Category: United Kingdom
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Infantry Tank Mk II A12 Matilda II “The Princess Royal”
Type: Infantry Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 2 Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Queen of the desert The 27-ton Matilda II was one of the most heavily armoured tanks of its time, comparable only to the French Char B1 bis. Designed as an infantry tank, its role was to break through enemy…
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Infantry Tank Mk I A11 Matilda “Demon”
Type: Infantry Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 2 Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Mobile machine gun nest The Matilda was the first tank specifically made to fit the British infantry tank concept of the 1930s. It was designed within only six months as a slow but heavily armoured two-man vehicle that was…
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Centurion Mk 5/2
Type: Main Battle Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: Cold War Location: Nationaal Militair Museum, Soesterberg, Netherlands One size fits all The Centurion is widely considered one of the best tank designs of all time. Its origins date back to 1943, when the development of a heavy cruiser tank was ordered. Up to that point, the…
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Sherman IC Hybrid Firefly
Type: Medium Tank/Cruiser TankNation: United KingdomPeriod: World War 2Location: Klein-Willebroek, Belgium Best of both worlds The “Composite hull” Sherman combined the welded hull of the standard M4 with a rounded M4A1-style cast front. Chrysler came up with this design in 1943, because a large part of the time-consuming welding work on the first generation M4…
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M3 Grant I
Type: Medium Tank Nation: USA/United Kingdom Period: World War 2 Location: El Alamein Military Museum, Egypt Caught by surprise When the German Panzer Divisions were sweeping through France and the British Expeditionary Force had to be evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, the United States only possessed 18 (!) M2 medium tanks. Their 37 mm guns…
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Mark V (Male)
Type: Heavy TankNation: United KingdomPeriod: World War 1Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK End of the line Concluding the evolutionary process that had started with the Mark I, the Mark V was the third and last major operational British heavy tank of World War 1. Around 400 Mark Vs were produced until the Armistice of…
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Mark IV (Female)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 1 Location: Cambrai Tank 1917 Museum, Flesquières, France Counting rivets The Mark IV was arguably the most important British tank of World War 1. From the summer of 1917 until the Armistice on 11 November 1918, Mark IVs were involved in virtually every major battle on…
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Mark IV (Male)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 1 Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Clever refinements The Mark IV‘s production began in March 1917 and was carried out at several factories in England and Scotland. As the long six-pounder guns on previous tanks had had a tendency to get stuck in the ground…
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Mark IV (Male)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 1 Location: Musée Royal de l’Armée, Bruxelles, Belgium Overproduction The Mark IV was the world’s first mass-produced tank. Although introduced in 1917, from a technical standpoint it was not much different from 1915’s “Mother” prototype: The machine still required four men just for driving. When General…