Ford 3-ton Special Tractor M.1918 Prototype

United States of America (1918) Artillery Tractor/Light Tank – 1 Built The First World War broke out in 1914, dragging into the maelstrom the major powers of Europe and beyond. As early as 1915, faced with the carnage wrought by the industrialization of war and the machine gun, men were being killed at enormous rates …

M.O.I. ‘Moveable Maginot’

United Kingdom (1941) Mobile Fortress – None Built In 1941, Britain had just dodged the bullet of a German invasion. The fears of an invasion peaked after defeat in France, but gave way in July and August 1940 to a sense of national defiance with air superiority over the UK maintained in the Battle of …

Maubaret’s War Machine

France (1925) Ball Tank – None Built There have been numerous ideas for ball-shaped tanks, either as spherical or as oblate spheroids, drums, cylinders, or other such shapes, and none have gotten very far. The inherent problems of steering and control, the difficulties of combat from such a shape, and the not inconsequential oddness of …

Alfred Kubin’s ‘Der Staat’

Austro-Hungarian Empire (1901) Artistic Representation – None Built Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life? The answer is that both are true to one extent or another. In the age before tanks and at a time when even armored cars were very much in their infancy, there were many ideas about new weapons …

Paré’s Engine of War

United States of America (1918) Ball Tank – None Built The wheel is perhaps the second greatest of mankind’s accomplishments. Perfect, simple, and utilitarian, it takes an act of magnificent hubris to try and perfect such an already flawless instrument. However, not one to shirk a challenge, Arsene Pare, a magnetic healer from Canada living …

T-34/SU-76 Hybrid

People’s Republic of Poland (1955) Self-Propelled Gun – Probably Fake The release of declassified historical documents from the archives of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has produced some interesting, unusual, and often rather odd intelligence reports relating to tanks. With much of what was happening behind the Iron Curtain, especially in terms of …

Giacomini Tank

France (1956) Tank – Patent Only Post-World War Two Europe was a continent rich in the legacy of the war. A legacy which took the form of an abundance of tanks, both in the form of legacy leftovers of the war, and a ready supply of new tanks from Britain (Centurion) or the United States …

Alvis Shadow ‘Offensive Action Vehicle’

United Kingdom/United States of America (1998-2000) Reconnaissance Vehicle – 2 Built In the late 1990s, the specialist versions of the Land Rovers used by British Special forces and other reconnaissance troops were showing their age, with some units still using Series III vehicles – a vehicle which ended production in 1985. With an eye to …

Bloomfield’s ‘Tortoise’ Single Track Heavy Tank

Commonwealth of Australia (1942) Heavy Tank – None Built Post WW1, most tanks follow a common enough shape, with a rigid armored body, a pair of track units, with one on each side, an engine located within the body, and either a fixed casemate gun or a turret with some secondary guns in the hull. …

Goede’s New Tank

Hungary (2002) Tank – Patent Only Dr. Gabor Goede (Hungarian: Gábor Göde), a resident of Budapest, Hungary, filed a patent for a ‘New Type of Tank’ on 16th July 2002. In it, Goede was clear that in his view tanks would “continue to act [as] an important and indispensable part in modern warfare”, but that …

McNaier’s Armored Truck

United States of America (1919) Armored Truck – None Built On 29th March 1919, Joseph Treanor McNaier submitted a patent design for a centrifugal gun. This was no ordinary firearm and was not merely a design for a weapon in isolation. When he filed his design on 2nd April, McNaier was proposing a new way …

Biemmi Naval Tank

Kingdom of Italy (1930) Amphibious Tank – None Built The problem of tanks getting over water, rivers, small lakes, or flooded ground has plagued tank designs right from WW1. A variety of solutions have been tried over the years, depending on how much water needs to be waded through or how wide the waterway is. …

Tanks from The Shape of Things to Come

United Kingdom (1936) Science Fiction Tank The classic film Things to Come hit the big screen in 1936. Right at the outset of what would become WW2, this film, directed by William Menzies, predicted a devastating conflict in Europe which would last for years and destroy the very fabric of society. It was based on …

Blacksher Armored Automobile

United States of America (1916) Armored Car – None Built In 1916, there was one war sucking up all of the attention – the war in Europe, which was seeing the largest European empires battling it out at extreme costs. The USA did not enter the war until April 1917, and, in the meantime, already …

M998 GLH-L ‘Ground Launched Hellfire – Light’

United States of America (1987-1991) Missile Tank Destroyer – 5 Built The AGM-114 ‘Hellfire’ missile was developed by the US Army specifically to counter modern Soviet main battle tanks in a potential clash of superpowers during a Cold War-turned-hot scenario. Thankfully for all concerned, such a conflict did not erupt, the Cold War ending with …

Eckard Extending Panzer

German Reich (1938-1942) Heavy Tank – Paper Project Getting a tank across obstacles is no small task, complicated by a series of factors of the physics of crossing a wall, a step, a river, or a trench. Those matters do not exist in isolation for a military vehicle and the obstacle crossing elements have to …

Arthur Janser’s 500-ton Battleship and Grasshopper Tanks

United Kingdom (1940) Land Battleship and Leaping Tank – None Built The United Kingdom declared war on Germany following its invasion of Poland in September 1939. When it did so, there was a sudden realization among many that the country was in yet another major war in Europe against the same enemy they had fought …

Lauterbur’s Tractor

United States of America (1918) Tank – None Built At the start of 1918, WW1 was by no means waning in terms of combat or intensity. The war had, to that point, been characterized in the public mindset by the slaughter in Belgium and France. This picture was one of trench lines of men just …

Vickers’ Snail (Fictional Tank)

United Kingdom (1907) Trench-cutting Machine – Fictional Introduction There are numerous characters who are notable in the history of the development of tanks. Some of the names involved which stand out are well known even if their role was a secondary or tertiary one, but such people include Sir Winston Churchill, H. G. Wells, Sir …

Perrinelle-Dumay Amphibious Heavy Tank

France (1918-1933) Amphibious Heavy Tank – None Built Designer Louis Paul André de Perrinelle-Dumay was born on 11th February 1864 in Versailles and joined the Navy in 1881. He served on various ships in the years before WW1, including the battleships Dévastation and Charlemagne. He was promoted to the rank of Capitaine de frégate on …