However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man’s-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. On July 1, the British launched a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. However, General Douglas Haig, commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw the promise of this new instrument of war and ordered the war department to produce hundreds more. At Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 or so primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. Popular Science documented the evolution in tanks, that thunder before the blitz, from slow novelty to deadly weapon in the interwar years, a selection of which can be found in “ The Rise Of The Tank Before World War II.”Īlso included are novel ideas that didn’t make the cut: heavy, winged “flying tanks,” or unusual lightweight fast tanks and goofy, armored cars.Īs for the tank evolution over a full 100 years, the British Army is again happy to tell that story in a video that is as much historical timeline as modern military infomercial.During the Battle of the Somme, the British launch a major offensive against the Germans, employing tanks for the first time in history. By the start of the next World War, however, German tanks were powerful, fast, armored and deadly machines, which enabled a style of fast attack that shaped not just World War II, but how nations after the war envisioned future wars.
The earliest appearance of tanks in Popular Science comes from the December 1918 issue, in “German Monsters–Clumsy Copies of the French Tanks.” The tanks used by Germany were heavy, slow, poorly designed, and weak to all kinds of weapons, including rifle fire. See how it evolved /XmkU8VkHyo- British Army 🇬🇧 September 14, 2016 The British tank continues to play a decisive role on the battlefield.
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