Tanks of the interwar period

Tank shape, previously guided purely by considerations of obstacle clearance, now became a trade-off between a low profile, desirable for stealth, and weight savings.

During the late 1920s the British Army established the Experimental Mechanized Force, to test these theories and look at the basic problems of managing, controlling and commanding all arms formations, including the use of aircraft.

Christie's prototypes were however purchased by the Soviet Union, and were to be developed into the BT tanks and eventually, on the eve of World War II, the famous T-34.

Riveting and bolting remained in use in some countries such as Hungary, Japan, and Italy, and to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom right to the end of World War II.

Finally, the US and USSR led the way in rationalizing designs for fast production, eliminating unnecessary components or manufacturing steps that added little value.

In contrast, French and German pre-war (and even wartime) tanks often incorporated features that added cost or manufacturing complexity out of proportion to their combat value.

The Vickers Carden-Lloyd machine gun carriers influenced the tankette concept through export which led to similar designs such as the Soviet T-27, Italian CV-33, German Panzer I and other copies.

Their opponents misinterpreted (either mistakenly or deliberately) them as proponents of an all-tank fighting force, though their views did specify that artillery and infantry should be mechanised to make them as fast and manoeuvrable as the tanks they advocated, and experiments were curtailed.

The maximum speed requirement matched the walking pace of a rifleman, and the armour on these tanks was expected to be heavy enough to provide immunity to towed anti-tank guns.

The Infantry light tanks included the Renault R 35, which followed the FT concept quite closely with its very small size, two-man crew, and short 37 mm gun armament.

The R 35 was mostly used to equip the independent tank battalions, an armoured reserve allocated at army level and intended to reinforce infantry divisions in breakthrough operations.

The lack of radios with the light tanks was not seen as a major drawback, since French doctrine called for slow-paced, deliberate manoeuvers in close conformance to plans: the "Methodical Battle" concept, adopted because wargaming showed it to be superior.

Despite the views of Estienne and later Charles de Gaulle, the French general staff failed in defining an effective military doctrine regarding their use, due to the division of labour between infantry and cavalry tanks.

Stalin's enthusiasm for industrialisation and mechanisation drove an aggressive military development program, resulting in by far the largest and broadest tank inventory of all nations by the late 1930s.

From 1929, an experimental Mechanised Brigade was formed, training and developing combined-arms tactics with foreign tanks, armoured cars, tractors, and lorries.

The Soviets also spent tens of millions of dollars on U.S. equipment and technology to modernize dozens of automotive and tractor factories, which would later produce tanks and armoured vehicles.

Based on a mixed force of foreign tanks and imported prototypes, the Soviets developed an impressive domestic design and production capability.

(Zaloga 1984, p. 107) But from 1937 to 1941, the Red Army's officer corps, the armour design bureaux, and leadership of the factories were gutted by Stalin's Great Purge.

The Czechoslovak Army bought three Carden-Loyd tankettes and a production licence for them in 1930, Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk building four copies that same year as prototypes for future orders.

[2] One of the P-1 prototypes was rebuilt to address these issues with additional vision ports in all directions, internal ammunition storage and the machine gun's field of fire increased to 60°.

Built by Rheinmetall-Borsig the first Großtraktor ("Large Tractor") was similar to the existing British Mk II Medium Tank, 20 tons with a 75 mm gun.

In Germany proper dummy tanks were used in training, apparently at the instigation of then-Major Heinz Guderian, a staff tactical instructor.

While design and then construction work was carried out, the German army used a variety of light tanks based on the British Carden-Loyd tankette chassis.

A major boost to German armour came with the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, giving Germany access to the entire Czech arms industry.

Furthermore, with the emphasis on expansion southward into the Pacific Ocean region, land battles would be largely replaced by naval warfare, and thus, with the exception of small islands, the domain of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

[19] With the destruction of the Imperial Navy, the focus on tanks returned when the Japanese military prepared for the defense of the mainland in the last years of World War II.

In addition to Wright and Continental radials, they were powered by Ford GAA, GM truck diesels, and the Chrysler A57 multibank (an arrangement of five 6-cylinder automobile engines that ran as a single unit).

Poland also produced the TKS series of tankettes, similar in concept to the Vickers-Carden-Loyd machinegun carriers of Britain and the UE of France.

Sweden's Landsverk firm designed several advanced light tanks, including the 20 mm armed L-60, which also had welded construction and some sloped armor.

During World War II, these Hungarian tanks were supplemented by several dozen imported German vehicles, including the legendary Tigers and Panthers.