Early British Tank Warfare By: Charles Petersen The tank was first developed during World War I, not as a way to kill more but as a way to stop the killing. Entire regiments were being slaughtered by barbed wire and poison gas. There seemed to be no way to end the stalemate. What was needed was something that could roll over the barbed wire, cross the trenches and then have enough speed to break into the rear and disrupt communications. Tanks were armored cavalry to replace the obsolescent horsemen. A few farsighted men saw potential in the American Holt artillery tractor and began to experiment. The first try, called �Little Willy,� never saw combat but did lead to the production model �Mark I� or simply MKI. The first tanks were shipped to the Front labeled as water tanks to disguise them. The name has stuck ever since. The first tanks went into combat on August 15, 1916, in the battle of the Somme. Armored tactics were lacking and therefore the attack did not go as well as hoped. However, they did prove themselves. In November of 1917 the British got it right when they attacked with over 400 concentrated tanks with no forewarning. However the tanker�s breakthrough was not exploited correctly, by no fault of the tankers, and therefore wasn�t a decisive victory. After World War I tank development stalled in most countries because of the policies of isolationist politicians and generals that hadn�t learned from the lessons of The Great War. Again farsighted men saw the need for armored warfare and developed the tactics and machines that would emerge from the next war victorious. Men like Heinz Guderian who pioneered the Blitzkrieg tactics that gave Germany such stunning successes in 1940. Walter Christie also developed a new suspension that allowed tanks to travel at previously unheard of speeds. However the only country that did listen to their innovators was Germany which was to prove a death knell for many countries in the years to come. On September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland. In under 20 days the Polish army of 30 divisions ceased to exist. France fell in similar fashion several months later. This was not because of any German weapon superiority, in fact it was because of superior tactics. While the French tanks were in most ways superior to German designs they were never concentrated and therefore couldn�t meet the on-rushing German masses of tanks with an organized resistance. Britain now stood alone. Thanks to an extraordinary stroke of luck and stupidity on the German side more than 340,000 men were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk before they could be captured. Also the German air force was unable to eliminate the RAF thereby making the invasion of England impossible in 1940. Now the only place where the British could actively oppose the Germans was in the deserts of North Africa. Here tank warfare came into its element with unlimited fields of maneuver and some of the greatest generals of all time. This is considered by many to be the best example of Blitzkrieg. After Mussolini�s soldiers were continually pushed back, Hitler sent aid in the form of Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps. This bold general, considered the best ever by many historians, led his men from the front and effectively threw the enemy out of all the territory they had gained. He then succeeded in pushing to within 30 miles of Alexandria, the key to the Suez Canal. However this victory was short lived as his supplies dried up and tanks broke down in the desert. He was eventually pushed back to Tunisia and, facing the Americans in the west and the British in the East, was forced to surrender much of his force before escaping to Germany. This defeat is considered by many to rank with Stalingrad in the number of men and machines lost. Thus in under 30 years war was changed forever by an invention called the tank. In only 2 years tanks had gone from light mobile machine guns to the terrors of 1942. Now 50 ton monsters roamed the battle field opposed by tanks half their size. These were truly the defining years of tank warfare.