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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Tank vs Tank, 1918 - Villers-Bretonneux

German A7V tank "Elfriede" captured by French Troops at Villers-Bretonneux, 24-Apr-1918.
Through the magic of film, many of us are familiar (or think we are familiar) with tank battles. Documentary footage from World War II gives us the impression that tank battles were vast swirling affairs with steel beasts from opposing armies charging about the battlefield in clouds of dust and smoke, firing their cannon and machine guns at opposing vehicles and the PBI* who happened to get in the way.

While certain tank battles in North Africa and in Russia were like that, most were rather plodding affairs. A moving tank couldn't fire it's gun all that effectively and also attracted the attention of artillery and anti-tank fire.

But did you know that the first tank versus tank action ever fought occurred in World War I? While I knew that the tank was used extensively in World War I by the British, the French, and the Americans, the Germans also used tanks to a lesser extent.

Why? Well, they only had one tank design, the A7V, which was a slow and ponderous beastie, capable of only walking speed. They only built twenty of them altogether. While the Germans did make use of captured Allied tanks, they could never match the Allies in tank warfare.

That wouldn't come until 1939.

So it was a rare occurrence when Allied tank met German tank. Very rare indeed.

Here are the participants in that first clash of armor -





And an account of the battle itself -



A battle between dinosaurs from our vantage point, 101 years later, but to those on the scene that day, marvels of the latest technology, the transformation of war as they knew it.

War continues to evolve, let us hope that one day we can vanquish war, before it destroys us.







* PBI = Poor Bloody Infantry

32 comments:

  1. Wait until AI becomes more involved on the battlefield...... air, land and sea. Won't be as funny as the swearing mod for the Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That days slowly approaches.

      Roger that on the Boston Dynamics swearing mod, one of the funniest videos out there!

      Delete
    2. "Tiiime to make the fooking donuts. Kevin... KEVIN!" (heh heh heh).

      Delete
    3. Slaughterbots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA

      Delete
  2. Great videos - I should have taken note of some of David Fletcher's very British little witticisms, like how it wasn't a terribly good idea to fire the rear facing machine guns at your own troops, and how it would be a good idea to get out of the way if a tank was about to run over you.
    Also noted the Battle of Amiens, just to the rear of Villers, was a year later than that first tank on tank battle. I know if wasn't unusual to fight over the same ground for a long time, but dang, a year? Guess that's why it was called a stalemate, huh?

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    Replies
    1. One of the reasons that the ground was so torn up over much of the Western Front. Constant fighting over the same terrain.

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  3. Not often mentioned is the logistic nightmare tanks create. Forage for horses was an earlier challenge. The PBI is easier to support. The Sherman tank is an example of logistics dictated choices.

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    Replies
    1. Tanks require fuel, oil, grease, ammunition, maintenance on the various bits that make it go. Horses were much simpler.

      As for the PBI, like Patton said, "My men can eat their boots, but my tanks gotta have gas!"

      Delete
  4. Very interesting... (said in an Artie Johnson-style voice.)

    And the solution at the time was artillery. The US solution during WWII was artillery. Hmmm...

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  5. The A7V seems more like a mobile frat house than a tank... 18-25 crewmen?

    (Seems like the Brits and Germans started with the idea of going to the dance in lumbering mobile pillboxes, meanwhile the Renault FT is over in the corner, laughing)

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  6. Schuck? That's rather unfortunate.

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    Replies
    1. Actually Schnuck, but still unfortunate.

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    2. And his friends Schnick and Schnack?

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    3. Alas, they were still on the assembly line when the Armistice was signed...

      😉

      Delete
  7. I typed Shnuck, but blogger posted Shuck.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Or, equally likely, my Kindle did. It seems to like to change my words in posting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blogger will let you misspell words all day long, it'll tell you it's misspelled, but it won't correct it.

      A double-edged sword that is.

      Delete
  9. Analagous to Monitor v. Merrimack

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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