""Tankiest" Tank" Topic

Another vote for the M60, because I spent so many years of my life inside one.

Wasn't the M-48 named Patton?
I vote for the Panther.

Leopard 2A6.

youtu.be/0Ao8lswk9f4

PHGamer, apparently the name was kept for the M-60 as well.

WWII – the Churchill.

Post-war – Centurion. Although I have always loved the looks of the Chieftain.

Am I the only one whose basic idea of a tank is the Matilda? (Infantry Mk II, not the weird looking Mk I)

For me, elementary tankness requires a single central rounded turret with long gun main armament, no obvious deformity in the hull, and a sensible suspension with five or six large roadwheels, return rollers optional. This rules out a whole lot of WW2 and earlier tanks, whose protean forms showed signs of evolution groping blindly towards the essentials of tankitude, but variously alloyed with spurious admixtures of riveted cistern ("Mother" and her offspring, TOG, Churchill), jelly-mould (Char-B, in fact most cast-hull French tanks, and the M4A1 Sherman), department store (all the multi-turret nonsenses) and multi-faceted origami exercises (Panzers III, IV and V together with almost all German armoured cars and APCs).

True refined tankicity first became evident towards the end of WW2 in the M24 Chaffee and the IS-III. The T-55 and its offspring were similarly tankocious, as later were the AMX-30 and the Chieftain. But the very acme of tankitude was achieved by the United States, during its short run as the world's only thermonuclear superpower, with the family of small, medium, and large tanky tanks, the M-41 Walker Bulldog, the M-48 Patton, and the M-103. Were it not for the regrettable outbreak of sub-turret department-storism on the lid of the M-48, the question would be beyond dispute.

It is perhaps no coincidence that at about the same time the US produced the world's SAMmiest SAM (Nike), the airlineriest airliner (Boeing 707), the nuclear bomberiest nuclear bomber (B-52 Stratofortress), the tac nukest tac nuke (Davy Crockett), and the weird light AFVest weird light AFV (Ontos). There is no doubt in my mind that the advent of the H-bomb drove US design to heights of definitive shapeliness that have never been surpassed. Just forget about the Ford Edsel.

All the best,

John.

And the prize for bullying the word 'tank' into the most new definitions goes to John Salt.

I know what you mean by the blind groping evolution – what started this was the tech-tree in World of tanks, watching the tin boxes post WW1 become the tanks from the 50s.

Yer all wrong! It's the M13/40!

The mother of them all

It may be the great grandmother, but it hardly screams 'TANK' does it?

Anyone else amused by the fact that it was the British who started naming US tanks, and that's how everyone knows them?

Well, Stuart and Lee or Grant is a bit sexier than M3 Light and M3 Medium

I can't believe no-one has named the Cromwell, all square and ugly, big ole rivets, it's just how I drew tanks as a kid.

John

It screamed tank first so yes it screams tank. It is literally the "mother" tank.AKA Big Willie

Im not amused by the fact British reportings stuck – I think it shows that people who use kit don't have hte same priorities as the bureaucrats who organise requisition. The office men want to track things in a spreadsheet with categories, notes and lots of numbers and failed projects – field men need to name it while the HE is raining down and on't really have time to fire up Excel.

Centurian and Chieftan are "perfect" tanks. Also PzIV Ausf H with side armour and spaced armour on turret.

I much prefer "clunky" tanks though – Matilda I is a beauty.

If forced to pick just one, the Centurian.

WW2: Panther
Post-WW2: Centurion

@Jamesonsafari and others;

I relly think you need to specify which Centurion. Some are definitely more tanky than others.

However, the ultimate choice should rest with anime Japanese schoolgirls!

Really guys REALLY!

Everyone knows the only real tank from WWII is the Tiger 1E. Everything else is just a tank.

Modern hands down the M-1 Abrams.

VR
James Mattes

For WW2 you have to love the good old Maltida 1. A useless, obsolete design in 1940, but it certainly looks "tanky".

For post-WW2/Modern I'm suprised no one has shown any love for the T-10. A great big hulking beast (as all tanky-tanks should be) but with elegant sloping lines. Can you say "sexy"? I knew you could!

Martin

The FCM-36! So futuristic looking and with a psychedelic paint job what's not to love? If pressed for utility then I would have to say the T-55 or the Centurion.
Rod Robertson.

To me, Centurion in all it's guises represents the best in post war tanks.

Richard Humm, while I love the Queen (she just looks indomitable), she just doesn't quite have the 'tankiness' that her big brothers Churchill and Centurion do.

I think Martin I will have to go with the Churchill if as you I settle on just one. Mayhap it is the, as noted by various writers, the 'throwback' to WWI and the early 'tanks' appearance of the hull.

Although had it seen service, the 'Black Prince' would have made a run for the crown.

Definitely agree Garrison on the post war end – Centurion (although the Chieftain has the edge on 'sex appeal').

M-24. It's so tanky it can take on Gojira ^,^

Toss-up between AMX-13:

and M47 (preferably painted grey with a balkankreuz on it, but this will do):

No seriously. Leopard 2

youtu.be/SndPb5XohYM

The Leo 2 is a modern tank so it looks like a stack of boxes gliding across terrain, not like a tank.

OK, going by the OP's specs, I would nominate the Vickers Independent. Or perhaps the Russian T-100.

I voted for the M-3 Lee and still think that's the tops. More modern M-60's

It's only tanky if when it moves it goes "tanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktanktank…"

Every kid knows this.

Alternatively, true tankiness allows you to say, 'you didn't kill me, cos' I'm a tank!'

I to have to vote M60, to me thats just a tank!!
Infact it shouldn't be called M60, it should just be called The Tank.

I like the Leo 2-I have Cold War Germans and Dutch, but it is too slabby, like most modern tanks. At least the Soviets made proper Tanky tanks.

I have to go with the M-48.

Because, like any red-blooded American, I grew up playing with these:

1) Tiger 1E… because it just was THE TANK
2) M1 Abrams…..because it just is THE TANK (if it hasn't run out of gas)
3) Centurion… becuase I'm a Brit and it was THE TANK up to '73 and it looked so good – particularly the Isreali Sho't Alef link
4.) Pz. III H – just love those in desert camo
5.) Crusader – good looking but useless, like a lot of folks i know
6.) Pz. 38(t) – dunno why, always liked it.
7.) M18 Hellcat – not as tank, I know. But a DUDE all the same.
9.) T-34…. To tanks what Ernest Hemmingway was to literature…. Changed the rules.
10.) Panther…. coz its so beautiful

Archeoptryx:
#8?
Or is it the fabled missing link in tank evolution? The X-3 Piltdown?
Rod Robertson:)

Ah yes…. the 13th floor…. Love the idea of the Piltdown Tank….