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"All the more strange when you consider the best tank of WWII - the Russian T34 - was an American design (Christie)."

I did a bit of googling and found found the following comments on armchairgeneral.com:

I am currently reading Stephen E AmbroseÂ´s CITIZEN SOLDIER. On page 64 he compares the tanks of the different combatants and writes: "The Red Army had its own tanks, the T-34s (American-designed and perhaps the best tank of the war)." That the T-34 was a good tank was not news, but that it was american designed was BIG news. Can anybody confirm this? No reference is listed in the book.

response I think it is a major stretch to say that the T-34 was "American designed." But the suspension system was a "Christie" design that was rejected by the US Army prior to WWII. Christie didn't design the suspension for the T-34 but he did for the BT series of t Russian tanks and they continued using it for the T-34 series of tanks. Christie was an American. Stating that the T-34 was an American design shows Ambrose's lack of historical depth in his research.

There is further back and forth on the topic here:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29502