Wings of the Great War Allied Powers Military Vehicles

The British Mark IV "Male" heavy tank was an up-armored version of the Mark I, with all of its fuel stored in a single external tank (located between the rear track horns) in an attempt to improve crew safety. The sponsons could be pushed in to reduce the width of the tank for rail transportation and rails could be carried on the roof to act as an unditching beam.

The "Female" tank was a type of armoured fighting vehicle deployed during the First World War that carried multiple machine guns, instead of the mix of machine guns and cannons mounted by the original Mark I tank.

The French light infantry tank Renault FT-17 (Renault FT M1917) was probably the most revolutionary tank design for its time. It was the first tank to be equipped with armament in a rotating turret, a seminal design that is still used to this day. Even though the prototype was constructed towards the end of WWI in 1917, more than 3,800 vehicles would eventually be produced.

The Schneider Char d'Assault tank was France's first real attempt at differentiating dedicated tanks from dedicated self-propelled gun systems. Like it's predecessors before it however, the system would never meet its potential due to the design theory of melding a long hull on a short set of tracks.

The Rolls-Royce armoured car was a British armoured car developed in 1914 and used in World War I and in the early part of World War II. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) raised the first British armoured car squadron during the First World War.

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A large number of Mark IV tanks were also used for development work. In an attempt to improve trench-crossing capability, the tadpole tail, an extension to the rear track horns, was introduced. However, it proved insufficiently rigid and does not appear to have been used in combat. Other experimental versions tested radios, mortars placed between the rear horns, and recovery cranes.

In the autumn of 1917, a light tank called the Mark A was ready to be used on the Western Front. Nicknamed the Whippet, it was faster than previous tanks, particularly the ponderous Mark IV, but was still unreliable and vulnerable to artillery fire. Weighing in at 18 tons, it could traverse ground at nearly double the speed of its heavier counterpart, clocking in at a blistering 6 mph.

The Saint Chamond was the second French heavy tank of the First World War. Overall, it was an inadequate design born of commercial rivalry, but the war ended before it was replaced by British heavy tanks. Originally the tank produced by Saint Chamond was meant to be identical to the Schneider CA.