The Turán tanks were a series of Hungarian medium tanks of World War II. They were produced in two main variants: the original 40M Turán (or Turán I) with a 40 mm gun and later the 41M Turán (or Turán II) with a short-barreled 75 mm gun, improved armour and a new turret. A total of 424 were made. The 40M Turán (Turán I) was originally inspired by and used the technology-based solutions found on the design of the Czechoslovak Škoda T-21 medium tank prototype. The Turán tanks fought on the Eastern Front against the Soviets, and in the defence of Hungary. A further upgraded prototype variant, the 43M Turán (or Turán III) was also developed and constructed but did not go into mass production. This had a powerful long-barreled 75 mm gun, further improved armour and again had a new turret. Prototypes were manufactured, but work on the project stopped in 1944 when the mass-producing terminated in the country. History In December 1937 the Škoda workshops prepared a prototype of a medium tank, the Škoda T-21, based on the earlier successful LT vz. 35 project. Two prototypes were started and designated S-IIc, but their construction was never finished. The tank weighed , was armed with a 47 mm Škoda A9 vz. 38 gun, two 7.92 mm machine guns and its maximum armour was extended to 30 mm. The S-II-c was to have a better 13.8 liter engine giving 250 hp; this increased the maximum speed to roughly After Germany annexed Czechoslovakia, the prototypes were finished under the new designation of T-21, which in turn was a predecessor of a new prototype; the T-22. Two of the latter type were given to Hungary in 1941. The Hungarian engineers decided to replace the original 47 mm gun with a Hungarian-produced 40 mm gun for both economic and military reasons. Military experts stated that the armour penetration of the 47 mm gun was not better than the homemade 40 mm's because the latter had a much higher muzzle velocity. The modifications of the tank gun were carried out by the Škoda factory – they used the original Czech gun cradle and placed the Hungarian made barrel into it. The frontal armour was increased too, the engineers riveted a 20 mm armour plate onto the original 30 mm thick frontal armour for 50 mm in total. The turret armour was also 50 mm;