Q 01/05

Why were the first British armoured vehicles called "tanks"?

A) To keep their purpose secret

B) Because they carried water for troops

C) After a Royal Navy ship class

D) After their designer, Thomas Tank

Answer · why

A) To keep their purpose secret

Crates were labelled as water carriers, and the shipments were marked "With Care to Petrograd" to suggest they were snowploughs headed east.

Q 02/05

In what year did a tank first go into battle?

A) 1912

B) 1914

C) 1915

D) 1916

Answer · why

D) 1916

Tank D1, a British Mark I "Male", led the way at Flers-Courcelette on 15 September, and a signaller described "three huge mechanical monsters" scatter...

Q 03/05

Vehicle 131 at Bovington, captured in Tunisia in 1943, is the only running example of which German heavy tank?

A) Panther

B) Tiger I

C) Panzer IV

D) Jagdpanther

Answer · why

B) Tiger I

Only nine survive anywhere; it was the first German vehicle to carry the fearsome 88 mm gun derived from the Flak 36.

Q 04/05

Which Soviet medium tank, famed for its sloped armour, was WWII's most-produced tank?

A) T-26

B) BT-7

C) T-34

D) KV-1

Answer · why

C) T-34

German generals praised it when they first met it in 1941; the Soviets went on to build more than 80,000 of all variants.

Q 05/05

The M4 Sherman was named by the British after a general from which war?

A) The American Civil War

B) The Mexican-American War

C) The War of 1812

D) The Spanish-American War

Answer · why

A) The American Civil War

William Tecumseh Sherman lent his name to 49,324 tanks, the most-produced American tank of the Second World War.