Evolution of British Tanks | Animated History

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Enter the battle and join over 160 million World of Tank fans today by clicking our link in the description below. February 1915 saw First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill convene the Landship Committee, a collection of naval officers, politicians, and engineers dedicated to finding a way to break the stalemate of the Western Front. The Committee's brainstorming eventually led to the creation of Little Willie, the first working tank in the world. Little more than a proof of concept, Willie was a metal pillbox on tracks that had a difficult time traversing trenches and rough terrain. The very thing the Landship Committee needed to do. But Willie's creation gave the Landship Committee momentum. Momentum that led to the creation of the HMLS, or His Majesty's Landship, Centipede, better known as Mother. Mother was the first tank to feature the rhomboidal design that came to mark British tanks of the First World War. And at field testing in January of 1915, Mother easily conquered trenches, elevation, swampy terrain, and any other challenges that the Landship Committee threw its way. The British Army ordered 100 of the new vehicles in February 1916, calling their new weapon a tank for the first time. The Tank Mark I was little different from Mother, featuring the same rhomboidal chassis and integrating two 6-pounder guns inside sponsons. During production, however, it was discovered that there were not adequate supplies of 6-pounder guns, leaving half of the Mark I tanks to be armed with additional machine guns in their sponsons instead. The half that received the 6-pounders would be dubbed male tanks, while those with the machine guns were considered female. Tanks of both sexes saw action from the Western Front to the sands of Gaza, ushering in the era of armored combat across the globe. As the war continued, British designers were not content to sit on their laurels, innovating new iterations of tanks to bash the Bosch harder. The Mark V was the first tank in the series to require only one driver, whereas previous models required a full crew of four to maneuver around the battlefield. A rear cab was also added for the tank's commander to survey the battlefield, as well as a rear machine gun for close in defense. But for all its progress, the early Mark V had a potentially fatal flaw. Poor ventilation led to instances of carbon monoxide poisoning as the crew choked on the fumes of their engine. Despite its difficulties, the Mark V saw action throughout the final battles of the First World War and was deployed in the interwar years by White forces during the Russian Civil War. At the beginning of the interwar years, Vickers Armstrong found success with their second attempt at a tank design, the Vickers medium tank. Originally classified as a light tank, the Mark I was an operational but highly flawed design. The axles were notably weak, making them highly susceptible to damage and meaning the wheels were likely to simply fall off. But most critically, the Mark I's 6.25mm armor provided no protection whatsoever from enemy fire. Despite this glaring failure at basic tank design, the Mark I was put into service with an order for 200 of this model and its Mark II sibling. With thicker armor and an improved suspension and drive system, the Mark II was a vastly superior design. The tank brought a new style of turning to the Vickers line. With a gearshift and steering system that essentially cut engine power to the left or right tracks in order to accomplish maneuvers, the tank rotating around the now idle tracks to reorient itself. Both the Mark II and its Mark I sibling were phased out of service by 1938, but managed to squeeze in some action in the Moment campaign of 1935, as the British sought to end a campaign of banditry by indigenous tribes of modern-day Pakistan. Continuing the preeminence of Vickers Armstrong in British tank design, the Cruiser tank was the first in a new breed of armored vehicle. For the first time, the familiar tank layout was put into practice, with the crew compartment in the front, turret in the center, and engine mounted in the rear. Designed to War Department specifications requiring it to be simple in layout and cheap in construction, the six-man Cruiser tank Mark I brought the never-before-seen addition to a fully motorized turret. No longer was the tank's aim dependent on manpower. The first modern tank would have a short service life, supplanting the light tanks in 1938 and seeing action in France and Belgium at the outbreak of the Second World War. However, by 1941, the rearmament of the hitherto complacent British army was in full swing, and the Cruiser tank Mark I would give way to a new breed of armor, including its late successor, the Mark VI Cruiser tank, dubbed the Crusader. Much heavier than its contemporaries, the Crusader featured a double-hole armored-in plate between 40 to 51 mm thick, and depending on the specimen brought a 2 to 6-pound gun onto the field. The Crusader saw extensive action in North Africa, providing the backbone of Britain's armor in the decisive battles of El Alamein and Tobruk, despite revealing itself to be something of a finicky machine in desert conditions, earning a reputation for unreliability. 5,300 of these temperamental tracked terrors were built from 1941 to 1949, and at time of writing, 21 rest in museums and private collections around the globe. The Crusader was the product of Britain's Grand Rearmament Campaign, a campaign that began after the disastrous defense of France. A late addition to the British tank lineup, the Mark VIII Cromwell roared onto the scene during Operation Overlord, fighting to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. Armed with a 75 mm main gun and sporting 100 mm thick armor, the Cromwell was faster, better armed, and more durable than the American Shermans that rolled into the fray alongside it. Though tank-to-tank, it was found to be inferior to the The tank wouldn't rest after victory in Europe, however, as Cromwells joined the British elements of the UN forces in Korea, and the tank would serve as a basis for later British tank designs, finally entering retirement in 1955 after 11 years on the battlefield. A direct answer to the question what do we do about the Tigers and Panthers, the Comet was a fast, decently agile, and decently armored tank with a key feature, its 77 mm high-velocity cannon capable of killing the German big cats. Just over 1,000 Comets were produced, and these cat killers would join other cruiser tanks in the post-war battlefields of the Middle East and Pacific, with a number continuing to be deployed by the Burmese military. As part of their rearmament and rethinking, the War Office decided on a delineation of tank roles to see them through the war. Cruiser tanks, intended to fight other armored vehicles, were separated from infantry tanks, purpose-built to travel alongside and provide fire support to soldiers on foot. Waltzing into the battlefield alongside British infantry, the Infantry Tank Mark II, or Matilda, blazed the trail for infantry tanks on the battlefields of the Second World War. Clad in armor up to 78 mm in thickness and sporting a two-pounder gun and new Czech air-cooled machine guns replacing older Vickers water-cooled models, the Matilda was a durable tank, well-suited to protecting and providing fire support to Tommies from the sands of Eritrea to the roads of the European Liberation. 1,000 Matildas would make their way to the Soviet Union to help beat back Operation Barbarossa, and the tank's final user was Australia, whose Citizen Military Force, or Militia, retired the tank in 1955. For all its good qualities, the Matilda proved costlier than anticipated to produce, leading to a redesign focused on improving unit cost as much as design features. The result was the Valentine, the most ubiquitous of Britain's infantry tanks. Over 6,800 of these infantry tanks were produced, all featuring an enlarged turret basket for easier ergonomics, and a larger crew of four. The Valentine was timeless, seeing action from the Battle of Madagascar through the 1963 Cyprus Crisis. A notable variant of the Valentine was the New Zealand 2CS, which replaced the usual 2-pounder gun with a 3-inch howitzer. 2CS Valentines saw action in the Battle of the Green Islands, or Operation Square Peg, in a daring reconnaissance in force by Kiwi and Yankee troops. Whether it was named for the wartime Prime Minister, or the first Duke of Marlborough, the Infantry Tank Mark IV, or Churchill, was a more defensively intended for use in static defense operations. To this end, the Churchill was thickly armored, with a glacis of 102mm in thickness, and its turret featured a powerful 6-pounder gun. This British behemoth was rushed into production straight off the drawing board, and caused almost immediate problems. Befitting its design and nature, the tank was incredibly slow, and its welded turret was soon replaced by a more efficiently produced cast model. The Churchill joined its infantry tank cousins on fields of battle from Burma to France, ending its days in battle against the Korean People's Army during the Korean War. Our first Cold War-era design, and direct descendant of the Comet, the Centurion tank, was built to be the next-generation cat-killer, ready to go toe-to-toe with the finest of the Panzers. Unfortunately, it rolled onto the field of battle in 1945, too late to fulfill its intended purpose. Armed with either a 17- or 20-pounder main cannon, and armored up to 152mm thick, the Centurion sure would have given the Tigers and Panthers a challenge. Despite showing up too late for its first war, the Centurion remains in service today, and over its career has been exported to India, Pakistan, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, and Austria, among others. The end of the Second World War did not mean the end of Britain having to counter armored threats. The dawn of the Cold War meant the War Office shifting its focus from cat-killing to breaking the metal fists of the Soviet bear. To this end, a new cruiser-style tank was deployed in 1967, the Chieftain. The Chieftain sported a 120mm main gun and turret armor 350mm thick. 1,896 Chieftains have been built to date, with 960 sold on the international arms market. The majority of these were bought by Iran, who fielded them against Iraq in their conflict from 1980 to 1988. The Challenger is a modernization of the Chieftain, integrating composite armor for the first time. It also added thermal imaging and range-finding suites for the 120mm main gun, which was sometimes loaded with depleted uranium rounds. However, these improvements were balanced by accusations of unreliability and difficulty performing maintenance in the field. Despite these concerns, the Challenger saw extensive action during the Gulf War, and it was here that a Challenger performed a 5,100m shot, sniping an Iraqi tank and setting a record that wasn't challenged until 2022. The Challenger would retire in 2001, replaced by the Challenger 2. The next evolution of the Challenger tank faced quite a few challenges in its development. Originally conceived in 1988, designs for the Challenger 2 were continuously rejected until 1991, when an interaction was finally deemed acceptable to enter production. 250 subcontractors worked to get the first Challengers operational, and their work rolled off the assembly line after two years of production, only to utterly fail its test runs. The Challenger 2 would finally enter service in 1998, a full decade after being initially proposed. This challenging tank features similar arms and armament to its predecessor, but notably has an increased operational range. The tank has seen extensive action in the War on Terror, and despite its troubled history, continues to be a mainstay of the British Army, resisting efforts to replace it as early as 2002 and as late as 2015. The nation that invented the tank has perhaps the most difficulty implementing their creation. Between shifting arms doctrines and the challenges of design and testing, Britain has had a number of unusual, effective, and just plain frustrating tanks enter and retire from service. What nation's tanks do you want to see covered next? Let us know in the comments below.