page_title: Tanks in the British Army
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Tanks in the British Army / Operational use / World War I
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Westfront, deutscher Panzer in Roye Deutscher Sturmwagen in Roye [I. Weltrkrieg 1914 - 1918, Westfront, deutscher Tank während der großen Schlacht von Frankreich, März bis Juli 1918,]
context_section_description: The British Mark I was the world's first combat tank, entering service in August 1916, and first used in action on the morning of 15 September 1916. It was developed to be able to cross trenches, resist small-arms fire, travel over difficult terrain, carry supplies, and be able to capture fortified enemy positions. The Mark I was a development of Little Willie, the experimental tank built for the Landships Committee by Lieutenant Walter Wilson and William Tritton in the summer of 1915. A small number of Mark I tanks took part in the battle of the Somme during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September 1916. They were used to cut through barbed wire to clear the way for infantry, and were even driven through houses to destroy machine gunner's emplacements. Although many broke down or became stuck, almost a third that attacked made it across no mans land, and their effect on the enemy was noted, leading to a request by the British C-in-C Douglas Haig for a thousand more. The Mark II and Mark III incorporated minor improvements and changes over the Mark I with the Mark II used in the Battle of Arras in April 1917 because of delays in the production of the Mark I tank. The Mk IV incorporated thicker armour to resist German armour-piercing bullets. The Mark V had more power (150 bhp) and could be steered by one man, thanks to the epicyclic gear system created by Walter Wilson. It was first used in the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918 when 60 tanks contributed to a successful assault by Australian units on the German lines. During the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, several hundred of the Mark V and the lengthened Mk V* tanks, together with the new Whippet tanks, penetrated the German lines in a foretaste of modern armoured warfare.
  The Mark VI did not progress past the stage of a wooden mock-up; the project was cancelled in December 1917 in order that a tank co-developed with the US (the Mark VIII) could go forward. Because of technical troubles the Mark VII, almost identical to Mks I to V, had only three produced out of an order for 74 when war ended. The Mark VIII was a cooperative design between the Allies and was also known as "Liberty," "International," or Anglo-American tank. It did not see combat in the war but was used and upgraded until the 1930s when given to Canada for training. The Mark IX was designed in 1917 as the world's first specialised Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). Thirty-four were completed, but none saw service. One was experimentally equipped as an armoured ambulance, and another rebuilt as an amphibious tank by the staff of the test base at Dollis Hill. There is photographic evidence that some Mk IX were used post-WWI as Infantry Carriers, but no record of their peacetime service is known to exist. The Mark X, a further improvement on the Mk V, was planned but never built.
  The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.
  The Whippet tanks arrived late in the First World War, and went into action in March 1918. Alongside Mark V and V* tanks, they took part in the Amiens offensive (8 August 1918) where they broke through into the German rear areas causing the loss of the artillery in an entire front sector.
  A first offensive using 49 Mark I tanks took place on 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, under Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, with limited success. Not until 20 November 1917, at Cambrai, did the British Tank Corps get the conditions it needed for success. Around 400 tanks penetrated almost six miles on a 7-mile front. This was their first large-scale deployment in combat. Unfortunately, success was not complete because the infantry failed to exploit and secure the tanks' gains. The British scored another victory the following year, on 8 August 1918, with 600 tanks in the Amiens salient. General Erich Ludendorff referred to that date as the "Black Day" of the German Army.
  The German response to the Cambrai assault was
caption: A7V tank at Roye on March 21, 1918.
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