Most tanks typically had two versions: “male” tanks designed with artillery to attack fortified positions and “female” models armed with machine guns to target enemy infantry.
While impervious to barbed wire, small arms, and shrapnel, their primitive armor was still susceptible to heavy machine gun fire and direct hits from high explosive artillery rounds. The early models were heavily influenced by commercial tractors. The first tanks introduced in 1916 were generally slow and hard to maneuver, and they performed poorly in rugged terrain. The marrying of recent technological advances, such as the internal combustion engine with armor plating, enabled the tank’s development during World War I. Although the concept of armored vehicles preceded the Great War, the tank was specifically developed to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front that followed the First Battle of Ypres (19 October-22 November 1914). Tanks are armored vehicles designed to combine the military factors of fire, maneuver and protection.
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