Coils of razor wire hang from the back of an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) during an exercise at the National Training Center

Tanks in mass culture. Tanks were first developed separately and simultaneously by Great Britain and France as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front. Their first use in combat was by the British Army in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The name "tank" was adopted by the British during the early stages of their development, as a security measure to conceal their purpose.