We join his story as the tanks lumber into position before the attack: '.lumbering slowly towards us came three huge mechanical monsters such as we had never seen before.'īert Chaney was a nineteen-year-old signal officer and had a front-row seat as three of the new weapons made their appearance in his sector of the battlefield. But, the door to the future was opened and the first step taken in the development of a weapon that would dominate the battlefield of future wars. Their presence shocked the enemy, but their practical impact was minimal due to a lack of effective tactics and numerous mechanical failures. Only 35 of the tanks actually took part in the battle. The attack failed - no breakthrough occurred. The new weapon made its battlefield debut on Septemwhen fifty of the machines joined the Battle of the Somme in a third attempt to attack and break through the German defenses. Encased in an unlit steel box, the crew suffered in an atmosphere that was only one step removed from Hell - unbearably hot, dusty, noisy, the air filled with the nauseating stench of gas fumes. It lumbered along at three miles an hour. Manned by a crew of four, the 30-ton weapon's armament consisted of two cannon mounted on its sides. By spring of the following year a working model was available for The idea was to combine the caterpillar tracks of an American tractor with an iron-clad machine that could straddle the enemy's trenches. What was needed was a tank.ĭevelopment of the tank began in the summer of 1915. This would allow the cavalry to pour through the exposed gap and envelop the Germans from behind. A new fighting vehicle was needed - one that could traverse the cratered moonscape of the Western Front and breach the line of enemy trenches. The ditches that separated the opposing forces proved an insurmountable barrier that had transformed the conflict from a war of movement into a deadly battle of attrition.

Fighting on the Western Front had degenerated into stalemate. It was the summer of 1915 and the British were desperate.

The first tank battle