![]() ![]() German forces using captured British Mark IVs during the Second Battle of the Marne 799 captured near Arras on 11 April 1917ġ917: British tanks captured by the Germans being transported by rail The Mark I's rhomboid shape, caterpillar tracks, and 26 feet length meant that it could navigate obstacles, especially wide trenches, that wheeled vehicles could not.Īlong with the tank, the first self-propelled gun, the Gun Carrier Mk I, and the first armoured personnel carrier, the Mk IX, were also constructed in World War I. The heavily shelled terrain was impassable to conventional vehicles, and only highly mobile tanks such as the Mark and FTs performed reasonably well. There were problems that caused considerable attrition rates during combat deployment and transit. The first tanks were highly mechanically unreliable. The Germans, on the other hand, were slower to develop tanks, concentrating on anti-tank weapons to use against British and French tanks, and producing only 20 of their own A7V. While the British took the lead in tank development, the French were not far behind, fielding their first tanks in April, 1917 and going on to produce more tanks than all the other combatants combined. ![]() The term was chosen when it became known that the factory workers at William Foster referred to the first prototype as "the tank" because of its resemblance to a steel water tank. Although initially termed "land ships" by the Landships Committee, production vehicles were named "tanks", to preserve secrecy. The prototype of a new design that would become the Mark I tank was demonstrated to the British Army on February 2, 1916. An initial vehicle, nicknamed Little Willie, was constructed in Great Britain, at William Foster & Co., during August and September, 1915. ![]() The development of tanks in World War I was a response to the stalemate that trench warfare had created on the western front. A British Mark V* tank-on the roof the tank carries an unditching beam on rails, that could be attached to the tracks and used to extricate itself from difficult muddy trenches and shell cratersġ917: a British tank destroyed by the Germans in the Western Front during WWI ![]()
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