WWI TAKING ON THE FIRST TANKS

On the morning of 15 September 1916 the British Army altered the course of land warfare forever, deploying 49 Mark I tanks into the Battle of the Somme. This new technology quickly necessitated strong counter-measures

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When they first encountered the tank in battle, German soldiers fled in panic. However, they quickly realised that these armoured behemoths, although fearsome, possessed weaknesses. Unwieldy, they often fell into shell holes or encountered obstacles that rendered them immobile. Furthermore, they were susceptible to existing weapons to varying degrees.

While machine gun and rifle bullets often glanced off their iron hulls, plunging artillery fire could destroy a tank with relative ease. The flamethrower was another nemesis, provided the infantryman could get close enough to spew the deadly stream inside the vehicle or set fire to a vital area such as its exhaust system. Along with these readily available defences, deep anti-tank ditches were dug to impede the progress of armour, and extensive minefields proved effective as well.

The German Army rapidly devised new weapons and tactics to defeat the tank in the field. Chief among these were three primary initiatives: the use of artillery with special emphasis on tank killing, the deployment of anti-tank rifles of calibre large enough to penetrate the tank's armour, and an innovative use of bundled hand grenades called the geballte ladung - bundled charge - that could be hurled toward the enemy tank and disable it with the weapon's detonation.