Age of Tanks

The history of the powerful weapon on land, the tank. Covers its entire history, from paper designs of the early-1900s to the beasts of the present day.

Quite basic. Anyone with a decent knowledge of tanks and their history will find this pretty weak, even inaccurate. The main problem is that the content is dumbed-downed for ignorant audiences. Every major war and battle in history is looked at only from a tank perspective, massively over-simplifying and misrepresenting warfare. Some of the claims are laughably bad, e.g. the US only managed to stop the North Korean advance in the Korean War because of the introduction of the Patton tank!

Also not very comprehensive. By spending so much time convincing us that events like the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian revolutions were major turning points in tank development we miss out on many interesting developments and tank models. For example, with regard to WW2 we only get to hear about the T-34, Tiger (and Tiger II) and Sherman. There were plenty of other designs and innovations, including things like tank destroyers, which aren't mentioned at all.

There are some interesting, lesser-known facts, but these are few and far between. There are also some interesting interviews, but many of the interviews also seemed dumbed-down and superficial.

Avoid, especially if you already have at least the merest of knowledge about tanks.

I'm always deeply interested in 20th century history particularly the world wars and the cold war. This documentary tells 20th century history from a whole new angle - tanks. It is a fascinating journey of following the primitive tanks from the Great War, through WW2 to the modern age

This sweeping series starts with the creation of the tank as an powerful innovation which helped to overcome the grinding deadlock of WW1 and follows tank use and design through to modern day questions about whether tanks may be obsolete. I am not a 'tank expert', and from my point of view this documentary contained some new and fascinating insights that I had not come across before, often via interesting interviews. In particular, Russian and French experiences with tank development and tank tactics stand out. However, the series also inexplicably leaves a huge amount of widely available and important information out. The almost complete absence of commentary on US and Commonwealth tanks from WW2 was particularly conspicuous (apart from a short part on the US Sherman tank). It's commentary on the geopolitical contexts of the events being described also sometimes seemed to be lop-sided at times.

If you want a different perspective on tanks and tank warfare, you may enjoy this series. However, be aware that it skims over or completely omits significant events and details, and conveys a number of interpretations and opinions as though they were facts.

Overall it was a decent basic overview of the history of the tank with contextualizing narrative to explain the reasoning behind the changes over time. I found it to be a good approach to the subject and would like to see similar series about fighters, bombers, and helicopters. The narration and score were engaging, but not excessively dramatized the way that American documentaries tend to be.

There seems to be a pretty mild bias in favor of French and Russian tanks throughout, although nothing major until the end. The other reviews complaining of extreme bias one way or another seem silly and unfounded to me. The very ending turning into a bit of Russian propaganda about the fictional T-14 is pretty bad though. The bit about 2300 to be delivered by 2020 was good for a chuckle.

Impressive narrative, cohesive in treating the subject (tanks). The most likeable part is that it gives a brief picture of tank's evolution over the entire series, without getting lost. Neither is the series too technical nor too naive which is desirable to attract more viewers. They also have short interview clips about tank personnel of WW-II. They also mention about the notable commanders, tank designers, major events and tank manufacturing sites.