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Tank History
The name tank first came about during World War I. The first armored fighting vehicles were built in the United Kingdom by William Foster and Co. Ltd. of Lincoln. The development was cloaked in secrecy by making up a story that they were making mobile water cisterns (tanks) for use on the Eastern Front and the boxes were even labeled "with care to Petrograd" in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The first true tank with an all-around traverse was the French FT-17 first introduced in 1917. It had a short 37 mm gun or a single MG as it's main armament. It had 22 mm of armor and a maximum speed of 5 mph. There was a crew of 2.
Layout
The layout of the first tanks consisted of the front compartment with the driver, a fighting compartment with the turret and gun, and the engine compartment with the engine and fuel.
Armament
Initially it was thought that the MG would be sufficient as a tank's main armament but it was soon realized that tanks would meet tanks on a battlefield and more powerful guns would be needed to fight the enemy. The guns needed to be powerful enough to penetrate the thickest armor on opposing tanks.
Turret's Weapon
Thus the tank needed to have a large enough turret ring diameter to be able to absorb the recoil of the main gun, store ammunition, and hopefully enough room to allow fitting a larger weapon at a later time. This diameter would then determine the width of the hull. For the British, the designers were limited by the standard railway gauge and the German's were restricted to a 24-ton bridge-load specification.
Machine Guns (MG)
Tanks were usually designed with MGs as secondary armament. Often a MG was installed coaxially with the main gun. Also a MG was sometimes installed in the hull front for use by the driver or co-driver.
Turret
The main gun was placed in a thick piece of armor known as a mantlet that went across the front of the turret. The turret contained all the necessary hardware to aim, load, and fire the gun. The British and Germansusually had 3-man crews in the turret. The commander sat in the rear, the loader on one side, and the gunner on the other side of the gun. In British tanks the radio was located in the turret and the loader was its operator. The American, French, and German tanks had the radios placed in the hull and were often operated by the co-driver
Engines
Engines were selected that would move at a required speed. The American'sselected rotary aircraft engines and this resulted in the tanks having a high silhouette. The British would use flatter engines and most of their tanks were lower. The Japanese developed an excellent air cooled diesel engine for use in the tropical climate.
From the engine the drive shaft passed through the gearbox to the drive sprockets to drive the tracks. Most gearboxes were synchromesh or "crash." The synchromesh required the driver to double de-clutch. The tracks acted as a brake during the gear changes.
Suspension
There were several different types of suspensions that a tank could have. Coil springs that attached to pivoting bogie wheels were the most common. Torsion bar had the roadwheels suspended from arms attached to tension-sprung transverse bars (introduced by Germans). The Christie suspension was developed by American Walter Christie. This consisted of large roadwheels that hung from cranks that had vertical coil springs housed in the hull. This was used by the Russians in their BT series and the British their Cruiser tanks.
Tracks
The tracks were made from cast iron at first, and replaced by manganese steel. The American's developed tracks from rubber blocks and linked by metal.
Armor
Most tanks were designed with armor that was primarily flat. In 1937 the Russians designed the precursor to the T-34, the A-20 which used sloping armor. This principle was that a 45 mm thick put at an angle of 60 degrees had the equivalent of 90 mm of armor.
Early tanks had bolted on armor which could be dangerous if a shell struck the head of the bolt as the inside part could break off and fly around the inside of the vehicle and possibly injure the crew. The Germans and Russians developed joint welding in the mid-1930s and this helped reduce the weight of the vehicles as well as helping to increase production.
Cast armor was a little weaker than rolled armor but cast could be shaped into a wide variety of shapes. The French first used a cast turret on a D-1 tank in 1931.
Radio
During World War I when tanks were first used there was little that senior commanders could do other than give them an objective and let them go. To assist the tanks the commanders would be on foot, while under fire, running between vehicles to guide them on what to do.
In the 1920s hand flags were used by some armies and some (primarily Russia) used them throughout World War II. However, this was less than ideal as the commander had to be partially exposed and as soon as they were used the enemy would most likely immediately target the commander's tank.
Radios were available during World War I but they had little range and were bulky. It wasn't until 1931 when the 1 Brigade of the British Royal Tank Corps used voice transmissions to control the movements of 180 tanks during the Salisbury Plain exercises. Soon the other major powers, except for Russia, Japan, and Italy, started installing radios into their vehicles.
Views on Armor
Some in military circles didn't have much hope for tanks after World War I, but there were some who were visionaries.
Colonel J.F.C. Fuller wrote in his Plan 1919 that he saw a main body holding down the enemies forces while tanks and truck born infantry would deeply penetrate and destroy the enemies headquarters. Someone who shared his views was Captain Basil Liddell Hart, the military correspondent of the Daily Telegraph.
Many in the higher echelons of the military needed "real proof" about these theories. Some did see the tank as supporting the infantry and some saw it in the role as calvary.
Tank development in Britain, Russia, United States, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan.
