Mark I (tank)
| Mark I. | |
|---|---|
Mark I paint during the Battle of the Somme , September 25, 1916 |
|
| General properties | |
| crew | 8th |
| length | 9.9 / 8.5 m |
| broad | 4.17 m |
| height | 2.44 m |
| Dimensions | 28/27 t |
| Armor and armament | |
| Armor | 6-10 mm |
| Main armament | two 6 pounder cannons (male) |
| Secondary armament | four machine guns ("Male"); six machine guns ("female") |
| agility | |
| drive | 6-cylinder gasoline engine Daimler 78 kW (106 PS) |
| suspension | no |
| speed | 5.9 km / h |
| Power / weight | 2.8 kW / t (3.8 HP / t) |
| Range | 36 km |
The Mark I was a British tank from the First World War ; it is considered to be the world's first operational battle tank .
development
All proposals by civil specialists to introduce an armored fighting machine were rejected before the First World War. After the start of the trench war , the British officer Ernest Dunlop Swinton set out to develop a similar concept. His plans were rejected in the first instance by the General Staff and the War Minister Lord Kitchener . After Swinton asserted his political influence, he was able to enforce the test of a test drive. However, this failed. So tank development would probably have come to a standstill had it not been for the later Prime Minister and then Minister of the Navy, Winston Churchill, who had taken the initiative. The energetic politician referred to the tank design as a landship and thus fell under the department of the Navy. Churchill formed the Landships Committee from naval officers and civilians . From September 17, 1915, Lieutenant Walter Gordon Wilson built the final prototype , later called Mother . As the technical concept of the machine took shape, the committee was given the cover name Committee for the Provision of Tanks in December 1915 ; hence the English term tank, which is still used today .
The life of the crews
The technology, which was still being developed, challenged the eight-person crew to the utmost. Controlling the tank alone was a difficult task. The wooden chassis placed at the stern was unsuitable for steering and was left out from November 1916. Keeping the course with the help of the chain brakes turned out to be a superhuman task, as this required the strength of several soldiers. The only feasible way turned out to be to uncouple a chain via a secondary gear to allow the tank to turn in a given direction. But even that was difficult, since the commandant's orders could only be conveyed by knocking a hammer, because the engines of the war machine made a noise that drowned out any human sound in the interior. This heavy physical work in the belly of the monster had to be performed at temperatures of up to 50 ° C; sometimes the temperatures were so high that the ammunition could ignite. Exhaust gases and powder fumes also penetrated the unprotected interior and made the work of the first tank soldiers even more unbearable. A separate storage space for ammunition and provisions was not provided, so that sliding ballast posed a constant risk of injury. When fired at, splinters or rivets could fly around in the interior; the tank crews were therefore protected with heavy leather helmets, chain mail and face covers.
Tactical Concepts
The British tank doctrine of the First World War relied on an equal use of two versions. Tanks of the type Male (male) were intended as a combined machine gun / gun carrier to excavate fortified positions of the enemy. The pure machine gun carriers of the Female version should provide the necessary cover against attacking infantry . The tanks were in serious danger primarily from the German artillery , which was able to fight the tanks effectively by directing fire, but machine-gun fire, which was concentrated on one point, could penetrate the armor. That is why Swinton suggested fighting enemy artillery positions as the new main task of their own guns. To this end, he also suggested bombing by the Royal Flying Corps , with which he sketched out another element of the later blitzkrieg concept. However, even its builder considered the new weapon to be of limited strategic value; This is how the British officer characterized the tanks in the conclusion of a study in 1916 as follows:
"It seems that the tanks are an auxiliary weapon of the infantry, so they must be counted as infantry and are under the same command when deployed."
The first use - Flers 1916
The newly formed tank gun was used only twice in the year of its appearance; on September 15th all available 49 vehicles in the Battle of the Somme near Flers for the first time . Contrary to the deliberations of their creator, the new war machines were not held back until an offensive could be launched in large numbers and the weapon had been sufficiently tested. The first use of many failures was characterized by mechanical damage. Even if the few tanks that could break through the German lines proved effective, they were far too few to make a decisive blow. Although the German General Staff was greatly disturbed by the new weapon, the Entente powers had lost the element of surprise. Since the tanks were no longer used, apart from a further small operation a few days later in the same year, the Germans were given time to adjust to the new technology of the enemy. Captured British tanks were used against the Allies by the Germans with their national emblem during the Battle of Reims in 1918 .
Technical specifications
| "Times" | "Female" | |
|---|---|---|
| weight | 28 t | 27 t |
| length | 32 '6 "(≈ 9.9 m with steering wheel), 26' 5" (≈ 8.05 m without steering wheel) | 32 '6 "(≈ 9.9 m with steering wheel), 26' 5" (≈ 8.05 m without steering wheel) |
| broad | 13 '9 "(≈ 4.17 m) | 13 '9 "(≈ 4.17 m) |
| height | 8 '(≈ 2.44 m) | 8 '(≈ 2.44 m) |
| drive | a petrol engine with 105 bhp (≈ 106 PS) | a petrol engine with 105 bhp (≈ 106 PS) |
| Chain width | 52 cm | 52 cm |
| Top speed | approx. 6 km / h | approx. 6 km / h |
| Tank volume | 227 l | 227 l |
| Radius of action | 36 km | 36 km |
| Armament | two QF-6 pounder cannons , four .303 machine guns | six machine guns |
| Armor | 6-10 mm | 6-10 mm |
| crew | eight men | eight men |
Whereabouts
The only surviving Mark I is now in the Bovington Tank Museum . It probably served as a driving school tank during the First World War .
See also
literature
- David Fletcher: Landships - British Tanks in the First World War. HMSO , 1984, ISBN 0-11-290409-2 .
- George Forty: Tank Action. Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1346-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto Lueger : Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences . 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart and Leipzig 1920 ( zeno.org [accessed on May 8, 2019] lexicon entry "Tank").
- Jump up ↑ Tank Mark I (Male). In: Vehicles. The Tank Museum, accessed on September 15, 2016 (English): "The only surviving example of a Mark I tank, actual identity unknown."