Skeleton Tank
In service Never entered service - Trials 1918
A US experiment that kept the rhomboid trench-crossing shape but replaced the armoured body with an open pipe frame. One built.
Built byPioneer Tractor Company, Winona
Development history
The Pioneer Tractor Company reasoned that a rhomboid size came from the need to reach over a trench, not from the need to protect that volume, so the Skeleton Tank carried a small armoured crew box slung inside a frame of plumbing pipe and wooden spacers. At eight tonnes it weighed a quarter of a Mark IV for the same trench span. The war ended before trials finished and only one was built; it survives in the US Army armour collection and is documented as an experiment, not a service vehicle.
Photo gallery
Period photographs with source and licence details.
Notable actions
- None - trials vehicle