Tanks of the interwar period This article discusses tanks of the interwar period . World War I established the validity of the tank concept and between the two world wars , many nations needed to have tanks , but only a few had the industrial resources to design and build them . During and after World War I , Britain and France were the intellectual leaders in tank design , with other countries generally following and adopting their designs . This early lead would be gradually lost during the course of the 1930s to the Soviet Union and , to a lesser extent , to Nazi Germany . General developments . The final tank designs of 1918 showed a number of trends . The US and British produced the Mark VIII tank . The pinnacle of the rhomboid design , the , 37 - ton , Mark VIII tank was powered by a 300 - hp ( 224 kW ) V - 12 engine and capable of 7 mph ( 11 km / h ) cross - country . However , the Renault FT set the pattern for almost all tanks that followed it ; these tanks generally had lower track profiles , more compact hulls , and mounted their weapons in turrets . Worldwide , many sizes of tank were considered , and much of the development effort went into light tanks that were useful primarily against infantry or for colonial police - type work . The worldwide economic difficulties of the 1920s and 1930s led to an increased emphasis on light tanks as they were much cheaper to produce than medium or heavy tanks were . However , the Spanish Civil War showed that tank - versus - tank engagements and tank - versus - towed antitank gun engagements would now be a major consideration in tank design . It became clear that future tanks would need to be heavily armoured and carry larger guns . Tank shape , previously guided purely by considerations of obstacle clearance , now became a trade - off between a low profile , desirable for stealth , and weight savings . In Britain , military opinion was divided on the future of tank warfare . J . F . C . Fuller was convinced that only the tank had a future on the battlefield . Basil Liddell Hart foresaw a war where all arms , infantry , tanks and artillery , would be mechanised , resembling fleets of ' land ships ' , and experiments in these fields did take place but were not adopted . Liddell Hart would be proven correct , but it would not be for sixty years that even the wealthiest countries could make his ideas a reality . In the U . S . , J . Walter Christie developed a series of fast tanks , based on his revolutionary Christie suspension system . This was combined with very high power - to - weight ratios achieved by fitting large aircraft engines in his tanks . Although his prototypes were capable of very high speeds , and in some cases designed to be air transportable , disputes with the United States Army Ordnance Corps and a high price ( compared with what the US military was willing to pay ) meant they were never produced in the USA . Christie ' s prototypes were however purchased by the Soviet Union , and were to be developed into the BT tank s and eventually , on the eve of World War II , the famous T - 34 . The BT series in turn influenced the British cruiser tank designs such as the A - 13 Cruiser Mk IV , Crusader , and others . Today it may be difficult to understand why the tank idea found such resistance from the leadership of several armies . Part of the explanation is that the entire automotive industry was in its infancy . Tanks were rightly considered unreliable , troublesome equipment as late as the early 1930s . Weak engines , poor transmissions , and fragile , short - life tracks contributed to this reputation . The otherwise - incomprehensible resistance to tanks from ' traditional ' military leadership can be partly understood in this light ; a tank battalion that loses most of its vehicles due to mechanical failure on a 50 - mile movement is not a reliable asset in combat . The international success of the Vickers six - ton tank is due more to its high reliability than any brilliance in the design . However , as the decade passed , engines , transmissions and tracks all improved . By the beginning of WWII , reliable engines and transmissions , as well as high - speed suspension designs were all available . For example , in 1940 , two prototype T - 34 tanks completed a gruelling two thousand - kilometre test run by members of its design team , from Kharkov to Moscow , Smolensk , Kiev , and back . The USA , with its huge automobile industry , led the world in high - reliability designs by the beginning of WWII . A final trend in the between - the - wars period was changes in manufacturing methods . France pioneered the use of very large castings to form gun mantlet s , turrets and eventually , with the S - 35 , entire tank hulls . The widespread use of casting was copied by the US and USSR , and to a lesser extent in the UK . Casting enables the fast manufacture of ballistically well - shaped components . Germany never made much use of large cast components , limiting casting to smaller items such as mantlets . Welding gradually replaced riveting and bolting as a means of fastening rolled armor plate together . Rivets can shear off when struck by enemy fire , resulting in additional crew casualties . Germany and the USSR led the way with welding , although the US followed closely . Riveting and bolting remained in use in some countries such as Hungary , Japan , and Italy , and to a lesser extent in Great Britain right to the end of WWII . Finally , the US and USSR led the way in rationalizing designs for fast production , eliminating unnecessary components or manufacturing steps that added little value . In contrast , French and German pre - war ( and even wartime ) tanks often incorporated features that added cost or manufacturing complexity out of proportion to their combat value . Great Britain . Following WWI , many experiments involving armoured vehicles were conducted in Britain . Particularly many advances were made in the areas of suspensions , tracks , communications , and the organization of these vehicles on the battlefield . Britain continued its technical dominance of tank design from 1915 through at least the early 1930s . British designs , particularly those from Vickers - Armstrong , formed the basis for many of the most common tanks of the 1930s and early WWII . For example , the Vickers Six Ton Tank was the basis for the Polish 7TP , the Soviet T - 26 , and was a major influence on the Italian M - 11 and M - 13 series and the Czech LT - 35 . Ironically , the six - tonner , which was arguably the most influential design of the late 1920s , was not adopted by the British Army . Another notable design was the Vickers Medium Mk II , a pivotal design which combined some of the best traits of WWI tanks into a much faster tank . It had a fully rotating turret on top like the FT , but mounted a dual - use 3 - pounder gun ( that could fire both high - explosive and anti - tank shells ) with a coaxial machine gun . It also had a radio , a machine - gunner position in the front of the hull , and some limited use of sloped armour . Some of these tanks would go on to serve in WWII , though most of the significance of the design lies in the amount of features that were copied ( or at least also used ) in later tank designs . The Vickers Carden - Lloyd machine gun carriers influenced the tankette concept through export and similar designs such as the Soviet T - 27 , Italian CV - 33 , German Panzer I and other copies . A perhaps less significant but also notable design was the Vickers A1E1 Independent , which was a large heavy tank that was built in 1925 . It had a large main turret and four smaller turrets . This design concept was later used by the Soviet T - 28 and T - 35 tanks as well as the German " Neubaufahrzeug " . Exponents of the replacement of the cavalry function by armoured vehicles were Liddell Hart and Fuller . Their opponents misinterpreted ( either mistakenly or deliberately ) them as proponents of an all - tank fighting force , though their views did specify that artillery and infantry should be mechanised to make them as fast and manoeuvrable as the tanks they advocated , and experiments were curtailed . An outstanding achievement of the British Army was the creation of the Experimental Mechanised Force in the late 1920s . This was a small Brigade - sized unit developed to field - test the use of tanks and other vehicles . The unit pioneered the extensive use of radio to control widely separated small units . The unit was short - lived , however . Eventually , by the 1930s , British experiments and their strategic situation led to a tank development programme with three main types of tank : light , cruiser , and infantry . The Infantry tank s were tasked with the support of dismounted infantry . The maximum speed requirement matched the walking pace of a rifleman , and the armor on these tanks was expected to be heavy enough to provide immunity to towed anti - tank guns . Armament had to be sufficient to suppress or destroy enemy machine gun positions and bunkers . Cruiser tank s were tasked with the traditional cavalry roles of pursuit and exploitation , working relatively independently of the infantry . This led to cruiser tank designs having great speed . To achieve this they were lightly armoured , and tended to carry anti - tank armament . The light tanks were tasked with reconnaissance and constabulary - type colonial roles , with cheapness the major design factor . The British doctrine led to a neglect of firepower . France . The French used a very wide range of tanks , including many unique types . France was the second largest tank producer in the world , behind the Soviet Union ( see French armoured fighting vehicle production during World War II ) . Their cavalry tank class filled the role of what are now called MBTs . They also fielded a heavy tank design , and several lighter types for scouting and infantry support . In addition to these types , they were also working on super - heavy breakthrough tanks ( FCM F1 ) . The French didn ' t have an independent Tank Corps . All tanks belonged to either the Infantry or the Cavalry . The Renault FT 17 had a long life and saw use in WWII and even later in Indochina . It was utilised as far away as in China , during the Chinese Civil wars , and versions of the tank were used both against and by the Japanese during the invasion of China . A large number found their way into both Republican and Nationalist hands during the Spanish Civil War . They were used in the Russian Revolution by both the Bolsheviks and the White Russians , and later by the Finns against the Soviets . France exported the FT 17 right up to World War II . The design was also developed by the Italians as the Fiat 3000 and the USSR as the T - 18 . By the mid - 1930s the French Army was replacing the aging FT 17 fleet with a mixed force of light tanks both in the Infantry and Cavalry branches , as well as medium and heavy tanks . The Infantry light tanks included the Renault R 35 , which followed the FT 17 concept quite closely with its very small size , two - man crew , and short 37 mm gun armament . It was , however , heavily armored . The R 35 was mostly used to equip the independent tank battalions , an armoured reserve allocated at army level and intended to reinforce infantry divisions in breakthrough operations . French infantry divisions normally had no organic tank component . The R 35 was exported to Poland and Romania . The cavalry had the similar Hotchkiss H 35 , armed with the same 37 mm , as well as light recon tanks such as the AMR 35 . France also produced what may have been the best tank of the 1930s , the SOMUA S35 . This tank equipped the armoured divisions of the Cavalry which had to execute the exploitation phase of a battle and was probably the best combination of armour , firepower and mobility prior to the appearance of the German PzKpfw IV Ausf . F2 and Soviet T - 34 . The S 35 had a long 47 mm gun that could kill any tank then in service , as well as heavy cast armour and good speed . The French " char de bataille " Char B tank was a very formidable tank , with heavy cast and riveted armour , the same long 47 mm gun as in the S 35 , and a hull - mounted 75 mm howitzer . All Char Bs were equipped with radio and the tank was nearly invulnerable to most tanks and towed antitank guns . They equipped the armoured divisions of the Infantry , which were specialised breakthrough units . In general , French tanks of the 1930s were well - armoured , innovative vehicles that owed little to foreign designs . However , the light tanks lacked firepower and almost all French tanks were crippled by their one - man turrets . Even the vaunted Char B had a commander who was tasked with commanding the vehicle , aiming the main gun , and loading the main gun . If he were a platoon leader or company commander , he had the additional tasks of controlling his other units . Such a heavy set of tasks was overwhelming , and greatly reduced the effectiveness of the tanks . The lack of radios with the light tanks was not seen as a major drawback , since French doctrine called for slow - paced , deliberate manoeuvers in close conformance to plans : the " Methodical Battle " concept , adopted because wargaming showed it to be superior . The role of small unit leaders was to execute plans , not to take the initiative in combat . This was nearly the opposite of German doctrine , which stressed initiative and decision - making at low command levels ( " Auftragstaktik " ) . In 1939 a belated effort was made to improve flexibility and increase the number of radios Despite the views of Estienne and later Charles de Gaulle , the French general staff failed in defining an effective military doctrine regarding their use , due to the division of labour between infantry and cavalry tanks . In the Battle of France , despite an advantage in number and armour against the Germans , the French tanks were not used to good enough effect . The infantry tanks were only effective in executing the breakthrough phase of a battle ; and thus useless as a mobile reserve . Ironically , cooperation with the infantry was poor . The Cavalry units alone were too few in number . After the Fall of France , work on new designs , such as the Char G1 , officially halted , although there was some clandestine designing done . After the liberation of France , the next tank to be introduced would be the ARL 44 heavy tank , which came too late to participate in World War II , but was used post - war for a time . Soviet Union . The Soviet Union ' s efforts in tank design and production must be understood in the context of the experience of the Russian Civil War and the growth of Soviet industry . During the civil war , the use of armored trains and artillery trains was common . This tended to lead to a greater interest in tanks and armored cars compared to some western nations . The rapid growth of heavy industry in the USSR under the Five - Year plans made a large tank fleet possible . Initially , the tanks and armored cars in Soviet hands were a mix of FT - 17 imports and a few British tanks left behind in the civil war . The first Soviet tank , the T - 18 ( sometimes called MS - 1 ) was a fairly close copy of the FT - 17 , but with improved suspension and a larger turret . Stalin ' s enthusiasm for industrialisation and mechanisation drove an aggressive military development program , resulting in by far the largest and broadest tank inventory of all nations by the late 1930s . In 1926 , under a secret annex to the Treaty of Rapallo , the Soviet Union and Germany set up a joint tank school at Kazan in the west of the Urals , which was illegal under the Treaty of Versailles . Both countries learned much about tank design and tactics in this co - operative venture . The Germans provided advice on mechanisation of Soviet heavy industry , and helped develop a sense of professionalism in the Red Army . From 1929 , an experimental Mechanised Brigade was formed , training and developing combined - arms tactics with foreign tanks , armoured cars , tractors , and lorries . The Soviets also spent tens of millions of dollars on U . S . equipment and technology to modernise dozens of automotive and tractor factories , which would later produce tanks and armoured vehicles . Based on a mixed force of foreign tanks and imported prototypes , the Soviets developed an impressive domestic design and production capability . The T - 26 light tank was based on the Vickers E ( as were many other tanks of the period ) , chosen after it beat a Soviet FT derivative in trials . The Soviets purchased some U . S . Christie M1930 tank prototypes , from which they developed the BT series of fast tanks . They also developed the heavier multi - turreted T - 28 medium tank and the massive T - 35 , which followed the design premise of the Vickers A1E1 Independent . Of the tanks produced between 1930 and 1940 , 97 % were either identical copies of foreign designs , or very closely related improvements . Significantly , the major improvement the Soviet designers made to these foreign designs was an increase in firepower . By 1935 , the Red Army " . . . possessed more armoured vehicles , and more tank units than the rest of the world combined . " ( Zaloga 1984 , p . 107 ) But from 1937 to 1941 , the Red Army ' s officer corps , the armour design bureaux , and leadership of the factories were gutted by Stalin ' s Great Purge . Approximately 54 , 000 officers were repressed . Military knowledge completely stagnated and armoured vehicle production dropped drastically ( though still remaining the world ' s largest ) . Training and readiness dropped to very low levels . This repression continued until the eve of the war . The participation by Soviet ' volunteer ' tank units in the Spanish Civil War was decisive in forming Soviet tank designs for WWII . Soviet tanks dominated their foreign rivals in Spain due to their firepower , but their thin armor , in common with most tanks of the period , made them vulnerable to the new towed antitank guns being supplied to Infantry units . This finding led directly to a new generation of Soviet tanks . By the eve of World War II , the Soviet Union had some of the world ' s best tanks ( including the T - 34 and KV - 1 , which were basically a generation ahead , coming as a shock to the Wehrmacht ) . However , the poor training and readiness status of most Red Army units led to a catastrophic defeat of the enormous Soviet Mechanised Corps during the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa , Germany ' s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union . Despite their generally good equipment , the Red Army ' s operational capabilities and motorised logistic support were very inferior . Germany . Germany , constrained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , was not allowed to produce tanks of any kind and only a few armoured cars . In 1926 an unofficial program of tank construction was initiated by Von Seeckt , the commander of the " Reichswehr " . Built by Rheinmetall - Borsig the first " grosstraktor " ( " big tractor " ) was similar to the existing British Mk II medium tank , 20 tons with a 75 mm gun . This , and other designs , were tested with Soviet co - operation at a tank school in the Russian Urals . In Germany proper dummy tanks were used in training , apparently at the instigation of then - Major Heinz Guderian , a staff tactical instructor . Guderian had read Fuller , Liddell - Hart and other tank warfare theorists and he had the support of his commanders to develop his theories into reality . In 1931 the German General Staff accepted a plan for two types of tank , a medium tank with a 75 mm gun and a lighter vehicle with a 37 mm gun . While design and then construction work was carried out , the German army used a variety of light tanks based on the British Carden Loyd tankette chassis . The early tanks were code - named " Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper " ( La S , " agricultural hauler " ) , a designation that lasted until 1938 . The first of these light tanks ran in early 1934 . It was a five ton Krupp design which was dubbed the LKA1 . The new government approved an initial order for 150 in 1934 as the " 1A La S Krupp " . Around 1500 of these light tanks were built . Later German tanks received a new designation , " Panzerkampfwagen " ( PzKpfw or PzKw ) , which means " Armoured Fighting Vehicle " . The first machine to use this was the two - man PzKpfw I Ausf A influenced by the Carden Loyd tankette , and was a 5 . 4 ton machine with a 3 . 5 litre 60 hp ( 45 kW ) petrol engine . It had 13 mm of armour and was armed with twin 7 . 92 mm machine guns . The more common Ausf B was a little larger to accommodate a 100 hp ( 75 kW ) Maybach engine . Both models were sent to the Spanish Civil War for testing , along with other new German weapons . From the experiences in Spain it quickly became clear that the next generation of tanks would need better armour , greater range and much heavier weapons . The PzKpfw II was around 50 % heavier than the PzKpfw I . It had a 20 mm Solothurn antitank gun as main armament , as well as improved armour of up to 30 mm . Also sent to Spain from 1937 , the PzKpfw II proved more capable against light infantry , but no better when faced with capable anti - tank guns or other tanks . Despite these weaknesses , production continued until 1941 . At the outbreak of war , the German Army had 955 PzKpfw IIs and almost 4000 were built in total . A major boost to German armour came with the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 , giving Germany access to the entire Czech arms industry . The Czechs had two light tank designs later used by the Germans , the Škoda LT35 and the Českomoravská Kolben - Daněk ( ČKD ) TNHP . The Škoda was a 10 ton machine with a 37 mm main gun and excellent cross - country capabilities ; the ČKD was 8 . 5 tons and also fitted with a 37 mm gun — due to extensive tests it was an extremely reliable machine with a top quality chassis . Both were taken into the German panzer forces , as the PzKpfw 35 ( t ) and the PzKpfw 38 ( t ) , and further production was ordered . ČKD was renamed Boehmisch - Maehrische Maschinenfabrik AG ( BMM ) in 1940 and continued production until 1942 , providing the " Wehrmacht " with 1 , 168 PzKpfw 38 ( t ) tanks . In 1940 , Czech tanks made up around a quarter of the entire German panzer force . While lighter tanks formed almost the entirety of the German forces , heavier tanks were at least at the prototype stage . In 1934 , a number of heavy prototypes were constructed , based around either 75 or 105 mm main guns . Designated " Neubaufahrzeug " ( NbFz ) and very similar to contemporary Soviet and British designs , six were built by Rheinmetall and Krupp . Although they were mainly useful for propaganda purposes because only a handful of the tanks were made , three were actually used in combat in Norway . The knowledge of the NbFz and the experiences of the lighter tanks in Spain aided in designing the next generation of tanks , the PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV . The PzIII was the lighter of the two and was intended for use in anti - tank operations , whereas the heavier PzIV was armed with a short - barrel gun and intended for supporting infantry . The Panzer III ' s 37 mm gun was considered underpowered , yet it was used in the interests of standardisation with the infantry . Contracts for the " Zugkraftwagen " were issued late in 1936 . Its weight was limited to a maximum of 24 tons , because it was required to be able to cross existing bridges . Development work continued until 1938 when the Ausf D went into limited production . This 19 ton machine was powered by a 12 litre 320 hp ( 239 kW ) engine . It had a top speed of 25 mph ( 40 km / h ) and was fitted with 30 mm armour all round . By the outbreak of war , around fifty had been completed and some saw service in Poland . Full - scale production did not begin until October 1939 as the Ausf E . Around 350 PzKpfw IIIs in the E variant were ready by the invasion of France . Japan . Like the US Army , the Imperial Japanese Army ( IJA ) did not have tanks of its own in World War I , so initially it started out by purchasing foreign tanks for evaluation during World War I , and then began developing its own designs . After the first world war , a few Whippets ( perhaps six ) were exported to Japan , where they remained in service until around 1930 . In 1925 , in addition to tankettes , the Japanese army began to design tanks to satisfy its own requirements . Before that year , as with most nations , all tanks in Japanese service had been of foreign design and / or manufacture . The first tank of Japanese design , the type 87 Chi - I , was produced in 1927 at the Osaka Arsenal . This tank was compared with an English Vickers Mark C ; the type 87 was considered too heavy and too slow , and it was decided to create a new design . The Japanese were among the first to use diesel engines in some of their tank designs . They used light tanks and tankette s heavily in Manchuria and China during the 1930s . The Type 89 Chi - Ro tank was lighter ( 9 . 8 tonnes ) and shorter than the type 87 . It contained increased armour ( 6 to 17 mm ) and an improved water - cooled engine . After success in initial tests , the type 89 became the first mass - produced Japanese tank . The type 89 had a crew of four , and was armed with a 57 mm type 90 gun and two 6 . 5 mm type 91 machine guns . In 1935 , the Japanese began production of new tankettes and light tanks . The Type 94 tankette weighed 3 . 4 tonnes and was generally used as either a tractor to tow an ammunition trailer , or as a patrol / reconnaissance tank . With a crew of two men and a single 6 . 5 mm type 91 machine gun , the type 94 was produced in large numbers and saw widespread service as late as 1945 . Over twice as large as the type 94 ( 7 . 4 tonnes ) , the Type 95 Ha - Go light tank had a complement of three crewmen , a 37 mm gun and the same 6 . 5 mm type 91 machine gun , and most importantly a diesel engine which would later greatly influence future tank designs in the Soviet Army . Over one - thousand vehicles were built by Mitsubishi , and production continued until 1943 . By 1936 the Japanese Army started to look for a replacement for the type 89 . The new medium tank , Type 97 Chi - Ha , was introduced in 1937 and remained in production until 1944 . The 15 . 8 - ton tank was armed with a low - velocity 57 mm gun and had armour up to 33 mm thick . The 1930s were the last time that the Japanese military focused on production and design of tanks . After that period , they were largely preoccupied with establishing naval control and their focus was on production of ships and aircraft . Furthermore , with the emphasis on expansion southward into the pacific ocean region , land battles would be largely replaced by naval warfare , and thus , with the exception of small islands , the domain of the Imperial Japanese Navy . With the end of WWII , and the destruction of the Imperial Navy , the focus on tanks returned when the Japanese military prepared for the defense of the mainland . United States . After World War I , and still using British and French designs , the United States Tank Corps was reduced in size . Renaults and the new Mk VIII " Liberty Tank " were retained : http : / / www . ftmeade . army . mil / Museum / Exhibit _ MarkVIII _ Tank . html The Defense Act of 1920 restricted tanks to infantry use only ; as a result , the Tank Corps was disbanded , with the remaining tanks distributed among the infantry . In 1928 , at the request of Secretary of War Dwight F . Davis , the Army formed the Experimental Mechanized Brigade . It consisted of a heavy tank battalion , a light tank battalion , a motorised infantry battalion , a motorised artillery battalion , an engineer company , and a signals company . Due to the use of obsolete equipment , the experiment failed , and the force was disbanded after three months . In 1934 – 35 , at the request of the Cavalry , three prototype tanks , the T2 , T2E1 , and T2E2 were produced . Under the terms of the Defense Act of 1920 , tanks were restricted to infantry units . To get around the Defense Act , these tanks were called " combat cars " . The M1 series entered service in 1937 . The T2 , inspired by the British Vickers 6 - Ton , was standardised as the M1 combat car . The T2E1 , a single - turret tank armed with three machine guns , was standardised as the M2A1 . The T2E2 , a two - turret tank with two machine guns , was standardised as the M2A2 . Throughout the interwar period the US produced only a few hundred tanks . From the end of World War I to 1935 , only 15 tanks were produced . Most were derivatives or foreign designs or very poor quality private designs . The Christie designs were among the few bright spots , but the US Army acquired only three Christies and did not pursue the idea any further . Budget limitations and the low priority given to the Army meant that there were few resources for building tanks . The US Army instead developed and tested tank components such as suspensions , tracks , and transmissions . This work paid off when production needed to be initiated upon the outbreak of war . Immediately before and during World War II , U . S tanks and many other Allied tanks were powered by radial aircraft - type engines . However , the massive production of aircraft caused a shortage of these engines . Because of this , many tanks , particularly the Sherman and the Lee , were powered by as many as five different power - plant arrangements . In addition to Wright and Continental radials , they were powered by Ford V8s , GM truck diesels , and the Chrysler A57 multibank ( an arrangement of five 6 - cylinder automobile engines that ran as a single unit ) . After the war , diesel truck - type engines replaced the gasoline - burning radials . Others . Many other nations that desired tanks could not design or build their own . The 1920s and 1930s saw a widespread export business as smaller or less - industrialized nations purchased tanks abroad . Sometimes , the import of foreign tanks led to the birth of a tank industry in the importing nation . Poland imported the British Vickers Six - Ton tank and began production of improved models . The pinnacle of this improvement program was the 7TP , which featured a diesel engine and 37 mm gun . Poland also produced the TKS series of tankettes , similar in concept to the Vickers - Carden - Lloyd machinegun carriers of Britain and the UE of France . These vehicles had two - man crews , thin armor , and a single ball - mounted light machinegun . Czechoslovakia produced several light tanks . In general the Czech designs were very reliable mechanically and comparable in combat value to other light tanks . The CKD tankette was armed with two machineguns and was used in combat in WWII on the Eastern Front . The Panzerkampfwagen 35 ( t ) was a light tank with a 37 mm gun and two machineguns . 434 were built before the Czechoslovak army was disbanded ; production continued after the German occupation . The tank was taken into German service and used in the Battle of France and on the Eastern Front crewed by German , Slovakian and Romanian units . The more advanced Panzer 38 ( t ) light tank was also used in great numbers by other powers . Almost one - quarter of the tanks used by Germany in Operation Barbarossa were of Czech manufacture . Both of these vehicles were used as substitutes for the Panzer III but were not its equal . The 38 ( t ) , in particular , formed the basis for several important self - propelled guns . Turkey imported Soviet T - 26 and a few T - 28 tanks but did not begin series production of any tank . Sweden ' s Landsverk firm designed several advanced light tanks , including the 20 mm armed L - 60 , which also had welded construction and some sloped armor . The L - 60 was adopted as the Toldi light tank by Hungary . With its 20 mm gun it was roughly comparable to the German Panzer II or Soviet T - 60 . The L - 60 was also the chassis on which the Landsverk L - 62 self - propelled 40 mm anti - aircraft gun was built . Although designed as tank destroyer , the vehicle saw service with Hungarian forces on the Eastern Front as a self - propelled anti - aircraft gun under the name Nimrod . Six were used by Finland after 1942 . Hungary produced the Toldi as well as a medium tank , the Turan . The Turan I was based on a prototype of Czech medium tank Škoda T - 21 ( Š - II - c ) , had rivetted construction , and a 40 mm gun . The later Turan II had a 75 mm gun . During WWII these tanks were supplemented by several dozen imported German vehicles . Latvia and Lithuania imported a few light vehicles such as Vickers - Carden - Lloyd tankettes , FT - 17s , and Six - Tonners . Romania imported some R - 35 light tanks from France , as well as some Panzer 35 ( t ) s . Italy imported the French FT - 17 and produced a slightly improved clone , the Fiat 3000 . A native Italian design was the L6 / 40 , a very small light tank with a 20 mm Breda cannon and rivetted construction . A medium tank , based on the Vickers Six - Tonner , was the M - 11 - M13 series . This tank had a very good 47 mm gun , but very thin armor . Italy also produced a large number of CV - 33 and CV - 35 tankettes based on the Vickers - Carden - Lloyd concept . In Latin America , the first war where the tank was employed was the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay , in which the former used a small number of British - built tanks and tankettes , whereas the latter had no tanks at all .