What is a tank cont.

During the interim years between the world wars tank development progressed very slowly. Not just in actual technology but in the development of  armour tactics. By the end of WW 2 The tank looked much like it does today.  A standard tank today has between 3-4 crew depending on whether it has an auto loader or not. Most tanks today can travel 300 miles on a fill up in perfect conditions. Idling or travelling on steep grades will drastically cut into that number.Tanks don't get miles per gallon they get gallons per mile with I believe the average being somewhere around 4 gallons per mile. Below is a picture of a tank with its major components outlined

The area outlined by yellow is the turret in which the commander, gunner and loader fight the tank. All the sighting equipment as well as radios  and sometimes a few ready rounds  are stored it the turret. modern turrets take on many shapres depending upon type of armour used .

The white area is the turret basket. While varying in size and shape it is meant for the crews gear. On more modern tanks this basket is part of the protection for the vehicle. the structure of the basket acts like 'bar armour' helping defeat incoming rounds.

The light blue area is the main gun or cannon. this varies in size and type. WW 2 guns had an average 75mm maingun. Today this is likely to be the 105mm and as large as 120mm. There are also primarily two barrel types, smoothbore and rifled. Smoothbore as the name suggets is smooth on the interior of the barrel while the rifled variants has a series of grooves on the inside to give the tank round a spin as it leaves the barrel .

The area outlined in green is the hull. The hull contains the engine, spare rounds fuel and oil tanks. Most tanks have the engine at the rear except for tanks like the Merkava and AMX series.

The blue, red and pink items make up the running gear of a tank. The blue wheels are called road wheels while the front most one is called the Idler wheel. The red wheels are return rollers, supporting the track as it returns back to the  pink sprocket. The sprocket attaches to the engine via a series of gears and in the case of this tank pushes the vehicle. Oher tanks have the sprocket located up front  like the Sherman which essentially pulls the tank along. some tanks don't have return rollers like the T-55 .