Fighting machines that changed history: Tanks! The XX century has brought on the battle field a weapon that nobody has seen before.
Impenetrable, huge and unstoppable when it had to cross over the enemy lines. This weapon was the nightmare of every soldier, and had the fastest evolution in military history of the world. This weapon is the tank.
The tanks have changed the conception about wars, and because of them, commanders have managed to change the course of history.
The tank is a bullet proof vehicle, designed to face enemy force using direct assault. They are terrible and very agile on the modern battle field, either by their capacity to attack ground objectives or by their presence that can create panic inside the ranks of the enemy infantry.
Tanks in World War I
The tanks were used for the first time during World War 1 to replace the ground cavalry on the battle ground. Although arms and bullet proof systems were developed, many nations have discussed about the need of such heavy weapons during a period in which wars ware more and more unconventional.
The British Army has begun to study a self propulsive vehicle that can cross the tranches and barriers without being affected by the enemy fire. Lord Winston Churchill has lead a committee (Leaderships Committee ) to coordinate the creation of this new weapon.
Under the leadership of Colonel Ernst Swinston, the committee has created the first successful prototype, named Little Willie, which was tried by the British Army on September 1915.
If at first they were named landships, the first vehicles were named water tanks to keep the secret. The world “tank” was used to give the sensation that workers from British factories are building mobile water tanks for the British Army. However, in reality they were making a secret battle vehicle.
The first battle presence of a tank was during the Battle of Somme, on September 15, 1916, where Captain Mortimore from the Royal Navy drove a Mark I tank. After that the french he developed a tank named Schneider CAi and used it for the first time on April 16, 1917. The first battle in which multiple tanks were used was the one at Cambrai in November 20, 1917.
Although the initial results of the tanks were inconclusive because of technical problems and lack of patience of the military council, eventually tanks brought a major contribution, and thousands of used tanks in the war by the British and French Army had a significant impact on history.
By using small groups, the value and tactical impact was decreased. The German forces suffered the initial shock and they didn’t had anything to fight with against the tanks, and soon they have discovered the anti tank ammo and used it to limit the mobility of the British tanks.
The conditions on the battle field evolved, which lead to the speedy development of tanks during the war, producing new models like the Mark V model that could go through big obstacles.
In the period between the 2 World Wars many nations have designed and manufactured tanks. The Versailles Treaty didn’t allowed Germany to build tanks, so Germany didn’t developed so much during this period.
In the USA, tanks didn’t received bigger financing. George Patton, which was experienced in war tanks, included tanks in the cavalry. In this period, the United Kingdom created many classes of tanks, being used for research.
Tanks in World War II
The tanks in World War II were based on many considerations. From prior battles, designers understood that a bigger tank is not necessarily a better bank. The objective was to create tanks that combine all the effective characteristics. Among the most important priorities were handling, speed but also armor.
They started to get some problems with the armor. A thicker layer and more resistant would have made the tank heavier, thus requiring a stronger but also heavier engine. This would also resulted in heavier transmission and a suspension system. All of these lead to the creation of an harder to handle tank, slower and made it an easier target.
During this time, a series of technical improvements have appeared. They have increased the firing power and the armor, they perfected the suspension by using speed an making movement fire to be easier. The tanks were equipped with radio stations, improving the coordination of the units.
Tanks in the Cold War
After the second World War, the development of the tank continued. Lighter tanks were only use for recon missions, and the medium and heavier ones were improved. In time, the light tank class disappeared.
The FT 17 Tank
The FT 17 was a light tank and was one of the most revolutionary design in the history of tanks. FT 17 was the first tank with arms placed on the rotating component, and it’s configuration with a turret on top, engine in the back and driver in the front has become conventional.
Historian Steven Zaloga said that this model represented the first modern tank in the world.
Studies have started in May 1916 and it was constantly improved until the first half of 1917.
Only 84 of these tanks were created until 1917, however by the end of the war, 2697 units were delivered. At least 3177 tanks were created, some were delivered by the french Army others probably directly by the US Army.
The FT 17 model was used by France and also by the US during the First World War, after May 31, 1918. It was a cheap and effective tank for mass production. Until 1919, they planned to build more than 12000 FT 17 tanks.
After the war, the FT 17 model was exported in many countries like Poland, Finland, Estonia, Romania, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Czech, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Japan.
The tanks were a constant part of other conflicts, like the Civil War in Russia, The Polish-Soviet war, the Civil War in Spain and China.
FT 17 was also used in the second World War. In 1940 the French Army still had battalions with Ft 17 tanks.
The Mark VIII Tank Model
The Mark VIII model was a British-US designed tank for World War I. Until the end of the year only a few models were created.
Panzer
Panzer 1 was a light tank, manufactured on Germany in 1930 as a training tank. The Versailles treaty denied Germany to create tanks, this is why they were named agriculture vehicles.
The project was modified in 1933 to combine the krupp chassis with the Daimler-Benz turret project. In 1936 Panzer I was approved for combat in the Spanish Civil War, as help from Germany for General Francisco Franco.
Panzer 1 was equipped with two 7.93 caliber machine guns, being able to move independently.
It was also equipped with a Krupp M305 4 cylinder gas engine, that offered 57 horse power and was able to speed the tank with up to 37 km / h.
Panzer IV was designed at start as a help to the infantry, to work together with tank hunter Panzer III.
Improving the armor and guns it was able to become an active combat tank. Panzer IV was the most common tank in the second World War and was used as a base for other combat vehicles. By the end of the war, 9000 Panzer IV tanks were built.
The Panzer divisions, with a very successful construction, have swept Poland in just a few days and later they have beat France in only six weeks.
The British Army has lost nearly all it’s tanks in Dunkerque, France, leaving Britain very vulnerable in a time when they were expecting a German invasion. Happily for them, the invasion never happened so they had time to build new tanks. The first of the newest British tanks models was Crusader.
The Crusader Tank
The Crusader tank was probably the most important British tank. Because of the weak armor it was eventually replaced by the US tanks. 5300 models were built.
The tank was for the first time seen in the Batlleaxe Operation in June 1941 and they played a crucial role in the next operation, Crusader.
Although Crusader was faster than the enemy tanks, it’s potential was limited by the small canon, weak armor and technical problems.
The T 34 rank model
T 34 was produced during 1940 and 1958. IT was credited as being the most efficient tank in the World War 2.
It was a medium sized tank used in the World War 2 by the Red Army. T 34 was easy to build, the armor had a high resistance, it was easy to maintain. It proved the fact that in the second world war quantity has beat quality because of the ease of building it. This has made it very efficient against the german tank Tiger, which was better technically, but couldn’t be built on such a large scale as the T 34.
Later, The Germans have created the Panther V model, an improved replica of the T 34 model.
Panther V
Panther was a combat tank in the Nazy Germany and was used in the Second World War. It was created as a reply to the T 34 enemy tank, and to substitute the Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. Eventually, it served along with them as well as with the heavy Tiger I tank. On February 27 1944 Hitler ordered the tanks to only be named Panther.
Panther was the direct response to the soviet T-34 Model. The first encounter with such a tank took place on June 23, 1941. Soviets didn’t yet had the tactical ability to exploit the superiority of the T 34 model, but even so, they swept the Germans.
At the insistence of General Heinz Guderian, a team was sent on the front to study the T-34. The soviet tank had a sliding armor, which improved the apparent thickness by deviating the perforation force.
Excepting the armor and canon, Panther was a conventional german project. The weight of the tank increased from 34 tons to 43 tons. The main engine was a Maybach HL 230 V-12 23 liters with 700 horse powers.
Once the vulnerability of the engine and transmission problems were solved, Panther proved to be an efficient combat vehicle, just like the Tiger, but and logistically it caused fewer problems.
Tiger 1
It was a heavy combat tank during the Nazi Germany and was used in the Second World War, during 1942-1945.
Considered to be one of the best tanks in that period, it was also created as a response to the T 34 Russian Tank.
The production of Tiger started in 1942, and until 1944, 1355 units were built.Tiger 1 had a few disadvantages.It was required almost the double amount of time to build a Tiger 1 compared to any other german tank in the same period. After the production of the more modern Tiger II starts, in January 1944, the production of the Tiger I model continues until 1944 when it is shutdown.
The length o the canon was 8.45 m. Tiger 1 had a width of 3.73 m, height 3 m, weight 57.2 tons, maximum armor: 120 mm. The engine was a Maybach HL 230 P30 offering 700 horse power. It could reach a speed of 45 km /h and a maximum autonomy of 125 km.
The germans built the formidable Tiger tank as a response to the T-34, but they introduced it in combat much too late to have a significant effect.
Sturmgeschutz III
Sturmgeschutz was produced during the Second World War. It was one of the most efficient weapons of Wehrmacht in World War 2, causing a lot of damages either in the hands of the germans, or in the hands of Finland. The tank was built on the Panzer III chassis and was equipped with a 75 mm canon. Sturmgeschutz destroyed more enemy tanks than Tiger and Panther combined. The vehicle was a real anti tank weapon.
The Sturmgeschutz tanks were used in Germany, Romania, Bulgary, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Siria, Turkey and Yogoslavia. Sturmgeschutz has a 16-80 mm armor, 23.8 tons weight, and can reach the speed of 40 km / h.
T 72
The soviet model T 72 entered in production in 1971. It was an improved model of the T-62. Chronologically, it belongs to the same tank generation as the US M60, the German Tank Leopard 1 and British Tank Chieftain.
T 72 was the most common tank used by the soviet army starting 1970 and until the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was exported in other countries like Finland, India, Iran, Irak, Siria and Yogoslavia.
It was equipped with a 125 mm canon, significant bigger than the 105 standard from that period.
It has a laser TPD – K1M laser, LUNA-2R infrared, panoramic viewer. It can enter 1.5 m deep water. It can also adapt to different types of land mines sensors in the front.
It was produced in Russia for more than 30 years, being one of the few tanks that were built in other give countries ( under license ) and having more versions. Even if today it was a substitute, T-90 continues to be a fundamental piece for tank units in many countries. Currently it continues to be the most built tank in the world with more than 40.000 units all over the world, being also the most popular tank in the Russian Army. In 2004, Russia owned more than 9000 units.
Among the countries with tradition in tanks manufacturing we mention England, United States of America, Germany, Russia and Romania.
Romania produced the Romanian TR – 85 M1 tank. The model was based on the Soviet T-55 and T-72 tank models.
Equipped with a 8 cylinders diesel engine powering up to 860 horse power, laser, 100 mm canon as the main weapon, 7.62 x 45 coaxial machine gun, anti air units machine gun of 12.7 mm, and smoke grenades. The tank as a 400 km autonomy. The canon can penetrate 450 mm armor from a distance of 1 km.
