I'm a former student of history and military history buff. During WW1 most German tanks came from captured British and French tanks. My question is why didn't the German A7V feature a similar design (or elements of both designs) as the British Mark V series of heavy tanks or the French Renault FT-17 light tank

WarAGle said:

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I'm a former student of history and military history buff. During WW1 most German tanks came from captured British and French tanks. My question is why didn't the German A7V feature a similar design (or elements of both designs) as the British Mark V series of heavy tanks or the French Renault FT-17 light tank

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They did.

A7V-U: (umlaufende Ketten = "tracks running all the way round"). An attempt to reproduce the all-terrain capability of the British tanks, the A7V-U was still based on the Holt chassis but had a rhomboidal hull and all-round tracks. The cab was similar to, but bigger than, that on the A7V and was mounted on top of the forward part of the hull. Two 57 mm guns were carried in sponsons similar to the British type. The prototype was built in June 1918; trials showed that it was nose-heavy and had a high centre of gravity, and the 40-ton weight caused manoeuvrability problems. On the assumption that the problems could be rectified, 20 were ordered in September 1918, the same month work on the design was halted.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHundlebyStrasheim199023.2C_34.2C_61.2C_79-4][4][/url]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V

I will have to take a pass on this. WWI armor is not an area of expertise for me. I'm more of a WWII guy, and more interested in planes. Not that I don't love armor, but there's only so much time in the day...