Invention
1916-18 in From the Somme to every later armoured front: Rhomboids to FT. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale50
Intensity45
Duration78
Tech shift80
Political impact48
Cultural memory70
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
Who "invented" it?
A British committee (Swinton, Tritton, Wilson and others) and parallel French work. There is no single Edison. The cover name came from industrial disguise.
Did tanks win the First World War?
They helped in 1918 combined arms. They did not win alone. Mechanical failure was common in 1916-17.
What is an MBT?
A Cold War idea that one "main" tank should replace light/medium/heavy splits. Centurion and T-54 are early exhibits.
Are tanks obsolete?
A headline since 1918, 1973, and the 2020s. History shows adaptation, not a funeral -- and this page will not umpire a current war.
How does Korea fit?
T-34s in 1950; then a ROK armour force and K1/K2 industry. See also the ROK military and Hanwha pages.
Somme fields, Bovington, Kubinka, Seoul War Memorial park.
Sinai 1973 as a staff-college map.
Maps
Theory
1919-39 in From the Somme to every later armoured front: Small wars and big arguments. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Industrial peak
1939-45 in From the Somme to every later armoured front: T-34, Sherman, Panther. A memory map, not a present overlay.
MBT Cold War
1945-91 in From the Somme to every later armoured front: Two alliances' types. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Questioned type
After 1991 in From the Somme to every later armoured front: Headlines vs inventories. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Portrayals
Ernest Swinton biographies
The usual English doorway into Tank: An early advocate of the armoured idea in 1914-16 -- one name among a committee.
Walter Gordon Wilson biographies
The paired doorway: Co-designer of the British rhomboid transmission story -- an engineering name.
School survey chapters
Where Tank (1916-present (as a type)) is a paragraph or a unit in US/UK/AU/CA -- often thinner than From the Somme to every later armoured front local hours.
Local museums / sites in From the Somme to every lat.
Thicker than the English paragraph. Questioned type is the usual late pilgrimage caption.
Feature film / television
If Tank has a visual canon, it probably outruns the monographs. Treat film as memory, not as a log.
Korean comparative essays
A Korean reader may pair Tank with 1950-53, Inchon, Tsushima, or the ROK force-structure story even when the campaign was elsewhere.
Rituals
1916-09-15 / 2000s-20s dates
The usual ritual poles of Tank: Flers-Courcelette and "Dead again" headlines.
Museum and cemetery wreaths
Official and family rites at sites in From the Somme to every later armoured front. Israel Tal is often the civilian or corrective name on the plaque.
Classroom minutes
Where Tank is on the syllabus -- in Anglophone schools often beside 11 November or a Second World War unit, not always beside From the Somme to every later armoured front's own calendar.
Sayings
English Tiger tourism vs Korean T-34 memory -- two atlases.
No live range diagram.