107 years ago today: When tanks were used for the first time in war

Yet when they were used for the first time on the battlefield, the effectiveness of tanks was very much up for debate. Today, exactly 107 years after the first tanks rolled onto the battlefield on September 15, 1916, we take a look at why tanks were invented, who was behind their creation, and the biggest question of them all: were they effective?

Stalemate on the Western Front

To understand exactly why tanks were developed, one must first look at the conditions which they were prepared for. World War I began on July 28, 1914, precisely a month after a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. As Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia came to its aid, further drawing Germany (on Austria-Hungary’s side), France and Great Britain (on Russia’s side) to the war. The Ottomans would join Germany’s side in a few months.

The now mythic Western Front was one of the main theatres of the Great War, stretching from Alsace-Lorraine in the south, across France and Belgium, all the way to the North Sea. Along both sides of the Front lay systems of highly fortified trenches, making it near impossible for either side to advance. What this resulted in was highly static warfare where defence always held the advantage. Thus, through the War, German and Franco-British forces lost millions of lives for very little territorial gains on the Western Front.

The Western Front, after initial back and forth, was largely stable for the duration of the War. (Wikimedia Commons)

This kind of warfare was a direct outcome of advances in weapon technology. Modern machine guns, with their high rates of fire, allowed defenders to nullify a large number of attackers with only a few men. While frontal assaults were still carried out, especially in the early days of the War, even when successful, they came at a huge cost, and it was nearly impossible to hold onto a trench after capture anyway. Moreover, between the two sets of trenches dug up by the opposing armies lay “no-man’s land” covered with barbed wire and sometimes, mines.

It was the stalemate of the Western Front that led to the development of tanks — vehicles which could provide mobile protection and firepower for troops in order to take down trenches. “It was a weapon designed for one simple task: crossing the killing zone between trench lines and breaking into enemy [defences],” military historian Williamson Murray wrote in ‘Armored Warfare: The British, French, and German Experiences’ (1996).

Early British tanks

The British were the first to deploy tanks, deriving their name from British attempts at ensuring secrecy of their new weapon under the guise of ‘water tanks’. The idea behind a tank, though, can be traced as far back as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and his famous sketches. In the 19th and early 20th century, tank-like contraptions were subject of science fiction, with legendary HG Wells even writing a short story The Land Ironclads (1903) centred around what would later be known as tanks.

With internal combustion engines getting increasingly better, it was a matter of time before the jump was made from sci-fi to science. But it was after the War began, that tank development really picked up pace. Along with the need for such a weapon, tank development was bolstered with the incorporation of caterpillar tracks — now a tank staple —in designs, providing better traction on uneven terrain for extremely heavy armoured vehicles.

Fifty Mark I tanks arrived on French shores at the end of August, 1916. They were basically of two kinds: ‘male’ with two 6-pound cannons and three Hotchkiss medium machine guns, or ‘female’, with four Vickers heavy machine guns and one Hotchkiss. The tanks needed a crew of eight to operate.

But were they effective?

Not quite. Even before tanks left for German trenches in Somme, around 17 had already broken down. Eventually, only nine tanks made it through “no man’s land”. Simply put, the tanks had been rushed into action without optimal preparation.

These early tanks were notoriously unreliable. Rather than enemy fire, most tanks succumbed to mechanical troubles. Moreover, while they were theoretically capable of a speed of 6 kmph — roughly the speed of a somewhat brisk walk — in reality, on poor terrain, they would come to a crawl, going at speeds of under 2 kmph. For comparison, modern tanks routinely touch upwards of 50-60 kmph.

The armour was not perfect either. Nor was the environment inside — ventilation was inadequate and exhaust fumes from the engine and fumes from firing weapons were noxious for the crew. There are anecdotal accounts of entire crews passing out inside tanks.

Nonetheless, despite having its fair share of sceptics, tanks did ultimately show enough potential for armies to persist with their development. For one, when they did not break down or get stuck, they were better than anything armies at the time had to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Also, with more experience, commanders were soon able to tactically adapt to tank warfare, deploying tanks in greater numbers and smarter ways.

By the end of the war, the British produced roughly 2,600 tanks and the French a whopping 3,000. Germans lagged behind and were able to operationalise only 20 prior to the end of the War. In fact, after the War, General Erich Ludendorff of the German High Command even praised Allied tanks as being a principal factor in Germany’s defeat (historically speaking, however, this claim does not pass muster).

Since the end of World War I, tanks progressively got better. By the time World War II broke out in 1939, it was the Germans who had mastered the art of tank warfare — destroying France’s defensive preparations on the back of their rapid and deadly Panzer tanks. Today, tanks remain the backbone of land armies and it is their presence that shapes the contours of modern war to be highly mobile and tactically flexible.