Tank Aces & Commanders
Guderian, Patton, Wittmann, Lavrinenko, Kahalani — the generals, tank aces and designers who commanded the steel. [52 commanders]
Newly added
The latest names in the turret — they are in the full list below as well.
Pioneers & WWINEWAdna R. Chaffee Jr.
Father of the US Armored Force
WWIINEWBruce C. Clarke
Held St. Vith for six days in the Battle of the Bulge
WWIINEWGeorgy Zhukov
Massed his tanks at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 — and six years later took Berlin
Cold War & ModernNEWNorman Schwarzkopf
Led the 1991 Gulf War — the armoured 'left hook' into Iraq
The steel commanders
52 generals, tank aces and designers — the people who taught armour how to fight. Filter by era or search above.
52 commanders
Pioneers & WWIJean-Baptiste Estienne
'Father of the tanks' — created the French armoured arm
Pioneers & WWIJ. Walter Christie
Christie suspension — the DNA of the BT tanks and the T-34
Pioneers & WWIErnest Swinton
Championed the first tank — the Mark I at the Somme, 1916
Pioneers & WWIJ. F. C. Fuller
Planned Cambrai 1917 — the first massed tank attack in history
Pioneers & WWIHugh Elles
Led the Tank Corps into Cambrai from the front, in a tank named Hilda
Pioneers & WWINEWAdna R. Chaffee Jr.
Father of the US Armored Force
Pioneers & WWIPercy Hobart
'Hobart's Funnies' — the specialist tanks that cracked the D-Day beaches
Pioneers & WWIMikhail Tukhachevsky
Deep Battle doctrine — the Red Army's armoured blueprint
Pioneers & WWIBasil Liddell Hart
Theorist of the 'expanding torrent' — the prophet of armoured warfare
Pioneers & WWIMikhail Koshkin
Designed the T-34 — and drove the prototypes to Moscow to prove it
WWIIGeorge S. Patton
Third Army's charge across France — 'Old Blood and Guts'
WWIIHermann Hoth
4th Panzer Army — the drive on Stalingrad and the southern pincer at Kursk
WWIIJohn S. Wood
4th Armored's 'P' Wood — the American Rommel
WWIIBernard Montgomery
El Alamein — the set-piece armoured victory that turned the desert war
WWIIHeinz Guderian
'Achtung – Panzer!' — the architect of Blitzkrieg
WWIICharles de Gaulle
Armoured-warfare theorist who led the 4th Armoured at Montcornet, 1940
WWIIErwin Rommel
The Desert Fox — the Ghost Division and the Afrika Korps
WWIIStanisław Maczek
1st Polish Armoured — sealed the Falaise Gap at Mont Ormel
WWIIHermann Balck
The Chir River battles — master of the mobile defence
WWIIHyazinth Graf Strachwitz
The 'Panzer Count' — Grossdeutschland's armoured spearhead
WWIIErnest N. Harmon
Commanded both the 1st and 2nd Armored — 'Hell on Wheels'
WWIIPavel Rybalko
3rd Guards Tank Army — Kiev, Berlin and Prague
WWIINEWGeorgy Zhukov
Massed his tanks at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 — and six years later took Berlin
WWIIHasso von Manteuffel
5th Panzer Army in the Bulge — the Wehrmacht's small, fierce panzer general
WWIIFranz Bäke
The dentist whose heavy panzer regiment claimed 500 tanks in the Balabanovka pocket
WWIIMaurice Rose
3rd Armored 'Spearhead' — the highest-ranking American killed in Europe
WWIIMikhail Katukov
Mtsensk 1941 — the first commander to stop Guderian
WWIINEWBruce C. Clarke
Held St. Vith for six days in the Battle of the Bulge
WWIIPavel Rotmistrov
Prokhorovka — 5th Guards Tank Army at Kursk
WWIIPhilippe Leclerc
2e DB — liberated Paris and Strasbourg
WWIIMariya Oktyabrskaya
Bought her own T-34 'Fighting Girlfriend' — Hero of the Soviet Union
WWIIZinoviy Kolobanov
22 German tanks in one KV-1 engagement at Voyskovitsy
WWIICreighton Abrams
37th Tank Battalion to Bastogne — the M1 carries his name
WWIIDmitry Lavrinenko
52 kills in two and a half months — the top Allied tank ace
WWIIMichael Wittmann
Villers-Bocage — the most famous Tiger ace of the war
WWIIErnst Barkmann
'Barkmann's Corner' — one Panther against an American column
WWIILafayette G. Pool
258 enemy vehicles — the top American tank ace, in a Sherman named In the Mood
WWIISydney Radley-Walters
18 kills in a Sherman — the top Commonwealth tank ace
WWIIKurt Knispel
168 confirmed kills — the highest-scoring tank ace of all time
WWIIAleksandra Samusenko
The only woman to command a T-34 tank battalion in the war
WWIIOtto Carius
150+ kills in Tigers — Malinava, 1944
Cold War & ModernIsrael Tal
Father of the Merkava — armour doctrine of the Six-Day War
Cold War & ModernDonn A. Starry
AirLand Battle doctrine — shaped the Abrams generation
Cold War & ModernAvraham Adan
162nd Armoured Division — Sinai 1973
Cold War & ModernAriel Sharon
Crossed the Suez Canal with his armoured division, 1973
Cold War & ModernNEWNorman Schwarzkopf
Led the 1991 Gulf War — the armoured 'left hook' into Iraq
Cold War & ModernFrederick M. Franks Jr.
VII Corps' left hook — the biggest tank battle since WWII
Cold War & ModernAvigdor Kahalani
Valley of Tears 1973 — held the Golan with a handful of Centurions
Cold War & ModernZvika Greengold
'Zvika Force' — one Centurion, 20+ kills in a single night
Cold War & ModernH. R. McMaster
73 Easting — Eagle Troop's 23-minute tank battle
Cold War & ModernAlexander Morozov
Designed the T-54 and T-64 — the shape of the Soviet tank
Cold War & ModernHanut Singh
Battle of Basantar 1971 — the Poona Horse held the line