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This article deals with the history of the tank.
World War I
 Little Willie, the first tank prototype, has riveted armour, flat caterpillar tracks, and no main gun. H. G. Wells wrote in 1903 a short story called The Land Ironclads, in which tanks overcome a well-entrenched defender by surprise and speed. These tanks did not carry large guns, but instead had mechanically operated and sighted rifles, operated by men sitting in rooms that formed camera obscura.
In 1912, A South Australian named Lance De Mole submitted a proposal, to the British War Office, for a 'chain-rail vehicle which could be easily steered and carry heavy loads over rough ground and trenches'. The British war office later developed a very similar tank themselves. The war offices big Willie design had Holt Caterpillar tracks and a climbing face like the De Mole proposal. Inquiries from the government of Australia, after the war, yielded polite responses that Mr De Moles ideas had unfortunately been too far advanced for the time to be properly recognized at their just value.
Before World War I, motorized vehicles were still relatively uncommon, and their use on the battlefield was initially limited, especially of heavier vehicles. The earliest motorized armoured fighting vehicles were tractors with crude metal plates bolted on to give some protection to the driver and passengers. Lighter armoured cars soon became commonplace with all the belligerents.
The British led the way in the development of tanks. Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, created a Landship Committee in February 1915, initially to investigate designs for a massive troop transporter. As a truer picture of front-line conditions was developed the aims of the investigation changed. Together with the older Inventions Committee a requirement was formulated for an armoured vehicle capable of 4 mph (6 km/h), climbing a 5 feet (1.5 m) high parapet, crossing an 8 feet (2.4 m) wide gap, and armed with machine guns and light cannon. A similar proposal was working its way through the Army GHQ in France and in June the Landship Committee was made a joint service venture between the War Office and the Admiralty (the Naval involvement was through the RNAS Armoured Car Division) and the designs began.
The early work on protecting heavy gun tractors appeared promising. Early 'big wheel' designs soon proved deficient but adapting the existing Holt Company caterpillar designs into a fighting machine proved difficult. While armour and weapon systems were easy to acquire, existing caterpillar and suspension units were too weak and existing engines were notably underpowered for the armoured behemoths in the designers' minds. Despite these problems a contract was placed with Foster in late July to produce a proof-of-concept vehicle and construction work began three weeks later.
Although landship was a natural term coming from an Admiralty committee, it was considered too descriptive and could give away British intentions. The committee therefore looked for an appropriate code term for the vehicles. Water Container was considered but rejected because the committee would inevitably be known as the WC Committee. (WC is a common British term for a water closet or toilet.) The term tank, as in water tank, was finally accepted. Thus, factory workers assembling the vehicles were told they were producing "mobile water tanks" for desert warfare, and the vehicles would arrive at the French front in sealed crates bearing the inscription "tank". From then on, the term "tank" was established among British and also German soldiers. While in German Tank specifically refers to the World War I type (as opposed to modern Panzer), in English, Russian and other languages the name even for contemporary armoured vehicles is still based on the word tank.
Foster produced the 14 ton "Little Willie". Powered by a 105 hp (78 kW) Daimler engine, the ten-foot high armoured box was fitted with a low Bullock caterpillar. A rotating top turret was planned with a 57 mm gun but abandoned due to weight problems, leaving the final vehicle unarmed and little more than a test-bed for the difficult track system. The next design shared few common features with "Little Willie", to achieve the demanded gap clearance a rhomboidal shape was chosen—stretching the form to improve the track footprint and keep a low centre of gravity, the rotating turret design was dropped in favour of sponsons on the sides of the hull fitted with Naval 57 mm guns. A final specification was agreed in late September for trials in early 1916, and the 30 ton "Big Willie" and also "Little Willie" underwent trials at Hatfield Park on January 29 and February 2. Attendees at the second trial included Lord Kitchener, Lloyd George, McKenna and other political luminaries. On February 12 an initial order for 100 "Big Willie" type vehicles was made.
The first fifty were delivered to France on August 30. They were 'male' or 'female', depending upon whether their armament was the 57 mm guns or multiple smaller Hotchkiss or Vickers machine guns. The crew was eight, four of whom were needed to handle the steering, by differential braking. The tanks were capable of 4 mph (6 km/h), matching the speed of marching infantry with whom they were to be integrated to aid in the destruction of enemy machine guns.
 A Mark I (Big Willie), moving from left to right. The highly rhomboidal shape allows it to climb tall obstacles. The first use of tanks on the battlefield was the use of 49 British Mk.I tanks at the Battle of the Somme (1916) on September 15, 1916, but most of the machines broke down and the attempt proved nothing. Of the forty-nine tanks shipped to the Somme, only thirty-two were able to begin the first attack in which they were used, and only nine made it across "no man's land" to the German lines.
The Mark I's were not capable of performing on a real battlefield even when they were working. They could cross trenches or craters of 9 feet (2.7 m), but the artillery in use at the time often made craters too large and too deep for a tank to cross or climb out of. Only the lighter French tank, the char Schneider, could climb a forty-five degree slope. Engine power was the primary limitation; the one hundred horsepower maximum gave a power-to-weight ratio of 3.3 hp/ton (2.5 kW/ton) (the German Mark III of the 1930s, which weighed 25 tons and had a 300 hp (224 kW) engine—12 hp/ton (8.9 kW/ton). By the end of the 20th century, power-to-weight ratios exceeded 20 hp/ton.) Travelling at walking pace and fitted with only 10 mm of low quality steel armour they were extremely vulnerable to artillery fire.
Many feel that because the British Commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig was himself a horse cavalryman, his command failed to appreciate the value of tanks. In fact, horse cavalry doctrine in World War I was to "follow up a breakthrough with harassing attacks in the rear", but there were no breakthroughs on the Western Front until the tanks came along. Despite this view of Haig, he approved an order for 1,000 tanks shortly after the failure at the Somme.
 French St. Chamond tanks have flat and rather short caterpillar tracks, making them incapable of crossing obstacles. The French used tanks for the first time on 16 April, 1917, during the Nivelle offensive. It was a major failure; the Schneiders and St. Chamond tanks (which saw their first action on 6 May), which didn't have the ability to cross trenches as the British ones could, were torn to pieces by concentrated German artillery fire.
The first successful use of tanks came in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. British General J.F.C. Fuller, chief of staff of the Tank Corps, planned the battle. The tanks made an unprecedented breakthrough, but the British failed to exploit the opportunity. Ironically, it was the soon-to-be-supplanted horse cavalry that had been assigned the task of following up the motorized tank attack.
Tanks became more effective as the lessons of the early tanks was absorbed. The British produced the Mark IV in 1917, similar to the early Marks in appearance, its construction was more considered to produce a more reliable machine and the long-barrelled Naval guns were shortened, armour was increased just enough to defeat the standard German armour-piercing bullet.
The first tank-versus-tank battles took place 24 April 1918. It was an unexpected engagement between three German A7Vs and three British Mk.IVs at Villers- Bretonneux. The German General Staff never had any enthusiasm for the tank—it was not required for the tactical situation in either the East or the West. Only twenty of the crude, slab-sided 30-ton A7Vs were built and they were fielded with captured Allied tanks.
 Renault FT-17 tanks being operated by the US Army in France. Light tanks with a crew of only two, these were mass-produced during World War I. The continued need for four men to drive the tank was solved with the Mark V in 1918. Also in 1918 the French produced the Renault FT-17. It was small and light compared to its predecessors (and to modern standards) at just 8 tons, conceived for mass production, operated by two men only, and equipped with a rotating turret with (originally) only a single heavy machine gun. Simple and cheap, the FT-17 was used by all the Allies, except the British who produced a similar two-man tank, the Medium A Whippet. In July 1918, the French used 480 tanks at Soissons.
Later, Fuller's Plan 1919 for an offensive was the inspiration for German blitzkrieg tactics in World War II. The plan itself was never used because the blockade of Germany and the entry of the US brought an end to the war. As a military planner and later journalist, Fuller continued to develop his doctrine of using tanks supported by infantry to break through enemy lines to attack communications in the rear.
For the characteristics of tanks used in World War I see Comparison of World War I tanks.
Between the Wars
The final tank designs of 1918 showed a number of trends. The British produced the Mark VIII with the Americans, the pinnacle of the rhomboidal design the 34 ft long, 37 ton machine was powered by a 300 hp (224 kW) V-12 and capable of 7 mph (11 km/h) cross-country. It was clear from the designs of other nations that the rhomboidal shape was not going to dominate future development, tanks with lower track profiles, more compact hulls and turrets were produced by the Italians, French and Germans.
Beyond the designs tanks became a political issue. In Britain, military opinion was divided on the future of tank warfare. J.F.C. Fuller was convinced that only the tank had a future on the battlefield. Basil Liddell Hart foresaw a war where all arms, infantry, tanks and artillery, would be mechanised, resembling fleets of 'land ships'. Liddell Hart would be proved right, but it would not be for sixty years that even the richest armies would make his ideas a reality.
In the U.S., J. Walter Christie developed a series of fast tanks, based on his revolutionary Christie suspension chassis. Although his prototypes were capable of high speeds, and in some cases designed to be air transportable, disputes with the Ordnance and a high price (compared with what the US military was willing to pay) meant they were never produced. His prototypes were however purchased by the Soviet Union, and were to be developed into the BT tanks and T-34.
United States
Immediately before and during World War II U.S tanks and many other Allied tanks were powered by radial aircraft-type engines. However, the massive production of aircraft caused a shortage of these engines. Because of this many tanks, particularly the Sherman and the Lee, were powered by as many as five different power-plant arrangements. In addition to Wright and Continental radials they were powered by Ford V8s, GM truck diesels, and the Chrysler A57 multibank (an arrangement of five V6 automobile engines that ran as a single unit). After the war diesel truck-type engines replaced the gasoline-burning radials.
Germany
Germany, constrained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, was not allowed to produce tanks of any kind and only a few armoured cars. In 1926 an unofficial program of tank construction was initiated by Von Seeckt, the commander of the Reichswehr. Built by Rheinmetall-Borsig the first grosstraktor was similar to the existing British Mk II medium tank, 20 tons with a 75 mm gun. This, and other designs, were tested with Soviet co-operation at a tank school in western Russia. In Germany proper dummy tanks were used in training, apparently at the instigation of then-Major Heinz Guderian, a staff tactical instructor. Guderian had read Fuller, Liddell-Hart and other tank warfare theorists and he had the support of his commanders to develop his theories into reality.
In 1931 the German General Staff accepted a plan for two types of tank, a medium tank with a 75 mm gun and a lighter vehicle with a 37 mm gun. While design and then construction work was carried out the German army used a variety of light tanks based on the British Carden-Lloyd chassis. The early tanks were code-named Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper (La S), a designation that lasted until 1938. The first of these light tanks ran in early 1934, a five ton Krupp design it was dubbed the LKA1. The new government approved an initial order for 150 in 1934 as the 1A La S Krupp, around 1500 of these light tanks were built.
Later German tanks received a new designation, Panzerkampfwagen (PzKpfw or PzKw). The first machine to use this was the two-man PzKpfw I Ausf A, a 5.4 ton machine with a 3.5 litre 60 hp (45 kW) petrol engine it had 13 mm of armour and was armed with twin 7.92 mm machine guns. The more common Ausf B was a trifle larger to accommodate a 100 hp (75 kW) Maybach engine. Both models were sent to the Spanish Civil War for testing, along with other new German weapons. From Spain it quickly became clear that the next generation of tanks would need better armour, greater range and much heavier weapons. The PzKpfw II was around 50% heavier than the I and added a 20 mm Solothurn cannon as main armament as well as increasing maximum armour to 30 mm. Also sent to Spain from 1937, the PzKpfw II proved more capable against light infantry, but no better when faced with capable anti-tank guns or other tanks. Despite these weaknesses production continued until 1941, at the outbreak of war
the German Army had 955 PzKpfw IIs and almost 4000 were built in total.
A major boost to German armour came with the acquisition of Czechoslovakia in 1938, giving the entire Czech arms industry to Germany. The Czechs already had two main tank designs, the Skoda LT35 and the Cesko-moravska Kolben Danek (CKD) TNHP. The Skoda was a 10 ton machine with a 37 mm main gun and excellent cross-country capabilities; the CKD was 8.5 tons and also fitted with a 37 mm gun—due to extensive tests it was an extremely reliable machine with a top quality chassis. Both were taken into the German panzer forces, as the PzKpfw 35(t) and the PzKpfw 38(t), and further production was ordered. CKD was renamed Boehmisch-Maehrische Maschinenfabrik AG (BMM) in 1940 and continued production until 1942, providing the Wehrmacht with 1,168 PzKpfw 38(t)'s. In 1940 Czech tanks made up around a quarter of the entire German panzer force.
While lighter tanks formed almost the entirety of the German forces heavier tanks were at least in prototype. In 1934 a number of heavy prototypes were constructed, based around either 75 or 105 mm main guns. Designated Neubaufahrzeug (NbFz) and very similar to contemporary Russian and British designs six were built by Rheinmetall and Krupp. Useful for propaganda purposes these tanks did not enter production, their later designations of PzKpfw V and VI were transferred to the production Panther and Tiger types. With the knowledge of the NbFz and the experiences of the lighter tanks in Spain, German designers began to create their own designs. The PzKpfw III as the first German tank capable of firing armour-piercing rounds, although the 37 mm gun was considered underpowered it was used in the interests of standardisation with the infantry. Limited by existing bridges to a maximum weight of 24 tons development contracts for the Zugkraftwagen were issued late
in 1936. Development work continued until 1938 when the Ausf D went into limited production, a 19 ton machine it was powered by a 12 litre 320 hp (239 kW) engine, with a top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) and fitted with 30 mm armour all round. By the outbreak of war around fifty had been completed and some saw service in Poland. Full-scale production did not begin until October 1939 as the Ausf E, around 350 PzKpfw IIIs in D and E variants were ready by the invasion of France.
France
United Kingom
Following the Great War, there were many experiments in armoured vehicles and their use on the battlefield. Exponents of armoured vehicles over cavalry were Liddell-Hart and Fuller.
Their opponents misinterpreted (either mistakenly or deliberately) them as proponents of an all-tank fighting force, though their views did specify that artillery and infantry should be mechanized to make them as fast and maneouvrable as the tanks they advocated, and experiments were curtailed.
This led to a tank development programme to cover two approaches. On one hand there were to be Infantry tanks, with maximum speed matched to infantry on foot, and on the other Cruiser tanks to work independantly of infantry. This led to tank designs where the Cruiser was fast but light on armour and the Infantry Tank due to its slower sped could carry much heavier armour, though firepower was neglected.
United States
After World War I, the United States Tank Corps was reduced in size. The Defense Act of 1920 restricted tanks to infantry use only; as a result, the Tank Corps was disbanded, with the remaining tanks distributed among the infantry.
In 1928, at the request of Secretary of War Dwight F. David, the Army formed the Experimental Mechanized Brigade. It consisted of a heavy tank battalion, a light tank battalion, a motorized infantry battalion, a motorized artillery battalion, an engineer company, and a signals company. Due to the use of obsolete equipment, the experiment failed, and the force was disbanded after three months.
In 1934–35, at the request of the Cavalry, three prototype tanks, the T2, T2E1, and T2E2 were produced. To get around the Defense Act, these tanks were called "combat cars". The T2, inspired by the British Vickers 6-Ton, was standardized as the M1 combat car. The T2E1, a single-turret tank armed with three machine guns, was standardized as the M2A1. The T2E2, a two-turret tank with two machine guns, was standardized as the M2A2.
Soviet Union
Japan
Until 1925 all tanks in the Japanese service had been of foreign manufacture, and in that year the army decided to produce a tank to satisfy its own requirements. The first tank of Japanese design, the type 87 Chi-I, was produced in 1927 at the Osaka Arsenal. This tank was compared with an English Vickers Mark C, the type 87 considered too heavy and slow, and it was decided to create a new design.
The type 89 Chi-Ro tank was lighter (9.8 tonnes) and shorter than the type 87. It contained increased armour (6–17 mm) and an improved water-cooled engine. After success in initial tests the type 89 became the first mass-produced Japanese tank. The type 89 had a crew of 4, and was armed with a 57 mm type 90 cannon and two 6.5 mm type 91 machine guns.
In 1935 the Japanese began production on a new light tank. The type 94 weighed 3.4 tonnes and was generally used as either a tractor to tow an ammunition trailer, or a patrol/reconnaissance tank. With a crew of 2 and a single 6.5 mm type 91 machine gun, the type 94 was produced in large numbers and saw widespread service as late as 1945.
In 1935 Japan also began production on the Type 95 Ha-Go tank. Over twice as large as the type 94 (7.4 tonnes) the type 95 had a crew of three, a 37 mm cannon and the same 6.5 mm type 91 machine gun. Over one-thousand were built by Mitsubishi, and production continued until 1943.
Due to the strategic requirements of the Japanese military—which was largely preoccupied with establishing naval control and where land battles were typically fought in difficult terrain—tank development and production was under-resourced compared to (say) Germany or the USSR. Japanese tanks were as a result considerably less important and effective than those of other combatants.
Need more on British, German, French tank design, Charles de Gaulle and Heinz Guderian
Use of tanks during the Spanish Civil War
World War II
During World War II, the tank reached new heights of capability and sophistication. The early German tanks were technologically inferior to many of their opponents' tanks in the areas of armour and weaponry; however, were used most skilfully to achieve surprising strategic victories early in the war. The German doctrine stressed the use of combined-arms involving infantry and air support, and the tactic of the Blitzkrieg (lightning warfare). Furthermore, the Germans were quick to supply their tanks with radios, which provided unmatched command/control.
- It was true that nothing larger than machine guns could be mounted in any turret that this vehicle could carry. But with this disadvantage, it could be made ready for action by 1934 and it would at least serve as a training tank until our real combat tanks began to appear. [...] Nobody in 1932 could have guessed that one day we should have to go into action with this little training tank.
- -- Heinz Guderian, Chief of German Army General Staff, on the Pz I.
The Panzer I was intended for training tank drivers and commanders, and was never meant to go into combat. Similarly, the Panzer II was designed as a training vehicle. Despite this, the Panzer I and Panzer II both saw service in the Spanish civil war, and were the primary tanks used in the invasion of France.
The largest tank ever built was the Maus, designed in 1942 by Ferdinand Porsche under direct order from Adolf Hitler. Weighing 188 tons, the Maus was armed with a 128 mm cannon and a coaxial 75 mm gun, and covered with 180 to 240 mm of armour. Only two prototypes were built, and both were lost while still undergoing testing. One of the Maus prototypes currently resides in the Museum of Armoured Forces in Kubinka Russia.
Tanks were adapted to many uses during WWII including mine-sweeping tanks using any number of mine-clearing techniques, flame-thrower tanks, engineering tanks with a crane or bulldozer blade, recovery tanks for towing disabled tanks, and command tanks with extra radios and dummy turrets.
Germany
Main article: German tanks in World War II
The German Panzer force at the start of the war was not especially impressive. Plans called for two main tanks: the Panzer III medium tank and Panzer IV infantry tank. However, by the beginning of the invasion of Poland, only a few models were available. As a result, the Polish invasion and the invasion of France were carried out primarily with the much weaker Panzer I light tank and the Panzer II light tank, with some medium tanks from Czechoslovakia. As the war proceeded, production of the heavier tanks ramped up, and by the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Panzer I and II had been phased out completely.
During the invasion, it was discovered that the T-34 tank badly outclassed the German tanks: its sloped armour could deflect or stop most 50 mm projectiles, and the 76 mm cannon could penetrate the armour of the German tanks. The Panzer III could not carry a heavier gun, so the Panzer IV was converted into a medium tank with a 75 mm gun. Further, the Panzer V, better known as the Panther, was developed as a direct counter to the T-34, incorporating the best features of that tank.
The most-feared of the German WWII tanks, the Panzer VI or Tiger, was introduced in 1942. It was in most respects a typical German tank, featuring thick, unsloped armour. However, between the high-powered 88 mm gun and the thickness of the armour, it was more than a match for any tank out there. Material shortages and the Allied aerial bombardment of factories kept production rates down.
Post-WWII
Since WWII, most of the changes in tank design have been refinements to targeting, ranging, and stabilization equipment, and to communications, and crew comfort. Armour has evolved to keep pace with improvements in weaponry, and guns have got bigger, but in most cases have not fundamentally changed.
The design and budgeting of tanks has known severe ups and downs since the end of World War II. Right after the war tank design budgets were cut and engineering staff often scattered. Many war planners believed that the tank was obsolete, now that nuclear weapons were on the scene. It was felt that a tactical nuclear weapon would destroy any brigade or regiment, whether it was armoured or not. The Korean war proved that tanks were still useful on the battlefield, given the hesitation of the great powers to use nuclear weapons. In the 1950s, many nations' tanks were equipped with NBC defensive equipment.
The tank was once more pronounced obsolete and budgets dived a bit after the Yom Kippur War of 1973 when Israeli tanks were destroyed in unheard of quantities by wire guided precision missiles (ATGMs), fired by enemy infantry. Subsequent analysis showed, over the years, that Israeli forces had underestimated their opponents during the first phases of the war, but had developed tactics to lessen the importance of wire guided missiles during the last phases of the war. In 1974 the USA initiated an impressive programme to modernize the existing tank fleet and start real mass production of the M60A1, and later the M60A3; at the same time the M1 was developed. Budgets for tank design and production really picked up during the administration of the U.S. president Ronald Reagan, as the cold war threatened to get hot.
In response to infantry-portable and vehicle-mounted ATGMS, ever more capable defences were developed. Spaced armour, composite, explosive reactive armour, and active protection systems—like the Russian Shtora and Arena—were added to old and new tanks.
During the latter half of the 20th century, some tanks were armed with ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles) which could be launched through a smoothbore main gun barrel. In the U.S., the M60A2, M551 Sheridan, and prototype MBT-70, with 152 mm barrel/launchers used the Shillelagh infrared-guided missile. The MBT-70 was cancelled prior to production due to high cost, and superseded by the M1 Abrams, which used a conventional gun. Both the M551 and the M60A2 were widely considered failures: expensive, unreliable, and difficult to maintain. They were replaced by M60A3s (using conventional guns) and M2 Bradleys.
While U.S. experiments with gun-launched missiles lead to a dead end, the Soviet Union put this technology into service in the mid-1970s, and it continues to be used in CIS forces. Missile-armed tanks produced in Russia include the T-72, T-90, and an upgraded T-55 (T-55AM2). Ukraine employs missile-armed T-64, T-80, and T-84 tanks.
After the Cold War
With the end of the Cold War in 1989, questions once again started sprouting concerning the relevance of the traditional tank. Over the years many nations cut back the number of their tanks or replaced most of them with lightweight armoured fighting vehicles with only minimal armour protection.
Yet this period also brought an end to the superpower blocs, and the military industries of Russia and Ukraine are now vying on the open market to sell tanks around the world. India and Pakistan have upgraded old tanks and bought new ones from the former Soviet states. Ukraine has even developed a prototype T-84-120 Oplot, which can fire both NATO 120 mm ammunition and ATGMs through the gun barrel.
See also: Tank
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