Technology and Tactics As with any new weapon, the tank suffered teething pains from technological and doctrinal development. As refinements were made across several versions, the rate of mechnical breakdown dropped. As refinements were made in matching tanks to tactics, its battlefield performance improved. By the end of the war, tanks became a critical weapon in defeating trench lines, machine guns, and static strongpoint defenses. As Estienne prophesized in early September 1914, the first side that made land iron clads cross ploughed fields truly did win the war. Tanks prospered from WWI to the present day, growing larger, faster, and deadlier than their first incarnations. But just as technology boosted their performance, so it spawned an impressive array of weaponry against them. At the dawn of the 21st century, tanks remain a vital part of a combined arms attack. Yet the ghosts of chariots, elephants, and knights swirl around them. One day, tanks may very well join these weapon systems of the past, defeated by some as yet invented weapon, or perhaps, more likely, replaced by some other weapon employing increased Mobility, Firepower, and Shock of Impact. Sources MagWeb.com Online Archive. www.magweb.com Various articles. Coalition Web, Stockton, NJ, 2002. Forty, George. Tank Action: From the Great War to the Gulf. Sutton Publishing, Phoenix Mill, UK, 1996. Liddell Hart, B.H.. The Tanks: History of the Royal Tank Regiment. Vol. I 1914-1939. Praeger, New York. 1959. Macksey, Kenneth and John Batchelor. Tank Versus Tank: The Illustrated Story of Armored Battlefield Conflict in the 20th Century. Salem House Publishers, Topsfield, MA, 1988. Macksey, Kenneth. Tank Warfare: A History of Tanks in Battle. Stein and Day, New York, 1971. Williams-Ellis, Clough and Williams-Ellis, A. The Tank Corps. Doran, New York, 1919. Tanks and Weapons of World War I. Beekman, London, 1973. Author Russ Lockwood is CEO and Chief Historian of MagWeb.com, the world's largest on-line magazine archive with tens of thousands of articles covering military history and its related products. He is a frequent contributor to print, radio, TV, and electronic media. Free sample articles can be accessed at www.magweb.com, with the rest of the archive available for a subscription fee. More Tank Development Introduction Precursors to the Tank Early Designs: 1332-1912 The British Develop the Tank The First Tank Attack French Development, Arras, and German AT Battle of Cambrai Ludendorff Offensive and the First Tank vs. Tank Battle Conclusion Back to War Lore: The List Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Russ Lockwood. 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