Ernest Swinton
An early advocate of the armoured idea in 1914-16 -- one name among a committee.
Role
3
War
3
Note
3
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.
Tiger, T-34, Sherman -- the hobby trinity. Mark I and FT should be in the photograph too.
K2 is a Korean industrial icon, not a global film star.
People
Walter Gordon Wilson
Co-designer of the British rhomboid transmission story -- an engineering name.
Role
3
Machine
3
Point
3
J. F. C. Fuller
Plan 1919 and interwar armour writing -- influential and arguable.
Era
3
Idea
3
After
3
Heinz Guderian
Achtung -- Panzer! and 1940 fame; memoirs that need caution.
Book
3
War
3
After
3
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Deep operations and a 1937 death in the purge -- a lost institutional path.
Idea
3
Death
3
State
3
Mikhail Koshkin
The engineer name on the 1940 type that 1950 brought to Korea.
Type
3
Died
3
Legacy
3
Israel Tal
A named father of the Merkava project -- an Israeli industrial-military story.
Project
3
Era
3
Point
3
Gotthard Heinrici / etc. -- skip; use a Korean
Paik and later ROK armour leaders met the T-34 in 1950 and then built a domestic type line -- see ROK military page.
War
3
Meeting
3
Later
3
Debate
Infantry support or decisive arm?
The interwar fight; history gave both answers in different years.
Is the MBT finished?
A current-events headline this encyclopedia will not umpire; it will note the cyclical question.
Guderian's memoirs are a source with a motive.
Model kits are a memory industry.