The Development of the Tank
Through World War I

The Quest for Mobility,
Firepower, and Shock of Impact

The First Tank Attack

by Russ Lockwood
www.magweb.com

On September 13, 1916, C and D companies moved to the various assembly points. Mechanical problems sidelined some, while others "ditched" (became stuck) when passing over old bunkers that collapsed under the tank's weight. Altogether, 32 (some sources say 36) tanks made it to the front in time for the offensive.

British Mark I male tank. Note the tail wheels at rear to help with steering and extend its trench-crossing ability. The anti-grenade screen perches atop the tank.

The honor of the first tank assault goes to Captain H. W. Mortimore and his crew of tank D-1. Three tanks were originally supposed to be used to clear out a German strongpoint, but one broke down and the other ditched. At 5:15am on September 15, 1916, Mortimore advanced on the German strongpoint between Ginchy and the Delville Woods, followed at 5:30am by two companies of the 6th Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The pocket was cleared, but tank D-1 suffered a shell hit to its steering gear, and would play no further part in the day's battle.

The main attack started just before 6am when tanks advanced along specified lanes untouched by Allied artillery fire. They were not as successful as D-1, although certain bright spots occurred. For the most part, if the tanks arrived at the German lines, they quickly chased the German infantry, who bolted when confronted by these armored monstrosities. However, too few actually reached the front, and those that did were too few to cause a wide-scale panic.

For example, 6th Division's allotted three tanks suffered two breakdowns before the start of the attack--engine trouble and a broken tail. The third tank became lost, attacked its own infantry with machine guns fire, and finally straightened out and headed for German lines, where it stormed the front trench and raked the defenders with machine gun fire. However, the lane left for the tanks also left the German wire and bunkers intact, and so the infantry could not break through. The tank, punctured and holed in places and low on petrol, ultimately turned around and returned to the Allied lines.

The Guards Division claimed 10 tanks in support. Prior to the attack, three broke down and two ditched on the way to the front and one broke its tail at the start of the attack. Of the four left, two became lost and sprayed machine gun fire at the wrong trench and then returned to Allied lines. The last two advanced and shot up some German trenches, but one ditched and the other returned low on petrol.

It was not all hopeless. The 41st Division's 10 tanks had three breakdowns prior to the start of the battle and four more were hit or ditched in the initial advance. However, the three remaining tanks (D6, D16, and D17), advanced a mile shooting up German machine gun nests and trenchlines and reaching the village of Flers with British infantry mopping up Germans in its wake. At 10:50am, the second phase of the attack commenced, but only one tank (D6) made it a mile further on to the village of Gueudecourt before being knocked out. The infantry failed to follow the tanks. Another tank (D5) of the 14th Division also pushed to Gueudecourt, but left when no infantry showed up. It was disabled as it attempted to return to British lines.

This was pretty much repeated along the rest of the front--most tanks broke down or ditched, many were disabled or destroyed by enemy shell fire, but those that managed to penetrate to German lines were successful. Those that did not catch up were effective in mopping up operations, while those that ditched during the attack or were disabled due to mechanical malfunction served as "rallying points" during the inevitable German counterattacks. The overall attack faltered after these modest gains, and several days of more combat did little to change the front lines. Another British attack starting the 25th of September also did little.

First Medal

During this latter offensive, 2nd Lt. C. E. Storey, commander of the tank assigned to the 21st Division, won the DSO for an attack on a trenchline around Gueudecourt. This female Mark I tank advanced to the German trench, swept it with machine gun fire, and allowed two companies of trailing British infantry to sweep up the prisoners, who had an additional incentive to surrender when a British airplane strafed the same trench. About 370 prisoners, plus a large number of dead, and a mile of trench line were taken in under an hour at a cost of 5 casualties. Notably, the tank was mentioned in dispatches of the XV Corps and Storey received a medal.

Aftermath

The press called the tank a "Land Dreadnought" in one account, but mostly referred to the tank in more colorful language: "Touring Fort," "Motor Monster," "Giant Toad," "Polychromatic Toad," "Jabberwock with Eyes of Flame," and "Diplodocus Galumphant." Reports from tactical commanders criticized the tank. And who could blame them considering the breakdown and ditching rate alone. Haig, however, called for 1,000 more tanks, and an order was placed for an initial 100 of the existing Mark I while a new version was created for the other 900. A new training facility was found at Bovington, Dorset and the Tank HQ in France was moved to Bermicourt for the duration of the war.

However, the Army Council cancelled the 1,000-tank order on October 10, but War Minister George quickly cancelled the cancellation. On October 20, 1916, the War Office authorized 12 companies to be formed into four battalions, with the creation of an additional five battalions. These battalions would have three companies, each with four fighting sections of five tanks and one four-tank headquarters--24 tanks per company and 72 tanks per battalion--and a Workshops company. In early 1917, this TO&E would drop considerably, with the fighting sections reduced to four tanks each, the headquarters tanks dropped, and one of the fighting sections deemed a "spare" -- thus, 12 tanks per company and 36 per battalion.

Swinton, meanwhile, was transferred back to the War Cabinet in November, 1916, replaced by Brig. Gen F. Gore Ansley of the infantry. Though primarily responsible for creating the Tank Detachment, Swinton would not be directly attached to the tank programme until 1934 when he became Colonel-Commandant of the Royal Tank Corps.

Back in France, tanks were continually being used in two or three-tank subsections with bouts of success. The onset of winter rains and resultant mud soon put a halt to operations, but the tank had proven what it could do. Even in small packets, and in some cases only a single tank, its use on the battlefield showed how it could break the stalemate of the trenches. Had the first attack come with hundreds of tanks and not 32, the first attack might well have broken out far beyond the couple miles realized by a couple tanks.

Back to the Drawing Board

Although the Mark I design was relatively sound, battlefield experience soon set the designers the challenge of modifying the design enough to overcome shortcomings.

The tail, or tailwheel, was discarded. Whatever its advantage in crossing wider trenches, it didn't help steering that much and was prone to breakage and shell fire. Armor thickness was increased to 12mm in the front. The sponsons were too wide, especially for rail transit when they had to be removed, so they were made smaller and a mechanism created to push them inside the tank for transit. Escape hatches were redesigned to make it easier for a crew to leave a disabled tank. Machine guns were added to the male models so it would have its own infantry fire support. The petrol supply was moved from the middle inside of the tank to the outside rear of the tank to reduce the risk of fire. The exhaust which opened on the roof and attracted attention at night was elongated downward and to the rear. The suspension and tracks were strengthened. The glass prisms, which had a nasty habit of shattering and blinding the drivers during combat, were replaced with steel plate and pinhole perferations. The armor was better distributed to protect vital systems. Maximum speed remained 3.7mph. All of these features would go into the next standard model: Mark IV.

Since ditching was a big problem, a couple of wooden spars (later steel beams) attached to the tracks by chains served as an improvised extrication device. It could be unclipped from the roof and attached in minutes. The spars would slowly make their way across the top of the tank, around the front, and then underneath, pulling the tank loose from most holes.

The name was changed from Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps to Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps. In December, in anticipation of the large 1,000-tank order, the organization changed to four battalions "numbered" A, B, C, and D and received a new chief general staff officer: Major J.F.C. Fuller. Fuller organized massive indoor training exercises on tank tactics for all officers, ultimately authoring Training Note No. 16, essentially the first manual on tank tactics, although it presumably built on Martels' previous essay, A Tank Army, outlining his perception of tank doctrine. It was an ambitious undertaking, as by December, there were but 16 working tanks in France.

In January 1917, the 1st Brigade was formed from C and D battalions, followed in February with 2nd Brigade of A and B Battalions. These would all be put to use in the next big offensive using tanks: Arras in April 1917. On paper, the official account would provide 240 of the new Mark IVs for the upcoming offensive, later reduced to 96 by the end of February 1917. In the end, no Mark IVs arrived. The Arras offensive would be carried out by Mark Is and a hastily sent contingent of "Mark IIs," which were modified training machines.

In the spring of 1917, Lt. Col. Albert Stern, Director of the Tank Supply Department and long-time proponent of tanks, called for production of 4,000 tanks for the 1918 campaign. This was reduced to 1,350 by the War Office. Churchill returned to power as Minister of Munitions in July thanks to War Minister George, although much against the will of other factions. Churchill was forced to remove Stern in October, but cleverly created a new department and made Stern the Commissioner for Mechanical Warfare (Overseas and Allies) in order to get the US started on tank production lines. Stern secured a 1,500-tank commitment from the US, later upgraded to 5,000 in March 1918.

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© Copyright 2002 by Russ Lockwood.
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