Tank
A tank is an armored fighting vehicle, typically armed with a large cannon mounted on a turret and a few machine guns.
A tank is covered in thick armour to protect it from enemy weapons. Tanks have tracks that wrap around its wheels to spread out its weight and let it cross rough terrain. Most tanks have a powerful gun and one or more machine guns.
A tank normally has 3-5 crew members with at least a driver, commander and gunner. There may also be a loader, who handles the ammunition for the main gun (so the gunner doesn't have to take eyes off the target). Some WWII tanks also had a separate soldier responsible for the radio. Since then, tank crews have evolved to have each person do one of these things, but in their early stages, the commander was often the loader and radio operator, and in a few tanks was also the driver.
Using
The first tanks were made by the British Royal Navy and French car manufacturers during World War I as a way of attacking enemy trenches. They were called tanks to trick the Germans into thinking they were water carriers for the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. Their use in a surprise attack in the Battle of the Somme caused fear among the German soldiers but their small numbers and poor reliability prevented them from making much difference.
Tanks became a main weapon during World War II, when the German Army introduced a way of using them called Blitzkrieg. Battles between great numbers of tanks were fought, especially between the Germans and the Soviet Union. The Battle of Kursk was the biggest. Well-known World War II tanks were the German Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger I, Soviet T-34 (made in the largest numbers of any tank of the war and second most ever), the British Matilda, Churchill and Cromwell, and the American M4 sherman (second most produced tank of the war) and Stuart tanks. There were plans for much larger and more heavily armoured tanks such as the Maus but they were determined to be of little use. Their huge weight would have made moving them very difficult, and their huge size would have made them easy targets for heavy artillery.
Old tanks are often modified for other uses like carrying soldiers or equipment. Combat engineers use special tank-based vehicles, for example minesweeper tanks or bridge-layer tanks.
The tank is a major part of all large armies today. Tanks have replaced the cavalry everywhere and do the things that soldiers on horseback did in the past. Most modern tanks are of the heavy or Main Battle Tank type, able to fight other tanks. Compared to older types MBTs are very heavy (Russian MBTS being about 40 tons and Western around 60 tons) with a 120 mm (Western) and 125 mm (Russian) calibre cannon and 2-3 machine guns. Marines and other specialized forces also use some light tanks.
Tank Media
The first tank to engage in battle, the British Mark I tank (pictured in 1916) with the Solomon camouflage scheme
An M4 Sherman tank in Italy in 1943 during WWII
A Japanese Type 10 firing.
Model of Leonardo da Vinci's fighting vehicle
Film clip of World War I-era tanks
British World War I Mark V* tank
French Renault FT tanks, here operated by the US army, pioneered the use of a fully traversable turret and served as pattern for most modern tanks.
German Tiger II tanks of Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 (s.Pz.Abt. 503) 'Feldherrnhalle' posing in formation for a German newsreel in 1944
Two German Army Leopard 2s demonstrate their deep-wading capabilities
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Related pages
Other websites
Media related to Tank at Wikimedia Commons