Lt. Col. George S. Patton, Jr., 1st Tank Battalion, and a French Renault tank, summer 1918. He was officially assigned to develop a tank programme in the US Army on November 10, 1917.

On 31 May 1918, a small tank designed by a famous French car maker and a brilliant army officer saw its first action. Its inspired design lives on in today's tanks, 100 years later.

The FT has been called the world's first modern tank. Much of the FT was designed by Louis Renault, founder of the French automaker that still exists today. French general Jean Baptiste Eugène ...