The tank was introduced in World War I
when Britain unveiled the then-secret weapon
against German forces
and were able to run these rolling fortresses
right over German barbed wire and trenches,
firing cannons and machine guns into enemy fortifications.
Now, armored columns are a commander's fist,
punching holes in enemy lines
and then rushing through them
to annihilate opposing formations.
Here are 10 tanks that shaped armed warfare,
either by completely destroying their enemies
or by introducing new design features
that gave them the edge in combat.
(heavy rock music)
Number 10, the British Centurion.
Originally designed to give British tankers
an edge against German Panthers and Tigers,
the Centurion arrived months after the end of World War II
and ended up being the greatest Cold War tank instead.
It had plate armor while cast armor was still the norm,
and its 105 millimeter gun was beefy for the time.
The British never used it in combat,
but it earned lasting acclaim fighting for India and Israel.
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War,
Israel sent its customized Centurions
to secure the Golan Heights, slaughtering Syrian tanks.
Centurions converted into armored personnel carriers
and engineering vehicles are still in Israeli service,
70 years after the tank's debut.
Number nine, the Panzer Mark II.
The Panzer Mark II was, to say the least,
not a Tanker's tank.
It was a stopgap design to hold the line in the 1930s
until the Panzer Mk. III and IV were ready.
It was a light tank with limited range,
an only 20 millimeter gun, and thin armor.
But it made this list
because it did perform well on the battlefield
and changed future tank design for one reason:
It had a dedicated gunner and a dedicated tank commander.
Many tank designs,
especially smaller ones with smaller crews,
combined these two roles,
forcing the commander to ignore the larger battlefield
for crucial moments while firing.
The Mark II broke from that tradition
and essentially all modern tank designs
have a commander and dedicated gunner.
Number eight, the British Whippet Tank.
Whippets were British medium tanks in World War I
that had decent armor and speed
and were designed to exploit gaps in German lines
created by heavier tanks.
It had either three or four machine guns but no cannon,
meaning that today it would've been known
as an armored vehicle.
But the Whippet was one of the fastest tanks of World War I
with a blistering speed of 8 miles an hour.
One upgraded Whippet could hit
a much more respectable 30 miles per hour
thanks to a V-12 Rolls Royce Eagle engine.
This allowed them to fly through German gaps
and break up enemy formations attempting to regroup.
Number seven, the German Mark IV.
The Panzer Mk. IV served for all of World War II,
starting as a heavy hitter fighting next to Panzer IIIs
and eventually giving way to the more powerful
and better armed Panther.
The base Panzer IV was adequate
in the early months of the war,
but required upgrades to armor
and its main gun as Allied armor got stronger.
By 1945, this resulted in a Panzer IV
with a longer 75 millimeter gun, widened tracks,
and thicker armor than most medium tanks.
It even had armored skirts to protect against
infantry anti-armored weapons.
This allowed it to tackle
the Allies' most numerous tanks,
such as the Sherman and the T-34 with relative ease.
But larger tanks were able to shred it,
hence Germany's growing reliance
on the late-arriving Panther as those made it to the front.
Number six, the Char B1.
France's tanks saw limited fighting in World War II
since, you know, France fell so early in the war.
But a couple of French tanks made a real impact,
including the Char B1 with its sloped armor,
two large guns, and decent speed.
Its smaller, 47 millimeter gun could kill many tanks
while its 75 millimeter could slaughter
nearly anything available in 1939.
In one battle, a single French Char B1
rolled right into a German ambush in a French town,
used the 47 millimeter gun to kill the trail tank,
the 75 millimeter to kill the lead tank,
and then started dismantling
all the tanks trapped in the middle.
It shrugged off 140 German rounds during the fight
and killed an entire German Panzer company.
But, you know, France still fell, so that part sucked.
Number five, the British Mark I.
Look, to be honest, we're including this little fellow
because, for a while,
it was the only deployed tank in the world,
and so, therefore, the best.
The British Mk. I was the first tank,
dreamed into existence by British Royal Navy engineers
under the Landship concept
that would see America's new tractors
developed into weapons of war.
The Mk. 1 and its French and British descendants
allowed the Allies to break the Central Powers' lines
and begin winning the bloody stalemate
that World War I had descended into.
But these tanks were far from perfect,
requiring eight crew members to fight,
and four just get the massive engine started.
But they carried up to two cannons and four machine guns
and slowly, very slowly, 4 miles per hour slowly,
overwhelmed German forces nearly anywhere they fought.
Number four, the Tiger Tank.
Ah, the legendary Tiger,
the tank so powerful that it immediately became the focus
of any battle in which it fought.
Its thick armor could shrug off 75 millimeter rounds
from most guns at 50 yards.
But its 88 millimeter gun
could open most Allied tanks like a can opener.
The tank was terrifying for enemy crews,
but it did suffer from horrible logistics issues
as it required lots of maintenance and guzzled fuel.
But in defensive warfare,
the fuel problem was less of an issue,
and single crews could destroy a dozen or more
oncoming Allied machines and crews.
One Tiger destroyed 18 Russian tanks on the Eastern Front,
and one commander in Normandy lost six Tiger tanks
while killing 25 British tanks and another 28 vehicles.
Number three, the M4 Sherman.
The M4 Sherman was one of the most
widely deployed weapons of the war,
serving with British, Canadian, Free French,
Russian, and U.S. forces.
The plucky little tank was designed for speed
and ease of maintenance, taking limited armor
and using a low-velocity 75 millimeter gun
to cut down on weight.
It, unfortunately, got a reputation after the war
for being a death trap,
but that wasn't the reputation during the fighting.
Russian crews often preferred the Sherman to the T-34,
and they had good reason.
The tank was easy to maintain
and spare parts were almost always available,
leading to an 80% rate
of damaged Shermans returning to combat.
In fights, the Sherman was able to kill Mk. IIs and Mk. IVs,
but could only attack Tigers in desperation
and Panthers in strength.
It was a commander's tank, great strategically,
but few tankers wanted to be in one
when they faced-off against a heavy tank.
Number two, the T-34.
The T-34 was technically a medium tank,
but its sloped armor was fairly thick
and could deflect rounds like a heavy,
and its powerful engine could propel it to 35 miles per hour
while its 76 millimeter high-velocity gun
could kill any other tank in the world at the time.
Its combat debut came
when Germany invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa.
The Germans were forced to call on any weapon
they thought could pierce the armor,
deploying anti-aircraft guns
and infantrymen carrying shaped charges
to try and take the T-34 down.
It was a leading factor in the Russian victory
at the Battle of Kursk,
the largest tank battle in history,
and it eventually became the most-produced tank of the war.
Number one, the M1 Abrams Tank.
The legendary M1 Abrams main battle tank is a gas-guzzling,
sabot-throwing, and armor decimating beast.
Its turbine engines produce massive amounts of power
that allow it to hurtle across the battlefield
at over 40 miles per hour despite its 68-ton weight.
And while it started life with a 105 millimeter gun,
it was quickly upgraded to a 120 millimeter smoothbore
capable of firing a lot of different rounds
including its deadly depleted-uranium sabot rounds.
During Desert Storm,
Abrams tanks faced off against Soviet-made T-72s
and were overwhelmingly powerful.
At the Battle of 73 Easting,
future-National Security Advisor Capt. H.R. McMaster
took a single armored cavalry company
against an Iraqi division
and cut a five-kilometer wide swath of destruction
while suffering zero losses.
It's still in service with the United States
and other forces,
but America has started eyeing either a new light
or main battle tank.
So, that's our list.
Leave us a comment and let us know which tanks
would have made yours.
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