If engaged the wire slowed down the advance and separated units from each other. If avoided the soldiers were channeled into pre-sighted cross-fires of enemy machine guns. It was employed to limit tactical movement of attacking soldiers and this maze of razor sharp wire was unremitting in its potential harm. The British High Command’s tacticians also considered the threat of German use of tanks (in fact, the Germans made use of captured British tanks during the war) and published pamphlets and guides in May and December 1917 and again in February 1918 as the doctrine for the employment of tanks changed with increased practical service and combat experience.īarbed wire was a major obstacle in the battlespace. The Germans have captured these tanks and are preparing them to be transported to the rear for reclamation and re-use. The tank in the foreground is ready to be placed on the rail-car and the tank in the background is on a rail-car. The soldiers behind the tree are German and they have mounted the tank on supports so that a flat-bead rail-car can be placed under it to allow it to be transported.
An interesting photograph of captured British tanks. A weapon that would energize an attack and make a significant difference to the Entente Powers. The mud, ditches, and other geographic hazards offered natural obstacles to overcome and coupled with an active defence and tactics the metal encasing the tankers simply would delay the tank’s eventual demise during action.īut the tank was viewed as a breakthrough weapon. The terrain of the Western Front worked against it. It was a noisy and noxious environment to work in. Part of this was related to the mechanical limitations of the tank. Detail from Map 6 of the Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War showing employment of tanks at Courcelette on 15 September 1916. But worse than this was the apparent lack of coordination between the new and old – of armor and infantry – did not allow the tank and infantry to be the breakout weapon system that would radically change the course of the war. The tanks wandered the battlefield, got stuck and put out of action. War Dept.Īt their introduction at the Somme during the battle of Courcelette the tanks were not fully incorporated into the tactics of this engagement.
Aerial view of the Somme Front Photo: NARA/U.S. Using technology to leverage the mechanical advantage of motive power surrounded by a metal shell with tracks that could navigate the wasteland of battle space it was hoped that these mechanical behemoths would be a game changing tool for the Imperial forces. The tank and the creation of tank doctrine in the First World War was a process that hoped to take advantage of the use of a mechanical machine to overcome the obstacles that the Western Front with its static warfare footprint of obstacles in the form of trenches, barbed wire, and more telling, the destruction of the landscape replacing what existed with a mire of mud and shell-holes.
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