The T-35 served with the 5th Separate Heavy Tank Brigade in Moscow, primarily for parade duties, from 1935 until 1940.
In June 1940, the question was raised as to whether to withdraw the T-35s from frontline service, with the option to either convert them to heavy self-propelled artillery, or to assign them to the various military academies.
The choice was made to use them up in combat instead and the surviving vehicles were collected together into the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments of the 34th Tank Division, which served with the 8th Mechanized Corps in the Kiev Special Military District.

The first known combat engagement of the T-35 tank took place sometime at the end of June 1941, in the broader fighting in the Lviv area known as the Battle of Brody.
T-35 tanks belonging to the 34th Tank Division and trailing their unit lead elements due to poor tactical mobility, encountered advancing German armor on the unpaved road between the towns of Verba and Ptycha.
The battle is documented only on photographs taken in the aftermath, and shows seven destroyed Soviet tanks including four T-35s (two of these vehicles having suffered catastrophic ammunition explosions) and three German tanks destroyed.
The T-35 wrecks show evidence of hits by 37 mm cannon fire and the vehicles could have been engaged by towed German 8.8 cm Flak guns brought in to deal with heavily armored Soviet KV tanks also active in this sector.
A Soviet report from the period identifies four T-35s lost on 30 June in this area with the loss of 15 crew.

On 1 June 1941, the Red Army possessed only 58 vehicles of this type, of those 48 were in combat ready condition.
During Operation Barbarossa, the majority of the T-35s lost by the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments were lost not to enemy action but through either mechanical failure or immobilization, which resulted in these vehicles being abandoned and destroyed by their crews.
The most common causes of breakdown were transmission-related, however the T-35 proved to have a greater automotive reliability than both the T-34 and KV tanks deployed at the time, with most of the failures arising from running the tanks beyond their normal service intervals, very little in the way of field repair or vehicle workshops  and almost no spare parts support.
Some T-35s involved in the long marches, delaying actions and retreat which characterized the beginning of the campaign, saw well over 500 km driven on unpaved roads and even off-road, before experiencing any significant failure.

The last recorded action of the T-35 took place during the First Battle of Kharkov, where four tanks undergoing repairs at their home factory (renamed Factory No.
183) were made roadworthy, re-armed and hastily pressed into service in the defense of the city.
At least one captured T-35 was shipped to Germany for evaluation at the Kummersdorf military proving ground.
This tank (serial number 715-62) was meticulously inspected and showed widely divergent armor thickness values used in its construction, likely the result of poor quality control of armor plate supplied by the steel mills.
In April 1945, this tank, now stripped of most of its armament and immobile, was assigned to Panzer Brigade 150 and towed into the town of Zossen where it was used as a fixed fortification and barricade.

The T-35 is sometimes cited as having participated in the Winter War against Finland, but according to Soviet sources it did not.
In fact, two other prototypes of multi-turreted heavy tanks had been sent to the front for testing: the T-100 and SMK.
Single turret KV-1s also took part in the same test at the Battle of Summa.
The SMK tank was disabled by a Finnish land mine and all attempts to recover the 55-ton behemoth failed.
Finnish photographs of the previously unknown tank were mistakenly designated T-35C by German intelligence.
The T-35 served with the 5th Separate Heavy Tank Brigade in Moscow, primarily for parade duties, from 1935 until 1940. In June 1940, the question was raised as to whether to withdraw the T-35s from frontline service, with the option to either convert them to heavy self-propelled artillery, or to assign them to the various military academies. The choice was made to use them up in combat instead and the surviving vehicles were collected together into the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments of the 34th Tank Division, which served with the 8th Mechanized Corps in the Kiev Special Military District.
The first known combat engagement of the T-35 tank took place sometime at the end of June 1941, in the broader fighting in the Lviv area known as the Battle of Brody. T-35 tanks belonging to the 34th Tank Division and trailing their unit lead elements due to poor tactical mobility, encountered advancing German armor on the unpaved road between the towns of Verba and Ptycha. The battle is documented only on photographs taken in the aftermath, and shows seven destroyed Soviet tanks including four T-35s (two of these vehicles having suffered catastrophic ammunition explosions) and three German tanks destroyed. The T-35 wrecks show evidence of hits by 37 mm cannon fire and the vehicles could have been engaged by towed German 8.8 cm Flak guns brought in to deal with heavily armored Soviet KV tanks also active in this sector. A Soviet report from the period identifies four T-35s lost on 30 June in this area with the loss of 15 crew.
On 1 June 1941, the Red Army possessed only 58 vehicles of this type, of those 48 were in combat ready condition. During Operation Barbarossa, the majority of the T-35s lost by the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments were lost not to enemy action but through either mechanical failure or immobilization, which resulted in these vehicles being abandoned and destroyed by their crews. The most common causes of breakdown were transmission-related, however the T-35 proved to have a greater automotive reliability than both the T-34 and KV tanks deployed at the time, with most of the failures arising from running the tanks beyond their normal service intervals, very little in the way of field repair or vehicle workshops  and almost no spare parts support. Some T-35s involved in the long marches, delaying actions and retreat which characterized the beginning of the campaign, saw well over 500 km driven on unpaved roads and even off-road, before experiencing any significant failure.
The last recorded action of the T-35 took place during the First Battle of Kharkov, where four tanks undergoing repairs at their home factory (renamed Factory No. 183) were made roadworthy, re-armed and hastily pressed into service in the defense of the city. At least one captured T-35 was shipped to Germany for evaluation at the Kummersdorf military proving ground. This tank (serial number 715-62) was meticulously inspected and showed widely divergent armor thickness values used in its construction, likely the result of poor quality control of armor plate supplied by the steel mills. In April 1945, this tank, now stripped of most of its armament and immobile, was assigned to Panzer Brigade 150 and towed into the town of Zossen where it was used as a fixed fortification and barricade.
The T-35 is sometimes cited as having participated in the Winter War against Finland, but according to Soviet sources it did not. In fact, two other prototypes of multi-turreted heavy tanks had been sent to the front for testing: the T-100 and SMK. Single turret KV-1s also took part in the same test at the Battle of Summa. The SMK tank was disabled by a Finnish land mine and all attempts to recover the 55-ton behemoth failed. Finnish photographs of the previously unknown tank were mistakenly designated T-35C by German intelligence.
T-35