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