“Ponderously slow, clumsy and mechanically unreliable, a handful of these top secret armoured “land ships” still succeeded in rolling over the German barbed wire and fortifications.”
THE TOWNS OF Flers and Courcelette may not figure as prominently in the pages of military history as say Gettysburg, Waterloo or Hastings. Yet it was on terrain between these two little-known villages along the Somme in Northern France that a revolution in warfare occurred more than a century ago. On Sept. 15, 1916, tanks rumbled into action there for the first time.
Although ponderously slow, clumsy and mechanically unreliable, a handful of Britain’s top secret armoured “land ships” still succeeded in rolling over the German barbed wire and fortifications as bullets bounced harmlessly off their inch-thick steel plating. Unable to slow the advance of these strange mechanical monsters, the enemy had no choice but to retreat.
Although the results of the action at Flers-Courcelette was far from pivotal to the outcome of the war, commanders were overwhelmed by the results of the tank’s combat debut. The following year at Cambrai, more than 400 machines would mount the first massed armour attack in history – the era of the tank had arrived.
Author and historian Craig Moore runs www.tanks-encyclopedia.com. His new book Tank Hunter: World War One (published by The History Press) explores the development of armoured warfare between 1914 and 1918. Below, the author lists five early tanks that changed history.
By Craig Moore
The British Mark I
The Mark I ushered in a technological revolution when it appeared in 1916. In one fell swoop, it solved the seemingly impossible problem of how to cross ‘no-mans-land’ and punch a hole in the enemy’s defences without suffering thousands of casualties in the process. The Mark I’s armour plating allowed it to advance towards German machine gun posts with virtual impunity as its wide metal tracks crushed line upon line of barbed wire. The 28-ton machine’s curious rhomboid shape was specifically designed to enable it to roll over enemy trenches. The Mark I came in two distinct varieties. A ‘male’ version was armed with two six-pounder guns mounted in armoured sponsons attached to each side of the tank. Both ports were also fitted with an additional machine gun. A third machine gun was mounted in the driver’s cabin firing forward. A ‘female’ variant was armed only with two machine guns in each sponson and one fitted in the driver’s cabin. For a time, this second version proved more useful on the battlefield. When it first appeared in 1916, the Germans did not yet possess any tanks. Although the male’s six-pounder gun could destroy fortified machine gun posts, it was not as good at killing infantry as the female.
Fascine Tanks
Once the Germans had recovered from the shock of the tank’s initial appearance, they turned their attention to defeating them. One simple countermeasure involved widening the trenches to prevent enemy tanks from rolling straight over them. The British overcame this tactic with a centuries-old technology: the fascine. Consisting of large bundles of branches bound together by chains, fascines were used in medieval times to enable infantry to cross castle moats. The same system would prove to be an effective method of overcoming the widened German trenches. Typically, three tanks with fascines lashed to their tops would approach an enemy trench. The first tank would stop at the edge and drop its bundle into the gap. It would then move left and machine gun any defenders still in the trench. The second tank would do the same, laying down a covering fire to the right. Finally, the third tank would drop its fascine into the trench and then continue forward driving over the densely-packed bundles to the other side. The other two tanks would follow it across and push on into enemy territory. This tactic allowed the British tanks to continue to dominate the battlefield.
The Supply Tank
A number of regimental battle diary entries from the war report tank attacks being called off after the machines ran short of fuel or ammunition. When the armoured vehicles withdrew to replenish, the infantry remaining in the front line was vulnerable to counter-attack. Unfortunately, the broken ground of No Man’s Land made resupply by wheeled truck or lorry virtually impossible. It soon became evident that the simplest solution was to convert some tanks into supply carriers. Their armoured hulls would protect the crew and the stores from enemy fire and the tracks could negotiate any terrain the battle tanks could. To enable even more stores to be transported to the front, large metal and wood sledges could be dragged behind the machines. The use of supply tanks changed the course of WW1 by allowing armoured formations to remain in action longer and to push even deeper into enemy territory.
The Renault FT
By mid-war, French industry was running at full capacity, yet it was still unable to produce powerful heavy tanks, like the Schneider CA and the Saint-Chamond, in the numbers required. Then weapons engineer Colonel Jean-Baptiste Estienne and automaker Renault came up with an idea. They advocated for the development of an inexpensive two-man, light tank. Armed only with machine guns, such a vehicle could be mass produced quickly and cheaply. The result was the Renault FT light tank. Surprisingly inexpensive, five FTs could be built for the same cost as one Saint-Chamond. It was also the first operational tank with a turret that could traverse 360 degrees – a feature that has influenced all future tank designs. Estienne lobbied for the plentiful FT to be used in massed ‘bee swarm’ attacks. He reasoned that multiple light tanks would be harder for the enemy to stop than fewer slow-moving heavy vehicles. His tactics revolutionized the way armour battles were to be fought. By sheer force of numbers, the FT negated the need for day-long artillery bombardments before an attack. Formations of the machines were able to neutralize enemy machine gun nests and bunkers faster and more effectively than day-long barrages — and with less damage to the terrain, allowing the supporting infantry to advance over unbroken ground. The FT proved so versatile, some would continue to serve into the Second World War.
The Beute Panzer
Germany was slow to adopt the tank. The country built just 20 Sturmpanzerwagen heavy tanks, an ungainly design based on the A7V tracked chassis. These machines were too few in number to have any impact on the war’s outcome. But after the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, the German army worked on capturing knocked out British Mark IV with the goal of putting them to use for themselves. Approximately 300 were eventually recovered from the Western Front. Most were cannibalized for spare parts, but ultimately 60 were restored to fighting condition, their machine guns and six-pounders replaced with German weaponry. In the spring of 1918, these captured machines, all painted with German insignia, were sent into battle against their previous owners.
Allied troops were shocked to see their own tanks rumbling towards them. The generals quickly ordered all British tanks painted with large white-red-white stripes on their sides and roofs, so they could be distinguished from the enemy machines. With dozens of German vehicles on the move along the Western Front, Britain’s female tanks, armed only with machine guns, were suddenly vulnerable to attack. With their light armaments, none were capable of taking on the captured male machines. As a ‘stop-gap’ solution, a number of females were retrofitted with artillery on one side. These modified Mark Vs were dubbed ‘composite tanks’ or jokingly referred to as ‘hermaphrodites.’ Although Germany was unable to recover enough British tanks to shift the balance in its favour, for a time, these captured vehicles caused significant alarm among the Allied armies.
Craig Moore is the author of Tank Hunter – World War One, a richly-illustrated guide to armoured warfare in WW1. It is available on Amazon. Craig also runs www.tanks-encyclopedia.com and the site www.tank-hunter.com. He lives in the United Kingdom.
