🎓 Tank History Quiz

A tank quiz that teaches real history

Tank History Quiz is a free trivia game about real tanks, from the very first machines of 1916 to the main battle tanks of today. Every question has four answers, and whether you get it right or not, a short true fact pops up to explain the answer. By the end of a round you will know more than when you started, which is the whole idea. It plays in the web browser with no download and works on computers, tablets and phones.

The questions are written for curious kids and grown-ups alike. Some are easy if you have read a little history, some are surprising, and a few have a funny wrong answer to keep things light. There are picture rounds too, where you look at four simple side views and pick the WW1 Mark I, the French Renault FT, a WW2 medium tank, a turretless tank destroyer, a modern main battle tank or the strange Swedish S-tank.

Three eras and a challenge

WW1 tanks covers the invention of the tank: why it was needed, who built it, what the first tanks were called and how they worked. WW2 tanks covers famous machines such as the Sherman, the T-34, the Tiger and the Panther, the special tanks of D-Day and the biggest tank battles. Modern tanks covers the Cold War and today: main battle tanks, gas turbine engines, thermal cameras, laser rangefinders and the gadgets that protect a modern tank. The All-eras challenge mixes twelve questions from all three.

Each quiz draws ten questions from a bigger bank, so playing again gives you a new mix. WW2 opens at 2 stars, Modern tanks at 5 and the challenge at 9. At the end of a round you can open the list of the questions you missed and see the right answers, which is a good way to aim for three stars next time.

Relaxed or timed

In Relaxed mode there is no clock at all: read the question, think it through and take as long as you like. In Timed mode a bar counts down twenty seconds for each question, and every second left over adds bonus points. Both modes give points for each right answer and a little extra for streaks of right answers in a row, and both keep your best score. The clock stops while you read the fact, so there is never any rush to read.

Stars and scores

Each quiz gives up to three stars in each mode: one for getting at least half the questions right, two for three quarters and three for 90%. That is 24 stars in all. Your stars, best scores and the number of tank facts you have learned are saved on your own device, so you can come back and keep improving.

Who invented the tank?

Many people helped. In 1915 Winston Churchill, then head of the Royal Navy, set up the Landships Committee in Britain to build an armoured vehicle that could cross trenches. Engineers such as William Tritton and Walter Wilson designed the machines, and army officers including Ernest Swinton pushed for the idea. Their first working prototype, nicknamed Little Willie, was finished in 1915, and the next one, called Mother, became the Mark I. France worked on its own tanks at the same time, and its Renault FT of 1917 introduced the turret on top that almost every tank still has.

When were tanks invented, and why?

Tanks were invented during the First World War, between 1915 and 1916. On the Western Front both sides had dug long lines of trenches protected by barbed wire and machine guns, and attacking across the open ground between them was terribly dangerous. The tank was the answer: an armoured box on caterpillar tracks that could roll over wire, cross trenches and carry its own guns. To keep the project secret, workers were told they were building water tanks, and that is how the name tank was born. The first tanks went into battle on 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.

WW1 tanks and WW2 tanks

The early WW1 tanks were slow, about walking speed, very hot and noisy inside, and often broke down. Their long rhomboid shape helped them climb out of trenches. By the Second World War tanks were faster and more reliable, almost all had turrets, and many had radios so they could work as a team. Armies used light tanks for scouting, medium tanks like the Sherman and the T-34 for most jobs and heavy tanks like the Tiger to break through. After the war these types were replaced by one all-round design, the main battle tank, that today's armies still use.

Types of tanks you'll learn about

Along the way the quiz explains the names you will meet in books and museums: the landship and the male and female Mark I, the light, medium and heavy tank, the tank destroyer built to hunt other tanks, the swimming Duplex Drive Sherman and the mine-clearing flail tank, the main battle tank, the bridge-laying tank and the turretless Swedish S-tank. Each one is shown in a simple drawing or described in a fact.

Free, safe and made for kids

Tank History Quiz is free to play, with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. There is no chat and no one else online. The quiz is about history and engineering: there are no battle scenes, no people being hurt and no national symbols, only facts and simple tank drawings. Progress is saved only on your own device. See the Parents & Safety page for more.

More tank games and quizzes

See the tanks in action in Landship WW1, where you steer a rhomboid landship across trenches, roll through 100 years of tanks in Tank Evolution, or visit the Tank Museum in WW2 Tank Battles 3D. For more trivia, try Kids Trivia Arena. Every tank game is on the Tank Games page, and every quiz and puzzle is on the Brain Games page.

Frequently asked questions