Tanks in World War I
The continued need for four men to drive the tank was solved with the Mark V which used Wilson's epicyclic gearing in 1918. Also in 1918 the French produced the Renault FT, the result of a co-operation between Estienne and Louis Renault. As mentioned before, it had the innovative turret position, and was operated by two men. At just 8 tons it was half the weight of the Medium A "Whippet" but the version with the cannon had more firepower. It was conceived for mass production, and the FT became the most produced tank of World War I by a wide margin, with over 3,000 delivered to the French Army. Large numbers were used by the Americans and several were also lent to the British.
Tank desant
Today, tank desant is considered a wasteful and human-costly improvisation, which, in the opinion of some writers, was adopted by the Red Army because they failed to appreciate the problem of tank–infantry cooperation. However, this is not supported by historical analysis, and there is evidence that tank desant was used as early as 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. On 13 October, during the Aragon Front advance in the area of the Fuentes de Ebro, the 1st Independent Tank Regiment (Republican Army), using BT-5 tanks attached to the XV International Brigade, conducted a tank desant mission with the attached 24th Infantry Battalion of the Spanish army ("24ta de Voluntarios", commanded by Captain Aquilla). But lack of coordination and communication between the Soviet crews, who had just completed a march, and the Spanish infantry resulted in sixteen tanks being either destroyed or disabled (some salvaged) and 37 tank crewmen becoming casualties.