Human-cost band
not a war -- a system; human cost is in the wars that used it
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale50
Intensity45
Duration78
Tech shift80
Political impact48
Cultural memory70
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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.
Crews die in the wars that use the type -- counted on those war pages. The type itself has no "death toll."
Industrial cost is steel, fuel, and a state's factory politics.
Bands
Dated span (1916-present (as a type))
Tank is taught as 1916-present (as a type). 1916-09-15 and 2000s-20s are the usual poles.
Theatre (From the Somme to every later armoured .)
From the Somme to every later armoured front is the geography of the ledger -- cities, seas, plants, or ministries as the file requires.
FT and 1918 battles
1918: Turret layout; combined arms.
Sinai/Golan ATGMs
1973: Staff-college shock.
Regions
From the Somme to every later armoured front
Core theatre of Tank (1916-present (as a type)). First massed British tank attack; gains then lost.
Invention
1916-18: Rhomboids to FT.
Industrial peak
1939-45: T-34, Sherman, Panther.
Questioned type
After 1991: Headlines vs inventories.
US / UK / AU / CA classrooms
US/UK/AU/CA museums and air/navy shows carry Tank as a type icon; school hours stay thinner than film.
Korean comparative reader
Tank is read beside Yulgok, Hanwha, and ROK procurement history: a type or firm in a conscript-alliance state, not a live ORBAT.
Key numbers
Span1916-present (as a type)
Cost bandnot a war -- a system; human cost is in.
TheatreFrom the Somme to every later armoured .
Hero articleTank
Makers
Ernest Swinton
Ernest Swinton (British theorist/officer) is a named maker of the Tank story. An early advocate of the armoured idea in 1914-16 -- one name among a committee.
Walter Gordon Wilson
Walter Gordon Wilson (Engineer) is a named maker of the Tank story. Co-designer of the British rhomboid transmission story -- an engineering name.
J. F. C. Fuller
J. F. C. Fuller (Theorist) is a named maker of the Tank story. Plan 1919 and interwar armour writing -- influential and arguable.
Heinz Guderian
Heinz Guderian (German officer) is a named maker of the Tank story. Achtung -- Panzer! and 1940 fame; memoirs that need caution.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky (Soviet theorist) is a named maker of the Tank story. Deep operations and a 1937 death in the purge -- a lost institutional path.
Mikhail Koshkin
Mikhail Koshkin (T-34 designer) is a named maker of the Tank story. The engineer name on the 1940 type that 1950 brought to Korea.
Hobby culture can make a killing machine cute. Keep the Somme and 1950 in the frame.
Civilian harm from armour in cities is a war-page ledger.