Page 46 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016

FIRST CHARGE

OF THE TANK

15-22 september 1916

INTERVIEW WITH DAN SNOW

WORDS TOM GARNER
he First World War down on the way up and many didn’t even Tanks i rst entered combat on the Somme in time for
witnessed a host of cross the British front line. Lots were disabled a renewal of the offensive. However, there were great
communication problems between the tank crews and
Ttechnological innovations, and they were very slow. Although they could
the infantry i ghting outside
but one of the most dramatic traverse No Man’s Land, German guns could
made debuted on 15 September hit them if the gunners were able to see them. Germans. There’s the myth about these steel
1916. It was on this day, in the So they weren’t a wonder weapon but there monsters that just made the enemy run away,
middle of the campaign, that the were one or two tanks that would get out into which isn’t quite true. I think it was probably
British effectively began armoured warfare with a bit of space and it was more the tantalising patchy in places. If you were in a machine gun
the introduction of the Mark I Tank. Here, TV prospect that was raised by the success of nest and there was a tank rumbling towards you
historian Dan Snow explains the tanks’ impact these individual tanks that inspired the BEF to you’d probably run away but not because there
on the battle as well as their crews, while order more. was some mythical element to the tank.
discussing his latest work with the Royal British In many quarters the British public today A new weapon of this kind would probably
Legion to commemorate the centenary. don’t want to hear good news about Douglas have boosted British morale, but I don’t
Haig, they don’t want to believe he was think it led to total terror and collapse on the
WHAT PROCESS DID THE ORIGINAL TANKS anything but a butcher. He actually stuck his German side as some people have traditionally
GO THROUGH BEFORE THEY WERE BATTLE- neck out [to order] a large number of tanks for suggested. The tanks were going so slowly and
READY IN 1916? use in 1917 and it was those tanks that formed deliberately that if you had to abandon your
The most interesting thing about tanks in 1916 the backbone for the attack at Cambrai in late position, you would have had plenty of warning
is that [they] went from an idea in the autumn 1917, which is the i rst stunning success of to [do so] at your leisure.
of 1914 of trying to utilise Britain’s advantage armoured vehicles in its history. It probably
in mechanical armoured objects, albeit ones would not have been possible without their i rst HOW WERE THE TANKS ABLE TO
that loated on the water, to somehow using deployment at Flers-Courcelette. The tanks did COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER
them on land as ‘land-ships’. The fact that just enough there to justify a big order. EFFECTIVELY, AS WELL AS WITH THE
it went from the drawing board onto the WWI was probably the most innovative period TROOPS OUTSIDE?
battleield in two years is extraordinary. in the history of the British Armed Forces and This is the problem, there’s no radio contact. At
The story of the tank belies the idea that the high commands were reaching for anything this point there was no way of communicating.
Britain was traditional and didn’t want to that could possibly break this stalemate. They However, very rapidly they put a bell on the back
innovate and that the generals were really were desperately trying to i nd alternatives to of the tank so that the infantrymen could go up
conservative. Actually, this technology [was] frontal assaults against i xed infantry positions and ring it. Isn’t that absurd that you have to go
being raced to the front arguably too fast, protected by barbed wire. I think the story of up and ring a bell? It’s very amateurish but the
because there were huge numbers of tank the tank is part of the wider story of innovation trouble is you’ve got a steel box with a big engine
ideas that were tried out. ‘Little Willie’ was in 1916 and on the Western Front. roaring inside and you’re locked in for protection.
successfully tried out in the autumn of 1915 so Suddenly communication is a big issue…
it [was] a year from a vaguely working prototype WHAT WAS THE REACTION AMONG THE Armour-infantry co-operation was extremely
to deployment on the battlei eld… GERMAN TROOPS WHEN THEY SAW THE difi cult and it was not until the Battle of
TANKS COMING? Amiens when they’d spent two years trying to
TANKS WERE FIRST USED AT FLERS- I think it came as a complete surprise, certainly perfect it, that communication got better.
COURCELETTE IN SEPTEMBER 1916, BUT to the frontline infantrymen. Some sources The problem with World War I is that
WHAT IMPACT DID THEY HAVE ON THE have said that there was an important morale everything is brand new. Aircraft had only been
BATTLEFIELD AT THAT TIME? factor in that it spooked the enemy. I’ve talked in the sky for a decade, tanks had just burst
They didn’t ‘break-through’ but they did ‘break- to a German historian recently and he’s said onto the scene and there was no real way of
in’ to German positions. Many of them broke that the tanks didn’t unduly freak out the meshing them all together.

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