Light or medium tanks could travel rapidly across fields and roadways to rapidly smash the enemy by breaking up his main forces. In fact, we now know that Hitler’s plan to invade England in 1940 (Operation Sea Lion) planned to use 650 tanks (probably more than he had then) and 4,500 horses.Ĭhristie’s idea was radically different. The American military subsequently eyed bigger, more heavily armored tanks, but did not see how a tank could replace horse cavalry in assaults. The top speed was around 6 mph (9.6 kph). After the end of World War I, when tanks (mainly British and French) were first used in battle, they were intended to keep pace with troops seeking to overrun enemy trenches.

It was his front-wheel-drive and other technologies he pioneered that Christie used to design an innovative battle tank – the mother of all modern battle tanks.īiden blatantly broke trade rules to tackle climate changeĬhristie’s idea about battle tanks was mostly at odds with what most military organizations actually wanted. To compliment his front-wheel-drive system, Christie developed the first front-wheel independent suspension – now common on nearly all automobiles, replacing clumsy leaf springs which poorly absorbed shock caused by bad roads.

Among his inventions was what is now called “front-wheel drive”, a system that propels a vehicle where its power wheels were in the front and not in the rear, eliminating chain drives that early cars used to power rear wheels. Trained as an engineer, Christie got involved with automobiles in the early 20th century. Christie was born in May 1865 just after the close of the US Civil War in New Milford, New Jersey.

But the part of the story not being told is that the T-34 was possible thanks to an American inventor and two innovative Russian military leaders liquidated by Stalin as part of the Great Purge that nearly destroyed the Russian Army. More than 58,000 were manufactured between 19. The T-34 is the most successful tank ever built. The new Russian blockbuster film “ T-34” celebrates not only fictional Russian heroes who fight their way out of a Nazi concentration camp, but also a partially reconstructed tank.

Watch battle of tank t-34 movie