Imperial War Museum

Inside the main hall sits one of the few remaining Mark V British tanks. It is green, and on one side the armor has been replaced with a sheet of transparent acrylic. The side open for view allows patrons to get a better idea of life inside a tank. I was surprised to see wooden floorboards, as I associate tanks with the era of guided rockets and gunmetal. It follows that the tank was a product of the first series of tanks ever made. Called into existence from the requirements bred of the first World War, namely a need cross trenches and resist machine gun fire, these 'tanks' (the intentionally ambiguous name was intended to maintain some secrecy) did allow for some headway. The first iteration was as much a hazard to the crew as to the enemy. The inside was a single chamber, engine, crew, and all. Poisonous engine exhaust and hot shells were formidable occupational hazards. Though a far cry from the tanks of today, Mark V featured important improvements; one of the most important, as noted in the display, is that the vehicle required only one driver. As tank technology improved, anti-tank technology followed closely behind. Armor-piercing rifle rounds, special grenades, and new tactics diminished the imposing presence that tanks could take on. One of the themes associated with the conflicts of the first half of the 20th century is the advances in technology. In the Britain at War lecture I think it was, Bob noted that when the first world war began, all sides maintained and used cavalry on the battlefield; at the end of the second world war, atomic weapons had been made and used. He said something like, "in a period of approximately 30 years, advances in technology were made that seemed like the should have taken 300 years." In terms of battlefield function, tanks replaced mounted soldiers when barbed wire and machine guns made them ineffective. The progression of advances in warfare technology before the 20th century has high points, such as chain-male, fortified buildings, and siege-works. One of the most significant developments, if not the most, was gunpowder. A literal revolution in warfare, where the best defenses, such as castles, quickly amounted to nothing against an enemy with canons and firearms. As gunpowder changed war dramatically since the 14th century, the internal combustion engine predicated the unbelievable advances in the 20th; tanks, submarines, aircraft, and ultimately the atomic bomb, would not be possible with it. Perhaps the next paradigm shift will be robots, lasers, or teleporting.