test please delete

[TheFaQQer]

Time was ticking - if only I had a time machine as well!

[Troll]

Finally, infantry tanks were heavily armoured and generally very slow. The overall idea was to use infantry tanks in close concert with infantry to effect a breakthrough, their heavy armour allowing them to survive enemy anti-tank weapons.

[TheFaQQer]

We reached the front of the queue.

[Troll]

Once this combined force broke the enemy lines, groups of cruiser tanks would be sent through the gap, operating far behind the lines to attack supply lines and command units. This one-two punch was the basic combat philosophy of the British tank formations, and was adopted by the Germans as a major component of blitzkrieg. J.F.C. Fuller's doctrine of WWI was the fount for work by all the main pioneers: Hobart in Britain, Guderian in Germany, Chaffee in the U.S., de Gaulle in France, and Tukhachevsky in the USSR

[TheFaQQer]

But just at that moment...

[Troll]

All came to roughly the same conclusions, Tukhachevsky's integration of airborne pathfinders arguably the most sophisticated; only Germany would actually put the theory into practice, and it was their superior tactics, not superior weapons, that would make blitzkrieg so formidable.

[TheFaQQer]

... there was a shortage of taxis!

[Troll]

There was thought put into tank-against-tank combat, but the focus was on powerful anti-tank guns and similar weapons, including dedicated anti-tank vehicles. This achieved its fullest expression in the United States, where tanks were expected to avoid enemy armour, and let dedicated tank destroyer units deal with them. Britain took the same path, and both produced light tanks in the hope speed would enable them to avoid being hit, comparing tanks to ducks. In practice these concepts proved dangerous.

[TheFaQQer]

As luck would have it, though, one arrived presently.

[Troll]

As the numbers of tanks on the battlefield increased, the chance of meetings grew to the point where all tanks had to be effective anti-tank vehicles as well. However, tanks designed to cope only with other tanks were relatively helpless against other threats, and were not well suited for the infantry support role. Vulnerability to tank and anti-tank fire led to a rapid up-armouring and up-gunning of almost all tank designs. Tank shape, previously guided purely by considerations of obstacle clearance, now became a trade-off, with a low profile desirable for stealth and stability.