The Giant Remote Controlled Teletanks of WWII
Pioneers in unmanned drone warfare
In the cold snowy north of Finland, a lone tank crawled across the ground. A group of curious Finnish soldiers watched the odd looking machine crest a hill by itself. After a brief firefight, the tank was disabled. Still curious, the Finnish men crept up to investigate the Soviet tank that had invaded their lands but when they got close a blast from an unseen Soviet tank over the ridgeline destroyed it. No bodies were found among the wreckage.
What the soldiers witnessed that day was the deployment of a Soviet teletank. A giant remote controlled war machine that operated without human drivers. These tanks were rare but made appearances in both the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union as well as limited use during World War II on the Eastern Front.
These remote tanks emerged long before the advent of UAVs and unmanned robotic drones and were pioneered by Soviet engineers to help reduce casualties. The Winter War was brutal on Soviet forces and some commanders were desperate to get results without suffering the terrible losses that they were growing accustomed to.
Today, the teletank is an oddity of war that has largely been relegated to the footnotes of history.
