Tanks: Wonder Weapons of World War I?
- Episode aired Nov 12, 1995
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Stephen Badsey
- Self
- (as Dr. Stephen Badsey)
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Featured review
Some New Stuff.
Many of us probably think we know about the history of tanks, beginning with their introduction at the Battle of Cambrai -- clumsy, smelly machines that were terrifying to infantry but broke down routinely. Then the 1930s. Guderian and Hitler and Blitzkrieg. Than massive battles on the Russian front. And now some 130 countries have tanks in their arsenals.
But much of this program presents new information, new to me anyway. Tanks were predicted by H. G. Wells as "Land Ships", ironclads that could sweep through No Man's Land with impunity. The first experiments themselves were little tracked tricycles and tanks that would pole vault across shell craters. Improved vehicles with all-around tracks were called water tanks, or just "tanks," to disguise their nature. I mean it. This is seriously curious.
Their debut at Flers was not auspicious. Of 32 tanks deployed, 18 played a role in the battle. Ten were stopped by enemy fire and the remainder got stuck. Yet the British media was filled with news of the "wonder weapon" that promised to return mobility to trench warfare.
It didn't. In fact the tank had little impact on the war. They were useless at holding a position. The Germans learned to direct artillery at them and captured a dozen or so at Cambrai. Nevertheless, every battle in which tanks participated was celebrated as a victory by the British press. Poems were written about the tanks.
By the end of the war, one battle had begun with 430 tanks. (Whittled down to 38 by the third day.) The tank was celebrated by the Brits and blamed by the Germans for their defeat. Over the next twenty years, the Germans more than made up for the inconvenience caused by the slow British machines of World War I.
But much of this program presents new information, new to me anyway. Tanks were predicted by H. G. Wells as "Land Ships", ironclads that could sweep through No Man's Land with impunity. The first experiments themselves were little tracked tricycles and tanks that would pole vault across shell craters. Improved vehicles with all-around tracks were called water tanks, or just "tanks," to disguise their nature. I mean it. This is seriously curious.
Their debut at Flers was not auspicious. Of 32 tanks deployed, 18 played a role in the battle. Ten were stopped by enemy fire and the remainder got stuck. Yet the British media was filled with news of the "wonder weapon" that promised to return mobility to trench warfare.
It didn't. In fact the tank had little impact on the war. They were useless at holding a position. The Germans learned to direct artillery at them and captured a dozen or so at Cambrai. Nevertheless, every battle in which tanks participated was celebrated as a victory by the British press. Poems were written about the tanks.
By the end of the war, one battle had begun with 430 tanks. (Whittled down to 38 by the third day.) The tank was celebrated by the Brits and blamed by the Germans for their defeat. Over the next twenty years, the Germans more than made up for the inconvenience caused by the slow British machines of World War I.
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- rmax304823
- Oct 22, 2016
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