Tanks

By Michael E. Haskew

The World's Greatest Tanks features 52 of the best armoured fighting vehicles from World War I to the present day. Beginning with the prototype Mark V Male in 1917, the book ranges from World War I, World War II, through the Cold War and up to the highly sophisticated tanks that have seen recent service in wars in the Balkans, Caususus, and Middle East. From the Soviet T-34 and German Panther tanks of World War II to the M1A2 Abrams, Challenger 2 and T-90 of the present day, The World's Greatest Tanks is an expert examination of the most successful tanks of the past hundred years. Each entry is examined over two spreads and includes a brief description of the tank's development and history, a colour profile artwork, photographs, key features and specifications tables. Packed with more than 200 artworks and photographs, The World's Greatest Tanks is a colourful guide for the military historian and military technology enthusiast.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amber Books Ltd
• Release date: Apr 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781782742647

Book preview

This Tiger I heavy tank raises a cloud of dust along a dirt road. The Tiger performed extremely well against Allied tanks of all types. Its main weakness was its slow speed and lack of manoeuvrability.

From World War I to World War II

During two world wars and the quarter-century between them, the tank matured. Revolutionizing modern warfare, it brought firepower, manoeuvrability and armour protection to the battlefield. In the process, the tank itself became more heavily armed and armoured, swifter and more versatile in combat. On the ground, armour created and exploited the all-important breakthrough. The tank, in short, became a game-changer on the battlefields of the twentieth century, shaping the course of history.

  Mark V Male (1917)

Entering production in late 1917, the British Mark V Male tank was a significant improvement over prior models, particularly the Mark I that had made history at the Somme in 1916. The service life of the Mark V Male spanned the inter-war years.

By the end of World War I, at least nine variants of the original British Mark I tank had between deployed on the battlefields of the Western Front. Among these, the Mark V Male, originally intended as a totally redesigned armoured fighting vehicle but eventually incorporating elements of earlier models, proved to be a significant technological advance over even its immediate predecessor, the Mark IV.

The Mark V Male was deployed late in the war and served with British, French, Canadian and American forces. Its combat experience was limited and primarily occurred during the Battle of Le Hamel in the summer of 1918. In contrast to earlier tanks, the Mark V Male traversed ditches and trenches easily and its width of 4.11m (13ft 6in) cleared the way for infantry through the barbed wire that had previously been a significant obstacle to foot soldiers.

The rear view of the Mark V Male tank reveals the extended sponsons for the 6pdr guns, the characteristic all-around tracks of British tanks and the innovative unditching beam that assisted with movement through difficult terrain.

Technical Advances

Although the all-around track arrangement and its relatively heavy weight at 29.5 tonnes (29 tons) reduced the range of the Mark V Male to 72km (45 miles) and its combat endurance to 10 hours, the most up-to-date tank among the Allies late in the war included several operational enhancements. Among these was the six-cylinder 110-kilowatt (150hp) petrol engine designed by Harry Ricardo, the world’s first powerplant specifically designed for a tank. The new engine allowed for a maximum speed of 7.4km/h (5mph) despite the fact that it had to be cranked manually by four soldiers while a fifth pressed a magneto switch. Cold-weather starts were particularly difficult, with each of the cylinders needing to be primed and the spark plugs warmed.

Although their traverse was limited, the pair of 6pdr sponson-mounted guns of the British Mark V Male tank provided formidable firepower, while the improved hull design facilitated movement across the uneven terrain of the battlefield. The enhanced mobility fostered cooperation between armour and infantry formations.

The addition of the Wilson epicyclic gearbox eliminated the need for a second driver to steer the steel monster and the attachment of an unditching beam, carried atop the superstructure, afforded a means of extricating the tank from holes, ditches or thick mud, whereas older tanks might have had to be abandoned.

The firepower of the Mark V Male was enhanced substantially with two sponson-mounted 6pdr (57mm/2.24in) cannon and four 7.7mm (0.303in) Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns. The Mark V Female was slightly lighter weight and armed with four 7.7mm Vickers machine guns. These were enclosed in Skeens ball mounts that improved the firing radius from 60° to 90° while also providing greater protection for the single gunner than the firing slits of the Mark IV or the loopholes fashioned in the hulls of earlier tanks. The crew of eight included the commander, driver, two gearsmen and four machine-gunners.

Specification

Two significant variants of the Mark V appeared late in the war and saw limited service. The Mark V* incorporated a lengthened hull that enabled the tank to cross trench lines more easily, while the Mark V** added a more functionally sound length-width ratio for the longer hull. During its production run, 400 Mark V tanks – 200 Male and 200 Female – were manufactured. In total nearly 600 of the Mark V* rolled off British assembly lines; however, only 25 of the rare Mark V** were completed.

Battle at Le Hamel

When Australian and American troops assaulted a salient in the German line at Le Hamel on 4 July 1918, they were accompanied by 60 Mark V tanks of the 5th Brigade, Royal Tank Corps, supported by four supply tanks. The assault achieved its objective in a startling 93 minutes and prompted the Australian historian Charles Bean to observe that the action ‘furnished the model for almost every attack afterwards made by British infantry during the war’.

Indeed, operating alongside the Mark V Male and Female tanks, Allied soldiers developed tactics to work in cooperation with the armour and rapidly exploited every opening created. Among the newly-discovered principles of the battlefield was the fact that infantrymen advanced more effectively while deployed in skirmish order around the tanks rather than clustering behind them for protection.

General J.F.C. Fuller, one of the foremost advocates of the tank during World War I and beyond, commented that the action at Le Hamel was a monumental achievement in terms of its rapid prosecution, short duration and the thorough nature of its success.

Between the Wars

Following the end of World War I, the Mark V tank continued to serve with British forces, most notably during their campaign in northern Russia and with White Russian forces during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. The Mark V remained in service with the Soviet Red Army into the 1930s and some indications suggest that it was active as late as 1941. One tale asserts that a long-captured Mark V was pressed into service by the Germans during the defence of Berlin in 1945.

Mark V on the Offensive

Following the Allied victory at Le Hamel, an Australian soldier remarked that the presence of the Mark V Male tank did not diminish the ardour of the infantry for combat and that they performed based upon their continuing sense of duty. Nevertheless, the tanks must have given the soldier and his comrades heart.

Although the timing of the combined-arms effort at Le Hamel was sometimes a bit awkward, the mere presence of the tanks resulted in the capture of a number of German prisoners. When a battalion of infantry was held up by direct fire from a German machine gun, a Mark V rolled forward and simply crushed the position under its treads. In the village of Hamel, the tanks blasted German soldiers out of buildings and swept the narrow streets with their machine guns.

The Mark V proved instrumental in the victory. Five tanks were damaged, while 13 crew were killed or wounded.

Taking a moment to familiarize themselves with a new weapon of war, curious British infantrymen inspect the exterior of a Mark V Male tank during a lull in the fighting on the Western Front. Another tank appears to be canted in a ditch to the rear.

  Sturmpanzerwagen A7V (1918)

When British tanks reached the World War I battlefields in 1916, Germany rushed to keep pace with the technology that threatened the deadlock of trench warfare. The A7V, however, did not deploy until 1918 and then only in small numbers.

In the autumn of 1916, German infantry officers along the Somme battlefront encountered a new and potentially devastating weapon. The first British armoured fighting vehicle, which would become known universally as the tank, had appeared and immediately begun to alter the concept of entrenched infantrymen firing at one another across No Man’s Land, occasionally going over the top to brave machine-gun fire and the shell bursts of artillery.

The first operational German tank, the Sturmpanzerwagen A7V initially entered combat during the Michael Offensive in the spring of 1918. Its shortcomings became evident soon enough and German engineers learned valuable lessons that influenced future designs.

Senior German commanders quickly recognized the threat posed by the tank and on 13 November 1916, only weeks after the appearance of British armour on the Somme, they initiated the production of their own tank. Although some research and development with armoured vehicles had been on-going since 1911, a design committee headed by Joseph Vollmer, a professional engineer and captain in the German Army, was formed. The resulting Sturmpanzerwagen A7V did not reach the front until the opening phase of the desperate Michael Offensive, Germany’s last strategy for victory in World War I, which was launched on 21 March 1918.

A Box on a Tractor

In their scramble to achieve at least parity with their enemy’s tanks, German engineers devised a 32.5-tonne (35.8-ton) behemoth, a steel box on a tractor chassis. Designed to perform best on level ground, the A7V was handicapped on the cratered terrain of the Western Front from the beginning. The commander and two drivers were housed in a raised compartment centred on the vehicle and increasing its overall height to 3.5m (11ft 6in). Its ground clearance was a scant 40mm (1.5in), rendering the traverse of trenches, slight depressions in the terrain or even a small hill exceedingly difficult. The A7V was steered with a wheel and a system of levers. Two clutch pedals engaged the transmission gears.

Although the multiple machine guns and single heavy gun mounted aboard the German A7V tank were deadly to enemy infantry, the vehicle was an unstable platform for accurate gunnery and its high silhouette attracted hostile artillery fire.

Thick armour of 20–30mm (0.78–1.1in) offered greater protection for the crew than that of British tanks; however, the A7V was ponderously slow and its high silhouette made the vehicle an obvious target for enemy artillery. Capable of providing significant firepower under favourable conditions, the tank mounted a single forward-firing 57mm (2.24in) Maxim-Nordenfelt gun with limited traverse and six or more Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken MG08/15 7.92mm (0.31in) machine guns. The cramped interior included space for 18 crewmen – the commander, drivers, machine-gunners, a gunner and loader for the cannon and ammunition suppliers.

Specification

Conceived as a multi-purpose vehicle, the A7V was also developed in four variants. The Überlandwagen was an unarmoured supply vehicle with an open top, while the A7V/U involved a proposed design with all-around tracks and a pair of 57mm guns, the A7V/U2 was a variant with smaller tracks and the A7V/U3 was a ‘Female’ version armed only with machine guns. Only the Überlandwagen and the A7V/U were actually built – 75 of the Überlandwagen were completed; the A7V/U only reached the prototype stage.

Only 20 of the A7V are known to have been deployed prior to the end of World War I. Coupled with its operational shortcomings, its feeble numbers made the tank an inadequate response to British production that reached more than 7700. Although several improved German tank designs were in development by late 1918, none were fielded before the Armistice.

Tank versus Tank

The first documented combat between opposing tanks occurred during a German effort to capture the French village of Villers-Bretonneux in the north of the country on 24 April 1918, as the Germans moved forward with infantry and 15 of the A7V tanks, pressing toward the Belgian city of Amiens. Three of the German tanks met three British Mark IV tanks under the command of Lieutenant Frank Mitchell. The lead British tank was a Male, mounting a 6pdr gun, while the other two were Female, armed with machine guns. Early in the fighting, the two Female Mark IVs were damaged and withdrew from the battle.

Mitchell continued his advance and took on the lead German tank, named Nixe, under the command of Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Biltz, who survived the war and went on to become a noted chemist and author. Nixe was damaged by three British hits and heeled over. Five German crewmen were killed as they exited the disabled tank. In turn, Mitchell’s Mark IV was heavily damaged by a near miss from a German mortar round and abandoned. Both damaged tanks were subsequently recovered.

German A7V Tank in Action

Smoke and dust billow around this German A7V tank engaged near an abandoned farmhouse somewhere in France during the final major German offensive of World War I. The A7V was hurriedly designed and produced and only 20 were actually to become operational from the spring of 1918 to the Armistice in November of that year.

During the first recorded combat between opposing armoured forces at the French town of Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918, one A7V was damaged along with one British Mark IV tank. Two other A7Vs withdrew under fire and four smaller British Whippet tanks were disabled.

The lone surviving example of a German Sturmpanzerwagen A7V, No 506, named Mephisto, is currently on display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia. Mephisto is believed to be one of those German tanks that engaged the British armour at Villers-Bretonneux.

  BT-5 (1932)

An upgunned transitional variant of the Soviet BT series of light or cavalry tanks, the BT-5 entered production in late 1932. It proved superior to the contemporary tanks of other world powers through to the end of the decade.

When examining the silhouette of the Soviet BT-5 light tank, the resemblance to the legendary T-34 medium tank of World War II and Cold War fame is unmistakable. In fact, the BT, or Bystrokhodny tank, was the forerunner of the T-34, one of the greatest tanks of all time. With its full name literally translating as ‘high-speed tank’, the BT series lived up to expectations during a decade of production from 1930 to 1941.

Walter Christie

Ironically, the origin of the BT and the T-34 lay with the persistence of an American racing enthusiast and mechanic named Walter Christie. After the U.S. Army Ordnance Bureau declined more than once to produce Christie’s prototype design, the Soviets managed to purchase blueprints and at least two turretless examples were then shipped to the Soviet Union as ‘agricultural tractors’.

The Soviets enthusiastically produced working prototypes of Christie’s tanks with various changes, designating them BT-1 through BT-4. A production version of the BT-2 began rolling off assembly lines at the Kharkov Komintern Locomotive Plant in the Ukraine early in 1932 and more than 600 were eventually built. The BT-2 featured a 37mm (1.45in) Model 30 main gun and a Model M5 petrol engine providing 298 kilowatts (400hp). Secondary armament consisted of a single 7.62mm (0.3in) DT machine gun. The overall weight of the BT-2 was 10.2 tonnes (10 tons) and armour protection ranged from 6–13mm (0.24–0.51in).

The BT-2 was the first operational tank to truly demonstrate the genius of Walter Christie, and the foremost element of his design prowess was an innovative suspension system that included road wheels enclosed by rubber rings and mounted on long coil springs. The rubberized wheels absorbed some of the shock of cross-country movement and allowed the tanks to reach greater speeds. On improved roads, the Christie suspension could also operate the tank, with its tracks removed, as a wheeled vehicle. This innovation proved impractical in a vast, rural country such as the Soviet Union and was later abandoned.

A variant of the original light tank design, the BT-7A mounted a 76.2mm (3in) howitzer. Only a relative few of these were adapted for field service. Note the coaxial machine gun atop the turret, which includes a prominent bustle.

Enter the BT-5

Before 1932 was over, the Red Army sought improvements to the BT-2. The resulting BT-5 incorporated a larger cylindrically-shaped turret mounting a more powerful 45mm (1.8in) Model 32 main gun. The 7.62mm (0.3in) DT machine gun was mounted coaxially for better traverse. Communications were substantially improved with the installation of radio equipment. The larger turret provided more freedom of movement for the crew of three and greater ammunition capacity with 115 rounds of 45mm ammunition compared to the 96 rounds of 37mm carried by the BT-2. The BT-5 was slightly heavier at 11.5 tonnes (11.3 tons), although armour protection was unchanged.

Specification

The 12-cylinder M5 powerplant was based on the American Liberty aircraft engine and adapted for use with armour. It allowed the light tank to travel at speeds of up to 72km/h (45mph) on the road. Although impressive in its own right, this was considerably slower than the BT-2, which reached road speeds of up to 100km/h (62mph). The operational range of the BT-5 was 200km (120 miles), one-third less that of the BT-2. However, the better overall design and heavier main weapon of the BT-5 more than compensated for those decreases in some performance categories.

The BT-5 remained in production up to 1934 and was then supplanted by the BT-7. Several variants of the BT-5 were constructed, including the Model 1933 with twin turret hatches and a larger bustle, the prototype BT-5 flamethrower tank, the BT-5A self-propelled 76.2mm (3in)