Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery earned permanent places in military history for their World War II use of massive tank forces – not only in tank-on-tank encounters, but to overrun infantry, crush enemy defenses and capture cities. Nazi Germany held the technological advantage, but the British, Russians, Japanese and Americans were not far behind.

By World War II, however, tank technology had advanced at a level similar to the evolution of military aircraft between the two wars. The first serious use of tanks came during World War I, but the vehicles were cumbersome, limited in battlefield mobility and often more dangerous than protective to their crews. The assortment of road wheels, lengths of track, sandbags and wooden planks often piled on the exteriors of M4s reflects the degree of the crews’ confidence in their armor protection. The Firefly was a British attempt to give the Sherman a better chance against German Panthers and Tigers by upgunning it with a 17-pounder instead of the typical 75 mm low velocity gun. Marines and other specialized forces also use some light tanks.A British Sherman Firefly patrolling the Meuse at Namur in 1944. Compared to older types MBTs are very heavy (Russian MBTS being about 40 tons and Western around 60 tons) with a 120 mm (Western) and 125 mm (Russian) calibre cannon and 2-3 machine guns. Most modern tanks are of the heavy or Main Battle Tank type, able to fight other tanks. Tanks have replaced the cavalry everywhere and do the things that soldiers on horseback did in the past. The tank is a major part of all large armies today. Combat engineers use special tank-based vehicles, for example minesweeper tanks or bridge-layer tanks. Old tanks are often modified for other uses like carrying soldiers or equipment.

There had also been plans for much larger and more heavily armoured tanks such as the Maus but these were determined to be of little use due to their huge weight, which would have made moving them very difficult, and the huge size, which would have made them easy targets for heavy artillery. Well-known World War II tanks were the German Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger I, Soviet T-34 (produced in the largest numbers of any tank of the war and second most ever), British Matilda, Churchill and Cromwell, and American M4 Sherman (second most produced tank of the war) and Stuart tanks. Tanks became a main weapon during World War II, where battles between great numbers of tanks were fought, especially between the Germans and the Soviet Union.

Biggest modern tank in the world