![]() ![]() For example, the early French practice of installing extra fuel tanks on top of their armored fighting vehicles in order to extend their range guaranteed the prompt incineration of both tanks and crews by accurate enemy fire.Īfter the debut of the tank on the modern battlefield, German infantrymen took on tanks like any other targets: aiming for openings in the armor, throwing hand grenades and using direct fire from field guns over open sights. They were aided by the moonscape terrain of the Western Front, the mechanical unreliability of the first tanks, and some bizarre attempts to make the new weapon more effective. Adapting to Armored WarfareĮxaggerated stories of the Germans being dumbstruck and running for their lives in their first encounter with the new British “land cruisers” belied the fact that the German Army moved quickly and effectively to develop antitank techniques. Realizing this, the Germans looked for ways to combat the unnerving new threat. Although the first British use of tanks proved to be premature, its employment by the Allies would no doubt continue. The battle petered out by mid-November, and the front returned to its prior stagnant condition. The first ever use of tanks on the battlefield so unnerved the Germans facing them that, according to a British soldier witnessing the event, “ were frightening the Jerries out of their wits and making them scuttle like frightened rabbits.”ĭespite the surprise their appearance caused to the Germans, the small number of underpowered, slow steel behemoths failed to gain a decisive victory for the Allies. ![]() Spearheading the new effort were tanks, a British secret weapon designed to crush the German barbed-wire and machine gun-laced trench system that had brutally resisted all Allied attempts to end the bloody stalemate on the Western Front. Hoping to revive the attack, the British Army launched another major offensive on September 15. ![]() The Somme offensive, which began on July 1, 1916, had by late that month deteriorated into a series of small, costly actions. ![]()
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