From the battlefields of Flanders onwards the ultimate ground weapon was the tank. Developed to break the deadlock of trench warfare nothing that preceded it could stand against it. In the 1930"s Mussolini successfully used light tanks based on British designs and in Abyssinia Hitler combined armored cars and light tanks in the invasion of Poland. The speed of Panzer IIs enabled the Germans to run rings around their enemy in the invasion of France, and Rommel made good use of similar tanks in his desert victories. However it was the Russians with the T-26 who showed the value and variety of missions a light tank could undertake. At the same time the American M-series combined superb handling characteristics with high speed and high ground clearance giving it access to a number of difficult terrains.