World War One degenerated into a stalemate. What was needed was new method to overcome the obstacles of a level playing field with enemy forces. The British developed an invention with the potential for turning the tide of the Great War: the motorized, armored vehicle known as the tank. If used effectively, it was a formidable solution to the battlefield deadlock. However, a lack of experience in the use of this new weapon hindered the Triple Entente from employing the tank to its fullest extent and provide the breakthrough they sought in its creation.

The tank was a concept that came out of nowhere. Before the Great War began, no predecessors were in existence, and the idea was barely a consideration. Colonel E. D. Swinton, however, recognized the appearance of a stalemate in trench warfare, and realized that the British needed an armored and armed vehicle with which to overtake the enemy. Winston Churchill became interested in this project, although he was currently controlling the British Navy. The successes of armed and armored cars impressed Churchill, and he requested research into similar vehicles that would be able to traverse trenches. Churchill then sent a memorandum to then-Prime Minister Asquith requesting “steam tractors with small armored shelters, in which men and machine guns could be placed, which would be bulletproof”. Lord Herbert Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, was instructed to order design work, and did so begrudgingly. Work on the weapon that would someday become the tank was slow, so Churchill assembled his own team of designers for the project, and used the Royal Navy budget to fund their work. By the time he was replaced as the First Lord of the Admiralty, he had organized contracts for eighteen prototypes of the vehicle, which was, at that stage, being called the landship. Churchill had to convince that continuing work on the landship would be beneficial to the war effort. Had he not done so, the tank project would likely have been abandoned. Because of Churchill’s persistence, however, the design process continued, and the first working prototype was ready for testing in January 1916.

The tank, or landship, was unparalleled in its design, and presented a set of benefits and drawbacks unique to the new invention. The first prototype, lovingly nicknamed Mother, was 33 feet long, 8 feet tall, and 8 feet high, and weighed 28 tonnes. Upon its caterpillar tracks, which allowed the vehicle to traverse various obstacles in a trench-held battlefield, it could reach top speeds of approximately four miles per hour. The tank was armed with both machine guns and cannons: Mother was equipped with two machine guns and two six-pounder cannons. It was manned by a crew of eight soldiers, and it was powered by a 105-horsepower Daimler engine. Its weaponry, metal hull and ability to cross trenches made it a valuable tool for Britain’s armies; however, it had several faults that decreased its chances for total success in combat. The tank itself was notorious for its low speed, short range, and mechanical unreliability. Tanks built and used during World War One generally broke down every five to ten miles. There was also the discomfort for the crew: the inside of the tank’s hull could rise to 100°C, and the engine fumes made it even harder for a soldier to breathe within; and verbal instruction between crew members was nearly impossible due to the deafening noise of the engine, and it was far too dark for sign language as a method of communication. The tank was also very vulnerable to enemy counterattack. Prior to their shipment to the Western Front, the British had anticipated the suspicions that would arise from the shipment of strange, large metal objects from England to other locations in mainland Europe. In order to divert such misgivings from other political and military powers, it was decided that the government would inform all who asked that they were water carriers (tanks) bound for Russia. Other proposed, and rejected, names included were the reservoir, the cistern, and the landship, which would have been too descriptive and war-related a moniker. The tank’s creation promised to end the trench stalemate, but it would also provoke the invention of other military tactics by German forces, such as stormtroopers. The tank was born, revolutionary in design and secretive in title, and it would soon be unveiled to the world in battle.

In the summer of 1916, the first 49 tanks ever constructed were sent to France to be used on the Somme. This outraged Churchill, who had wanted to keep the new weapon a secret from enemy forces until they had amassed a forces of tanks large enough to completely surprise and overwhelm German armies in battle. Douglas Haig, the British Commander-in-Chief, ignored Churchill’s protests. The tank’s battlefield debut took place on September 15, 1916. 60 tanks were in France at the time; just over half of them were battle-ready at the time, and throughout the battle, only nine of those first tanks actually helped in pushing back the German lines. Churchill was distraught: “My poor “land battleships” have been let off prematurely and on a petty scale. In that idea rested one real victory”. France and Germany used their experience with the tank on the Somme to start their own tank projects. Haig, however, was not discouraged by the poor outcome of the tank’s introduction into World War One, and the vehicle became a fixture in the British forces.

The tank was used multiple times throughout the remainder of World War One, but rarely made significant contributions to the battles in which they were involved. The French Nivelle Offensive, which took place during the Second Battle of the Aisne in 1917, employed tanks as a part of the attack. The German army, however, had taken the French inclusion of tanks into account when planning their defensive maneuvers, rendering their use nearly wasteful. On the first day of the Nivelle Offensive, 52 tanks were destroyed, 28 broke down, and the remainder fell in ditches or were bogged down in the mud of the battlefield. The 1917 Battle of Cambrai involved the first use of tanks en masse; Haig sent 19 divisions and 216 tanks in the initial assault to attack a weak point in the Hindenburg Line near Cambrai. Of these 216, 71 broke down, 65 were destroyed by the enemy, and 43 were stuck in mud, leaving a mere 37 tanks to reach the Line and send German forces fleeing. Haig, though, had expected the Battle of Cambrai to simply be a demonstration for boosting British morale, and hadn’t planned on repelling a counterattack. 20 German divisions counterattacked on three sides and retook their lost territory. In addition, 500 tanks were involved in the Battle of Amiens, where they advanced alongside Anzac troops and scattered German forces.

German tanks were also developed, such as the 18-man A.7.V tank, but they were seldom used in battle. Prior to the conclusion of World War One, British Colonel J. F. C. Fuller had organized Plan 1919, which included a massive offensive maneuver including several thousand tanks and aircraft for crushing the Western Front, and this plan would have been carried out had the war continued. The tank’s battle record was not extensive, nor was it remarkably successful, but the tank was an asset to the Triple Entente and, to some degree, the Central Powers.

As World War One began and progressed, old standards needed to be raised in order for any side to prevail. As such, innovations in trench warfare were necessary, and the minds of the British forces rose to the challenge of creating a war machine entirely revolutionary in its design. The tank was this machine, unique in its ability to cross trenches, house soldiers and carry weaponry in its hull. The armored and armed vehicle had the potential to be a deadly weapon to be used against the Germans on the Western Front and elsewhere in the war. However, the tank’s capabilities were not fully exploited by its makers, and its conception did not spell the end of World War One. Despite its faults, and the faults made by those who employed its use, the tank was a significant invention in warfare, and while it was not used to its full extent in its first three years of existence, the tank would develop and someday be used much more effectively in the future.