The Battle Field

Posted by kranenvuhurr from Flintshire - Published on 18/09/2011 at 15:36
4 comments » - Tagged as Creative Writing, Education, History, Technology, Travel

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Yn Gymraeg

After the previous article I submitted I have been asked for more, and it was strange for me to visit a war museum in a local city not that far from me in Chester.

One thing that amused me was that there wasn't much on the history of the tank. I have decided now to look more into the history of artillery and the evolving history throughout the wars of our time.

The tank all began in World War One (WWI) where they were used to defending the trenches as the tanks were built for any condition of land. This made the new era of machinery and took mechanical warfare to a new level.

By World War Two tanks had beome more advanced in battle and more were produced for battle. Then came the Cold War where we saw the height of the tank; they were more of an all purpose tank.

The Levavasseur Project was an early project that revolutionised France as it was an early basic design for a tank. In 1903 Levavasseur was on crawler tracks and had an 80 horsepower engine and described as the first tank to revoloutionise history.

However Levavasseur failed as he was told that in 1908 after his project was built that an English engineer called Hornsby had built a tank known as a tractor, but also competing to build a tank was the father of the tanks general, Estinne, who built a tank similar to Levavasseur but never knew about the Levavasseur project.

To consider the tanks that were used in WWI it was only late world war one that we seen the rotating turette.This was also known as the Char Renault FT. However this tank had many names and SA18 shotgun turret and now stands in Brussels Museum.

There's an awful lot more I can tell you about tanks and the revolution, however there were more manufacturers and many from all over the world.

The 21st century saw a big change as metal got stronger and tanks got bigger and more electronics were added. Over the years numbers of tanks produced were cut back, however Russia and the Ukraine were trying to sell tanks to India and Pakistan.

Tanks need to be protected from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) or missiles so they had machine guns to protect them as a second defence. The machine gun needed a commander to operate it so a gun sheild was introduced but did not solve the full problem, so remote control machine guns were introduced and also known as CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station).

Now tanks have moved on. We have a tank known as the M60A1 vehicle armoured bridge launcher. This mega monster provides a bridge for other tanks and vehicles to pass over rivers or trenches. It also has machine guns and thermal imageing as a support vehicle.

My summary

To summarise this article I have came to the conclusion that as technology advances we will never be alone in any battle or war. However, we can see the duties that are involved within tank operation within the Army.

Although the money that is put into the army's tanks can cost up to 120 million dollars with all equipment and electronics. To see an advance in the strength of tracks and speed of tanks for me are their history and the future.

Also it's great to think how many people fit in to a confined space. There are many other tanks for different jobs, as you have mine sweepers which destroy land mines, and even bulldozers to move rubble or trees.

Although there is a lot more about tanks, this article would turn in to a book, but please do keep an eye out for more or comment if there's more information I can find out for you all. Thanks.

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