 'Tiger' and PzKpfw IV fitted with a long barrelled 75 mm cannon on the battlefields of the eastern front posed quite a challenge for the designers of the Russian T-34 medium tank. Since the new generation of the German panzers completely outgunned the original T-34/76 variant, Russians hastily sought a solution to counter this problem. In May 1943 the State Defence Committee of the Soviet Union decided to fit the T-34 with a cannon of larger calibre. The final choice fell on a 85 mm cannon. The first upgunned T-34s were coupled to the D-5T cannon; their production figure totalled some 800. This modification brought along a revised, enlarged turret and a more numerous, now five-member crew. The production of the redesigned T-34 commenced in early 1944 at Krasnoye Sormovo Factory No. 112 in Gorki. Meanwhile, a new, improved 85 mm ZiS S-53 gun was rushed into production. Henceforth, it became the standard main armament of all the newly built T-34s. With time the rest of the factories assembling T-34s switched to production of the new variant. Overall, a staggering 18,000 T-34/85S were built by the end of the war. Interestingly, due to varying degree of manufacturing limitations of these plants, tanks of various production runs differed considerably.
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