No one individual was
responsible for the development of the tank.
Its design can be drawn back to the eighteenth century. Rather, a number
of gradual technological developments brought the development of the tank as we
know it closer until its eventual form was unveiled out of necessity by the
British army - or rather, navy, since its initial deployment in World War One
was, perhaps surprisingly, overseen by the Royal Navy.
Evolution
of the Tank
A (brief) history
lesson is in order. The caterpillar
track, upon which the tank travelled, was designed in its crudest form in 1770
by Richard Edgeworth. The Crimean War
saw a relatively small number of steam powered tractors developed using the
caterpillar track to manoeuvre around the battlefield's muddy terrain. Thus even in the 1850s the development of the
tank seemed tantalisingly close - except that its development dimmed until the
turn of the century. With the 1885 development of the internal combustion
engine (by Nikolaus August Otto) a tractor was constructed in the U.S. by the
Holt Company which utilised Edgeworth's caterpillar tracks, again to facilitate
movement over muddy terrain. It was even
suggested at the time that Holt's machine be adapted for military purposes, but
the suggestion was never acted upon. Next up was Frederick Simms. In 1899 he designed what he termed a
'motor-war car'. It boasted an engine by
Daimler, a bullet-proof casing and armed with two revolving machine guns
developed by Hiram Maxim. Offered to the
British army it was - as had the machine gun before it - dismissed as of little
use. Lord Kitchener, later Britain's War
Minister, regarded it damningly as "a pretty mechanical toy".
Development in related
areas continued despite the British War Office's apparent lack of interest in
the machine's potential. Alvin O. Lombard of Penobscot County, Maine, produced
and sold the first engine with crawler tracks in May 1901. A British army
officer, Colonel Ernest Swinton, and the Secretary of the Committee for
Imperial Defence, Maurice Hankey, remained enthusiastic about what they
believed to be the enormous potential of the tank, not least in breaking
through enemy trench defences. While Hankey produced the first official memo
concerning the tank (in a memorandum on 'special devices') on 26 December 1914,
it was Swinton who organised a demonstration of the Killen-Strait vehicle to
senior politicians in June 1915 - almost a year after the war was underway.
Sponsored
by Winston Churchill
In attendance at the
demonstration of the Killen-Strait tractor were two future British Prime
Ministers: David Lloyd George (who achieved the highest office by the end of
the year) and the current First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill (who
had to wait another 25 years before he finally became Prime Minister, in the
next world war). During the demonstration the tractor successfully demonstrated
its ability to cut through a barbed wire entanglement. Both Churchill and Lloyd George came away
impressed by its potential. It was Churchill who, on Colonel Swinton's urging
(and backed by Hankey), sponsored the establishment of the Landships Committee
to investigate the potential of constructing what amounted to a new military
weapon. The name of the committee was
derived from the fact that, at least initially, the tank was seen an extension
of sea-going warships - hence, a landship.
The
Birth of the Landship - or Tank
Together the Landships
Committee and the Inventions Committee, working with Colonel Swinton, agreed to
go ahead with the design of the new weapon, which at that time remained
nameless. They therefore commissioned Lieutenant Walter Wilson of the Naval Air
Service and William Tritton of William Foster & Co., based in Lincoln, to
produce the first landship in secrecy.
Its codename, given because the shape of the shell resembled water
carriers, was 'tank'; the name, assigned in December 1915, stuck. Swinton laid
down certain key criteria that he argued must be part of the finished
design. The tank must boast a minimum
speed of four miles per hour, be able to climb a five foot high obstacle,
successfully span a five foot trench, and - critically - be immune to the
effects of small-arms fire. Furthermore,
it should possess two machine guns, have a range of twenty miles and be
maintained by a crew of ten men.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYq_gMcJWCYjmpDUIN-48d3L8JHn95HMVXvzepc4ldGO_T1ylnh-Q2EULitL24SBsigU0dxDiebD2gvHbrHfkrjSsugN_Od6Q211RbBeFGiiVqf3zSpNUFmh80gVWtOSmW1W3js01mY0c1/s1600/tankbarbwire.jpg)
This first tank was
given the nickname 'Little Willie' (soon followed by 'Big Willie') and, as with
its predecessors, possessed a Daimler engine.
Weighing some 14 tons and bearing 12 feet long track frames, the tank
could carry three people in cramped conditions.
In the event its top speed was three miles per hour on level ground, two
miles per hour on rough terrain (actual battlefield conditions in fact). The
'Little Willie' was notably restricted in that it was unable to cross
trenches. This handicap was however soon
remedied under the energetic enthusiasm of Colonel Swinton.
The
Role of the Royal Navy
The tank was in many
ways merely an extension of the principle of the armoured car. Armoured cars were popular on the Western
Front at the start of the war, since at that stage it was very much a war of
movement. Their use only dwindled with
the onset of static trench warfare, when their utility was questionable.
The Royal Navy's role
in tank development may seem incongruous but was in fact merely an extension of
the role they had played thus far in the use of armoured cars. The navy had deployed squadrons of armoured
cars to protect Allied airstrips in Belgium against enemy attack. It was this experience that Churchill drew
upon when offering his department's support for the 'landship'.
Production
of the Tank
The first combat tank
was ready by January 1916 and was demonstrated to a high-powered audience. Convinced, Lloyd George - the Minister of
Munitions - ordered production of the heavy Mark I model to begin (the lighter
renowned 'Whippets' entered service the following year). Meanwhile the French,
who were aware of British tank experimentation, proceeded with their own
independent designs, although they remained somewhat sceptical as to its
potential; their focus at the time was firmly on the production of ever more
battlefield artillery. Nevertheless the French had their own Colonel Swinton, a
man named Colonel Estienne. He managed to persuade the French Commander in
Chief, Joseph Joffre, of the battlefield potential of the tank as an aid to the
infantry.
Joffre, ever a champion
of the 'offensive spirit', agreed with the result that an initial order for 400
French Schneider (their first tank, named after the factory which produced
them) and 400 St. Chaumond tanks was placed, although they were not used until
April 1917. Five months after its combat demonstration to the British, in June
1916 the first production line tanks were ready, albeit too late for use at the
start of that year's 'big push' - the Battle of the Somme, which began on 1
July 1916.
Early
Use of the Tank
Initially the Royal
Navy supplied the crews for the tank.
History was made on 15 September 1916 when Captain H. W. Mortimore
guided a D1 tank into action at the notorious Delville Wood. Shortly afterwards
thirty-six tanks led the way in an attack at Flers. Although the attack was itself successful -
the sudden appearance of the new weapon stunned their German opponents - these
early tanks proved notoriously unreliable. In part this was because the
British, under Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig, deployed them before they
were truly battle ready in an attempt to break the trench stalemate. They often broke down and became ditched -
i.e. stuck in a muddy trench - more often than anticipated.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn8XlpEd0DOjU0MvcA7LUUHrwP7TpZNTl8dhKdOpj8R2_QMYxHQii1hvuAIjr796mFFHqpNhyRcsmxhZWwKwcZL-5zer9dFsMXHcoKmHrGnW3ykjKl2jSUx2WwfcyU7lyWdmJn7PcGTMw4/s1600/renaulttank.jpg)
Conditions for the tank
crews were also far from ideal. The heat
generated inside the tank was tremendous and fumes often nearly choked the men
inside. Nevertheless the first tank
operators proved their mettle by operating under what amounted to appalling
conditions. The first battle honour awarded to a tank operator went to Private
A. Smith, awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Delville Wood on 15
September 1916. In April 1917 the French deployed 128 tanks in their Aisne
Offensive along the Chemin-des-Dames; unfortunately however they did not
distinguish themselves in this battle, once again proving highly unreliable
(more so than the early British models).
Similarly, at Bullecourt in April/May 1917 the Australians pronounced
great dissatisfaction with the tank's performance.
Tanks were even
deployed during the notorious, almost swampy, conditions of the Third Battle of
Ypres (more commonly known as 'Passchendaele').
They promptly sank in the mire and were entirely without benefit.
Tank
Successes
In what many regard as
the first truly successful demonstration of the potential of the tank, the
entire British Tank Corps (consisting of 474 tanks) saw action at the Battle of
Cambrai on 20 November 1917 (although the French can lay claim to its earlier successful
use at Malmaison). In a sweepingly successful start to the battle twelve miles
of the German front was breached, with the capture of 10,000 German prisoners,
123 guns and 281 machine guns. Unfortunately for the British this enormous
initial success was effectively cancelled out in German counter-attacks because
the British did not possess sufficient infantry troops to exploit the breach
they had created.
Nevertheless the
successful use of tanks at Cambrai restored dwindling faith in tank development. The U.S. army took note and undertook
development of its own tank series. It also acted as a stimulus to the
curiously hesitant German army, who had expressed continuing doubts as to the
battlefield value of the tank.
They too began to
hasten production of their own models, although they never pretended enthusiasm
for their cause. The U.S. Tank Corps adopted the use of French Renault tanks,
light six-ton vehicles designed for close infantry support. Around 200 of these were used in action at St.
Mihiel and again at the Battle of Meuse-Argonne during late September/early
October (although losses were high in the latter action).
Tank
Versus Tank
The first successful
display of German tanks came on 24 April 1918, when thirteen German models,
chiefly A7V's, engaged British and Australian infantry at Villers Bretonneux. Successful
in driving back the British and Australians this encounter was to become famous
as the site of the first tank versus tank engagement. Three British Mark IVs fought three German
A7Vs south of Villers Bretonneux, the British succeeding in driving off the
German tanks. (Click here for a memoir
of that encounter.)
An
Aid to the Infantry
On 4 July 1918 the tank
was used in a manner that helped to fashion the method in which it was deployed
in future battles. General John Monash,
commander of the Australian Corps, launched an attack at Le Hamel by unleashing
a co-ordinated barrage of tanks, artillery and warplanes, all designed to clear
a path for advancing infantry. Monash saw no point in attempting to gain ground
by using infantry to storm enemy machine gun positions. Rather he believed in using technology to
facilitate a relatively uneventful infantry advance, with tanks at their head.
His view vindicated,
Monash achieved victory at Le Hamel in just 93 minutes. Other commanders took note. Tanks were
increasingly used during the Allied advance of summer 1918. During the French
attack at Soissons from 18-26 July no fewer than 336 Schneiders, St Chamonds
and Renaults were deployed to support combined French and American infantry. However
tank deployment on the grand scale was reached on 8 August 1918, when 604
Allied tanks assisted an Allied 20 mile advance on the Western Front.
Tank
Numbers
By the time the war
drew to a close the British, the first to use them, had produced some 2,636
tanks. The French produced rather more,
3,870. The Germans, never convinced of its
merits, and despite their record for technological innovation, produced just
20. With the French tanks proving more serviceable than their British
equivalents they continued to be used beyond wartime. The French Renault F.T.
tank continued to grow in popularity as the concept of the tank as a close aid
to advancing infantry prospered.
Both the U.S. and Italy
produced their own tank designs which were based on the French Renault model, a
testament to its design strengths. The
Italians produced the Fiat 3000 and the U.S. the M1917. Tank design continued
to improve beyond the war and the tank, which helped to make trench warfare
redundant, restored movement to the battlefield. Its widespread use continues to the present
day.