69 Fun Facts About Tank

Why were the first British armoured vehicles called "tanks"?

To keep their purpose secret, the hulls were described to factory workers as mobile water tanks bound for Mesopotamia, and the Landships Committee adopted the word 'tank' in December 1915.

In what year did a tank first go into battle?

1916: tank D1, a British Mark I 'Male', went into action on 15 September 1916 during the Somme offensive, the first time a tank was ever used in battle.

Vehicle 131 at Bovington, captured in Tunisia in 1943, is the only running example of which German heavy tank?

Tiger 131 is the only running Tiger I; disabled in Tunisia in April 1943 when a 6-pounder shot jammed its turret, it was restored to running order at Bovington and played the German tank in the 2014 film Fury.

Which Soviet medium tank, famed for its sloped armour, was WWII's most-produced tank?

The T-34, with its sloped armour and 76 mm gun, was the war's most-produced tank; more than 80,000 of all variants were built, including post-war T-34-85s.

The M4 Sherman was named by the British after a general from which war?

The American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, who marched through Georgia in 1864, gave his name to the M4; the British named their Lend-Lease American tanks after US generals.

In which city did the lone "Tank Man" halt a column of tanks in June 1989?

The scene was Beijing: on 5 June 1989 an unidentified man carrying shopping bags stepped in front of the lead Type 59 tank on Chang'an Avenue beside Tiananmen Square, and the column halted.

What does the German word "blitzkrieg" literally mean?

Blitz means lightning and Krieg means war, so blitzkrieg is literally 'Lightning war'; Germany's 1939-40 campaigns massed tanks with motorised infantry and aircraft to punch through and collapse enemy fronts.

Which future prime minister created the Landships Committee in 1915 to develop the first tanks?

Winston Churchill created the Landships Committee in February 1915, backing trench-crossing machines when the War Office showed little interest; its first prototype was running before the end of 1915.

The Leclerc main battle tank, named for a Free French marshal, serves which country?

France fields the Leclerc, named for Marshal Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, whose 2nd Armoured Division liberated Paris in August 1944; it entered French service in 1992 to replace the AMX-30.

The Type 99 is the first mass-produced third-generation main battle tank of which country?

The Type 99 (ZTZ-99) is China's first third-generation main battle tank, entering People's Liberation Army service in 2001 with a 125 mm smoothbore gun and an autoloader.

The "tank biathlon" is a military sport run by which country's armed forces?

Russia's armed forces launched the tank biathlon at the Alabino range near Moscow in 2013; crews race a multi-lap cross-country course, firing at targets between laps.

The Soviet IS heavy tanks, including the IS-2 that spearheaded the assault on Berlin, were named after whom?

IS stands for Iosif Stalin, Joseph Stalin in English; the series was designed in 1943 as breakthrough tanks after a Tiger was captured near Leningrad, and the line ended with the T-10.

The American M48 tank carries the name of which Second World War general?

The M48 Patton honours General George S. Patton, commander of the US Third Army in 1944-45; its M67 flame-thrower variant was nicknamed the 'Zippo' by Marines in Vietnam.

Which Renaissance figure sketched a never-built armoured vehicle often called the first tank design?

Leonardo da Vinci sketched the conical, cannon-ringed 'fighting vehicle' around 1487 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan; hand-cranked and human-powered, it was never built.

Which 1943 battle, opened by Operation Citadel, is called the largest and deadliest armoured battle in history?

Kursk began on 5 July 1943 when Germany launched Operation Citadel against the salient; roughly 6,000 tanks and assault guns took part, and the German offensive was called off within a fortnight.

What was the nickname of the first completed tank prototype in history, built in 1915?

Little Willie, built in Lincoln in 1915, first ran that September and survives at The Tank Museum, Bovington, as the oldest individual tank in existence.

The prototype adopted in January 1916 as the pattern for British tanks was nicknamed what?

'Mother', officially His Majesty's Land Ship Centipede and also called Big Willie, was the rhomboid prototype with sponson-mounted guns that became the pattern for the Mark I.

British Mark I 'Male' tanks carried cannon, while 'Female' tanks carried only what?

Machine guns were the Female tank's only armament: Vickers guns in the sponsons instead of the Male's two 6-pounders, meant to sweep infantry off the Males; 75 of each were built.

The first tank-versus-tank action, in April 1918, pitted British Mark IVs against which German tank?

The A7V was the only German-built tank to see action in the war, with just 20 completed; three A7Vs met three Mark IVs on 24 April 1918, and Germany fielded more captured British Mark IVs than A7Vs.

Which November 1917 battle saw the first massed use of tanks, with more than 400 Mark IVs committed?

Cambrai, launched on 20 November 1917, committed 476 tanks without a long preliminary bombardment; breakdowns and German guns put nearly half of them out of action by the end of the first day.

Which 1917-18 French light tank was the first with a fully rotating turret and rear engine?

Over 3,000 were built, and its layout is still the standard, which is why some historians call it the first modern tank.

Heinz Guderian's influential 1937 book on armoured warfare was titled what?

Achtung – Panzer! (1937) argued for concentrating tanks in independent armoured divisions; Guderian then led XIX Corps' thrust through the Ardennes and across the Meuse at Sedan in May 1940.

Which Soviet formation attacked the Waffen-SS armoured corps at Prokhorovka on 12 July 1943?

The 5th Guards Tank Army under Pavel Rotmistrov struck the II SS Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka on 12 July 1943 and lost hundreds of tanks in a single day, though the German advance there stalled.

Which Soviet tank series, with up to 100,000 built, is history's most-produced tank?

The T-54/T-55 line, built from 1947 into the 1980s in the USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia, reached an estimated 86,000-100,000 vehicles; a T-54 driven into Budapest's British embassy in 1956 prompted Britain's L7 gun.

Chobham armour, the composite armour on the Abrams and Challenger, takes its name from what?

A lane in Chertsey, Surrey, gave Chobham armour its name: Chobham Lane was home to the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, which developed the ceramic-and-metal composite in the 1960s; the Challenger 1 and M1 Abrams carried it first.

How does explosive reactive armour protect a tank when a shaped charge strikes it?

A layer detonates outward against the jet: the explosive sandwiched between two steel plates fires, driving the plates across the shaped-charge jet and breaking it up; tandem warheads counter this with a second charge.

What is the lightweight shell around a kinetic-energy tank round's dart, discarded after leaving the barrel, called?

A sabot is the lightweight carrier that fills the bore around the narrow penetrator so propellant gas can push it, then falls away at the muzzle; the dense tungsten or depleted-uranium dart flies on alone.

Thanks to an autoloader, Soviet tanks from the T-64 onward need how many crew?

3 crew, commander, gunner and driver, man the T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 because a carousel autoloader feeds the main gun; Western tanks such as the Abrams and Challenger 2 keep a fourth man as loader.

How did the crew of Sweden's turretless Stridsvagn 103 aim its fixed gun?

By steering and tilting the whole hull, the crew aimed the fixed 105 mm gun: the tracks turned the vehicle for traverse and a hydropneumatic suspension pitched it for elevation, giving the Strv 103 a very low silhouette.

What headline feature sets the T-14 Armata apart from earlier main battle tanks?

An unmanned turret is the T-14 Armata's headline feature: its crew sit in an armoured capsule in the forward hull while an autoloader feeds the 125 mm gun; it debuted at Moscow's 2015 Victory Day parade.

The Israeli Merkava breaks with most tank designs by placing its engine where?

At the front: the Merkava's engine and transmission sit ahead of the crew compartment as extra protection against frontal hits, which frees a rear hatch through which the tank can carry a few infantry or evacuate casualties.

What does "Merkava" mean in Hebrew?

Merkava is Hebrew for 'Chariot', the war chariot of the Bible; Israel Tal led the programme after foreign tank purchases fell through, and the Merkava Mark 1 entered service in 1979.

The M1 Abrams is unusual among main battle tanks for using what kind of engine?

A gas turbine, the 1,500 hp AGT1500 developed by Avco Lycoming and later built by Honeywell, powers the Abrams; it runs on diesel, kerosene or petrol and is quiet and compact but thirsty, especially at idle.

Which German firm makes the Leopard 2's 120 mm gun, also licence-built for the Abrams?

Rheinmetall's 120 mm Rh-120 smoothbore arms the Leopard 2, which Krauss-Maffei brought into Bundeswehr service in 1979; the United States builds the gun under licence as the M256 for the M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams.

The British Challenger 2 stands out among modern main battle tanks for having what kind of main gun?

A rifled barrel sets the Challenger 2 apart: its 120 mm L30A1 descends from the Chieftain's L11 and fires spin-stabilised HESH rounds, while the Leopard 2, Abrams and most other modern tanks use smoothbores.

The German Maus, the heaviest fully enclosed armoured vehicle ever built, weighed roughly how much?

At 188 tonnes the Panzer VIII Maus was the heaviest enclosed armoured vehicle ever completed; only two hulls and one turret were finished, and its petrol-electric drive gave a designed top speed of about 20 km/h.

Who cancelled the 1,000-tonne Landkreuzer P. 1000 "Ratte" project in early 1943?

Albert Speer, as armaments minister, cancelled the Ratte in early 1943; Krupp's design called for a naval turret with two 28 cm guns of the type carried by the Scharnhorst-class battleships.

Instead of tracks, the 1915 Tsar Tank rolled on what?

Two giant spoked wheels, each nearly 9 metres across, carried Nikolai Lebedenko's Tsar Tank, with a small roller behind; its engines could not free the rear roller from soft ground at the 1915 trial, and it was scrapped.

The Bob Semple tank, built from corrugated iron on a tractor base in World War II, came from which country?

New Zealand's Minister of Works, Bob Semple, had the tank improvised on a Caterpillar D8 tractor in 1940-41 and armed with six Bren guns; it was ridiculed and never entered production.

The armoured bulldozer dubbed the "Killdozer" demolished buildings in Granby in 2004 — in which US state?

Granby, Colorado, a small town in Grand County, was where welder Marvin Heemeyer drove his concrete-and-steel-armoured Komatsu bulldozer through 13 buildings on 4 June 2004 over a zoning dispute.

The swimming "DD" Sherman tanks used on D-Day earned what nickname?

Donald Duck was the troops' name for the Duplex Drive tanks: a raised canvas screen gave buoyancy and twin propellers drove them, but 27 of the 29 launched by one battalion off Omaha Beach sank in rough seas.

"Hobart's Funnies", the specialised assault vehicles of D-Day, belonged to which British formation?

The 79th Armoured Division, commanded by Major-General Percy Hobart, developed the Funnies after the Dieppe raid of 1942: Crab flail tanks, Crocodile flamethrowers and AVRE engineer vehicles, mostly built on Churchill and Sherman hulls.

The Battle of 73 Easting, 'the last great tank battle of the 20th century', was in which war?

The 1991 Gulf War battle of 26 February 1991 saw the US 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment destroy scores of Iraqi Republican Guard tanks and vehicles; '73 Easting' is a north-south map grid line in the featureless desert.

The British Centurion, introduced in 1945, first saw combat in which war?

The Korean War was the Centurion's first action: the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars took Centurions to Korea in late 1950 and fought at the Imjin River in April 1951; prototypes had reached Belgium in May 1945, just too late.

J. Walter Christie's 1919 prototype tank could do what that most tanks could not?

Run on wheels without its tracks: Christie's convertible design let the crew remove the tracks and drive on the road wheels at speed; the Soviets bought his M1931 design, and its suspension shaped the BT fast tanks and their successors.

The Rolls-Royce Meteor tank engine was a de-rated version of which aero engine?

The Merlin, the V12 that powered the Spitfire and Lancaster, was de-rated and stripped of its supercharger to become the Meteor, which powered the Cromwell, Comet, Centurion and Conqueror; Rover took over its production in 1943.

The saucer-shaped hull of the Soviet Object 279 heavy tank was designed to withstand what?

The blast wave of a nuclear explosion was the threat: the flattened, saucer-like hull was shaped to stop the tank being flipped over, and four tracks gave low ground pressure; only one Object 279 prototype was built, in 1959.

Which British infantry tank earned the nickname "Queen of the Desert" in 1940-41?

The Matilda II, with 78 mm frontal armour that Italian guns could not pierce, dominated Operation Compass in 1940-41 and earned the title 'Queen of the Desert'; the German 88 mm ended its reign in 1941.

The Sherman Firefly was a British conversion that mounted which powerful anti-tank gun?

The 17-pounder, Britain's 76.2 mm anti-tank gun, was squeezed into the Sherman's turret to make the Firefly, which could defeat Panthers and Tigers at normal combat ranges; crews painted the barrel to disguise its tell-tale length.

Which was the most numerous German tank of World War II, and the only one in continuous production throughout?

The Panzer IV, built from 1936 to 1945 with around 8,500 completed, was Germany's workhorse; from the Ausf. F2 it mounted the long 75 mm KwK 40, and only the StuG III outnumbered it among German tracked fighting vehicles.

Which agricultural machinery firm in Lincoln built the first British tank prototypes?

William Foster & Co., makers of traction engines and threshing machines, built the first prototypes in 1915; its managing director William Tritton and Lieutenant Walter Wilson drew up the designs in a room at Lincoln's White Hart Hotel.

Which 1903 H. G. Wells short story imagined armour-plated, trench-crossing fighting machines?

The Land Ironclads, published in the Strand Magazine in December 1903, described 30-metre armoured machines on pedrail wheels crossing trenches; Wells later said he had merely taken up an idea, manipulated it slightly and handed it on.

In which English county is The Tank Museum at Bovington Camp?

Dorset is home to The Tank Museum at Bovington Camp, near Wareham; Rudyard Kipling suggested a museum after seeing the salvaged wrecks there in 1923, and the collection grew to around 300 vehicles.

With the British Army uninterested, which service carried out early tank development in Britain?

The Royal Navy took it on: the Admiralty's Landships Committee of 1915 and Royal Naval Air Service officers who had run armoured cars in Flanders drove the work, which is why the vehicles were first called landships.

Which Soviet general's massed tank-and-air attack crushed the Japanese 6th Army at Khalkhin Gol in 1939?

Georgy Zhukov massed nearly 500 tanks, 350 armoured cars and over 500 aircraft for his 20 August 1939 double envelopment at Khalkhin Gol, trapping the Japanese 6th Army on the Mongolian border.

What nickname was given to the Churchill AVRE's 40 lb Petard mortar round?

Flying Dustbin was the crews' name for the 40 lb demolition charge lobbed by the Churchill AVRE's 290 mm spigot mortar, the Petard, which Royal Engineers crews used to smash bunkers and sea walls on D-Day.

British-turret versions of the American M3 tank were called "Grant"; what were the US-turret versions called?

Lee was the US-turret M3, honouring Confederate general Robert E. Lee, while the British-turret version honoured Union commander Ulysses S. Grant; the 75 mm gun sat in a hull sponson with limited traverse.

In the 1940 campaign in the West, many French tanks lacked what every German tank had?

Radios: most French tanks had none and relied on flags, while every German panzer carried at least a receiver, so German units could be redirected on the move; French armour was also parcelled out in packets tied to the infantry.

At which 1942 battle did the Afrika Korps lose 95% of its tanks and begin its long retreat?

El Alamein, fought from 23 October to 11 November 1942, left Rommel with only a few dozen serviceable tanks out of roughly 500; Montgomery's Eighth Army then pursued the Panzerarmee across Libya to Tunisia.

Germany's little two-man Pz.Kpfw. I of the 1930s was originally intended purely as what?

It ended up fighting in Spain, Poland and the West anyway despite its light armament.

What unusual driver position gave the British Chieftain its low, heavily sloped hull?

Lying almost flat on his back, the Chieftain's driver sat reclined when closed down, letting designers lower the hull front to a steep slope; the supine position carried over to the Challenger 1 and 2.

The French Char B1 heavy tank carried its 75 mm gun where?

In the hull, to the right of the driver, sat the Char B1's short 75 mm howitzer, aimed in traverse by steering the whole tank; a 47 mm gun in the one-man turret handled other tanks.

Which 15th-century Hussite commander used armoured war wagons carrying cannon, an ancestor of the tank?

Jan Žižka, the one-eyed Hussite general, chained his armoured wagons into a Wagenburg bristling with handgunners and light cannon, defeating the first anti-Hussite crusade at Vítkov Hill in 1420.

The first tank ever to go into battle, Mark I 'D1', fought at which Somme engagement?

Flers-Courcelette, the Somme battle that opened on 15 September, was the first with tanks: 49 Mark Is were sent forward, D1 led the way near Delville Wood, and a handful reached the village of Flers.

Which French artillery colonel took detailed plans for a tracked tank to the commander-in-chief in 1915?

J.B.E. Estienne, later called the father of French tanks, wrote to Joffre in December 1915 proposing a tracked 'cuirassé terrestre'; the result was orders for 400 Schneider and 400 Saint-Chamond tanks on Holt tractor running gear.

How many crew did a British Mark I tank carry?

8 men crewed the Mark I: a commander, a driver, two gearsmen who worked the secondary gears on each track, and four gunners, all sharing one compartment with the unshielded 105 hp Daimler engine.

What was the three-man turreted tank proposed by an Austrian army engineer in 1911 called?

The Burstyn-Motorgeschütz, drawn up by Lieutenant Günther Burstyn in 1911, had a rotating turret and swinging arms for crossing obstacles; both the Austro-Hungarian and German war ministries turned it down.

The first tank-versus-tank action was fought on 24 April 1918 at which French location?

Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens, saw three British Mark IVs meet three German tanks on 24 April 1918; the Mark IV 'Male' commanded by Lieutenant Frank Mitchell knocked out the German tank Nixe with its 6-pounders.

The Israeli Merkava's TROPHY system is an example of what kind of tank technology?

Active protection is the category: Trophy, developed by Rafael, uses radar to detect an incoming rocket or missile and fires a burst of projectiles to destroy it in flight; it entered Israeli service on the Merkava Mk 4 in 2010.