world's first tank , invented in the first world war of military necessity, immediately captured the imagination of people.The raw power of the new machine in the form of innovation, speed, and size, along with the mystery, which it was designed, it gave rise to the mystery destination.Initially, the role of the tank was to use it as part of the deception to hide their true intentions as a weapon.
British first developed a new mobile and armored fighting vehicles in the program initiated by people like Swinton, Maurice Hankey, and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty also supported this program.The first British tank - he was the first tank of the world, Mark I, was a diamond shape, was the first of tracked heavy vehicles weighing 26 tons, with two 57-mm guns and a speed of 3.7 miles / h.September 15, 1916, at the Battle of the Somme, after the terrible losses of infantry, forty-nine tanks Mark I were sent to support the infantry attack on to the "no man's land."Critics at the time argued that the tanks were not enough to decide the outcome of the battle.In September 1917, the French have presented the Renault FT 17, which weighed much less - only 6 tons and was armed with a lighter - one 37-mm cannon.Furthermore, Renault FT 17 was faster - its speed of 4.8 miles / hr.Tank Renault FT 17 was the classic example of the design of the tanks of the world with a rotary turret.Americans used mainly tanks Renault in France.
In the interwar period, the limited role given to the tanks generals of the American infantry, as well as budgetary constraints and imposed severe restrictions on the design and development in the United States, Walter Christie, an American automotive engineer, has developed an entirely new suspension system, which made tankshigh speed and the possibility of movement on wheels, not tracks.His first tank M1919, which later turned into a M1928 / 1930 or in the medium tank T-3, weighing 9 tons, armed with 37-mm cannon, and reached a speed of 27 miles / h.But the US Army was unable to extend the contract Christi.World tanks, however, continued its development.
In contrast, the Soviet Union used the design and production technology Christie and began to develop in 1939-1940 a T-34 tank, it has become very reliable and balanced global tank weighing 29 tons, armed with a 76.2 mm gun and dostignala maximum speed of 34 miles / hr.He became the main battle tank of the Second World War in the Red Army and was also used by the forces of North Korea in the Korean War.
In the UK military theorists Fuller and Liddell Hart developed a plan for a small but mobile army with tanks as the main striking force.After many of the problems presented to the world the British Tank Crusader (Kruseyder), with a mass of 22 tons, and weapons in the form of 57-mm guns, which reach speeds of 26 miles / h.This tank was used at the beginning of World War II.But the constant and sad defects combat experience led to his replacement in 1943 on a new tank Cromwell (Cromwell), whose weight was 31 tonnes, service in a 75-mm cannon, and the maximum speed was equal to 31 miles / h.
French experiments used tanks world and the whole experience, and until 1939 developed a heavy tank CHAR tank that was probably the best and technologically advanced tank in the world at the beginning of World War II.Huge for his time, he was heavily armored, weighing 34 tons, had 75 gun mounted on the front hull plates and 47-mm cannon on the tower.However, the heavy tanks of the world under the name CHAR had a top speed of 17 miles / h.Benefits in the form of firepower and armor, however, were driven out in 1940, the French doctrinal and organizational failures.
