Describe the strengths and weaknesses of British tanks in World War One.

Max Carter – 11RHC

GCSE HISTORY COURSEWORK

QUESTION 1

By the September of 1914, after the Battle of Marne, the Germans had been forced back to the River Aisne. Here they dug trenches, well defended by machine guns. Britain followed suit and by the end of 1914 trenches stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland. Neither side could break the others defences. A stalemate had been reached.

Between the front lines of the two sides was ‘no mans land’. This was often a sea of mud, covered in craters, and had huge quantities of barbed wire in front of the trenches. These problems made quick attacks impossible as the soldiers would have to run across the difficult terrain carrying very heavy equipment and then cut through the wire before attacking the trenches, whilst all the time being under fire from machine guns.

Both the Germans and the British desperately tried to develop a weapon to break the stalemate and it was the British who came up with the idea of tanks. They developed what was dubbed ‘Little Willie’. This could not however cross trenches. To solve this problem Britain invented a tank with tracks that went the whole length of the vehicle. This was called the ‘Mark One’ and it was able to cross difficult terrain and trenches. There were two models, a male and a female. The male had four machine guns and two 6lb guns and the female had five machine guns. The tanks were able to crush barbed wire and clear trenches whilst the infantry followed behind. Many improved successors to the Mark One followed including a lighter, faster tank known and the ‘Whippet’. The tanks had, what some might say was, an even greater weapon than their firepower, their fear factor. These huge mechanical monsters just trampled any amount of barbed wire the Germans put down. This was very demoralising for them because previously their defences had been very hard to break. Suddenly this new weapon had arrived and could also take out their pillboxes with its 6lb guns. When the Germans saw the tanks coming they were terrified of that it could do.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Unfortunately for the British, early successes were hampered by the technical problems most crews encountered in the early models. The tanks were very slow with a top road speed of only 4 miles per hour but even this was rarely reached on the battlefield and in many cases the infantry was actually able to move faster. Turning was also a risky manoeuvre requiring the tank to halt thus making it an easier target. Interior conditions were appalling due to intense heat and noise. Also the tank often filled up with exhaust fumes and cordite, sometimes causing the crew to be sick or even unable to continue after short spells inside the tank It became necessary for the crew to wear steel vests and face masks to protect them from the molten steel splinters that could fly off at them when bullets hit the outside of the tank.

The Germans exploited these weaknesses in the armour and realised that they could use armour piercing bullets on the tanks. They also found that by using an artillery gun with its barrels levelled at close range they could debilitate a tank. By mid 1918 the Germans had developed some very effective anti tank weaponry such as AT artillery, mine throwers, AT rifles, grenades and they also attached AT machine guns onto some aircraft. They also used defensive obstacles such as ditches, rivers and AT pillboxes which were made from reinforced concrete.

After capturing British tanks, the Germans did develop their own tank the Sturmpanzerwagen A7V. This tank was of poor quality and when 100 were ordered in December 1917, the British tanks were already far superior. Realising this the Germans cancelled their order and only 20 Sturmpanzerwagen A7V were ever produced. They did however engage the British tanks in the first ever tank battle, three A7V’s against three Mk 1V’s. Although the British went one tank down early on in the battle the British defeated the German tanks. The Germans decided shortly after this that tanks were not going to win them the war and put tanks on low priority.

I think that the tank was a useful weapon for Britain, but to a much lesser extent for Germany, if used in the right situation. For example at Cambrai in November 1917, the entire British tank corps (474 tanks) breached the Hindenberg line capturing 12 miles and allowing the taking of 10,000 German prisoners, 123 guns and 281 machine guns. This land was later lost but this was through no fault of the tanks. Even the Germans had small successes with the tanks, the first main one being on 24th April 1918 at Villers Bretonneux where thirteen A7V’s overran British and Australian infantry. If used in the wrong situation or on the wrong terrain it was entirely without benefit. When tanks were used in the swamp like conditions of the Third Battle of Ypres the tanks sank in the mud and were then destroyed by enemy artillery making their deployment totally useless.

On the whole tanks were useful to Britain and even though losses were sustained in their early development the effects that tanks had were definitely positive. They had even greater success when used in large numbers in August 1918 when 604 allied tanks obliterated the German front line at Amiens forcing the Germans into a hasty retreat which continued until the signing of the armistice in November 1918.