In September 1916, the British army used tanks for the first time in the Battle of the Somme, and the three-piece defense of trenches, barbed wire and machine guns, which had long held back the attack, was solved. Although the performance of the first tanks was poor, the steel monster that suddenly rushed out with the roar of the engine still caused the Germans to panic and flee in all directions. With 18 tanks on the road, the infantry followed, scattered the attack on a 10-kilometer-wide frontage, and advanced 5 kilometers in 5 hours. Before that, it would take more than ten days to several months to achieve the same results, consuming tens of thousands of tons of ammunition and tens of thousands of people. Even so, most of the time the attackers could not advance even an inch.
The stunning appearance of the tank caused other participating countries to follow suit and launch their own tanks. However, due to frequent technical failures, immature operational theories, and the fact that the war was nearing its end, the belated tank did not play the title of "king of land warfare" in World War I.
Armored vehicles appeared before World War I, and in the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the Boer War in South Africa, armored trains with artillery appeared on board. After the invention of the car, it was also carried by the military** and hung with armor. But armored trains rely heavily on railway lines, and armored cars do not function on battlefields with craters and trenches, so a new type of armored vehicle must be developed to cope with the war.
In mid-October 1914, shortly after the two sides of World War I dug trenches on the Western Front and "ran to the sea", British Army Colonel Ernest Swinton proposed a vision of solid armor, powerful firepower, and high mobility. However, at that time, the two sides had just dug the trenches, and they had not yet understood the power of the trenches, and did not realize the value of Ernest's proposal. Churchill, the Secretary of the Admiralty, overheard Ernest's vision and was intrigued. In his opinion, isn't this just a battleship sailing on land, supported by the Admiralty. In February 1915, Churchill set up a "Land Ship Committee" at the Admiralty to develop it.
On January 30, 916, the ** conceived by Ernest was finally developed, and the first experimental vehicle had many names, such as "Mother", "Little Nomad", "Land Cruiser" and "Water Tank". The tank was 545 meters, width 28 meters, height 32 meters, the weight of the car 183 tons. The speed is only 3 km/h, and the maximum range is 30 km/h. On the tracked chassis were mounted 1 gun and several machine guns, each operated by 4 shooters, and externally 10 mm thick armor plates were installed to protect the safety of the crew. On the basis of the test car, Britain developed the first mass-produced Mark, and the name was formalized, which was called the tank "tank" (meaning "water tank"). This is a simple and vivid name that Ernest gave to this armored car in the shape of a water tank for the sake of secrecy.
The Mark tank is 10 meters long and 4 meters wide3 meters, 2 meters high4 meters, the weight of the car is 284 tons, speed 6 kilometers per hour, maximum range 37 kilometers. The tank is available in both "male" and "female" versions. The "male" tank was armed with 2 57-mm guns and 4 machine guns, and the "female" tank was armed with only 5 machine guns. In the summer of 1916, the British and French launched a large-scale offensive in the Somme area, and once again met in front of the German trenches. On July 1 alone, there were more than 60,000 British troops**, and it was then that the British army finally realized the importance of tanks and used this secret**.
The first appearance of the tank caused quite a shock, but due to the haste of the British army, the British could only send 49 tanks to the front line, only 32 actually participated in the battle, and 14 tanks lay down due to breakdowns on the way to attack, and only 18 tanks completed the battle.
The nascent tank was criticized for its high failure rate, and the Germans took advantage of the tank's many shortcomings to develop effective anti-tank tactics, including wider anti-tank trenches, anti-tank forts equipped with field guns and flamethrowers, and anti-tank guns capable of penetrating armor. Although the British army has also upgraded and iterated the tanks, the Mark series has developed into the Mark VIII tank, and other series of tanks such as the "Greyhound A" medium tank and the Mark C medium tank, but they all performed poorly, and only the Mark IV was equipped with more equipment, with a total of 1,220 vehicles. Depending on the firepower, the Mark IV is divided into a "female" tank equipped with a machine gun and a "male" tank equipped with a 6-pounder gun.
The idea of a tank was not unique to the British, and the French, having been unable to move an inch in front of the trenches, were also in dire need of an attack vehicle that could break through barbed wire and trenches. In January 1915, the French Ministry of Armament instructed Schnader to develop a vehicle capable of towing heavy artillery, and the chassis was based on a tractor. In December of that year, Colonel Eugene Estienne, an artillery expert, after looking at the design of Schnader's company, decided that it was possible to install armor plates and ** for combat use on the vehicle, and the French tank began to take shape.
In February 1916, the French army began to produce an improved version of the Estian armored combat vehicle, which was named the "Schnader" CA1 tank. However, on the battlefield of the Somme, the French army did not send tanks to fight. It was not until the combat performance of the British tanks was confirmed that the French army committed 130 "Schnader" CA1 tanks to the battle in the Second Battle of Aisne in April 1917. However, because of the poor performance and the fact that the Germans had already accumulated anti-tank experience in the fight against the British, the "Schnader" CA1 tank did not perform well, and 57 of them were destroyed by German artillery.
The poor performance of the Schnader CA1 tank quickly went out of the game, and only 400 units were produced before being discontinued. The "St. Chamon", which appeared slightly later than the "Schnader" CA1, also failed to stand the test of war. The new generation of light tank Renault FT-17 came from behind and became the main battle tank of the French army.
In September 1917, the Renault FT-17 was officially put into production, compared to the weight of the car 136 tons, crew 6 people "Schnader" CA1 tank. The Renault FT-17, which weighs 7 tons and has a crew of 2 people, is considered a small body. But the advantages of being lightweight are also obvious: it saves resources and is more manoeuvrable. The rotating turret pioneered by the Renault FT-17 was of epoch-making significance in the history of tank development, and its excellent performance allowed the French side to produce a large number of equipment, and by the time of the armistice, its output reached 3,187 units, which was almost the most successful tank at that time. Until 1944, the Renault FT-17 was still in service with the French army.
The German tanks started late, and due to their weak position on the Western Front, the Germans were forced to go on the defensive, and there was not much demand for offensive **. Therefore, after the Battle of the Somme, the Germans began to develop tanks. In 1917, Germany introduced its own A7V tank. With a weight of 33 tons and a crew of 18 people, it was the most occupied tank in World War I, and it could cram 28 people at the most, more like an armored personnel carrier. It has a 57 mm gun on the front, two MG08 heavy machine guns on each side and behind.
Due to the long-term blockade by the Entente, Germany lacked resources and made it difficult to prepare tanks on a large scale. And the Germans, having mastered anti-tank tactics, were skeptical of the combat capabilities of tanks and ordered only 100 units. But in the end, in addition to 3 test vehicles, the actual number of A7V tanks delivered was only 17.
At 10 a.m. on April 24, 1918, three A7V tanks met three British Mark IV tanks on the narrow road of Amiens, France. Due to the poor line of sight inside the tank and the noise interference of the roaring engine, neither side detected the other's presence in advance, and the two A7V tanks drove to other places to participate in the battle.
Relying on the reminder of the infantry, the British were the first to spot the German tanks and take the lead. It was also under the reminder of the infantry that the German tank realized that it had been attacked by its peers, quickly adjusted its muzzle, and destroyed two "female" tanks with only machine guns. Later, the "male" tank equipped with a 6-pounder gun successfully counterattacked, destroying the A7V tank and winning the battle.
By noon, two A7V tanks that had missed the first tank battle met seven British Greyhound A medium tanks. The "Greyhound A" medium tank, armed only with machine guns, was no match for the A7V at all, 4 were destroyed, and the remaining three were hastily retreated. The two sides played to a 1-1 draw on the opening day.
In addition to Britain, France, and Germany, other World War I belligerents also developed their own tanks, such as the Tsar tank with a huge front wheel, the Italian Fiat tank, and the American M1918 light tank, but these tanks were either congenitally deficient or developed too late and failed to go to the battlefield. Even Britain, which has the most experience in tank combat, did not have time to fully exploit the potential of tanks.
In the early morning of November 20, 1917, at the suggestion of Colonel Fuller, a pioneer in the theory of armored warfare, the British army concentrated on three tank brigades with a total of 476 tanks in the Battle of Cambrai, and launched a tank cluster charge against the German positions. In just one day, the British army broke through to a depth of 6 kilometers, and they captured 7,500 German soldiers at the cost of **4,000 people, and captured a large amount of ** equipment. To celebrate the victory of Cambrai, the bells of all London churches rang in unison, the only time in a great war.
The victory at Cambrai gave the tanks a glimpse of the trenches, and if they had been carried out a few more times, perhaps the fate of the tanks after the war would have been completely reversed. However, the war did not give the tanks more chances, and after the Battle of Cambrai, the British and French only used tank clusters again in the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, and a total of 600 tanks were put into the battle, and the Germans were once again inflicted heavy losses. The stubborn and belligerent German commander-in-chief, Ludendorff, was stunned by this sudden defeat, and in the high command he exclaimed in frustration: "August 8 is the darkest day in the history of the German army. Three months later, World War I ended.
After the end of World War I, although there were many supporters of tanks in various countries, such as Britain's Fuller, Germany's Guderian, France's Charles de Gaulle, and **'s Tukhachevsky. But except for Guderian, who was appreciated by Hitler, the others were not taken seriously. The Great War I is remembered more vividly for the trenches, machine guns and barbed wire, the strategic idea that defense is better than offense, and it was under these circumstances that France's Maginot Line was built with heavy investment.
In addition to not having enough opportunities to practice combat theory, the performance of tanks in World War I was also really worrying. At that time, the thickness of the tank's armor was 10-30 mm, the speed was 6-15 kilometers per hour, and the maximum range was 40-80 kilometers. And the cross-country ability is very poor, and you need to pick flat terrain (such as the Cambrai area) to attack. Compared with the torrent of steel that galloped across the mountains and mountains in World War II, the tanks in World War I were too weak. Take the Soviet T-34 medium tank of World War II as an example, the armor thickness is 45 mm, the speed is 55 kilometers per hour, and the maximum range is 468 kilometers.
Weak protection and slow speed are easy to be hit by artillery. In the second half of the Battle of Cambrai, the Germans used artillery to launch a counterattack and recapture their positions. The short range limited the depth of the tank's raids, making it a shield for the infantry. In fact, tanks in World War I could not do without the protection of infantry, which was exposed in the first tank battle in Amiens. In short, the First World War gave birth to tanks, but it was not a war that belonged to tanks. Tanks that were born at the wrong time in World War I would not be able to wear the crown of "King of Land Warfare" until the outbreak of World War II.