Well, to a certain degree our discussion here about the WW2 German Sturmgeschutzen has a connection to WWI, in that the later assault gun concept more closely resembled the Schneider, St. Chamond, Vicker's Mks, or the A7 designs of the Great War (with their limited weapon traversing), than the turreted tank concept reflected by FT17/18 design, which eventually defined what a "tank" or "main battle tank" was to become in later years.

The debate over the utility of maintaining inventories of casemate-type AFVs, alongside required MBTs, eventually ended with the former designs being dropped as the combat requirements of the two vehicles merged, and because of the neccessity to rationalize post-WW2 production budgets. Of course the Swedish S tank was somewhat of an anomaly in modern arsenals, but then Sweden's military doctrine doesn't neccessarily envision fighting offensive operations, where casemate-type vehicles are poor substitutes for turreted tanks, because of their limited traversing armament, and the requirement to maneuever the chassis in order to acquire targets beyond the vehicle's limited forward arc of fire.

But we'll all call the early WWI AFV's "tanks", considering that's what the Brits called them out of their original desire to keep their development clandestine to the enemy anyway. ;\)

Btw, nice observations Heini......I think American infantry troops during WW2 were also more likely to see the TD's assigned to their support (especially when in defensive deployment), as they were to see the Shermans from the independent tank battalions attached during their offensive operations.