Despite its lackluster specifications, the T-70 and its crews showed their prowess twice in battle. According to a War is Over account, Lt. Pavlovich of the 49th Guards Tank Brigade destroyed four German Panzers, including one of the newer Panther models, near Prokhorovka during the Battle of Kursk.
Another outstanding performance of the T-70 was on March 26, 1944, when Sgt. Alexander Pegov of the 3rd Guards Army sighted a column of German Panthers approaching his position. These newer, larger medium tanks would easily overpower the small, outdated light tank in a head-to-head battle — especially given that the column is estimated to have 18 units versus Pegov’s lone T-70.
However, the Sergeant used nearby foliage to camouflage his tank, and he waited for the Panthers to draw closer. When the lead Panther was less than 200 meters from the T-70, Sgt. Pegov opened fire on the column, destroying one tank and immobilizing another.
The two disabled Panthers blocked the road, preventing the other tanks from engaging the T-70 and allowing it to retreat. Because of his actions that day, Will Kers of the Tank Encyclopedia Archives wrote that “Pegov was promoted to a lieutenant and decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union.”
Even though the T-70 wasn’t as legendary as the T-34 or the KV-1, it still served a crucial role in the Red Army, allowing it to withstand the German offensives while the Soviet Union was frantically moving its industrial base beyond the Ural Mountains. It was also the basis of the more successful SU-76M self-propelled gun, which saw service until the 1970s.
