#10 — Renault FT: The Revolutionary Design That Defined Every Tank After It
The Renault FT was the first tank with a fully rotating turret mounted on top of the hull with the engine in the rear — a layout so logical that every single tank built in the century since has copied it. Before the FT, tanks were boxes with guns sticking out the sides. After it, tanks were what we recognize today.
Weighing just 6.5 tons and operated by a two-man crew, the FT was designed by Louis Renault after French military strategist Colonel Jean-Baptiste Estienne envisioned swarms of cheap, light tanks overwhelming enemy positions. Over 3,700 were built by the Armistice — more than all British and German tanks combined. On July 18, 1918, during the Battle of Soissons, 480 Renault FTs spearheaded the counterattack that turned the tide on the Western Front. American forces used FTs under the command of a young Lieutenant Colonel named George S. Patton. The FT served in the armies of France, the United States, Poland, Finland, China, and a dozen others well into WWII. Its place in military history isn't about firepower or armor — it's about architectural genius that defined armored warfare for the next hundred years.
