troops were supported by tank units of the French Army operating Schneider and Saint-Chamond machines.

A battalion trained in England and saw action in France in the last six weeks of the War. troops also used the British Heavy Tanks Mk V and Mk V* (pronounced 'Mark Five' and 'Mark Five Star').

A later modification, the M1917A1, was a lengthened, rebuilt, updated version compared to the French one, having a 100 hp Franklin engine and an electric self-starter rather than a crank starter. 374 had cannons and 526 had machine guns and 50 were signal (radio) tanks. After the war Van Dorn Iron Works, the Maxwell Motor Company, and the C.L. Approximately 64 of the M1917 were built before the end of World War I and 10 were sent to Europe, but too late to be used in combat. Steel idler wheels replaced the wooden idlers fitted to French examples. The crew, a driver and gunner, were separated from the engine by a bulkhead. The M1917 was a US tank accepted by the army in October 1918 and is primarily based on the plans of the French Renault FT. This pattern, with the gun located in a mounted turret and rear engine, became the standard for most succeeding tanks across the world even to this day. It was cheap and well-suited for mass production, and in addition to its traversable turret another innovative feature of the FT was its engine located at the rear. World War I US Army operating Renault FT tanksĪs the American army did not have tanks of its own, the French two-man Renault FT Light Tank was used by US in the later stages of World War I.

American modern tank