Tanks
The development of the tank
Although the concept of the tank had been suggested as early as the 1890s, few
authorities showed interest in them until the trench stalemate of World War I caused
serious contemplation of unending war and ever escalating casualties. Tanks were
seen as viable way to combat the machine gun nest and break through enemy lines
thus making trench warfare obsolete. The tanks made a significant contribution to
allied victory in World War I.
In Britain, a Landships Committee was formed, and teamed with the Inventions
Committee, set out to develop a practical weapon. The Royal Navy, largely at
Winston Churchill's urging, sponsored the experiments and tests of the vehicle as a
type of "land ship" during 1915, and the tank at last became a reality. Based on the
caterpillar track (first invented in 1770 and perfected in the early 1900s) and the fourstroke gasoline powered Internal combustion engine (refined in the 1870s), early
tanks were fitted with Maxim type guns or Lewis guns, armor plating, and their
caterpillar tracks were configured to allow crossing of an eight-foot wide trench. The
characteristic feature of the tank is its heavy protective armor, its ability to unleash
immense fire power and a great deal of mobility.
In an effort to keep secret the real purpose of the early models when they were being
shipped to France, the English labeled them tanks—for use as water tanks by Russia.
This misnaming resulted in the name of tank for the new weapon. The naval
background of the tank's development also explains such nautical tank terms as hatch,
hull, bow, and ports. The great secrecy surrounding tank development, coupled with
the skepticism of infantry commanders, often meant that infantry at first had little
training to cooperate with tanks.
Usage during WW1
Like they say, 'necessity is the mother of all inventions', the adage applies to the birth
of tanks quite as much as to any other invention. Tanks were developed by the British,
as the Western Front was not a friendly battlefield for them. The British Army was,
thus, in urgent need of a self-propelled vehicle that could glide over the trenches,
crush barbed wire, and was an impervious machine-gun fire. They were used in the
First World War to bust trenches and to break the dominance of machine guns in the
battlefield. It didn't take them long to become an essential part of any military force
taking over the role that the cavalry formerly had on the battlefield.
While the British saw them as a cavalry weapon meant to sweep in and 'shock' the
battlefield, the Germans endeavored to pack them with more and more power to make
them capable of pushing the enemy fire back. They saw them as an aid to infantry.
Early tanks were unreliable, breaking down often. Though they first terrified the
Germans, their use in 1917 engagements provided more opportunities for
development than actual battle successes. It was also realized that new tactics had to
be developed to make best use of this weapon. In particular, planners learned that
tanks needed infantry support and massed formations to be effective. Even today,
tanks are organized into armored units in combined armed forces, and seldom operate
alone. Without the support of the infantry units, tanks are quite vulnerable to enemy
infantry, mines, artillery and air attacks.
Once tanks could be fielded in the hundreds, such as they were at the Battle of
Cambrai in November 1917, they began to show their potential. 300 British tanks
made a dawn attack on a 6-mi (9.7-km) front and were able to break through the
German defenses. Still, reliability was the achilles heel of tanks throughout the
remainder of the war. In the Battle of Amiens, a major Entente counteroffensive near
the end of the war, British forces went to field with 534 tanks. After several days, only
a few were still in commission, those that suffered mechanical difficulties
outnumbering those disabled by enemy fire.
Despite the problems with its reliability, the tank was a military success. The German
forces did suffer, as they had no counter weapons to defend themselves against the
tanks and the shock value of the tanks took its own toll. But, eventually the Germans
used medium weight guns such as the German 88-millimeter antiaircraft gun for tank
busting and started using wider trenches to arrest the mobility of the British tanks. The
Allied tanks continued evolving throughout the war, producing models such as the
very long Mark V.
In the meanwhile the Germans caught up with them and produced the Tiger tank, a
behemoth, with armor that Allied tank guns couldn't penetrate from the front even at
point-blank range. In fact, the Allies won the war despite having inferior weaponry.
But, world war hostility that ensued after the World War I ensured that the future of
tanks was bright.
Daily Mirror: 'Tank' Rams and Takes a Factory, 18 September 1916
The amazing war adventures of the New British heavy armoured cars, or 'tanks' first referred to by Sir Douglas
Haig in his bulletin on Friday last, are described by Mr Beach Thomas in his story of the storming of Courcelette
and Martinpuich.
The taking of a sugar refinery which was a nest of machine guns by a 'tank' is thus described in a Reuters special
message: One of the 'tanks' rumbled up to the entrance coughing bullets as it came, burst open the barricaded
door, scattering sandbags like feathers in a chicken fight, and got in among the machine gunners.
Not long afterwards there fell a hush upon which our infantry marched in and took undisputed possession of the
place while the ungainly machine - named by the 'Tommies' the 'crème de menthe', and a 'flagship' at that - was
clumsily bumping its way out again. The German officer captured complained that it was 'an impertinence' to use
these iron monsters.
Heroes of the Earth
This is Mr Beach Thomas's description of our glorious fighting men: “Between them (the Germans) and us lay
half a mile of open country well sprayed by 'bullet machines' fixed at a killing height. Today, with the use of the
tanks, this deadly distance served the defence as little as the barricades. Scotch, Irish and English soldiers all
swept across it in more than international form. The wounded, even the twice-wounded, went forward with the
hale and met the enemy waiting for them at the first goal line. All Great Britain should feel through every fibre
that never in heroic days did men fight more heroically.”
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHIp-hyXKWc
Sources:
http://www.historyoftanks.com/invention.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/mirror05_01.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank