Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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Today's Daily Dose short military history film covers the three worst misconceived tanks of the Second World War. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:
Today on The Daily Dose, Misconceived Tanks of the Second World War.
After tanks made their debut during World War One’s Battle of the Somme, specialization soon refined tank design into light tanks for reconnaissance, heavily armored tanks for frontal assaults on a battlefield and fast cruiser tanks to exploit salients or bulges in an enemy’s frontline defenses, but as tank designs continued to evolve during the Second World War, massive failures plagued war designers on both sides of the conflict. First and most notable was Ferdinand Porsche’s monstrosity nicknamed the Mouse in English or Maus in German, in response to Adolf Hitler’s call for an indestructible super tank, which weighed in at over 200 tons, compared to 68.5 tons for Germany’s king of the battlefield, the Tiger 2. After trials commenced in 1943, the Maus developed constant drivetrain problems, with a mere 12 miles per hour top speed due to its nearly ten-inch-thick armor. Only two prototypes were ever built, before the misconceived behemoth was finally scraped.
Great Britain took second place in tank development fails, with its Covenanter Cruiser Tank, which looked promising during its 1939 design phase, with its oversized wheels, low profile and sleek armored lines. By the time it was ready for combat in 1941, its armament and light armor protection proved insufficient against enemy tanks of the Axis forces, while engine cooling problems made it unsustainable for effective use on the battlefield. Of the 1,771 Covenanter tanks produced, none was deployed in combat, instead finding their only role in training new tank crews.
Last on the tank fail list was Britain’s second and third strike known as the TOG 1 & 2, which was the creation of the so called “Old Gang” of tank designers left over from World War One. Ignoring nearly every modern development in tank design, firepower and armor defenses, the Old Gang instead designed a machine to re-fight the First World War, producing the TOG 1, which was long, heavily armored and capable of crossing trenches and bomb cratered terrain no longer predominant in battlefield etiquette. Its steering and transmission systems proved to be unnecessarily complex and prone to breakdown. The TOG 2 was to follow, including a revolving turret and other much-needed improvements, however, both prototypes proved too awkward and overly-complicated to be green-lighted for combat by Great Britain’s War Office, making misconceived tank fails of World War Two, some of the biggest blunders in the age of mechanized warfare.
And there you have it, misconceived tanks of the Second World War, today on The Daily Dose.
The Daily Dose provides microlearning history documentaries like this one delivered to your inbox daily: dailydosedocumentary.com
We strive for accuracy and unbiased fairness, but if you spot something that doesn’t look right please submit a correction suggestion here: https://forms.gle/UtRUTvgMK3HZsyDJA
Learn more: dailydosedocumentary.com/miconceived-tanks-wwii
Subscribe for daily emails: subscribe.dailydosenow.com
Become a Patron: patreon.com/dailydosenow
Follow us on social media:
Twitter: twitter.com/TheDailyDose18
Facebook: facebook.com/thedailydosenow
Click to subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/c/DailyDoseDocumentary?sub_confirmation=1
#documentary #history #biography
Today's Daily Dose short military history film covers the three worst misconceived tanks of the Second World War. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:
Today on The Daily Dose, Misconceived Tanks of the Second World War.
After tanks made their debut during World War One’s Battle of the Somme, specialization soon refined tank design into light tanks for reconnaissance, heavily armored tanks for frontal assaults on a battlefield and fast cruiser tanks to exploit salients or bulges in an enemy’s frontline defenses, but as tank designs continued to evolve during the Second World War, massive failures plagued war designers on both sides of the conflict. First and most notable was Ferdinand Porsche’s monstrosity nicknamed the Mouse in English or Maus in German, in response to Adolf Hitler’s call for an indestructible super tank, which weighed in at over 200 tons, compared to 68.5 tons for Germany’s king of the battlefield, the Tiger 2. After trials commenced in 1943, the Maus developed constant drivetrain problems, with a mere 12 miles per hour top speed due to its nearly ten-inch-thick armor. Only two prototypes were ever built, before the misconceived behemoth was finally scraped.
Great Britain took second place in tank development fails, with its Covenanter Cruiser Tank, which looked promising during its 1939 design phase, with its oversized wheels, low profile and sleek armored lines. By the time it was ready for combat in 1941, its armament and light armor protection proved insufficient against enemy tanks of the Axis forces, while engine cooling problems made it unsustainable for effective use on the battlefield. Of the 1,771 Covenanter tanks produced, none was deployed in combat, instead finding their only role in training new tank crews.
Last on the tank fail list was Britain’s second and third strike known as the TOG 1 & 2, which was the creation of the so called “Old Gang” of tank designers left over from World War One. Ignoring nearly every modern development in tank design, firepower and armor defenses, the Old Gang instead designed a machine to re-fight the First World War, producing the TOG 1, which was long, heavily armored and capable of crossing trenches and bomb cratered terrain no longer predominant in battlefield etiquette. Its steering and transmission systems proved to be unnecessarily complex and prone to breakdown. The TOG 2 was to follow, including a revolving turret and other much-needed improvements, however, both prototypes proved too awkward and overly-complicated to be green-lighted for combat by Great Britain’s War Office, making misconceived tank fails of World War Two, some of the biggest blunders in the age of mechanized warfare.
And there you have it, misconceived tanks of the Second World War, today on The Daily Dose.
