WW2

Germany · Medium

Germany's intended main battle tank of the early war and the vehicle in which panzer crews learned their trade.

Gun37 mm KwK 36, later 50 mm KwK 38/39 or 75 mm KwK 37

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

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

Germany · Heavy

The heaviest German tank to see mass service, combining Panther-style sloped armour with the long 88.

Gun88 mm KwK 43 L/71

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

Germany · Tank Destroyer

A turretless assault gun on the Panzer III chassis that became Germany's most-produced armoured fighting vehicle.

Gun75 mm StuK 37 L/24, later StuK 40 L/48

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

Soviet Union · Heavy

A slab-armoured heavy tank that German anti-tank guns of 1941 could barely scratch.

Gun76.2 mm F-32, later ZiS-5

Soviet Union · Heavy

A city-cracking heavy tank whose 122 mm shell could demolish a building or a Tiger with equal finality.

Gun122 mm D-25T

United States · Medium

Reliable, easy to maintain and available everywhere - the tank that equipped the Western Allies and much of the world afterwards.

Gun75 mm M3, later 76 mm M1 or British 17-pdr (Firefly)

United States · Heavy

America's answer to the German heavies, arriving just in time to see action and to dominate in Korea.

Gun90 mm M3

United States · Tank Destroyer

The fastest tracked armoured vehicle of the war, built around the doctrine of ambushing tanks and racing away.

Gun76 mm M1A1/M1A2

United Kingdom · Heavy

The Queen of the Desert: an infantry tank whose armour made it nearly invulnerable in 1940-41.

GunQF 2-pdr (40 mm), 3-inch howitzer in CS version

United Kingdom · Heavy

A slow, immensely strong infantry tank with unmatched climbing ability and the most versatile chassis of the war.

GunQF 2-pdr, later 6-pdr and 75 mm

United Kingdom · Medium

Fast, reliable and powered by a de-rated Spitfire engine: Britain's best cruiser tank of the war.

GunQF 75 mm (ROQF), some with 6-pdr or 95 mm howitzer

Japan · Medium

Japan's most numerous tank of the war, designed for China rather than for fighting Shermans.

Gun57 mm Type 97, later 47 mm Type 1 (Shinhoto)

Czechoslovakia / Germany · Light

Czech-built light tank taken over by Germany and used from Poland to Russia.

Gun37 mm KwK 38(t)

Germany · Tank Destroyer

Panther hull plus the 88 mm Pak 43 - arguably the best-balanced tank destroyer of the war.

Gun88 mm Pak 43/3 L/71

Germany · Tank Destroyer

Low-slung Panzer IV derivative designed as a pure ambush gun platform.

Gun75 mm Pak 39 L/48, later Pak 42 L/70

Germany · Tank Destroyer

Small, cheap, heavily sloped tank destroyer built on the Panzer 38(t) chassis.

Gun75 mm Pak 39 L/48

Germany · Tank Destroyer

StuG III superstructure on a Panzer IV hull, built after bombing hit StuG III production.

Gun75 mm StuK 40 L/48

Soviet Union · Light

Mass-produced Soviet light tank built in car factories; chassis of the SU-76.

Gun45 mm 20-K

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

T-34 chassis with a 100 mm naval-derived gun; the best Soviet tank destroyer of the war.

Gun100 mm D-10S

United States · Medium

Stopgap American medium with its 75 mm gun in the hull; vital in the desert in 1942.

Gun75 mm M2/M3 in hull sponson

United States · Light

Fast, reliable American light tank that British crews nicknamed the Honey.

Gun37 mm M5/M6

United States · Tank Destroyer

Open-topped American tank destroyer on a Sherman chassis.

Gun3-inch (76.2 mm) M7

United Kingdom · Medium

Britain's most-produced tank of the war: small, slow, tough and dependable.

Gun2-pdr, later 6-pdr or 75 mm

United Kingdom · Medium

The best British tank of the war: Cromwell speed with a gun that could fight Panthers.

Gun77 mm HV

United Kingdom · Tank Destroyer

Valentine chassis with a 17-pounder pointing backwards - odd, and surprisingly effective.

Gun17-pounder (76.2 mm), rear-facing

France · Medium

Probably the best tank of 1940: cast armour, a good 47 mm gun and real mobility.

Gun47 mm SA35

Italy · Medium

Italy's standard medium tank in the desert - decent gun, riveted armour, poor reliability.

Gun47 mm Cannone da 47/32

Japan · Light

Japan's most numerous tank: light, air-cooled, and hopeless against Allied armour.

Gun37 mm Type 94

Poland · Light

Polish development of the Vickers 6-Ton and the best tank available in September 1939.

Gun37 mm Bofors wz. 37

Czechoslovakia / Germany · Light

Czechoslovak light tank seized in 1938 that helped Germany invade Poland and France.

Gun37 mm Skoda A3 (KwK 34(t))

Germany · Tank Destroyer

An obsolete Panzer II chassis with a 75 mm anti-tank gun bolted on top - crude, open-topped, effective.

Gun75 mm PaK 40/2

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The Panzer 38(t) turned into a gun carrier, first with captured Soviet guns, then with the PaK 40.

Gun76.2 mm PaK 36(r) or 75 mm PaK 40

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The long 88 on a lightly armoured chassis - a sniper that killed at ranges nothing else could reach.

Gun88 mm PaK 43/1 L/71

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The Panzer II as a self-propelled field howitzer - light, reliable, and the mainstay of Panzer artillery.

Gun105 mm leFH 18 howitzer

Germany · Tank Destroyer

Heavy self-propelled 150 mm howitzer on the shared Panzer III/IV chassis - German divisional firepower on tracks.

Gun150 mm sFH 18 howitzer

Germany · Tank Destroyer

A 150 mm howitzer behind 100 mm of armour, built to blast buildings apart at close range.

Gun150 mm StuH 43 L/12

Germany · Tank Destroyer

A Tiger I hull carrying a naval anti-submarine rocket launcher - eighteen built, one shot could level a block.

Gun380 mm RW 61 rocket mortar

Germany · Tank Destroyer

Porsche's losing Tiger hulls rebuilt into a 200 mm-thick tank destroyer that dominated at range and broke down everywhere else.

Gun88 mm PaK 43/2 L/71

Germany · Heavy

The heaviest armoured vehicle ever built and tested - too heavy for almost any bridge in Europe.

Gun128 mm KwK 44 L/55 with coaxial 75 mm

Soviet Union · Light

The emergency light tank built in automobile plants when the Soviet Union needed anything that could move and shoot.

Gun20 mm TNSh autocannon

Soviet Union · Light

The last Soviet light tank of the war - a two-man-turret T-70 whose gun could elevate to fight in cities.

Gun45 mm 20-K with elevated mount

Soviet Union · Heavy

A 152 mm howitzer in a slab-sided turret the size of a room - the bunker-buster that shocked the Wehrmacht in 1941.

Gun152 mm M-10T howitzer

Soviet Union · Heavy

A stopgap: the IS turret with an 85 mm gun fitted to the KV hull while the IS-1 got ready.

Gun85 mm D-5T

Soviet Union · Heavy

The first Iosif Stalin tank - lighter and better protected than the KV, and the direct ancestor of the IS-2.

Gun85 mm D-5T

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The second most-produced Soviet armoured vehicle of the war - infantry's own gun, open at the back and hated for it.

Gun76.2 mm ZiS-3

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The T-34 chassis as a fast tank destroyer, bridging the gap between the SU-122 and the SU-100.

Gun85 mm D-5S

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The first Soviet assault gun on the T-34 chassis - a 122 mm howitzer for breaking strongpoints.

Gun122 mm M-30S howitzer

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

"Zveroboy" - the beast-killer, whose 152 mm shells tore turrets off Tigers at Kursk.

Gun152 mm ML-20S gun-howitzer

United States · Light

The pre-war American light tank whose running gear became the Stuart.

Gun37 mm M5 (A4 version)

United States · Medium

A bristling machine-gun fortress, obsolete before it was finished, that gave America the Lee's chassis.

Gun37 mm M6 in turret

United States · Light

The Stuart reborn with two Cadillac car engines and an automatic gearbox - smooth, quiet, and still undergunned.

Gun37 mm M6

United States · Light

The best light tank of the war - a 75 mm gun on eighteen tonnes, and still fighting in Indochina twenty years later.

Gun75 mm M6 lightweight gun

United States · Light

The airborne tank, carried slung under a Hamilcar glider across the Rhine.

Gun37 mm M6

United States · Tank Destroyer

The only American vehicle in 1944 whose gun could reliably kill a Tiger from the front.

Gun90 mm M3

United States · Tank Destroyer

An M5 Stuart with an open-topped turret and a short 75 mm howitzer, built to give light units real high-explosive punch.

Gun75 mm M2/M3 howitzer

United States · Tank Destroyer

The 105 mm self-propelled howitzer the British named for the pulpit-like machine-gun ring on its side.

Gun105 mm M2A1 howitzer

United States · Heavy

305 mm of frontal armour on four sets of tracks, built to crack the Siegfried Line and finished after it fell.

Gun105 mm T5E1

United Kingdom · Medium

The fast desert cruiser of Crusader and Alamein - quick across sand, forever breaking down.

Gun2-pdr, later 6-pdr

United Kingdom · Medium

A cruiser tank whose engine cooling never worked - 1,770 built, not one sent into battle.

Gun2-pdr

United Kingdom · Medium

The first of the Cromwell family and the worst of it - underpowered, unreliable, relegated to gun towing.

Gun6-pdr

United Kingdom · Medium

The Liberty-engined Cromwell, best remembered for the Royal Marines' 95 mm close-support tanks on the Normandy beaches.

Gun6-pdr or 95 mm howitzer

United Kingdom · Tank Destroyer

A lengthened Cromwell with a huge turret to squeeze in the 17-pdr - the stopgap before the Firefly.

Gun17-pdr (76.2 mm)

United Kingdom / United States · Tank Destroyer

The American M10 rearmed with Britain's best anti-tank gun - the hardest-hitting Allied tank destroyer in Europe.

Gun17-pdr (76.2 mm)

Canada · Medium

Canada's own cruiser tank - a cast-hull M3 derivative with a proper turret, used for training and then turned into troop carriers.

Gun2-pdr (Mk I) or 6-pdr (Mk II)

Australia · Medium

Australia's cruiser tank, cast in one piece from scratch by a country with no tank industry - and the first tank to fire a 17-pdr.

Gun2-pdr (AC1), 17-pdr on AC4 prototype

Japan · Light

Japan's last light tank - a two-man diesel scout that ended up fighting American armour it could not hurt.

Gun37 mm Type 100

Japan · Medium

The improved Chi-Ha - welded, better armoured, with a radio as standard - built too late and in too small numbers.

Gun47 mm Type 1

Japan · Medium

The most heavily armed Japanese tank to reach production - held back in Japan for a final defence that never came.

Gun75 mm Type 3

Italy · Medium

The improved M13/40 that carried Italy's armoured divisions through the desert battles of 1941-43.

Gun47 mm Ansaldo 47/32

Italy · Tank Destroyer

Italy's best armoured vehicle of the war - a low assault gun whose hollow-charge shells could knock out a Grant.

Gun75 mm Obice da 75/18 howitzer

Hungary · Light

Hungary's first domestically built tank, a licensed Swedish Landsverk design that fought in Ukraine and at home.

Gun20 mm 36M or 40 mm 42M

Poland · Light

Support vehicle, not a fighting tank. The 7TP chassis rebuilt as a heavy artillery tractor and recovery vehicle for the Polish army.

GunNone

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The first German self-propelled anti-tank gun: a Czech 4.7 cm gun bolted onto an obsolete Panzer I chassis.

Gun1 x 4.7 cm PaK (t)

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The Jagdpanzer IV rearmed with the Panther long 7.5 cm gun: lethal at range, nose-heavy and hard on its front suspension.

Gun1 x 7.5 cm PaK 42 L/70

Germany · Tank Destroyer

A simplified Hetzer with the gun mounted rigidly in the hull to save parts and time. Only a handful were completed.

Gun1 x 7.5 cm PaK 39 L/48

Germany · Tank Destroyer

A 15 cm infantry gun and its whole carriage dropped onto a Panzer I hull behind a tall steel box. Crude and effective.

Gun1 x 15 cm sIG 33 heavy infantry gun

Germany · Light

A quadruple 2 cm anti-aircraft mount in an open-topped turret on a Panzer IV hull, built to keep fighter-bombers off tank columns.

Gun4 x 2 cm Flakvierling 38

Germany · Medium

The Panzer III turned into a command tank: extra radios, a map table, and on early versions a wooden dummy gun.

Gun1 x dummy or 3.7 cm gun depending on version

Germany · Light

A wheeled eight-wheel armoured car with a real tank turret and 900 km of range - listed here as reconnaissance, not a tank.

Gun1 x 5 cm KwK 39/1 L/60

Soviet Union · Light

The last Soviet amphibious scout tank: a propeller, a heavy machine gun and almost no armour.

GunNone

Soviet Union · Light

The best Soviet light tank of the war and one of the rarest: a torsion-bar, diesel, commander-cupola design cancelled for being too expensive.

Gun1 x 45 mm 20-K

Soviet Union · Heavy

The KV-1 with armour cut back and a new transmission to make it actually mobile - the stopgap that led to the IS series.

Gun1 x 76.2 mm ZiS-5

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

A 1930s Soviet experiment in self-propelled siege artillery on a T-35 chassis. Two built, both used in the defence of Moscow.

Gun1 x 203 mm B-4 howitzer or 152 mm Br-2 gun

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The IS chassis with a 122 mm gun in a casemate: a long-range killer of heavy German armour and a wrecker of buildings.

Gun1 x 122 mm A-19S, later D-25S

United States · Heavy

America first heavy tank: powerful, tall, and rejected because shipping space favoured more Shermans.

Gun1 x 76 mm M7 and 1 x 37 mm M6 coaxial

United Kingdom / United States · Medium

The British-pattern M3 with a lower turret and a radio moved inside it - the tank that gave Eighth Army a 75 mm gun at Gazala.

Gun1 x 75 mm M2 or M3 in hull sponson

United States · Heavy

A long-barrelled 90 mm Pershing with scrap armour welded on in the field, built to fight Tigers and Panthers head-on.

Gun1 x 90 mm T15E1

United States · Heavy

An assault Sherman with 140 mm of hull front and a 177 mm turret face - the most heavily armoured Sherman built.

Gun1 x 75 mm M3, many rearmed with 76 mm M1A1

United States · Light

Four .50 calibre Brownings on a half-track - the Meat Chopper, feared more by infantry than by aircraft.

Gun4 x .50 cal Browning M2 in a powered turret

United Kingdom · Light

The first tank in history to land by glider, flown into Normandy on D-Day inside Hamilcars.

Gun1 x QF 2-pdr

United Kingdom · Light

A better-protected Tetrarch that arrived after the light gun tank had no job left, and never saw action.

Gun1 x QF 2-pdr

United Kingdom · Heavy

A heavily armoured assault tank whose trials were stopped on safety grounds. Famous as a lesson in how not to design a tank.

Gun1 x QF 6-pdr (75 mm planned)

Canada · Medium

The Canadian-built M4A1 Sherman, with Canadian dry-pin tracks and a Ram-pattern hull fitting.

Gun1 x 75 mm M3

Japan · Medium

The best Japanese tank actually completed, built to fight Shermans and finished too late in numbers too small.

Gun1 x 75 mm Type 5 tank gun

Japan · Light

An amphibious tank with detachable bow and stern pontoons, launched from submarines and landing craft into Pacific beachheads.

Gun1 x 37 mm Type 1

Italy · Medium

Italy only heavy-class tank, finished just as Italy left the war, so almost all of them fought in German hands.

Gun1 x 75/34 mm

Hungary · Medium

The Hungarian Turan up-gunned with a short 75 mm for high-explosive work, fighting in the disastrous 1944 defence of Hungary.

Gun1 x 75 mm 41M short-barrelled

Soviet Union · Heavy

Design competition only, never built. In spring 1941 the Kirov works ran an in-house contest for a 107 mm-armed super-heavy; more than twenty engineers submitted wildly different layouts.

Gun107 mm ZIS-6, usually with a 45 mm secondary

Soviet Union · Heavy

Barely started. The stretched KV heavy that was to carry the 107 mm gun; one hull was finished before Leningrad was cut off.

Gun107 mm ZIS-6 planned, 76.2 mm F-34 on the hull built

Soviet Union · Heavy

Design only, never built. The largest of the 1941 Kirov super-heavy schemes, known mainly from surviving drawings.

Gun107 mm ZIS-6

Soviet Union · Heavy

Experimental. A lengthened, up-armoured KV with an 85 mm gun, the one machine of the family that actually fought.

Gun85 mm F-30

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only. A universal tank with medium weight and heavy armour; its hull and turret work led straight to the IS series.

Gun76.2 mm ZIS-5

Soviet Union · Medium

A T-34 rearmed with a high-velocity 57 mm gun and used as a dedicated tank hunter.

Gun57 mm ZIS-4 / ZIS-4M

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only. The intended replacement for the T-34, dropped in favour of simply putting an 85 mm gun in the existing tank.

Gun76.2 mm F-34 or S-53 trials

Soviet Union · Medium

The definitive wartime T-34: an 85 mm gun in a three-man turret, and the most numerous tank of the Second World War in its final year.

Gun85 mm ZIS-S-53

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

Heavy assault gun on the IS chassis; the bunker-breaker the Red Army used to open German city defences.

Gun152 mm ML-20S howitzer-gun

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

Experimental one-off. A naval 130 mm gun mounted on the T-100 heavy chassis, held back for the defence of Moscow.

Gun130 mm B-13 naval gun

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The first Soviet self-propelled artillery family, built on the T-26 chassis as a set of three interchangeable mountings.

Gun76 mm, 122 mm or 152 mm depending on the version

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

An improvised tank destroyer: the 57 mm anti-tank gun bolted onto a Komsomolets artillery tractor.

Gun57 mm ZIS-2

Soviet Union · Heavy

Prototype only. A heavy tank tested with electric transmission, abandoned because the drive was heavy, hot and scarce in copper.

Gun122 mm D-25T

United Kingdom · Medium

The British answer to the Tiger and Panther: a Sherman rearmed with the 17-pounder, the only Allied tank gun that could reliably kill them at range.

Gun17-pdr (76.2 mm) Mk IV

United Kingdom · Heavy

Hobart's engineering tank: a Churchill with a dustbin-throwing mortar for blowing up bunkers and obstacles.

Gun290 mm Petard spigot mortar

Germany · Tank Destroyer

The petrol-electric Porsche heavy tank destroyer as it fought at Kursk, before rebuilding turned it into the Elefant.

Gun88 mm PaK 43/2 L/71

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The Lend-Lease half-track tank destroyer the Red Army liked rather more than the Americans did.

Gun57 mm M1 anti-tank gun