The German A7V Sturmpanzerwagon of 1918 was Germany's counter to the British and French tanks that had appeared on the Western front. The tactics in practice at this time had failed to overcome the tremendous volume of firepower produced by machine guns and massed artillery. The natural response of troops faced with certain death on open ground is to not be on open ground at all! So both sides had dug themselves in like gophers and moles gone mad and protected their too vulnerable bodies from the deadly shells and swarms of bullets that filled the air with death. Massive systems of trenches were created over time and ran from the English Channel all the way to Switzerland! Men kept on dying by the thousands and the war stagnated. The tank was supposed to break the deadlock of trench warfare and allow armies to capture ground from the enemy again. Their purpose was to break through the enemy's trench line, dominate the battlefield, and allow horse cavalry or infantry to move through the gap. The hope was that your troops could attack the rear areas of the other side and collapse the enemy's front line. Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 2002 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com