As an aside, Track Drives - a question:
It is common practice on construction equipment (slow speed, no suspension but with track tensioning) to place the drive sprocket at the rear of travel. This way the mimimum number of track links are in tension as the rear sprocket effectively pulls the track from underneath the carriage - the track is then running 'no load' over the top to the front idler and down to the leading lower carriage roller, any slack being safely taken up by the tensioner
But on tanks (high speed, suspension, and - I assume - tensioning??), it seems the norm to drive from the front. Here the top section of track is pulling the lower track around the rear idler and out from under the carriage. So, except for the short section between the front drive sprocket and the leading carriage roller, the whole of the track is under load.
In the latter set-up, any slack in the track drive caused by poor tensioning or suspension travel can cause severe bunching of track plates over the short length between drive sprocket and leading lower carriage roller, which I would not have thought a good idea :???
Is it the case that for high speed working the front drive is considered more reliable, or what?