Introduced in 1940, the T-34 Soviet medium tank was deployed with the Red Army in World War II during Operation Barbarossa. Its 76.2 mm gun was more powerful than its contemporaries, while its 60 degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. After the Germans encountered the tank in 1941, German general Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist called it "the finest tank in the world" and Heinz Guderian affirmed the T-34's "vast superiority" over German tanks. Although its armour and armament were surpassed later in the war, it has been described as the most influential tank design of WW2.