Tank (1917): Cambrai

The armoured fighting vehicle born on the Somme in 1916 -- a history of a type, not a guide to building or fighting in one. Contested by missiles and drones -- historically The tank appeared as a British attempt to cross 1916 trench ground: Mark I machines at Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916. The cover name "tank" stuck. France's Schneider and Saint-Chamond, then the Renault FT (turret, rear engine), set a layout the twentieth century would repeat. This page is the history of a type -- employment in wars as recorded fact -- not a design or driving manual.

Interwar theorists (Fuller, Liddell Hart, Guderian, Tukhachevsky, de Gaulle) argued whether armour was an infantry helper or a decisive arm. 1939-41 seemed to answer; 1943-45 and later 1973 (Sinai) reopened the argument with guns and missiles. The main battle tank of the Cold War (Centurion, T-54/55, M60, Leopard 1/2, M1) was an industrial-political object as much as a vehicle.

Cultural memory is thick: war-film silhouettes, model kits, and "tankie" as a later political insult. Korean memory includes the T-34 in 1950 and the later K1/K2 as ROK industry. Intensity in this atlas is moderate -- a weapon type, not a world war -- while techShift is high. No paragraph here is a how-to for armour employment.