Imagine being one of the first WWI soldiers to see a tank approach. Perhaps having seen only a handful of cars, this massive machine would seem the strangest – and probably the most terrifying thing – ever seen.
Nowadays, the weird and wonderful tanks which we can see in the video below look really bizarre. Seeing one of these vehicles, people would be forgiven for thinking they were sent from some distant apocalyptic future, rather than from the past.
Some of the strangest include:
- Praying Mantis Tank: Soldiers sitting in a trench would see a tiny tank approach then lift a strange square gun on an extending arm. However, it is not just a gun – there is a person inside with a machine gun aiming at the trench ready to shoot.
- S-300 VM: On the Russian Steppes three enormous tank-like vehicles roll into view. On one, a huge radar system unfolds. On another, two arms raise upwards and on the other, six. In the sky, a missile approaches. The six-armed tank suddenly fires into the sky destroying the missile.
- Tauchpanzer III: The underwater tank.
- Duplex Drive Tank: A shoddy canvas boat is floating upstream and coming toward the bank. Then it rises out of the water and rolls onto the land. The canvas folds down revealing soldiers sitting on top of a tank.
These are just a few of the more than twenty crazy military vehicles featured in this video. Watch to see ships fly over water; a tank with flying claws that dig in the dirt like an angry monster; the marriage of tank and motorcycle; and a vehicle with wheels so large they are 27 feet in diameter.