All records

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

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

German Empire · Heavy

Germany's only tank to see service in the First World War, a towering 18-man box on Holt tractor running gear.

Gun57 mm Maxim-Nordenfelt gun

United Kingdom · Medium

The fastest British tank of the war, conceived to exploit breakthroughs that the slow rhomboids could only create.

Gunnone

United Kingdom · Heavy

The first tank ever sent into battle, fielded on the Somme in September 1916.

GunTwo 6-pdr (Male) or machine guns only (Female)

France · Medium

France's first tank, a boxy Holt-tractor conversion with a hull-mounted 75 mm gun.

Gun75 mm Blockhaus Schneider

France · Heavy

Long-hulled French heavy with petrol-electric drive and a full 75 mm field gun.

Gun75 mm field gun

United Kingdom · Heavy

The most refined WW1 rhomboid: one driver, epicyclic gearbox, purpose-built engine.

GunTwo 6-pdr (Male) or machine guns only (Female)

United Kingdom · Heavy

An unarmoured-steel training batch rushed into combat at Arras, where German armour-piercing bullets went straight through it.

GunTwo 6-pdr (male) or six machine guns (female)

United Kingdom · Medium

Tritton's refined "Hornet", the best-handling British tank of 1918 and the one the Armistice cut short.

GunFour to five Hotchkiss machine guns

France · Light

The modernised Renault FT - new suspension, twice the speed, and an export career in Japan and Poland.

Gun37 mm SA18 or 47 mm in export turrets

Italy · Heavy

Italy's first tank and the first heavy tank anywhere with a fully rotating turret on top of the hull.

Gun65 mm howitzer in a fully rotating turret

Germany · Heavy

Never finished: a 120-tonne breakthrough machine designed to be shipped to the front in sections.

GunFour 77 mm guns in side sponsons

Russia · Heavy

A nine-metre tricycle war machine that bogged down on its first trial and rusted in the woods until 1923.

GunCannon and machine guns in sponsons and turret (design)

United Kingdom · Light

The first completed tank in the world - a trials machine that never fought, built to prove tracks could cross a trench.

GunNone fitted (2-pdr planned)

United Kingdom · Heavy

A training-only batch of fifty rhomboids built between the Mark II and the much-improved Mark IV.

Gun2 x 6-pdr (Male) or machine guns (Female)

United Kingdom · Tank Destroyer

The world first self-propelled gun: a tracked carrier that took a 60-pdr field gun across shell-torn ground.

Gun60-pdr gun or 6-inch howitzer carried

United Kingdom · Medium

The first purpose-built armoured personnel carrier - a rhomboid hull emptied out to carry thirty infantrymen.

GunNone

United Kingdom · Medium

Walter Wilson answer to the Whippet: a separate engine compartment and a fixed superstructure, and a disappointment in service.

GunMachine guns only

United Kingdom · Heavy

A 1916 design for a 100-tonne shell-proof super-heavy, cancelled before a hull was finished. Never built.

Gun1 x 6-pdr (design)

France · Light

A close-support FT with a short 75 mm howitzer in a fixed casemate, built to blow up bunkers the 37 mm could not touch.

Gun75 mm Blockhaus Schneider short howitzer

United States · Light

A US experiment that kept the rhomboid trench-crossing shape but replaced the armoured body with an open pipe frame. One built.

Gun1 x machine gun (fitted for trials)

United Kingdom · Light

A private-venture export light tank whose leaf-spring suspension and layout influenced armour design worldwide.

Gun47 mm QF 3-pdr (Type B) or twin MG (Type A)

Soviet Union · Light

A licensed Vickers design turned into the most numerous tank in the world during the 1930s.

Gun45 mm 20-K

Germany · Light

A machine-gun-armed training tank that nonetheless spearheaded Germany's first blitzkrieg campaigns.

Gunnone

France · Heavy

The best-protected tank of 1940, crippled by a one-man turret and a commander who had to do everything at once.

Gun75 mm ABS SA 35 hull gun and 47 mm SA 35 in turret

United Kingdom · Medium

The tank that taught Britain mobile warfare during the 1920s experiments.

Gun3-pdr (47 mm)

France · Light

Well-armoured French infantry tank crippled by a two-man crew and a weak gun.

Gun37 mm SA18 (later SA38)

Soviet Union · Light

Christie-suspension cavalry tank, ancestor of the T-34.

Gun45 mm 20-K

Germany · Light

Stopgap light tank that formed the backbone of the early blitzkrieg divisions.

Gun20 mm KwK 30 or 38 autocannon

Italy · Light

Tiny Italian machine-gun tankette built in huge numbers and outclassed everywhere.

GunNone

Soviet Union · Medium

Three-turreted Soviet medium tank of the multi-turret era.

Gun76.2 mm KT-28, later L-10

United Kingdom / United States · Heavy

The "International" - the largest rhomboid tank ever built, finished too late for the war it was designed to win.

GunTwo 6-pdr guns in side sponsons

United Kingdom · Medium

The world's first genuinely mass-produced tank with a fully rotating turret and sprung suspension.

Gun3-pdr (47 mm) QF gun

United Kingdom · Light

Britain's standard light tank in 1940 - fast, cheap, reliable and hopelessly outgunned.

Gun-

United Kingdom · Light

The two-man machine-gun carrier whose licences seeded tank industries from Italy to Poland to Japan.

Gun-

Soviet Union · Light

The Soviet tankette built in thousands, then turned into tractors, trainers and airborne experiments.

Gun-

Soviet Union · Heavy

The five-turret land battleship of the Red Square parades - unmanageable in war, unforgettable on film.

Gun76.2 mm KT-28 plus two 45 mm guns

Soviet Union · Light

The world's first mass-produced amphibious tank, swimming on a propeller and a pair of pontoon floats.

Gun-

Soviet Union · Light

The first Soviet Christie convertible - wheels for roads, tracks for country, and speed nobody else had.

Gun37 mm B-3 gun (some machine-gun only)

Soviet Union · Light

The BT that got a real gun, fought in Spain, and outran everything at Khalkhin Gol.

Gun45 mm 20-K gun

Germany · Light

A Panzer I name on an 80 mm-armoured infantry-assault machine - the heaviest two-man tank ever fielded.

Gun-

France · Medium

De Gaulle's tank - the infantry medium that equipped his 4th Armoured Division in 1940.

Gun47 mm SA34, later SA35

France · Light

The French cavalry light tank so well armoured the Germans kept using it for five more years.

Gun37 mm SA18, later SA38

Japan · Medium

Japan's first domestically produced tank, and one of the first anywhere to use a diesel engine.

Gun57 mm Type 90 gun

Poland · Light

Poland's first mass-produced armoured vehicle, a turretless tankette developed from the British Carden-Loyd Mk VI and intended for reconnaissance rather than combat.

GunNone (7.92 mm Hotchkiss wz.25 machine gun)

Poland · Light

The improved production tankette of the Polish army, and in its rare 20 mm autocannon form the only Polish tracked vehicle of 1939 that could reliably kill a German tank.

Gun7.92 mm Hotchkiss wz.25 machine gun; 20 mm FK-A wz.38 autocannon on around 24 rebuilt vehicles

United Kingdom / Poland · Light

The British export light tank Poland bought in 1931, studied intensively and then redesigned into the 7TP. Thirty-eight served in Polish units until 1939.

Gun47 mm Vickers QQF in single-turret vehicles; twin 7.92 mm machine guns in the two-turret version

Poland · Light

Prototype only. A fast Polish light reconnaissance tank meant to replace the tankettes, cancelled by the outbreak of war with a single vehicle built.

Gun20 mm wz.38 FK-A autocannon

Poland · Light

Prototype only. A Polish convertible wheel-and-track cruiser tank built on Christie principles, tested in 1938 and abandoned in favour of a pure tracked design.

Gun37 mm Bofors wz.37

Poland · Medium

Never completed. The tracked successor to the 10TP, still unfinished on the drawing boards and assembly floor when Germany invaded in September 1939.

Gun37 mm Bofors wz.37 (planned)

United Kingdom · Medium

A fast, well-laid-out three-turret medium of 1930 that cost too much to buy, but whose layout influenced tanks worldwide.

Gun1 x 3-pdr (47 mm)

United Kingdom · Light

The step in the British light tank line that fixed the suspension and set the pattern for the Mk III to Mk VI.

GunNone

United Kingdom · Medium

The first British cruiser tank: a 2-pdr gun in a power-traversed turret on armour thin enough to be dangerous.

Gun1 x QF 2-pdr

United Kingdom · Medium

The A9 rebuilt as an infantry tank with thicker armour, ending up too slow for a cruiser and too thin for the infantry role.

Gun1 x QF 2-pdr

United Kingdom · Medium

The tank that brought Christie suspension to Britain and began the line that ended with the Cromwell and Comet.

Gun1 x QF 2-pdr

Soviet Union · Light

The first tank designed and built in the Soviet Union, derived from the Renault FT and produced in the hundreds.

Gun1 x 37 mm Hotchkiss-PS

Soviet Union · Medium

The first tank built at Kharkov: an unsuccessful multi-turret medium whose factory went on to build the T-34.

Gun1 x 45 mm

Soviet Union · Light

A widened, better-swimming development of the T-37A amphibious scout tank, built in over a thousand examples.

GunNone

France · Light

A welded, diesel-powered French infantry tank with well-sloped armour, held back by a short 37 mm gun and a one-man turret.

Gun1 x 37 mm SA18

Japan · Light

Japan first mass-produced armoured vehicle, a cavalry combat car that opened Japanese tank production.

GunNone

United States · Medium

Walter Christie convertible high-speed tank - the design the Soviet BT series and British cruisers were built from.

Gun1 x 37 mm

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only. The first Soviet-designed medium tank, a two-tier multi-turret machine that never left trials but fixed the layout the T-24 inherited.

Gun45 mm

Soviet Union · Light

A convertible wheel-and-track development of the T-26, abandoned because it cost as much as a medium tank.

Gun45 mm 20K

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only. A wheel-cum-track version of the T-28 multi-turret medium, tested and rejected as too fragile.

Gun76.2 mm KT or L-10

Soviet Union · Heavy

Prototype only. A twin-turret heavy built as a shorter successor to the T-35 and blooded in Finland.

Gun76.2 mm L-11 in the main turret, 45 mm in the forward turret

Soviet Union · Heavy

Prototype only. The rival twin-turret heavy to the SMK, likewise tested in Finland and likewise beaten by the KV.

Gun76.2 mm L-11 in the main turret, 45 mm in the forward turret

United Kingdom · Medium

Philip Johnson's fast, long-hulled cruiser tank, built to exploit a breakthrough that the armistice made unnecessary.

GunOne 6-pdr or machine guns

United Kingdom · Heavy

The one-off British multi-turret heavy that inspired a generation of foreign designs it never fought alongside.

Gun47 mm 3-pdr in main turret

Japan · Light

Japan's ammunition-carrying tankette, pressed into scouting and infantry support across China and the Pacific.

Gun6.5 mm or 7.7 mm machine gun

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

United Kingdom · MBT

The first true main battle tank: it ended the split between cruiser and infantry tanks and stayed relevant for fifty years.

Gun17-pdr, then 20-pdr, then L7 105 mm

Soviet Union · MBT

The first true Soviet main battle tank: a compact hull, a cast hemispherical turret and a 100 mm gun that set the pattern for every Soviet tank that followed.

Gun100 mm D-10T

Soviet Union · MBT

The most-produced tank in history: small, cheap, low and still fighting in conflicts today.

Gun100 mm D-10T2S

United States · Medium

The American Cold War workhorse, with a distinctive cast elliptical hull and turret.

Gun90 mm M41, 105 mm L7 in M48A5

France · Light

An air-portable light tank with an oscillating turret and autoloader that let three men fire twelve rounds fast.

Gun75 mm SA 50, later 90 mm or 105 mm

United States · Light

Fast post-war reconnaissance light tank exported across the world.

Gun76 mm M32

Soviet Union · Light

Amphibious Soviet light tank that could swim rivers under its own power.

Gun76.2 mm D-56T

Soviet Union · Heavy

The last Soviet heavy tank in production, developed from the IS series.

Gun122 mm M-62-T2

United Kingdom · Heavy

British heavy tank built to kill IS-3s at long range, retired as soon as Centurion could do the job.

Gun120 mm L1

United States · Heavy

America's last heavy tank - a 120 mm gun with two loaders, built to stop Soviet IS-3s in Germany.

Gun120 mm M58

Soviet Union · Heavy

The pike-nosed heavy whose appearance in the 1945 Berlin victory parade drove a decade of Western tank design.

Gun122 mm D-25T

China · MBT

China's licence-built T-54A, produced in roughly ten thousand examples and exported across Asia and Africa.

Gun100 mm Type 59 rifled

Poland · Medium

Poland's first home-built tank after 1945: a licensed T-34-85 produced at Labedy through the 1950s, with Polish detail changes and a long second life as a training and film vehicle.

Gun85 mm ZiS-S-53

Poland · Medium

The Soviet T-54A built under licence at Labedy from 1956, the vehicle that took Poland from wartime T-34s into the modern main battle tank era.

Gun100 mm D-10TG with bore evacuator and vertical stabiliser

Soviet Union · Medium

The transitional Soviet medium tank between the T-34 and the T-54, whose transverse engine and torsion-bar suspension became the template for every postwar Soviet tank.

Gun85 mm ZiS-S-53

Soviet Union · Heavy

A heavily armoured development of the IS-2 and IS-3 line, so slow and unreliable that the whole fleet was sent to the Far East and quietly retired.

Gun122 mm D-25T

United States · Medium

The M26 Pershing rebuilt with a proper engine and cross-drive transmission, and the tank that gave the Patton family its name and its first war in Korea.

Gun90 mm M3A1 with bore evacuator

United States · Medium

A stopgap built in enormous numbers: the M46 hull with a new turret rushed into production for Korea, then handed out across NATO in their thousands.

Gun90 mm M36 with bore evacuator

United Kingdom · Tank Destroyer

Surplus Cromwell hulls fitted with a big two-man turret and the Centurion's 20-pounder gun, a cheap way to put a modern anti-tank weapon into Territorial Army units.

Gun20-pounder (84 mm) QF

Sweden · Medium

Sweden's wartime Strv m/42 rebuilt with a new high-elevation turret, designed to fire from behind Swedish hills and forest crests.

Gun75 mm kanon strv 74 with high elevation

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

An air-portable assault gun built on the PT-76 chassis for Soviet airborne divisions, replacing the parachute-dropped ASU-57.

Gun85 mm D-70

United States · Tank Destroyer

A 90 mm anti-tank gun on a tracked, completely unarmoured air-droppable chassis, issued to US airborne units and used in Vietnam.

Gun90 mm M54

United States · Tank Destroyer

Six recoilless rifles bolted to a light tracked chassis. A US Marine Corps oddity that turned out to be a devastating bunker-buster in Vietnam.

GunSix 106 mm M40 recoilless rifles

Japan · Medium

Japan's first postwar domestic tank, deliberately built small and light enough for Japanese railways, roads and bridges.

Gun90 mm Type 61

France · Heavy

Prototypes only. France's postwar heavy tank, notable for its oscillating autoloading turret - the idea that later worked brilliantly on the small AMX-13.

Gun100 mm or 120 mm in an oscillating turret with autoloader

China · Light

A scaled-down Type 59 built for the paddy fields, mountains and weak bridges of southern China, and widely exported to south-east Asia and Africa.

Gun85 mm Type 62-85TC

United States · Tank Destroyer

An open-topped 155 mm howitzer on M41 light tank running gear, the standard NATO medium self-propelled gun of the 1950s.

Gun1 x 155 mm M45 howitzer

Sweden · Medium

Sweden Centurion Mk 3, bought in 1953 and modified with Swedish radios, sights and stowage.

Gun1 x 20-pdr (83.4 mm)

France · Light

An eight-wheeled reconnaissance vehicle with an oscillating turret and a driver at each end - listed here as a wheeled scout, not a tank.

Gun1 x 75 mm SA49 or 90 mm F2

United States · Light

Twin 40 mm Bofors on M41 running gear, built for air defence and used in Vietnam as a devastating ground-fire weapon.

Gun2 x 40 mm Bofors L/60 in an open turret

Japan · Tank Destroyer

A tiny tracked vehicle with two 106 mm recoilless rifles on a lifting mount, designed to ambush tanks from Japanese hillsides.

Gun2 x 106 mm M40 recoilless rifles

United Kingdom · Tank Destroyer

A Centurion carrying the largest tank gun ever built, the 183 mm L4, in a thin-walled turret. One prototype, never adopted.

Gun1 x 183 mm L4 gun

Soviet Union · Heavy

A four-tracked nuclear-battlefield heavy tank with a saucer-shaped hull, designed to be unflippable by a blast wave. One built.

Gun1 x 130 mm M-65

Soviet Union · Heavy

Prototype only, and the heaviest and most powerful Soviet tank ever actually built and run.

Gun130 mm S-70

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

Prototype only. A heavy casemate tank destroyer on the T-10 chassis, built as the last of the Soviet heavy assault guns.

Gun152 mm M-64

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

A casemate tank destroyer on the T-54 chassis, the last Soviet vehicle of its type to enter service.

Gun122 mm D-49 (M-62T)

Soviet Union · Light

Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, not a tank: twin 57 mm cannon in an open turret on a lightened T-54 chassis.

GunTwin 57 mm S-68A automatic cannon

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only, and the design ancestor of the T-64.

Gun100 mm D-54TS

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

An air-droppable open-topped tank destroyer, light enough to be delivered by glider or parachute platform to airborne divisions.

Gun57 mm Ch-51

Soviet Union · Medium

Prototype only. Nizhny Tagil's rival to Object 430, withdrawn by its own designer as too complicated to maintain.

Gun100 mm D-54TS

West Germany · MBT

A deliberate bet on mobility and firepower over armour, on the assumption that no plate could stop a modern HEAT warhead.

Gun105 mm Royal Ordnance L7A3

United Kingdom · MBT

The best-armed and best-protected NATO tank of its generation, let down for years by a troublesome engine.

Gun120 mm L11A5 rifled

Soviet Union · MBT

A compact, autoloaded, heavily exported main battle tank that remains the most widely used MBT in the world.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with carousel autoloader

United States · MBT

Composite armour, a gas turbine and a thermal-sighted fire-control system made it the benchmark Western tank of the 1990s.

Gun105 mm M68 (M1), 120 mm M256 smoothbore (M1A1 onward)

West Germany · MBT

Germany's answer to the same problem as the Abrams, with a diesel engine and the 120 mm smoothbore that armed most of NATO.

Gun120 mm Rheinmetall L/44, L/55 from 2A6

United States · MBT

America's first true main battle tank, holding the NATO line for two decades before the Abrams arrived.

Gun105 mm M68

France · MBT

France's light, fast main battle tank, built around firepower and mobility rather than armour.

Gun105 mm CN-105-F1

Soviet Union · MBT

The technological leap: composite armour, an autoloader and a three-man crew, years ahead of NATO.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Soviet Union · MBT

The gas-turbine Soviet tank: blisteringly fast, thirsty and expensive.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Italy · MBT

Italy's private-venture export tank, built on Leopard 1 experience and sold almost entirely to the UAE.

Gun105 mm OTO Melara rifled

Sweden · MBT

The turretless tank that aimed by tilting its own hull - Sweden's answer to defending forests with three men and an autoloader.

Gun105 mm L74 fixed, autoloaded

Israel · MBT

Israel's own tank, designed around crew survival: engine in front, rear door, and a hull shaped by hard lessons from 1973.

Gun105 mm M68 rifled

Poland · Medium

Poland's own answer to an ageing T-55 fleet: a fire-control, armour and mobility package developed at home rather than bought from Moscow, fielded from 1986.

Gun100 mm D-10T2S

Poland · MBT

The export-standard T-72 built under licence at Labedy from 1982, later upgraded by Poland itself as the "Jaguar" and PT-91 programmes.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Poland · MBT

Poland's deeply reworked T-72, fielded in 1995. Included as the end point of the Cold War Polish line rather than as a Cold War service vehicle in its own right.

Gun125 mm 2A46MS smoothbore with autoloader

Soviet Union · Medium

The tank that introduced the smoothbore gun and fin-stabilised ammunition to the world's armies, and the Soviet mainstay between the T-55 and the T-72.

Gun115 mm U-5TS smoothbore - the first smoothbore tank gun in service

United States · Light

An aluminium-hulled airborne reconnaissance vehicle firing both shells and guided missiles from one short 152 mm barrel - ambitious, troubled, and the last US light tank.

Gun152 mm M81 gun-launcher firing conventional rounds and Shillelagh missiles

United Kingdom · Light

The aluminium-hulled Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) that gave British recce regiments speed, air-portability and a 76 mm gun - and fought in the Falklands.

Gun76 mm L23A1

United Kingdom · MBT

A privately developed export main battle tank: the Centurion's excellent 105 mm gun in a lighter, cheaper hull, sold to India and Kuwait and built in India as the Vijayanta.

Gun105 mm L7A1

India · MBT

India's first indigenously manufactured tank, a licence-built Vickers MBT whose name means "victorious", fielded in time for the 1971 war.

Gun105 mm L7A1 (Indian-built)

Japan · MBT

Japan's second postwar tank, using hydropneumatic adjustable suspension so it could sit low, lean into slopes and fight in Japan's steep terrain.

Gun105 mm L7 (Japanese-built)

China · MBT

China's first tank developed without Soviet help, drawing on a T-62 captured in 1969 and sold in huge numbers across the Middle East and Africa.

Gun100 mm smoothbore on the Type 69; 100 mm rifled on the Type 69-II; 105 mm on the Type 79

China · MBT

The first Chinese tank to leave the T-54 lineage behind, with six road wheels, torsion-bar suspension, a turbocharged engine and Western-derived fire control.

Gun105 mm rifled, licensed from the L7

Israel · MBT

The British Centurion rebuilt by Israel with an American diesel engine and transmission - the tank that held the Golan Heights in 1973.

Gun105 mm L7 (Israeli M68)

Israel · MBT

Israel's rebuilt American Pattons: M48s and M60s re-engined, re-gunned and progressively re-armoured, and the most numerous Israeli tank of the 1973 and 1982 wars.

Gun105 mm M68 (Israeli-built L7)

Israel · Medium

Captured Egyptian and Syrian T-54s, T-55s and T-62s rebuilt with Israeli guns, radios and stowage and turned against their former owners.

Gun105 mm M68 replacing the Soviet 100 mm or 115 mm

United Kingdom · MBT

The first tank in service with Chobham composite armour, and the tank that fought the most one-sided armoured engagements of the 1991 Gulf War.

Gun120 mm L11A5 rifled

Yugoslavia · MBT

Yugoslavia's licensed T-72 with domestic fire control and a more powerful engine, and later a tank fought on several sides of the wars that broke the country apart.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Romania · MBT

Romania's own development of the T-55 line, with six road wheels, a German-derived diesel and distinctive side skirts - the most heavily rebuilt T-55 derivative of the Warsaw Pact.

Gun100 mm A308 rifled

Argentina · Medium

A German-designed medium tank built for Argentina's soft pampas and weak bridges, where a 50-tonne main battle tank simply could not operate.

Gun105 mm FTK rifled, derived from the Royal Ordnance L7

Brazil · MBT

Prototypes only. A Brazilian-designed main battle tank that performed well in Saudi desert trials, then died with its manufacturer.

Gun105 mm L7 in the P1 prototype; 120 mm GIAT smoothbore in the P2

South Korea · MBT

South Korea's first domestically produced main battle tank, designed with American help and fitted with hybrid suspension for firing positions in Korea's hills.

Gun105 mm KM68A1 rifled; 120 mm smoothbore on the later K1A1

Soviet Union · MBT

The Soviet T-55 brought up to 1980s standard with composite brow armour, a laser rangefinder and a gun-launched missile.

Gun1 x 100 mm D-10T2S, Bastion guided round capable

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The Soviet divisional 122 mm self-propelled howitzer: amphibious, fully enclosed and built in enormous numbers.

Gun1 x 122 mm 2A18 howitzer

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The Soviet army-level 152 mm self-propelled howitzer, the answer to the American M109.

Gun1 x 152 mm 2A33 howitzer

Soviet Union · Light

The first true infantry fighting vehicle: amphibious, gun and missile armed, with firing ports for its eight passengers. Not a tank.

Gun1 x 73 mm 2A28 Grom low-pressure gun

West Germany · Light

The West German answer to the BMP: heavier, better protected and far more expensive - and it kept its crews alive. Not a tank.

Gun1 x 20 mm Rheinmetall Mk 20 Rh202 autocannon

United Kingdom · Light

The Scorpion with a 30 mm RARDEN cannon instead of a 76 mm gun - British reconnaissance from the Cold War to Afghanistan.

Gun1 x 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon

Sweden · MBT

Sweden final Centurion rebuild: a 1945 design given a diesel engine, laser rangefinder and applique armour and kept in service to the 2000s.

Gun1 x 105 mm L7 (Swedish designation kan strv 104)

China · MBT

The Chinese break from cast Soviet-style turrets: welded composite armour, a computerised fire-control system and later a 125 mm autoloader.

Gun1 x 105 mm rifled, later 125 mm smoothbore with autoloader

Austria · Tank Destroyer

An Austrian light tank destroyer: a French oscillating turret with a 105 mm gun and autoloader on a home-built chassis.

Gun1 x 105 mm CN-105-57 in an oscillating turret with autoloader

Soviet Union · Light

Radar-directed self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, not a tank; the most widely used vehicle of its kind ever built.

GunFour 23 mm AZP-23 automatic cannon

Soviet Union · Light

Infantry fighting vehicle, not a tank: the BMP-1's successor, rearmed with a stabilised 30 mm autocannon in a two-man turret.

Gun30 mm 2A42 autocannon

Soviet Union · Light

Airborne infantry fighting vehicle, not a tank: the first parachute-droppable tracked fighting vehicle in any army.

Gun73 mm 2A28 Grom

Soviet Union · Light

Prototype only. An amphibious light tank meant to replace the PT-76, dropped when missile-armed vehicles took over the scouting role.

Gun85 mm D-58

Russia · MBT

Accepted in 1992, just after the Soviet collapse: the end-of-era successor to the T-72, and the tank that carried Soviet design practice into the Russian army.

Gun125 mm 2A46M smoothbore with autoloader