i'm indy neidell from the Great War YouTube channel and I'm here at the Tank
Museum bovington and these are my top five favorite tanks coming in at number
five the mark 8 now I have to say that until about half an hour ago this was
not actually on my top-five list at all but walking around the museum and seat
being right next to the tanks you see that this is such a monster that you
can't not have it on your list I'm not going to tell you which tank got knocked
off my list that the topic for another day but the mark 8 it was a joint
British American venture right and these never actually saw action during the
first world war but they were going to be they were going to win the war in
1919 they were designed to win the war they're compartmentalized they're
actually longer the reason it's a monster is it's actually longer than say
the mark Ford's in the mark ones because the tanks were designed to go across the
trenches right but the Germans not being fools thought well if they can go across
the trenches why don't we make our tanks a bit I make our trenches wider and the
British and Americans responded by designing a longer tank so number 5 this
monster the mark 8 number 4 the mark 4 in all its glory this was a British tank
now the mark 1 was the first tank that actually saw battle but the mark 4 was
really when tank doctrine and tank tactics began to mature and saw the
first real successes in battle and now a lot of people when they think of tank
people today think of tanks they think of tanks as a German thing because in
all the films you see the Tigers from the world war 2 and stuff but it was the
British that really pioneered tank development and and the mark 4 is really
where it really began coming of age now they were used throughout 1917 but at
Arras and Passchendaele they hadn't really they hadn't really got their tank
doctrine figured out and didn't know how they were going to be used in battle
once you've got the cambrian you saw from the first day at Cambre when over
400 of these were deployed that's when you really saw success and saw what the
tank could really do so me as a World War one historian thinks well that was a
groundbreaking day and this with the ground-breaking tank so number
four the british mark for number three little lily this is where it all began
right this tank is on my list mainly for sentimental reasons in 1915 the British
landships committee in just six weeks built this the first real tank prototype
now I know if many of you were choosing your five favorite tanks they would be
for maybe firepower or range or success in some big battle and yeah looking at
it objectively little Willy was a failure sure I mean you look at the
design it couldn't cross the German trench it would get Bob dude it would
hit and go down and that led to them making the rhomboid design of say the
mark 1 and the mark 4 which were in fact deployed but this still because it was
the first because it led to all others and was a breakthrough in thinking or
how to break the stalemate which eventually it would help lead to it
makes my list at number 3 I have also another sentimental reason
for this being on my list when I was younger I paint houses and in painting
houses we'd have music on in the background and a lot of the time we
would play sweets Greatest Hits and track number nine on sweets Greatest
Hits was the song little Willy from some time in the mid 70s and I really liked
that song a little Willy Willy won't go home but you can't push Willy around
Willy won't go so for that sentimental reason and for this being first it is
number three on my five favorite tank
number two the a7v now this was the only tank the Germans manufactured during the
war 20 of these saw combat in 1918 a Germany lagged behind the French in the
British in tank production but they did something else they would capture
British tanks like the mark force and turned them into boys a Panzer they take
them back to their workshops and replace the British weapons with German weapons
that they had tons of ammunition for and then field them against their original
owners now this had a huge crew we had a crew of 18 units 17 guys and an officer
in there you can see how big it is just to go inside also here on the
back here it says schnook now you can make of this what you will but but
rock-paper-scissors in German is called snick snack Chinook so maybe that had
something to do with it yes it definitely had something to do
with it but my favorite thing about this tank and the reason that it's number 2
on my list is because no two of the a7v s were exactly alike being German and
wanting to do everything to the highest standard of the day all of these were
handmade so all of them have variations they're slightly different what you
don't see on the other tanks so that's why the a7v number 2 on my list and
number 1 on indy neidell x' list of my favorite tank is a french tank it is the
renault ft-17 right here now this is an awesome machine this was built in 1917
the French had had a couple of failures with their two models before but this
would be really successful thing as you can see it's kind of a product of the
time this is a wooden wheel you don't think wooden wheels belong in tanks but
it's again 1917 however this is the first modern looking tank because it has
the turret you know the rotating turret and that's
what you think of when you think of tanks today you picture a tank with a
rotating turret and that's where this began now you can see that this is
pretty small so it's not going to be able to drive across a German trench
like like the mark 8 that we saw which was that monster that could cross the
extra wide trenches this would just fall in obviously but it wasn't designed for
that this was designed to be built and sent out by the hundreds of like a swarm
of mosquitoes covering the battlefield but none of those reasons are the reason
why the ft-17 is my favorite tank the ft-17 is my favorite tank because it's
cute I mean look at it it's really cute look
again from the side you see it wouldn't you like to have one of those I call
this one Dave this is Days the cute little ft-17 tank so there you have it
my list of my five favorite tanks there are many more that I actually like but
these are the ones I really love in particular Dave right here
so there you are indy neidell top five favorite tanks now you should definitely
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