well, ill have to side with charge on one thing. it is very important that a tank is easy and quick to manufacture in war time. Some very good tanks were flops or a burden on their countrys production capabilty because they were to damn hard to make. Look at Tiger 1 and 2 in germany, the T-64 in the USSR and the M60A2 in the USA. all good and highly advanced machines. But they were very expensive, too advanced for their time and hard to mass produced. Had the Germans made more Panzer Mk 4 and Panthers instead of Tigers, Konigtigers and Jagedtigers, they might have done much better production and war wise. The Russians ended up building the T-72, which was a simplefied T-64, since the T-64 was too advanced and xpensive. The M60A2 was an utter faliure, becaue it was too complicated.
As to the list:
10. M-4 Sherman (US)- I Would definetly put it much higher up than this. Made in huge noumbers and allowed the alllies superiority in noumbers that countered the quality of German tanks. In my eyes it is the American T-34
9. Merkava (Israel)- While I apriciate the gesture, the Merkava has not been tested enough against tanks to tell if its a"great" tank. It is a good tank no bdoubt...
8. T-54/55 (Soviet Russia)- Certinly. Maybe even higher. Served in countless conflicts, still serves. Dirt cheap, reliable, Classic piece of soviet gear.
7. Challenger (UK)- Why? I reall think this is the same as the Merkava.
6. Mark IV Panzer (Nazi Germany)- Yes. Altohugh id put it loer in the list. All round dominated the first half of the war. Good tank, espcially in the later models.
5. Centurian (UK)- With out a doubt. Great tank. Never stopped evolving, served in countless wars with exellence. Superb.
4. Mark IV (UK - WWI)- I guss. But WWI is so diffrent than all wars that came after, that its hard to tell. Actually, my WWI pick would be the Renault FT17, first tank with a 360 degrees rotating turret.
3. Tiger I (Nazi Germany)- Sorry, but i really dont think so. The Panther would make more sens. The Tiger was unreliable, expensive, slow....A waste of German resources.
2. M1 Abrams (US)- Same as the Merkava and Challenger, in my eyes.
and the greatest tank of all time:
1. T-34 (Soviet Russia)-I actually tend to agree with this one.