Member-only story
The M1 Combat Car — Precursor to The American Tanks of WWII
Machine guns only
Tanks emerged from the hazy trenches of World War I as the world’s most desirable weapons platform. After the end of the Great War, nations scrambled to design and outfit their own tanks. Interwar tanks were small, crude, and unreliable, with the best example perhaps being the Renault FT. Early tanks did not feature cannons or rotating turrets. They were rigid and bulky and easily destroyed by emplaced guns.
That started to change during the Spanish Civil War. The world watched on in horror and awe as new tanks plunged across the flat expanses of Spain and dove into ferocious urban combat. Foreign powers poured hundreds of tanks into the fight, including early tanks such as the Panzer I and the Russian BT-5. As these tanks rampaged through Spain in the 1930s, nations began to wake up to the fact that tanks could be much more effective than they initially realized.
The American military planners started designing their own modern upgraded tanks in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. The work that was done in the late 1930s formed the bedrock for famous American tanks like the Sherman that would go on to help win the next war.
The first American light tank was the M1 Combat Car which had the body of a modern WWII light tank but an…
