Colonel V. Nesterkin
September 2016 marks 100 years since the beginning combat use tanks. This happened during the First World War. Tanks took part in hostilities for the first time on the side of the British in the operation on the river. Somme on September 15, and then, almost six months later, in April 1917, the French used them in the battle of Craon. Germany initially underestimated the importance of tanks. Time was lost, and until the end of the war only about 100 armored tracked combat vehicles were produced there. Thus, fighting on the river The Somme became the starting point from which the appearance of a new type of weapon - tanks - began.
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British tank "Mark 1" |
The combat effect of the British vehicles on the Somme was then assessed very vaguely, although it should be noted that the number of tanks that took part in the fighting was small - only 18 vehicles operated on a front 10 km wide. The British advanced 4-5 km, but the problem of the breakthrough could not be completely solved. Tactical success was not developed into operational success. Those tanks produced mainly a psychological effect. Contemporaries wrote that the Germans “felt completely defenseless in the face of these monsters, who climbed onto the parapet of the trenches, constantly pouring machine-gun fire on them. They were followed by small groups of infantry, throwing hand grenades into the trenches.” But in general, the tanks successfully fulfilled the role of countering machine-gun fire (the British lost manpower in that offensive operation were almost 20 times smaller than in similar conditions earlier) and were a means of breaking through the defense, although they were not reliable from a technical point of view (of the 49 vehicles that the British prepared for the attack, only 32 moved to their original positions, 17 tanks left formation due to technical problems; of the 32 that launched the attack, five got stuck in the swamp and nine more failed due to technical reasons). Nevertheless, even the remaining 18 tanks were able to advance 5 km into the defense.
A serious prerequisite for what is needed the new kind weapons, the situation at the fronts became. In 1915, Germany concentrated its main efforts on the Eastern Front, planning to take Russia out of the war. But, having repelled the breakthrough of the German armies, the Russian troops forced the enemy to switch to positional forms of struggle. On the Western Front, both sides also conducted a strategic defense. The fighting entered the stage of trench warfare. The opponents surrounded themselves with rows of barbed wire and equipped shelters for cannons and machine guns. Any attack cost large casualties, incommensurate with some of the results achieved. Trench warfare came to a standstill largely due to the advent of machine guns.
Many military experts believed that armored fighting vehicles would help solve this problem. In addition, numerous and varied armored vehicles were already operating on the fronts, the successful use of which confirmed their importance. However, they had a significant drawback: the maneuverability of heavy vehicles on the battlefield was low.
To cope with this difficult task, military engineers proposed installing a tracked chassis instead of a wheeled vehicle chassis on these combat vehicles. By that time, similar mechanisms were already actively being produced in various countries (used on caterpillar tractors) and the technology for manufacturing tracks had generally been developed. The British Defense Department began to receive designs for various tracked combat vehicles.
In the spring of 1915, a specialized Committee on Landships was organized under the British Admiralty. The creation of this organization was supervised by the Naval Aviation Service, which had its own interest in armored combat vehicles. They were needed to protect continental naval bases.
The final decision to build tanks was made in 1915, and the first prototype of the combat vehicle was ready in 1916. A tank, that is, a “tank” (from the English tank - tank, tank, tank), this means was called in order to misinform the enemy when transporting it across railway. After successful tests, the first order for 100 vehicles was issued and production began. It was the Mark-1 tank (sometimes called Mk.I) - a rather imperfect, even at that time, combat vehicle, produced in two modifications - a "female" tank ("woman", from the English female tank) with a combat weight 27.43 tons and a “male” tank (“man”, from the English male tank) weighing 28.45 tons. Subsequently, the term male tank was used for a long time in the meaning of “cannon tank”.
In profile, the Mk.1 had an unusual diamond shape. This was supposed to provide the greatest track length, which would allow it to overcome the wire fences and wide trenches (2.7-3.5 m) that prevailed on the battlefields of that period of the war. The armor of the combat vehicle protected from fire small arms and shell fragments, but could not withstand a direct hit from the shell itself.
The use of this hull shape made it impossible to place weapons in the towers (due to the overall height being too large). In this regard, the main weapons were placed in sponsons along the sides of the tank (sponson is a ship's term for the section of the upper deck that protrudes beyond the borg line). The layout of the machine did not imply a clear division into compartments. The engine and transmission, installed in length, occupied a significant part of the internal space. They were separated from the sides and sponsons with weapons by passages. At the front end of the hull there was a control compartment.
The tank's crew consisted of eight people. The tank commander (junior lieutenant - lieutenant) also served as a frontal machine gun shooter (sometimes an assistant driver) and was located, like the driver himself, in the control compartment on the left, the driver on the right. In each of the sponsons there were a gunner and a loader (on “males”) or two machine gunners (on “females”), and in the passages in the rear part of the hull there were two assistant drivers. In a number of cases, a ninth member was added to the crew, whose task was, being in the rear of the tank (at the radiator), to protect the rear sector of the tank from enemy infantry using personal weapons.
The main armament of the “male” tanks was two rifled 57-mm cannons with a barrel length of 40 klb. Each was a version of a rapid-firing naval gun modified in 1915 (put into service back in 1885). Both guns were mounted in sponsons on pedestal rotating mounts. Cylindrical armor shields were attached to the rotating part, covering the sponson embrasure. The gun was aimed using a shoulder rest, without any mechanisms. The gunner on each side was located to his left, and his position limited the horizontal guidance angles. The full ammunition load of the guns included 334 (in some samples 207) unitary rounds, which were stored in the lower part of the sponsons and on special racks. The maximum firing range of the guns was 6,860 m, and the effective range was about 1,800 m.
Behind the guns were installed two 7.7-mm Hotchkiss machine guns with an air-cooled barrel. In addition, on tanks of both variants such a machine gun was placed in its frontal part, and in some cases another one was installed at the stern. "Hotchkiss" was removable and fired through embrasures, which were covered the rest of the time with armored covers.
Tanks of the "female" variant were armed only with four 7.7-mm Vickers machine guns, which had water cooling trunks. These weapons were mounted on pedestal mounts with rotating shields, similar to the protection of 57 mm guns. The pointing angles of the machine guns provided a generally significant field of fire, limited only by the far-out protruding tracks of the tank. The cartridges for them were stored in loaded belts of 320 pieces, while the full ammunition load was 5,760 pieces for a male tank and 30,080 for a female tank.
In addition, each crew member had a revolver, from which he could fire different parts The tank was equipped with ports (embrasures) that were closed with armored covers. Due to the low mobility of the combat vehicle and the presence of closed firing sectors for the main weapons, the crew’s personal weapons were assigned an important role as a means of defense in close combat.
The main means of observing the terrain for the crew were inspection hatches in various parts of the hull, which were closed with armored covers that made it possible to adjust the inspection slot within certain limits. In addition, the commander and driver had periscopic viewing devices in the roof of the cabin, but due to the difficulty of using them in combat conditions, they were soon abandoned. On the inside, the inspection slits were covered with protective glass, but the latter was easily broken during shelling, and tankers were often injured from their fragments or splashes of lead that fell through the open slits.
There were no means of internal or external communication in the tank. For external communication they tried to use various visual means - flags, lanterns, but in conditions of poor visibility on the battlefield and especially from inside other tanks, they turned out to be ineffective. Pigeon post was used on some tanks, but the birds did not tolerate the conditions inside the vehicle and died. Attempts were made to use telephone communication through a cable unwound from the tank, but its length turned out to be insufficient. The only reliable, but naturally dangerous, means was communication through foot messengers.
On the Mk.I, an in-line six-cylinder water-cooled gasoline engine with a displacement of 13 liters and a maximum power of 105 l/s was installed in the middle part of the hull, allowing it to move on the highway at speeds of up to 6.4 km/h. Two fuel tanks with a capacity of 114 liters were located on the sides at the very top of the tank, since gasoline was supplied to the engine by gravity. Gasoline refueling was enough for 38 km of highway. If the tank was tilted too much while moving, the fuel supply could be interrupted, and then one of the crew members manually poured gasoline from the tank into the carburetor with a bottle. The radiator of the engine cooling system was located at the rear of the tank, and the exhaust pipes were led to the roof and did not have mufflers.
The tank was equipped with three gearboxes: the main two-stage mechanical one, with sliding gears, and two onboard (also two-stage) gearboxes, which were connected to each other by a differential. Three or four people simultaneously took part in controlling the transmission: the driver, who controlled the main clutch and gearbox, as well as coordinating the actions of the others; a tank commander who controlled the onboard brakes and one or both assistant drivers who were responsible for the onboard gearboxes.
The rear wheels served as a turning mechanism in the tank. In one of the battles, the wheels were hit by a shell, but the combat vehicle did not lose control. After this, rear wheels were not installed on tanks.
Mk.I tanks were produced in 1916-1917. A total of 75 units of each type were produced.
Main dimensions of the tank (in mm): length 8060 without rear wheels, 9910 with wheels, hull width 4,200 ("male") and 4,380 ("female"), height 2,450, ground clearance 420. Rolled steel armor was used as protection thickness (in mm): in the frontal part of the hull, side and stern - 10-11, roof and bottom - 5-6. The tank could overcome: a rise with a slope of 22°, a wall 1 m high, a ditch up to 3.5 m wide and a ford 0.45 m deep.
Although due to the small number of tanks (which were initially called “land ships”, since they tried to reproduce the main characteristics of naval warships on land) and their imperfections in 1916, the front could not be completely broken through, the new type of military equipment showed its capabilities, confirming that he has a great future.
By the end of the war, tanks began to be used on a much larger scale, but they still had a long way to go to fully realize their capabilities. High combat qualities and acceptable manufacturability in subsequent years were the basis for the tank becoming a mass-produced weapon.
Despite the fact that in those years Russia developed its own original designs for all-terrain combat vehicles (in 1916 by V.D. Mendeleev, in 1917 by S.P. Navrotsky) and built experimental models (in 1916 by N.A. Gulkevich, in 1917 N.N. Lebedenko), due to the shortsightedness of the tsarist government at that time the Russian army did not have its own tanks.
: The history of the invention of the tank and the development of tank construction up to and including the outbreak of WWII (World War II) is interesting. The answer is extensive, but at least to illuminate the most relish.)))
Let's start from the very beginning.
When on November 20, 1917, 10 years ago, 350 tanks advanced through the morning darkness to fall on the sleeping Hindenburg positions, a new chapter was opened in history, which we are only now beginning to understand with all clarity. And although the Mark IV tank was new at the Battle of Cambrai, the principle embodied in it - the protection of motive and manpower leading an attack under cover - was fully realized 300 years ago.
The first thought about a tank, or rather a tank-like mechanism, arose in China. From the reports of Sunn-Tse we learn that in the 12th century BC a military cart called “Lu” was used. This cart had 4 wheels and could accommodate 12 people. The historian does not mention horses, and one must think that the cart was driven by people from the inside using special devices. It was protected by the skin and used during attack and defense.
"Tank" from the times of ancient Rome.
The idea of a tank was further developed in countries currently classified as the Middle East. Xenophon, describing the Battle of Timbra (554 BC), says with his characteristic fantasy that Cyrus placed behind the line of his positions a number of carts with towers erected on them, from which shooting was carried out.
In Europe, elephants, as a cavalry vanguard, ceased to be used after the conquest of Greece by the Romans. The chariot was held in the East and in some countries, such as in England. But the idea of the tank did not disappear and was revived again in the armored knights of the crusades. The armored knight on his feet was a “tank” in every way. His motive power, although limited, was completely protected, and he could develop his attack under cover.
At the Battle of Crecy, the British had only a small number of cannons at their disposal, but a hundred years later firearms came into general use, and a new military era began. The old one passed under the sign of steel, in the new one lead began to dominate. Did the bullet bury the idea of the tank? No, on the contrary, she breathed into her new life. The ancient Chinese "Lu" floated onto the scene again. In 1395, a man named Konrad Keyser invented a military cart that was propelled from the inside, and a little later a cart was built that could seat at least 100 people. It was, in all likelihood, a real moving fortress, extremely cumbersome. In Scotland, two Acts of Parliament were passed in 1456 and 1471 regarding the use of these mechanisms.
"Tank" of the seventeenth century.
But it was unthinkable to set such a machine in motion using the muscular power of people or animals, and therefore the inventive genius of the Renaissance took advantage of the mechanical force that existed at that time. In 1472 Valturio proposed wind wheels as a propulsion force, and later Simon Steven spoke of sails, or rather small armored sailing boats on wheels. The great Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most amazing dreamers in the history of mechanical inventions, built closed armored vehicles. This was in 1482, and a little more than 100 years later John Napier develops the same idea.
From then until Watt built the first steam engine. In 1769 the idea of a tank came up from time to time, but always in its early form of the Chinese "Lo". Simultaneously with Watt's invention, a steam locomotive appeared, which had a speed of 2.5 miles per hour. A year later, in 1770, the “shod wheel” was invented, a device that prevented the wheel from sinking into soft soil. In these last two inventions can be found the germs of two essential aspects of the future tank: internal motive power and the ability to drive over uneven terrain and trenches.
Armored cart.
The Crimean War, declared in 1845, was a war of muddy roads and ravines and therefore created a need for shod wheels, with which some of Bodley's road locomobiles were successfully supplied in the Balaklava region, located in marshy terrain. The difficulty of taking Russian trenches prompted James Cowan to propose to Lord Palmerston the use of armored road vehicles equipped with scythes.
The steam locomotive was the first to be used. First, to transport troops, and later, a cannon was installed on the railway platform, and armored shields were installed for protection. This is how the first armored train turned out, which was used by the Americans in 1862 during civil war in North America. The use of armored trains imposes its own limitations - railway tracks are needed. The military began to think about combining high firepower and mobility in a vehicle.
The next stage was booking regular passenger cars with the installation of machine gun or light cannon weapons on them. They were to be used to break through the front line of enemy defenses and deliver manpower.
The main problem in the history of the development of tank building before the First World War was the lack of motivation and lack of understanding of the possibilities of using armored vehicles. About the basics of using an armored cart back in the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “We will build closed chariots that will penetrate enemy lines and cannot be destroyed by a crowd of armed men, and infantry can follow behind them without much risk or any baggage.” In practice, no one took seriously “expensive iron toys,” as the British Minister of War once called tank prototypes.
Tanks received real recognition during the First World War.
The First World War was a positional war, characterized by a multi-echelon continuous line of defense with machine guns and architectural structures. For the breakthrough, artillery barrage was used, but due to the short firing range, it could suppress, and then rather conditionally, only the firing points of the front line. When capturing the first line, the invaders inevitably encountered the next, to suppress which it was necessary to bring up artillery. While the attackers were engaged in artillery, the defending troops mobilized reserves and recaptured the occupied line and began to go on the attack themselves. Such fruitless movement could continue for quite a long time. For example. In February 1916, more than one thousand guns took part in the Battle of Verdun, for which the Germans had been preparing for almost two months. Over ten months of confrontation, more than 14 million shells were spent, and the death toll on both sides exceeded one million. With all this, the Germans advanced as much as 3 kilometers into the depths of the French defense.
The military clearly faced the question of the need vehicle, which could break through enemy defense lines with complete suppression of firing points, or at least quickly deliver artillery to the next lines.
For obvious reasons, armored trains could not be used, and armored cars quickly showed their inconsistency - weak armor and ineffective weapons. Strengthening the armor and armament significantly increased the weight of the vehicle, which, along with wheel suspension and weak engines, reduced the cross-country ability of armored vehicles to zero. The use of a tracked loader (caterpillars) helped improve the situation somewhat. The track rollers evenly distributed the pressure on the soil, which significantly increased maneuverability on soft ground.
To increase firepower and maneuverability, military engineers began experimenting with the size and weight of the new combat vehicle. We tried combining tracks with wheels. There were also several rather controversial projects among them. For example. In Russia, designer Lebedenko, and independently of him in England, Major Hetherington, designed a tank on three huge wheels for greater maneuverability. The idea of both designers was to simply move a ditch with a combat vehicle, so Lebedenko proposed creating a tank with wheels with a diameter of 9 meters, and Hetherington, respectively, 12 meters.
The Tsar Tank was built in 1915. The design of the car was distinguished by great originality and ambition. According to Lebedenko himself, the idea for this car was inspired by Central Asian carts, which, thanks to large diameter wheels, easily overcome potholes and ditches. Therefore, unlike “classic” tanks that use tracked propulsion, the Tsar Tank was a wheeled combat vehicle and in design resembled a greatly enlarged gun carriage. The two huge spoked front wheels had a diameter of approximately 9 m, while the rear roller was noticeably smaller, about 1.5 m. The upper fixed machine-gun house was raised above the ground by approximately 8 m. The T-shaped box-shaped body had a width of 12 m, on the protruding On the plane of the wheels and at the extreme points of the hull, sponsons with machine guns were designed, one on each side (it was also assumed that guns could be installed). It was planned to install an additional machine gun turret under the bottom. The design speed of the vehicle was 17 km/h.
Paradoxical as it may seem, despite all the unusualness, ambition, complexity and enormous size of the machine, Lebedenko managed to “break through” his project. The car received approval from a number of authorities, but the matter was finally decided by an audience with Nicholas II, during which Lebedenko presented the emperor with a clockwork wooden model his car with an engine based on a gramophone spring. According to the recollections of the courtiers, the emperor and the engineer crawled on the floor for half an hour, “like little children,” chasing the model around the room. The toy ran briskly across the carpet, easily overcoming stacks of two or three volumes of the Code of Laws Russian Empire" The audience ended with Nicholas II, impressed by the machine, ordering funding for the project.
Work under imperial patronage proceeded quickly - soon the unusual machine was manufactured in metal and, from the end of spring 1915, was secretly assembled in the forest near Dmitrov. On August 27, 1915, the first sea trials of the finished vehicle were carried out. The use of large wheels implied increased maneuverability of the entire device, which was confirmed in tests - the machine broke birch trees like matches. However, the rear steerable roller, due to its small size and incorrect weight distribution of the vehicle as a whole, got stuck in soft ground almost immediately after the start of testing. The large wheels turned out to be unable to pull it out, even despite the use of the most powerful propulsion system at that time, consisting of two captured Maybach engines of 250 hp each. With. each taken from a downed German airship.
The tests revealed what later seemed obvious, the significant vulnerability of the vehicle - mainly the wheels - under artillery fire, especially high-explosive shells. All this led to the fact that already in August the project was curtailed as a result of the negative conclusion of the High Commission, but Stechkin and Zhukovsky still began developing new engines for the car. However, this attempt was not crowned with success, as were attempts to move the Tsar Tank from its place and pull it out of the testing area.
Until 1917, the tank was guarded at the test site, but then, due to the political upheavals that began, the vehicle was forgotten and never remembered again. Design work on it was no longer carried out, and the huge surreal design of the completed combat vehicle rusted in the forest for another seven years, at the testing site, until the tank was dismantled for scrap in 1923.
The only positive effect of this project can be considered the experience gained by the then young Mikulin and Stechkin. When it became clear that the power of the device’s engines was clearly insufficient, they developed their own AMBS-1 engine (short for Alexander Mikulin and Boris Stechkin), which had very advanced characteristics for that time and technical solutions for example, direct injection of fuel into the cylinders. This engine, however, only worked for a few minutes, after which its connecting rods bent due to high loads. However, both Stechkin and Mikulin, who, by the way, were nephews of the outstanding aviation theorist Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky, later became outstanding Soviet specialists in aircraft engines, academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Despite the failure, Lebedenko’s idea was not flawed in principle. A few years later, engineer Pavesi built a series of high-wheeled military tractors for the Italian army. The inventor also created several models of wheeled tanks, but they were not adopted for service. The tank remained a purely tracked vehicle.
There is also a conspiracy theory regarding the fate of the Tsar Tank project. According to it, it is assumed that the obviously failed machine project was intensively lobbied at the General Staff by high-ranking officials acting in the interests of Great Britain. This theory is very similar to the truth, since these same officials buried All-terrain vehicle Porokhovshchikova, the drawings of which were subsequently sold to the French and formed the basis of the French tank Renault-FT-17. Read more about this story.
Due to the imperfections of the armored vehicles presented, debates about the need for their development and reconciliation among the military continued until September 15, 1916. This day became a turning point in the history of tank building and warfare in general. During the Battle of the Somme, the British used their new tanks for the first time. Of the 42 two that were available, 32 took part in the battle. During the battle, 17 of them broke down for various reasons, but the remaining tanks were able to help the infantry advance 5 kilometers deep into the defense along the entire width of the offensive, with losses in manpower amounted to 20 times! less than calculated. For comparison, we can recall the battle of Verbena.
The idea of creating a combat tracked vehicle capable of moving over rough terrain through trenches, ditches and wire fences was first expressed in 1914 by the English Colonel Swinton. After discussion in various authorities, the War Ministry generally accepted his idea and formulated the basic requirements that the combat vehicle had to meet. It had to be small, have caterpillar tracks, bulletproof armor, overcome craters up to 4 m and wire fences, reach a speed of at least 4 km/h, have a cannon and two machine guns. The main purpose of the tank was to destroy barbed wire barriers and suppress enemy machine guns. Soon, Foster’s company created, in forty days, based on the Holt tracked tractor. combat vehicle, called "Little Willie". Its chief designers were Engineer Tritton and Lieutenant Wilson.
"Little Willie" was tested in 1915 and showed good driving performance. In November, the Holt company began manufacturing a new machine. The designers were faced with the difficult problem of increasing its length by 1 m without making the tank heavier, so that it could overcome four-meter trenches. In the end, this was achieved due to the fact that the outline of the caterpillar was given the shape of a parallelogram. In addition, it turned out that the tank had difficulty taking vertical embankments and steep elevations. To increase the height of the toe, Wilson and Tritton came up with the idea of running a caterpillar on top of the body. This significantly increased the vehicle's cross-country ability, but at the same time gave rise to a number of other difficulties associated, in particular, with the placement of cannons and machine guns. The armament had to be distributed along the sides, and so that the machine guns could fire to the side and backward, they were installed in the side protrusions of the sponsons. In February 1916, the new tank, called "Big Willie", successfully passed sea trials. He could overcome wide trenches, move across a plowed field, climb over walls and embankments up to 1.8 m high. Trenches up to 3.6 m did not pose a serious obstacle for him.
The tank's hull was a frame box made of corners to which armored plates were bolted. The chassis, which consisted of small unsprung road wheels (the shaking in the car was terrible), was also covered with armor. Inside, the “land cruiser” resembled the engine room of a small ship, which you could walk around without even bending down. There was a separate cabin in the front for the driver and commander. Most of the rest of the space was occupied by the engine
Daimler, gearbox and transmission. To start the engine, teams of 3-4 people had to rotate a huge starting handle until the engine started with a deafening roar. The first brands of cars also had fuel tanks inside. There were narrow passages left on both sides of the engine. The ammunition was stored on shelves between the top of the engine and the roof. While driving, exhaust gases and gasoline vapors accumulated in the tank. Ventilation was not provided. Meanwhile, the heat from the running engine soon became unbearable; the temperature reached 50 degrees. In addition, with each cannon shot, the tank was filled with caustic powder gases. The crew could not stay in combat positions for a long time, they burned out and suffered from overheating. Even in battle, tankers sometimes jumped out to breathe fresh air, not paying attention to the whistling of bullets and shrapnel. A significant drawback of “Big Willie” was its narrow tracks, which bogged down in soft soil. At the same time, the heavy tank landed on the ground, stumps and stones. It was bad with observation and communication - the viewing slots in the sides did not provide inspection, but the spray from bullets that hit the armor near them hit the tankers in the face and eyes. There was no radio communication. Carrier pigeons were kept for long-distance communication, and special signal flags were used for short-range communication. There was no intercom either.
Controlling the tank required significant effort from the drivers and commander (the latter was responsible for the brakes on the right and left side tracks). The tank had three gearboxes - one main and one on each side (each of them controlled a special transmission). The turn was carried out either by braking one track, or by switching one of the onboard gearboxes to the neutral position, while on the other side they engaged first or second gear. With the track stopped, the tank turned around almost on the spot.
Tanks were first used in battle on September 15, 1916, near the village of Flers-Courses during the great Battle of the Somme. The British offensive, launched in July, produced insignificant results and very significant losses. It was then that the commander-in-chief, General Haig, decided to throw tanks into battle. There were 49 of them in total, but only 32 reached their original positions, the rest remained in the rear due to breakdowns. Only 18 took part in the attack, but in a few hours they advanced along with the infantry into the German positions 5 km on a front of the same width. Haig was pleased - in his opinion, it was the new weapon that reduced infantry losses by 20 times compared to the “norm”. He immediately sent a demand to London for 1000 combat vehicles at once.
In subsequent years, the British released several modifications of the Mk (this was the official name of “Big Willie”). Each subsequent model was more perfect than the previous one. For example, the first production tank Mk-1 weighed 28 tons, moved at a speed of 4.5 km/h, and was armed with two cannons and three machine guns. Its crew consisted of 8 people. The later MkA tank had a speed of 9.6 km/h, weight -18 tons, crew - 5 people, armament - 6 machine guns. The ISS, weighing 19.5 tons, had a speed of 13 km/h. This tank had a crew of four people and was armed with four machine guns. The last amphibious tank, Mkl, created already in 1918, had a rotating turret, a crew of four and an armament of three machine guns. Weighing 13.5 tons, it reached a speed of 43 km/h on land and 5 km/h on water. In total, the British produced 3,000 tanks of 13 different modifications during the war years.
Tank "Schneider" SA-1, 1916
Gradually, tanks were adopted by other warring armies. The first French tanks were developed and produced by Schneider in October 1916. Outwardly, they bore little resemblance to their English counterparts - the tracks did not cover the hull, but were located along its sides or under it. The chassis was sprung with special springs, which made the work of the crew easier. However, due to the fact that the upper part of the tank hung strongly over the tracks, the Schneider's maneuverability was worse, and they could not overcome even minor vertical obstacles.
About a hundred of them came to Russia and they all served in the army of Denikin, a White Guard. After the Civil War, these tanks were installed in various cities as monuments. Today there are 5 of them left. Let's look at the Lugansk specimen from the inside with the help of a blogger dymov
Sandblasted tank on "slipways". Some of the hatches have been removed.
A drawing of a tank with numbered armor plates and a description of the problems for each of the damaged ones.
Also, on the table are pieces of armor and rivets (they checked the type of steel to select the optimal one for a possible future replacement).
Numbered armor plates on the tank itself.
As you can see, there are plenty of cracks and holes from rust.
The bottom was pretty rotten in some places. Standing in the open air, the tank collected water in any rainfall.
It's quite spacious inside (without the engine). It became clear how 7-8 crew members could fit there.
Stak engineering.Co
Wolverhampton
inscription on the gearbox.
The place of the only gunner in this crew. It must be said that in terms of the number of “shots” this tank can give odds to any modern one. More than 40 next to the gun and even more in the stern.
All levers and rods are in place.
Pedals too. I wonder what the letters B and C on them mean?
Convenient glove compartment. The officer could have put down binoculars and a Browning gun.
The “head” of the gearbox is larger.
7 machine guns per tank is very cool, in my opinion.
The ventilation duct (if that's what it is) is the most rusted of all.
The driver-mechanic has his own stash. And, by the way, the “steering wheel” is right-handed! In English…
….. automobile plant
major renovation
19…
As usual, time has erased all the most interesting information. 
Using this number, as it turned out, it was possible to restore both the data on the tank and its combat path.
For example, both Lugansk were recaptured by the Red Army from Wrangel in the battles for Crimea. Namely - on Perekop.
Items that have been in the tank for many years. The button is of greatest interest.
Once upon a time, these workshops produced other tracked shushiks for military needs - amphibious transport vehicles capable of transporting a truckload of soldiers on board across any river.
LOT recording a stand-up comedy in the bowels of a combat vehicle.
And now about the French
The best tank of the First World War was the Renault FT, produced by the Renault company and weighing only 6 tons, a crew of two, armament - a machine gun (cannon since 1917), a maximum speed of 9.6 km/h.
"Renault" FT - 17
Renault FT became the prototype of the tank of the future. On it, for the first time, the layout of the main components was resolved, which still remains classic: engine, transmission, drive wheel - at the rear, control compartment - in front, rotating turret - in the center. For the first time, on-board radio stations began to be installed on Renault tanks, which immediately increased the controllability of tank formations. A large diameter drive wheel helped to overcome vertical obstacles and get out of craters. The tank had good maneuverability and was easy to operate. For 15 years it served as a model for many designers. In France itself, Renault was in service until the end of the 30s, and it was produced under license in another 20 countries.
The Germans also tried to develop new weapons. Since 1917, the Bremerwagen company began production of the A7V tank, but the Germans were never able to organize their mass production. P1x tanks took part in some operations, but in quantities not exceeding several dozen vehicles.
On the contrary, the Entente countries (that is, England and France themselves) had about 7 thousand tanks by the end of the war. Here armored vehicles gained recognition and became firmly established in the weapon system. Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister during the war, said: “The tank was an outstanding and stunning innovation in the field of mechanical aid to war. This final English response to the German machine guns and trenches undoubtedly played a very important role in hastening the Allied victory." Tanks were widely used by the British in combat. In November 1917, a massive tank attack was carried out for the first time. 476 vehicles took part in it, supported by six infantry divisions. It was a huge success of a new type of weapon. Firing from cannons and machine guns, the tanks demolished the wire fences and overcame the first line of trenches on the move.
In just a few hours, the British advanced 9 km deep into the front, losing only 4 thousand people. (In the previous British offensive near Ypres, which lasted four months, the British lost 400 thousand people and managed to penetrate the German defense by only 6-10 km). The French also used tanks extensively several times. Thus, in July 1918, more than 500 French tanks took part in the battle near Soissons.
From the first Soviet tank “Freedom Fighter Comrade. Lenin", built by the workers of the Sormovsky plant in 1920, to a modern main tank with high firepower, protection from all weapons and high mobility - this is the long and glorious path of Soviet tank building.
IN Tsarist Russia- the country where the world's first model of a tank was created (A. A. Porokhovshchikov's tank), there was no tank-building industry and no tanks were built. Only after the victory of the Great October Revolution socialist revolution began equipping the young Red Army with military equipment. Already in the spring of 1918, speaking at a meeting of military specialists, V.I. Lenin proposed a program for technical equipment of the Red Army, in which a significant role was assigned to armored forces.
August 31, 1920, the first Soviet tank, named “Freedom Fighter Comrade. Lenin,” came out of the gates of the Krasnoe Sormovo plant. The hands of skilled workers, with limited capabilities, produced 15 tanks of the same type. From this period the history of the development of tank building in the USSR begins.
First soviet tanks in terms of combat qualities they were not inferior to the best foreign models, and in some design features they were superior to them. These domestic vehicles and captured ones captured from the interventionists became the basis for the formation of tank detachments. The first such detachments, which included three tanks, appeared in 1920. They took part in battles on various fronts and were used to directly support the infantry, being in their battle formations. It should be noted that the main tanks of the Red Army during the civil war were captured.
In 1924, a technical bureau of the Main Directorate of Military Industry was created, headed by engineer S.P. Shchukalov. This became an important event in the history of Soviet tank building. If earlier the development of tank equipment was carried out by separate factories, which, naturally, did not contribute to the accumulation of the necessary experience, then after the creation of the bureau, all work is concentrated in a single center.
Three years later, in 1927, the first sample was tested light tank, designed by this bureau. Based on the test results and by decision of the USSR Revolutionary Military Council dated July 6, 1927, the model was accepted into service with the Red Army. The modified version of the T-18 tank received the MS-1 brand, which meant “small escort, first sample.”
In the 30s, Soviet tank building began to develop rapidly. During this period, tank design bureaus were created, which short time developed a whole generation of tanks of all weight categories. An outstanding role in the creation of the first models of tanks of that period was played by N.V. Barykov, who in 1929 headed the special design and mechanical engineering department (OKMO).
sources
http://dymov.livejournal.com/73878.html
http://www.retrotank.ru/
http://www.iq-coaching.ru/
http://www.opoccuu.com/
Throughout the 20th century, tanks were the key to modern maneuver warfare, the deciding factor in many great battles. The history of the tank began almost 100 years ago during the battles of the First World War (1914–1918). In 1916, a deadlock arose on the Western Front, where there was a positional war between British and French troops on one side and German troops on the other. As a result, the front was about 700 km across the territory of Belgium and France. At that time, the main striking force was infantry, vulnerable to machine guns and held back by trenches and barbed wire. Armored vehicles armed with machine guns were widely used. They were used not only for reconnaissance, combat security and delivery of personnel and cargo to the battlefield, but also for direct support of infantry in battle, but had low maneuverability and could not overcome the enemy’s well-equipped defenses. Military experts of those times assumed that there must be a way to overcome machine guns and well-prepared trenches and obstacles by the enemy. The British believed that tracked vehicles could help here. Five thousand years ago, a warrior of his tribe, walking on his own feet, had three attributes: combat power, protection and mobility provided by his spear, shield and legs. However, the development of technology has made it possible to create combat vehicles of almost incredible power. They can move with great speed over rough terrain, carry weapons, and are almost invulnerable to the enemy. This is the concept of armored fighting vehicles. If we consider the idea of moving weapons on the battlefield, then it has also been known for centuries - from Hannibal’s war elephants to the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and the fantastic battleship from the story of Herbert Wales. The use of tanks by the British was prepared in strict secrecy. (program - project “tank”). They were transported to the mainland, disguised as large tanks, containers - “water tanks of a new design” (hence the name tank, English “tank, reservoir”). This armored vehicle with weapons was intended to suppress enemy firing points that survived artillery preparation, destroy engineering barriers and break through positional defenses. In Great Britain, a new class of armored vehicles was created - tanks. Tanks represent the coming together of several ideas, not a sudden flash of ingenious discovery. The tank became an important phenomenon during the First World War because it combined light armor, a powerful engine for the time, and tracked technology. Tanks were first used by the British army in September 1916 in the operation on the Somme River. These vehicles had a huge psychological impact on the German infantry, which surrendered their positions without a fight. . The world's first production tank was the British heavy tank Mk I, produced simultaneously in two modifications: with cannon-machine gun and machine gun armament. In February 1916 the tank was tested, after which it began mass production. The Mk I was technically flawed and unreliable. But it was created practically with “ clean slate" Its weight, depending on the modification, was 27 - 28 tons, the maximum speed was 4.5 km/h (on the ground - 2 km/h), the cruising range was 19 km, so the tank had low maneuverability. The armament consisted of two 57 mm cannons and machine guns. The thickness of the bulletproof armor reached 5–11 mm, the tank body was riveted. To protect against grenades, a net was stretched on the roof of the tank. Crew – eight people. In the first battle using Mk I tanks, the British were unable to use 17 of the 49 vehicles they had due to technical faults. Of the 32 tanks that launched the attack, five were stuck in the swamp, and nine were out of action due to technical reasons. However, the remaining 18 tanks were able to advance five kilometers deep into the German defense. At the same time, the losses of the attackers were 20 times less than usual. The first massive use of tanks (over 200 vehicles) to break through German defenses was carried out by British troops on November 20, 1917 in the operation at Cambrai. “Tanks are an absurd fantasy and quackery! The healthy soul of a good German easily fights a stupid machine,” German propaganda repeated after the first collision with British tanks and promised a quick “Teutonic response.” On December 1, 1917, the German General Staff approved an order for the construction of 100 chassis. The order received urgency category 1 A - the tanks were hastily prepared for the big spring offensive on the western front. The number of vehicles was increased from 10 to 38, but was soon reduced again to 20 pending the results of combat use. With such a small quantity count on positive results it was difficult. The tanks were combined into “assault squads of armored vehicles.” Even before the completion of the first A7V, on September 20, 1917, the War Ministry ordered the formation of two assault squads of five tanks each. The order to form the third department was given on November 6, 1917. The crews were recruited according to the following scheme: drivers and mechanics - from the engineering troops, gunners and loaders from the artillerymen, machine gunners from the infantry. Officers were taken from infantry or automobile units. The German army leadership still did not arouse much enthusiasm for tanks. The Chief of the General Staff, Field Marshal Hindenburg, who inspected the first 10 vehicles in Charleroi in March, expressed himself very skeptically: “They probably will not bring much benefit, but since they have already been made, we will try to use them.” In the upcoming offensive, the German command placed the main emphasis on the surprise of the attack, the offensive impulse of the infantry, the use of automatic weapons, the firepower of artillery (the number of heavy guns was 66% of the number of light ones) and the careful organization of its fire. For the first time, German tanks entered battle on March 21, 1918, near the city of Saint-Quentin, in the offensive zone of the 18th German Army. Four A7V tanks of the 1st assault squad under the command of Captain Greif and 5 Mk IV tanks entered the battle in the morning. Due to heavy fog, they often lost contact with infantry units and indeed. Mk IVs failed to complete their missions due to lack of gasoline and damage from artillery fire, and two A7Vs showed technical defects. Only A7V N 501 and 506 operated more or less successfully. All this, as well as the weak ground on the path of movement, did not allow us to judge the effectiveness of the use of German tanks. And yet the impression they made on the British soldiers on the first day was not much inferior to the horror of the German infantry at the Somme in September 1916. One of the records of the headquarters of the German 18th Army said: “Our tanks greatly strengthened the morale of the infantry even when they were used in small numbers; at the same time, as experience has shown, they had a great demoralizing effect on the enemy infantry.” Three A7Vs of the 3rd Assault Squad met three British Mk IVs from Company A of the 1st Tank Battalion that emerged from the forest. The first battle between tanks and tanks in history was a head-on battle and was unexpected for both sides. The British were not in the most advantageous position: out of three vehicles, two were machine guns, and the crews were exhausted from spending a long time wearing gas masks - their positions had been fired at with chemical shells the day before. Thus, the British, at first glance, were inferior to the Germans in firepower, armor and crew efficiency. However, already in this clash such factors as the maneuverability of tanks, experience and coherence of the crews were felt. The battle took place near the positions of the British infantry and in full view of the German artillery, but they did not take part in it. The German artillerymen were afraid of hitting their own, and the British infantrymen simply did not have any anti-tank weapons. Although the Mk IV machine guns, having received large holes, were soon forced to retreat to the rear, the cannon tank continued to fire. The German vehicles stopped unsuccessfully - only one of them actually fought, firing from cannons and machine guns, including armor-piercing bullets. Unlike the German ones, the English tank constantly maneuvered and, having fired several shots on the move, switched to firing from short stops. After three hits, the A7V's oil cooler was damaged. Taking advantage of the fact that the English tank's track was torn apart, he was able to retreat to short distance, after which the crew abandoned him. The other two moved away. This gave the British reason to rightly consider themselves winners in the first tank battle. The captured tank bore the name "Elfriede". The car was carefully studied in the rear, it was tested by French and English crews. According to the allies, the Germans repeated in their model a large number of design errors and mechanical shortcomings that they borrowed from the first English and French tanks.” It would be more accurate to say that the Germans took into account many of the shortcomings of the first Allied tanks, but made many of their own mistakes. The British noted the good armor of the A7V in the front, rear and sides with weak roof protection. In addition, the shutters of the holes in the turret, the gun shield, machine gun mantlets and the gaps between the plates were very vulnerable to fragments of rifle and machine-gun bullets. The vehicle's low cross-country ability was noted; this was evidenced by the very fact that the tank overturned. After August 8, the “black day of the German army,” when the British brought 415 tanks into battle at the same time, and the German anti-tank defense turned out to be ineffective, at a meeting of party leaders in the Reichstag on October 2, 1918, a representative of the High Command Headquarters said: “The hope of defeating the enemy has disappeared. The first factor that decisively influenced this outcome was the tanks. The enemy used them in huge, unexpected masses.” The deputies sharply reproached the War Ministry and the High Command for neglecting such a weapon. On October 23, a statement was issued by the Minister of War, General Sheikh: “We have long been energetically engaged in the construction of these weapons, which are recognized as important. We will soon have an additional means to successfully continue the war if we are forced to do so.” The usefulness of “this weapon” was now beyond doubt. But it was already too late for the Germans. The coloring of the tanks and the equipment of the crews was of no small importance for the tank crews. On German tank x the predominant color was light green or steel-gray. Then on some cars, following the example of the English ones, they began to use deforming spotty paint. In September 1918, the German command decided to streamline the designation system for tanks and introduced a standard deforming color. Spots and irregularly shaped stripes of red-brown, light green and lemon yellow were applied on top. The tankers wore the uniform in which they came from their branches of the military. In addition to the peakless cap, the head was sometimes covered with a steel helmet. Later, tank crews began to use aviation jackets and overalls. Protective overalls containing asbestos were also used; Leather shock-absorbing helmets with protective bolsters. Helmets were often complemented by leather and metal masks with slits for the eyes and a chainmail beard, which protected the face and eyes from small fragments and lead splashes. Gas masks were required to be included in crew equipment. It should be noted that even at that time, designers paid attention to the fire safety of tanks, protection of the crew from fragments and lead splashes, sealing the tank in case the enemy used flamethrowers, as well as the availability of mechanisms for maintenance and repair and the ability to quickly replace the engine, the presence of a cleaning system caterpillars from dirt. And in our time, tanks remain the main striking force Ground Forces, as they have great firepower and striking force, high mobility and reliable armor protection. Operating en masse in the main axes, they are capable of independently and in cooperation with other branches of the military to overcome enemy defenses, conduct highly maneuverable combat operations, advance to great depths, destroy enemy reserves, capture and hold the most important lines and ensure the rapid achievement of battle and operation objectives. The powerful armor of tanks makes them relatively resistant to artillery fire and damaging factors nuclear weapons, sharply reduces the degree of damage to the crew by penetrating radiation and allows for successful combat operations in conditions of the enemy’s use of nuclear weapons. Thus, the tank definitely has a future. And as long as there remains a need to create firepower at a critical moment, overcoming any enemy resistance, the need for tanks will continue.
First British tank Mark I
By the end of 1916, artillery and machine guns dominated the battlefields. The artillery forced the opposing sides to dig in deeper, and machine-gun bursts began to mow down the enemy infantry that had risen to attack. The war turned into a positional war and trench lines stretched for many kilometers along the front. There seemed to be no way out of this situation, but on September 15, 1916, after six months of preparation, the Anglo-French army launched an offensive in northern France. This offensive went down in history as the “Battle of the Somme”. This battle is significant only because it was possible to push back the German troops several kilometers, but also because for the first time British tanks took part in the battle.
NThe Allied offensive on the Somme River began on September 15, 1916, after a massive and lengthy artillery preparation, as a result of which it was planned to destroy the German engineering defenses. British soldiers were even told that all they had to do was walk towards the German defenses and capture their positions. But despite this, the offensive stalled: the German positions were practically not damaged by artillery strikes, and their army in defense still remained combat-ready. The Entente army was bleeding, trying to break through the German positions, but all efforts were wasted completely in vain. Then the newly appointed British commander-in-chief, General Douglas Haig, decided to use new weapons - tanks, which had just been delivered to the front. The old military man had great doubts about the new product, but the situation at the front obliged himthrow your last trump cards into battle.
Haig was convinced that he had chosen the wrong time to attack. The autumn rains have soaked the ground quite a bit, and the tanks need solid ground. Finally, and this is the most important thing, there are still too few tanks, only a few dozen. But there was no other way out.
The first British tank to see its baptism of fire at the Battle of the Somme was the Mark I heavy tank, which was armed with two rifled 57 mm Six Pounder Single Tube guns and two air-cooled 7.7 mm Hotchkiss M1909 machine guns. barrel, located behind the guns in sponsons, as well as one such machine gun was located in the frontal part of the tank and served by the commander, and in some cases another machine gun was installed in the rear of the tank. The crew of this tank consisted of 8 people.
49 Mark I tanks were ordered to move to the forward positions. It was a dark night. The steel masses crawled like turtles in the direction where the flares were constantly lighting up in the sky. After 3 hours of march, only 32 vehicles arrived at the places indicated for concentration: 17 tanks got stuck on the road or stopped due to various problems.
Having turned off the engines, the tankers fiddled around with their steel horses. They poured oil into engines, water into radiators, checked brakes and weapons, and filled tanks with gasoline. An hour and a half before dawn, the crews started the engines again, and the vehicles crawled toward the enemy...
British tank Mark I after the Somme River offensive, 25 September 1916.
At dawn the German trenches appeared. The soldiers sitting in them were amazed at the sight of the strange machines. However, the vaunted German discipline prevailed, and they opened fire with rifles and machine guns. But the bullets did not cause any harm to the tanks, bouncing off the armored walls like peas. Coming closer, the tanks themselves opened fire from their cannons and machine guns. The hail of shells and bullets fired from short distances made the Germans feel hot. But they did not flinch, hoping that the clumsy vehicles would get stuck in the multi-row wire fence installed in front of the trenches. However, the wire did not pose any obstacle to the tanks. They easily crushed it with their steel caterpillars, like grass, or tore it like a cobweb. Here the German soldiers were seized with real horror. Many of them began to jump out of the trenches and rush to run. Others raised their hands in surrender. Following the tanks, hiding behind their armor, came the British infantry.
The Germans did not have tank-like vehicles, and that is why the effect of the first massive combat use of tanks exceeded all expectations.
On September 15, 1916, during the First World War, during the Battle of the Somme, the British used tanks for the first time in the military practice of mankind - 32 rather primitive and slow vehicles, which by their very appearance caused panic in the German defensive ranks, reports gazeta.ua.
In the spring of 1915, the British Admiralty created the Landships Committee, which was tasked with creating an armored fighting vehicle to protect continental coastal bases. In the summer of 1915, a contract to develop such a machine was awarded to the agricultural machinery company William Foster & Co.
Construction of the prototype began on August 11, and already on September 9, the first copy of the tank made a test run around the plant. The tank was named "Little Willie" ("Little Willie"), and in the fall its improved version appeared - "Big Willie" ("Big Willie"), 49 copies of which, called "Mark I", arrived the following year to British military units.
The crew of the 28-ton tank consisted of eight people, two of whom were involved in its control, two were gunners, and two more were their assistants; The tank was led by an officer who had two more mechanics at his disposal. The weapons used were two 57 mm cannons and two or four 7.7 mm machine guns. The tank's speed was about 6.5 km/h, and its range did not exceed 40 kilometers. The location of the tank crew was not separated from the engine, because of this the temperature inside the hull reached 50 degrees and there were cases when the first tank crews lost consciousness due to carbon monoxide and oil vapor poisoning. The 8-mm armor was supposed to protect the tank crew from small arms fire, and to protect them from random fragments, tank crews were given leather chain mail and a helmet.
On July 1, in the area of the Somme River (France), the offensive of the Anglo-French troops against German positions began. The attack was preceded by a week-long artillery preparation, which, however, did not destroy the German defensive positions and on the first day of the battle, out of 100 thousand British soldiers, twenty thousand died and forty thousand were wounded. Actions next days were also ineffective and were accompanied by heavy losses - for every ten meters of German positions, 100 French or British soldiers were killed.
And even on September 15, when tanks were used for the first time in the history of wars, it was not possible to change the nature of the battle. However, despite the imperfection of the tanks, most of which were lost due to poor maneuverability during the German counter-offensive, General Douglas Haig, commander of the Allied forces at the Somme, ordered several hundred more copies of the latest weapons.
The first tank battle took place on April 24, 1918, near the town of Villers-Bretonneux (Northern France) - three German A7V tanks encountered a group of three British Mark IV tanks, two of which were equipped only with machine guns to support infantry. As a result of the firefight, they were damaged, and a third British tank, equipped with a cannon, managed to knock out one enemy tank, after which two German tanks retreated. On the same day, German and British tanks were repaired and continued fighting.
