Armour archive · 1916 - 1991

Every armoured vehicle that changed how wars were fought

Tanks, tank destroyers, assault guns, self-propelled artillery and fighting vehicles: one canonical record each, with sub-marks attached where they belong and national redesignations linked to the vehicle they came from.

Browse the archive Start with the eras

Records: 274
Eras: 5
Nations: 27

The timeline

01WW11916-1918. The tank is invented to cross trenches and barbed wire. Rhomboid landships, the first rotating turret and the first tank-versus-tank fight.02Interwar1919-1938. Cheap light tanks, export deals and doctrine arguments. Armies work out whether a tank should escort infantry or race behind the lines.03WW21939-1945. Six years of brutal iteration: sloped armour, long-barrelled guns, diesel engines and production on an industrial scale.04Early Cold War1946-1962. The main battle tank arrives. One vehicle now does the work of the cruiser, infantry and heavy tanks that came before it.05Late Cold War1963-1991. Composite armour, smoothbore guns, thermal sights and autoloaders. The template for every tank in service today.

Featured machines

All records

WW1

Mark IV

1917 - 1918

United Kingdom · Heavy

The definitive British rhomboid tank of the First World War and the first to be produced in genuinely useful numbers.

GunMale: two 6-pdr (57 mm) QF guns; Female: machine guns only

WW1

Renault FT

1917 - 1949

France · Light

The first tank with a fully rotating turret, a rear engine and a front fighting compartment - the layout every tank since has used.

Gun37 mm Puteaux SA 18 or 8 mm Hotchkiss MG

WW2

Panzer IV

1939 - 1967 (foreign service)

Germany · Medium

The only German tank in production from the first day of the war to the last, and the workhorse of the panzer divisions.

Gun75 mm KwK 37 L/24, later KwK 40 L/43 and L/48

WW2

Tiger I

1942 - 1945

Germany · Heavy

Thick armour, superb optics and the 88 mm gun made the Tiger the most feared tank of its day - and a maintenance nightmare.

Gun88 mm KwK 36 L/56

WW2

Panther (Panzer V)

1943 - 1950s (French service)

Germany · Medium

Germany's direct answer to the T-34 and arguably the best balance of firepower, protection and mobility of the war.

Gun75 mm KwK 42 L/70

WW2

T-34

1940 - 1990s (foreign service)

Soviet Union · Medium

The most influential tank design of the war: sloped armour, wide tracks, a diesel engine and a shape built for mass production.

Gun76.2 mm F-34, later 85 mm ZiS-S-53