Tank history WW2 WW1
WW1 - World War I; Between the Wars; Germany; WW2 World War II; Germany; Post-WWII

Table of contents
1 WW1 World War I
2 Between the Wars
2.1 Germany
3 WW2 World War II
3.2 Germany
4 Post-WWII

Tank history WW1 - World War I

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 AFVs 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, although the name was not yet decided. In February 1915 the Landship Committee was set up, initially to investigate desgins for a massive troop transporter but 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, climbing a five feet high parapet, crossing an eight feet 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 sooned 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 contruction work began three weeks later.

Foster produced the 14 ton "Little Willie". Powered by a 105 hp 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 clearence 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, during construction the vehicle was code-named 'tank', a name that seems to have stuck. the 30 ton "Big Willie" and also "Little Willie" underwent trials at Hatfield Park on January 29 and February 2, 1916. 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, matching the speed of marching infantry with whom they were to be integrated to aid in the destruction of enemy machine guns.

From the site Photos of the Great War 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 nine feet, 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 chars 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 (the German Mark III of the 1930s, which weighed 25 tons and had a 300-hp engine -- 12 hp/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.

From the site Photos of the Great War The French used tanks for the first time on 16 April, 1917, during the Nivelle offensive. It was major failure; the St. Chamond tanks, that didn't have the ability to cross trenches as the British one could, were sent to the enemy lines without infantry support.
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.


From the site Photos of the Great War Tanks became much more efficient 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-barreled Naval guns were shortened, armour was increased just enough to defeat the German armour-piercing bullet. 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 14 tons, conceived for mass production, operated by two men only, and equipped with a rotating turret with only a single heavy machine gun. Simple and cheap the FT-17 was used by all the Allies, the British produced a similar two-man tank, the Medium A Whippet.
The first tank-versus-tank battles took place 24 April 1918. It was an unexpected meeting engagement between three German A7Vs and three British Mk.IVs at Villers- Bretonneux.

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 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.


Tank history - 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 V-12 nd capable of 7 mph cross-country. It was clear from the designs of other nations that the rhomboidal design 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, infanty, 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 admirable T-34.

Tank history - 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 initiaited 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 cooperation at a tank school in western Russia. In Germany proper dummy tanks were used in training, apparantly 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 Schleppers (La S), a designation that lasted until 1938. The first of these light tanks ran in ealy 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 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 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 futher production was ordered. CKD was renamed B?hmisch-M?hrische 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.

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 engine, with a top speed of 25 mph 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.



Tank history - 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 armor 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.

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 128mm cannon and a coaxial 75mm gun, and covered with 180-240mm 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 various uses during WWII including mine-sweeping tanks, and flame-thrower tanks.

(What's the true story behind the Maus in the museum? There are conflicting stories. In one version, both were scuttled at the factory prior to Soviet occupation, in another, one fought briefly before being captured.)

The German Panzer force at the start of the war was not especially impressive. Guderian had planned for two main tanks, the PzKpfw III was in production but the second support tank with a 75 mm gun was not. Designated the PzKpfw IV design work had begun in 1935 and trials of prototypes was undertaken in 1937, but by the time of the invasion of Poland only a few 'troop trial' models were available. The development work was then halted and limited production begun by Krupp in Gruson, Essen and Bochum.

There were also problems with the PzKpfw III, it was widely considered to be under-gunned with a 37 mm KwK L45 and production was split between four manufacturers (MAN, Daimler-Benz, Rheinmetall-Borsig, and Krupp) with little regard for each firms expertise, the rate of production was initially very low - taking until November 1940 to reach 100 examples a month. The Panzer force for the early German victories was a mix of the PzKpfw I and II, machine-gun only light tanks, and the Czech tanks. By May 1940 349 PzKpfw III's were available for the attacks on France and the Low Countries. A few elite divisions were equipped with the new tanks and they featured prominently in the newsreels and photographs of the invasion.

The actual invasion, the Blitzkrieg, was an amazing success due to tactical innovation rather than tank quality. Guderian, von Kleist and other commanders such as Rommel broke the hiatus of the Phoney War in a manner almost outside the comprehension of Allied commanders. In actual tank-on-tank encounters the German armour performed poorly, in one particular encounter near Arras the VII Panzer division was badly mauled by the 'Matildas' of the British 1st Tank Brigade, one British tank carried on operating after fourteen hits by German 37 mm guns.

The recognition that the PzKpfw III was under-gunned had been identified during its conception and its design included a large turret ring to make it possible to fit a 2250 fps 50 mm KwK L42 gun on later models. In June 1940 the first of these models were being made and some saw action in the final weeks of the Battle of France. Designated the PzKpfw III Ausf F, other changes included upgrading the Maybach engine and numerous minor changes to ease production.

The Ausf F was quickly supplanted by the Ausf G which was the main tank of the Afrika Korps in 1940-41 and also saw action in Yugoslavia and Greece. Around 2,150 PzKpfw IIIs were produced of which around 450 were the Ausf G. These tanks were still under-gunned, poorly armoured and mechanically over-complex in comparison to the British tanks, after fighting in Libya in late 1940 The Ausf H was put into production with simpler mechanics, wider tracks and improved armour. In April 1941 there was a general 'recall' of the PzKpfw III to upgrade the main gun to the new 50 mm L60, with the new Panzergranate 40 shell, muzzle velocity was pushed to 3875 fps. New tanks produced with this gun were designated Ausf J.

The invasion of Russia in Operation Barbarossa signalled an enormous change in German tank development. In July 1941 36 Panzer divisions were assigned, almost 8,000 Panzer in total, to the invasion. In November 1941 these tanks first encountered the Russian T-34 and they were totally outclassed in every aspect of battle performance. A little later the American made M3 and then M4 tanks were being used in the Western Desert, outclassing German armour in that theatre too.

As an immediate measure the PzKpfw III's armour was upgraded to 70 mm by additional plates and to protect against hollow charge attacks spaced armour was introduced. But the PzKpfw III was clearly outclassed and production was ended in August 1943 with the Ausf N, the vehicle having been up-gunned to a 75 mm L24 and down-graded to a support role. The PzKpfw III chassis did continue to be made until the end of the war as the base of a range of special purpose vehicles.

Slow production of the PzKpfw IV had been continuing, by the end of 1940 386 Ausf Ds were in service and in 1941 a further 480 were produced, this was despite an order from the army for 2,200. The short 75 mm gun was the main advantage of the PzKpfw IV, weight and armour were close to that of the PzKpfw III. The PzKpfw IV became the most numerous tank of the Panzer divisions, although already outclassed in 1942 it was easy to maintain and simpler to produce than other German tanks. The Ausf E was the major production variant, although the Ausf F with a long high velocity gun was the most impressive performer. First introduced in 1940 the 22 ton machine was progressively improved, with the addition of the L43 gun the most significant change - it could penetrate 80 mm of armour at 1800 m. Later variants further improved the gun but were mainly characterised by increasing the main armour and adding spacer and skirt armour to protect against anti-tank weapons. Zimmerit paste, to prevent magnetic charges attaching was also introduced on the PzKpfw IV. About 12,000 PzKpfw III variants were produced during the war, more than twice as many as the next tank.

Despite continued efforts with the ligher tanks throughout the war the German designers did produce a direct counter to the heavier Allied tanks with the PzKpfw V, the Panther (in 1944 the PzKpfw designation was dropped and the vehicle was known simply as the Panther). Design work on the replacement for the PzKpfw IV had begun in 1937 and prototypes were being tested in 1941. The emergence of the T-34 lead to an acceleration of this leisurely time-table. At the insistence of Guderian a team was dispatched to Russia in November 1941 to assess the T-34 and report. Three features of the Russian tank were considered as most significant, top was the sloping armour all round which gave much improved shot deflection and also increased the armour thickness against penetration; second was the wide track and large road wheels which improved stability; and third was the long over-hanging gun, a feature German designers had avoided up to then. Daimler-Benz and MAN were immediatley tasked with designing and building a new 30-35 ton tank by next Spring. At the same time the existing prototype tanks were up-gunned to 88 mm and ordered into prodction as the PzKpfw VI, the Tiger.

The two T-34 influenced proposals were delivered in April 1942. The Daimler-Benz design was a 'homage' to the T-34, ditching the propensity for engineering excellence, and hence complexity, to produce a clean, simple design with plenty of potential. The MAN design were more conventional to German thinking and was the one accepted by the Waffenprufamt 6 committee. A prototype was demanded by May and design detail work was assigned to Kniepkampf.

If the over-hanging gun and sloping armour are ignored the Panther is a conventional German design, its internal layout for the five crew was standard and it mechanicals were complex. Weighing 43 tons it was powered by a 700 hp 12 litre Maybach petrol engine driving eight double-leaved bogie wheels on each side, control was through a seven-speed synchromesh epicyclic box and hydraulic disc brakes. The armour was homogenous steel plate, welded but also interlocked for strength, orginal models had only 60 mm armour this was soon increased to 80 mm on the production Ausf D and later models had a maximum of 120 mm. Skirt protection and Zimmerit coating also became standard. The main gun was a 75 mm L70 with 79 rounds, supported by one or two MG 34 mahine guns.

The MAN design was officially accepted in September 1942 and put into immediate production with top priority, finished tanks were being produced just two months later and suffered from relaibility problems as a result of this haste. With a production target of 600 vehciles a month the work had to be expanded out of MAN to include Daimler-Benz and in 1943 the firms of Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen and Henschel. Due to disruption monthly production never approached the target, peaking in 1944 with 330 a month and ending around February 1945 with 4814 built. The Panther first saw action around Kursk on July 5, 1943.

Tank history - 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 gotten 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, wether it was armored 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.

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, 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. Budgets for tank design and production really picked up only during the administration of the U.S. president Ronald Reagan, as the cold war started to get hot.

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 Armored fighting vehicles with only minimal armour protection.

During the latter half of the 20th century, some tanks were armed with ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles) which could be launched through the main gun barrel. In the U.S., the M60A2, M551 Sheridan, and prototype MBT-70, with 152mm barrel/launchers, used the Shillelagh infrared 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 M60A3's (using conventional guns) and M2 Bradleys. ATGMs are currently mounted on lighter AFVs, such as the M901 ITV and the M2/M3 Bradley.

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Poland tanks
TK-3, TKS (tankette, ~560)
7TP (132)

Soviet Union tanks
T-26 (~12000)
BT-2, BT-5, BT-7 (7000+)
T-28 (~500)
T-34 (34000 + 18000)
T-35 (61)
KV-1 (9200+)
IS-2 (7600+)

Sweden tanks
Stridsvagn m/40

United Kingdom tanks
Carden-Loyd Mk.VI Tankette
Light tank Mk.VI
Cruiser Mk I (125)
Cruiser Mk II (205)
Cruiser Mk III (65)
Cruiser Mk IV (655)
Cruiser Mk V Covenanter (1700+)
Cruiser Mk VI Crusader (5300)
Cruiser Mk VII Cavalier (500)
Cruiser Mk VIII Centaur (950)
Cruiser Mk VIII Cromwell
Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger
Infantry tank Mk I Matilda (140)
Infantry tank Mk II Matilda (1900+)
Infantry tank Mk III Valentine (8200+)
Infantry tank Mk IV Churchill (5700+)
Vickers 6-Ton (Vickers Mk. E) (~150, export only)
Vickers Medium tank Mark II (160)

United States tanks
M3/M5 Stuart
M24 Chaffee
M3 Lee (~7200)
M4 Sherman (58,000+)
M6
M26 Pershing (1400+)


Modern tanks

Brazil tanks
EE-T1 Os?rio
MB-3 Tamoyo

China tanks
Type 59
Type 69/79
Type 88
Type 90
Type 96
Type 98

Germany tanks
Leopard

France tanks
AMX 13
AMX 30
Leclerc

India tanks
Arjun
Vijayanta

Israel tanks
Merkava
Magah (upgraded M60 Patton tank)
Sabra (upgraded M60 Patton tank)

Italy tanks
Ariete

Japan tanks
Type 74
Type 90

Norway tanks
NM-116 (complet upgrading of the M24 Chaffee

Pakistan tanks
Al-Khalid MBT

Poland tanks
PT-91

South Africa tanks
Olifant MBT

South Korea tanks
K1A1

Soviet Union/Russia tanks
T-10
T-55
T-62
T-64
T-72
T-80
T-90

Sweden tanks
Stridsvagn 103

United Kingdom tanks
Centurion
Chieftain
Challenger
Vickers MBT
Scorpion

United States tanks
M48 Patton
M60
M1 Abrams
M551 Sheridan