Category: World War 1
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Saint-Chamond
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: France Period: World War 1 Location: Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France Armoured pioneer The Saint-Chamond was the second French tank ever to be fielded in May 1917. It was developed in parallel to the rival Schneider CA1, used the exact same Holt caterpillar tractor chassis and was also equipped with a…
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Char Schneider CA1 (Replica)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: France Period: World War 1 Location: Monument National des chars d‘assaut, Berry-au-Bac, France The world’s other first tank The Schneider CA1 was the first French tank. It was designed at the same time as the British Little Willie prototype, but since both countries treated their tank programmes as secrets which might…
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Sturmpanzerwagen A7V (Replica)
Type: Heavy TankNation: GermanyPeriod: World War 1Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK The first tank battle The A7V was deployed for the first time on 21 March 1918 at the Canal de Saint-Quentin in Northern France. The first tank-on-tank engagement in history would take place only a month later. On 24 April three German A7Vs…
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Sturmpanzerwagen A7V (Replica)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: Germany Period: World War 1 Location: Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster, Germany Difficult decisions The A7V was the first and only operational German tank of World War 1. When the first British Mark Is had been crawling across the battlefield on the Somme in September 1916, the German reaction (aside from a historical…
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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 (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…
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Mark II (Female)
Type: Heavy TankNation: United KingdomPeriod: World War 1Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Unfit for combat On 19 September 1916, only four days after the world had seen the first tank attack by a small amount of Mark Is, the British Commander-in-Chief in France Sir Douglas Haig placed an order for 1,000 more tanks. As…
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Mark I (Male)
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 1 Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Father of the tank? Already before completing their Little Willie prototype, the British engineers William Tritton and Walter Wilson had come to realise that their creation‘s low track frames would severely limit its trench-crossing capabilities. Wilson therefore proposed a…
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Little Willie
Type: Experimental Prototype Nation: United Kingdom Period: World War 1 Location: The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK Deadlock in the west Soon after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Western Front had become completely static. Both sides had been digging extensive trench systems, reaching from the Belgian coastline all the way to…