first use of british tanks battle of the somme

While the Germans managed to find a way to use elite infantry (the Stürmtruppen) for assaults, both the British and the French started thinking of a way of delivering infantry literally to the enemies trench entrance, dealing with casemates and machine-gun nests, and protecting infantry in no-mans land. Obstacles like the bombed landscape, the deep muddy ground and barbed wire also contributed to slow down any assault and render it virtually impossible without immense casualties. As early as 1915, marching into the open was seen as suicidal. Just like the French, the British commanders saw all of their offensives pinned down by relentless enemy machine-gun fire. List of towns and cities visited by WW1 tanks during Tank Week WW1 Vehicle Article ArchivesĪustin AC * Gun Carrier Mk.I * Lanchester AC * Little Willie * Pierce Arrow * Rolls Royce AC * Tank Mark II * Tank Mark III * Tank Mark IV * Tank Mark V * Tank Mark IX Breaking the Stalemate

Dover Patrol Amphibious Assault 1917 and Operation Hush.Ivel Motor Ambulance ‘Ivel First-Aid Motor’.Cowen’s Locomotive Land Battery or Devastator.However, in March 1917, the Germans made a strategic retreat to the Hindenburg line rather than face the resumption of the Battle of the Somme.Light, medium & heavy tanks, armored carsĪround 2600 armored military vehicles built by September 1918 Tanks.At the end of hostilities the British had advanced just seven miles and failed to break the German defence.Fighting was finally suspended after 141 days, as winter was closing in and British commander Gen Douglas Haig decided the offensive should be resumed in February.However, the French had more success and inflicted big losses on German troops. On the first day of the battle alone 19,240 British soldiers were killed capturing just three square miles of territory - the bloodiest day in the history of the British army.In total, there were over one million dead and wounded on all sides, including 420,000 British casualties, about 200,000 from France, and an estimated 465,000 from Germany.

The aim was to relieve the French army fighting at Verdun and to weaken the German army.

For more than four months the British and French armies engaged the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front.

One of the bloodiest conflicts of World War One.

First use of british tanks battle of the somme