Dark Earth: History of the Tank

[Simon Darkshade]

British Tank Development Part I: Origins and The Great War
Britain was responsible for the introduction of the tank into modern warfare. Armoured vehicles has been used support roles for over 50 years after the first ironclad steamwagons powered by the Megatherium war horse were introduced in the last year of the Crimean War for ammunition transport and moving heavy artillery around the siegeworks outside Sevastopol. They proved suitable for their specific role, particularly the movement of Mallet’s Mortar into firing positions. In the US Civil War, similar vehicles were used behind the lines of battle in positional warfare, but were too slow and prone to breakdowns to be of utility in even semi-mobile roles. The armoured train proved to be the main means of mobile support in the wars of the latter half of the 19th century and the steamwagon was confined to a supporting role.

The major breakthrough that paved the way for the tank was the development of the continuous track in 1898 by the Hornsby heavy machinery company of Lincolnshire and the latter invention of the pedrail. These allowed a steam or petrol engined armoured vehicle to move cross country or through broken ground. This coincided with the War of the Worlds and the South African War, both of which saw the impact of modern artillery, machine guns and rifles on infantry and cavalry moving in the open. Encounters with Martian leviathans proved a sharp shock to British forces used to military supremacy over the inhabitants of the Red Planet.

By 1903, the British Army had begun trialing tracked steam tractors for towing artillery across the battlefield and they began to enter service in 1905. The 1904/05 Russo-Japanese War provided strong evidence of the power of defensive firepower on the modern battlefield and the deadlock of trench warfare and a number of proposed developments were explored as an offensive counter-measure. The Royal Navy also began several studies on landships as part of planning for combined operations against the German High Seas Fleet and for the support of the Royal Marines.

The war scares of 1910 and 1911 stimulated British Army weapons development further and initial plans for an experimental tracked armoured vehicle began in 1912, after a number of proposals were received from Lancelot de Mole and several other inventors. The War Office Experimental Inventions Subcommittee, chaired by Colonel Ernest Swinton, gave a number of positive recommendations to the Committee of Imperial Defence over the course of 1912 and 1913 regarding the viability of such a vehicle. The Admiralty’s plans for larger landships also advanced in this time, with a prototype reduced scale vehicle being tested in mid-1913.

After discussions between First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War Sir Richard Haldane and Sir Maurice Hankey, a joint Landships Committee was established in November 1913 with a view towards developing armoured tracked vehicles for the Army and Royal Navy over the next three years, given growing expectations of a general European war by 1915 or 1916. A 25t prototype codenamed Little Willie was manufactured by William Foster & Co. of Lincoln and first tested in June 1914, reaching a maximum speed of 4mph. It was armed with two 6pdr guns in side sponsons, a fixed 12pdr firing forwards and four machine guns. The Royal Navy prototype, HMLS Leviathan was tested in mid-August after the outbreak of war; it weighed 120t, had a maximum speed of 2.5mph and was armed with two 15pdr guns, several 3pdrs and half a dozen machine guns.

The initial war of movement ended with the conclusion of the Race to the Sea in mid-October and both the Allies and the Germans began a process of entrenchment along the Western Front. This gave great priority to the deployment of armoured tracked vehicles and both types went into production in late November. The Army vehicle was given the name of ‘tank’ as a security measure, with their paperwork describing them as water carriers for use on the Mesopotamian Front. The first production Mark I tanks were accepted by the Army in February 1915, with the landcruisers being delivered to the Royal Navy from March. The operational Mark I weighed 36t, was powered by a 200hp engine and was protected by over half an inch of armour plate.

Both vehicles were used successfully for the first time in the Battle of Loos (September 25-November 26 1915) where they proved effective in breaking German lines and securing a tactical British victory. A full breakthrough was stymied by the small numbers of tanks available and various operational issues, including a lack of coordination of artillery; additionally, the defence retained the advantage of interior lines of transport and communication. 2 landcruisers and 58 tanks saw action at Loos, with most breaking down after the first four days after having made the initial penetration of German lines in combination with the first use of poison gas by the British Expeditionary Force. The Battle of Loos failed to deliver a knockout blow to the German Army, but marked the first Allied success in offensive action on the Western Front after the defensive victories at Mons and the Marne. The Army tanks were operated by the Machine Gun Corps, with the eight companies grouped together as the Heavy Section of the MGC. A decision was made by the Admiralty to keep the remaining five landcruisers in strategic reserve for the great offensive planned for 1916. A total of 200 Mark I tanks and 7 landcruisers were built in 1915.

The Mark II tank featured improved armour and more powerful engines and entered production at Fosters, Metropolitan Cammell, Armstrong-Whitworth, Beardmores, Vickers from January 1916. 132 Mark IIs joined 84 Mark Is and the 5 landcruisers at the Battle of the Somme, the British Empire’s major effort on the Western Front in 1916. The battle, which lasted from July 1 to October 3rd, was a hard fought Allied victory against skilled and valiant German opposition and succeeded in relieving pressure on the sorely pressed French at Verdun. The winter of 1916/17 saw the Germans driven back across the front back to the defensive shelter of the formidable Hindenburg Line and the entry of the United States of America into the war. The year also saw Mark I tanks attached to the Desert Army, where they spearheaded General Allenby’s conquest of Sinai and Palestine. A total of 826 Mark IIs were built in 1916. The end of the year also saw the separate establishment of the Royal Tank Corps on December 20th.

The heavy tanks had proved their worth at Loos and the Somme, but a lighter, more mobile vehicle was required to exploit the breakthroughs achieved by tanks, infantry and heavy artillery so that the cavalry could finally get loose and wreck havoc on the German lines of supply and communication. Sir William Tritton presented a proposal to the Tank Supply Department in September for a lighter, faster tank and formal development approval was given by the War Office on October 2nd 1916. The Light Mark A or ‘Whippet’ was a 12t vehicle armed with a turreted 1” Maxim Gun and a maximum speed of 12mph. Field Marshal Haig, acting under his considerable authority as Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, saw the prototype tested in December 1916 and ordered the manufacture of 1000 light tanks, with the first vehicles to be delivered by May. 3269 Whippets were built over the course of 1917 and 1918 and the type encountered great success in support of British, American, French and Japanese forces on the Western Front.

The lessons of the Somme were also reflected in the Mark III and Mark IV tanks that entered service in 1917. The Mark III was to be used primarily for training purposes in Britain and France, although 40 out of a total production run of 165 were shipped to the Far East where they saw action on the Chinese Front. The Mark IV was the first major change to the design of the British tank, incorporating a 360hp Rolls Royce engine, increased armour and a rotating turret for the 12pdr. These improvements came at a considerable cost in weight and mobility. Supply tank and 25pdr gun carrier variants were also developed on the chassis of the Mark IV, with the latter proving to be decisive in the battles of the next two years. The Mark IVs saw sterling service in the great battles at Arras, Messines and Ypres in 1917, with British production totaling some 2436 vehicles. A further 390 tanks were built in the United States in the latter half of the year.
The most significant use of tanks during the year was at the Battle of Cambrai. 732 heavy and 287 light tanks were used to spearhead the well-coordinated attack of the British 3rd Army that broke the German defensive lines, captured the town and the controlling heights of Bourlon Ridge and inflicted over 65,000 casualties on the German Second Army.

The Mark V was an evolved version of the Mark IV equipped with new engines and an improved transmission that entered service with the B.E.F. in October 1917; a total of 1248 were built by the end of the war. The Mark VI and Mark VII, slightly improved versions of the Mark V, were cancelled in late 1917 in favour of Anglo-American tank development cooperation that had been underway since June 1917. This took the form of the 48t Mark VIII ‘Liberty’ tank, which were manufactured in dedicated plants in Britain and the United States in November 1917; a total of 1529 British and 1032 American vehicles were built by the end of production in 1920. The Mark VIII would prove its mettle in the titanic battles of June and July 1918 which stopped the last German offensives dead in their tracks. The first large-scale engagements between tanks occurred at Villers-Bretonneux in early April and saw British and Australian Mark Vs and Mark VIIIs defeat German A7Vs and Oberschlesien tanks in a desperate melee.

The German Spring Offensive of 1918 was finally blunted and exhausted by mid July and the scene was set for the final act of the war, in which the tank would play a key role. In addition to the heavy and light tanks of the Royal Tank Corps, three further armoured vehicles played their own part in the great victories to come: the Mark IX transport, the Dreadnought and the Medium Mark A. The need for infantry to keep up with tanks on the deadly modern battlefield lead to the introduction of the 36t Mark IX armoured troop transport tank, which could carry two sections and their equipment in relative safety at a speed of 6mph. 532 were built in 1918 and they saw extensive service in the breakthrough battles that were later termed the ‘Hundred Days’.

The Admiralty had not set aside its abiding interest in armoured vehicles after the relative lack of success of the Landcruisers at Loos and the Somme, but continued to develop and refine the superheavy assault vehicle over the course of 1916 and 1917 in increasing cooperation with the War Office. The four divisions of the Royal Marines had employed Mark IVs successfully at Ypres and on the Zeebrugge Raid, but could not break through heavy German fortifications along the coast of Flanders. On January 12th 1918, the first superheavy tank jointly developed by the Royal Navy and the Army entered production. It was named the Dreadnought. Weighing 125 tons and armed with a converted 4.7” naval gun, a brace of 3pdrs and eight machine guns, the Dreadnoughts could move at a speed of 8mph and were effectively invulnerable to German machine guns, anti-tank rifles and field guns. 18 were built by the end of the war and they accumulated a fearsome reputation in their five months of active service.

The success of the light Whippet tanks in the 1917 campaigns had resulted in an improved 25t medium tank design being submitted by Tritton and Wilson on September 4th 1917 and approved for production in December. It was armed with a 6pdr in a rotating turret and four machine guns and had a top speed of 10mph. They proved to be the foundation for British medium and cruiser tank development in the 1920s and 1930s. After the initial breakthrough at the Battle of Amiens, the ‘black day of the Imperial German Army’, the Mediums and the Whippets played their role to the hilt, smashing through secondary lines of resistance and destroying German supply dumps, railheads and headquarters. The tanks were finally able to fulfill their original role and loosed the armoured cars and cavalry into the German rear, beginning a pursuit that would not halt until they stood on German soil. 876 Medium Mark A tanks were produced before the Armistice, equipping eight battalions of the Royal Tank Corps in the big push across France, Belgium and the Netherlands to the Rhine, alongside the Whippets, the gun carriers, the Mark IX troop carriers and the Dreadnoughts.

Thus it was that the British tank emerged from her industrial might and colonial wars of the 19th century, began secret development in the twilight of the days of peace and then triumphed in the crucible of the Great War. Victory was not simply a product of the tank or any other weapon such as the steam dragon, the ironclad ram, the railway supergun or the rocket. It came from the planning and strategy of the high command, ranging from Kitchener to Haig; from the national mobilization of industry, labour, capital, science, agriculture and munitions production in Britain and the Empire; from the countless glorious efforts of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force; and from the hard work, undaunted courage and valiant devotion of the artillerymen, machine gunners, engineers, pioneers, miners, wizards, medics, chaplains, signalers, cavalrymen and infantry who made up the 125 divisions of the British Army in the First World War. The machines and men of the Royal Tank Corps played an important role in the defeat of Germany and looked to have secured their future in the uncertain peace to come.

Whilst peace now reigned in Western Europe after the Armistice and subsequent Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the story was quite different elsewhere in the world. Newly reemerged Poland struggled to assert its full independence and sovereignty, Austria-Hungary and Germany were wracked by internal strife and revolution and Russia was rent asunder by Red revolution and a bitter civil war. Allied troops would continue to take part in the fighting in Russia until 1921. The map of the Middle East had been made anew by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the bloody mess of the Chinese Front would take years to repair. In the wars of peace to come, the British Army would need its tanks.

Total British Tank Production
200 Mark I
826 Mark II
165 Mark III
2436 Mark IV
1248 Mark V
1529 Mark VIII
(6404 heavy tanks)

532 Mark IX Armoured Carriers
624 Gun Carriers

3269 Light Mark A Whippet
876 Medium Mark A

18 Dreadnoughts
7 Landcruisers

[Simon Darkshade]

British Tank Development Part II: The Interwar Period

The British Army had been the largest and most powerful army in the world in 1918, but this strength was rapidly demobilized, falling from 5,236,000 men in 1918 to 1,025,000 men in 1920. Strong field forces remained in action in Russia and Eastern Europe, but these were withdrawn over the course of 1920 as the force contracted to a peacetime level. In the aftermath of the war, the Royal Tank Corps, like the rest of the British Army, was substantially reduced in strength. The Dreadnoughts and the surviving Mark Vs were largely laid up in reserve in a similar manner to the heavy artillery and the operational tank force was mainly made up of eight battalions of medium tanks, four battalions of Mark VIII heavies and eight battalions of light tanks. General Sir Hugh Elles continued as Commander of the Royal Tank Corps, with Brigadier-General J.F.C Fuller, responsible for the expansive Plan 1919, as his deputy and Colonel Basil Liddell Hart as his chief of staff.

Competition between different sections of the peacetime army for limited funding was intense and the Royal Tank Corps, despite having a successful war, had to fight hard to preserve their budget and the very existence of the Tank Design Department of the War Office. The years between 1921 and 1925 saw only two new tank types enter service, both evolved versions of Great War tanks. The 16t Vickers Light Tank was developed from the wartime Whippet. It was armed with a 3pdr gun and two machine guns and had a top speed of 25mph, considerably greater than any wartime vehicle. 356 were built from 1921 to 1924, replacing the Whippets in the light RTC regiments. The Vickers A1E1 or Mark X Heavy Tank entered production in 1922. It was a 38t vehicle with a 12pdr main gun, four Vickers machine guns, a speed of 20mph and almost two inches of armour on its sloped glacis. 234 were produced from 1922 to 1925, allowing the Mark VIIIs to be phased into reserve.

Several different theories as to the optimum use of tanks in modern warfare contended with each other in the early 1920s. Fuller advocated an independent tank force operating aggressively against enemy lines of supply and command headquarters, Liddell Hart proposed an all-arms mechanized force capable of flexible operations and Colonel Giffard Martel supported the use of the tank to support infantry in the manner of the wartime heavies. Field Marshal Sir George Milne, Chief of the Imperial General Staff authorized the formation of an Experimental Mechanized Force in 1925 to test the various theories and formulate tactical and operational doctrine for the employment of tanks. Many followed the path of Field Marshal Flashman and still held to the value of cavalry on the modern battlefield, such as General Melchett, but their numbers were gradually being winnowed away by the sands of time.

The growing tensions with the Soviet Union gradually increased to the brink of formal conflict in 1926. The crisis caused a large increase in the strength and budget of the British Army as the Ten Year Rule was abandoned. The older medium tanks were refurbished and further modern light and heavy vehicles were ordered. 400 of Armstrong-Whitworth’s 1925 medium tank design were ordered on March 20th as Indian troops exchanged fire with the Red Army along the Soviet-Afghan border and six squadrons of Handley Page V/2500 heavy bombers were deployed to Persia and Iraq. One battalion of Mark VIIIs was moved up to the border from Peshawar by the Afghan Railway, serving as an effective deterrent to any Soviet aggression along the border.

The Armstrong-Whitworth medium tank, or the Medium Mark III, would prove to be one of the most effective tanks of the 1920s. It was a 24t vehicle with a single 6pdr, three 0.303” Vickers machine guns and a speed of 30mph, making it the fastest tank in the world. Production totaled 529 tanks from 1926 to 1928 and it served in a frontline role until 1937. Some of the remaining vehicles saw active service in Africa and the Middle East during the opening phases of the Second World War and proved to be a match for newer Italian and Turkish tanks. At the opposite end of the scale to the large Mark III was the tankette, a small fast vehicle crewed by a pair of soldiers. A 2.5t tankette designed by Sir John Carden and Vivian Lloyd was approved for production as a mobile machine gun and reconaissance vehicle and an order for 500 was placed with Beardmores on June 26th.

One of the great ‘might-have-been’ tanks of the mid 1920s was the proposed Light Tank Mark IIC. It was a very fast 10t light tank armed with a pair of machine guns that promised to replace the earlier light tanks with a single, cheap vehicle capable of a wide variety of Imperial deployments. Few details survived the unfortunate demise of its designer, Gustav Hanumon, who was savaged to death by eagles in the Dordogne in the summer of 1925. A very similar tank entered production in the Nanking Arsenal for the Imperial Chinese Army in 1929 under the auspices of Imperial Chancellor Fu Manchu. In any case, events were to reduce the priority given to light tanks in the immediate future.

The war scare of 1926 came very close to open conflict, with only the deployment of a Royal Navy battlefleet to the Baltic Sea leading to Bolshevik Russia backing down. It was followed by an uneasy standoff through 1927 as the British Empire threw off the raiments of peace and stood ready for war. Increased funding allowed for extensive planning for the modernization of the British Army and the reformation of a British Expeditionary Force for employment on the Continent. A limited call up of reserve soldiers was followed by the institution of peacetime national service in the Territorial Army. Minister of War Sir Winston Churchill authorized an extensive report into the reform and modernization of the British Army in September 1927.One of the key measures was the expansion of the newly renamed Experimental Armoured Force to divisional strength.

The Armoured Force had undertaken a successful series of maneuvers on Salisbury Plain in 1926 which had combined Fuller’s operational concepts and scope with Liddell Hart’s combined arms organization. The formation would now consist of three composite brigades of two medium tank battalions, a mechanized machine gun battalion, a mechanized field artillery regiment equipped with 25pdr Birch Guns, a motorized infantry battalion, a mobile reconaissance group of armoured cars and tankettes and a mechanized field company of Royal Engineers. The 1927 exercises demonstrated a need for additional infantry and that their automotive transport lorries could not keep up with the tanks over broken terrain and rough terrain. A further divisional headquarters was added in 1929.

There remained significant support for the use of heavy tanks to support infantry breakthroughs in set piece battles. This resulted in the development of the superheavy Infantry Tank Mark I, or Goliath, in 1928. It was a 72t heavily armoured beast armed with a 4.7” gun, two 6pdr guns and multiple Vickers heavy machine guns, protected by up to 4” of armour and capable of a speed of 16mph. It was produced in limited numbers by Vickers between 1929 and 1933, with only 79 in total being manufactured. They served through the 1930s until being replaced by the Cromwell in the early stages of the Second World War. Their development was typical of the trifold evolution of the British tank through the 1920s. The heavy and superheavy tanks would act as the battleships of the field of war, blasting their way through any defences; the medium tanks would be the cruisers, mobile, hard-hitting and independent; and the light tanks would be the greyhound-like destroyers, scouting out the strongpoints of the enemy and speeding around to harry their supply lines and headquarters.

Tank development was slowed by the impact of the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression which wracked the world in the early 1930s. The Conservative government was far from averse to maintaining military spending as a means of reducing unemployment in heavy industry and countering socialist unrest inspired by the Soviet Union, but this was primarily concentrated in naval construction in the early 1930s. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 motivated a direct decision to initiate a programme of full rearmament beginning in 1932 and the Army was able to share in the new largesse with the Royal Navy, with both standing behind the Royal Air Force in national priority. Tank development in turn lay behind the modernization of the British artillery park and the fielding of modern anti-aircraft guns as priorities within the Army. Design of new medium and light tanks utilizing American J. Walter Christie’s innovative suspension system began in 1933 and prototypes of both vehicles were undergoing testing as Hitler took power in Germany. The Experimental Armoured Force was re-designated as the 1st and 2nd Armoured Divisions

At this time, many older tanks found a new home other than the scrapyard or deployment to far off colonies and isolated islands. Several dozen Whippets and Mediums were disassembled, carefully packaged and shipped off on the long journey to Mars in 1931. They saw service in the Fourth Anglo-Tharsian War and in punitive raids against the grak-riders of the Cimmerian Desert. The introduction of modern armoured vehicles to Mars gave the British Martian Army a distinct edge in firepower and protection in the conflicts of the 1930s and would prove to be priceless in the Nazi influenced Eriadon-Barsoom War of 1939-1943.

In 1934, the twenty five battalions of the Royal Tank Corps were combined with the forty mechanized cavalry regiments to form the Royal Armoured Corps. The remaining half of the regular cavalry of the line and the Yeomanry were mechanized and joined the Corps. Each cavalry regiment maintained a mounted squadron which were organized in composite tactical regiments. This greatly increased the effective armoured strength of the British Army and was accompanied by the formation of the 3rd and 4th Armoured Divisions in 1934 and 1935 respectively.

The Cavalier light tank entered production in late 1934 at Armstrong-Whitworth’s massive Elswick plant. It was an exceptionally fast 18t vehicle, capable of speeds upwards of 40mph and armed with a new 6pdr gun and a pair of machine guns. The Cavaliers were built in exceptionally large numbers throughout the 1930s and into the Second World War, with a total of 5269 being produced in Britain and Canada between 1934 and 1942. The first production Valiant medium tank rolled off the Vickers production line in Sheffield on June 6th 1937. It would prove to be the main tank employed by the British Empire in the first year of World War 2 and a powerful vehicle in its own right. It weighed 27t, had a top speed of 25mph, was protected by over 60mm of armour and carried an armament of an Ordnance QF12pdr or a 25pdr gun howitzer, a 25mm Maxim Gun and two Vickers machine guns. 10,238 were produced between 1936 and 1943 in Britain, Canada, Australia and India.

New versions of the Dreadnought superheavy tanks began development in 1935 to replace the wartime vehicles. The improved 125t vehicles were capable of a top speed of 15mph and fielded an adapted 6” naval gun and multiple heavy machine guns. Their considerable protection featured over 10” of sloped armour on the front of their ponderous turrets and made them essentially immune to any existing anti-tank weapon when they entered production in 1938. Design of a strong 54t heavy tank began in 1937, but would not enter service until late 1940, leaving the upgraded A1E2s and the Goliaths to hold the line in the meantime.

The final tank that came out of the 1930s was a 29t medium tank that would prove to be one of the most produced armoured vehicles of all time and one of the four most famed tanks of the Second World War.

[Simon Darkshade]

British Tank Development Part III: World War 2

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War on September 1st 1939, the British Army fielded eight regular armoured divisions, equipped with a mixture of Valiant medium and Cavalier light tanks. A further twelve divisions would be raised over the course of the war. Two very large Royal Ordnance tank arsenals in Leeds and Manchester had begun construction in November 1938 to augment existing production facilities operated by Vickers, Armstrong-Whitworth, Beardmores, Coventry Ordnance Works and Nuffield Mechanization and Aero. The major automobile and train manufacturing concerns had been enlisted for the production of heavy armoured vehicles as they had been in the Great War and the Empire’s large armaments plants in Canada, Australia, South Africa and India were gradually gearing themselves for the challenges to come.

The organization of the British armoured division did not change dramatically over the course of the war. The division consisted of two armoured brigades each of two medium tank regiments, a mechanized infantry battalion, motorized machine gun company, light anti-aircraft battery, Royal Engineer squadron and a Royal Horse Artillery regiment of 32 self propelled 25pdrs; one armoured infantry brigade of two mechanized infantry battalions, two medium tank battalions, a machine gun company, light anti-aircraft battery, RE squadron and an RHA field regiment; an armoured reconaissance regiment of two light tank and two armoured car regiments; an artillery brigade of a self propelled medium regiment of 6” howitzers and armoured rocket launchers, an anti-tank regiment and an anti-aircraft regiment; and a headquarters and support group. This gave a frontline strength of 324 medium and 128 light tanks, augmented later in the war by independent heavy tank, tank destroyer and assault gun regiments.

Their operational doctrine varied according to the requirements of the particular theatre, but was mainly based around the offensive theories of Liddell Hart and Fuller honed to perfection in the regular exercises of the 1920s and 1930s. It descended directly from the successful formula of the Hundred Days of 1918. Heavy and superheavy tanks in Army Tank Brigades would execute corps level breakthroughs in concert with infantry divisions and heavy artillery whilst the armoured divisions making fast, powerful thrusts through key enemy points of concentration to expand the penetration. This would then be exploited by reserve armoured divisions, mechanized cavalry brigades, mobile wizards and airpower striking deep into the enemy rear and jumping inside their reaction cycle.

The Crusader medium tank had its roots in a 1937 requirement for a new, heavier armoured tank to counter reported new German and Soviet designs. It was to be capable of carrying the improved anti-tank gun that was projected as replacing the QF 12pdr (itself an bored out version of the QF 6pdr) then entering service. A prototype was produced in June 1938 and the Crusader entered initial production in October 1939. With a top speed of 36mph powered by a 625hp Rolls Royce Meteor, it was substantially faster than any previous medium tank in British Army service. It was protected by up to 4” of sloped armour and armed with a QF 17pdr, a Vickers 0.5” heavy machine gun and two 0.303” machine guns. 29,536 Crusaders would be built between 1939 and 1945, arming the forces of the British Empire and its allies in the Second World War and beyond. Two regiments of Crusader Is were deployed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force in late March, where they encountered considerable success.

The Churchill heavy tank entered service in February with home based regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps. It was exceptionally heavily protected and extremely reliable, with over 5” of sloped frontal armour and had a steady speed of 25mph over all types of terrain and carried an improved QF 120mm gun along with four machine guns. 12,564 Churchills would be built between 1940 and 1946, seeing service on every continent and with a variety of Allied armies. It was particularly useful in the Pacific Campaign, where heavy armour and firepower were far more important to British, Australian, New Zealander and Canadian troops facing heavy Japanese fortifications on the tropical islands of the South Seas. A single regiment was deployed to France with the Second British Expeditionary Force in late June, giving a strong performance and expediting the German development of the Panther, Tiger and Lowe tanks.

The Battle of France (May 6th-July 16th 1940) saw British tanks play a significant role in the initial battles in Belgium and Northern France which halted the first German offensive. The Valiants proved to have the measure of the Panzer IIs and IIIs that made up the majority of the German Panzerwaffe, but were outmatched by the 36t Panzer IVs and their powerful 75mm guns. The Cavalier II and III light tanks had mixed success in the battles in open country in Belgium and the Netherlands, with their mobility compensating for their light protection and firepower. The Dreadnoughts and heavy tanks spearheaded the Allied counterattacks at Arras and Cambrai and played a significant defensive role in holding along the Yser-Aa Line, albeit at the cost of their own decimation.

The British Army lost 1536 tanks, 2469 guns, 1924 infantry carriers, 896 anti-tank guns, 268 3.7” anti-aircraft guns, 24,673 motorcycles, over 75,000 other vehicles, 50,000 tons of fuel, 100,000 tons of ammunition and almost 400,000 tons of other stores in the Battle of France and the evacuation from the Channel Ports. These losses were measured against the hundreds of tanks and guns successfully evacuated from Dunkirk, Calais, Gravelines and Boulogne between May 28th and June 6th and the ever-increasing rates of British production. The Army prepared to oppose any attempted German invasion of the British Isles, with a formidable force of 54 divisions equipped with over 1200 modern tanks, a force that was increasing by almost 180 Crusaders and Churchills every week. The famed deeds of the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain and the continuing might of the Royal Navy put paid to any thought of German offensive action against Great Britain in 1940, but the threat of invasion and the ongoing Blitz continued through 1941 into 1942.

The remaining Great War tanks were bought out of storage for use with training units and to augment local defence forces of the Home Guard. By late 1941, most Home Guard battalions were supported by troops of Whippets, Mediums or Mark VIIIs. These would have been of limited utility in the unlikely case of an invasion, but proved to be an excellent morale raising device, replacing the motley collection of makeshift armoured cars and armed delivery vans that had been pressed into service during late 1940. They were featured in a number of propaganda films including 1942’s award winning documentary The Battle of Walmington-on-Sea.

The Norwegian Campaign was not tailor-made for the employment of armour, but both the medium and heavy tanks used successfully in the grinding battles for the central valleys over the course of 1940 and 1941. The Crusaders were used in the amphibious assaults on Bergen and Stavanger and the powerful guns of the Churchills were decisive in the crushing victory in Operation Broadsword, the liberation of Southern Norway. The new Cavalier IV light tanks had rather more success than earlier marks had encountered in France and their improved APCBC ammunition able to defeat their German opponents with regularity. The Battle of Norway also saw the combat debut of the 79t Cromwell superheavy tank, which sported a QF 32pdr adapted from the famed 3.75” anti-aircraft gun, had a top speed of 18mph and was protected by over 6” of armour. It was an unwieldy, hulking brute of a vehicle, but proved extremely useful for leading urban assaults and heavy infantry offensives. It would only be built in comparatively small numbers due to the complex nature of its manufacture and just 1053 were built between 1941 and 1945.

However, it was in the other major British theatre of the first half of the war that the tanks of the Royal Armoured Corps came to the fore – the Desert War of 1940-1942. Crusaders and Valiants of the 7th Armoured Division devastated the Italian 10th Army in Operation Compass, resulting in the conquest of Cyrenaica. The introduction of the German Afrika Korps and Austro-Hungarian forces under Rommel in March resulted in a swift reversal of fortunes, driving the Desert Army back from El Agheila to Bardia on the borders of Egypt and bringing Tobruk under siege. Their potent Panzer IV tanks and 88mm armed Marder II tank destroyers spelled the end of the Valiant as a frontline tank and lead to the twofold response of the upgraded Crusader II and the deployment of 250 Churchill heavy tanks to Egypt.

The newly established Eighth Army was heavily reinforced with hundreds of new tanks, artillery pieces, infantry carriers, Land Rovers and lorries over the next six months, eventually growing to a strength of 20 British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Indian, South African, Rhodesian, Kenyan, Prydainian, French and Polish divisions. Operation Crusader, named after the main tanks of the four British armoured divisions that spearheaded it, broke through and relieved Tobruk on Christmas 1941. Rommel’s counterstroke, lead by the first Tiger tanks in service in North Africa, smashed back around Auchinleck’s defences to the borders of Egypt, once again besieging Tobruk and pinning down the armies of the British Empire at the small railhead town of El Alamein between the Mediterranean and the Qattara Lake. He had reached the limit of his lengthy supply chain and was now subject to the nightly attentions of the big guns of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet.

Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, Commander-in-Chief of Middle Eastern Command, swiftly built up his defences under his field commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the victor of Norway. The Eighth Army would hold the line and then break the Axis forces, opening the front up for a joint advance by the Seventh and Eighth Armies that would hit the enemy for six out of North Africa. The First and Second Battles of El Alamein in January and June saw General Montgomery first halt Rommel’s advance through a masterful defence and then smash his defences with overwhelming force in the greatest Allied victory of the war. Over 3600 guns and several hundred rocket launchers opened the battle on June 14th with an eight hour bombardment. Two weeks later, the Axis defences were shattered and six Allied armoured divisions had penetrated as far as Halfaya Pass. Hundreds of Panzerarmee Afrika tanks were destroyed and 187,236 German, Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops were killed or taken prisoner. Crusaders of the 7th Armoured Division, the famed Desert Rats, sped into Tripoli on August 4th 1942, completing the North African Campaign.

The Valiant had carried on as the main tank in use on the Middle Eastern front and in service with the Indian Army from mid 1940. They countered the superior numbers of Ottoman and German P40s and Panzer IIs during the defensive battles of October and November whilst General Lawrence’s Ninth Army and the Israeli Army under General Trumpeldor built up their strength for Operation Swiftsure. Two newly arrived regiments of Crusader tanks formed the vanguard of Lawrence’s right hook through the Syrian desert alongside the epic advance of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Ratcliffe’s cavalry corps. The hostile peace that followed the 1941 armistice would see extensive use of tanks to patrol the border zone.

Some of the most difficult terrain for the employment of tanks in Europe was found in the Spanish and Italian campaigns of 1942, 1943 and 1944. The rugged hills and mountains of both theatres were ideally suited for defensive operations and had limited opportunities for sweeping encirclements and swift maneuver as in North Africa and the Middle East. The Churchill III proved especially useful in these circumstances, sacrificing speed for additional armoured protection and an additional coaxial 25mm Maxim Gun. Armoured warfare in the Peninsular War and the campaign ‘up the deadly boot’ was a matter of slow and steady advances from one strategic high point or defended hill to the next, with an occasional burst of the war of movement across important river plains. The Cromwells were suited to the defensive battles in Portugal in 1941, but their immense weight limited their tactical mobility over the Spanish road and bridge system when the Allies moved onto the offensive after the Allied return in the landings of Operation Torch in 1942.

In the Far East and the Pacific, the Cavaliers, Crusaders and Churchills proved instrumental in smashing the Japanese offensives of 1941 and 1942 and then leading the British Empire’s counterstrokes that took them from Malaya and Australia to the shores of Japan. The lighter vehicles were preferred due to the limits of infrastructure and the rugged tropical terrain that served as the battleground for many of the Oriental campaigns. The Crusader IIs and IIIs were the main variants used by the Royal Marines in their various amphibious operations, with one tank in every troop armed with an American 105mm howitzer for the purposes of close support.

Ever since the Fall of France in 1940, the Allies had been planning for a return to the Continent and strong British, Canadian and Polish forces were built up in the United Kingdom as an eventual invasion forces. American entry into the war in 1941 made this aim a concrete reality and extensive joint planning began in early 1942. The successful raid on Dieppe in early 1942 showed the importance of sufficient armoured strength. The necessity of winning the Battle of the Atlantic, countering the foul Nazi magics that beset Europe, achieving air superiority over Western Europe, building up troops and supplies in the British Isles and drawing away German troops to the peripheral theatre of the Mediterranean pushed the date of invasion into the spring of 1944.

Dieppe and the various landings in the Mediterranean had highlighted a need for specialized armoured vehicles to support amphibious assaults and penetrate the increasingly formidable German defences of the Atlantic Wall. The 79th Armoured Division was formed in late 1942 under General Sir Percy Hobart, one of the British Army’s greatest armoured experts as a means of coordinating the development and use of the modified tanks and armour. Many of the concepts behind “Hobart’s Funnies”, as they were called, had been tested in Norway, the Western Desert and the Eastern Front in various forms, but never before had they been combined in a specific specialized field force.

The designs were variously based on the Churchill and Crusader tanks. The most important vehicle was the Churchill AVRE, a combat engineering tank armed with a 287mm petard and a short barreled 183mm demolition gun, a mine plough and several machine guns It was capable of being equipped with assault bridges, reinforced canvas matting and fascines for the crossing of ditches and anti-tank barriers. The Churchill Salamander flamed tank was equipped with a high pressure flamethrower with a range of 250 yards. The Crusader was the basis for a host of vehicles. Crab was a flail tank designed to eliminate buried mines, the Rhino was a steamroller tank able to flatten and destroy many field obstacles and the Basilisk sported a fearful combination of wickedly sharp scythes, side-mounted batteries of mine-clearing rockets and a 25mm electrical Gatling gun. The Penguin and Glowworm were equipped with an enchanted frost projector and a Tesla lightning cannon respectively, providing direct arcane support on the assault beaches.

As well as these specialized tanks, the 79th Armoured Division would also operate amphibious Crusader Duplex Drive (DD) tanks and armoured amphibious tractors. The former operated a floating canvas screen and special engine that would drive it through the sea to the defended shore. American Sherman tanks were operated by the US Army to support their landings on Omaha, Utah, Arizona and Montana beaches. The amtraks were based on American designs, with the British vehicles designated as Sealions. They were armed with a 25mm Maxim Gun and capable of carrying a section of 12 men and their support equipment. The Royal Marines operated 426 of the Neptune amphibious light tanks, a specialized development of the Cavalier that entered service in 1943.

One new tank and one improved version of the Crusader armed the majority of the British and Commonwealth troops assigned to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Crusader V was the ultimate version of the Imperial mainstay of the war, equipped with a more powerful engine, improved protective armour and a new gun. The QF 17pdr remained the best Allied anti-tank gun in its class, but the new Panther II, Tiger II and Lowe tanks operated by the Germans enjoyed an increased range of action against tanks and anti-tank units equipped with the older weapon. A 3.5” tank and anti-tank gun, the QF 25pdr, had been in development since 1942 and provided exceptional penetration with the ability to fire a range of projectiles, including new HESH and APDS rounds.

Joining the Crusader V in the frontline in Normandy was the Centurion Mk 1 tank. The final British tank of the war was unquestionably the best, carrying up to 240mm of armour on the front of the turret and 152mm of angled armour on the glacis. It was driven by its new Rolls Royce diesel engine to a top speed of 35mph, comparable to the Crusader. In addition to a coaxial 25mm Maxim Gun, two 0.303” and one 0.5” Vickers machine guns, it carried the most powerful all round tank gun of the war, the high velocity QF 105mm or the 36pdr. The Centurion, the first of the universal or main battle tanks would go on to replace previous categories of light, medium and heavy tanks in the British Army, and remained in service until the late 1960s. Wartime production amounted to 2569 tanks in 1944 and 1945.

The British Army did not operate the same range of assault guns and tank destroyers as the Heer and the Red Army, but concentrated their limited production in this area on only two types. The Iron Duke assault gun entered service in 1942, based on a Churchill chassis and armed with a 7.2” gun-howitzer. Independent regiments were attached at corps and army level, being attached to divisions in Italy, France and Germany for additional firepower as needed. The Black Prince tank destroyer was equipped with a 5.25” naval gun and entered production in mid 1942. It was designed to engage and destroy Nazi heavy tanks from beyond the range of their 105mm and 128mm guns as well as providing overwatch for advancing medium tank regiments. It was capable of a longer range than any other direct fire weapon in service with the Royal Armoured Corps.

Total Production:

Valiant: 10,238
1936: 358
1937: 610
1938: 844
1939: 1052 (941 Britain, 111 Canada)
1940: 1836 (1471 Britain, 365 Canada)
1941: 2257 (1463 Britain, 724 Canada, 70 Australia)
1942: 1938 (996 Britain, 832 Canada, 95 Australia, 15 India)
1943: 1745 (883 Britain, 740 Canada, 102 Australia, 20 India)

Cavalier: 5269
1934: 103
1935: 219
1936: 325
1937: 371 (347 Britain, 24 Canada)
1938: 494 (444 Britain, 50 Canada)
1939: 721 (625 Britain, 96 Canada)
1940: 1145 (909 Britain, 236 Canada)
1941: 1072 (788 Britain, 284 Canada)
1942: 819 (486 Britain, 333 Canada)

Crusader: 29,536
1939: 249
1940: 2388 (2262 Britain, 126 Canada)
1941: 5627 (4863 Britain, 764 Canada)
1942: 6534 (5538 Britain, 996 Canada)
1943: 6968 (5681 Britain, 1287 Canada)
1944: 5248 (4189 Britain, 1059 Canada)
1945: 3462 (2734 Britain, 728 Canada)

Churchill: 12,564
1940: 670
1941: 3023
1942: 2975
1943: 2852
1944: 2189
1945: 855

Cromwell: 1053
1941: 186
1942: 267
1943: 243
1944: 219
1945: 138

Centurion: 2569
1944: 1243
1945: 1326

1940: 5312 (1471 Valiants, 909 Cavaliers, 2262 Crusaders, 670 Churchills)
1941: 10,323 (1463 Valiants, 788 Cavaliers, 4863 Crusaders, 3023 Churchills, 186 Cromwells)
1942: 10,262 (996 Valiants, 486 Cavaliers, 5538 Crusaders, 2975 Churchills, 267 Cromwells)
1943: 9659 (883 Valiants, 5681 Crusaders, 2852 Churchills, 243 Cromwells)
1944: 7840 (4189 Crusaders, 2189 Churchills, 1243 Centurions, 219 Cromwells)
1945: 5053 (2734 Crusaders, 855 Churchills, 1326 Centurions, 138 Cromwells)

1940: 1176 (345 Valentine, 368 MII, 21 MI ; 456 Cruiser, 7 Covenanter)
1941: 4873 (706 Churchill, 1663 Val., 1064 MII; 16 Cruiser, 769 Covenanter, 655 Crusader)
1942: 8730 (2151 Churchill, 1973 Val., 1330 MII; 2351 Crusader, 925 Covenanter)
1943: 6860 (2222 Churchill, 1654 Val., 143 MII; 45 Covenanter, 771 Crusader, 1260 Centaur, 160 Cavalier, 605 Cromwell)
1944: 4658 (1062 Churchill, 876 Val., ; 497 Centaur, 1935 Cromwell, 145 Challenger, 143 Comet)
1945: 1242 (417 Churchill, 96 Val., ; 79 Cromwell, 52 Challenger, 598 Comet)

[Simon Darkshade]

British Tank Development Part IV: Post War

At the end of the Second World War, Britain had the third largest armoured force in the world and arguably the best all round tank in the form of the Centurion. The first tanks to be disposed of were the light Cavaliers, which had disappeared from active service by the end of 1946; this was perhaps too hasty a step and Britain did not field a new light tank until 1951. The Churchills were largely retained in reserve due to their heavy firepower and worsening relations with the Soviet Union and China. They would remain in the British Army’s inventory until 1954 and some specialized variants were still operated by the Territorial Army in 1960. The Cromwells were largely scrapped, but 139 were converted into static fortified positions along the Soviet-Afghan border.

The large wartime force of Crusaders was gradually laid up, scrapped or sold, apart from regiments attached to every infantry division and independent troops dispatched to many far flung colonies around the world, including British Honduras, Sarawak and the Falkland Islands. No fewer than 29 different countries around the world operated versions of the Crusader in the 1940s and 1950s and many continue to base their armoured forces around it. Production of the Crusader continued in Canada postwar and was restarted in Britain in 1946 in order to fully equip the British Indian Army, East India Company, France and various allied and colonial forces. These improved tanks were known unofficially as Super Crusaders and a total of 6893 were built between 1945 and 1952, bringing the total production of the type to 36,429.

The Centurion tank was produced in Britain from 1944 to 1956 in six main variants. A total of 24,879 were built, with thousands being exported under defence aid agreements. The Mark II entered service in 1947, featuring improved protection and a new night vision aiming system for the main gun. In 1950, the Mark III Centurion began production, carrying a ranging machine gun and increased glacis armour. It was followed in 1953 by the Mark IV, notable for being fitted with an improved 850hp engine and a new gun stabilizer. The last two variants of the Centurion were broadly similar, being equipped with MBCR protection, increased 105mm ammunition storage and improved fire control systems.

The outbreak of the Korean War in May 1950 lead to many Crusaders and Churchills being pulled out of reserve to equip new wartime units and to provide for the expanding armies of Western Europe. Crusaders, Churchills and Centurions all saw service in the first 18 months of the Korean campaign before production of the latter allowed for full replacement of the older types. The Centurion proved pivotal to the Allied successes in the second half of the war in independent regiments and as part of the 2nd Armoured Division. Repeated victories in engagements with North Korean, Chinese and Mongolian T-34s and T-54s demonstrated the marked superiority of the Mark II and Mark III Centurions.

Many Centurions were called upon for operations in the British Empire’s colonial wars of the 1950s. In the Malayan Emergency and the Burmese Insurgency, Centurion were used on regular patrols through the jungle that rarely resulted in contacts with the guerilla forces, in fire support roles from hilltop firebases and as the centrepiece of defensive forces protecting New Villages. No tanks were lost to enemy fire in either campaign, although a number were damaged by mines or immobilized by tropical conditions. The combined arms ‘clear and hold’ operations that lead to victory in Malaya saw Centurions used alongside lighter armoured vehicles, infantry carriers and armoured cars to provide overwhelming firepower.

Kenya was struck by the Mau-Mau Uprising between 1952 and 1956 and three regiments of Centurion Mark IIs were part of the 50,000 reinforcements that were airlifted and moved by sea to East Africa from the Mediterranean, Egypt, India and Britain. Alongside Kenyan, South African and Rhodesian Crusaders and in conjunction with RAF Spitfires, Vampires, Hunters and Lancasters, the tanks of the 24th Armoured Brigade were employed on patrols, offensive sweeps and intimidation operations for propaganda purposes. The overwhelming nature of the British response was a major factor in the swift crushing of the rebellion, allowing Kenya’s continuing steady progress towards Dominion status.

The need for new light armoured vehicles to replace the remaining Cavalier light tanks and the considerable array of wartime armoured cars became particularly pronounced in the late 1940s as three competing objectives warred over the shape of things to come. Firstly, as the British Army moved once again towards its traditional tasks of colonial policing at a lower intensity than the recent war, there was a necessity for a large number of cheap armoured cars and wheeled transports for swift tactical movement around Africa, India and the Middle East. Secondly, the expanding role of air transportation to the far flung outposts of the Empire by skyships and conventional aeroplanes presented new opportunities for rapid reinforcement of regional garrisons lead to a requirement for future light armour to be air portable. Finally, the rising threat of the Soviet Union necessitated the development of a modern light tank capable of successfully engaging the masses of Red Army T-34s whilst being properly protected and robustly mobile.

Intensive debates and design studies began in 1949, prior to the emergency of the Korean War considerably accelerating the development process and leading to a suitable compromise between the three main requirements. Two main families of airmobile vehicles were to be developed – the FV200 series of tracked armoured vehicles and the wheeled FV300 series – in addition to a new light tank, named the Royalist in acknowledgement of its eminent predecessor. The Royalists were given super-priority in the light of the threats in Europe and the Far East and the first production vehicles were delivered by Vickers in 1955. Weighing 25t and capable of a top speed of 40mph, it was equipped with a 25pdr high velocity gun and protected by up to 2” of a new compound armour that gave it comparable survivability to the Super Crusader. A total of 1254 have been built since 1955, seeing active service with several Commonwealth armies in Malaya. Its relatively light weight compared with a modern main battle tank has lead it to be preferred for tropical and equatorial operations where it has encountered particular success.

The 16t FV200 series consisted of five main vehicles – the 42mm armed FV201 Scimitar light reconnaissance tank, the FV202 Spartan armoured personnel carrier, the FV203 Samaritan ambulance, the FV204 Sultan armoured command vehicle and the FV205 Samson armoured recovery vehicle. All were armoured against 14.5mm heavy machine guns and were capable of speeds up to 50mph. In addition to the British Army, they also equip the field squadrons of the Royal Air Force Regiment and a number of foreign states, including Belgium and the Netherlands. The 12t eight wheeled FV600 series consisted of the FV301 42mm armed Sabre armoured car, the Stag armoured personnel carrier, the Stalwart armoured cargo carrier and the Sceptre armoured communications vehicle.

A replacement for the Churchill heavy tank had been planned since 1946, but was continually delayed by the defence retrenchment of the late 1940s until mid 1951. The FV214 Conqueror was a 78t superheavy ‘battleship’ tank armed with a deadly 6”/45 gun and equipped with a sloped turret and glacis armour equivalent to 284mm of horizontal protection. With a top speed of 29mph, it was faster and has better cross country mobility than the Churchill. The Conquerors were fielded in independent heavy armoured regiments attached to corps and armoured divisions. A total of 824 were built between 1951 and 1955.

The War of 1956 saw the British Army and Imperial forces employ their most modern Centurions and Conquerors across the Middle East and Europe and they continued to build an impressive record of lopsided victories and slashing advances through the deserts of Arabia, Egypt and Iraq. The limited clashes with Soviet backed rebel forces in Persia and Iraq and the skirmishes in Syria with Ottoman Turkish tanks resulted in clear victories to British, Israeli, Indian, Australian, Canadian and South African armoured forces. The best Soviet-supplied anti-tank weapons such as the RPG-3 and B-10 recoilless rifle showed a worryingly improved performance against the Centurions, which lead to the development of the newest postwar British tank.

Plans for the replacement of the Centurion had been underway since 1953 and culminated in the most powerful main battle tank in the world, the 64t Chieftain. The first production vehicles were delivered in 1958 and it was quickly apparent that it represented a formidable jump in capability compared to previous tank designs. It was armed with the Royal Ordnance L24 125mm/50 main gun, a 25mm coaxial Maxim Gun, two L7 Vickers medium machine guns and a 0.5” heavy machine gun. A Leyland 975hp diesel engine powered it to a top speed of 35mph over an operational range of 320 miles, with excellent performance in rugged cross country conditions. However, it was its armour that made the Chieftain stand most clearly apart from earlier tanks. It was protected by a layered system composite of titanium, carborundum and fibreglass sandwiched between superhardened Damascus steel armour, giving it the equivalent of over 36” of ordinary armour. The Chieftain is currently under production in Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa, with further orders made by Israel, India, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

[Simon Darkshade]

French Tank Development Part I: The Great War

France was the second nation to field tanks in the Great War, beginning the process of developing armoured vehicles in the immediate build up to the conflict after a number of experimental forays in the 19th century. The earliest French steam ironclads had seen limited employment in the Crimean War alongside their experimental British counterparts and had encountered the same mixed success; all but one were later destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. The postwar emphasis on the value of the offensive made the slow ironclad transports seemingly obsolete and funding was channeled into weapons systems that were more suited to the philosophical approach of the French Army. This began to change in the final years of the century as the lessons of the War of the Worlds and the South African Rebellion filtered back to Paris from French military observers attached to the British Army.

In early 1903, Captain Levavasseur, an artillery officer, proposed the development of an automobile artillery piece capable of crossing rough terrain and offering protection from small arms fire. The Levavasseur project of 1903 continued testing until 1908, when the two test vehicles were set aside in storage after substantial objections were raised by the French Army’s Artillery Technical Committee and the availability of a continuous track tractor from Britain became apparent. The outbreak of war lead to the realization of the tactical utility of a self propelled gun by the father of the French tank, Colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne, who stated that victory would belong to whichever side could put a 75mm gun on an all-terrain vehicle. The increasingly static conditions on the Western Front added considerable impetus to the development of new weapons and tactics that promised to break the deadlock.

Experiments took place over the last months of 1914 in conjunction with the British tank programme. An experimental tracked armoured vehicle was demonstrated to an audience of French officers including General Philippe Petain and Colonel Estienne in February 1915. Its success lead to an order being placed for 500 tanks from Schneider, the first of which was to be delivered by December. Production difficulties delayed the entry into service of the Schneider CA1 until May 1916. It weighed 20t, had an armament of one fixed 75mm gun and two machine guns and had a speed of 12km/hour. The Schneiders saw their first active deployment on a limited basis in the Battle of Verdun in the large scale counter-offensives that recaptured Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux. They were attached to infantry battalions and regiments on an ad hoc basis rather than as coordinated units, but proved their value as semi-mobile pillboxes. A total of 1183 Schneiders would be built between 1916 and 1918 the war and it was regarded as a generally sound, solid vehicle with certain tactical limitations.

The second French tank of the war was a larger 29t vehicle ordered from the Forges et Acieres de la Marine et d’Homecourt armaments company based in Saint-Chamond, which gave it the name by which it would become well-known, the Char Saint-Chamond. It was a slow, lumbering vehicle with a top speed of just 8km/hour and an armament of a 75mm main gun and four machine guns. The Saint-Chamond was particularly well protected with frontal armour 450 tanks were ordered as an insurance policy in case of the failure of the Schneider, a course of action that met with the profound disapproval of Colonel Estienne. The first operational vehicles were delivered in late September 1916 to the instruction centre of the Artillerie Spéciale Groupement at Champlieu where they began rigorous testing and intense training.

By January 1917, 248 Schneiders and 103 Saint-Chamonds had been delivered to the French Army and were held in reserve at the direction of the General Headquarters. It was planned to employ them to support the great French offensive of 1917 in the Chemins de Dames, where new commander-in-chief Marshal Robert Nivelle aimed to break the German defensive line through a rolling barrage from over 7000 massed guns. Three French armies attacked in the misty predawn of April 12th 1917 after a one hour bombardment and achieved strong initial success at the cost of thousands of casualties at the hands of German machine guns. Some divisions advanced up to 8 kilometres before being rebuffed by the secondary and tertiary lines of German resistance and the offensive soon slowed to the same bloody crawling pace that had marked many of the battles of 1915 and 1916. The Second Battle of the Aisne, the centrepiece of the Nivelle Offensive, ground on through April and May into early June. The strategic heights of the Chemins de Dames ridge had been captured, but at a frightful cost of over 20,000 French killed and 130,000 total casualties, almost four times higher than Nivelle’s pre-battle estimate, which rocked French medical support to its core. The Saint-Chamond in particular proved to be mechanically unreliable in the Second Aisne and production was curtailed in favour of increased orders of the more versatile Schneider; only 265 vehicles were completed by the end of 1917.

1917 also saw the debut of the best French tank of the war, the Renault FT-17. The famed automobile designer Louis Renault had been working on the prototype of a light, fast tank since December 1915 and, after impressing the now General Estienne with rigorous tests in August 1916, his company had been awarded a contract for the construction of 3600 vehicles. The 10t FT-17 was armed with a forward firing Hotchkiss machine gun and a 37mm Puteaux cannon in a revolving turret and could reach speeds upwards of 18km/hour. By the opening of the French summer offensive, the Third Battle of Champagne, 578 FT-17s had been produced and along with 143 Schneiders, they would prove instrumental in lowering the number of French casualties to the threshold of acceptable levels in the fighting that raged from June to August. Their mobility on the battlefield was limited in 1917 by the lack of a decisive rupture in the German frontlines along the French sector, but the French utilization of tanks was one of the major reasons that the Third Champagne was a bloody draw rather than a clear German defensive victory. Renault’s light tanks were also used to support the first major American offensive of the war, the First Battle of St. Mihiel, which lasted from September 20th to October 5th. General John Pershing’s First United States Army succeeded in driving the German frontline 8 miles back from the southern flank of the French position at Verdun, shortening the salient in the Allied lines and capturing valuable high ground to the north of Lac de Madine in the process. 155 FT-17s and 73 British supplied Mark IVs supported the American attack on the southern flank of the salient, although many were bogged down in the mud and driving rain. 2178 FT-17s were built in 1917, with a further 3754 following in 1918 and 1265 being completed in the United States as the M1917.

As 1918 began, the Imperial German Army was in the process of shifting a large part of its strength from the Eastern Front to the West in the build up for a final last gasp effort to win the war, the Spring Offensive or the Kaiserschlacht. The growing strength of the British, French, American, Spanish and Japanese armies already outnumbered the Germans on the Western Front and only a brief window existed for a final desperate attempt at victory. During the winter months, the French Char 2C heavy tank entered service. It had begun development in early 1916 as a counterpart to the successful British heavy tanks, but had encountered some of the same production bottlenecks and mechanical problems that delayed the acceptance into service of the Schneiders. Construction was contracted to the Toulon shipyard of Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée and the first prototype was completed in March 1917. The Char 2C weighed a hefty 70 tons, was protected by 50mm of armour plate and was capable of reaching speeds of 10km/hour. It was armed with the ubiquitous 75mm gun in a fully rotating turret and no less than four Hotchkiss machine guns. A total of 182 were built in 1918, appearing precisely at the Allied hour of need.

Operation Michael, the first and largest action of the German Spring Offensive was slowed and then held by the British Fifth and Sixth Armies by the middle of April, albeit at a heavy cost. A German push on the River Lys made a limited advance before being similarly stopped by British and Australian reserves around Hazebrouk. Ludendorff’s focus shifted south to the French sector of the front along the Chemins des Dames, which had been won so dearly the previous year. The Third Battle of the Aisne in May was as hard fought as any campaign of the war and bought the Germans once again to the Marne, within 50 miles of Paris. French commander-in-chief Marshal Foch held back his available tank reserves from the Second Battle of the Marne and the German advance was stopped dead by French and American troops, with the famed victory of the United States Marine Division at Belleau Wood proving a rallying point for Allied morale. 91 Char 2Cs, 227 Schneider CA1s and 428 FT-17s were hurled into the flank of the German salient at Soissons on July 19th on the same day as 159 American Mark VIIIs and 325 M1917s attack the other neck at Rheims. The Char 2Cs in particular provided devastating firepower and smashed through the lines of German resistance with contemptuous ease. Within five days, all of the ground lost to the Germans since May had been recaptured.

The Hundred Days Offensive that followed took the Allied armies from France to the Rhine and consisted of conditions tailor-made for the Renault FT, slashing through German supply lines and wreaking merry havoc on the retreating enemy. This last stage of the war saw the reemergence of modern cavalry and armoured cars as key arms of battle and the nature of the fighting would have a large impact on French armoured development in the interwar period. The light tank was seen as the most effective type in service with the French Army as of the Armistice and this perception would continue well into the 1920s.

[Simon Darkshade]

French Tank Development Part II: The Interwar Period

France operated the largest tank force in the world for much of the interwar period. For the victorious French infantry generals, the tank was regarded as a subordinate arm of the infantry and dedicated towards the support of the offensive. Light tanks were designed to move at the speed of the foot soldier and the heavy tanks were concentrated to destroy enemy strongpoints and break defensive lines. Doctrinally, French infantry armour was not to be used in an independent role, but was concentrated in pure tank units that did not train extensively with other arms. Cavalry tanks emerged in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a distinct type to equip the rapidly mechanizing units of the French cavalry divisions and were seen as a means of remaining relevant on the modern battlefield. The division between the types would prove to be a pivotal factor in the relative performance of French armoured units in the conflicts to come. The history of the French tank between the wars can therefore be viewed as a tale of two branches.

The Char 2C heavy tank continued production until 1921, with a further 177 tanks being built over the course of the first three years of peace, giving a total inventory of 269 vehicles. This was thought necessary as a contingency measure in case of the need to support France’s Eastern European allies who formed part of the cordon sanitaire around the Soviet Union. Along with over 2500 FT-17s, they served as the main French tank force throughout the 1920s and were the source of great pride for the Grande Armée. The remaining Schneiders were sold for scrapping by 1920. The vast quantities of war production tanks proved sufficient for the first half of the 1920s, with French expeditionary forces in Turkey and Russia equipped with the ubiquitous FT-17s. A number of these vehicles were captured by Bolshevik troops in the Crimea and were used as the basis for a number of Soviet copies, known as the Russki Renoe, which were produced from 1920-1923. French and Spanish light tanks were used in Morocco in the Rif War of the early 1920s with great success in suppressing the desert revolt. Perhaps the most notable use of French tanks in the immediate postwar period was in China, where they formed the heavy component of the international garrison in Shanghai and proved instrumental in presence patrols to reinforce the position of the powers.

In 1926, the first steps in the replacement of the versatile Renault light tank were taken, with an operational requirement issued for a char d'accompagnement, or a cheap light tank suitable for infantry support operations and capable of mass production. Hotchkiss and Renault both submitted successful designs by 1929 and the decision was made to proceed with development of both vehicles, albeit somewhat slowed by the global financial downturn of the Great Depression. The Renault R35, or the Char léger Modèle 1935 R to use its official name, was selected for production as the Infantry’s light tank and the first vehicles entered service in 1936. Weighing in at 12 tons, it was a well armoured but somewhat slow vehicle, capable of a top speed of 21 km/hr. It was armed with a pair of machine guns and a short-barreled 37mm gun, which was optimized for close infantry support but was rather deficient in the anti-tank role. The initial order for 600 tanks soon increased as the international situation deteriorated and a total of 2140 R35s were built by 1940.

The Hotchkiss tank was rejected by the Infantry due to difficulties in cross-country handling and a problematic gear box. It proved to be next to impossible to steer on uneven surfacaes, but was adopted by the Cavalry, as their operational requirements focused more upon road travel, making the steering issue less significant. The 11t Hotchkiss H35 had a top speed of 29 km/hr and carried a similar armament to the R35. It was well protected by 36mm of armour, but this was of varying quality due to the employment of subcontractors. A total of 1564 vehicles had been completed by early 1940, equipping the five Divisions Légères Mécaniques, or cavalry armoured divisions. The Hotchkiss design was also exported to Poland in the late 1930s and a total of 92 vehicles were fielded by the 1st Polish Armoured Division in 1939. Several variants were equipped with flamethrowers and Tesla lightning guns to augment the conventionally armed vehicles in their breakthrough exploitation roles.

General Etienne initiated a long term design process for the development of a heavy breakthrough tank, the Char de Bataille, in 1920 and four prototypes from rival concerns were delivered in 1925. The Anglo-Soviet Crisis of 1926-27 gave additional impetus to the fielding of the Char B1 and the first true medium tanks of the French Army entered service in 1929. It emphasized the role of infantry support, being equipped with a hull mounted 75mm gun and a 47mm Hotchkiss gun in the turret. At 36 tons, it was well protected by almost 55mm of armour and was capable of a top speed of 27km/hour. 155 were built between 1929 and 1931, followed by 592 of the improved Char B2 from 1936, which had improved armour and a more powerful engine. They made up a large part of the equipment of the five Divisions Cuirassées de Réserve, or the armoured divisions of the infantry. The Char B2 was among the most powerful tanks in the world against infantry and armour alike, but was constrained by high fuel consumption and a slow off-road speed.

Accompanying the development of Char B1 was the lighter Char D, which was designed as a specialist infantry support tank for particular use in colonial conflicts. Many of the lessons of the Rif War were incorporated into the design of its engine and tracks so that it could operate in the harsh environment of the Sahara Desert with a reasonable degree of reliability. It evolved out of the Char de Bataille programme as the former vehicle grew in size and weight, with a requirement for a 15t light infantry support tank armed with a 47mm gun being formally issued in 1926. The first production orders were placed in 1930 and 205 tanks were built between 1931 and 1934. Renault designed a more heavily armoured and upgraded version, which was designated the Char D2 and entered production in 1937. A total of 289 tanks were built by 1940, outfitting several of the new DCRs that had been raised in response to the Austrian Crisis. The newly renamed Char D1s were transferred to colonial units in North Africa and French Indochina.

The D2s were an improvement on their predecessors, but still lagged behind foreign medium tank developments. In March 1936, initial specifications for a 25t medium tank capable of a road speed of 50km/hour, a range of 400km and a good climbing capacity were issued. It was to be armed with a high velocity gun capable of destroying all enemy medium tanks currently in service or expected. A number of different companies submitted designs, with AMX be awarded the production contract for the Char G1 in February 1938. A prototype vehicle equipped with a 75mm gun was produced in March 1939, but only 87 tanks had been accepted by the French Army by May 1940. This highly advanced tank would prove to be the basis for considerable future development.

The French cavalry began the process of mechanization in the late 1920s in response to the alarming buildup of the Red Army and a requirement for a new medium tank for cavalry operations was issued in 1933. The 20t Somua S35 was the result – an agile, well-armoured, fast tank with excellent firepower. It was armed with two 7.5mm machine guns and a main 57mm gun capable of penetrating the armour of the German Panzer III, the Soviet BT-7 and the Italian M15/36. It was capable of reaching road speeds of over 45 km/hour, was equipped with a Christie suspension and was protected by 50mm of armour. It did come with a considerable unit cost of over 1 million francs and was rather difficult to repair in the field, a problem encountered by many French tanks. 593 had been accepted by the French Army by May 1940, of which 127 were in depot, 43 had been returned to the factory for overhaul and maintenance and 423 were serving with frontline units.

The last French tank of the interwar period was certainly the most powerful, albeit at the cost of being extremely expensive and slow. The Char F1 emerged from a 1932 requirement for a superheavy tank capable of blocking enemy offensives and breaking through the most solid of defensive fortifications. Three manufacturers AMX, ARL and FCM, presented design proposals, with the 124t ARL vehicle being selected for development in 1934. The first prototype was fielded in late 1936 and production began the next year. Armed with a 135mm hull-mounted howitzer and a 75mm gun in its turret, it was capable of a top speed of 15km/hour cross country and was protected by over 100mm of armour. Only 62 had been completed by 1940, with all being kept in central reserve as army-level assets along with French Army dragons and long range railway guns.

[Simon Darkshade]

French Tank Development Part III: World War 2 and Beyond

By May 1940, France had one of the largest tank forces in the world, fielding a total of 5389 vehicles in Metropolitan France, including reserves. The majority of these vehicles were light tanks dedicated to the support of the 122 infantry divisions of the Grande Armee and were thus spread far too thinly to be of optimal tactical utility. The 10 armoured active divisions were deployed across all four French Army Groups along the Western Front and only two partially equipped divisions were allotted to the General Reserve of the Masse de Manouevre at Paris. The British Expeditionary Force could add a further 8 armoured and 17 heavy motorized infantry divisions to this force, but the Belgian and Dutch armies did not field any substantial separate tank force. The 156 German and 23 Austro-Hungarian divisions could muster 18 Panzer divisions between them, giving a nominal advantage in numbers to the Allies. However, the Axis armoured forces were concentrated in the Low Countries and the Ardennes where they enjoyed a distinct localized superiority in numbers.

The first eight months of the war did not see any major offensives by either side on the Western Front, giving rise to what was known as the ‘Phoney War’. The Allies focused their production and planning on a great 1941 offensive into Germany, whilst preparing contingency operations to counter a German attack through the Low Countries. Orders were placed for the production 980 G1s in 1940 along with updated versions of the Renault and Hotchkiss light tanks that would be armed with high velocity 37mm anti-tank guns. 125 Renault R40s and 180 H40s were produced in the first half of 1940 and production was planned to reach levels of 120 tanks per month for the duration. A new variant of the Somua S35 cavalry tank with an improved suspension and welded turret armour, the S40, was planned to replace her older predecessor on production lines from July 1940. A project for the development of a self-propelled infantry support gun armed with a 75mm gun had been initiated in early 1939, but only 10 prototype vehicles had been produced for testing purposes by May 1940.

The Western Front of the Second World War was set alight on May 10th 1940 as Fall Gelb sprung into action. German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and Belgium with 54 divisions, supported by the Austrian 2nd and 4th Armies. The French 1st Army Group and the BEF moved forward towards the Dyle River in response, following carefully coordinated plans for the establishment of a strong defensive line. The initial fighting in Belgium included the great tank clash of the Battle of Gembloux Gap begins, where the German 6th Army’s 3rd, 4th and 5th Panzer and four motorized divisions clashing with three armoured, three motorized and four infantry divisions of the 1st French Army. Initially, German lighter Panzer II and III tanks suffered heavy damage from the French B2s, Somuas and French heavy artillery, before a daring thrust outflanked the French positions and knocked out over a hundred tanks of the 2nd DCR. These attacks were barely stopped by use of converted 75mm field guns, often fired from extremely close range. The battle was a bloody draw, but would prove extremely important in buying time for the next stages of the wider campaign.

The Allied position was imperiled by the drive of Army Group B through the Ardennes and the capture of the key bridges over the Meuse at Sedan. For a few climactic days, it seemed as if the entire of the Allied position in Northern France would be smashed open and nothing would lie between the Panzers and the Channel. It would be the gallant but doomed stand of the 11th Army at Laon that won time for the French 4th Army Group, poised to attack into the Saar just days before, to swing back and race for the Aisne and the 2nd Army Group to strike south towards the Oise and threaten to pocket the German advance. The 11th Army, as the General Reserve had been hastily renamed, held the full fury of the German Army for two days from May 13th to May 15th before falling back to the Aisne, having lost virtually all of its tanks and heavy equipment and over half its manpower. At the final hour, France’s greatest archmage, Sieur Guillaume Flambard, flew down upon the field and threw back the pursuing German panzers with spell after spell, finally breaking his staff and disappearing in a storm of white flame. Their sacrifice had won precious time for the rest of the Allied armies and particularly for the arrival of the 4th Army Group, which had been shifted to the southern flank of the German salient along the Aisne.

The British and French forces in Belgium began a phased general withdrawal from the Dyle Line to defensible positions further south, with the British 1st and 2nd Armies withdrawing back on the Channel Ports, the French 3rd and 4th Armies falling back to the fortresses of Lille and Cambrai and the French 1st and 2nd Armies pulling back from Maubeuge towards St. Quentin. This presented Von Rundstedt with a vexing dilemma, as the original aim of encircling the bulk of the Allied armies in Belgium had been made increasingly difficult by the flanking move of the French 2nd Army Group and the retreat of the French 1st Army Group to positions that would block his drive to the Channel north of the Somme. He shifted the axis of his advance to the south of Laon, with the aim of breaking into open country with his mobile armoured forces and reaching the Channel around Dieppe. The French 2nd Army Group forced a small bridgehead across the Oise and recaptured Hirson on May 16th, before it was taken once again by a ferocious assault by German motorized infantry. The new 6e Division Cuirassée commanded by General Charles de Gaulle struck the German positions in their flank in a daring night attack and threatened to drive back their entire vanguard. Fighting continued between the Aisne and the Oise until May 19th, when Rundstedt called a temporary tactical halt to the offensive to allow reserves and heavy artillery to be bought up. OKH convinced Hitler of the necessity of a momentary pause in operations by playing to his strategic fears and prejudices and depicting the proposal as an opportunity for Army Groups to link up, the infantry to catch up with the Panzers and pin down both flanks of the Allied line.

The French R35 and H35 light tanks had suffered grievously in their engagements with the heavier armed Panzer IIs, but in turn had the measure of the 20mm armed Panzer Is, which were withdrawn to support roles in response. The Somua S35s and Char D2s were a fine match for the German Panzer III mediums and could even engage the formidable Panzer IVs with a reasonable level of confidence. The Char B1 and B2 heavy tanks had played a key role in blunting the rampaging offence of the Panzers along the Champagne front, although many had been knocked out by German field artillery and 88mm anti-aircraft guns hastily employed in a field role. The two regiments of Char G1s had performed magnificently at the Battle of the Gembloux Gap, belying their small numbers with lethal firepower at distances beyond the range of most enemy tanks. German anti-tank guns and field artillery encountered better success against the older Char 2Cs, whose lack of mobility made them stand out as clear targets on the battlefield.

Positional fighting continued over the following days as the Germans bombarded and probed the Maginot Line and the defences of the British Expeditionary Force and defeated the remnants of the Belgian and Dutch armies in detail. Both the Allied and Axis forces had taken grave losses in the first stage of the Battle of France, including over a thousand French tanks. The Western Front again erupted into action on May 23rd 1940 in three separate offensives in Flanders, Alsace and Champagne, with the latter being the most terrible blow. The French front between Hirson and Marle was engulfed in fire and storm as foul weather magic, superheavy artillery fire and the full force of Nazi Germany’s Drachenkraft fell upon the French 10th Army, preceding an attack by 44 infantry and 8 Panzer divisions of Army Groups A and B that was supported by no less than 2400 Luftwaffe aircraft. The lines of defence was rent asunder and German armour and cavalry was able to break out through to the outskirts of St. Quentin, where a scratch force of artillery, second line tanks and reserve troops was able to temporarily halt them. Meanwhile, 37 infantry and 3 Panzer divisions assaulted the Maginot Line from the Saar, supported by 1200 aircraft and a large array of superheavy artillery pieces, including 60cm howitzers and four enormous 80cm siege guns which had a truly devastating effect. By nightfall, the defences of the Maginot Line had been penetrated in half a dozen places and the French 6th and 8th Armies were hard pressed to hold back the Germans.

By the end of the day, the Allied position on the Western Front was in danger of being split into two, with minimal strategic reserves behind the Somme and the Aisne and most of the Anglo-French armies concentrated to the north. Field Marshal Ironside advised Prime Minister Churchill and the Imperial General Staff that the BEF could hold their current positions quite comfortably, but would be severely threatened should the Germans press on the Channel ports from the south. Contingency preparations are ordered for an evacuation of the BEF from the Channel Ports. French Prime Minister Reynaud telephoned Mr. Churchill in the late evening of May 24th to express his concerns that a full German penetration would not only lead to the French 3rd and 4th Armies being cut off, but would leave Paris wide open in the light of the German attacks on the Maginot Line. Withdrawing the 34 French divisions of the 1st Army Group back to the Somme-Aisne Line would give the Allies a strong defensive barrier held by almost 100 divisions, but at the cost of leaving the BEF in a pocket around the Channel ports. Churchill agrees, with the BEF to defend Flanders and the Pas de Calais for as long as possible, supported by the Grand Fleet and the RAF.

The French campaign then divided into a two quite separate battles between the French and Germans around the Aisne and the Somme and between the Germans and Anglo-French forces in Flanders. The BEF and elements of the French 3rd Army were driven back into a shrinking pocket around the Channel Ports by May 25th . German Army Group B, numbering 56 divisions, turned towards the BEF and began to advance on Yser-Boulogne Line with the intent of breaking the British defences and driving them into the sea. Intense British artillery firepower halted most German offensives, with well dug in Valiant tanks picking off advancing panzers with relative ease. The RAF committed an all-out effort in support of the BEF and smashes a concentration of German armour near Lille as well as driving the Luftwaffe from the battlefield. RN monitors, cruisers and destroyers conduct heavy bombardments of German positions in Belgium and south of Boulogne overnight. Over the next 3 days, the Battle of the Yser raged on as four German Panzer divisions clashed with three British armoured and three infantry divisions. The German forces pressed forward to the point of breaking the second British defensive line, but were torn apart in a counterattack supported by 24” superheavy howitzers firing from Dunkirk and Calais and an advance by 29 Dreadnoughts; 10 were destroyed by 150mm heavy field guns firing over open sights as they threatened to tear open the whole centre of the German line. Despite this temporary respite, the long term survival of the pocket was considered untenable by the Imperial General Staff and a decision was made to evacuate the BEF from the Channel Ports, covered by the aircraft of Fighter command and the guns of the Grand Fleet. From May 28th to June 6th, over 820,000 British, French, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops were miraculously delivered from Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne to British shores, along with substantial quantities of arms and equipment.

Along the Aisne and the Somme, the French Army now faced the impossible task of defending against the bulk of the enemy. The battles of Noyon and Soissons on June 16th-18th represented the last gasp of French resistance before the Panzers broke out into their rear and the 1st and 2nd Army Groups began a desperate withdrawal to the Seine. Paris was declared an open city on June 20th and the French Army began a fighting retreat to the south to cover the evacuation to Algeria of the King, the treasures of the nation, Premier Reynaud and his cabinet and as much of the airforce and fleet as possible. Lyons fell on June 26th and large pockets of French forces began to be compelled to surrender to the oncoming German forces. As the Great Evacuation began from Toulon, Marseilles and Montpellier, remaining parts of the government and Parliament at Vichy began negotiations for an armistice with Germany to save France from utter destruction. Headed by former Premier Pierre Laval and backed by the King’s brother Francois, the Duc d'Orléans, it sued for peace on July 2nd 1940, defying the government in exile of Prime Minister Reynaud in Algiers and accusing it of having abandoned France after leading it to ruin. After a flurry of telegrams with both parties accusing the other of treason, Francois assumed the throne with the backing of remaining elements of the Royal Court and dismissed Reynaud. Young King Louis XXI and Reynaud responded by decrying the action as treason and moving decisively against their perceived opponents in Algeria. The Algiers night rang with gunfire and the flash of spells and, by dawn, the pro-Vichy elements of the government and army in exile had been defeated. On July 6th, the Vichy government signed an armistice agreement with Germany at Compiegne, with Northern France to be occupied by the German Army at French expense, various heavy weapons, tanks and vehicles to be surrendered, the French Army to be reduced to 12 divisions and the 2 million French prisoners of war currently held in German captivity to remain until a final peace treaty was signed. Hundreds of thousands of other loyal French troops melted into the population in the cities and the countryside to wait for the hour of their redemption when the sound of Roland’s olifant would ring across her fields and Oriflamme would fly once again.

The French government and armed forces in exile in North Africa, already being called the Free French, announced they would not be bound by the armistice and would continue to fight on alongside the British Empire. French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, the French West Indies and French Indochina fell into the Vichy camp, while French troops in Norway elected to continue fighting alongside their British, Norwegian and Polish allies. The French Army in North Africa comprised 8 light infantry and colonial divisions, with further manpower available in the form of 200,000 evacuated French and Belgian troops. However, they lacked any modern tanks, artillery, fuel or heavy armament and the defences of French North Africa for the moment depended on 174 Char D1s and 129 R35s along the Mareth Line in Tunisia. Initial plans for the construction of Char G1 tanks in North Africa ran into the roadblock of reality as the true paucity of resources, machine tools and industrial plant hit home. The Free French Army would rely upon the occasional delivery of surplus British Valiant tanks for the remainder of 1940. In 1941, the decision was made to reequip the Mediterranean based armoured forces with American medium tanks; French troops in Norway and Britain would continue to operate the ubiquitous Crusader. This would result in the French 1st Army being equipped with the M4 Sherman and the French 2nd Army being equipped with the Crusader when they joined up along the Loire in July 1944.

Ultimately, it had not been the particular tanks that equipped the French Army in 1940 that contributed to their defeat in the three bloody stages of the Battle of France, but rather how they were organized, commanded and deployed. The division between cavalry and infantry armoured divisions had proved decidedly inefficient and the overall dispersal of tanks and tank units had prevented a concentration of force that could have dealt a lethal blow to the early stages of the German offensive when it was slowed down around the Oise. The thousands of French light tanks proved effective in support of troops when operations mirrored those of 1918, but technology and operational art had moved beyond this point in the intervening 20 years and they could not effectively counter the medium Panzer IIs and IIIs. In the aftermath of the armistice, both the Vichy and Free French armies looked to alter their previous armoured doctrine to models based on German and British practice respectively, despite being handicapped by the conditions of the peace and material shortages. Marshal de Gaulle in particular formulated plans for the employment of an independent Corps de Cuirassée of three armoured divisions in the eventual liberation of France.

Secret design work continued in France on an improved variant of the Char G1, designated the G2, and a number of prototypes were carefully assembled and tested in carefully concealed operations. The 34t tanks were equipped with the same 75mm main armament as the G1, although it was intended to employ 90mm Schneider guns when production could begin. Production of the G1 for German and Austro-Hungarian use continued through 1943, finally coming to a stop when the AMX plant was put out of action by an audacious daylight raid by RAF Mosquitoes. It would equip several Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions and performed creditably against the T-34s of the Red Army on the Eastern Front. The majority of the captured French Army tanks were used by the German Army for second line garrison work and anti-partisan operations across Occupied Europe. Once France had been liberated in late 1944, one of the first acts of the reestablished government was to order production of the Char G2. 1529 tanks were built between 1946 and 1952 in what can only be described as an act of supreme will intended to show that France had returned as an independent power. They gradually replaced the Crusaders and Pershings in use in French Indochina in 1954 and 1955.

The nation faced a parlous situation in the grim light of the postwar world, having to balance their extensive occupation commitments in Germany, Austria and Italy with the necessity of a Far Eastern Expeditionary Corps to reassert French control of Indochina. The initial postwar French Army was equipped with a combination of Shermans, Crusaders and G2s. They were joined in 1949 by the first real postwar French tank, the 14t AMX-13. It was designed as a lightly-armoured airmobile vehicle capable of supporting paratroopers and rapid deployment forces with its high velocity 75mm main gun. Capable of a road speed of up to 65km/hour, it would see considerable service in the Indochina War and in tough counterinsurgency operations in North Africa. A total of 3569 vehicles were built between 1949 and 1960, serving in the French, Spanish, Belgian and Italian armies.

One of the major challenges to the Western Allied armies in the late 1940s and early 1950s was perceived to be the Red Army’s fleet of heavy tanks, such as the KV-4, IS-3 and IS-10. Although the British 25pdrs and 36pdrs and the American 90mm and 105mm were capable of successfully engaging them at battle ranges, their thick armour protected them against the larger caliber low velocity weapons carried by the older Allied heavy tanks. These also needed replacement after heavy use in the last two years of the war. A general Western requirement for a heavy tank saw the development of the British Conqueror, the US M102, the Swedish Stridsvagn 100, the German Löwe and Tiger tanks and the French AMX-50. Weighing in at 67.8 tons, it was armed with a 120mm gun and a number of 12.7mm and 7.5mm machine guns. Its sloped armour was equivalent to over 230mm of conventional protection and its top speed was a creditable 49km/hour. 783 were built between 1952 and 1957, serving exclusively with the armoured divisions of the French Army.

1954 saw the introduction of the first French main battle tank, the AMX-25, after a protracted 7 year development period. It was a 45t design developed from the G2 and significantly influenced by the Centurion. Armed with a Royal Ordnance 105mm high velocity gun and protected by upwards of 140mm of frontal glacis armour, the AMX-25 was a fast and quite well protected tank. The 750hp diesel engine was extremely reliable in a variety of conditions and could propel the tank at speeds of up to 65km/hour. 2436 would be built over the next six years, equipping the Grande Armée as it rebuilt itself from the nadir of defeat and replacing the wartime American and British medium tanks in active home service.

The year was also marked by the epic Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. 24,000 troops of the French Empire, elite paratroopers and Foreign Legionnaires of the 11th Division Parachutiste supported by heavy artillery and a regiment of AMX-13s held out against almost 100,000 Viet Minh for 179 days before the siege was broken by a series of massive air raids by USAF and RAF heavy bombers that cleared the way for an aerial evacuation. The French light tanks proved useful when dug in as artillery on the bitterly contested high ground surrounding the valley, but found mobile operations difficult in the rugged terrain. Thirty eight out of fifty tanks were destroyed in the course of the fighting. The battle resulted not so much in a French victory, but in avoidance of a catastrophic defeat. The bloody war in Indochina would continue for the next two years before the Geneva Conference of 1956 lead to an unsteady armistice.

[Simon Darkshade]

German Tank Development Part I: 1870-1918

German interest in the use of armoured vehicles had its origins in the use of armoured steamwagons to support the sieges of Metz and Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. These protracted engagements saw the largest employment of heavy siege artillery in Europe since the Crimean War and necessitated similar solutions to the problems of supply and movement under fire. The aftermath of victory in the war saw the formation of the German Empire and a unified Imperial German Army that emphasized speed, firepower and artful maneuver. The final decades of the 19th century were marked by a concentration on the development of heavy artillery to break French and Russian fortifications in the event of war, but the Imperial German General Staff did not completely eschew the utility of steam ironclads as an adjunct to the traditional arms of service. In 1901, the noted eccentric inventor Professor Wolfgang von Schwarzheim presented a design for an armoured steam-powered motor carriage able to carry a Krupp 77mm gun over a modern battlefield. It was rejected due to the lack of immediate utility and incompatibility with current doctrine, but the undeterred von Schwarzheim continued his tinkerings in his mountaintop laboratory and refined his design over the coming years.

The South African and Russo-Japanese Wars provided German military attaches with substantial food for thought regarding the tactical shape of the modern battlefield and confirmed the viability of tracked vehicles for logistical support of armies in the field. The Imperial German Army began testing of motor artillery tractors in 1908, but their reliability and speed was seen as inferior to that of horses in the forseeable future. In 1910, the Austrian inventor and army officer Gunther Burstyn presented his design for an overland armoured Motorgeschutz, or motorised gun, to the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry and subsequently to the Imperial German Army with mixed success. The Austrians could see a role for it in engagements with the Imperial Russian Army in open expanses of the prospective Galicia and Polish fronts, but lacked the funds to pursue development of the vehicle, whereas the Germans believed it would be too slow to keep up with the field army on the offensive and preferred to prioritize the procurement of more promising armoured car projects. It would later see use from early 1916 onwards in the service of the Austro-Hungarian Army, but was never seriously considered by Germany, given its rather different needs by that stage of the war.

Professor von Schwarzheim died tragically at the hands of his prized steam automaton Stahlherz in May 1913 and its subsequent berserk rampage destroyed much of the surrounding village before it was subdued by the use of a hastily sigil of power by a passing Imperial Wizard. In the smouldering wreckage of his laboratory, along with various fiendish designs for flying steel homunculi and electrical crossbows, investigators found a full set of plans and a working scale model of his Riesenlaster, or juggernaut. It was seemingly inspired by a combination of his earlier works and lurid reports of the British Army’s employment of captured Martian ironclads that had filtered through the yellow press in the aftermath of the events of 1898. The Riesenlaster was a 96t landship armed with four 77mm guns, half a dozen machine guns and two forward mounted saw blades and could reach the heady top speed of 2 kilometres an hour over even terrain. The blueprints and prototype of Schwarzheim’s bizarre machine were hastily taken to Berlin and locked away for testing, along with the wreckage of his beloved automaton.

The outbreak of conflict and the early course of the war in the latter half of 1914 lead to a gradual reappraisal of the role of the armoured vehicle as a weapon of war, but it took the full onset of stalemate along the Western Front to begin a formal programme of development by the Imperial German Army. Ten modified Riesenlasters were ordered on January 5th to serve as nominally mobile artillery to augment the defensive position adopted in the West in 1915 and a series of design studies on a lighter variant of greater tactical mobility were initiated. The deadlock along the Western Front also provided the impetus for the development of battle automata or war machines as they are more widely known, but that matter is beyond the scope of this particular study. The Riesenlasters went into action in mid-November around Ypres and proved to be exceptionally unwieldy and mechanically temperamental, but also exceptionally resilient as tactical strongpoints in secondary and tertiary lines of defence. Their forward mounted saw blades were of mixed utility in cutting through barbed wire entanglements and contributed more as a cause of terror among the infantry of both sides after a few rather bloody accidents. Whilst the German juggernauts at Ypres did not encounter any greater success than the British landships at Loos, they were more suited to the requirements of defensive fighting and a further thirty vehicles were ordered for production in 1916.

The British use of tanks at Loos in September 1915 lead to the creation of the 7th Transportation Branch of the General War Department with the expedited requirement to develop a counterpart to the British vehicle. The project was placed under the talented leadership of Captain Joseph Vollmer and initial plans for a 47 ton vehicle with a top speed of 12 kilometres per hour capable of crossing trenches one and a half metres wide and armed with a fixed 77mm gun and four machine guns were completed in late December. The vehicle was designated the A7V after its design department and the first prototype was completed at the Daimler Motor Corporation plant in Berlin in March 1916, resulting in an order for 230 tanks. The initial production model A7Vs entered frontline service with the Imperial German Army in September and helped stabilize the frontline in the final stages of the Battle of the Somme. The Riesenlasters were deployed at Verdun, where their defensive capacity was rendered ineffective by the sheer volume of artillery employed across the battlefield. Seventeen were destroyed and the remaining vehicles used as the basis for permanent bunkers along the northern sector of the Verdun front along the Meuse.

The A7V was soon given the appellation of the Sturmpanzerwagen, or armoured assault vehicle and by early 1917, the German Army deployed 126 of the type organized in eight Abteilung, or detachments. They proved exceptionally successful in the defensive phase of the Second Battle of the Aisne, destroying over two dozen French Schneider CA1s in a series of confused engagements. 294 were built over the course of 1917 and were deployed across the front, particularly around the Champagne and Lorraine sectors where they faced off against French and American forces. However, despite its creditable battlefield performance, the A7V was not considered the ideal German armoured vehicle. It was extremely expensive and time consuming to produce, rendering it unsuitable to mass production and required a crew of no less than twenty four to operate its complicated machinery and armament. Additionally, German armaments production was already pressed by the requirements of industrial war on several fronts, the support of several allies and the large naval repair and emergency construction programme that followed the great Battle of Jutland in 1916. Production continued on a reduced scale in the first half of 1918 before ceasing in July, with a total of 93 tanks built as German requirements shifted.

The necessity for a new, simpler tank design lead to the development of the most successful German tank of the Great War, the Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschleissen. A prototype was completed by June 1917 by the Oberschliessen Eisenwerk of Gleiwitz and it was rushed into production in September. The 26 ton tank was protected by 20mm of armour and was much faster than previous German vehicles, being capable of a maximum speed of 18 km/hour and was armed with a 57mm gun in a fully rotating turret. 524 would be built in the final year of the war out of an initial order of 2500, reflecting the increasing impact of the Allied blockade. It proved to be extremely successful in the smashing German offensive successes of early 1918, breaking through British, French and American lines and tearing large holes in the Allied front in concert with new war gasses, heavy artillery such as the notorious 24” Paris Gun, hulking war machines, concentrated battle magic and stormtrooper tactics. The Battle of Villers-Bretonneux from April 6th to April 10th 1918 saw 52 A7Vs and 94 Oberschliessens defeated at dreadful cost by 162 British and Australian Mark Vs and Mark VIIIs in the largest tank battle of the Great War that served as a sign of things to come.

A large proportion of the operational tanks used by Germany in the Great War were captured British heavy tanks, designated Beutepanzer, or ‘trophy tanks’. Over 240 tanks of various types saw service in 1916, 1917 and 1918, proving difficult to support but useful across the battlefield. Many of the earlier Mark Is and Mark IIs saw service on the Eastern Front where their firepower and protection outmatched the limited Russian tank force. One noteworthy engagement saw a detachment of six Beutepanzer Mk IVs destroyed by a pair of RFC dragons in August 1917 while they moved up to support a counterattack against the Canadians at Passchendaele; the gold wyrm Aethicandus sardonically remarked how charitable and thoroughly decent it was of the Germans to supply canned food so near to the frontline.

The German Army fielded two further tanks in the final bloody and terrible year of the Great War, although they were of substantially different roles and dimensions. The British and French introduction of fast light tanks in 1917 resulted in the development of a 9.75t German counterpart, the Leichte Kampfwagen, or light combat car. It was quite similar to the Renault FT-17 in its role and armament, sporting a Krupp 37mm cannon and being capable of a top speed of 19 km/hour across even terrain, but by the time it entered service in early June 1918, the operational needs of the German Army on the Western Front had shifted from offensive exploitation to dogged defence. Only 81 vehicles out of a total order for 650 were completed by the Armistice and they did not see action in an organized fashion before the cessation of hostilities.

The second vehicle was the superheavy Grosskampfwagen, a 160 ton behemoth that dwarfed even the British Dreadnoughts of the Royal Tank Corps. It was a direct descendant of the Riesenlasters, carrying a main armament of a hefty 135mm cannon and was capable of reaching a top speed of 6.5 km per hour. Seven K-Wagens were completed by the Armistice, but their sheer size and bulk made them impossible to be transported in a single piece. Additionally, communications, fire control and steering was conducted remotely from the control room via a series of electrical lights, which proved somewhat troublesome in testing. Two vehicles were transported to the front, assembled and deployed in early November in a herculean effort, but to little avail, with the first being lost in a canal after collapsing the nearby road and the second digging itself into a muddy pit after the steering jammed.

The German tanks of the Great War were something of a mixed bag of useful and less effective types, but were ultimately constrained by the limitations of the German war economy, which was decisively out-produced by those of Britain, France and the United States. The general German defensive posture on the Western Front between 1915 and 1918, with the exception of the bloody killing match at Verdun, was not optimally suited for the employment of tanks, making their deficiency in this regard less significant, but once the war returned to conditions of open maneuver, the Allies held a clear advantage. The A7V was the right tank for the conditions of 1916 and 1917, but was too difficult and expensive to produce in numbers; the Oberschleissen was the ideal tank for 1918 and a fearsome adversary for all Allied tanks it faced in the final year of the war, but once again, was subject to the constraints of logistics and reality.
Top

[Simon Darkshade]

German Tank Development Part II: 1920-1960

The Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 placed a number of military restrictions upon the defeated Germany. The size of the German Army was limited to a strength of 200,000 men organized into twelve infantry and four cavalry divisions by the end of April 1920, the General Staff was dissolved, conscription was abolished, the manufacture, import and export of armaments was banned and German possession of heavy artillery, military aircraft, poison gas, armoured vehicles, tanks, war machines and enchanted weapons was forbidden. Only a few armoured cars were permitted for internal security and the new Reichswehr was seemingly left behind other nations in the development of armoured vehicles in the first half of the 1920s. However, the shadow General Staff under Commander-in-Chief General Hans Von Seeckt continued a clandestine programme for tank research and the development of modern tactics and strategy. In 1926, the first secret 29 ton Grosstraktors and 10 ton Leichtraktors were built by Rheinmetal-Borsig, with the former based around the successful wartime Oberschliessen design, upgunned with a 75mm gun. Secret testing in cooperation with the Soviet Union took place at Kazan from 1928, while dummy tanks were used in training exercises in Germany under General Oswald Lutz and his deputy Colonel Heinz Guderian, both keen students of the works of Fuller and Liddell-Hart. 70 Leichtraktors were assembled between 1928 and 1931 for clandestine training and experiments.

In 1931, the Army Weapons Department issued a formal requirement for three main types of tank: a light training tank and medium and heavy vehicles superior in firepower and maneuverability to their British, French and Soviet counterparts. The rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was a key milestone in the development of the German tank force, or Panzerwaffe. The German Army had already been gradually increasing the pace of German rearmament, throwing off the hated shackles of Versailles and bringing the clandestine efforts of the 1920s increasingly into the light. The General Staff initially wanted to increased the peacetime strength of the Army to 560,000 men and 36 divisions by 1938, with a mobilized field force of 95 divisions. Hitler demanded a force of 650,000 by the end of 1934, which began a long armaments program aimed at building up to a strength of 1,240,000 men in 54 divisions by October 1939 and a wartime field army of 8,625,000 men. The massive expansion of industrial production, financed by Mefo credit bills, was one of many drivers that bought Nazi Germany out of the aftermath of the Great Depression and pushed the economy towards near full employment. Conscription was reintroduced in 1935, swelling the ranks of the Reichswehr and alarming Germany’s neighbours.

Guderian and others proposed a new method of warfare that emphasized offensive manoeuvre by concentrated combined arms forces consisting of tanks, motorised infantry, artillery and close air support aimed at breaking through an enemy's line of defence at key strategic points by powerful, swift attacks. The breakthrough would then be exploited by tanks and other mobile forces with speed, surprise and concentrated firepower, destroying the enemy's means of resistance and paralysing their ability to react. Surrounded enemy forces would then be reduced and destroyed by following infantry and artillery units. The radio equipped tank would be the key in this strategy, supported by dive bombers and tactical airpower.

Hitler endorsed Guderian’s proposals for the creation of new Panzer divisions and enthusiastically supported the development of new and larger weapons of war. He was particularly taken by demonstrations of heavy tanks and this played a noteworthy role in the expedited development of the largest German tank of the interwar period. The 1931 heavy tank design was to be based on a heavier version the successful Grosstraktor, while a pair of medium tank designs were approved for development. Technical difficulties associated with German rearmament such as industrial bottlenecks in the production of armour and guns delayed the completion of the two medium tank prototypes until early 1934, but the 45 ton Sturmpanzerwagen began testing in late 1933. It was a twin turreted tank equipped with a 75mm gun in the main turret, a 37mm gun in the forward turret and four machine guns and was protected by over 65mm of armour. Like most heavy tanks of the era, it was comparatively slow with a top speed of 38km/hour, but this was not considered problematic for its intended purpose of direct infantry support. A total of 367 Sturmpanzerwagens were built between 1935 and 1938.

Specifications for the light training tank were drawn up and issued to Krupp, Henschel, MAN, Daimler-Benz and Rheinmetal in early 1932, with the vehicle intended to prepare the industry for future production as well as train Germany’s armoured forces. The prototype was presented to the Reichswehr by Krupp in July 1932 and given the official description of the Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper, or agricultural tractor. At 12 tons and equipped with a 3.7cm cannon, it was a lightly armoured but fast vehicle, capable of reaching speeds of 50 kilometres per hour. It was accepted into service as the Panzerkampfwagen I Ausführung. A after initial rigorous testing in late 1933 and serial production began in April 1934. 528 Panzer I Ausf. As were built in 1934 and 1935 before production switched to the Ausf. B in July 1935, an improved model with a more powerful engine and more reliable gearbox; a total of 1054 were built between 1935 and the cessation of production in March 1937. The Panzer I was never viewed as entirely satisfactory as a frontline light tank, given the larger armament carried by its French and Soviet counterparts and an enlarged variant began production in September 1935. The Panzer II was large for a light tank at 18 tons due to its stronger armoured protection which reached 32mm in some places, but was capable of reaching a road speed of 60 kilometres per hour and carried a powerful 5cm Pak L/50 gun. A total of 1736 Panzer IIs of four different variants were built between 1935 and 1939.

The Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks had their origins in the prevailing armoured warfare theories of the late 1920s, which set out two main tasks for the medium tank – directly engaging other tanks in mobile combat and the destruction of infantry and anti-tank artillery positions. The 25t Panzer III was to be the lighter, faster vehicle designed to destroy enemy armour and the 36t Panzer IV would the heavier infantry support tank capable of neutralizing fortifications. Each tank battalion in the new Panzer divisions was to have three Panzer III medium companies and one Panzer IV heavy company. The Panzer III began testing in 1934 and the first mass production vehicles entered service in late 1936. It was armed with a 7.5cm/45 gun, was protected by 50mm of armour on the glacis and had a top speed of 48km per hour. It pioneered several features including torsion bar suspension and a versatile three man turret. 1483 were in service at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The armament of the Panzer IV was a 7.5cm/40 gun and two 7.92mm machine guns and it was protected by up to 65mm of frontal armour, making it ideally suited for its role. It was markedly slower than the Panzer III at 39km per hour, but was noted for its steady reliability and crew comfort. 776 were in service at the beginning of the war.

The outbreak of war saw the German Panzers immediately committed to the early form of what would later become known as the Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. On the 1st of September, 1939, at 4:45am Central European Time, under cover of darkness, the German battleship Bismarck commences firing on the fortress Westerplatte, a Polish army installation at the mouth of the port of Danzig, Poland. Simultaneously, shock-troops of the German Wehrmacht begin crossing the border into Poland. 2,960,000 German soldiers in 93 infantry divisions and 12 panzer divisions supported by over 4000 Luftwaffe aircraft, 76 airships, 29 dragons and 4658 tanks surged across the Polish border in three main thrusts, where they were faced by 1,780,000 Polish troops organized in 67 infantry divisions and 21 cavalry brigades equipped with 1083 tanks. The war widened quickly as 35 Austro-Hungarian divisions struck from the south on September 2nd in support of their German allies and Britain and France declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on September 3rd. An initial French attack into the Saar soon petered out in the face of heavy German artillery fire and halted after advancing 12 miles.

German armour spearheaded the swift advance across Poland, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw within a week. The outnumbered Polish 12TP and 20TP light and medium tanks had the measure of Panzer I equipped reconaissance screens in the initial frontier battles, but were decisively outmatched by the Panzer IIs and IIIs that made up the majority of the German tank force. As the invasion proceeded, the speed and mobility of the Panzer Is came to the fore and they were able fulfill their original role. The Polish Army was inexorably driven back towards the east and its sole hope of the Romanian Bridgehead, despite heroic stands on the Hel Peninsula,Westerplatte and the Battle of Wizna and the grim siege of Warsaw. On September 16th, in an act of infamy that shocked the world, the Red Army attacked from the east, sealing the fate of the Kingdom of Poland. Warsaw capitulated on October 3rd and the final operational units of the Polish Army in the field, the Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna ‘Polesie’ surrendered near Lublin after a five day battle. The victory was not without cost - the German Army lost 29,543 men killed or missing, 57,804 wounded and 891 tanks destroyed, whilst the the Luftwaffe lost 529 aircraft. Polish casualties were estimated to be at least 96,000 dead and 210,000 wounded.

The war now turned westwards as Hitler shifted his focus onto France and the Low Countries. The initial OKH plan called for a massed advance through Belgium and the Netherlands to the Channel Ports. A modified version was prepared by Lieutenant-General Erich von Manstein at the behest of Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt that shifted the direction of the attack towards the Somme, with the offensive scheduled to begin on the 18th of January 1940. This was delayed when a set of detailed battle plans fell into Allied hands after an off-course German Bf.108 was forced to land in Belgium after an aerial intercept by RAF griffons. Hitler summoned Manstein, who had been redeployed to Stettin as the result of internal conflict between Chief of Staff Fritz von Halder and von Rundstedt, to a conference on February 15th, where he laid out an audacious plan for the strike through the Low Countries by Army Group A to be followed by a thrust through Sedan to the Channel by Army Group B aimed at cutting off a large part of the Allied armies in Belgium. The offensive would be spearheaded by no less than ten Panzer divisions, predominantly equipped with Panzer IIIs and IVs, and a sizeable proportion of the German Army’s motorized and cavalry forces.

The invasions of Norway and Denmark in April did not feature heavy use of tanks, with the major factor in the eventual bloody stalemate in the former case being the control of the seas of the Royal Navy. The storm broke over the Western Front on May 10th 1940 as the invasion of the Low Countries was launched with a wave of terror bombing from the skies and slashing advances into Belgium and the Netherlands by German mobile columns. The Battle of the Gembloux Gap saw the largest clash of tanks to date and effectively concluded the career of the Panzer I as a frontline vehicle as dozens were knocked out by French Somuas beyond the range of their main armament. The maneuverability of the Panzer IIs and IIIs of the three German armoured divisions enabled them to escape near encirclement and strike a heavy blow on the French 2e Division Cuirassée, with the 50mm guns of the medium tanks wrecking particular havoc.

As battle raged in Belgium, the main blow of Fall Gelb struck the French through the Ardennes. The first advanced infantry units reached the Meuse on the afternoon of May 12th and proceeded to force crossings of the river in three separate locations near the historic fortress town of Sedan. French defences were overwhelmed by Stuka dive bombers and massed carpet bombing by He-111 and Ju-88 medium bombers in a continual eight hour air attack that saw over 5000 sorties flown. As night fell, dozens of Luftwaffe airships joined the bombardment of superheavy guns firing from 60 miles away in Luxembourg and the dark was lit with the flashes of sorcerous lightning and the crackle of dragonfire. The Battle of Sedan had begun in earnest. On the next day, the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions and the Grossdeutschland Infantry Division forced their way across the Meuse on either side of Sedan under a storm of French artillery fire and large pontoon bridges were under construction by darkness. Two reinforced French infantry divisions lay between them and a breach in the Allied flank. On May 14th, an intense battle began along the secondary French line between Bulson and Chechery that was marked by the distinct superiority of the Panzer IVs over French tanks and anti-tank guns and the destruction of many French heavy tanks from the flanks and rear by fast moving Panzer IIIs. The 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions broke loose and sped forward towards the Oise, the last effective barrier between them and the Channel. The bloody fighting around Sedan continued until May 16th and was noteworthy for the immense sacrifices of the light bombers and dive bombers of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force and the French Air Force, whose efforts destroyed three bridges and delayed the German advance just as significantly as the stand of the 11th Army at Laon.

The first phase of the German offensive in the West ground to a halt on May 19th. The better part of three Panzer divisions had been severely weakened in the process of dealing the 11th Army a crushing defeat. The tactical pause that followed saw the massive commitment of the Luftwaffe to screen the movement of German armour from across the front to concentrate on the line between Hirson and Marles in an approach that mixed elements of blitzkrieg doctrine and more traditional breakthrough warfare. The operational force of Sturmpanzerwagen heavy tanks was concentrated with the two forward infantry corps who would attempt to break through the French line and the eight Panzer divisions were heavily reinforced with Panzer III and IV tanks hastily bought forward from reserve units in Germany. The second phase of the Battle of France resulted in the well known German breakthrough, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and the fall of Metropolitan France. By the time of the armistice on July 2nd, the Wehrmacht had suffered 246,358 casualties, including 76,000 killed or missing, and had lost 1792 tanks and 2468 aircraft in return for the conquest of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France and driving the British Army from the Continent. These were grievous losses, but light compared to OKH’s 1939 estimations of three quarters of a million casualties. The swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower as Hitler triumphantly toured the empty streets of Paris with his escort of black-armoured SS knights and the German people ecstatically celebrated the seeming end of the war.

The joy of victory gave way swiftly to the realization that the war would continue for several more months at least. Britain and the Empire fought on, as did the broken vestiges of the Free French government in Algeria and Morocco. Hitler toyed with the notion of curtailing armaments production and reducing the priority of several advanced weapons development programmes, but changed his position after a series of cajoling discussions with OKH, who were set to planning the invasions of Britain and the Soviet Union. Decisions were made regarding tank production that would have a wide reaching effect on the war. Combat against British and French heavy and medium tanks gave additional impetus to a prewar projects to replace existing German tanks and design parameters for a 56 ton heavy tank and a 42 ton medium tank were finalized in mid July and early September 1940 respectively. A 7.5cm/40 gun version of the Panzer III, the Ausf. G, underwent successful testing from August to November and production shifted to this type in 1941. Panzer IV production similarly shifted to the Ausf. D in November, which featured increased side and glacis armour and a 7.5cm/60 gun.

1329 Panzer IIs were produced during the war by the end of production in 1941, with the majority of later vehicles being transferred to the Turkish Army and German forces operating on the Ottoman front. The chassis were used for a variety of armoured vehicles, in particular the Marder self propelled anti-tank guns. The Panzer III continued production through to mid 1943 and was the main German tank in service in the Soviet Union for the first two years of the war on the Eastern Front. It enjoyed considerable superiority over the T-26 and BT tanks that made up the majority of the Red Army’s strength, but met a match in the T-34 medium and KV heavy tanks. The Panzer III could penetrate the frontal protection of the T-34 at ranges under 500m, but the KV tanks proved effectively invulnerable save when the German guns employed special tungsten ammunition. It began to be relegated to second line training duties and subsidiary theatres such as Spain from mid 1942 as larger numbers of Panzer IVs and Panthers replaced them. A total of 8996 Panzer IIIs were built between 1940 and 1943 and its chassis also served as the basis of the 75mm armed Sturmgeschutz III assault gun, which was far easier and cheaper to manufacture than turreted tanks; 12487 StuG IIIs were built over the course of the war.

The Panzer IV was the most widely manufactured German tank of the war, with 12,648 produced between 1940 and 1945 across six major variants. It was the most exported German tank of the war, being supplied to Austria-Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. The upgunned Ausf. Ds and Es served through Operation Barbarossa and the first hard year of fighting in the Soviet Union before being replaced by the ultimate series of the Panzer IV, the F and G variants. These were equipped with a 7.5cm L/70 main gun and additional appliqué armour on the front and sides of the vehicle. They were able to engage the T-34/76 on a reasonably equal basis, but were outmatched by the T-34/85s that entered combat in mid 1943. The German position on the Eastern Front shifted from the offensive to defence from early 1943 onwards and the Panzer IVs firepower and protection made it well suited for the battles along the Panther-Wotan Line that raged into the early months of 1944. Monthly production peaked in September 1943 at 416 tanks, but fell rapidly in late 1944 and 1945 as the RAF and USAF bombing campaign dealt their deathblows to German industry. The Panzer IV also served as the basis for the Jagdpanzer, a 8.8cm KwK 36 L/60 armed medium tank destroyer that saw increasing production in the latter half of the war. It complemented the lighter Marders and Panzerjagers effectively and was capable of knocking out Soviet T-34s when employed correctly. 7542 vehicles were built between 1942 and 1945.

The finest German tank of the war was unquestionably the Panzer V, better known to friend and foe alike as the Panther. The initial 1940 requirement for a new medium tank gained additional urgency as the Germans encountered the T-34 and KV tanks of the Red Army in the invasion of the Soviet Union. The first mild steel prototype was tested at Kummersdorf and accepted for immediate production in September 1941. The 48t Panther reached a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour powered by a 750hp Maybach V12 engine and was armed with a powerful 8.8cm KwK 36 L/60 gun and a pair of MG.34 machine guns. The crew of five was well protected by 100mm of turret armour angled at 60 degrees, but were vulnerable to catastrophic ammunition explosions due to issues of storage in side sponsons that were never fully solved during the war. The first Panthers went into action at the First Battle of Rzhev in January 1942 and immediately proved themselves as formidable opponents. Production of the Panther would not reach projected levels until 1943 and monthly deliveries peaked at 562 in June 1944. The appearance of the Panther directly lead to the development of the Soviet T-34/85 and its performance against Allied tanks in Spain and Italy in early 1943 was the major driver in the introduction of 25pdr and 90mm tanks in the British and American armies. Perhaps the finest hours of the Panther were in the Battle of Normandy, where they inflicted heavy casualties on Allied Sherman and Crusader tanks and held their own against the first combat use of the Centurion and the Pershing and in the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944, which represented Nazi Germany’s last assault in the West. A total of 12,387 Panthers were built between 1941 and 1945 and some surviving specimens went on to equip some units of the French and Italian Armies in the immediate postwar period.

Only 2897 Panzer VI Tiger I and II heavy tanks were produced in the Second World War, but the type remains the most well known and feared German tank of the conflict. The Tiger entered production in July 1941 as a long overdue replacement for the Sturmpanzerwagen and the 64 ton titan bought unmatched firepower and protection to the battlefield. Its armament consisted of a 10.5cm KwK 40 L/54 gun adapted from the 10.5cm Flak 38 and three 7.92mm machine guns. The Tiger was protected by up to 150mm of frontal armour which made it almost impervious to most Allied anti-tank and tank guns at combat ranges at the cost of a moderate top speed of 40km/hour. The first combat use of the Tiger was in the Battle of Moscow, where only the fire over open sights of Red Army heavy guns and the few KV-3s proved able to penetrate its armour. This heavyweight status proved to be something of an Achilles heel of the Tiger, as it proved to lack mobility across the battlefield and had a slow rate of turret traverse. This made them somewhat vulnerable to ambush and aerial attack by Allied and Soviet fighter-bombers, attack planes and aerial wizardry. Tigers were mostly deployed in separate schwere Panzer-Abteilung, but several Waffen SS and Guards divisions were graced with permanent Tiger companies in their armoured regiments. They saw action in the climactic battles in the Western Desert in 1942 and spearheaded the first offensives into Stalingrad later in the year. In early 1944, production shifted to the 12.8cm armed Tiger II, which had even more powerful frontal armour that put further strain on its overburdened drive train. By this time, the British, American and Soviet armies had the tanks that could match the hulking Tigers in the form of the Centurion, Super Pershing and the T-44/100 and the tactical impact was minimal. The last gasps of the Nazi defence of Berlin against the Allies saw Tiger IIs perform exceptionally well in urban combat, where their lack of maneuverability and speed were less significant.

Two even heavier vehicles saw service with the German Army in the Second World War – the 87 ton Panzer VII Löwe and the 154 ton Panzer VIII Elefant. The Löwe was designed to respond to the appearance of the KV-3 around Moscow in early 1942 and provide a true breakthrough tank for use in the expected urban battles to come. Entering service in December 1943, it was armed with an adapted 12.8cm naval gun and protected by up to 185mm of turret armour, which limited its top speed to 29 km/hour. Only 129 were built in the last two years of the war and they mainly served as barely mobile strongpoints to anchor the increasingly desperate defensive efforts on the Western and Eastern Fronts. The primary response of the Western Allies was to counter the Löwe with aircraft equipped with 6” air to ground rockets and QF 6pdr Molins guns, but the most devastating blow came in a Royal Flying Corps dragon attack on the Siegfried Line near Aachen that destroyed ten vehicles in two minutes. The Elefant was developed as an enlarged version of the Löwe armed with a 17cm heavy gun upon Hitler’s personal insistence and his bizarre predilection for increasingly gigantic vehicles. Only 12 were built by the final twilight of the Third Reich in March 1945 and all but three were destroyed in the last ditch fighting of the Battle of Berlin. The partially completed prototype of a monstrous thousand ton landship was captured when the Krupp factory at Essen was overrun by the British 2nd Army in late January, indicating that still larger and impractical behemoths were planned.

At the other end of the scale was the 25 ton VK 1602 Leopard light tank. Plans had been under development since late 1938 for a new fast reconaissance tank and the increasing obsolescence of the Panzer II in the first year of the war gave this requirement added impetus. The Leopard was armed with a 75mm L/70 gun and was capable of reaching speeds upwards of 75 km/hour, not far short of the frontline heavy armoured cars then in service with the German Army. It lacked the heavy protection and armament to operate in a frontline environment against the likes of the T-34, but its speed, sloped armour, low profile and versatility made it one of the more successful light tanks of the latter half of the war. A total of 4239 Leopards were built between 1942 and 1945 and a number were used by the Romanian, Ruritanian and Bulgarian Armies postwar.

Germany lay prostrate and occupied by the armies of the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Poland and Canada following its utter defeat in 1945 and only the most adroit of observers could have forseen that just 9 years later, tank production would resume in Germany. The initial interim tanks of the reformed German Army were British Centurions and American M-48s, but these were gradually replaced from 1958 onwards with the Panther II main battle tank, a well balanced 52 ton vehicle armed with a licensed version of the Royal Ordnance L7 105mm gun, and an upgraded version of the Tiger II powered by a new engine and protected with modern armour. Germany was prohibited by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin from the export of any weapon systems, including tanks, but, at the dawn of the 1960s, the prospects of the German tank seemed bright.

[Simon Darkshade]

American Tank Development Part I: 1861-1919

The history of the American tank can be traced back to the US Civil War of 1861-1865 and the use of armoured steamwagons to move heavy artillery in the support of several protracted sieges, particularly those of Vicksburg and Petersburg, which served as a harbinger of the grim industrial warfare to come over the next century. Other means of moving siege guns around the battlefield proved to be extremely unwieldly in comparison to the reliability of the steamwagon. However, in the vastly reduced postwar army, these tactical lessons were forgotten vehicles were laid up like so much other heavy equipment for the next three decades. The bloody Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s were fought primarily with cavalry and the vast distances of the Great Plains highlighted the key weaknesses of the mechanical horse and the steamwagon – short tactical range and a lack of speed in comparison to their equine counterparts.

The next major conflict to involve the United States was the Spanish-American War of 1898-99. Although the most well-known battles of the conflict were primarily naval affairs, such as the Battle of Manila Bay in the Pacific and the grand clash of the battlefleets at the Battle of Santo Domingo in the West Indies, the protracted ground operations in Hispaniola gave some scope for the employment of armoured steam powered vehicles. Two Civil War era steamwagons were used to convey men and guns to the forward trenchlines alongside several smaller contraptions of more modern construction. Their utility was noted by several individuals of note, including Colonel William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, General George Custer , Colonel Theodore Roosevelt of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known to posterity as the ‘Rough Riders’ and former Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln, who visited the battlefield during the protracted Siege of Santo Domingo.

As the 20th century dawned, the primary threat to the security of the United States was Germany. Relations between the two powers had been on a slow decline since the Caribbean Affair of 1895 and hit new depths with the 1902 Venezuela Crisis, which briefly put the two empires on the brink of war. The primary response to the menace of Imperial Germany came through the growing United States Navy and the formidable array of coastal artillery emplaced around East Coast ports, but also through an increase in the size of the United States Army to 125,000 by 1912 and a gradual introduction of powerful modern equipment. Armoured cars and Holt tractors were acquired in small numbers, with the latter permitting the movement of artillery across a variety of arcanely simulated broken country in annual maneuvers in 1910 and 1911. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt had seen an overall move towards preparedness that was tempered during William Jennings Bryan’s Democratic administration and its more pacific instincts. The bitterly fought election of 1912 saw the mercurial Roosevelt return to the White House in a most narrow triumph after the Whigs, Democrats and Socialists split the vote against him. The initial years of his third term were marked by cooling of relations with Mexico and considerable alarm at the deterioration of international relations in Europe.

The outbreak of war in July 1914 was met with general dismay and a generally unified determination to balance traditional neutrality with the protection of American interests in Europe and on the high seas. The early engagements between German and British cruiser and battlecruiser forces drew considerable attention and demonstrated that there was no guarantee that the conflict would not spill over into the Western Hemisphere. The subsequent Battles of the Falkland Islands and Trinidad bought events perilously close to American shores and put paid to many utopian hopes of confining the conflict to far-off Europe. This new war spread out across the globe like the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War, but unlike those, it was a true World War in its own right. Roosevelt’s policies of preparation of the United States Army to cope with a variety of contingencies lead to a rush of proposals for innovative weapons from luminaries such as Thomas Edison and unknown scientists alike. The US Army’s artillery park began a much needed expansion and modernization that would prove to be exceptionally prescient in the battles of 1917 and 1918. However, the American genius for manufacturing and the burgeoning strength of the automobile construction industry combined in its happiest marriage in the development of nascent armoured vehicles.

Edison’s Armoured Steamwagon proposal of 1912 was revisited in December 1914 and early 1915 as the armies of Europe became bogged down in the bloody slaughter of trench warfare and many minds across the Atlantic turned to the optimal means of achieving victory in the increasingly likely circumstance of American involvement. The updated design was a 69 ton tracked vehicle powered by two steam engines and capable of crossing a broken battlefield at 4mph while carrying an armament of four machine guns. Unlike the rhomboid vehicles then currently under secret development in Britain, Edison’s proposal was far more rounded and capable of higher road speeds over short distances. Independent design work was carried out by a number of manufacturing, arms and engineering concerns, with Bethlehem Steel’s Machine Gun Destroyer incorporating an angular ram prow for breaking through field works and wire defences. Perhaps the most interesting early American design was the Algernon Steam Triship, a 387t tricycle behemoth armed with multiple 2.95” mountain howitzers mounted in sponsons and powered by a unique system of clockwork automatons. The War Department declined to pursue development on grounds of practicality and the inventor was later committed to an asylum for attempting to smoke a herring. The debut of British and German tanks and landships in late 1915 proved to have a chilling effect on the myriad indigenous American armoured vehicle designs and the attentions of the War Department turned towards the development of improved European-type vehicles.

The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on March 3rd 1916, following a gradual series of provocations beginning with the heinous sinking of RMS Lusitania and culminating in the Zimmerman Telegram, which offered German support to Mexico to regain the territories lost in the war of 1848. President Roosevelt mustered the considerable ire of the U.S. public and began the arduous process of raising and arming the greatest force ever to leave the Americas under the command of General John Pershing. The first American troops reached France in July 1916, memorably proclaiming ”Lafayette, we are here!” before the tomb of the Revolutionary War hero, but it would take over a year before US forces could be independently deployed in the field in appreciable numbers, due to the sheer size of the logistical task before them. One of the key early decisions taken to ameliorate the difficulties of supply was to employ, where possible, the standard munitions and armaments of the more experienced Allies, which lead to the adoption of British heavy and French light tanks during the campaigns of 1917 and 1918. An Anglo-American joint effort for the development and production of a new heavy tank began in November 1916, but was not expected to produce appreciable numbers of vehicles for at least a year. In the interim, licenced production of existing Allied models was the only means available to supply US armoured forces.

The first tank to enter mass production in the United States was the Mark IV heavy tank, which augmented British production and saw service with the American Expeditionary Force’s newly established United States Army Tank Corps at the Battle of Arras and the First Battle of St. Mihiel, the latter being the AEF’s first major independent victory in the latter half of 1917. It was well liked for its toughness, hard-hitting armament and relative reliability, but there were never enough available for decisive employment nor for coping with the numerous mechanical casualties and battle losses that came with such a war. Twenty-six were destroyed in one of the most devastating German draconic attacks of the latter half of the war in the early stages of the Battle of Arras. 390 were built in the United States during 1917, but the Mark IV was always intended as an interim type while the Anglo-American Mark VIII or ‘Liberty tank’ was developed.

The Renault FT-17 proved exceptionally popular and well-suited to the American way of war, which emphasized offensive action and the continual application of heavy firepower along the enemy front. French industrial capacity had its limitations and the Inter-Allied Tank Commission recommended that the Renault FT be manufactured in the United States. Several vehicles, plans and parts were shipped across the Atlantic aboard the battlecruiser USS Powhatan to the Ordnance Department. Orders were placed with several private armaments concerns for the manufacture of tanks and, despite initial difficulties from incompatible measures and bureaucratic bumbling, the first American vehicles rolled off the production line in November 1917. A total of 1265 were built out of a total order of 5800 over the course of 1918 and they served as the mainstay of the peacetime American tank force of the 1920s.

In January 1918, the first of 1032 US manufactured Mark VIIIs entered service with the AEF, representing a substantial increase in capability over the Mark IV and light tanks through the firepower of its 12pdr main gun and sponson mounted 6pdrs and its more powerful engines. It would prove to be the backbone of the U.S. Tank Corps in the bitter fighting which halted the German Spring Offensive and the great successes of the Allied Meuse-Argonne and Lorraine Offensives that followed in the Hundred Days that ended the war. The tremendous victory at the Siege of Metz and the vaunted achievements of Pershing’s tough dwarven artillerymen from the Appalachian and Rockies would not have been possible without the grinding breakthroughs spearheaded by the Liberty Tanks that allowed the doughboys to encircle and reduce an entire German field army. During the final weeks of pursuit through to the Rhine, many Mark VIIIs were hastily adapted to include a shielded position for AEF wizards atop the main turret in order to suppress hastily erected enemy field positions; most were removed postwar in the great contraction of the Tank Corps.

One of the less successful vehicles planned for the U.S. Tank Corps was the Ford 5-ton M1918 light tank. Design as a cheap alternative to the FT suitable for mass production, 20,000 vehicles were ordered in March 1918, but only 102 were produced by the Armistice in November. A small, two-man light tank armed with a single .30/06 machine gun, the M1918 had a short operational range, was not substantially faster than the heavy and medium tanks of the time and was markedly inferior to the FT in firepower and top speed. The single squadron that did see action in France proved that it did have a certain degree of viability on the battlefield when used to escort infantry during the pursuit phase of an offensive, but overall, the vehicle was too small and too slow to provide a useful basis for future development.

The rapid German collapse in the latter half of 1918 came as a surprise to the Allied High Command, who had expected the war to carry over into 1919. This was reflected by the extensive plans put in place to effect a decisive defeat of the Imperial German Army in the field in that year, the strategy known as Plan 1919. Initially developed by then Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, one of the British Army’s most prescient armoured warfare thinkers, it called for a breakthrough by concentrated artillery, infantry and almost 5000 heavy and superheavy tanks to be followed by a fast thrust by thousands of medium and light tanks into the enemy’s rear, destroying headquarters, supply dumps and railheads and ravaging their lines of communication. This would be supported by several thousand aeroplanes specially designed for bombing and trench fighting and the use of new, powerful war gasses. The role of the American Expeditionary Force would come to the fore in this strategy, Pershing’s reinforced army group of 76 divisions providing the southern arm of the grand assault and American factories producing ever increasing numbers of Medium Mark As and Mark VIII Heavy tanks to arm the grand alliance.

The final American tank project of 1918 emerged directly from the ambitious scope of Plan 1919 and was quite possibly the most powerful Allied tank of the Great War. Unfortunately for its proponents, it never saw action in the manner of the British Dreadnoughts, but the 138t M1920 Superheavy tank represents the epitome of the first decade of American tank design. It was armed with a 5” gun capable of penetrating the armour of any enemy tank and wreaking untold havoc on all but the most formidable fieldworks and protected by almost three inches of frontal armour plate, a colossal amount for this era. Whilst the M1920 could not quite reach the top speed of the Dreadnought, it was surprisingly maneuverable for a tank of such sheer bulk. It’s one downfall can be deduced by its designation, as the protracted development process meant that the war had finished by the time design work and the testing of a prototype had been completed. Only four M1920s were produced in the atmosphere of rapid retrenchment that pervaded the U.S. military establishment in the immediate postwar years. They would remain immobile and seemingly forgotten for over two decades until their own rendezvous with destiny.

Overall, the few American tanks of the Great War were successful vehicles that represented variations of and improvements upon their British and French counterparts, belying the wide range of unorthodox and creative designs that had so permeated peacetime. Like the other victorious Allies, the U.S. Army would greatly reduce the numbers of their postwar tank force in the heady throes of peace as the true role of tanks and other tracked armoured vehicles was the subject of intense debate and theorizing. The years ahead would be lean and bitter, but their eventual harvest was bountiful.

[Simon Darkshade]

American Tank Development Part II: 1920-1939

The peacetime tank force of the U.S. Army was substantially smaller in comparison to the heady heights reached in November 1918 and the United States Army Tank Corps itself was a casualty of this contraction, being disbanded as a separate branch of the Army in 1920. General Pershing had recommended in mid-1919 to the Joint Committee on Military Affairs that tanks be placed under the operational control of the infantry branch and advocates of independent armoured operations such as Colonel George S. Patton were faint voices in the wilderness against the great clamour for retrenchment. One heavy and two light tank regiments were formed to control the rump force remaining in active service, with the 67th Infantry (Heavy Tank) Regiment commanded by Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, a respected combat veteran who had won renown in the Battle of Alsace and the 66th Infantry (Light Tank) Regiment under the hard-charging former cavalryman Patton. The Mark VIII Liberty tanks and the M1917s soldiered on through the quiet years of the early 1920s, engaging in regular exercises around their headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland and generally disappearing from both popular attention.

American foreign military operations were mainly the province of the United States Marine Corps in this era and a small number of light tanks were seconded for service in China, Central America and the Philippines, planting the seed for future Marine armoured tactics and requirements. The Mark VIIIs soon faded into relative obsolescence and a requirement for their replacement lead to the General Staff’s acquiescence for the development of a new medium tank in 1924. The subsequent M1925 Medium Tank was a 20 ton vehicle armed with a turreted 57mm gun and capable of the heady top speed of 16mph, its weight and dimensions being constrained by the limitations of pontoon bridges set by the Corps of Engineers. A total of 236 were produced between 1926 and 1933, serving mainly as training vehicles apart from limited anti-bandit operations along the Mexican border in the height of the Great Depression. 28 earlier variants were sold to Argentina in 1931 and were among the most modern tanks employed in the dreadful fighting of the Chaco War, which saw most of South America enveloped in bloody conflict.

The venerable M1917s reached the end of the effective service life in 1926 and a requirement for its replacement lead to the T1 light tank programme. A 9 ton vehicle armed with a semi-automatic 37mm gun and a co-axial .30 calibre M1919 Browning machine gun, it was protected by up to an inch of armour, reached a top speed of 24mph and performed creditably in cross-country trials. The T1 was a therefore a success in three out of the four essential components of armoured vehicle design, failing only in the area of politics, due to tight peacetime finances and support for the international reduction of armaments. Only four prototype vehicles were built before the programme was cancelled in 1928. The M1917s would continue to soldier on until 1937 when the last vehicles were finally retired from active service; thirty tanks were transferred to the Philippines where they saw brief service against Japanese invasion forces in 1941. There, they delivered several unpleasant shocks to unprepared infantry assaults before being overwhelmed by sheer enemy numbers, hastily employed light artillery and several hitherto secret Japanese combat spells.

The beginning of the end of the locust years of American tank development came in 1928, when Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis authorized the re-organization of the Tank Corps in response to noteworthy armoured developments in Britain, the Soviet Union and France. It is perhaps historically ironic that the comparatively brief cooling of Anglo-American relations between the wars provided the foundations for their subsequent flowering and glorious victory, but worthy of examination nonetheless. The early planning stages of what would become War Plan Red called for a three pronged assault on Eastern Canada aimed at Halifax, Montreal and Toronto through the teeth of the strongest and most well-established Canadian border fortifications before any possibility of British intervention by the coordinated use of superheavy artillery, poison gas, dragonstrikes and tanks. This in turn lead to an operational requirement for a new, modern heavy tank, the 76t M1930. Development was partway complete before being severely reduced in priority the next year as the Great Depression took a stranglehold on Federal government spending. The design went through substantial revision over the next three years before production finally began in 1935. The M1930A4 was a heavily protected behemoth, with maximum frontal armour of 110mm and reached a steady top road speed of 20mph. It was noteworthy as the last American tank to feature heavy armament in sponsons, carrying a pair of 57mm guns as well as a 4.7” gun in the main turret. A total of 93 tanks were built between 1935 and 1939, serving in a limited training role in the Continental United States during the Second World War, being too heavy for overseas transport; much use was made of them in several propaganda pictures and newsreels during the early days of American participation in the conflict.

As well as the death of one tank type, 1931 saw the birth of another. General Douglas MacArthur had been appointed Chief of Staff of the United States Army in November 1930 and made his mark as a strong supporter of mechanization of the Army. The infantry and cavalry were directed to adopt motorized transport and mechanized armoured vehicles in 1931, lifting the previous limitation on the development of and operation of tanks. The primary requirement of both arms of service was for a fast, mobile light tank and the Rock Island Arsenal began design work in late 1932. Japanese aggression and expansionism in Manchuria gave additional impetus to the programme, as well as influencing President Roosevelt’s decision to begin increasing defence funding. The prototype of the 16 ton M2 light tank was completed in 1934 and it proved to be extremely successful in both the infantry and cavalry roles. Reaching a top speed of 38mph, it was equipped with a new high velocity 37mm gun and a superior new vertical volute spring suspension and was protected by up to 2 inches of armour. Production began in October 1935 and 1142 had been built by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. It was supplied to the British, French and Canadian armies in 1940 and 1941 as the formidable arsenal of democracy that was the United States began to mobilize for war, being given the nickname ‘Stuart’, after the famed Confederate cavalry commander. The various marks of the M2 saw ubiquitous service in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945. A total of 23,487 were built between 1935 and 1944, ranking it as one of the most produced tanks in history.

The expansion of the U.S. Army’s tank programme took on ever greater pace and significance from the mid 1930s as the mechanized cavalry and infantry tank regiments were organized in a single Armored Force in 1938 after recommendations from an august board of review chaired by General Adna R. Chaffee. It was renamed the 1st Armored Division in December 1939 in reaction to the outbreak of war in Europe and placed under Chaffee’s command. The majority of the cavalry regiments of the Army had already been converted from mounted units to light tanks and armoured cars by this stage and production orders for the M2 were greatly increased to reflect the ever-growing demand. It was intended that the 1st Armored Division and future tank units would be organized as square divisions with one medium and one light tank brigade, which placed additional urgency to an existing requirement for a modern medium tank.

The M1925 had never been regarded as fully satisfactory and various unsuccessful proposals had been fielded for its replacement since the late 1920s. In January 1936, an enlarged variant of the M2 light tank was chosen for development, sharing many components with the earlier, proven design. Originally designated the T5, the M2 Medium Tank weighed 20 tons and entered production in October 1938 for an initial order of 200 vehicles. It was powered by a supercharged Wright R-975 radial aeroengine and was capable of reaching a top speed of 28mph in optimal conditions. The 57mm armament was somewhat lighter than some of its European counterparts, but it was solidly protected by up to two inches of armour and regarded as a well-rounded vehicle. Mass production was to take place at the vast new Detroit Army Tank Plant and a contract for 1500 tanks was placed by the U.S. Government in June 1940. Overseas events were to prove to be the Achilles heel of what would have previously been regarded a satisfactory vehicle, as the Battle of France demonstrated the distinct vulnerability of existing Allied medium tanks to modern German tank and anti-tank guns. The existing M2s were to be employed for training purposes whilst new, more powerful tanks were produced in mass quantities.

The last fugacious years of peace were marked by the nascent stages in the development of two medium tanks and one heavy tank that would be the mainstay of the U.S. Army and myriad Allied forces in the terrible war to come, one of which was to be produced in numbers never matched in the entire of the Western world. Whilst American tank development between the wars ultimately produced but one singularly successful vehicle in the form of the M2 Light Tank, the others served as important steps in the evolution of armoured warfare design and practice in the United States.

[Simon Darkshade]

American Tank Development Part III: The Second World War

At the time of the British and French declaration of war against Germany on September 4th 1939, the regular United States Army numbered just 238,000 men organized in 12 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions and ranked as the 18th largest army in the world, behind that of Portugal. This relatively small force was supported by 364,000 strong National Guard and the 240,000 men of the Organized Reserve. The Armored Force was equipped primarily with M2 light tanks and a mixture of old and new medium tanks, symptomatic of a distinct shortage of modern arms. As the dark clouds of war descended on Europe and the wider world, President Roosevelt declared a limited national emergency on September 8th 1939, increasing the size of the Regular Army to 300,000. This expansion saw the redesignation of the Armored Force as the 1st Armored Division and the activation of a new unit, the 2nd Armored Division. Both of these units would win particular renown on the battlefields of Europe when the United States finally entered the war in all its power and might.

After the fall of Poland, an uneasy silence fell across Europe as two great blocs faced off against each other over the heavily fortified Franco-German border. Quiet reigned on the Western Front, but in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, the lamps burned late into the night as great and terrible plans were forged for invasion, conquest and victory. Allied grand strategy called for a naval blockade of Germany and Austria-Hungary and a steady buildup of British Empire and French land and air forces in France for a great offensive by almost 200 divisions in 1942. This necessitated the acquisition of considerable amounts of equipment above and beyond the rapidly mobilizing productive capacity of both empires that only the United States could supply. Large orders for aircraft were placed in the first months of 1940 and discussions had begun regarding orders for M2 medium tanks. The organizational structure of the armoured divisions of the US Army was set at this point and it did not alter substantially for the remainder of the war. Each division was organized in three separate Combat Commands, which commanded various combinations of the five tank, four armoured infantry and three armored artillery battalions assigned to the division. This proved to be a versatile and balanced force structure in the various theatres it was employed in over the course of the war.

On May 10th 1940, the German Army came down upon the Low Countries and France like a wolf upon the fold, putting paid to any notion of distant or phoney war as the blitzkrieg turned west. The first phase of the German assault was barely held by the desparate commitment of all Allied reserves, but at a grievous cost. The Battles of Holland, Belgium and France showed that many prewar concepts of the utility of light tanks and fast medium vehicles had been made obsolete by the rapid advance of technology and tactics. The initial success of German Panzer IIIs and IVs and British Crusaders and Valiants and the performance of anti-tank guns of all sides provided the decisive blow to the advocates of the light, fast M2. The U.S. Army’s next medium tank would need to be able to strike heavily from a distance at mobile and immobile defences alike and this would require a powerful, heavy shell, the most optimum of which was fired from the anti-tank 3” Gun M5 then entering production.

As such, the Ordnance Department issued full design characteristics of a new 32t medium tank armed with a turret mounted 76mm gun on June 3rd 1940. This vehicle would become the M-4 tank, known later to millions across the world as the Sherman, but it would not be ready for production in the immediate future. An interim replacement for the M2 would be required. It came in the form of the M3 medium tank. Based on the chassis of the abandoned M2, the 29t M3 was always intended as a compromise vehicle, fielding a fixed 76mm gun mounted in a sponson in addition to its 37mm turret as a means of getting the necessary armament to the battlefield as swiftly as possible. It was protected by up to 68mm of frontal armour and reached a top speed of 23mph on good roads. It was fated to never see active service with the United States Army, but it would serve with no less than twelve other nations, including Britain, the Soviet Union, France, China and India. The circumstances by which this occurred require an examination of the pivotal events of the second half of 1940 and 1941.

The second phase of the Battle of France saw the British Expeditionary Force cut off and evacuated from the Channel ports and the French Army smashed back from the Somme-Aisne Line. The subsequent Fall of France came as a stunning shock to the American political and military establishment and everyday citizens alike. Technicolour newsreel images of serried ranks of German troops goose-stepping down the Champs-Elysees into the heart of the City of Light were met by silent audiences throughout the United States. Stern advocates of neutrality were silenced by increasingly strident calls to provide all aid necessary for the British Empire and Free France to carry on the struggle against the dictatorships, evoking threatening images of the prewar trans-Atlantic cruise of the Scharnhorst and the great circumnavigatory feats of the Hindenburg as evidence of German designs on the Western Hemisphere. President Roosevelt acted decisively to safeguard the security of the United States through three key policies – appropriating funds for the construction of 75,000 aircraft as part of $1.78 billion of new defence spending, expanding upon existing naval construction programmes to provide for a Two Ocean Navy, ordering the National Guard into federal service and instituting a peacetime draft for the first time in American history. The authorized strength of the Army was scheduled to rise to over 2.5 million men over the next twelve months as the United States girded its loins for the defence of freedom.

The British Army, having lost significant amounts of equipment in the successful evacuation from Dunkirk and the Channel Ports, had an urgent requirement for 2000 medium tanks to arm the swelling ranks of the Royal Armoured Corps and this swiftly increased to 5000 vehicles to supply the Dominions, the British Indian Army and the exiled vestiges of the French, Belgian and Dutch armies. British and Canadian production of the Crusader and Valiant would not suffice for the combined needs of the Allies for the forseeable future and so the eyes of London turned west across the wide ocean sea. The Anglo-French Purchasing Commission expressed a preference for the T6, but the threats to the Empire’s position in Africa and the Middle East made them eager to accept whatever tanks American industry could supply. An initial 2500 M3s were formally ordered in September 1940 and the first vehicles were delivered in March 1941. A total of 9845 were built between 1941 and 1944.

It is useful at this point to discuss the exact circumstances that lead to American tanks equipping much of the armoured strength deployed by the Western Allies. America’s industrial might was now entering the war on the side of the Allies in ever-growing force, but their capacity to pay for the vast quantities of tanks, artillery, aeroplanes, ships and munitions on order was increasingly limited. President Roosevelt had proclaimed that the United States would be the great Arsenal of Democracy in November 1940, but, by the end of the year, France, Belgium and the Netherlands had come close to exhausting their hard currency reserves by the nature of the broken-backed war and even the great wealth of the British Empire was being stretched. The dreadful images of the Blitz and harrowing tales of the German yoke that weighed heavily over Europe played their role in turning the tide of American opinion in favour of support of the Allies. After consultations with Churchill and Richardson, on December 16th 1940, President Roosevelt proposed a new policy of supplying arms to the democratic powers in return for credit, what would later become known as Lend-Lease. Hard negotiations followed over the course of December and January, with the British refusing to acquiesce to the effective liquidation of their assets in the United States and South America as a precondition of aid and the Americans taking a similarly hard-nosed approach to the question of unconditional aid. British fortunes were momentarily and literally raised after the fortuitous arrival of the long-overdue Martian convoy and an eventual compromise agreement was reached that was sufficiently nebulous so that both parties felt they had got the better of the deal.

The M3 first went into action with the Desert Army in mid-1941, where it proved to be a welcome complement to the Valiant and Cavalier, which had served as the mainstay of Imperial armoured strength in the Middle East to that point. Its heavy gun armament made it a match for the Panzer IIIs that made up the majority of the Afrika Korps’ tank strength and even enabled it to hold its own against the earlier models Panzer IVs in certain circumstances. It was given the nickname of the ‘General Grant’ by the British and Commonwealth troops in the Western Desert and built up a reputation for solid reliability. They were of particular use in the dogged defence of Tobruk by the Australian 9th Division, where their role as mobile strongpoints attracted significant renown. The growing number of Crusaders redeployed from anti-invasion defences in Britain in late 1941 allowed the Desert Army to move once again onto the offensive and Tobruk was successfully relieved in November. Many Grants were subsequently shifted to second line duties guarding the tenuous Ottoman frontier with armoured units of the British Indian Army. Their heavy guns once again decisively outmatched the older German and Austrian tanks operated by the Turks. A number of converted Grants served in infantry support roles in the early phases of the Burma Campaign with both British and Indian forces, but the type was mostly replaced by newer British and Canadian produced vehicles by late 1942. A total of 2173 were operated by British, Indian and Commonwealth forces between 1941 and 1943.

It was with the loyalist Free French that the M3 saw its most protracted use, with vehicles filtering down from British units in 1942 and gladly welcomed by the nascent armoured forces being built up in Algeria and Morocco. A total of 3287 American-produced M3s were supplied to the Free French, firstly by Britain and then later directly from the United States. They remained in service throughout the remainder of the war, despite the M-4 Sherman supplanting them in frontline service in Italy, Spain and France in the final years of the conflict. Their two main roles were vital – training and direct infantry support. The disparate forces loyal to the French Crown came from across the world and the French Empire and all required re-equipment and training in the modern arts of mechanised warfare. When they were finally committed to battle, every operational French infantry division was supported by a battalion of Grants throughout the long and bitter fighting in the Mediterranean as the Trident Plan was put into action in 1942 and 1943, turning the tide against the Axis. The Sherman and Crusader may have amassed greater fame as the tanks of the Liberation of France, but behind them served the reliable and unspectacular M3.

The Red Army was the recipient of 1148 M3s, mostly in 1942, and they were regarded as unpopular, flawed vehicles compared to the powerful T-34. The significant difference in the Soviet and British Empire experience of operating the M3 can be ascribed to the harsh conditions of the Eastern Front and the presence of newer, more powerful German tanks. In such circumstances, the inability of the M3 to take a hull down position and its high silhouette proved to be distinct disadvantages. Many were thrown into the climactic Battle of Stalingrad that raged throughout the second half of the year, whilst others served in comparatively quiet garrison roles with Soviet armies in Mongolia and Tartary. The remaining Soviet M3s assigned to the Don and Stalingrad Front were converted to mobile anti-dragon gun carriers equipped with the potent M1939 85mm anti-aircraft gun as the Red Army battled the last desperate commitment of the bulk of the Drachenkraft over the steppe battlefields.

Chinese armoured forces were relatively few and far between due to the tyranny of distance and the tenuous supply routes connecting the vast expanses of China Proper with India and the outside world, but a total of 864 M3s were laboriously delivered via the winding Burma Road. They were used primarily for infantry support and enjoyed considerable success against the lighter IJA tanks in the Third Battle of Changsa in early 1942. The great Japanese push towards Chungking in the latter half of the year was barely held by Chinese forces and the newer Japanese Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks had the measure of the M3. The Imperial Chinese Army replaced the Grant in its frontline armoured units variously with the M4 Sherman, Valiant, Crusader and T-26 from July 1943, but some variants remained in service into the mid-1950s.

The M3 saw limited service with the United States Army and only 1573 tanks were operated as training vehicles during the early months of 1942. This force was swiftly replaced by the hundreds of M-4s now rolling off the assembly lines of the vast new tank arsenals in Michigan and Ohio. It would see far more active service in several variant forms, chief of which was the 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M7. A total of 7629 equipments were built between 1942 and 1945 and each U.S. armored division was equipped with three battalions of M7s, providing ample mobile fire support during the great advances across France, the Low Countries and Germany during 1944 and 1945. The 155mm M12 Gun Motor Carriage and the 155mm M14 Howitzer Motor Carriage were produced in somewhat lesser numbers – 423 of the former and 1261 of the latter being built between 1942 and 1944 – but this did not prevent them from having a significant impact on the battlefield. Captured German troops would often freely confess to having a fearful respect for the power of mobile American artillery throughout the war and the assorted self-propelled guns and howitzers based on the M3 chassis played no small part in this deserved reputation. The M3 Grant was ultimately a victim of the rapidly shifting tides of war; it was an excellent tank for 1940 that unfortunately entered service in 1941.

The M2 Light Tank similarly saw its initial war service with the British Desert Army in North Africa in 1941, complementing the Cavalier and quickly being labeled the Stuart. It was primarily used for reconaissance missions due its low fuel capacity limiting its effective operational range and a rather more sedate top speed. 2348 were supplied to the British Empire under Lend-Lease and they performed creditably outside of desert warfare. Large numbers were supplied to the Soviet Union (1765) and France (1249) in 1941 and 1942, with neither truly satisfied with the Stuart and preferring to use it for light cavalry roles such as scouting as compared to armoured combat. The US Army used the Stuart in both the European and Pacific theatres of operations and it enjoyed considerable success in the jungle conditions of the South Pacific islands, where Japanese anti-tank weapons and armoured vehicles were few and far between. The M2 Stuart was partially yet never fully replaced by the larger, more advanced M24 Chaffee light tank from early 1944. Overall, it performed adequately, but the tactical environment had moved beyond the interwar concept of the light tank.

The T6 medium tank design was selected for full development by the U.S. Armored Force board on January 5th 1941. It was based on a modified M3 hull sporting a new 76mm general purpose main gun and a 500hp V12 General Motors diesel engine that powered it to a top speed of 32mph. In addition to the formidable main gun, it was equipped with the ubiquitous M2 Browning that featured on virtually every US Army vehicle from Jeeps to field kitchens. A prototype vehicle was completed on June 12th, with production of the standardized M4 medium tank following from July 25th. The first pair of production M4s from the Lima Locomotive Works went to the US Army and Britain for evaluation, with the latter proceeding with the previously agreed option for an initial 2500 vehicles. Mass production at the Detroit, Grand Blanc and Pittsburgh Tank Arsenals followed over the latter course of 1941 and early 1942 as American industry rose to President Roosevelt’s ambitious programme for the production of 125,000 tanks. Few knew that this seemingly impossible goal would be comfortably surpassed by the end of the war as the M-4 become the most produced tank in American military history.

The initial British tanks were delivered in early November 1941 and assigned to Commonwealth armoured units of the Desert Army. They were quickly given the nickname that would last throughout their career – the Sherman. Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and South African forces employed M-4 Shermans alongside their Crusaders and Churchills during Rommel’s furious offensive of January 1942 that saw him thunder forward from El Agheila, taking Benghazi and Bardia by storm and laying siege once again to Tobruk and Mersa Matruh. The Afrika Korps was stopped cold by Montgomery at the gates of Egypt at the First Battle of El Alamein on January 30th and the new American Sherman tanks played no small part in slowing and turning the tide of the attack before the Crusaders could deliver their swift repost, putting an end to Axis offensive action in Africa and setting the stage for the final act in June. 10,429 Shermans were supplied to the British Empire through Lend-Lease, with many tanks passed along to the Polish, Dutch and Belgian armies in exile.

The first US Shermans to engage in battle with the Axis were those of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions that spearheaded Operation Torch, the great Anglo-American amphibious landings in Portugal in July 1942. Their formidable combination of protection, speed and firepower decisively outmatched the Panzer II and IIIs of the German 10th Army and performed creditably against the feared 88mm anti-tank guns in the hard fighting up the bloody Tagus. As the Allies pushed towards Madrid, limited numbers of Panzer IVs, Panthers and Tigers trickled down to the battlefront in Spain and provided a qualitative match for the Sherman. The near disaster at the First Battle of Jarama was more a reflection of an overextended force, inexperienced command and doctrinal issues rather than the performance of the M-4. American tankers were able to regain something of an ascendancy by using the advantage of numbers and the excellent maneuverability of the Sherman and the first plans began for an improved variant armed with a 90mm gun. The first M-4s equipped with 105mm howitzers for specialized infantry support made their combat debut in December 1942 around Madrid and swiftly proved their value.

A new stage of the counteroffensive against the Axis in the Mediterranean opened with Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. On April 4th 1943, supported by mighty naval and air fleets, 219,000 Allied troops landed along the southern coast of Sicily and quickly established a firm beachhead. Over 600 Shermans were employed by US Army and Marine armored units in the grinding fighting against German, Italian and Austrian forces and they excelled in their intended role of heavy infantry support. Protracted resistance was broken by a coordinated push by the British Eighth Army and the US Seventh Army on April 10th, with the Axis troops having no answer to the massed naval gunfire of the Allied fleets, low level dragonstrikes by no less than six wyrms and the operational debut of several potent war gasses. The subsequent pursuit and exploitation phase of the Battle of Sicily was where the Sherman came into its own, enjoying a speed advantage over the British and Commonwealth medium tanks. They outmatched the Panzer IVs and P 32/40s of enemy armoured formations but continued to struggle against the heavier Panthers and Tigers. As the invasion of mainland Italy loomed, the morale and repute of US armored forces had never been higher. The landings at Salerno and Taranto lead to initial success, spearheaded by Allied tanks. This came to an abrupt halt along the formidable Gustav Line and armoured operations were overshadowed by traditional infantry and heavy artillery engagements reminiscent of the Great War. The strong Axis defences, particularly around Monte Cassino, held up the general advance for two and a half months before being broken by massed fire from heavy guns, combat giants, spellcraft and the heaviest tacticalt use of tunnelling since Messines Ridge in 1917. The difficult fighting in Italy continued into the new year, highlighting the need for an improved version of the Sherman to counter the heavier German panzers.

This came in the form of the M4A3E2, known unofficially as the Jumbo Sherman. It was protected by additional frontal and turret armour, carried the potent 90mm gun that had already proved its mettle on the M36 tank destroyer and was inscribed with a series of new protective runes. Extensive tests carried out by Miskatonic University showed that these would lower rates of combat losses by up to 6% in some conditions, although the crews did a higher rate of combat fatigue and disturbed dreams. These additions lowered the M4A3’s top speed to 25mph, but provided the capacity to take on even the behemoth Tigers and Lions on a relatively even basis. 879 were produced in time for Operation Overlord, the grand invasion of France on June 6th 1944 and their combination of protection and long range firepower were a welcome boon to the Allied cause in the Battle of Normandy that followed. The predominant Sherman used in the Battle of Normandy, however, was the 90mm armed M4A3E8, or the ‘Easy Eight’, named so because of its horizontal volute spring suspension, wide tracks and improved engine. It comprised the majority of the Shermans produced in 1944 and 1945 and remained in service with a number of armies for some time after the war.

Like the British, the US Army employed a number of specialized armoured vehicles based on the Sherman chassis for Overlord, including the Jackalope breaching tank, the Bowie flail tank and the Snallygaster assault tank, the last combining a twin Gatling gun, two barbed claws and a pair of side mounted Panjandrums. The most common variant employed in Overlord was the Duplex Drive tank, with a battalion assigned to each US assault beach on the morning of June 6th, where they were to prove invaluable in the early fighting to breach the Fuhrer’s vaunted Atlantic Wall. Their direct support in the destruction of enemy beach defences and pillboxes reduced infantry losses to acceptable levels, in conjunction with the use of LVTs. The M4’s reputation for rugged reliability and all-round performance was increased in Normandy where its relatively low rate of ammunition fires compared to previous tanks was noted by friend and foe alike. The finest hour for the Sherman came in the breakout from Normandy, when the M4 equipped the majority of the First, Second, Third and Fourth US Armies as they raced across France to the very borders of Germany itself. The sheer numbers produced in the vast arsenals of the Midwest overwhelmed every German attempt at defence to the west of the Siegfried Line and earned the admiration and gratitude of American and Allied infantrymen alike. By the final months of 1944, the M-26 Pershing was beginning to replace the Sherman in many US armoured divisions, but it still bore the brunt of the fighting in the largest American victory of the Western Front, the Battle of the Bulge. In that mighty engagement, thousands of M4s first stopped the southern German pincer cold and then forced them back inch by bloody inch into their doomed Fatherland. One of the most iconic images of the war was the sight of a lone American Sherman standing battered yet unconquered at Dinant on the Meuse, the wrecks of half a dozen German tanks and a company of infantry lying silently before it in the frozen field.

In the Pacific, the M4 made up the majority of the American tank force after 1942, supporting the Army and the Marines in the intense island-hopping campaign that took them from Fiji to Okinawa. The Sherman completely outmatched the lighter Japanese tanks encountered in the Marianas and Palau and were markedly superior to the larger concentrations of IJA armour encountered in the Philippines and Okinawa. In the campaigns on the Chinese mainland, it came into its own, smashing the main force of Japanese armour in a series of overwhelming victories. Over a thousand Shermans were employed in Operation Olympic, providing mobile firepower and solid protection against the full range of Japanese anti-tank weaponry and machinations. Few large scale tank battles occurred outside China, limiting the scope for the M-4 to show its full range of capabilities until the final year of the war, but it was universally considered as the preeminent tank in the Pacific theatre.

Like the Grant, the Sherman was employed by a considerable array of Allied nations and is considered the most widely used Western tank of the Second World War. The Soviet Union was the second highest recipient with 5964 M4s, 4829 were received by Free France, 2493 went to China and 452 were delivered to Greece. The Red Army regarded the Sherman favourably and they were used extensively in the August 1945 invasion of Manchuria against the Kwantung Army with considerable success. The French 1st Army was exclusively equipped with the Sherman during its drive from the Anvil beaches of Southern France to the Danube and two hundred of these tanks would go on to serve with the Far East Expeditionary Corps in the immediate aftermath of the Pacific War. An incredible total of 75,682 M-4 Shermans of all types were built during the Second World War – 2456 in 1941, 20,469 in 1942, 24,983 in 1943, 19,214 in 1944 and 8570 in 1945. It also served as the basis for a number of self propelled artillery pieces in much the same manner as the Grant, including the M40 155mm Gun Motor Carriage (752), the M41 155mm Howitzer Motor Carriage (1287) and the M43 203mm Howitzer Motor Carriage (545).

The Stuart, Grant and Sherman light and medium tanks comprised the majority of American tank production during the war, but just as in other wartime powers, the role of the heavy tank was not ignored. The M1930 was never regarded as fully satisfactory and had in any case been left behind the tide of European tank development by 1940. The US Army Ordnance Corps had been working on a 70 ton heavy tank design since August 1939 and a single turreted design equipped with a medium velocity 120mm heavy gun adapted from the older naval 5”/25 gun was selected for development in March 1940 as the Heavy Tank T1. Production of a powerpack sufficient to propel such a heavy tank at a useful combat speed was a distinct challenge that was never satisfactorily solved; an adapted version of the Wright R-2600 and a hydramatic transmission was selected by a specialist committee of dwarven experts from the Society of Automotive Engineers. Protected by up to 6” of frontal armour, the T1 entered production in December 1941 as the M6 Heavy Tank after a long and convoluted process fraught with difficulties and the attentions of gremlins; it is thought that the latter first crossed the Atlantic in July 1941 onboard a British freighter, quickly taking up residence in the war production factories that sprang up across the United States and remaining a vexatious irritant to this day.

The 73t M6 could reach a top speed of 20mph in combat conditions and carried one of the heaviest armaments of any Allied tank of the Second World War, consisting of a coaxial 37mm gun, two .50 calibre heavy machine guns and four .30 Browning medium machine guns. 2398 were built between 1941 and 1944, when production ended in favour of the Super Pershing; 287 were supplied to Britain via Lend-Lease in 1942, serving in the last stages of the Desert War and being given their lasting sobriquet of the Lee, after the redoubtable Confederate general of the Civil War. A limited number were used in the Philippines, China and Japan during 1945, but the main theatre of their employment by the US Army was Western Europe. Their heavy protection and firepower of the M6 proved more suited to the Italian campaign, with its peculiar tactical environment, but independent heavy tank battalions served with each US corps during the Battle of France and the final triumphant invasion of Germany in 1944-45. The Lee was a slow, preponderous vehicle more suited to positional fighting than mobile warfare, in much the same manner as the British Cromwell, but was useful in the heavy engagements along the Siegfried Line and the crossing of the Rhine. It swiftly exited American service at the end of the war, with a number being sold to Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in the late 1940s.

Design work on a heavier follow-up to the M4 had been underway since late 1941. The rapid changes in armoured warfare over 1941 and 1942 had a great influence on the parameters of the T26 heavy tank, with emphasis placed on a powerful engine, strong protection and the ability to field a gun with greater performance than the 90mm then in service. The prototype of the T26 was completed in June 1943, weighing 50t and armed with the new 105mm gun jointly developed with Britain. Objections were raised regarding complicating the logistical supply chain from the United States to Europe and the initially troublesome transmission, but the experience of extended combat against German Panthers, Tigers and Lions in Spain and Italy overcame institutional intertia and the M26 entered production in November 1943. It was dubbed the Pershing in honour of the revered commander of the American Expeditionary Force of the Great War, General of the Army John J. Pershing. A gradual shift from the manufacture of M4s occurred over the course of early 1944 and over 1200 were available for Operation Overlord.

The Pershing was able to engage all models of the Panther and Tiger Is on even or better terms and was second only to the brobdingnagian M6 Lee for survivability in the bocage. Like every American tank, the M26 proved vulnerable to German Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck attacks on their flanks and rear, but could shrug off frontal hits from the feared 88mm in many circumstances. An uparmoured version known as the ‘Super Pershing’ served in limited numbers in the Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Germany, but the sacrifice of 5mph of speed was seen as beyond the point of diminishing returns for European operations. 350 Super Pershings were employed in Operation Olympic in independent heavy tank battalions, where they proved effectively invulnerable to conventional Japanese anti-tank weapons and did fearful execution with their barbed canister shot. A total of 6239 Pershings were built in 1944 and 1945, providing the basis of the postwar American tank park. The M26 chassis also served as the basis for a number of self propelled heavy artillery pieces, including the M92 240mm Howitzer Motor Carriage (392), the M93 8” Gun Motor Carriage (103), the M94 250mm Mortar Motor Carriage (86) and the M95 360mm Bombard Motor Carriage (54).

Work on a successor to the M2 Stuart began in earnest in early 1942 and was coloured by the battlefield experiences of that year. The concept of the light tank had shifted from a fast, lightly armoured vehicle employed for infantry support and general scouting to a medium vehicle suitable for armoured reconaissance in force. It would need to carry a 75mm gun and have a top speed substantially greater than that of the medium tanks then in enemy service or projected. The Ordnance Corps began design work in February 1943 and the prototype of the Light Tank T24 was delivered in October. It was a 24t vehicle protected by up to 2” of armour and capable of reaching a road speed of 40mph, whilst still retaining substantial striking power through the 75mm Gun M6 L/45. A contract for 5000 vehicles was issued in January 1944, which was soon increased to 10,000; a total of 7942 had rolled off the Cadillac and Massey-Harris assembly lines by the time production was stopped in September 1945. It was nicknamed the Chaffee by the British in a signal honour to the late General Adna Chaffee, the ‘Father of the Armored Force’. The British, Canadian and United States Armies all employed the Chaffee in the European Theatre of Operations in 1944/45 and it was regarded as a serviceable vehicle and a definite advance on the Cavalier and Stuart; the M24 remained highly vulnerable to the full range of German anti-tank weapons. In the Pacific, the Chaffee’s mobility and firepower gave it a somewhat higher reputation and many were retained for service in the Allied occupation forces in postwar Japan.

The United States Army employed a range of tank destroyers and assault guns in the Second World War in three specific production generations. The first vehicles entered service in 1942 and were both based on the chassis of the M4 Sherman - the M10 tank destroyer, armed with a 76mm gun, and the M13 assault gun, equipped with a fixed 105mm howitzer; 5428 of the former and 1114 of the latter were built in 1942 and 1943. They were satisfactory for the initial opponents encountered by the US Army, but became rapidly obsolescent in the face of heavier German armour. The M18 90mm tank destroyer, known by its British nickname of the Hellcat, and the M23 155mm assault gun were the response to these new challenges and they wrested back the initiative in Italy, Spain and France from the Axis in the Allied offensives of 1944; 2819 and 772 of each were built respectively from November 1943 to September 1944. The M18 Hellcat held the distinction of being the fastest US armoured vehicle of the war, being capable of speeds up to 50mph. The final American tank destroyer of the war, the M36, carried the powerful 105mm gun used on the Pershing and, although only produced in small numbers (659), proved highly effective in combat and more than a match for any German tank.

By September 1945, the United States of America stood astride the globe as unquestionably the most powerful military force, industrial power and nation in the world. This status was due in no small part to the sheer scale of her war production and the American tanks of the Second World War serve as an example of the maxim that quantity has a quality all of it’s own. However, it would be a distinct disservice to the US armoured vehicles of 1940-1945 to give the impression that their major worth was in their mass. Whilst no single American light, medium or heavy tank can be said to be the utmost best in its class, the ultimate forms of the Sherman and Pershing were certainly the equal of any other Allied or Axis vehicle.

[Simon Darkshade]

American Tank Development Part IV: The Postwar Period

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States Army rapidly reduced in size from its mobilized level of 236 divisions in early 1945 and eventually reached a peacetime level of 24 in mid-1948. The once vast and serried ranks of its armored divisions were reduced to a mere four, the majority of which were equipped with M26 Pershings, reclassified in May 1946 as a medium tank. The M4 Sherman remained in service in the armored battalions attached to infantry divisions and the tank units of the United States Marine Corps, but most were laid up, scrapped or simply left in place on myriad battlefields across the shattered world. The M24 Chaffee completed the process of superseding and replacing the M2 Stuart and proved ideally suited to the initial postwar duties of patrol and policing in occupied Europe and Japan. The Tank Destroyer Command rapidly disappeared from active service, a victim of internecine rivalry within the US Army as much as of the considerable advances in armoured warfare doctrine and technology in the second half of the war.

The peacetime Army was not an idle one, being spread out over the better part of five continents with the newly won duties of a superpower. Most of these did not require the combat strength of the tank force on the new and complex battlefields, but the reassuring presence of American tanks provided a ready edge to myriad different duties, ranging from grinding out the remnants of Werwolf resistance in prostrate Germany to defending American interests in the last treaty ports of China. The planned Allied division of responsibilities of the postwar world was to have seen the United States take a secondary role to the British Empire in Europe, the Middle East and Africa whilst prioritizing the Far East and the Western Hemisphere, but the troubles of the Old World proved to be somewhat more difficult to disengage from than initially projected. The cooling of relations with the Soviet Union, the nagging questions of their occupation of Eastern Europe and the internal strife that wracked France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Austria-Hungary all contributed to an ongoing American military presence on the Continent for the foreseeable future.

The issues surrounding the relatively unsatisfactory transmission and powerplant of the M26 lead to the development of an improved variant, designated the M26E2 when it entered production in December 1946. It was equipped with a bore evacuator for the 105mm main gun, an Allison cross-drive transmission and an improved Continental diesel engine. 3279 were built between 1947 and 1949 at the Detroit Tank Arsenal as the initial wave of relieved disarmament gave way to the wary preparation of a new, colder war. They would provide the spearhead of American armored strength while a new tank that took into account all of the lessons of the war and subsequent foreign developments was designed. Many would see action in Korea and Indochina in the years to come, where they would prove their mettle and solid reliability. They were gradually replaced in active Army and Marine Corps service by the new M-48 Patton by the end of 1952 and many were transferred to friendly states in Europe and South America as arms sales and military aid became an increasingly valuable arm of Cold War statecraft.

The replacement of the M26 Pershing was to be a new type of armoured vehicle that combined the mobility of the medium tank with the firepower and protection of a heavy – the main battle tank, or in British parlance of the time, the universal tank. The first of this kind was arguably the Centurion, although the German Panther II and Soviet T-54 have their partisan supporters in the ivory towers of military academe. The United States arrived somewhat later to the development process due to the quality and reliability of the 90mm armed variants of the Sherman and the doughty Pershing, beginning initial design studies in 1945, but was able to turn this into a distinct advantage by proceeding at a more deliberate pace and utilizing new arcane design methods. The result was the finest tank design of its kind in the world was ready by late 1948, the 105mm Gun Tank T-48, entering production in September 1949 as the M48 Patton, named after the preeminent American tank commander of the Second World War, the irascible but brilliant General George S. Patton. Inspecting the vehicle in one of the periodic public relations tours that took him away from his business interests and nascent political career in California, General Patton described the tank as what could be euphemistically rendered as the meanest vehicle of unfortunate parentage ever to grace the dirtiest parts of the battlefield, which all present took to be a positive endorsement.

Although it bore a passing resemblance to the postwar Pershings, the 56t M48 was an entirely new vehicle, featuring a hemispherical turret, improved suspension, an 870hp diesel engine and over 8” of turret armour. Supporting the powerful main gun was a coaxial .50 cal M2 Browning heavy machine gun, a further heavy machine gun in the commander’s cupola and a pintle mounted .30 cal Browning machine gun. The crew was reduced from 5 to 4 with the removal of the hull machine gunner and the entire vehicle was sealed against poison gas through new protective seals. It could reach a top speed of 36mph over an operating range of almost 300 miles, performing reliably in temperate off-road terrain. By the time production ended in 1958, a total of 23,789 M48 Pattons had been built, equipping American forces and those of more than two dozen Allied armies across the world.

The outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula in May 1950 would prove to be the greatest international crisis of the early phase of the Cold War. That the North Korean invasion force was able to brush aside their lightly armed South Korean counterparts with such overwhelming ease was due in no small part to their powerful arsenal of almost 600 Soviet medium and heavy tanks. The first American tanks to be committed to the defence of freedom in Korea saw action in the successful delaying action of the Battle of Taejon, where the grim struggle of the 24th Infantry Division bought invaluable time for the Allies to prepare the last ditch defences of the Pusan Perimeter. The 46 M4E8 Shermans of the 6th Tank Battalion fought and died like lions with only three tanks surviving, their gallant sacrifice playing a key part in stopping the ravaging offensive of five Red divisions and destroying almost 100 T-34s in the week long battle. Reinforcements were rushed to Korea from Japan, the Philippines and all over the Pacific with 2287 tanks arriving by the end of the year, consisting of 264 M24 Chaffees, 773 M26 Pershings, 950 M4 Shermans and 310 M48 Pattons. The Shermans were initially preferred for infantry support in the defensive battles around the Pusan Perimeter before the heavier guns of the M26s and M48s could be bought to bear in significant numbers. The Pershings and Pattons spearheaded the dual advances north from the Naktong and Inchon into North Korea, overwhelming Red infantry and anti-tank defences alike with their numbers and long range firepower.

The Chinese intervention of November 1950 changed the complexion of the Korean campaign, turning what had been a seemingly effortless advance to the Yalu into a bitter fighting retreat to the Han in a tale of two rivers. The grinding battle of attrition that followed over the next two and a half years saw the role of armour change from an independent offensive spearhead to the old role of mobile field artillery acting in direct support of well-dug in infantry that would not have been unfamiliar to veterans of Arras, Passchendaele and the Somme. Just as in previous wars, the versatility of the tank as a weapon of both offence and defence granted the advantage of flexibility to the side which was able to maneuver and mass armour in response to the telltale signs of an enemy buildup. This in turn depended on control of the air over Central Korea, a factor which was in flux during 1951 and early 1952 as the Allied Sabres, Furies, Rangers and Hunters were significantly challenged by Soviet MiGs and Chinese Chengdus flying out of Manchuria. The air war was won over the next 18 months by the fighter forces of the United Nations Command through new tactics, technology, improved armament, airborne radar and the storied introduction of air-to-air guided missiles, giving Allied armour the clear lines of movement and communication it so needed.

The lighter gunned Chaffees completely disappeared from the Allied order of battle in Korea by the end of 1951, followed by the redoubtable yet aging Shermans in the next year. Their place was taken by a new lighter tank, the M41 Sheridan, which had begun development in late 1946. It was based around a high velocity 76mm gun and an innovative sorcerous rangefinder and reached the unprecedented top speed of 50mph on tests. The 25t Sheridan was designed to be nominally airportable by the C-74 Globemaster and the H-4 Hercules, which was accomplished with some degree of innovative contortionist loading strategies, and quickly built a reputation as a hard-hitting, swift scout that consumed fuel as a particularly thirsty camel drinks water. Internal conditions were somewhat cramped for human tankers, although dwarven crew regarded it as a luxuriously spacious vehicle. A total of 4926 M41s were built between 1950 and 1956, seeing service with 21 separate armed forces across five continents.

The M48 was now rolling off the production lines in ever greater amounts as the mighty arsenals of Detroit, Flint and Pittsburgh worked three shifts per day and even the steady Pershings now found themselves relegated to third line service in Japan. The Patton was progressively adapted for the particular circumstances of Korean service, being fitted with improved frontal armour and additional machine guns at some cost in maximum speed. Clashes with Chinese, North Korean and Mongolian armoured units were comparatively rare in 1951 but increased over the course of 1952 and 1953 as the frontline inched northward. It would take until 1954 for a decisive breakthrough to be effected by American and British armoured divisions supported by a series of revolutionary new weapons, paving the way in turn for the Grand Offensive of 1955. After the great string of victories and the Armistice of Harbin, a substantial Allied field army remained on the peninsula for the remainder of the decade to assist in the protection of the reunited Empire of Korea, supported by over fifteen hundred American and Allied tanks.

The Eighth Army in Korea was not the only substantial concentration of armour deployed by the United States of America in the first half of the 1950s and it would be remiss to focus on the former famed frontline field force to the exclusion of other units, chief among which is the Seventh Army. Standing steadfast against the threat of Red Army invasion of Germany and Western Europe, it reached a peak strength of 260,000 men in 8 divisions in 1953 before gradually reducing in numbers as Western European and German rearmament began to gather pace. Growing disagreements between the increasingly confident Taft Administration and the fractious European allies over the question of Germany, Western leadership, grand strategy and trade barriers came to a head in the crisis of 1956, leading to the Geneva Agreement on the removal of Allied troops from Germany and the eventual return of the last combat elements of the Seventh Army to the United States in December 1958. Its 10 year sojourn in Germany saw it take prime priority for the deployment of new American armour including most notable the development of the most powerful US vehicle of the decade, the M102 superheavy tank, and the most unique, the M105 flying tank.

Like the heavy tanks developed by other Western powers in the 1950s, the M102 was driven by the looming threat presented by over 10,000 Soviet heavies of the KV and IS series poised across the Iron Curtain in Poland, East Prussia and Romania. The 75t M102 began development in 1947 and production began at the Chrysler plant in Newark in February 1952. Its main armament consisted of a 155mm gun and its frontal glacis provided protection equivalent to over 12” of armour plate. Whilst its top speed of 25mph was pedestrian compared to the new main battle tanks entering general service, the sheer firepower and range of the M102 gave it a tactical versatility that belied its low speed. 1279 were built between 1952 and 1956, serving exclusively with German and American based tank battalions. The M102 remains in frontline US Army service as of 1961, unlike its transatlantic cousin, the British Conqueror heavy tank, and is enjoying something of a mid-career renaissance with the advent of rocket-assisted long range bombardment shells and tactical atomic ammunition.

In contrast, the M105 flying tank has no direct foreign equivalents, save for the British Hawker-Siddeley ‘jumping jeep’. The product of the US Army’s top secret Special Weapons Directorate and utilizing incredibly expensive secret flying machine technology tested at Edison Base on the South Pole of Luna, the 52t M105 was protected by the equivalent of 236mm of armour plate and armed with a 105mm gun and a 25mm Vulcan autocannon for aerial and anti-dragon defence. Development began in 1950 as the first major period of Korean War rearmament began in earnest and, in a heroic effort that remains unparalleled to this date, a working prototype was developed by 1955. Its magical lifting engines (which are certainly not powered by the trapped soul of a forsaken proletarian child as some more scurrilous Soviet publications are want to claim) are capable of sending the M105 skimming across and above the battlefield at speeds of up to 125mph and allow it to jump hills and rivers alike. Production began in March 1958 to great fanfare, signifying the great leaps forward made by American scientific ingenuity since the shocks of 1956. This revolutionary capacity came at a notable cost – its notable cost. Each M105 cost $16.8 million, or more than the equivalent of six F-110 Spectres in 1958. Congress capped procurement at 56 as the more conventional but far cheaper M60 main battle tank entered production. The M105s are considered corps and army level assets and are not universally popular with all American armoured officers.

It is fitting then that our examination of the tanks of the United States of America concludes with a vehicle that embodies the character and outstanding strengths of the previous generations of tanks. The M60 began development in the latter days of the Korean War and the long process took its myriad lessons into account, as well as those learnt from the brief 1956 conflict. Weighing 60t and powered by a 900hp diesel engine to a top speed of 38mph, the M60, also named the Patton in the manner of its M48 predecessor, is heavily protected by a combination of conventional armour and elements of the new British protective system pioneered on the Chieftain; the total equivalent in thickness of RHA is highly classified, but is thought to be at least twice that of previous American tanks. Similarly, the main gun is a licenced version of the Royal Ordnance L24 125mm, which, in the humble opinion of this author, is yet another indicator that the professional military and intelligence establishments on both sides of the Atlantic regard the current situation of disagreement between the foremost English-speaking powers is more of a political problem than an actual one. Reports that helpful suggestions for the inclusion of a bayonet lug by the British delegation were met with general looks of polite incomprehension and the chief United States negotiator pointedly fondling his razor sharp tomahawk are distinctly scurrilous; it was, of fact, his grandfather’s lucky Bowie knife. A total of 2984 M60 Pattons have been produced to June 1961 and it is expected that it will replaced the M48 in frontline service by 1965.

[Simon Darkshade]

Soviet Tank Development Part 1: 1900-1939

The Russian Empire was widely regarded as perhaps the most backward of the Great Powers of Europe in the middle of the 19th century, an impression reinforced from the nadir of defeat in the Crimean War of 1854-1856, when the once-invincible Imperial Russian Army crumbled before the technologically superior forces of Britain and France. The vaunted Russian steamroller of the Napoleonic period had been beaten by steam and iron. That this defeat came as a sharp rebuke to its national self-conception is undeniable, but it also sowed the seeds for the modernization of Russia. The sheer size of her armed forces meant that the introduction of modern weaponry would be a gradual one, but, like many of the armies of Europe, Russia began to field a handful of experimental steam-powered ironclad vehicles over the course of the 1880s and 1890s. The perceived main threat to Russia was the British Empire and the Great Game in Central Asia shaped the outlook and preparedness of the Imperial Russian Army until the dawn of the new century. It was a conflict fought by the Cossack and cloak and dagger, not by machines and industry. To the west, the once secure European frontier had shifted to a faultline of tension as Germany and Austria-Hungary girded their loins against the Russian bear.

Beyond the borders of Europe, a new and vigorous foe arose in the brightness of the rising sun of the east – the Empire of Japan. The aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion and the intervention of the Grand Alliance bought Japanese and Russian ambitions for the control of Manchuria and Korea to the point of crisis, which boiled over into open conflict in the latter half of 1903. The attention of the world was drawn to the slashing battles at sea and the daring clashes in the air, but the nature of the fighting on the broken hills of frozen Manchuria was desperate, grinding and bloody. Both sides found it extremely difficult to break through the trenches, barbed wire and machine guns of the enemy without appalling losses and every swift maneuver by the cavalry was soon bogged down in a killing match dominated by artillery. The decisive Battle of Mukden was the largest engagement the world had seen since the Napoleonic Wars and broke the back of Russian resistance in the Far East, bringing on riotous victory celebrations in Tokyo and revolutionary riots in St. Petersburg. The collected hosts of the Tsar swiftly put down the revolts across Russia and Poland, but had lost a significant amount of credibility as an overwhelming threat to the Triple Alliance. Reform was the order of the day and a number of armoured cars were tested by the Imperial Russian Army over the next decade, in addition to a 1912 proposal from the inventor Boris von Kuryakin for a steampowered pedrail vehicle armed with a 75mm gun.

The Kuryakin Gun, as it was known, did not attract universal approval, but construction of a prototype began in early 1914 due to the sponsorship and advocacy of Colonel Vladimir von Kolpakow, one of the Stavka’s more forward-thinking officers. In this hour, the winds of war blew once again across the continent after a long period of calm, as the bitterness of Balkan disputes ignited the powder keg that was Europe. With over seven million men called to the colours, Russia’s immediate challenge came in the form of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies arrayed along her frontiers and two great offensive thrusts were launched into Galicia and East Prussia before they could strike in concert. The former resulted in a decisive triumph that took the Russian tricolour to the midst of the Carpathians, but the latter saw two entire armies smashed in succession at Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes and paved the way for the crushing blow of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of 1915. The Great Retreat that followed straightened Russian lines and bought valuable time and space, but at cost of all of Poland. The subsequent war on the Eastern Front would be one of movement on a vast scale compared to the relatively confined circumstances of the Western Front, making the use of armoured vehicles a far-off luxury. The Kuryakin Gun died with its greatest defender, von Kopakow, near Tarnopol in a nameless copse stripped bare by war.

Russia’s bloody war in the east would continue for two further years and in that time, two notable armoured vehicle proposals reached the prototype stage of production before the technical limitations of her stretched industrial capacity could go no further. One would mirror the intended purpose of the French tank programme and the other would follow the heavier British path. The Vezdekhod, or ‘all-terrain vehicle’, was the brainchild of the young military engineer Aleksandr Porokhovschikov and consisted of a welded frame covered with rubberized cloth with both tracks and wheels. Testing began in late 1915, but it proved to be impossible to maneuver using the wheels. Work was halted on the project in July 1916 in favour of acquiring a number of French light tanks then under development, much to Porokhovschikov’s disgust. The Tsar Tank was designed by the shipwright Vasily Mendeleev as a means of moving a 42 line/107mm gun across a contested battlefield. The 91t heavy tank was well-protected, capable of sound performance on roads and across open country alike and featured an advanced pneumatic suspension system. Its only major flaws were its heavy weight and most of all exorbitant cost, which rivalled that of a destroyer and ensured that only a single prototype would be built by the time the programme was quietly cancelled in January 1917.

360 Renault FT light tanks were ordered by the Russian government in late 1916 and a total of 108 had been shipped before the rupture in Allied relations bought on by the Bolshevik Revolution. The majority of these vehicles were employed by the White forces in their long and terrible struggle with the Red Army and only 33 survived the Civil War and Polish-Soviet War with varying degrees of damage. These tanks, known as Russkiy Renos, would serve as the nexus of the vast Soviet tank force that would be built up over the following decades, a small beginning for what would become a mighty array. Whilst most had relatively staid careers in training units, military academies and proving grounds, the travels and exploits of one individual vehicle rival those of any other known tank. The Krasnaya Zvezda served with White troops until captured by the Red Army in 1920. It remained in supporting service until 1926, when it was damaged and captured by British Indian forces in Afghanistan. It was sent to Britain as a war trophy and initially displayed as a gate guard at an RAF airfield on an isolated craggy island off the west coast of Connaught. It was subsequently sold to Yugoslavia as an economy measure in the depths of the Great Depression, where it was adapted as a circus clown transport prior to being requisitioned for border patrol duties. Seized by the German Army during their 1941 invasion, it was used for garrison duty in occupied Denmark protecting a regimental field kitchen until knocked out by Swedish paratroopers in late 1944. This would have been the end for most vehicles, but it was identified by a team of British battlefield arcanists in 1945 and shipped back to the Soviet Union as a mark of Allied solidarity. Today, it is displayed at Kubinka as perhaps the only tank to serve with five armies.

The tank was given something of a higher priority by the Soviet Union than the wartime Tsarist authorities due to the changing shape of warfare and the famed successes of tanks in the final battles of the Western Front. The first order of national priority in the 1920s was reconstruction and the reordering of agriculture and the production of tanks and other heavy arms occurred in the shadow of these greater designs. The beginning of the First Five Year Plan in 1928 marked a shift to rapid industrialization and modernization of the Red Army. Soviet tank development in the latter half of the interwar period occurred in three main families of vehicles – light tanks of between 10t and 14t, medium and fast tanks of 20-24t and heavy tanks of over 45t. Whilst no single Soviet tank of the 1930s can be regarded as the best in the world, the tank production of the Soviet Union vastly exceeded that of the other major powers.

The first indigenous Soviet tank design were the T-18 and T-19 light tanks. The Red Army had formed a Tank Bureau in 1923 to design its future armoured vehicles and the initial specification was for an 9 ton light tank equipped with a 37mm gun and protected by at least 16mm of armour that would be capable of reaching speeds of over 15km/hour. The engine would be a copy of the 35hp Italian Fiat 15 ter truck engine and an independent vertical spring suspension was included after initial test vehicles proved incapable of crossing wide trenches. Demonstrations of the 10t fully armoured prototype in late 1926 saw it reach an impressive top speed of 18km/hour and an initial production order for 320 T-18s was placed in mid 1927. The threat of war with the British Empire over the Persian Crisis saw this greatly increased to 960 tanks, but the delivery of the first production vehicles only occurred in early 1929, after international events had run their course. An improved and slightly enlarged variant, the T-19, began production in 1930. It was notable for being the first Soviet tank to be specifically designed for the circumstances of modern chemical warfare, as well as being fitted with sloped armour and an additional DT medium machine gun. A total of 448 T-18s and 195 T-19s were built between 1929 and 1931, when their production was curtailed in favour of the larger and faster T-26 light tanks. Only a few would see active service in the Second World War, mainly in isolated skirmishes on the borders of Tartary and Mongolia.

A further evolution of the type was the T-24 medium tank, an enlarged version of the T-19 equipped with heavier armament and armour. It was the product of the new tank design bureau at the Kharkov Locomotive Factory (KhPZ), which would later be responsible for some of the most legendary tanks of the Second World War and beyond. Upon its establishment in 1928, work began on a larger T-19 with a more powerful engine, resulting in the prototype of the 21t T-24 in late 1930. Its 45mm gun was the most powerful yet fitted to a Soviet tank and it could reach the considerable top speed of 25km/hour. Despite these formidable attributes, it was regarded as unreliable and prone to temperamental performance, such as the engine catching fire, tracks falling off and other such minor faults. Only 69 of a planned 470 were built and were used mostly for parades, propaganda films and photographic opportunities for Comintern delegates. Its suspension was used for a series of successful medium and heavy artillery tractors which proved quite valuable throughout the Great Patriotic War.

The most capable Soviet tank of the 1930s was the BT (Bystrokhodny tank or ‘high-speed tank’) series of fast medium tanks. They were based around the ideas and theories of the American inventor J. Walter Christie, who had begun to look abroad for a more receptive audience for his innovative tank designs after the US Army began to feel the constraints of the Great Depression. Poland, Britain and Italy all expressed interest, but it was in the Soviet Union that Christie’s works were most enthusiastically received. Plans and four prototypes of his M1931 were transferred to the Amtorg trading group, ostensibly as agricultural tractors, and they were swiftly put into production as the 17t BT-1 turretless test vehicle, followed by the BT-2, which was equipped with a 45mm gun and sloped armour on its turret and capable of reaching the unprecedented top speed of 80km/hour. 770 were built between 1932 and 1934 before they were replaced by the 20t BT-5, which featured an improved turret and increased armour; a total of 3258 were produced over the next three years. This in turn gave way in 1935 to the ultimate form of the type, the BT-7. Weighing 21t and with a top speed of 92km/hour, it was powered by a Mikulin M-17 engine and carried 25% more ammunition than its predecessors. 5965 were built between 1935 and 1940, serving as the backbone of the Soviet medium tank force in the Winter-War, the Soviet-Japanese War and the early stages of the Great Patriotic War.

Just as the BT series provided a substantial leap in capability over its unfortunate predecessor, the T-26 light tank represented an equally notable advance over the T-18/T-19 family of vehicles. It had its origins in the Chinese version of the Light Tank Mark IIC, twelve of which were purchased by the Soviet technical mission to the Dragon Throne in 1931 through a series of convoluted back channels. Extensive testing showed the protection scheme to be of high quality and cross-country performance to be quite creditable. An evolved Soviet 12t version armed with a 45mm gun entered production in October 1932 at the Bolshevik Factory in Leningrad, followed by the Stalingrad Tractor Factory in 1933. Yearly production rates peaked in 1939 with 1495 vehicles and an incredible total of 12,483 had been built by the end of 1940. It saw action in the 1930s along the Chinese frontier and performed successfully in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1938 and 1939, where it made up the majority of the Red Army’s arsenal in the close fought victory at Khalkin Gol.

The Soviet Union could boast of the world’s largest arsenal of tankettes in the 1930s, consisting of 2876 T-27s, 1149 T-37s and 1394 T-38s. These were all broadly similar vehicles, developed as a Soviet response to the presence of British tankettes captured in raids along the Afghan border. With an average weight of 3 tons, their armament was limited to a single machine gun, proving ideal for close infantry support and reconnaissance in low threat combat environments, but death traps when faced with enemy fire. The T-37 and T-38 were intended as amphibious tankettes, but their performance proved quite mixed when faced with fast flowing rivers and Finnish water mages. Thin armour and the lack of a radio confined the Soviet tankettes to a limited number of roles where they performed adequately in the absence of heavier guns or rapacious dragons, who would often carry off one or more vehicles at a time.

In addition to large numbers of light vehicles, the Red Army operated the most numerous force of multi-turreted medium and heavy tanks in the 1930s. The T-28 was a 29t vehicle that showed the influence of British and other foreign developments. Built by the Kirov Factory in Leningrad, it was equipped with a 76.2mm main gun and four machine guns arrayed in two smaller turrets. It could reach an acceptable top speed of 37km/hour, but carried relatively light armour. 573 were produced between 1933 and 1939. The T-28 was one of the most widely used Soviet tanks of the Winter War, where over 350 were knocked out in the fruitless efforts to break the Mannerheim Line between December 1939 and April 1940.

The 64t T-35 was the far more formidable big brother to the T-28, sporting a 76.2mm main gun, two secondary 45mm guns and six machine guns and protected by over 50mm of armour. It was an extraordinarily expensive tank, required a crew of fifteen and was extremely unwieldy in tactical situations. Only 127 were built between 1934 and 1940, serving as a central reserve for the armoured forces of the Red Army. Thirty T-35s were employed in the Winter War, fourteen falling prey to the potent Finnish anti-tank guns and ubiquitous land mines. When employed in a defensive fashion in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the T-35s were able to blunt several German attacks and serve as the lynchpins of defensive fortifications before abandoned due to mechanical failure or irreparable transmission breakdown.

Dwarfing both the T-28 and the T-35 was the T-100 superheavy tank, a vehicle regarded as the either the apogee or the nadir of the less useful superheavy types of the interwar period. Weighing an incredible 176t, the T-100 looked more like a tank of the Great War, carrying a pair of 45mm guns in independent turrets, six machine guns and a 107mm gun in its main central turret. Its maximum armour protection was over 100mm, making it invulnerable to other tanks and anti-tank guns of the time, but at the cost of a pedestrian top speed of 13km/hour and an extremely unreliable transmission. 5 vehicles were built at great expense between 1935 and 1939, none of which survived the subsequent global conflagration. The sole vehicle used in the Winter War was destroyed by a Swedish dragon flying under Finnish colours, three fell to German Tigers in the defence of Moscow and the final T-100 was eventually destroyed whilst operating in the blasted ruins of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942.

[Simon Darkshade]

Soviet Tank Development Part 2: 1939-1945

The Red Army began and ended the Second World War with the largest tank arsenal in the world, but underwent massive changes and leaps in evolution over the course of the conflict. Soviet participation in the global conflagration began when it invaded Poland without a declaration of war on September 17, 1939 in accordance with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This act of infamy was greeted with outrage in France and Britain, but little could be done to assist the Poles short of declaring war on the Soviets. Fighting was brief yet intense as the Polish Army sold their lives dearly to allow those forces in the Romanian Bridgehead to escape to the West. The primary tanks used by the Red Army in the Polish Campaign were the T-26 and BT-7 and they proved superior to the small number of 7TP light tanks operated by the forces guarding Poland’s eastern frontier; the most modern Polish armoured vehicles, including the formidable 25TP mediums had been committed to the grand battle against the German invaders at Warsaw. It was thus the Red Army’s tanks did not face any appreciable opposition in the West until the German invasion of 1941.

Expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence to the west was not limited to Poland, with the Baltic states forced to accept military bases and Red Army garrisons before Stalin’s eye turned to his nearest neighbor, the small Kingdom of Finland. The demands for the cession of a large part of the Karelian Isthmus and strategic islands in the Gulf of Finland were refused, paving the way for a direct ultimatum. On November 30, four days after a conveniently contrived border incident, 525,000 Soviet troops poured across the border without a declaration of war. The significantly outnumbered Finnish Army was considered as capable of offering little opposition, an impression that would soon be corrected. Early fighting in the Karelian forests saw Soviet BT-7 and T-26 tanks enjoy early tactical success before the Finns countered them with their deadly combination of Molotov cocktails, mines, anti-tank rifles and Bofors 40mm anti-tank guns. The Soviet advance was stopped cold on the formidable Mannerheim Line as the ice and frost took hold. The Winter War had begun.

In extraordinarily freezing conditions, which reached a low point of -52° Celsius on December 21st, the Finnish Army, now swelled to 470,000 men, held the Mannerheim Line against repeated Soviet assaults throughout December. Lighter tanks were replaced with the heavier T-28 and T-35 to no avail, falling prey to the Finnish 105mm and 120mm field guns and the deadly spells of their mages. The Finnish Medium Mark III and FT-17 tanks rarely engaged their numerically superior opponents on an even basis, being held in reserve to crush enemy infantry in swift counterattacks. To the north in Ladoga Karelia, the Red Army offensive was cut into dozens of mottis in the deep forests in a series of running battles that saw the legendary sharpshooter Simo Häyhä earn the fearsome sobriquet of ‘White Death’ and record the highest number of sniper kills of all time, with over a thousand Soviet soldiers falling to his rifle. Supplies from Britain and France began to stream in via the Petsamo lifeline to the north, volunteers from across the world rallied to the aid of bold little Finland and with every day, Sweden moved closer to outright intervention.

Stalin’s displeasure manifested itself in the wholesale reorganisation of the Red Army’s command and tactical doctrine on the Karelian Front and the number of troops swelled to over 800,000 as Soviet artillery bombarded the Mannerheim Line around the clock. The great offensive began on February 1st at Summa and initial breakthroughs were achieved, threatening to outflank the Finnish positions and sunder their defences entirely. The Soviet 240mm howitzers and 280mm mortars proved instrumental in smashing Finnish defences in the initial phase of the battle, allowing the penetration of combined infantry and armoured units. Reinforcing their earlier heavy tanks was a new, more successful vehicle, the KV-1or Kliment Voroshilov tank, the first in a family of tanks that would see service throughout the war. Weighing 48t and armed with a 76.2mm gun, it was capable of a top speed of 50km/hour, had good traction on soft ground and sported 90mm of turret armour and 75mm of side protection. It had significant problems with its transmission, ergonomics and most crucially of all, its operational weight. Few bridges could support the KV-1 and it had not been fitted with a snorkel necessary for fording rivers. It encountered qualified operational success in the Winter War, proving immune to all but the heaviest enemy guns and capable of providing devastating firepower when called on to support infantry. A total of 6932 would be built between 1939 and 1942 and they built up an impressive combat record in the titanic fighting of the first year of the Great Patriotic War.

The Soviet successes were countered by Marshal Mannerheim hurling all his remaining reserves into the fray, along with his carefully preserved tank force and the remaining three dozen Wellesley bombers of the Royal Finnish Air Force. Bridgeheads won dearly over the past week were smashed in hours by a heavy Finnish artillery bombardment from the venerable 480mm Vickers coastal guns at Viipuri and the 420mm main armament of the battleships Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen, blasting the Soviet siege artillery into silence. The Mannerheim Line held and both the Finns and the Red Army would continue to bleed through February and March. Sweden mobilised her full strength of over a million and a quarter men, began to deliver guns, tanks and munitions in ever greater quantities and dozens of Swedish aircraft now flew under the flag of Finland after hasty repainting. The end of winter’s night and the coming of spring dawning bought with it the end of the war, as the Allies issued an ultimatum for a cessation of hostilities by March 30th on pain of their direct intervention.

The suboptimal performance of the Red Army’s armoured forces in the Winter War came as a profound shock and influenced Stalin’s decision to support the full development of Mikhail Koshkin’s impressive prototype A-20 medium tank, a decision that would be fully vindicated in the years to come. The experience of the Soviet-Japanese War had shown that the petrol engined T-26 and BT-7 had proved vulnerable to incendiary attacks, in addition to occasionally being prone to catastrophic spalling of the riveted armour plates on the hull and turret. Following successful tests, the A-20 was developed into an up-armoured version, the A-32 which in turn became the production vehicle, the T-34. Protected by 70mm of sloped armour on the turret, weighing 29.5 tons and driven by a powerful 600hp V12 diesel engine, the wide-tracked T-34 was capable of reaching a top speed of 60km/hour and carried the deadly F-34 76.2mm/50 and a pair of 7.62mm DT medium machine guns. Initial difficulties in manufacturing sufficiently thick armour plate held back mass production until November 1940, when the first T-34s were delivered to the Red Army from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, later followed by the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory in Gorky and the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. An incredible total of 79,238 T-34s of all variants were built between 1940 and 1945 (2493 at the Moscow Tractor Factory, 1984 at ChTZ No.183 in Kharkov, 36,982 at UTZ in Nizhniy Tagil, 4256 at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, 21,254 at Krasnoye Somovo in Gorky, 5987 at the Voroshilov Plant in Omsk and 6295 at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory) reaching a monthly high of 2096 in January 1944, making it clearly the most produced Soviet tank of the Second World War.

Accompanying the development of the T-34 medium tank was a new and extremely effective family of heavy tanks, the Kliment Voroshilov or KV series. They would provide the backbone of the heavy armoured forces of the Red Army in the battles of 1941 and 1942. The unwieldy T-35 was correctly perceived to be an evolutionary dead end even before it went into action in 1939 and the tactical utility of multiple-turreted tanks was also being questioned. A new design with a smaller hull and single heavy turret that allowed for far greater frontal protection began development in 1938 and two prototypes were successfully tested in operational conditions in the final phase of the Winter War. Named for the People’s Commissar for Defence, the KV-1 began production in December 1940. It was a 52t vehicle protected by up to 110mm of armour and armed with a modified 107mm gun that, whilst quite effective over short and medium ranges, proved of mixed utility in combat with comparable German types; ultimately, it would be regarded not so much as a failure as a gun that did not live up to its promise. With a top speed of 30km/hour, it was well-suited to defensive operations in urban environments. Its sister tank, the KV-2, was a beast of a vehicle, carrying a 152mm howitzer in a tall, high profile turret and attracting the nickname ‘Dreadnought’ from its crews. Far fewer were produced compared to the more conventional KV-1 due to reduced speed and the enlarged target presented by the hulking turret. 5924 KV-1s and 483 KV-2s were built between 1941 and October 1942, when they were phased out in favour of the newer IS heavy tanks.

The T-34 would prove to be the dominant tank of the largest and bloodiest theatre of operations in the Second World War, the Eastern Front, and gain a reputation as one of the deadliest weapons of war devised by man. Once convivial relations between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union soon returned to frosty hostility after the Fall of France and the sharp setback of the Battle of Britain as Hitler’s rapacious gaze shifted to the vastness and riches of the east. The forces of the Wehrmacht and their Austro-Hungarian and Romanian allies built up along a 2900 mile front in the first months of 1941 in ever greater strength, although Stalin stubbornly refused to countenance the growing likelihood of betrayal and war. At 0305 hours on May 12th 1941, the Nazis struck. A titanic bombardment of over 10,000 guns marks the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. 584 Luftwaffe heavy bombers and three dozen dragons attacked Minsk and Kiev in the hours before dawn, inflicting considerable damage and causing widespread terror. The German lead offensive consists of four army groups, each supported by a Luftflotte of over 1500 aircraft, totaling 236 divisions and over 4.6 million men, equipped with 5800 tanks and 12400 guns. The initial border battles swept aside the Red Army’s T-26s and BT-7s, which proved no match for the German Panzer IIIs and IVs. On the second day of the invasion, the first T-34s and KV-1s were encountered and immediately changed the calculus of armoured combat in Barbarossa. German tanks could only penetrate the protection of the medium Soviet tanks at shorter ranges and many of their earlier anti-tank guns were rendered tactically useless, forcing the Heer to use 105mm field guns and 88mm anti-aircraft guns firing over open sights. In the engagements with the heavy KV tanks, virtually no German guns could be relied upon to consistently penetrate their frontal armour and only the desparate use of 150mm guns halted one particularly effective Soviet advance. These engagements were one of the major factors in the expedited fielding of the Panzerabwehrkanone 42 88mm anti-tank gun and the superb Panzer V and VI tanks.

Against the odds, the Soviet Union survived the first body blows of the German invasion and gave up space for time, losing its most productive agricultural and industrial areas to the seemingly unstoppable grey tide. With a grim determination born of the realisation that this was a battle to the death for the very existence of their country and people, the Soviet populace and the Red Army bled and died to buy time. City after city fell – Kiev, Smolensk, Odessa, Riga and Novgorod. In some areas, the oppressed citizenry greeted the Germans as liberators with bread and salt, expecting a more benign regime than that of the Kremlin, an expectation that they were soon disabused of as the murderous intent of the Nazis became clear. Factories were dismantled and sent by train to the secure fastness of the Urals and Siberia, where they would be rebuilt with the welcome aid of Britain and the United States. These would later be well known as the greatest Soviet production plants of the war – the Stalin Ural Tank Factory No.183 in Nizhniy Tagil, the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant at Sverdlovsk and the vast industrial conglomerate known as ‘Tankograd’ in Chelyabinsk. Not one field or mine was left for the invader in the greatest scorched earth campaign of all time. The battles of July and August saw the effective end of the BT-7 as a frontline tank, as its limited armour and light armament proved ineffective in engaging the Panzer III Ausf. Gs and the increasing numbers of Panzer IVs that spearheaded the German advance that was gradually slowing as the warmth of summer gave way to the rains of autumn. Dozens of Red Army divisions were shifted towards the central sector of the front from Siberia and Central Asia to shore up the defences of Moscow. To the north, Leningrad was besieged, its only outlets to the world coming over Lake Ladoga and whatever aid could make its way through the silent lines of the embittered but as yet neutral Finns. Soviet armoured counter-attacks occasionally encountered limited success on a tactical level but were unable to halt the general German offensive, with only the T-34 and the KV heavy tanks proving able to engage their counterparts on an even or better basis. One such occasion occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Smolensk on August 29th, where over 500 T-34s, 120 KV-1s and 34 KV-2s conducted a successful double envelopment of advanced German forces, breaking their momentum and buying valuable time for the defence of Moscow. Over 2800 T-34s and 900 KV-1s were lost in 1941 out of almost 24,000 Soviet tanks destroyed in the first year of war in the East.

The pivotal moment of the first year of the Great Patriotic War came at the defence of Moscow from October 1941 to January 1942, where the German Operation Typhoon was stopped cold at the gates of the capital and then smashed back in the first of many Red Army winter offensives. Early successes of Army Group Centre at Bryansk and Vyazma ground to a halt along the Mozhaisk Line where 150,000 men under Marshal Georgiy Zhukov, recalled from the Leningrad Front, held stubbornly for two and a half crucial weeks while the fortifications of Moscow were built up by a civilian army of men, women and children. The full remaining strength of the Red Air Force was thrown into the battle, including the strategic reserve of five great red wyrms, managing to break the Luftwaffe’s effective air superiority over the battlefield. It was here that the KV-3 superheavy tank first saw action, fortuitously counterbalancing any tactical advantage that the Heer may have enjoyed from the combat debut of the deadly Tiger tanks. The KV-3 had originally been intended to replace the KV-1, but had encountered many of the same problems as the massive prewar T-35. At 80t, it was protected by 125mm of frontal armour and armed with a specially adapted 130mm naval gun. It’s 800hp diesel engine gave it a top speed of 24km/hour, making it decidedly unsuited to the modern battlefield outside of the specific circumstances of the Battle of Moscow and other defensive siege operations and only 140 were completed by the time production ended in February 1943.

Typhoon wore on and German successes began to run up against ever greater resistance. Soviet wizardry made each night a terror for the German troops, sending forth storms of ice, crimson lightning and blue fireballs that defied all mundane means of defence. Valiant medium tanks supplied by Britain through the perilous Arctic waters made up a small but useful fraction of the Red Army’s strength in the Battle of Moscow in the infantry support role. But, above all else, it was Mother Russia’s oldest ally, the weather, also acted to slow the German way forward, the churning mud of the rasputitsa preventing any decisive breakthroughs. Once the muds of autumn had frozen, the German push began anew on November 15th and crossed the Moscow-Volga Canal on December 1st, coming within almost 30 miles of the Kremlin itself. Resistance was ferocious as the 1st Shock Army and the famous Cavalry Army were thrown into the fray to defend the capital. Stalin’s ‘Monsters’, three massive 640mm railway howitzers based to the east of Moscow, kept the German frontlines under regular fire in the pivotal hours before Typhoon was finally called off in the face of fanatical resistance and the bitter cold of winter. Temperatures regularly dropped below -40° and the Germans found themselves bereft of the necessary winter clothing and cold weather equipment to operate in such conditions. On December 6th, 1,250,000 Red Army troops in 69 divisions smashed into the German lines around Moscow in a stunning counteroffensive that threatened to overwhelm the entire of Army Group Centre before it ended in mid January 1942.

The first major Soviet advances of the war were spearheaded by a new, fast light tank, the T-50. It had its origins in the same developmental reappraisal of Red Army tank design of 1938/39 that lead to the development of the T-34 and KV series. Foreign light tanks were already bringing the T-26 and its variants swiftly towards obsolescence and a new vehicle was required to replace it, whilst still being suitable for production in smaller manufacturing plants. The result was a 15t vehicle with up to 60mm of armour and an excellent 45mm gun. Cross-country speed of the T-50 was a creditable 62km/hour and it was regarded initially as a robust vehicle well suited to the role of infantry support and reconnaissance. The first operational vehicles were delivered in March 1941 and full production followed in April. The general prewar assumptions on the use of light tanks were smashed by the early battles of Barbarossa and the titanic Red Army arsenal of light tanks was soon whittled down by the enormous early losses in the Byelorussia and the Ukraine. Subsequently, the T-50 was used as a fast armoured reconnaissance vehicle that ranged far behind enemy flanks and disrupting their lines of communication, until such time as T-34 production allowed it to fill such roles. Production of the T-50 took on a priority behind that of the frontline T-34 mediums and KV-1/KV-2 heavies, but continued for more than two years until September 1943. A total of 12,519 were built in that period, suffering considerable losses at the hands of heavier German and Austro-Hungarian armoured vehicles and the much-feared 88mm anti-tank guns; a number were captured by the Romanian Army in the advances of 1941/42 and used as the basis for a number of light assault guns, most of which were lost in the Soviet counteroffensives of 1943-1945.

As the winter gave way to the summer fighting season of 1942 and the great German offensive towards the Volga and Caucasus, Case Blau, work was already underway on an improved variant of the T-34 capable of engaging the new Panther on more even terms. Initial design studies on a universal tank to replace both the T-34 and the KV, the T-43, ended in failure as the proposed vehicle would lack the same degree of rugged mobility as the T-34 whilst slowing production at a crucial period. Instead, an evolved variant of the T-34 was developed, armed with an 85mm gun derived from the successful M1939 52-K which had proved deadly in the defence of Moscow against the Luftwaffe. The T-34-85 was capable of penetrating the side armour of a Tiger from 870 metres, a significant improvement on earlier versions. Production began in May 1943 and the first vehicles reached frontline Red Army service in late July, taking part in the lengthy battles along the Panther-Wotan Line. 32,974 would be built by the end of the war. The ultimate development of the T-34 family of tanks came in the form of the T-34-100, a heavily modified vehicle armed with a 100mm gun that had been briefly designated the T-44 due to the number of changes made, before being switched back at Stalin’s personal insistence. It was produced from December 1944 and combined improved cross-country performance with a small but notable increase in armoured protection, but was always regarded as something of an interim vehicle compared to the new tank already under development by the Morozov Design Bureau, the T-54; only 3562 T-34-100s would be produced before the end of hostilities in September.

The KV-1 had never been regarded as entirely suitable by the Red Army due to its relatively poor mobility and unsatisfactory gun and work on a replacement was well underway by early 1942 with added urgency due to the German introduction of the formidable Panther and Tiger tanks. The Iosif Stalin or IS-1 heavy tank began production in December 1942 as a stopgap measure to expedite the entry of the 85mm gun into service, but only 275 were built before they were replaced by the preferred 122mm armed IS-2. The larger gun had been chosen in preference to the new D-10 100mm tank gun as it was a proven design already in production, as well as being able to penetrate the frontal armour of a Panther at substantially better combat ranges. The IS-2 weighed 52 tons, was protected by 120mm of sloped armour and was one of the fastest tanks of its class with a top speed of 40km/hour. Mass production of the IS-2 began in August 1943 and it was the primary Soviet heavy tank of the key year of 1944, when the Red Army finally pushed the Axis forces out of the motherland. 4983 tanks would be built up until December 1944, when it was replaced by the IS-3, which featured improved armour, a hemispheric cast turret and a more powerful engine. It would be the IS-3 that spearheaded the final Soviet offensives of the war in Europe, crushing the German defences of Silesia and reaching the banks of the Oder River. In the Far East, they devastated Japanese armour and infantry alike in the lightning invasion of Manchuria that served as the harbinger of ultimate victory. 1269 IS-3s would be built before the end of the war and the type remained in production until early 1947.

Just like the other major great powers, the Soviet Union also operated a range of heavy assault guns and tank destroyers in the Great Patriotic War; rather than the distinct types employed by others, the Soviet vehicles eventually coalesced into a handful of general purpose self-propelled guns. In the first half of the war on the Eastern Front, the primary Soviet requirement was for anti-tank guns and tank destroyers, known in Russian as samokhodnaya ustanovka, or self-propelled carriages. Eventually, the difference between the types would be one of gun calibre, with 152mm armed vehicles employed in the assault support role and those with smaller armaments used for anti-tank purposes. The SU-76 was the first such vehicle to enter service with the Red Army, based on a lengthened and widened version of the chassis of the T-50 light tank. It was liked for its reliability and general ease of use, although its steering was regarded as clunky. 15,247 were built from July 1942, primarily by the Gorky Automobile Plant. As the Germans and Austro-Hungarians began to employ heavier tanks, the SU-76 was shifted to the infantry support role, where is served for the rest of the war in a workman-like fashion. The SU-85 was based on the T-34 chassis and brought the 85mm to the battlefield on the simplest possible vehicle in the shortest time and 2371 were produced from late October 1942 until the T-34-85 began to join frontline units in significant numbers in the second half of 1943. It was replaced by the SU-100, a versatile vehicle equipped with a 100mm main armament. The SU-100 proved capable of destroying any Axis tanks of the latter half of the war apart from the Brobdingnagian Elefants; production continued into 1946, with 3063 built in wartime. The largest tank destroyer produced by the Soviet Union was the SU-130, which sported a 130mm naval gun adapted for use on land and only saw limited service due to its high profile and comparative difficulty of production. 219 were built in 1945 and they were used to devastate the formidable defences of the East Prussian fortress city of Konigsberg in the final days of the war in Europe.

The first of the pure assault guns the SU-152, a 55t mobile gun based on the chassis of the KV heavy tank. Although it was primarily used as self-propelled artillery and a close infantry support gun, the SU-152 saw enough use in the heavy anti-tank role to earn the fearsome sobriquet of the Zveroboy, or ‘Beast Slayer’ in 1942 and 1943 before it was gradually replaced by the better protected ISU-152s; a total of 895 were produced in this time. The shift of offensive momentum from the Heer to the Red Army saw the production of what can be regarded as the Soviet Union’s finest assault gun of the war, the ISU-152. Based on the chassis of the new Iosif Stalin heavy tank, the ISU-152 was designed for the destruction of any enemy field fortifications that would be encountered on the battlefield, as well as fulfilling the secondary roles of a self propelled howitzer and a heavy tank destroyer. Protected by over 130mm of frontal armour, it was to prove ideal for both urban combat in Konigsberg and Breslau and the heavy fighting along the Romanian border, earning the same reputation as a ‘Beast Slayer’ as its predecessor. 6852 were built between February 1944 and September 1945 and production would continue until 1949.

Soviet tank production over the course of the war surpassed that even of the United States of America and played a key role in the transformation of the Red Army from its prewar position as merely the world’s largest military force to its new status as the most formidable army in the world and the key factor in the Soviet Union’s influence over European and world affairs. The T-34 was arguably the best Allied medium tank by a very small margin over the Sherman and Crusader and the IS-2 and IS-3 can be regarded as at least the equals of the Tiger in the latter half of the war.

[Simon Darkshade]

Soviet Tank Development Part 3: The Postwar Years

The aftermath of the Second World War saw the Soviet Union take its place as a genuine superpower on the world stage. Postwar demobilization of the Red Army began in late 1945 and the personnel strength of the Soviet Ground Forces was reduced from 16.42 million men in 625 divisions to 3.6 million men in 254 divisions by early 1949. The majority of this contraction was felt in the infantry and cavalry arms, while the frontline armoured force was maintained at the wartime level of over 60 divisions and 25,000 tanks, reflecting the dominance of the tank in the defeat of the Axis powers. Mainstay of this force was the redoubtable T-34-100, which continued production until early 1950 in the U.S.S.R., allowing for substantial exports to the Soviet satellite states of Poland, Romania, the German People’s Republic and Mongolia; a further 5892 T-34s were supplied to China between 1949 and 1952. Total production in the postwar period came to 12,974 tanks, the majority being built in 1946-47. T-34-85s and -100s would see extensive service in the first two years of the Korean War with the North Korean, Mongolian and Chinese armies, enjoying initial success against Allied light tanks and M4 Shermans before meeting their match in the form of American M-48 Pattons and British Commonwealth Centurions. The Red Army retained an estimated 18,000 T-34s in reserve in 1960, although their relative utility in modern warfare is regarded as limited.

The heavy tank enjoyed something of an Indian summer in Soviet service in the late 1940s and 1950s. The IS-3 was succeeded by the considerably larger and exceptionally well-armoured IS-7 in December 1947, a 72t superheavy vehicle armed with a 130mm gun that was effectively immune to all Western and Soviet anti-tank guns of the time. It was a comfortable and easy to drive tank capable of reaching the heady top speed of 60km/hour due to its 1000hp engine. The only flaw of the IS-7 was its bulk, which limited its ability to safely cross bridges and utilize ordinary rail transport. 793 were built in 1948 and 1949, with all operational vehicles being assigned to independent heavy tank regiments based in Poland and East Prussia until its retirement from active service in 1958. More widely successful would be the IS-10, 4268 of which have been produced since 1952. Weighing 60t and armed with a 130mm gun, it resembles an enlarged IS-3, but sported far superior protection equivalent to up to 260mm of armour plate on the turret and glacis. Top speed of the IS-10 is a creditable 45km/hour and its tactical mobility belies its heavyweight status. Its presence in the tank divisions of the Red Army is seemingly secure for years to come and it has been one of the major reasons in the development of new Western MBTs.

Light tanks almost disappeared from the Soviet inventory in the immediate postwar period given the seeming ubiquity of the T-34, but the concept was saved due to the requirement for amphibious ability. A number of designs were pursued in the late 1940s prior to the selection of engineer N. Shasmurin’s Obyekt 740 for full scale development in March 1948. A prototype of the tank now known as the PT-85, or 85mm armed Plavayushchiy Tank (‘swimming tank’), was accepted for production in November 1950. Capable of reaching a top speed of 50km/hour on land and 12km/hour swimming, the PT-85 weighed 20t and carried up to 30 mm of armour, providing it with some limited protection against 12.7mm heavy machine gunfire. It currently serves as the standard light reconaissance tank for the Red Army and its associated allied forces, as well as the Naval Infantry of the Red Navy. An estimated 6477 PT-85s have been built since 1951 and the chassis has additionally served as the basis for the deadly ZSU-23-4 self propelled anti-aircraft gun and the BTR-50 amphibious armoured personnel carrier.

Development of a new medium tank to replace the T-34 had been underway since early 1944 and the first tests of the prototype T-54 began in October 1945. A robust 40t vehicle protected by over 125mm of turret armour, it was an excellent tank that combined deadly firepower, substantial armour, speed and rugged reliability. It was armed with a stabilised D-10 100mm rifled main gun, a coaxial SGMT 7.62 medium machine gun and carried the lethal new KPV 14.5mm heavy machine gun on a pintle mount on the turret roof. A top speed of 60km/hour made the T-54 the fastest of the first generation of postwar tanks operated by any of the great powers. It was highly regarded by the Red Army as a worthy successor to the T-34 and the basis for a universal tank. Mass production began in Nizhniy Tagil in January 1947 and it replaced the T-34 in production in the vast factories in Kharkov, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Stalingrad by late 1949. A total of 45,624 T-54s would be built between 1947 and 1954, equipping the tank force and new motor rifle divisions of the Red Army to this day. Flamethrower and rocket armed variants were produced in substantial numbers, replacing earlier T-34 and IS-2 based vehicles.

The combat debut of the T-54 came in February 1951 in Korea and its operational performance came as an unpleasant surprise to the Western Allies, particularly given that earlier examinations of a tank clandestinely obtained from Romania via diplomatic bag had been coolly unimpressed. It spurred the full replacement of medium tanks with 105mm armed vehicles and lead to the development of a new generation of powerful anti-tank guided weapons. The T-54 gave the Chinese and Communist forces a degree of parity in armoured engagements during the stalemate period of 1952-53 but was outmatched by improved versions of their Western counterparts in the last years of the war. In the limited tank clashes in the 1956 War, the T-54 performed creditably when used in circumstances that suited its attributes, although a number of losses were inflicted by Conqueror superheavy tanks from beyond the range of the Soviet 100mm guns.

By this time, a new and improved tank, the T-55, had entered production, replacing the T-54. It was designed as a tank for the atomic age, fitted with a MBCR protection system, improved gun stabilization, a new 650hp diesel engine and increased ammunition storage capacity. The T-55 can be considered the Soviet Union’s first true main battle tank and was responsible for the gradual replacement of the heavy tank in frontline Red Army service due to its considerable advantages in mobility and improved HEAT rounds. The physical size of the crew was limited due to the design of the turret and the increased numbers of Soviet dwarves conscripted for service in tank units is a direct consequence of this factor. Its low profile turret is generally considered as a positive feature, although it limits the angle of depression of the main gun when firing from a hull-down position on the rear slope of hills. 19,345 T-55s have been built since production began in 1955 and it is currently in service with the armies of six other states.

The latest and most powerful tank in the Soviet arsenal is the 45t T-62, which entered service in 1959. Comparatively little is known of the newest MBT in the Red Army apart from its 115mm smoothbore armament and estimated road speed of 56km/hour. It is broadly considered to be an evolutionary development of the T-54/55 family of tanks. Armoured protection is in advance of the T-55, with increased thickness particularly apparent on the front of the turret. The operational range of the T-62 seems to be greater than that of previous Soviet tanks based on open source intelligence. Up to 2400 have been built thus far, although they have not been fielded by armoured units serving outside of the Soviet Union.

[Simon Darkshade]

International Tank Development Part 1: Italy and Austria-Hungary

Beyond the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Germany, there have been several other states that have developed their own indigenous tank designs over the course of the 20th century. Across Europe and Asia, some of these vehicles remain in production and service, even as the vehicles of the superpowers have begun to dominate their competitors in the armies of the world; the recent advent of the main battle tank could well cement this general position. Italy, Spain and Austria-Hungary all had significant tank forces in the interwar period, China and Japan have fielded strong armoured forces from the 1930s onwards, Sweden and Poland have long histories of innovative armoured development and the Commonwealth dominions of Canada, and Australia all have produced noteworthy tanks.

The first armoured vehicles of the Royal Italian Army in the Great War were imported French Renault FT light tanks. It was replaced from early 1918 by a domestically improved version, the Fiat 3000. Only 42 vehicles were produced by the armistice in November and orders were reduced to a total of 180 tanks. It was fitted with a 37mm gun and a 6.5mm machine gun and weighed 12.3 tons. They would serve as the mainstay of the Italian armoured force in the 1920s and early 1930s, along with the Fiat 3000B that entered service in 1929. 70 were employed in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935-6 where they overwhelmed the poorly equipped infantry forces of the Imperial Abyssinian Army. 47 Fiat 3000s were still in second line service at the outbreak of the Second World War, mainly in Italian East Africa, where they were destroyed or captured by the British Commonwealth offensive of late 1940.

The Fiat light tanks were replaced in service in the early 1930s by the CV-32, jointly produced by Fiat and Ansaldo based on design studies undertaken by Vickers in the late 1920s. Weighing 15 tons and armed with a 25mm Breda gun and two 8mm machine guns, it was a fast and mobile vehicle capable of reaching a top road speed of 51km/hour, but was outclassed by foreign light tanks due to its light protection. Further variants included the CV-34 and CV-35, which added more powerful engines and some modest increases in frontal armour; all were limited by the requirements of infrastructure in the Italian colonial empire. A total of 2943 light tanks of the CV-32 family were produced between 1932 and 1941, putting it among the most numerous of all Italian tanks. It enjoyed significant export success, being purchased by Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Iraq, Ottoman Turkey, Spain and Ruritania. Their operational career was one characterized by mediocrity, with one CV-35 attracting the dubious record of being the only modern tank to be destroyed by lions in the Abyssinian Campaign. In the decisive fighting of Operation Compass in North Africa in 1940, over 430 CV-34s and -35s were destroyed or captured by the British 7th Armoured Division in its invasion of Cyrenaica. Many were employed as immobile defensive obstacles in the Allied invasions of Sicily, Sardinia and mainland Italy of 1942 and 1943, but they provided only a limited tactical inconvenience at best.

The most successful Italian light tank of the Second World War was the L18/39. It was equipped with the potent Ansaldo Cannone da 75/39 modello 38, which gave it excellent anti-tank and infantry support capacity. At 56km/hour, it was slightly slower than many of its foreign counterparts, but made up for this deficiency with good reliability, fine cross-country mobility and 56mm of frontal armoured protection. 3986 were built between 1939 and 1943 by Fiat and Ansaldo and they comprised the major part of the Regio Esercito’s tank force when Italy entered the war in June 1940. They performed creditably against British Cavalier tanks in North Africa, but were increasingly outmatched by the heavier Valiants and Crusaders from early 1941 onwards. 167 served with the ill-fated Italian Army in Russia, all of which were lost in the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad. It would be in Spain that the L18/39 enjoyed its greatest measure of success, providing the Axis forces with a strong and capable reconnaissance screen before being gradually replaced by German and Austro-Hungarian types as their numbers were worn down in the battle of attrition.

It was to be in the medium tank category that Italy would make its greatest mark on the Second World War. Italian capacity to field medium and heavy tanks was constrained by the limits of her heavy industrial capacity and particularly the availability of engines of sufficient power to propel heavier vehicles to useful speeds. As in other states, the solution of an aircraft engine was ultimately decided upon in 1938 and a 450hp petrol engine was selected as the powerplant for the M25/40, a tank regarded the best Italian armoured vehicle of either World War. It was armed with a 75mm L/42 gun and protected by upwards of 75mm of armour plate whilst still being capable of reaching a top road speed of 52km/hour. It was a match for the best Allied medium tanks on a one on one basis in North Africa and Spain, but was never present in sufficient numbers to prove tactically or strategically decisive. By the final year of large scale Italian participation in the war, it was outclassed by the upgunned variants of the Crusader and Sherman then rolling off Allied production lines in ever-greater numbers. Just 2487 were built between 1940 and 1943, with the chassis also being used for the Semovente da 90/54 and Semovente da 105/25 self-propelled guns; 219 of the former and 124 of the latter were produced in 1941-1943. The M25/40 also saw limited service with the Ottoman and Bulgarian Armies, with the former operating just six vehicles prior to the armistice.

Following the Italian surrender of 1943, a royalist Italian Co-Belligerent Army of twelve light infantry divisions fought alongside the Allies to expel the Germans from Italy, but no tanks or heavy guns were fielded. This force provided the nucleus of the postwar Royal Italian Army, which was formally reestablished with a strength of six infantry, four alpine and four armoured divisions in 1947 in the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris. These units were equipped with surplus American Sherman and Pershing tanks in the late 1940s, which in turn were replaced by M-48 medium tanks from 1953. Restrictions on Italian domestic production of armaments were completely relaxed by the mid-1950s, allowing for the development of the 48t Leone main battle tank, previously known as the P48/56 before a change of nomenclature. Armed with a 105mm gun and two medium machine guns, it entered production in early 1960. It is thought to have considerable armoured protection equivalent to that of late model M-48s and Centurions and is capable of reaching the considerable top speed of 58km/hour. The Regio Esercito has ordered an initial 800 Leones and has a stated requirement for up to 2400 tanks; additional interest has been shown by Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria as they seek to eventually replace their older Centurions and Crusaders.

Austro-Hungarian tank development had its origins in Gunther Burstyn’s Motorgeschutz design of 1912, which took four long years to reach the battlefield. 109 were built in the final years of the Great War, serving primarily in the vast openness of the Eastern Front, although 15 were employed in the decisive victory at the Battle of Caporetto in 1917. Like Germany, Austria-Hungary was initially forbidden to operate tanks or other armoured vehicles under the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain, but this requirement was gradually relaxed as the aftermath of war gave way to the wave of communist revolution that swept over Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The final stages of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-1921 saw extensive clashes between the KuK and Red Armies in the dark Carpathians of Eastern Slovakia, leading to the French sale of 105 surplus Renault FT light tanks to Vienna in 1922; maintenance of the cordon sanitaire against the ravages of Bolshevism was seen as of paramount importance in this period. They would serve until 1935, allowing time for the development of Austria-Hungary’s first true modern tank

The industrial powerhouse of the Skoda Works produced the first prototype of the Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 28 in 1928, a 12t light tank that was clearly an evolved variant of the Renault, upgunned with a 47mm L/40. It was comparatively slow by the standards of 1920s light tanks, reaching a top speed of just 32km/hour, but more than made up for this with its respectable frontal protection of upwards of 35mm. 227 were built between 1928 and 1933 as production was curtailed at the height of the Great Depression. Many were scrapped in the late 1930s as they were replaced by newer vehicles, but 98 remained in service in May 1941, when they were attached to the Austro-Hungarian 2nd and 4th Armies in Operation Barbarossa. Initial light casualties slowly gave way to heavier losses, resulting in the replacement of the Panzer 28 in virtually all frontline roles by early 1942. Austro-Hungarian armoured officers regarded them with a strange mixture of affection and derision towards the end of their long service life.

The role of the light tank would be filled by the most widely produced Austro-Hungarian tank of the Second World War, the 17.5t Leichtes Panzerkampfwagen 35. Protected by 50mm of armour and armed with a 47mm gun, it could reach the exceptionally fast top speed of 62km/hour over an operational range of 250 kilometres. Its operational role was envisaged as engaging the expected large numbers of Soviet light tanks in the rugged terrain of the Carpathians with a secondary mission of infantry support. It formally entered production in December 1935 and equipped the majority of the six Panzer divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1939. In the invasion of Poland and the subsequent Battle of France, the Panzer 35, as it would be commonly known, soon developed a deserved reputation as a tank-killer par excellence through the combination of its powerful gun, low profile and maneuverability. This was reinforced in the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union, when it faced older Soviet light tanks in the offensive thrusts deep into the Ukraine. Army Group Ukraine’s first encounters with the T-34 in September 1941 would prove to be the harbinger of the end for the Panzer 35 and it was completely replaced in frontline service by a combination of German Leopards and more formidable medium tanks by mid-1942. It would continue to soldier on, particularly in Spain and the Balkans, until the Austro-Hungarian collapse of 1944, both as a light tank and for a number of conversions, including an anti-dragon rocket launcher. A total of 3947 Panzer 35s were built between 1935 and 1943, serving with the KuK Army as well as the forces of Bulgaria, Romania, Ottoman Turkey and the puppet Fascist regimes in Spain and France.

In 1935, the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry issued a requirement for a 24t medium tank capable of outmatching Polish, Italian, German and Soviet vehicles then thought to be under development. This would become the well-known Panzerkampfwagen 36, which served as the backbone of the Austro-Hungarian armoured forces in the first half of the war. The only major tank of the Second World War designed by a dwarf, it was well-protected by the standards of pre-war medium tanks, sporting a maximum of 65mm on the glacis and featuring a well sloped turret that served it in good stead against larger opponents. The Panzerkampfwagen 36 was one of the heavier armed tanks in its class, carrying an 76.2mm/39 main gun, a 13.2mm Mannlicher heavy machine gun and two 7.92mm medium machine guns. A maximum speed of 42km/hour driven by a 500hp V12 petrol engine was combined with good mobility and its wide tracks made for fine stability. 884 were in service at the outbreak of war in 1939 and 2116 in total were built between 1936 and 1941. They provided decisively successful in the southern flank of the invasion of Poland and helped break through British and French defences in the second stage of Fall Gelb; 329 Panzer 36s were lost in both campaigns to all causes. They saw particularly heavy use in the first 18 months of fighting in the Soviet Union and provided sharp opposition to Red Army T-34s when handled by experienced units. Dozens were wrecked by Soviet giants in the Siege of Voronezh and over 200 were destroyed in the counteroffensive following the Battle of Stalingrad, paying a heavy cost to stabilize the southern front. The remaining Panzer 36s were gradually withdrawn to defensive roles along the Eastern Front in 1943 and the last vehicles left operational service in mid 1944.

It would be the successor to the Panzer 36 that would attract the most fearsome reputation of any Austro-Hungarian armoured vehicle, the Panzerkampfwagen 40. It was a highly complex vehicle with a temperamental engine, but proved a match for the T-34 and KV series tanks on an individual basis for much of the war. Weighing 55t, it was classified as a heavy tank and comprehensively protected by up to 90mm of sloped armour, which limited its top speed to 40km/hour. It was armed with a 100mm L/52 gun that was among the most powerful tank guns of the war, capable of penetrating the frontal protection of most Allied heavy and medium tanks of the midwar period. The prototype was completed in December 1940 and the first Panzer 40s entered service with the Austro-Hungarian Army in March 1942, in time for Case Blau. Production rates were slow, peaking at 68 tanks in November 1943, and only 1249 were built before production ceased in September 1944. During much of this period, Austro-Hungarian forces were on the defensive against the seemingly inexorable Soviet advance and the Panzer 40 proved to be the ideal tank for such operations. The majority were destroyed in the retreat back to the Carpathians through the Western Ukraine in a host of vain, nameless actions; whilst well-protected against most conventional tank attacks, they did prove vulnerable to aerial attack from the marauding Sturmovik threat and specialized Soviet battle magics.

The postwar Austro-Hungarian Army received its first tanks, former British Crusaders, in 1948/49 as part of the general Western move towards rearmament in the face of the burgeoning Soviet threat. As in Italy, the outbreak of the Korean War lead to gradual relaxations on the imposed restriction of heavy armaments and the consortium of Skoda, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Manfred Weiss combined to begin development of a new main battle tank, provisionally named the Panzer 60, in 1956 whilst licensed production of the Centurion would fill the interim requirement for a modern tank force. The exact characteristics of the Panzer 60 are still considered highly secret, but it is thought that it will feature a 120mm gun and heavy conventional armour. Discussions for the initiation of a joint tank project with Germany have been stalled since 1959.

[Simon Darkshade]

International Tank Development Part 2: Spain and Japan

Spain acquired its first tanks in much the same way as Italy, ordering a number of Renault FTs from France for testing purposes in the final stages of the Great War. The primary occupation of the Spanish Army in the interwar period was the various colonial campaigns in Morocco and West Africa, which saw the French light tanks employed in the second first mechanised amphibious landings in history after the Grand Descent on Flanders by the Royal Marines in 1918. They encountered mixed success, providing overwhelming firepower against the mounted Rif rebels, but proving prone to mechanical breakdown in the searing sands of the Sahara. A rump armoured force of 54 FTs remained in Spanish Army service throughout the early 1920s at home and abroad, with half a dozen doing sterling patrol work in the Spanish concessions in China. An adapted domestic version, the Caballero, began low level production in 1926 but only 89 were built until production ceased in 1932. They were armed with a 37mm gun and twin 7.92mm machine guns, but only carried minimal armoured protection. The Caballero’s were most notable for the poor mechanical reliability and were regarded as one of the more mediocre interwar designs.

The dawn of the 1930s were marked by the deleterious impact of the Great Depression upon much of the Western world, but Spain was generally insulated from the most egregious impacts due to the relative isolation of its agricultural economy. Plans for the development of new domestic light and medium tanks were curtailed due to bottlenecks of supply of British, French, German and Italian manufactures and armaments, but a steady series of heavy tank designs continued over the next seven years. The resultant prototype of the Espada tank was first unveiled in early 1938 and began production in the final days of 1939. It was based around the Spanish requirement of defending the passes of the Pyrenees against an external Western European invader, typically considered to be Italy or France, with a secondary mission of colonial defence in North Africa. The Espada was a 36t tank equipped with a 75mm/40 main gun and a pair of French 25mm guns fitted in side sponsons, a design feature that had mostly been abandoned in the rest of Europe. Frontal armour protection was a creditable 65mm and it was capable of reaching a top speed of 29km/hour over rough terrain. Crucially for its intended role, the Espada was ideally suited to defensive combat in the type of hilly and mountainous areas that abounded on the Iberian peninsula. Spanish industrial capacity had lagged behind the other powers of Europe for the first half of the 20th century, but the successful development campaigns of the 1930s had gone a significant distance towards catching up with Italy. Production of the Espada in 1940 totalled 428 vehicles, a considerable achievement considering the modest nature of the Spanish heavy industrial sector after the troubles of the Coup of 1938.

The Spanish-Portuguese War opened on August 25th 1940 and soon became a new front of the wider Second World War with the intervention of Allied and Axis forces. The Battle of Portugal and the naval setbacks inflicted on the Spanish Armada Real by the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet were the harbinger of the Royalist counter-coup of April 1941 and the subsequent German invasion. The Allied retreats to Andalusia and South Western Portugal were primarily caused by the potent combination of German Panzers, airpower, artillery and motorized infantry, but Fascist Spanish collaborationist forces did employ 124 Espadas in the 1st Spanish Armoured Division to some effect at the Battle of Seville, where they provided a fair match to earlier British Cavaliers and Valiants. Further production of the Espada ceased in November 1941 after the complete destruction of the Madrid manufacturing plant by coordinated dragonstrikes and a daring aerial raid from RAF airships. The remaining Royalist Spanish armoured units of the Second World War were equipped with American Shermans and British Crusaders in the next two and a half years of the Iberian Campaign.

In the immediate postwar period, Spain’s priorities were focused on national reconstruction rather than military modernization and their wartime tank force was only significantly augmented by the acquisition of 390 American M-24s in early 1949. The process of Western rearmament was given renewed impetus by the outbreak of the Korean War the following year and 1278 Centurions were acquired from Britain between 1952 and 1956. Development of a domestic main battle tank has been proceeding at a slow pace since 1957, but its long term viability and future are unclear at this time. As in Austria-Hungary, the precise design features of the Conquistador are not widely known outside of a target weight of 45t, a high speed and a 105mm main gun. There has been strong interest from a number of South American nations for potential licenced production of a fast, non-superpower produced main battle tank and the Conquistador may well fill that role, given strong Spanish links to the region.

Japan’s initial forays into the development of armoured forces came in the bloody aftermath of the Great War in China and Far Eastern Russia, where the five cavalry divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army were used for long range reconnaissance in force, deep penetration raids and more traditional shock action against enemy infantry. Each division was augmented by a motor squadron equipped with Rolls-Royce and Austin armoured cars by early 1918 and these were followed by the acquisition of 96 British Whippet light tanks over the following two years to counter Bolshevik and Mongolian numerical advantages. The samurai units proved somewhat reticent to abandon their loyal steeds, but the long years of fighting soon wore down their institutional equine preference, whereas the veterans of the Japanese Expeditionary Force on the Western Front had seen the value of the heavy and medium tank in the less mobile environment of Europe. Those in the armoured infantry regiments were far more open to the prospect of direct support and employed thirty nine British Mark I-III heavy tanks in the Yangtze Campaign. The close links between the Japanese Armed Forces and their British allies in the Great War would have a strong bearing on the subsequent developments in Japanese tanks, particularly in the mutual belief in the value of the arme blanche and tank bayonets.

The formal establishment of an experimental armoured force came in 1924 with a battalion sized formation equipped with one company of Mark IV heavy tanks and two of Renault FT light tanks. Japanese industrial production grew significantly over the course of the 1920s from its humble foundations, but the broad impact of the disastrous Great Kanto Earthquake continued to act as a fundamental limit on heavy armament construction. The Osaka Arsenal developed Japan’s first indigenous tank design in 1927, a 20t experimental medium tank armed with a 57mm gun and three machine guns. This proved to be beyond Japan’s immediate capacity for production in the late 1920s and all three prototype vehicles were only ever deployed on the sets of IJA propaganda newsreels and the lonely patrols against the oni in the frozen mountains of Hokkaido.

The first successful production tank designed by the Japanese Army Technical Bureau was the Type 89 light tank. It was a 12t vehicle that was far smaller than European vehicles, moderately fast at 30km/hour, but heavily armed with a short barreled 57mm gun that made it ideal for close infantry support. With 16mm of armour protection, it was considered immune to contemporary small arms fire and sufficiently agile to avoid long range spellfire. The first variant of the Type 89, known as the I-Go, entered service in 1928 and the Imperial Japanese Army formed its first independent armoured brigade in 1931, consisting of three tank regiments, each having two companies of twelve tanks. 589 Type 89s were built between 1928 and 1935, providing a solid vehicle tank that gave the IJA extensive experience in armoured operations. It first saw action in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the later Battle of Shanghai in 1932 prior to the full scale outbreak of the Third Sino-Japanese War in 1935, facing little opposition from Chinese infantry. It had been mostly withdrawn from frontline combat service by the late 1930s, but a number remained in supporting service the Philippines and Dutch East Indies during the Japanese centrifugal offensive of 1941/42.

It was replaced in service by the far more formidable Type 95 Ha-Gō, which many historians regard as not only the best light tank produced by Japan, but also one of its best all-round armoured vehicles. The design roots of the Type 95 lay in the debates conducted within the Army Technical Bureau in 1935 regarding the future of mechanised warfare in the light of foreign developments. The parameters for the new tank were certainly ambitious – a speed of over 50km/hour, a superior anti-tank armament to any other vehicles in the Far East and as much protection as could be accommodated given the requirements for speed and firepower. The result was the 12t Type 95, which began production at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sagami Arsenal in June 1936, followed by other armaments plants. It carried a powerful 47mm gun and had a top speed of 52km/hour whilst still sporting up to 25mm of armour. Total production reached 2891 by the end of 1942, making it the most produced Japanese tank of the interwar era. The Type 95 proved an even match for Soviet light tanks in Manchuria and made up a large part of the Japanese armoured forces in the Philippines and South East Asia in the early stages of the Pacific War. British Cavaliers and American M3s outmatched the Type 95 from 1942 onwards and many were devastated in engagements with Australian Sentinels in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Japan was also the leading operator of tankettes, or very light tanks, in the 1930s and World War 2. The first was the Type 92 Heavy Armoured Car, which despite its name was a 4t tracked vehicle equipped with a 13mm heavy machine gun and designed for use by the cavalry arm. It was a troubled vehicle much plagued by technical problems and the attention of gremlins and only 224 were built between 1932 and 1938. Far more prevalent were the Type 94 and Type 97 tankettes, with 1119 and 877 produced respectively. The Type 94 Tokushu Keninsha, or ‘Special Tractor’, was designed primarily for reconnaissance, although it did fulfil a secondary direct support mission in the early stages of the war with China. At 5.2t, it did not represent a great advance in protection or speed over the earlier Type 92, but was considered to be more robust and mobile. The chassis was used as the basis for the Type 94 Gas Scattering Vehicle, which was frequently employed to disseminate chemical weapons and countermeasures on the mobile battlefield. The Type 97 Te-Ke was a 6.4t tankette that carried a 37mm main gun and could reach a top speed of 48km/hour. It firstly supplemented and then replaced earlier tankettes in both IJA and IJN service, with their light weight contributing to their amphibious utility in the latter case. All types of Japanese tankette were roughly mauled by larger Red Army light and medium tanks in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1938-39, their thin armour providing no protection against 45mm gunfire. Their subsequent use was confined to their original purpose of regimental and divisional reconnaissance, although a number of units served in the Southern Expeditionary Army in the bloody battles against the forces of the British Empire in Malaya and Burma in 1942.

The main Japanese medium tank of the 1930s and early 1940s was the Type 97 Chi-Ha. This 22t tank was armed with a reliable 57mm gun and powered by a 200hp Mitsubishi diesel engine. Its primary role of infantry support was reflected by relatively light armoured protection that reached 40mm at its strongest and a top speed of 42km/hour; in many ways, it was essentially a scaled up version of the Type 95 light tank in design and philosophy. It was decisively outclassed by Soviet tanks in the Manchurian campaign of 1939 in speed and firepower and relegated to second line service in China for the remainder of its operational career, where it was finally eclipsed by Chinese Grant and Sherman tanks. Those used in the Battle of Malaya proved little match for British and Australian Crusaders and Valiants, but their light weight gave them a high degree of operational mobility. 1274 Type 97 Chi-Has were built between 1938 and 1942, after which time production shifted to the improved Type 97 ShinHoTo Chi-Ha. This was a slightly larger vehicle, weighing 24t due to an improved turret carrying a 75mm/40 gun. This gave the IJA a competitive edge against Allied tanks in 1942 and 1943; 1189 were built before production finished in early 1944.

As Japan progressed from the Chinese War and limited clashes with the Soviet Union into a state of undeclared and then open conflict with the United States and the British Empire, it benefitted from limited cooperation on tank development with Nazi Germany, which influenced the design of the most redoubtable Japanese tank of the Second World War, the Type 3 Chi-Nu. A 25t medium tank armed with a 75mm gun, its armoured protection of 60mm was markedly superior to that carried by previous Japanese armoured vehicles and it was also faster than most of its predecessors at 45km/hour. Entering production in June 1942, it had the best combat record of any Japanese tank of the war, but the impact of the Anglo-American submarine blockade and Japanese’s inferior economic and industrial power meant that it was only produced in modest numbers, with 2453 built between 1942 and 1945 by Mitsubishi and the Osaka Arsenal. When it first took the field in September 1942 in China, the Type 3 gave Japan a definite combat edge against Chinese armoured forces that was only countered by Lend-Lease M3 Grants. In Indochina and Siam, it proved adept both at defensive operations and slashing counteroffensive action, its wickedly sharp tank bayonet proving reasonably effective in the fighting around Phnom Penh and Saigon. In the Philippines, the small numbers of Type 3s used in combat were comfortably countered by later marks of the M4 Sherman and US anti-tank guns, but both Japanese armoured divisions present gave a fair account of themselves before the inevitable defeat. It would be in Manchuria and Japan itself that the Type 3 would see its final battles against the Allies, by which time it was verging on obsolescence.

Most advanced of any Japanese medium tank of World War 2 was its successor, the 36t Type 4 Chi-To. Front armour was improved to a maximum thickness of 80mm and a higher velocity 50 calibre version of the 75mm main armament was fielded along with a 13mm heavy machine gun and a pair of 7.7mm lighter guns. Its top road speed reached 51km/hour and the Type 4 was noted for its excellent acceleration. The strong general characteristics of the tank were counterbalanced by manufacturing difficulties and a temperamental engine and suspension. When fielded in China in August 1943, the Type 4 was more than the equal of any Allied tank, but only 1297 were built between June 1943 and the end of the war. It would be one of the few Japanese tanks able to oppose the formidable Soviet T-34s on something approaching an even basis, but the impact of Anglo-American strategic bombing and the merciless blockade meant that it could never be fielded in anything approaching decisive numbers.

Japan produced just two true heavy tanks, the Type 5 Chi-Ri and the Type 6 superheavy tank. The former was a 55t heavily armoured beast armed with an 88mm main gun and protected by over 120mm of frontal armour. Its top speed was only 25km/hour and only 212 were built between 1943 and 1945, but in defensive operations in Manchuria and the Japanese Home Islands they proved much feared adversaries. The Allied response to the Type 5 was similar to the approach taken in the war in Europe, with both the Red Army and the Anglo-American forces preferring to counter the Type 5 with heavy artillery, tactical air strikes, rockets and spellfire rather than in open armoured engagements. The Type 6 was Japan’s sole foray down the strange path of the superheavy tank and all six prototypes and test vehicles of the 125t monstrosities produced in 1944 and 1945 were destroyed by a USAF bombing raid on the factory in Tokyo.

Left prostrate, shattered and occupied at the end of the war, the prospects of further Japanese tank development looked to be a most unlikely proposition. Rearmament commenced in the early stages of the Korean War and the first tanks operated by the renewed Imperial Japanese Army were surplus American Shermans, Chaffees and Pershings. These would only provide a temporary stopgap force until a more lasting solution could be determined. By 1958, an indigenous Japanese design had been decided upon, the eponymous Type 58. At 42t, it is one of the lighter main battle tanks currently in service, but it can make a claim to be one of the best balanced vehicles in its class, sporting a 105mm main gun, a top speed of 50km/hour and the equivalent of upwards of 210mm of protection from its highly angled turret. Production had totaled 579 by the latter half of 1960 and requirements are thought to be upwards of 2400 vehicles by 1965.

[Simon Darkshade]

International Tank Development Part 3: China, Sweden, Poland, Canada and Australia

The Empire of China operates one of the largest tank forces in the world today, but it is one that grew out of humble and eclectic beginnings. It was the civil strife and destruction of the Chinese Front in the Great War that first saw armoured vehicles employed on the mainland of Asia in the form of British and Japanese tanks used to support Manchu loyalists forces against the German-backed rebels. These were joined by 84 surplus Whippet light tanks in 1919 as the Imperial Chinese Army scoured out the last vestiges of rebel support in Szechuan and Yunan. The two battalions of Whippets comprised the entire Chinese armoured force for the majority of the 1920s, seeing hard service in the tough border campaigns against Mongolia and Tartary. They were augmented by the purchase of 120 Carden Lloyd tankettes in 1927, most of which were destroyed in the early stages of conflict against Japan in 1936 at the Battle of Shanghai.

Domestic tank production began in 1929 with the 10t Zhanche light tank, based on an earlier British design and named after the war chariots of Ancient China. It was only produced in limited numbers given the developing nature of Chinese industry, but a total of 94 were built by 1935. The Zhanche was lightly armed, carrying only a pair of 7.92mm machine guns, but were remarkably fast for the time, being capable of reaching a top speed of 52km/hour. Armour was light, but speed and a low profile were seen as compensating to some degree for this deficiency. A solid vehicle for the time, the Zhanche pushed the limits of Chinese construction capacity and provided valuable operational and technical lessons. No tanks survived the brutal attrition of the decade-long Sino-Japanese War save for a single prototype currently on display in Chungking.

China was the recipient of considerable military aid from the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain and the majority of the tanks used by the Imperial Chinese Army in the Second World War came from these three sources. 2493 Shermans, 1549 Stuarts, 864 Grants, 525 Crusaders, 682 Valiants, 326 T-26s and 1778 T-34s were delivered between 1940 and 1945, with the Sherman and T-34 serving as the backbone of the Chinese Armoured Corps in the immediate postwar period. A further 3967 T-34s were supplied by the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1950 as part of the comparatively short-lived Sino-Soviet Alliance. The second major source of Chinese tanks after the Second World War was from captured Japanese vehicles, which also provided the basis for the curious Gongchen tanks, a copy of the Type 4 Chi To medium tank equipped with a Soviet 76.2mm gun. These were never intended as a long term solution for China’s armoured needs, but the 573 Gongchens produced between 1949 and 1951 provided an effective bridge between previous manufacturing and the new generation of Chinese-designed tanks.

1950 saw the outbreak of the Korean War and eventual Chinese intervention against the Allied United Nations Command. T-34s and newer T-54s were used in the offensives of 1951 and 1952, the former being swiftly outclassed by British Centurions and American Pattons, whilst the latter would maintain an edge until the final years of the war. Ongoing tensions and the eventual fraying of ties between the Soviet Union and Imperial China meant that proposed production of a Chinese version of the T-54 was aborted in the early 1950s in favour of a more costly and difficult solution. The Gongchens were employed by a single tank regiment that was decimated in the Allied counterstroke of 1952. China’s war was mainly one of infantry and artillery without the full scope for armoured operations, but a consistent force level of over 1000 tanks was maintained in each of the three army groups that held the front in Korea.

The Korean conflict and a general desire for industrial and military modernisation provided considerable impetus for the long contemplated design and manufacture of a family of modern indigenous Chinese armoured vehicles. Work had begun on the process in 1948, but the requirements of postwar recovery and rebuilding had been a fundamental limitation. They were to be named after the great dragons of China, national symbols of strength and power to serve as rallying points for the grand reawakening, an auspicious step that bought the approval of the notoriously reactionary aristocracy, many of whom glorified in their draconic blood; the views of the dragon populace were rather more circumspect. Former Imperial Chancellor Fu Manchu, well known as an aficionado of ingenious machines and dabbler in infernal devices, took a particular interest in the prospect of China’s first real tanks and provided much political support and funding for the project through the hard-pressed final years of the Korean War. Production would begin in a series of new subterranean plants far inland from current industrial areas in the apparently secure fastness of Inner Mongolia and Kokonur. Only the vital quest for the atomic bomb attracted more importance in China than the Four Dragons Program.

The first to enter service was the 25t Yu-Lung (Green Dragon) light tank in 1954, quickly proving to be a fast and well-armoured vehicle capable of hard-hitting fire from its potent 90mm gun; an estimated 4569 have been built by the end of 1960. The Ch'ing-Lung (Azure Dragon) medium tank is the best known of China’s new tanks, appearing in many propaganda newsreels and military parades. Weighing 40 tons, it is protected by the equivalent of upwards of 230mm of armour, has a top speed of 50km/hour and sports a unique 110mm gun. Whilst it is slightly behind the developmental level of Western main battle tanks, the Ch’ing-Lung is fielded in substantial numbers (8937 being built from 1956) and is considered an agile and finely balanced tank. The 60t Huang-Lung (Yellow Dragon) heavy tank equips the Imperial Guard and specialist battalions attached to armoured and mechanised corps and is one of the most powerful weapons in its class currently in production; the Chinese military apparently does not share the Western view on the obsolescence of the heavy tank as a distinct type. Armed with a 130mm gun and two machine guns, 1276 have been built since mid 1957. The newest Chinese tank is similarly something of an anomaly in the age of the Chieftain and M-60 - the Hong-Lung (Red Dragon) superheavy tank. At 80t, it is the heaviest vehicle built by any great power since the Second World War and the long range firepower of its 152mm gun does not appear to be justified by the tactical limitations of its low speed and sheer bulk and production over the last two years has been decidedly slow, totaling 124 tanks.

China’s heavy industrial miracle of the last decade has seen many results, but the successful development and production of its own tanks stands as one of the most noteworthy. Coal, iron and steel production levels have already exceeded those of France and Austria-Hungary and the shipyards and aircraft plants of China hum with constant activity. The Middle Kingdom remains something of a secretive enigma behind the Great Wall and the Imperial Chinese Army is the largest land army in the world today with over 5.2 million men under arms. It has made a great leap forward in the incorporation of armoured forces since the Chinese defeat in the Korean War and is a major factor in the future of the Orient.

Chief among the realms of Scandinavia, the Kingdom of Sweden entered the 20th century as a burgeoning middle power, ranking just behind the Great Powers of Europe in industrial output and boasting of some of the world’s largest and best supplies of iron ore. The Swedish Army had a fearsome reputation as a well-trained and bountifully equipped field force, yet the rapid pace of developments in the first decade of the century began to leave it behind as the machine gun and modern artillery revolutionized the battlefield. Sweden began the process of development of armoured forces in the aftermath of the First World War, as the Russian Revolution to the east and the unrest wracking Central Europe threatened the policy of neutrality and general peace that had held since the Crimean War. Parts for 12 German Leichte Kampfwagen were secretly purchased, ostensibly as boiler parts and agricultural machinery, modified and assembled as the Stridsvagn m/21 light tank. Armed with a 6.5mm machine gun, these would serve throughout the 1920s and early 1930s as the first tanks of the Swedish Army, alongside a veritable panoply of armoured cars.

As war clouds gathered over Europe from the mid-1930s, the modernization of the Swedish Armed Forces gathered pace and orders were placed with Landsverk AB for a new light tank, the L-10, or Stridsvagn m/32. It had begun development in 1932 and was ready for full scale production by late 1935. Weighing 12t, it was armed with a Bofors 40mm anti-tank gun, protected by 12-25mm of armour and capable of reaching a top speed of 55km/hour, making it extremely competitive with foreign vehicles of the same generation. 282 were produced for the Swedish Army between 1936 and 1940, with a further 93 being exported to Finland, Norway and Yugoslavia. Although it never saw action in Swedish service except against the constant menace of troll and orc raids from the northern mountains, it was popular with Finnish troops in the Winter War for its excellent cross-country performance and rugged suspension.

Succeeding the L-10 was the best Swedish light tank of the 1930s and 1940s, the Stridsvagn m/38, better known to a wider audience as the L-24. This 18t light tank began development on the eve of war in 1938 and was rushed into service in late 1940 after a Herculean effort by designers and manufacturers alike. It was armed with a new 57mm gun and protected by up to 40mm of sloped armour on the turret. Speed and mobility were its key attributes and it was capable of reaching up to 67km/hour on roads in the latter half of the war. 624 were built between 1941 and 1945, serving in the armies of Sweden, Norway and Finland with aplomb; it was able to hold its own against German Panzer IIIs and Leopards in Operation Rädda Danmark after Sweden and Finland entered the war on the Allied side in August 1944. One achieved the unique feat of singlehandedly downing a Nazi dragon over Copenhagen with specially forged mageshot and it is preserved in the Livrustkammeren in the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Postwar, it would continue production and be exported to eight countries, earning a reputation as a tough and economical vehicle.

Sweden had looked abroad in the late 1930s for the best means of rapidly augmenting its tank force and the Austro-Hungarian Panzerkampfwagen 36 was regarded as close to ideal for Swedish requirements. After lengthy negotiations through the initial stages of the war, permission was granted by Austrian and German authorities for the licenced production of the Panzer 36 by Scania-Vabis as the Stridsvagn m/41. 394 would be built between 1942 and 1944, many of which were converted to assault guns in 1944 and 1945. They saw limited action in the liberation of Denmark, being attached to infantry regiments in independent armoured companies. The remaining vehicles were rebuilt as interim armoured personnel carriers in the early 1950s, designated as the Pbv 300.

The Swedish Army’s most important tank of the Second World War was the Stridsvagn m/40 medium tank, a 25t vehicle that could compete with any other vehicle in its class throughout the war due to its robust all-round qualities. It was exceptionally fast, with a top speed of 54km/hour, well protected by up to 70mm of sloped turret armour and armed with the devastatingly powerful Bofors 75mm/52 gun. Production was given the highest priority during the crisis of wartime and the impressive total of 1268 vehicles were built between 1941 and 1945 by Landsverk, Volvo, Scania and Hagglunds, reaching a monthly high of 42 tanks in June 1944. It proved to be superior to the larger Panzer IV in the Danish and Northern German campaigns due to its low profile and excellent maneuverability and would continue in frontline Swedish service until 1957, seeing action with the Scandinavian Brigade in the Korean War. A further 768 Stridsvagn m/40s were built for export and to replace war losses between 1945 and 1948, many of which remain on active duty with the Finnish and Danish armies.

The onset of the Cold War was a particularly alarming development for Sweden, given the proximity of the Soviet Union and the optimal means of equipping the Swedish Army with modern armoured vehicles and weaponry was a subject of considerable debate as the bitter new world took shape. The logistical challenges of maintaining a force of several different obsolescent types made the acquisition of new tanks an urgent necessity. By 1948, the decision was reached to adopt a trifold approach to the challenge of armoured modernization. Firstly, Centurion tanks would be acquired from Britain with a view towards eventual licenced production. Secondly, the chassis of the older Strv m/40s would be converted into interim upgraded medium tanks armed with American 90mm guns. Finally, development of a Swedish heavy tank would be initiated to counterbalance the large numbers of Soviet heavy tanks and assault guns.

The first delivery of Centurions came in 1950, followed by the beginning of Swedish production of the Stridsvagn 100 the next year. 682 were supplied from Britain in three separate batches and no fewer than 1774 were built by a consortium of Landsverk, Volvo, Bofors and Scania between 1951 and 1958. It remains as the frontline main battle tank of the Swedish Army and a number of earlier models have been transferred to Norway and Finland under the auspices of the Scandinavian Defence Union. The Stridsvagn 74 entered service in 1953, equipped with modified engines and transmission in addition to new tracks, upgraded armour protection and the American guns. A total of 525 would be converted between 1953 and 1959 and the type is expected to remain in second line support service through to the end of the 1970s. The Stridsvagn 120 or the Gustav Adolf tank was Sweden’s solution to the looming Soviet armoured threat and began production in 1955. Weighing 69t and bearing a distant resemblance to the Conqueror, the 152mm armed Gustav Adolf bears some of the strongest conventional tank armour ever fielded, with the equivalent of over 360mm of frontal protection on the glacis and upwards of 400mm on the heavily sloped turret. It has a creditable road speed of 46km/hour and is fitted with a well-regarded arcane fire control system forged by the finest ballistic alchemists of the Scandian Dwarves. 462 Gustav Adolfs currently serve with the Swedish Army, primarily in the northern based frontline armoured divisions.

Poland returned to the family of independent nations after the defeat of Germany and the fall of their former Tsarist Russian overlords and seemed to have put the woe of the last century behind it in the 1920s. It fell to the armies of the Kingdom of Poland to save Europe from the seemingly inexorable tide of the Bolshevik Red Army with their decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw, cementing their restored status as a genuine Eastern European power. British and French tanks had played a role in turning aside the final despairing throes of the Soviet offensive and 45 Mark IVs, 60 Whippets and 80 FT-17s provided the backbone of Polish armour for the rest of the decade. Far reaching plans were drawn up for the design and construction of Poland’s own tanks, but the industrial challenges were as considerable as the perceived priority was minimal. 200 Carden-Lloyd tankettes were ordered in 1928, but this did little to stimulate domestic development; 57 modified vehicles were assembled in Warsaw between 1929 and 1931 to much fanfare, but even then they were regarded as, at best, a temporary solution to Poland’s requirements. The final project for a 7t light tank died a quiet death by committee in early 1930, as the far more pressing concerns of the global economic collapse dominated the discourse of the Polish body politic.

The economic shackles of the Great Depression were cast aside as the young Poles went from strength to strength thanks to the Four Year Plans of their wise leader, the famed Marshal Pilsudski. This permitted the expansion and development of the Polish Army in response to the rapid remilitarization of Nazi Germany and Fascist Austria-Hungary. The re-equipment of all three of Poland’s armoured brigades with modern vehicles was one of the first orders of business, resulting in the development of the 12TP. Based on a Vickers design for a 12t export light tank, the 12TP was armed with a 37mm gun and protected by up to 25mm of armour. A reliable 180hp diesel engine gave it the relatively high top speed of 58km/hour and it was regarded as a well-armed and versatile tank that also served as the basis for the C12P artillery tractor and several other support vehicles. 579 were produced between 1935 and 1939 by the state-owned heavy industrial corporation, Państwowe Zakłady Inżynierii (PZInż) at plants in Krakow, Radom and Warsaw. It was followed by the highly capable 20TP medium tank, a 22t vehicle powered by a 400hp engine and equipped with a 75mm main gun and three 7.92mm machine guns. Protection was heavy for an interwar tank with a maximum of 65mm and it was a considerably maneuverable vehicle thanks to its broad tracks. Production began in July 1938 and only 244 were completed by the beginning of the German invasion the following September. A number of larger tanks were under development in 1939, including a 35t medium tank that would theoretically be the equal of any its German or Soviet counterparts, but none progressed beyond the point of paper design studies before the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Battle of Poland saw the tanks of the Polish Army badly outnumbered on the ground by their German and Austro-Hungarian opponents and harried from the air by the ubiquitous Stuka dive bombers. Poland’s famed cavalry inflicted several sharp defeats against German infantry and harried their advance, but, despite certain misconceptions, never conducted a sword and lance charge against Panzers in 1939. The 12TPs and 20TPs fought hard and well against overwhelming opposition in a number of initial battles, but were worn down by Nazi guns and sorcery. The earlier light tanks and tankettes were less successful, being able to offer little resistance against the larger and better-protected Panzer Is, IIs and IIIs that made up the majority of the German invasion force.

After the end of resistance in the Polish homeland on October 3rd, its armed forces continued the struggle against Hitlerism from France and then the British Isles. The First and Second Polish Armies fielded a total of four armoured divisions between 1940 and 1945, all equipped with British Crusader and Churchill tanks. Across Western and Central Europe the tanks of Free Poland smashed back the Axis, spearheading the victories of Normandy and Monte Cassino and following the winged hussars through the gates of Vienna and to the very Reichstag itself. They would continue to operate the Crusader until 1948, when it was replaced as the frontline tank of the Free Polish Army by the Centurion, which in turn will be replaced by the Chieftain by 1965. Communist Poland built up its military might around the People’s Army of Poland, Soviet-armed troops who took part in the Red Army’s offensive of 1944/45. In the postwar period, their armoured forces would be equipped with T-34/85s, IS-2s and ISU-152s. Production of a localized variant of the T-54 medium tank began in 1956, but it is not considered as significantly different from the Russian version at this time.

Tank production in the Dominions of the British Empire was primarily concentrated on licenced manufacturing of British types such as the Cavalier, Valiant and Crusader, but in the cases of Canada and Australia, two local medium tank designs, the Grizzly and the Sentinel were built in significant numbers. They both originated from the particular circumstances of 1940, which saw the British Empire standing essentially alone against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and production priorities focused upon the European and North African theatres of operations. The requirements of local defence of North America and Australasia and outfitting the growing Australian and Canadian armoured forces would therefore partly fall upon domestic production.

The Grizzly tank was based on a modified American Sherman design fitted with a 17pdr main armament. It would primarily serve in the home defence role, although it did equip a number of Canadian and New Avalon armoured units in the Western Desert in 1942. It performed exceptionally in combat against a range of enemy tanks due to the formidable power of its main gun and more than adequately against enemy troop concentrations and strongpoints. The Grizzly had something of a higher profile than comparable British tanks and lacked in armour compared to newer Shermans and Crusaders. It was phased out of frontline use from 1943 as the earlier Panzer IIIs and IVs were replaced by Panthers; it would have something of an extended service life in the Iberian Campaign, where its particular flaws were less exposed due to the vagaries of terrain. Production peaked in July 1942 and totaled 1798 before gradually declining as more Crusaders and Lend-Lease Shermans became available. Perhaps the most notable role of the Grizzly was as postwar military aid from Canada to various nations across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

In Australia, design work on a 29t medium tank began in August 1940 based on observation of American and British designs. The subsequent vehicle married many of the best features of both the Crusader and the Sherman tanks and was powered by an adapted Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. Production began in December 1941 at Sydney’s Chullora Tank Assembly Plant, which was later joined by new facilities in Melbourne and Adelaide. A total of 529 were built between 1942 and 1945 and it remained in service with CMF armoured formations until 1954. Heavily protected by upwards of 3.5” of frontal hull and turret armour, it also carried either a 17pdr gun or a 25pdr gun-howitzer, a Vickers heavy machine gun and a pair of .303” machine guns. The Sentinel’s top speed of 36mph made it one of the fastest tanks of the first half of the war, but it was to be in infantry support operations in the South West Pacific that it would earn its greatest fame. In New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Dutch East Indies, the main role of the Sentinel was the destruction of Japanese strongpoints and the support of infantry advances by Australian troops through their main armament and machine guns. Several variants were built in limited numbers, including a self-propelled 6” heavy mortar and a specialized chemical warfare tank for the delivery of poison gas.

Australia and Canada, like the other members of the Commonwealth, would employ the Super Crusader and Centurion in the postwar period in Malaya, Korea, the Middle East and beyond. The experience in designing and manufacturing the Grizzly and Sentinel set both nations in good stead for peacetime production of the Centurion, which soon became the ‘universal tank’ of the British Empire. The distribution of tank production has continued, with South Africa, India and New Avalon all now adding their capacity to what is already one of the most substantial cooperative industrial engagements in the world.

[Simon Darkshade]

The Shape of Things to Come

As we conclude our examination of the history of the tank, the biggest question that can be posed is what the future may hold. The majority of tanks produced across the world as of 1961 come from the three superpowers – the United States, the Soviet Union and the British Empire – but increasingly, the awakening power of China could expand this traditional tripartite structure that has held strong since 1945. Germany is continuing to emerge from its postwar period of demilitarization and France is making small but noticeable inroads into many traditional markets across the world.

The Soviet Union fields unquestionably the largest tank force in the world, but it is one that is challenged by new developments in anti-tank guided weapons and the latest generation of main battle tanks to emerge from the Western powers. I have personally seen Soviet tanks in action in Korea and the Middle East and they were powerful and robust vehicles, but proved vulnerable to Allied anti-tank guns and aerial interdiction. On the basis of current developments, the Soviet Union can be considered as being at least five years behind Britain and America in the latest advances in tank protection and armament.

The United States has one very good tank in the M48 and an excellent one in the new M60. Perhaps the greatest challenge confronting the United States Armoured Corps will be whether sufficient new tanks of the latter type can be procured to equip its Army Reserve and National Guard elements; America has a distinct edge in the quality of its armoured forces, but quantity has an inescapable quality of its own. The necessity to rearm many of its allied states will raise its head over the next decade as the large number of wartime Shermans and Pershings reach the end of their service lives.

Britain fields the most powerful main battle tank in the world today in the form of the Chieftain, yet this power comes at a cost in ease of deployment. The Chieftain is unquestionably a tank built for Europe, but many of the major emergent challenges to the British Empire over the course of the 1960s will arguably come from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Production rates cannot keep up with the continental superpowers, but stand clearly above other states at the present time due to the particular advantages enjoyed by Britain and the Commonwealth. America can afford quality and quantity; Britain has to wager on the latter.

France and Germany provide an interesting contrast on the Continent, as the latter increases its rate of production and seeks to have export restrictions laid in place in 1951 removed. The very nature of their differing frontline tanks, the AMX-25 and Panther II, speaks to the philosophical differences on the great questions of tank design – the German tank concentrates on protection whereas the French vehicles emphasis speed. Just as the uncertain nature of Franco-German relations will shape the geopolitical situation in Europe in the 1960s and beyond, the contest between differing armoured concepts will be one closely observed by smaller European nations and in the wider world.

In the Far East, China stands as a new factor in strategic calculations for the new decade, but, for all their sheer numbers, the tank forces of the Dragon Throne are based around a model that would be better suited to 1943 or 1944 than 1960. Newly free states or those on the cusp of independence are increasingly looking to Peking to supply their military needs and this could have a broad range of consequences. Japan is in the process of rebuilding its indigenous tank forces and seems to have a far more modern concept of armoured design and could present an unexpected factor in international strategy should it continue to emerge from its period of introspection.

The tank remains the dominant element on the modern battlefield and victory in future conventional conflicts will go to the side which can deploy the force with the best organization and the optimal balance of the timeless factors of firepower, protection and mobility. 15 years ago, it was taken as a given that numbers would beat quality; recent advances in modern armour make this aphorism slightly less certain. New guided rocket weapons threaten to make many older tanks obsolescent, but the rash of current enthusiasm for them forgets that no weapons system performs quite as expected in the technical press on the real battlefield. It is unclear as to whether the 1960s will be a decade of peace and change or one of further conflict, but whatever occurs, the tank will be there.

Simon Bailey
Ashford 1960