Heinz Guderian's ideas about armored warfare and used tankette‐type vehicles more suitable for training. In September 1939, when the German Army invaded Poland, it had not yet accepted Gen. The tank's firepower and armor advantage were, however, offset in 1940 by French doctrinal and organizational failures. Huge for its day, it was heavily armored, weighing 34 tons, had a 75mm gun mounted on the front hull and a 47mm gun on the turret, but sacrificed maximum speed to only 17 mph. But defects and battle experience led to its replacement in 1943 by the Cromwell (31 tons, 75mm gun, 31 mph).įrench experimentation before 1939 developed the Heavy B (CHAR) tank, probably the best in the world at the onset of World War II. After many problems, the British introduced the Crusader (22 tons, 57mm gun, and 26 mph maximum speed), used early in World War II. Liddell Hart envisioned a small but mobile army with tanks as the centerpiece.
It became the Red Army's main battle tank in World War II and was used by North Korean forces in the Korean War.
In contrast, the Soviet Union used Christie's design and production techniques to develop by 1939–40 the T‐34, a highly reliable and balanced tank weighing 29 tons, armed with a 76.2mm gun, and reaching a maximum speed of 34 mph. Army failed to continue Christie's contract. His M1919 tank, which evolved into the M1928/1930 or T‐3 medium tank, weighed 9 tons, carried a 37mm gun, and attained speeds of 27 mph. Walter Christie, an American automotive engineer, developed a suspension system that allowed tanks high speed and overland performance. infantry generals, as well as budget limitations, imposed serious constraints on design and development in the United States. The Americans used mainly Renault tanks in France.ĭuring the interwar years, the limited role assigned to tanks by U.S. In September 1917, the French introduced their Renault FT 17, a smaller (6‐ton), lighter‐armed (one 37mm gun), faster (4.8 mph) tank, with what became the classic tank design of a swivel turret. Early critics charged they were committed in insufficient numbers to make a difference. On 15 September 1916, at the Battle of the Somme, after horrific infantry losses, forty‐nine Mark I tanks were sent in to support infantry attack across no‐man's‐land. The first British tank, the Mark I, was a rhomboid‐shaped, tracked heavy vehicle weighing 26 tons, with two 57mm guns and a speed of 3.7 mph. Churchill, then first lord of the Admiralty, also supported the program. The British first developed this mobile, armored war machine in a program initiated by E.
Initially, the very name tank was employed as part of a deception to shroud its true nature as a weapon. The machine's raw power, gadgetry, speed, and size, along with the secrecy with which it was developed, created for it a mystique.
The tank, invented in World War I out of military necessity, immediately captured the popular imagination.
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