WWI 1916: The Terror Of The First Tanks | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

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1916

. A terrifying new killing machine appears in the First World War. battlefield the

tank

on a mission to crush the german defenses and end two years of bloody trench warfare the arrival of

tank

s changes the war completely it will never be the same again the 28 ton rolling monsters horrify the germans and they send panic through the lines that these guys had.

I have no idea what's coming their way. None of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank. The Germans respond with ferocious firepower. You are sitting in a metal coffin that will turn into an inferno in seconds and eventually deploy deadly

tanks

with their own machine gun. bullets and that noise is death the face of modern warfare changes forever and the stage is set for the

first

great tank battle in history the undisputed king tank of the battlefield during the 20th century had been key to modern mobile warfare the decisive factor in many of the events of history Great Battles The tank's journey began almost a century ago during the desperate fighting of the First World War in

1916

.

The great war is stalemates. We have trench warfare. There is a line of trenches with the British and French on one side and then the Germans on the other. The other is the result of a 700 kilometer network of trenches, barbed wire and machine guns that cut a deadly swath through Belgium and France. This is the Western Front, but the technology of 1916 is based on infantry that is vulnerable to machine guns and, of course, always supported by trenches and barbed wire, so already from the beginning of the war people are aware of that there must be a way to overcome the barbed wire, the trenches, the machine guns, the British believe the solution can be found in tracked vehicles, but the idea of ​​a mobile weapon on the battlefield has been around for centuries, from Hannibal's war elephants to Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and even H.G Wells' science fiction

battles

hips.

The British launch a top-secret weapons program they call the tank project to fool German spies into believing in their water. aircraft carriers the reality is lethally different these are mobile killing machines what makes the tank so important in the

first

world war is that for the first time you get the combination of a thin armor plate, a power source and the technology of the track on January 29, 1916 The British presented the first tank in history, the Mark One, equipped with two enormous 20-meter-long tracks. The Mark One is designed to span even the widest trenches and can be armed with two six-pounder naval guns or four deadly Vickers machine guns.

Wheels at the rear. It helps keep it stable but is slow, cumbersome, and requires a large crew to carry it into battle. normally there would be eight men in one of these tanks, four of them deal with the guns, the rest of the crew, the other four men are involved in driving now this tank is virtually identical inside to the tanks that first saw action time at Song in September 1916. The Battle of Song that was fought for five months in 1916 was British commander Douglas Haig's attempt to end the two-year stalemate in September. already cost the Allies over 300,000 casualties, desperate to stop the carnage, Hague turns to his new weapon and the decision was made to use the tanks as soon as they are available, they will go into battle north of the Psalm River to its attack that The Hague has accumulated.

Two hundred thousand men, more than 700 artillery pieces and 49 of his new tanks face more than one hundred thousand German soldiers entrenched on an 11 kilometer front, but before Haye can launch his main attack, he must first eliminate a threat. to their flank clearing the Germans from Delville Woods and for the first time in the history of the war tanks will lead the attack. This is uh Delville Wood. This is the starting line of the attack by three tanks of Company D in the first tank attack against the morning of September 15, 1916. But when the tanks were here, their crews would not have seen a nice, pretty landscape, they would have seen shell holes, splintered trees, it would have been hell on earth, they even called it the devil's forest, three d company tanks head into the pre-dawn darkness the crews trust their lives to these new weapons not tested in In a matter of moments one tank breaks down and cannot continue another gets stuck on uneven terrain, but a tank nicknamed Reckless by its commander, Captain Harold Mortimer continues the attack that morning everything seems so unreal I didn't think my tank would be the first in the world in firing a shot in anger I saw many flashes coming from the edge of the forest I gave the order to open I fired one of the six-pounders.

I managed to advance towards one of the trenches, but we received a direct hit. They broke my track. All three tanks are lost, but the infantry took the forest of Delville, clearing the way for the main attack on The Hague, which requires 200,000. Allied troops will advance along an 11-kilometer front targeting the fortified villages of corsilet morval and fleur and for the first time the tanks will lead a massive infantry attack their mission to crush the barbed wire and suppress the machine gun fire allowing the infantry to advance and assault the German trenches this is where the battle begins early in the morning of the September 15, along this road, here come the tanks moving towards the village, already gathered in all of the 41st division, the infantry waiting to move forward with their tanks leading, essentially everything is heading towards that town, where the objective is down there, the first tank attack after a massive artillery bombardment the tanks slowly crawl towards the german lines in small groups inside the tank now things are really unpleasant not only do we have this tremendous amount of noise roaring from the engine that is right in the middle, these chimneys of exhaust that carries vapors through the top of the tank will now be so hot that you won't be able to touch them; in fact, they will start to glow pink after a while in the dark and you will feel the heat radiating over your skin now we are getting closer to the line of fire the ground is getting rougher the tank is slowing down lieutenant basil in reach the tank is approaching no man's land the point of no return we saw for the first time what seemed like impossible terrain, just one meter was not a projectile crater, it was like a raging sea made of holes after a hundred meters.

George stopped with an engine problem, this time for good, most tanks really break down, stall, run into mechanical problems. Problems, things just go into the tank and stop on a very steep slope. Something happened to Archie's car. He reported that he was out of combat and that I was going to continue alone. Of the original tank force, only nine remain operational with them. It's Lieutenant Arthur. Arnold in the tank he nicknamed Dracula, now everything was simply a succession of projectile craters. It was exciting the way the tank would descend into a crater, dig its tracks into the opposite wall, and then steadily climb out to be in a dimly lit compartment.

Then you have the situation where it moves up and down unless you hold on to things, then you're actually going to fall and things are moving there. Gunner Alfred Reifer is in a company tank that is slowly approaching the German trenches and detects serious problems. A German observation balloon can quickly provoke a deadly artillery attack and stop the advance of the tanks and the infantry must be destroyed immediately. Percy Bolt immediately told me excitedly that he was going to fire on a German observation balloon several rounds are fired and Bolt claims a direct hit a handful of tanks breached no man's land and rushed onto the German front line where hundreds of defenders were shocked to see the metal monsters approaching in 1916 the germans basically had no idea the tank was in development so they are sitting there and looked out and then the first thing they noticed was the sound because tanks are loud These guys have no idea what's coming at them None of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank Most of them had never even seen a car They started shooting with machine guns and rifles too The first tanks in the world are now almost on top of the German lines and are about to face their

greatest

test on the battlefield now the bullets from the machine guns are hitting the tank it is like being in a hail storm in a tin box and that noise is death 15 September 1960 The first tank attack in history is underway here in the bloody Battle of Song The British hope that the new armored weapons will crush the German defenses and help end two years of trench warfare Mechanical problems and The Rough terrain stops most tanks in their tracks, but some manage to cross no man's land and advance slowly toward German fire.

The bullets from the machine guns now crash against the table and that noise is death. When we approached, they fired heavily at us. and mane then a blow against my lapel caused the splinters to enter and the blood to run down my face dracula reached the line first a row of german heads appeared on the parapet and looked with a certain astonishment but what was approaching along the nerve of Durante bombardment of 1916, the Germans basically had no idea the tank was under development. These guys have no idea what was coming. None of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank.

Once he stood looking and looking and looking as if one had lost power. from their extremities the great monsters approached slowly but always advancing someone shouted that the devil is coming they also began to shoot with machine guns and rifles both were of no use damn this thing that spits fire crosses the holes of the projectiles and approaches with firmness and security towards us, the fear of being overwhelmed, it is a very deep fear, everyone has been crushed to the ground, so the German soldiers developed something called German panzer anxiety, which is fear of tanks, now a hail of bullets machine gun passes over us, outside, monsters come.

The tank advance was at the top of the trench and there we stopped and the thicker guns pointed at the enemy to port and we started, then we moved forward again. One of the remaining tanks approaches its final objective in the center of the German defensive line, the village of Fleur. We arrived at the town, which was a pile of rubble with some skeletons of houses still standing. Hell reigned outside. Well, Bolt saw a couple of German machine gunners shooting at us. Four six-pounder shots knocked them out. The villager. fleur has been released a british observation plane observes the d-17 tank moving down the main street the scene of flares was unprecedented firing as it advanced the tank staggered down the main street followed by groups of cheering infantry the news spreads quickly home the British eager to receive good news from the front celebrate their new lethal weapon, this is the highest point in the battle of Fleur because it is at this place where the d17 tank turns to stop the advancing infantry and becomes at the point where the battle ends.

Is it a total success? In four days, General Hague ordered a thousand tanks as far as he was concerned. He has definitively proven that tanks have a role in modern warfare. Seven months later, in April 1917, Hague sends his deadly armored guns into action near Arras. His plan exploits what is considered the weak point of the German line by attacking the small village of Moshi Leprous with a massive artillery and tank infantry attack at dawn on April 11, 1917. The attack will begin at 5 a.m., but it is snowing and very cold. Allied commanders. They order a delay of two hours in the hope that the weather will improve, they notify the artillery and infantry, but no one thinks to notify the tanks and punctually at five o'clock, three tanks leave alone without knowing it.

These tanks are pioneers in a new armored tactic, the unannounced surprise attack by a warning artillery barrage with them is the driver jack harris. It seemed strange to advance without the usual artillery bombardment, but our orders were clear to advance at 5 am and capture Morshi duringThroughout the great war, artillery was considered essential to prepare the way for attack. It breaks the enemy defenses, cuts the cable, it may kill some Germans, but it also warns them of what is happening at Monsieur in 1917, when there is no warning bombardment, the Germans are taken by surprise because the tanks just appear in that position.

We stare at a ghost as a tank slowly approaches us and we open fire. We hope the wide ditch on the side of the road will stop it, but it doesn't and now the tanks have more Shiela droppings at their mercy. We just drove down. the main street as the crew was shooting at everything inside, every gun in the tank was firing, I could see many jerrys leaving the place as fast as they could, the tank crew opened with a killer machine gun, those who didn't died they shouted instantly. When they hit us with lasers, we got to the other side of the village and when we looked back we saw that Jerry had realized that we had no infantry with us and I could see German soldiers coming out of the cellars. and shelters and reoccupy the positions we just cleared, the officer said it looks like we have to capture everything again, but this time they won't have the element of surprise, the tanks were not well armored on top because the main armor had to be in the front and if you throw grenades that the Germans have in abundance on the roof, that may well shake the fuel tank and the explosion will go every which way, so it will also go down and hopefully kill the refrigerator.

You know that with the fuel tanks inside the vehicle you're sitting in, then you're sitting in a metal coffin that will turn into hell in seconds, one tank takes a direct hit and the remaining two keep moving into a wall of bullets. piercing. If you can imagine being inside an armored vehicle when you are hit by armor piercing munition, it will slide around the tank bouncing around. things and if it hits a person, you can calculate what it will do if it bursts the fuel line or hits the ammo, then it will turn it into a funeral pyrotechnic in a few seconds.

The German gunners destroy the second tank and seriously damage the third one driven by Lieutenant Jack Harris managed to get the old bus out of that corner at that moment we were all wounded I have to put it on the side of the neck with a bloody mess entered by the gunman Harris He almost made it out of the city and to safety at 7:00 a.m. Allied artillery opens up on Mauricio La Cruz not knowing that their own tanks are already in the city and things get even worse for Harris and his crew when a British shell destroys their tank, only Jack Harris survives the tank.

The attacks on Moshi Lipo fail but succeed in teaching tank commanders the value of tactical surprise and it will be the elements of surprise that the Allies will employ in their next winter offensive. The Battle of Cambria in November 1917 is a completely new way to use tanks. Now we are using them en masse, over 500 of them, the stage is set for what will become the first mast armored attack in history. November 1917, British tanks have been on the battlefield of the First World War in small numbers for over a year, proving they have a role in modern warfare.

Now Allied commanders dramatically raise the stakes by sending not dozens but hundreds of tanks to the western front all manned by the first specially trained tank corps in history the era of mass tank attack is about to begin the motto of the british tank corps is through mud and blood to green fields more there and that was what had been sought throughout the great war and that was what they hoped to achieve with the new tank corps, the allies hoped to drill holes through the Hindenburg line and capture the strategically important city of Chambray the Germans They have made this part of the line one of the most fortified sectors of the Western Front.

There are more than 250,000 soldiers, dozens of machine gun posts, a maze of barbed wire, and The first time that specific countermeasures were taken against tanks, one of the great antidotes to tanks was the German, the Hindenburg line with trenches that were, say, 16 feet wide and that was done on purpose to defeat the tanks. A great ability to cross trenches, now we are actually using it. They mass over 500 of them we are now using Mark Four tanks which are much better. The Mark Four have thicker armor making them less vulnerable to machine gun fire. November 20. 200,000 soldiers and almost 500 tanks are prepared for an all-out war.

Attack the Hinenburg Line and the first masked tank attack in history begins to advance with them. There's Major William Watson to my right and to my left, in the dim light, there were tanks, tanks lined up in front of the wire tanks swinging into position there. There was a tank every 30 yards in front when the guns started the tanks were moving over the top of the hill the enemy trenches were already engulfed in thick smoke the German defenders were taken by surprise all hell broke loose I could see the trench illuminated by a sea ​​of ​​flames caused by the incessant shell explosions century suddenly made an extraordinary comment hello something cornered is approaching then we saw a whole chain of these steel monsters advancing towards our trenches I clung to the hope that the French would be light enough to present the tanks with an insurmountable obstacle, he also realizes that some of the tanks need to be equipped for scenes or very large bundles of bushes and these are placed on the nose of the tank with the intention that they can be dropped into the German depths. . trenches the hindenburg line has enormously deep trenches without them they would get stuck they had a system to go over the trenches while a tank dumped wood into the trenches covering the second thing the same thing was happening because of the trend and that was like a killer insurance rolled towards them, so the massive attack by the British tanks was very successful.

The tanks advanced rapidly across the trench to our left and right, keeping up a heavy fire on the trench. We were completely helpless against these monsters. This was no longer a The battle was a massacre. The Germans who faced the massive attack at Cambray faced a new dimension of tank attacks and had no technical and psychological instruments to confront it. They were completely overwhelmed in a military and psychological base. It seems like an overwhelming victory. but the battle for Cambray is far from over and the Germans have prepared a lethal surprise for the steadily advancing Allies.

On November 20, 1917, the Allies launched the first massive tank attack in history. Nearly 500 new British Mark IV tanks lead infantry through the first trenches of the Hinenburg Line. and advance towards their objective the French city of Chambray is incredibly successful the enemy seems to have no way of dealing with this large number of tanks the tanks have crossed two lines of German defenses and are now prepared to break through the Hindenburg line h tanks The battalion It is among waves of armor that climb the right shoulder of the Fleskier Ridge Tank Harrier commanded by Gordon Hassell and the others stop at the top of Cambray.

The allied objective is in the distance. It seems too good to be true. I told my driver, Sergeant Callahan. I don't like this somehow, I don't know why a shell from a German field gun destroys the Hong Kong harrier and the other tanks desperately tried to get out of its range. We're going downhill and we can get up a little. of speed then I heard a tremendous explosion and saw one of our caterpillars fly into the air then we received another impact that took away our roof then a third shot hit the back and we were out of combat the weapon that destroys the eaglet also hits the hunter and collector the germans have surprised by unleashing fire from a weapon that quickly becomes their main tank killer the 77 millimeter field gun normally used for indirect fire in trenches the 77 has been modified for direct fire against tanks and its armor of 6 kilograms- Armor-piercing projectiles are accurate at distances of up to one kilometer.

Now the Germans had begun in the summer of 1917 to train their gunners in anti-tank work and the first real evidence we have of this is a battlefield location of Comrades in a town called Florida, where a line of British tanks crosses the front of a German battery trained in anti-tank fire and the tanks with their fuel stored inside are highly vulnerable to the gasoline from the field guns. The gas was actually here in the front, 25 gallons on each side. so chances are that if a shell entered the tank, it would probably ignite then fire the ammunition, the tank would explode and no one would come out of it alive.

Tanks suddenly appear on our front around Fleskier. I ordered the sides to be set at 700 meters and with our third shot we took down a tank in no time, we followed up with three more and then with my remaining gun we took out four more tanks, it was like a shooting gallery, the tanks on the bridge were rolling on the hill without knowing what it was. Upon arrival I was waiting for them knowing what would come at close range with direct fire our brave artillery destroyed all the tanks within range an impressive amount of these expensive pieces of combat equipment we are scattered across the battlefield like scrap metal in two days of fighting against the allies they lose 179 tanks but become more fleskier clearing the way towards their main objective cambray is really considered a tremendous success this is a victory the success of cambria however it is illusory in the battle of cambray which is often known as the first big tank Battle, yes the tanks made good progress, they covered ground up to 30 kilometers, but it was always forgotten that the German stormtroopers recaptured the same area in a few days with very few losses and now the Germans present another response to the British armor, a monster.

The first tank vs tank battle in its own history is about to begin in World War I. The tank has become the Allies' best bet for crossing the German trenches in 1917. Hundreds of them are in action on the Western Front, but the Allies are unaware of it. The German high command has been secretly developing its own tank, the misconception that many people of our time have is that it was an easy task to build an armored vehicle in the first world war it was a huge challenge, it is like nuclear technology today day in March 1918, a year and a half after the debut of the British tank, the German Empire sends a 30-ton monster to the front.

The A7V is powered by two 100-horsepower gasoline engines protected by 15-millimeter side armor and armed with a 57 millimeter main gun and six heavy machine guns The German tank in use in 1918 is a strange beast in many ways, however, it is very large, carries a large field gun right in the nose and has machine guns. There are a lot of people there, there are between 18 and 23 people, so it is quite crowded. but Villas knows better in 1918, he goes into action on April 24, 1918, the Germans armed with their new tanks capture Villar's Britain and send the tanks south to the nearby village of Kashi.

Three British tanks advance without realizing that they are about to make history. By Lieutenant Frank Mitchell came the order proceed to charge, hold him at all costs, suddenly, an infantryman shouted through our lapel, watch out for tanks, I looked out, about 300 meters away, a round monster and squat he advanced and further, to the left and to the right, thrown. two more of these armed turtles a great emotion ran through us all so we had finally met our rivals for the first time in history tank was meeting tank the most interesting thing about this fight is that both sides did not have the slightest idea of how to fight a tank to tank battle both sides were amazed next to each other and both sides were improvising and after a second of astonishment on both sides the British fired the first shot in the first tank battle in history that we kept on course in zig Zag.

The right gunner fired an observation shot. Three British and three German tanks barrel into each other over the cratered ground. The lead German tank opens fire with its main gun hitting the two female Mark Fours and punching holes in their sides. Against their machine guns they are useless. the heavy armor of the a7v retreats leaving mitchell's tank to face the a7vs alone two of their mark tanks fled the battlefield not because they were afraid but because of the female tanks so they only had machine guns but the manmarketing the third mark tank with a gun he closed it with the a7v the right gunner made an observation shot the shell exploded some distance beyond the lead enemy tank there was no response a second shot rang out landing just to the right but again there was no response suddenly against our steel wall a hurricane of hail and the interior was filled with innumerable sparks and flying splinters.

My face was pitted with my new shards of steel. The tank had treated us with a wide volley of armor-piercing bullets. The ground was scarred with shell holes. We continue forward. Up and down like a ship in a rough sea, making accurate shooting difficult. Another volley of armor-piercing bullets gave us our first casualty. Gunner Lewis after piercing the side of the tank we turned, I took a chance and stopped the tank for a moment. it's a dangerous move mitchell is now a stationary target for german tanks april 1918 three british and three german tanks clash in history's first tank-on-tank battle after their two companions are forced to retreat british commander frank mitchell stops his mark iv to give the gunner a better shot at the german a7v i took a chance and stopped the tank for a moment the mark iv is now a stationary target the pause was justified and a carefully aimed shot hit the turret of the german tank stopping it from firing instantly kills one gunner and mortally wounds two others, another raw puff and another white puff on the front of the tank denotes a second hit, then once again with great deliberation he aimed and hit a third time, we had knocked out the monster, the two remaining A7vs trail.

Go ahead, if they both pour concentrated fire on the British tank, it will be destroyed along with Mitchell and his crew. Now I thought we wouldn't last long. We sprayed one of them with some observation shells. It was to my intense joy and amazement that I saw it. He slowly retreated, his companion did the same and in a few minutes both disappeared from sight, leaving our tank as the sole owner of the field. Everything ended in minutes. This first chance encounter in the spring of 1918 between the Germans and the Allied armies became a moment. decisive in the history of modern warfare, seven months later, the great war finally ends, although it cannot be said that tanks win the war, the fact that they are available is very, very important for the allies, they are part of that combination that allows final victory that can be achieved the arrival of the tanks changes the war completely it will never be the same once you have left this out of the box you cannot put it back the motto of the British tank core is through from the mud and blood to the green fields beyond and that was what they had sought throughout the great war and that was what they hoped to achieve.