The
tank was first developed by the British and the French as a weapon to penetrate
barbed-wire entanglements and overwhelm enemy machine-gun nets (Tanks of
the Somme). The British tank was invented by General Swinton of the Royal
Engineers. He obtained his ideas from earyl American farm tractors. The
first British tank weighed 27 tons and had a cruising range of 25 miles
in battle (Tanks of the Somme). One of its weaknesses, aside from its short
range, was that it was subject to frequent mechancial failure.
Soon after the British tank was invented, the French invented a lighter and better tank, the Renault (Tanks of the Somme). Both of these early armored vehicles depended on tight coordination with the advancing infantry for major success.
Uses for fighting vehicles date back to the 2nd millennium B.C. when horse-drawn war chariots were used in the Middle East by the Egyptians, Hitties, and other civilizations (Brittanica 583). The concept of protected fighting vehicles can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Similar ideas were appearing among the Assyrians in the 9th century B.C.
It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that armoured warfare became practical. By then the basis for them had become available with with the inventionof the traction engine and the motor car. The first self-propelled armoured vehicle was built in 1900 in England by John Fowler & Company armoured one of their steam traction engines (Britannica 584).