De tank en de Eerste Wereldoorlog

De ontstaansgeschiedenis van de tank in de Eerste Wereldoorlog: Van duivelse strijdwagen tot gevreesde gevechtsmachine
door Alfred Staarman (bron)

‘Caterpillar landships are idiotic and useless. Nobody has asked for them and nobody wants them’ (Fourth Sea Lord, commodore Lambert, 1915)

Eind 1914 liepen de fronten in de Eerste Wereldoorlog vast in de modder van de loopgraven. In Engeland werd daarna gezocht naar de mogelijkheden om met grote machines, landships, de bloedige impasse aan het Westelijk Front te doorbreken. Geleidelijk ontstond het idee de draaibare koepels van pantserauto’s op onderstellen met rupsbanden te plaatsen: de tank was geboren!

"Canadian troops take cover in a ditch alongside the road from Arras to Cambrai. They faced a series of well-protected enemy defences whose efficiency was enhanced by the region’s topographical features. On their left ran the Scarpe River. In the background a Renault FT light tank can be seen." (William Rider/Library and Archives Canada)

Inleiding
Beschikbaarheid van nieuwe technologie leidt niet automatisch tot gebruik ervan op het slagveld. Gevestigde belangen en tradities kunnen zo sterk zijn dat ze verbeteringen kunnen tegenhouden.

Hoe nieuwe technieken, ideeën en wapens ingepast worden, of beter gezegd zichzelf moeten bewijzen en in de legerorganisatie een plek bevechten, is daarom het bestuderen waard. Eén van de belangrijkste in de militaire geschiedenis is de introductie van de tank geweest, het onderwerp van dit artikel.

In september 2006 was het 90 jaar geleden dat op het slagveld voor het eerst tanks werden ingezet. Om precies te zijn op 15 september 1916 bij Flers, Noord-Frankrijk, in een Britse poging de Slag bij de Somme vlot te trekken.

Over de inzet van tanks tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog en de verdere rol ervan is veel geschreven. Minder bekend maar minstens zo interessant is het proces dat heeft geleid tot zijn introductie, gedurende de periode vóór september 1916 dus.

Tank ontwikkeld om impasse aan Westelijk Front te doorbreken
Het was niet zo dat op een goede dag iemand in een loopgraaf het idee kreeg vuurkracht te koppelen aan mobiliteit en bescherming – de drie karakteristieken van het tankwapen – en zo de uitvinder werd van de tank.

De tank is niet uitgevonden maar is ontstaan uit experimenten en een gedachtevorming over de wijze waarop de bloedige impasse aan het Westelijk Front doorbroken moest worden. Het spoor terug volgend tot het begin kom je uit bij – en dat is iets wat geen scriptschrijver zou kunnen verzinnen – de luchtvaartdienst van de Britse marine. Hoe dat kon legt Glanfield uit.

Lees de rest van het artikel hier.

Meer links:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/tanks.htm
http://www.1914-1918.net/tanks.htm
http://europeanhistory.ab(...)ns-Gas-And-Tanks.htm

[ Bericht 4% gewijzigd door Nibb-it op 03-06-2012 23:53:58 ]

Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the Great Tank Battle
The battle of Cambrai in November 1917 has entered history as a landmark battle: it is one of the first examples of modern warfare, that is it was an ‘all arms battle’. This implies that all branches of the armed forces were acting together – infantry, artillery, cavalry, tanks and the RFC. This was so different from the tactics employed in 1914 at the start of the war when the German army was the most professional and well-trained attacking force in Europe.
The features of the Western Front which had caused these changes in tactics were artillery, trenches, barbed wire and machine guns. At Cambrai the BEF was putting into action the learning curve they had experienced since 1916. First, the use of aircraft to bring height and distance to planning attacks on a strongly-held position. Secondly, predicted fire had returned surprise to the armoury of the attacker as counter-battery offensives could be carried out without the exploratory firing known as registration using flash spotting and sound ranging (which always alerted the enemy to the advent of a major offensive). Brigadier General Hugh Tudor, CRA of the 9th (Scottish) Division, devised a plan by which the battle would proceed without a preliminary bombardment but would be accompanied by intense artillery action against all known German batteries.
"Cambrai, Bourlon, German soldiers make preparations to recover a knocked out british MARK IV tank" (Bundesarchiv) 

The battle of Cambrai evolved from a ‘hit and run’ tank raid devised by Lt-Colonel JFC Fuller, the chief staff officer of the Tank Corps. Tanks had been used in great numbers during Third Ypres, but to no great avail as the terrain was not in their favour. Instead the section of the line near Cambrai was chosen as the terrain was relatively undamaged, rolling chalk land. This idea evolved into a major battle involving 1000 guns, nine tank battalions, six infantry divisions and five cavalry divisions. Cambrai was an important railhead and headquarters town. To deny it to the Germans would be a major coup.

Lees de rest van het artikel hier.


Meer links:
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_cambrai.html
http://www.wereldoorlog14(...)brai-1917/index.html
http://www.1914-1918.net/bat21.htm
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/cambrai.htm

"Tanks on parade in London at the end of World War I, 1918" - Thomas Frederick Scales/Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Reference No. 1/2-014078-G (bron)

The life stories of those who crewed the first tanks in September 1916

Dedicated to the soldiers who fought in tanks at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916 and to Trevor Pidgeon, who died on 14 May 2008, who bought their actions to prominence in his book "The Tanks at Flers".

Many books have been written about the invention and development of tanks but there is little published about the men who fought in them for the first time. In May 1916, the first six companies were formed at Siberia Camp near Bisley in Surrey. The majority of the soldiers of 1st Battalion the Heavy Section MGC came from the Motor Machine Gun Service (MMGS) and the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) - few of whom had seen action. Others, who enlisted under the Derby Scheme, commenced training less than 4 months before they deployed. Their officers had little battle experience; a couple were from the Royal Naval Air Service; several had seen action in France and Gallipoli mainly as other ranks. Most of the tank "Skippers" were newly commissioned into the MGC on 14 April 1916 and not one had seen a tank or knew what they were expected to do.

Zie:
http://firsttankcrews.com/

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