The Art Of Tank Warfare - Chris Keeling

WORLD WAR I
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Although the tank first came into use during the First World War, the basic principles of armored warfare
had been used for hundreds, even thousands, of years. The notion of a heavily armed and armored mobile
force which could strike deep into enemy territory was first embodied by the heavy cavalry and chariot units
of ancient times, as well as by the infantry tactic known as the “tortoise” which was used to assault fortified
installations. However the need for a self-propelled armored vehicle was recognized much earlier in history.
The Spanish used horse-towed sleds with small cannons mounted on them to provide close artillery support
for their troops in the field. The famous inventor and artist Leonardo de Vinci recognized the need for a
heavily armored and mobile engine of war and drew up plans accordingly. In World War I, the need became
apparent for a vehicle that could resist the machinegun, a weapon that had completely dominated the fleshand-blood
battlefield of man and horse. At first, the use of simple armored cars was common, however, it
was soon obvious that these vehicles, based on the limited suspensions of the current automobile and truck,
were impractical on a battlefield which was covered with bomb craters, trenches, and barbed wire. A new
solution was needed and, thanks to the invention of the caterpillar track, the tank was born.
The First Tanks. The British were the first to recognize the need for an armored vehicle capable of
traversing the battlefield. Their first design, ordered by Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the
Admiralty), called the No. 1 Lincoln machine, was built in 1915 and subsequently modified through the
addition of superior tracks to become the ‘Little Willie’. This vehicle could easily cross a five-foot (1.52 m)
trench and climb up a four-and-a-half foot (1.37 m) obstacle. For performance and armament, it had a top
speed of 3.5 MPH (5.6 km/h), light armor, and fittings for a 40mm gun in a small turret. This early design
was superceded by Big Willie, a now-familiar design utilizing the rhomboidal-shaped chassis and tread system
with guns mounted on the hull sides instead of in a turret. The frontal armor was only 10mm thick, with a
crew of eight men, a top speed of 4 MPH (6.4 km/h), two 57mm guns in hull sponsons, and four pivoting
machineguns. This basic vehicle was tested in early 1916 and ordered into production in two versions; the
“male” version, mounting the twin 57mm guns, and the “female” version which replaced the two cannons
with two more machineguns. Although used mainly for local testing, the British armies first major use of
tanks in combat took place on November 20, 1917, at the Battle of Cambrai, where the British used 400
tanks to penetrate almost ten kilometers into German lines.
The German Army had their own tank in development, the A7V, which had a maximum of 30mm of
armor, a 57mm gun in the hull front, six machineguns, and a crew of 18 men. The A7V was unwieldy, with
generally poor performance, and a requirement for an enormous crew of 18 men. As a result, less than 35
were actually produced. The French, also seeing the need for such a vehicle early in the war, had produced
several heavy tank designs and one exceptional light tank design, the Renault FT-17. This tank, along with
the British Mk.VI, a late-war version of the Big Willie, was adopted by the US Expeditionary Forces, which
did not come up with an indigenous design until after the war ended in 1918. The FT-17 was the first
“modern-style” tank design, mounted with a 37mm gun in a small, one-man turret, with the hull suspended
between low tracks, and the engine situated in a rear compartment. The crew consisted of a muchoverworked
commander/gunner/loader and a driver. Italy had also produced an improved version of this
vehicle known as the Fiat Tipo 3000 Modello 1921, which did not enter service until after the war.