The Tanks; the original 'landships', both sides.

During WWI mobile warfare on the Western Front had effectively came to a halt. Both sides were dug in massive defensive positions littered with pillboxes, mine, wire, and strong points. Except for gas and artillery attacks the war was at a stalemate. Any attempt at attack was repelled by a relatively new and awesome weapon, the machine gun. Tanks were first developed by the British as a sort of mobile pillbox that could advance forward under withering machine gun fire to crush wire and obstacles and to provide fire support for advancing infantry.

Although the performance of the first tanks, Little Willie and Mark I, had proved disappointing in battle, Colonel John Fuller, chief of staff of the Tank Corps, remained convinced that these machines could win the war. After the Battle of the Somme, Fuller persuaded Sir Douglas Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Army, to order another 1,000 tanks.

The British had 60 tanks in service by the spring of 1917. Improvements were made and the new Mark IV tank was strong enough to withstand the recently developed German anti-tank rifles. The Mark IVs were used at the Battle of Messines in June 1917 but those used at Passchendaele later that year tended to get stuck in the mud before they reached the German lines. Other problems encountered during this period included poor visibility, noxious fumes and high temperatures inside the tank.

At the autumn of 1917 a lighter tank called the Mark A was ready to be used on the Western Front. Nicknamed the Whippet, it was faster than previous tanks but was still unreliable and vulnerable to artillery fire.

The Mark V tank became available in July 1918. It contained a new Ricardo engine that had been specially designed for the tank. With new transmission and better gears, the tank could travel at nearly 5 mph. To help the tank tackle the wide trenches of the Hindenburg Line, cribbs were carried. This was a braced cylindrical framework which when dropped in the trench acted as a kind of stepping stone. (See photo above)

At Amiens Colonel John Fuller managed to persuade General Henry Rawlinson to use 342 Mark V and 72 Whippet tanks, followed by soldiers and supported by over 1,000 aircraft. The strategy worked and the Allies managed to breakthrough the German frontline.

German

Tanks

Schwerer Kampfwagen A7V After British tanks went into action on 15th September, 1916, the German Army immediately demanded their own landships. The German High Command appointed a committee composed of experts from leading engineering companies. Josef Vollmer was eventually chosen to design the German tank that became known as the Schwerer Kampfwagen A7V. Powered by two Daimler engines, the tank was first demonstrated in the Spring Offensive of 1917. In addition to six water-cooled machine-guns, it had a 5.7-cm Sokol gun at the front of the vehicle.

A hundred of these tanks were ordered and the first of these were ready in October 1917. The Schwerer Kampfwagen A7V was first used at St Quentin on 21st March 1918. Although some of its features, such as the sprung tracks and the thicker armour, made it better than British tanks at that time, the A7V was less successful as a battle vehicle. The main problems concerned its mechanical reliability and the difficulty it encountered crossing enemy trenches.