The First World War saw the development of many new weapons, borne of industrial technologies. One of these new weapons was the tank. See how much you know about the first weapons of their kind.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
The A7V was 24ft long, 10ft high, 10ft wide and had a crew of 18!
|
Crews were also exposed to fumes from the engines and from the firing of weapons. Often entire crews became unconscious
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The German army was slow to see the military value of the tank. By the start of World War 2 they had changed their minds and the notorious Panzer Divisions had been formed
|
49 tanks were ready for use. Of these only 32 made it to the battlefield and 7 of those failed to start!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
There were many faults in this prototype; not least that the tracks could not carry the 16 ton weight of the vehicle!
|
The tank was initially seen as a land-based cousin of the naval warships, hence the name ‘Landship’
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Those with machine guns only were known as ‘females’ and those with 6-pounder guns ‘males’
|
Caterpillar tracks were invented in the 18th century and armour plating had been added in the 19th. All tanks had these but the F-17 was the very first with a revolving turret
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Mark A was much faster than the earlier, heavier tanks. Its maximum speed was 8mph compared to the 4mph top speed of older tanks
|
Tanks were a further development of armoured cars, which the navy had previously used to protect Allied airstrips in Belgium. The Royal Navy’s expertise in this field was put to good use on the tank
|