Medium tank to manufacture a well-balanced medium tank in very large numbers - around 57,000 T-34s and 49,000 M4 Sherman tanks were built during the war period. During and after World War II, the roles of light tanks were gradually taken over by less-expensive armoured cars and specialised reconnaissance vehicles. Heavy tanks, having shown their limitations in combat, experienced a limited post-war arms race of progressively more heavily armed and armoured designs. With the rise of more sophisticated anti-tank missile weapons, to which heavy tanks had demonstrated high vulnerability, these too were eventually phased out. With advances in technology, aspects such as
The war to end war Even during World War I, the phrase met with some degree of skepticism; the British politician David Lloyd George is reputed to have said, "This war, like the next war, is a war to end war." As it became apparent that the war had not succeeded in ending war, the phrase took on a more cynical tone. The British staff officer Archibald Wavell, a future field marshal and viceroy of India, said despondently of the Paris Peace Conference, "After the 'war to end war', they seem to have been in Paris at making the 'Peace to end Peace'." Wells himself