If you're heading into battle, there are worse places to be than behind five inches of steel with a massive gun on a turret to discourage your enemies. See how much you know about armored warfare with this quiz on tanks from WWI to the present day.
The technological development of the treaded tank from earlier armored cars was driven by the need to overcome what battlefield obstacle in World War I?
trenches
thick concrete walls
massive piles of corpses
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Networks of trenches made territorial gains extremely difficult on World War I battlefields. Tanks were developed as a way to drive over them while protecting infantry.
The Russian T-34 tank was successful in World War II partly due to its excellent performance, partly because the Soviets could produce so many of them. How many did they manufacture?
more than 80,000
just under 10,000
almost 500,000
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While the T-34 was eventually outclassed by some German tanks late in the war, the Soviets could produce it quickly, making it relatively easy to replace battlefield losses. They made over 80,000 during the course of the war.
What is the classification of a vehicle designed specifically to combat other tanks, trading off some aspect of performance for increased firepower?
medium tank
tankette
tank destroyer
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Most British, German and Russian tank destroyers had no turrets, while U.S. tank destroyers had open tops and light armor. These tradeoffs made them cheaper and faster to produce and often allowed the mounting of heavier guns that could penetrate tank armor.
The effective thickness of a tank's armor can be increased by doing what?
riveting the armor plates instead of welding them
increasing the internal volume of the tank
angling the armor relative to the expected direction of incoming rounds
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Angled armor tends to deflect incoming rounds away instead of being penetrated, so sloped or angled armor has a greater effective thickness than the same amount of armor mounted squarely facing attacks.
Why was the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux so notable?
It was the first time tanks fought against tanks in combat.
It was the first time tanks won a battle.
It was the battle during which Germany captured several British tanks, pushing German tank development ahead by decades.
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A trio of German A7V tanks blundered into three British Mark IV tanks, sparking a slow and inconclusive battle, the first in which tanks battled tanks.
After World War II, the various classifications of tanks (light, medium, heavy) were replaced by what new designation?
pure tank
main battle tank
armored gun carriage
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The earlier tank classifications were the result of necessary tradeoffs between armor, mobility and firepower. Modern tank technology allowed one tank to accomplish everything needed of armor on the battlefield, a concept known as a main battle tank.
The Centurion wasn't referred to as a main battle tank in 1945, but it accomplished so much more than prior medium tanks that it was called "the universal tank," and established the idea that one tank could combine mobility and firepower with decent armor.
A typical round fired from a tank is a ballistic armor-piercing round, basically a large non-explosive bullet shaped to penetrate armor. Another common option is a HEAT round. How do they work?
They generate an explosive jet that burns through the armor and damages interior components/crew.
They explode on the surface, damaging armor plates so that subsequent armor-piercing rounds do more damage.
They carry an initiator charge that superheats the armor, softening it a fraction of a second before the primary round strikes.
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HEAT rounds focus a hot jet of explosive gas which melts a hole in the armor (and does unpleasant things to whatever's on the other side).
When a round strikes metal armor, it can injure or kill the crew without penetration because shards of metal splinter from the inside of the tank. What is the term for this impact shrapnel?
spall
flak
duff
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Modern tanks are equipped with "spall liners" to prevent this kind of crew injury.
The T28 Super-Heavy tank, also know as the T95, was a 100-ton monster meant to smash through concrete defenses (it was never put into production). How did the tracks differ from ordinary heavy tanks?
They were completely enclosed within the hull of the tank, except for the bottom surface.
It had four sets of tracks, two side-by-side pairs.
It had special turning tracks on the front and rear to aid in adjusting the fixed gun.
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The T28 had four sets of tracks, primarily because the outer set needed to be removable for transport.
The Swedish Stridsvagn 103 was a main battle tank with no turret and a gun in a fixed position. How was the gun aimed?
By turning the entire tank and lifting or lowering the suspension to raise or lower the gun
By turning the entire tank and using terrain to adjust the gun's elevation
By turning the entire tank and adjusting the elevation of the firing angle by using different types of ammunition
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The Stridsvagn 103 adjusted side-to-side like a World War II-era tank destroyer. The fixed gun was raised or lowered by a computer-controlled suspension system that responded to the gunner's controls by lifting or lowering the front of the tank.
Although maintenance and repair units do the big jobs, every tank crew has to know how to perform what basic repair?
replace a broken driveshaft
weld a damaged armor plate
fix a thrown track
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Because a tank can throw or break a track due to combat damage, rough terrain or even taking a hard turn, every crew has to be able to fix it themselves.
The Chi-Nu was a World War II tank produced by what country?
Russia
China
Japan
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All Japanese medium tanks in World War II used the "Chi" designation. The Chi-Ri, which only existed as a prototype, was their most advanced design based on the earlier Chi-Nu and Chi-To.
The U.S. M3 Lee tank was known by what other name, depending on the specific configuration?
M3 Grant
M3 Hyperion
M3aGf7
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M3s were sent to England by the U.S, where some were fitted with British guns and other components - these were known as M3 Grants, as opposed to fully American M3 Lees (one senses a certain amount of British humor in the choice of nickname).
Most of the Sherman tanks used in World War II were produced where?
the Highland Park Ford plant
the Detroit Tank Arsenal
the Indianapolis Foundry
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The Detroit Tank Arsenal was the first manufacturing plant ever built specifically for tanks, which had previously been built in repurposed car, truck or airplane plants.
