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Introduction
A New Style of Warfare
The British were the first nation during the 1914-18 war to commit Tanks to Battle. In 1916 the Battle of the Somme was not going well for the British. On the opening day, the 1st July, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties. Haig had been in discussions with Swinton about using Tanks on the first day, but the Tank had undergone a rapid development and their crews were still far from trained. Swinton agreed to commit three of his six newly formed Tank companies to the melee on the Somme. They arrived during August and September that year, the last Company arriving too late to take part in the up and coming battle. On the morning of the 15th September 1916, the first Tanks crossed no mans land. Only 49 were committed to the battle and of that number only 36 crossed the start line. The new weapon caused panic amongst the German troops, but the breakthrough that Haig had hoped for was impossible. Sufficient numbers were not available to achieve any real major success. Even though a breakthrough had not been achieved, the local successes of Tanks operating in ones and twos had demonstrated to Haig the value of the new weapon. The most reported local success of the Tanks on that day, being a single Tank travelling down the main street of Fler. By the second day the losses of Tanks due to mechanical break down, bogging, and losses to the enemy fire had reduced the initial 49 to practically nothing. The infantry were again left to fend for themselves. The dead lock still remained intact on the Western Front, but Haig had seen the potential of the new weapon and ordered an additional 1000 Tanks.
This is the Story of the Tank during the Great War.
During the Second World War the Tanks of the German Panzer Divisions created and helped to perpetuate the myth of German invincibility up until 1943. The First Tanks of the Great War were a far cry from the machines of 21 years later. The Tanks of the Great War were unreliable, difficult and stressful to use, with limited range and speed. They were designed to crush the wire entanglements in no mans land, neutralise the Germans' Machine Guns and cross the German trenches. They were not the machines of Blitzkrieg of the Second World War.
Through 1916 and most of 1917, they were available in small numbers and misused by the British High Command in Penny Packets. During this time, the Tank Corps attracted some of the brightest of the British Officers Corps, who envisaged a wider application for the new weapon. Fuller was the pre-eminent thinker in the British Army during the 1914-1918 War and the 1920s, with regards the application of the Tank in combat. He saw the Tank and its crews being wasted on the battlefields of Messine Ridge and Ypres (Passchendaele), in 1917. In both cases, the ground was unsuitable for Tank operations, the Artillery cratering the landscape prior to the attack. At Ypres the Artillery bombardment had turned the battlefield into a bog, that swallowed men and Tanks alike. During this period, Fuller convinced Haig to carry out a limited Tank raid at Cambrai. The ground at Cambrai was well suited to Tank operations and it's success (in November 1917) came at a time when many senior commanders started to question the value of the Tank Corps (especially in the light of infantry losses on the Battlefield of Ypres).
With the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, large numbers of German Troops were released from the East to reinforce the German Western Armies. This was the next great test of the Tank Corps. Ludendorff's assault on the 21st March 1918 was not unexpected, but it success was. Fuller had attended a conference at GHQ on the 2nd March 1918 to plan for defensive operations against the expected German offensive. The British 5th Army commander General Gough, suggested digging Tanks into strong points. Fuller could not support this idea as it went against his theories on the use of Tanks in Battle. The Tank was a mobile weapon; therefore it would be used to the best advantage in defence, if its mobility was exploited. He proposed a tactic that became known as "Savage Rabbits" where Tanks would be positioned in a dugout and would rush forward at the most opportune moment and engage the enemy. This went against his own theories on concentration and created a logistical nightmare, which accounted for the 120 Tanks lost in the first week of the German offensive. Many of the Tanks lost in the first week had run out of fuel or simply cut off when the Germans avoided them as they moved forward. The German tactics of infiltration involved avoiding strong points by the initial assault, leaving the strong points to be dealt with by latter waves of troops. Though the Germans advanced deep into the British lines they were unable to break through. These were desperate days for the British Army. By August the Allies had regained the ground they had lost earlier. The Tank Corps making a significant contribution this period.
On the 8th August the British attacked at Amiens, which was described by Ludendorff as the Germans "Blackest Day of the war". The attack at Amiens consisted of the British 4th Army and the French 1st Army, the Canadian Corps, the Australian Corps and the III Corps formed the British 4th Army. The Canadians and Australians led the attack an hour before sunrise on the 8th August. These were two of the finest fighting formations on the Western Front and were described in "White Heat" (by John Terraine) as elite troops. The Canadian and Australian Corps were supported by 420 Tanks in 12 Battalions (10 Heavy Battalions and 2 Whippet Battalions) of the Tank Corps. The offensive was so successful, that an 11-mile gap was made in the German lines. By the 11th August the offensive was over. The effect of Amiens on the German morale was devastating. The German Army was defeated. As Fuller described it, when describing the remainder of the War, "the rest was minor Tactics". This was the last battle the Tank Corps committed large numbers of Tanks to. The Tank Corps on the 11th August was only able to muster 38 serviceable Tanks.
The Tank Corps fought through to the end of the war taking part in the successful actions at Bapaume, Arras, Epehy, St Quentin, Selle and Mauberge. The Tank Corps suffered in the closing stages of the war under improved German antitank tactics. The Tanks were forced to operate in the "Half Light" as John Terraine described it. Irrespective of what conditions they were forced to operate in, they significantly boosted the morale of the infantry. In the course of two and a half years the Tank had left the drawing board and became an effective weapon overcoming distrust and misuse, contributing to the Allied victory in 1918.
Copyright Stuart Groombridge
All Rights Reserved 1999,2000,2001, 2002
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