What did the tank of World War I look like?

What kind of association does most people have with the word “tank”? That's right, a formidable fighting machine with excellent armor and weapons. And how could it be otherwise, if after

дние 60-70 лет дизайн особо не менялся?For 2-3 generations, people are so accustomed to the stereotype that when they mention the tank of the First World War, it destroys all ideas about that war and distorts reality. This article is designed to return the facts to their places and show the general public the difference between the present-day MBT and the combat vehicle of the beginning of the 20th century.

First of all it is worth noting that about massthe use of armored vehicles was out of the question, since the total number of combat-ready vehicles even at the end of the war barely reached hundreds throughout Europe. Positional warfare and constant shelling - these are the days of that wartime. But back to the technique. The role she was assigned was rather modest - the support of the attacking infantry, in accordance with which they were designed.

The appearance of these steel monsters was able toscare only people who have never seen anything like it. For a modern person, the spectacle will be ridiculous: something resembling a box of riveted sheets of armor, with machine guns sticking out in all directions (less often, tools in the side turrets) - these are typical WWI tanks. Photos of these machines do not even a bit like pictures of armored 40s.

Under the armor means bulletproof sheets10-15 mm thick. This was quite enough to ignore the enemy machine guns. Even the high-explosive projectile could not contain the gap. It was the first experience of the use of heavy equipment, which was in dire need of a test range, which the First World War turned out to be. Tanks of that time, no matter how modest their characteristics, laid the foundation for a radical change in the very look of the war in the next half of the century.

The armament mainly consisted of severalmachine guns, later appeared and light guns. You need to understand that these were small-caliber guns with a short barrel. The tank of the First World War was supposed by the designers to destroy the infantry, smash light defenses and suppress the enemy’s machine-gun nests. The army then needed a mobile gun platform, and not an independent branch of troops.

Neither of which "blitzkrieg" strategists of that timethey thought, and therefore the speed of the combat vehicle was depressingly small. The cavalry coped well with its tasks and did not give up its positions until the early 40s. The tank of the First World War could not affect the outcome of the conflict, development began too late. Poor visibility, constant gas contamination of the fighting compartment, imperfect construction and the absence of serious advantages over the field artillery of that time - these are the reasons for the low combat effectiveness of the technology of the beginning of the last century.

Therefore, meeting in textbooks or infiction mentioning a tank of the First World War, imagine a shapeless mobile fire platform, then you can avoid any mistakes in evaluating combat operations of the time when 3-5 tanks to the front meant absolutely nothing compared to widely used cavalry or howitzer artillery.