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History · armoured vehicles in combat · 1939–1945

WW2 Tank Service Timeline

When each tank of the Second World War first went into combat, how long it stayed in front-line service, and when the last army to use it finally retired it. Click any row for the place of its first action, the number built and notes.

Allies Axis Front-line combat in the war Later service: second-line, captured, exported or postwar, up to retirement Out of combat for a while Already fighting before Sep 1939 Still in use c.Approximate: sources disagree
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Nation
Type
VehicleFirst combat
Turning points
Drawing the timeline…

What the dates mean

First combat is the month the vehicle first fought in the Second World War, counted from 1 September 1939. Tanks marked with a left arrow were already fighting before that: in Spain, in China, or at Khalkhin Gol.

Front line runs to the point where the vehicle stopped being a main front-line type in the war. Many were then kept for training, security duty or by other armies, which is drawn as the hatched part.

Retired is the last known service in any army, including captured and exported vehicles and reserve stocks. For widely exported tanks this can be decades after 1945, so the years after the war are drawn on a compressed scale.

What is left out

Vehicles that never reached combat in the war (Maus, T-44, Centurion, Black Prince, Type 4 Chi-To), towed and self-propelled artillery, armoured cars and recovery vehicles. Variants are folded into their parent where the dates match: the Sherman row covers the M4A3E8 and Jumbo, the Stuart row covers the British Stuart I to V "Honey".

Dates are the best-supported figures from standard references. Where sources disagree the date carries c. and the detail panel says what the disagreement is. Production figures are rounded.

Spot-checked sources