Tanks

The outcome of wars often depend on small technical innovations. It was announced this week that the Russians are planning to sell thousands of advanced armor-piercing anti-tank missiles to Syria, and many of these are expected to reach the hands of Hizbollah. This could make any future conflict with Hizbollah in Lebanon more dangerous for the IDF. It reminds us that the IDF nearly lost the 1973 Yom Kippur war due to the arming of the Egyptian forces with shoulder held and larger strategic missiles by the Soviets.
The surrounding of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of ca. 400,000 men at Dunkirk by the German Army in 1940 was the closest the British came to being defeated by the Nazis in WWII. The main reason for the outcome at Dunkirk was that the German Panther tanks were superior to those of the British and French and was the reason why the thrust of the German armies to the Channel coast was so fast and successful.
One reason why the German tanks were so superior was the installation of independent supensions on all wheels of the tracks. This allowed them to move faster and be more maneuverable over rough terrain. The idea of independent suspension on all tank wheels was in fact the idea of an American auto engineer named Christie. But, it was not taken up by the Americans, but by the Germans. Although Hitler took credit for the succesful use of massed tanks to rapidly break through the enemy lines (blitzkrieg) this was actually planned and implemented by Gen. Guderian, and was based on the concepts of the British WWI strategist Fuller.
Miraculously the British Navy managed to spirit most of their forces across the Channel to England in a matter of days, from May 26-June 4, 1940. It was very close, if the Nazis had pressed forward their massive advantage they could have destroyed most of the BEF there on the beaches. Luckily the German High Command misread British intentions. They were sure the British would capitulate, which some of the Cabinet wanted to do, for example Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, but PM Winston Churchill stood firm, what nerve. Another reason why the evacuation worked was that the Panzer Divisions of tanks stopped outside Dunkirk to allow repairs and refitting and to give the Luftwaffe the opportunity to attack the surrounded British-French forces. While 68,000 British and French troops were either killed or captured at Dunkirk, 750,000 were returned to Britain and lived to fight another day.
Fortunately for us, the Germans went too far in their tank development. They increased the size and range of the turret-mounted gun, until it became so powerful that the fearsome Tiger tank used at the end of the war had to stop to shoot, otherwise it would damage the turret mechanism. This became a major disadvantage of these massive tanks, and made them vulnerable. In addition, they required huge amounts of gasoline to run them, and the Third Reich simply ran out of gasoline by 1945.
Such small things as tank suspensions, radar (in the "Battle of Britain") and decoding of ciphers (as in the Enigma machines) had major impacts on the history of warfare. The British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper suggested that the most important invention in history was the development of the stirrup, because it allowed large numbers of men on horseback to ride for long distances, and so led to the formation of large mobile armies. The later development of the flintlock rifle also allowed these armies to become more effective. Subsequently the development of the tank and its independent suspension allowed armies to smash through defences. This was shown to deadly effect when the US Army broke through the Iraqi defences with the Abrams M1 tank in the first Gulf War. The Israeli Merkava tank is considered to be one of the finest in the world, but now it will have to be fitted with active anti-missile defences.