WWI 1916: The Terror Of The First Tanks | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

my name's dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video france 1916 a terrifying new killing machine appears on the world war one battlefield the tank on a mission to crush german defenses and end two years of bloody trench warfare the advent of tanks changes warfare completely it will never be the same again the rolling 28-ton monsters horrify the germans and send panic through the lines these guys had no idea what's coming towards them [Music] none of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank the germans respond with ferocious firepower you're sitting in a metal coffin that will turn into an inferno in seconds and finally field lethal tanks of their own machine gun bullets and that noise is death the face of modern warfare changes forever and the stage is set for history's first great tank battle [Music] the tank undisputed king of the battlefield through the 20th century they had been key to modern mobile warfare the deciding factor in many of history's greatest battles the tank's journey began almost a century ago during the desperate fighting of world war one in 1916 the great war is the stalemates we've got trench warfare there's a line of trenches with the british and the french on one side then the germans on the other the result a 700 kilometer network of trenches barbed wire and machine guns cutting a deadly swath through belgium and france this is the western front [Music] but the technology of 1916 is based on infantry which are vulnerable to machine guns and of course always held up by trenches and by barbed wire so even at the very beginning of the war people are aware that there must be a way of overcoming barbed wire trenches machine guns the british believe the solution can be found in tracked vehicles but the idea of a mobile weapon on the battlefield has been around for ages from hannibal's war elephants to the drawings of leonardo da vinci and right up to the science fiction ironclads of h.g wells the british launch a top-secret weapons program calling it the tank project to trick german spies into believing their water carriers the reality is lethally different these are mobile killing machines what makes the tank so important in the first world war is that for the very first time you get the combination of thin armor plate a power source and the technology of the track on january 29 1916 the british unveiled history's first tank the mark one outfitted with two enormous 20 meter long tracks the mark one is designed to span even the widest of trenches and can be armed with either two six pounder naval guns or four deadly vickers machine guns wheels at the back help keep it stable but it's slow cumbersome and requires a large crew to take it into battle there would normally be eight men in one of these tanks four of them are dealing with the guns the rest of the crew the other four men are all involved in driving now this tank is virtually identical inside the tanks that first went into action on the song in september 1916. the battle of the song fought over five months in 1916 was british commander douglas haig's attempt to end the two-year stalemate by september it has already cost the allies over 300 000 casualties desperate to stop the carnage hague turns to his new weapon and the decision was taken use the tanks as soon as they were available they'll go into battle north of the psalm river for his attack hague has amassed two hundred thousand men more than 700 artillery pieces and 49 of his brand new tanks and they're up against more than one hundred thousand german soldiers dug in an 11 kilometer front but before haye can launch his main attack he must first eliminate a threat to his flank by clearing the germans from delville woods and for the first time in the history of warfare tanks will lead the attack this is uh delville wood this is the start line of the attack by three tanks of d company in the first ever tank attack on the morning of the 15th of september 1916. but when the tanks were here their crews wouldn't have seen nice pretty countryside they would have seen shell holes splintered trees they would have been hell on earth they even called it devil's wood three tanks from d company move out into the pre-dawn darkness the crews trusting their lives to these unproven new weapons in a matter of moments one tank breaks down and is unable to continue another gets stuck on uneven ground but one tank nicknamed daredevil by its commander captain harold mortimer continues the attack on that morning the whole thing seems so unreal i didn't think my tank would be the first in the world to fire a shot in anger i saw lots of flashes coming from the edge of the woods i gave the order to open fire with one of the six pounders i managed to get a stride one of the trenches but we got a direct hit they broke my track all three tanks are lost but the infantry take delville wood clearing the way for hague's main attack which calls for 200 000 allied troops to advance along an 11-kilometer front their objective the fortified villages of corsilet morval and fleur and for the first time tanks will lead a mass infantry attack their mission crush the barbed wire and suppress machine gun fire allowing the infantry to advance and storm the german trenches this is where the battle begins early in the morning of the 15th of september down this road here come the tanks moving towards the village already assembled at all of 41st division the infantry waiting to go forward with their tanks leading essentially everything is heading towards that village that down there is the objective the first tank attack after a massive artillery barrage the tanks crawl slowly towards german lines in small groups inside the tank now things are really unpleasant not only do we have this tremendous amount of noise roaring off the engine which is right in the middle these exhaust stacks carrying the fumes out through the top of the tank will now be so hot you won't be able to touch them in fact they'll start glowing pink after a while in the dark and you'll just feel the heat radiating off them onto your skin now we're getting closer to the firing line the ground's getting rougher the tank's slowing down lieutenant basil on reach tank approaches no man's land the point of no return we got our first look at what looked like impossible ground hardly a yard was not a shell crater it was like a rough sea made of holes after a hundred yards george stopped with engine trouble this time for good the majority of the tanks actually break down that they stall that they run into mechanical problems things simply break into the tank and they stop down one very steep incline something happened to archie's car he reported that he was out of action and that i was to go on alone [Music] of the original tank force only nine remain operational with them is lieutenant arthur arnold in his tank nicknamed dracula the going was now simply one succession of shell craters it was thrilling the way the tank would go down into a crater stick her tracks into the opposite wall and then steadily climb out so you're in a dimly lit compartment you've then got the situation where it's bucking up and down unless you hold on to things then actually you're going to fall over and things are moving in there gunner alfred reifer is in a decompany tank which crawls closer to the german trenches and spots serious trouble a german observation balloon it can quickly call in a deadly artillery attack and halt the advancing tanks and infantry it must be destroyed immediately percy bolt excitedly told me he was going to fire at a german observation balloon several rounds are fired and bolt claimed a direct hit a handful of tanks breached no man's land and bear down on the german front line where hundreds of defenders are shocked to see the approaching metal monsters in 1916 the germans had basically no idea that the tank was in development so they're sitting there and staring out and then the first thing they realized was the sound because tanks are loud these guys have no idea what's coming towards them none of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank most of them haven't hadn't even seen a car [Music] they started firing too with machine guns and rifles the world's first tanks are now almost on top of the german lines and are about to face their biggest battlefield test by now machine gun bullets are smashing against the tank it's like being in a hailstorm in a tin box and that noise is death september 15 1960 the first tank attack in history is underway here at the bloody battle of the song the british hope the new armored weapons will crush german defenses and help to end two years of trench warfare mechanical problems and rough terrain stop most of the tanks in their tracks but some make it across no man's land and grind slowly forward into german fire by now machine gun bullets are smashing against the table and that noise is death as we approached they let fire at us with might and mane then a smash against my flap caused the splinters to come in and the blood to pour down my face [Music] dracula reached the line first a row of german heads appeared above the parapet and looked in some amazement but what was approaching out of the nerve of the bombardment in 1916 the germans had basically no idea that the tank was in development these guys have no idea what's coming towards them none of these guys had ever seen a machine like a tank once stared and stared and stared as it one had lost the power of one's limbs the big monsters approached us slowly but always advancing someone shouted the devil is coming they started firing too with machine guns and rifles both didn't do any good damn this fire spitting thing crosses over shell holes and is coming steadily and surely towards us the fear of being overrolled it's a very deep fear everybody has been squashed in the ground so the german soldiers developed something it's called german panzer angst that's tank fear now a hail of machine gun bullets passes over us out out out monsters are coming we were advancing the tank was on top of the trench and there we paused plus the thickest guns raked the enemy to port and started then on we went again one of the remaining tanks approaches its final objective at the center of the german defensive line the village of fleur we came into the village which was a heap of rubble with a few skeletons of houses still standing there was hell outside all right bolt spotted a couple of german machine gunners who were firing at us four rounds from six pounder put them out of action the villager fleur has been liberated a british spotter plane observes tank d-17 moving down the main street the scene in flares was without precedent firing as it went the tank lurched up the main street followed by parties of cheering infantry the news spreads quickly back home the british eager for any good news from the front celebrate their new lethal weapon this is the high water mark in the battle of fleur because it's on this spot that the tank d17 turns round stops the infantry come up and it becomes the point at which the battle ends is it a total success well within four days hague general hagues ordered a thousand tanks as far as he's concerned it's definitely proved a point tanks have a role in modern warfare seven months later in april of 1917 hague sends his lethal armored weapons into action near arras his plan exploit what is considered the weak point in the german line attacking the small village of moshi leprous with a massive strike of artillery infantry and tanks dawn april 11 1917 the attack is set to begin at 5 am but it's snowing and bitterly cold allied commanders order a two-hour delay hoping the weather will clear they notify the artillery and infantry but nobody thinks to tell the tanks and promptly at five three tanks move out all alone without knowing it these tanks are pioneering a new armored tactic the surprise attack unheralded by a warning artillery barrage with them is driver jack harris it seemed odd to be advancing without the usual artillery barrage but our orders were clear to advance at 5am and capture morshi throughout the great war artillery is seen as being critical to prepare the way for the attack it breaks up the enemy defenses it cuts the wire it may kill a few germans but it also warns them of what's happening at monsieur in 1917 when there is no warning barrage then the germans are caught by surprise because the tanks simply appear on that position we stare at a ghast as slowly a tank trap towards us and we open fire we hope the wide ditch at the side of the road will stop it but it doesn't and now the tanks have more shiela poo at their mercy we just drove straight down the main street while the crew fired at everything inside every gun in the tank was firing i could see lots of jerry's getting out of the place as fast as they could the tank crew opened up with a murderous machine gunfire those that were not killed instantly screamed as they laser wounded we got clear through to the other side of the village and when we look back we saw that jerry had tumbled to the fact that we didn't have any infantry with us and i could see german soldiers popping up out of cellars and dugouts and reoccupying the positions we just cleared the officer said looks like we've got to capture it all over again but this time they will not have the element of surprise the tanks were not well armored on the top because the main armor had to be in the front and if you throw grenades which the germans have in abundance onto the roof that may well rock the fuel tank and the explosion will go in every way so down also and kill hopefully the cooler you know that with the fuel tanks inside the vehicle in which you're sitting then you're sitting in a metal coffin that will turn into an inferno in seconds one tank takes a direct hit and the remaining two keep moving right into a wall of armor-piercing bullets if you can imagine being inside an armored vehicle when you're hit by armored piercing ammunition so it'll zip around the tank bouncing off things and if it hits a person you can work out what that'll do if it bursts the fuel line or it hits ammunition then it'll turn it into a funeral pyro in a few seconds german gunners destroy the second tank and heavily damaged the third driven by lieutenant jack harris managed to get the old bus out of that corner at that time we were all wounded i gotta put it in the side of the neck with a bloody mess he came in through the gunman harris has almost made it out of the town and to safety at 7 00 a.m allied artillery opens up on mauricio la cruz unaware that their own tanks are already in the town and things get even worse for harris and his crew as a british shell destroys their tank only jack harris survives the tank attacks on moshi lipo fail but succeed in teaching the tank commanders the value of tactical surprise and it will be the elements of surprise that the allies will employ in their coming winter offensive the battle of cambria in november 1917 is a completely new way of using tanks now we're actually using them on mass over 500 of them the stage is now set for what will become the first mast armored attack in history november 1917 british tanks have been on the world war one battlefield in small numbers for more than a year proving they have a role in modern warfare now allied commanders raise the stakes drastically they send not dozens but hundreds of tanks to the western front all of them manned by history's first specially trained tank corps the era of the massed tank attack is about to begin the motto of the british tank corps is through the mud and the blood to the green fields beyond and that was what had been looked for throughout the great war and that was what they hoped to achieve with the new tank corps the allies hoped to punch holes through the hindenburg line and capture the strategically important city of cambray the germans have made this part of the line one of the most heavily fortified sectors on the western front they're more than 250 000 troops dozens of machine gun posts a maze of barbed wire and for the first time specific countermeasures against the tanks one of the great antidotes to the tank was the german the hindenburg line with trenches say 16 feet wide and that was done on purpose to defeat the tanks one great ability to cross trenches now we're actually using them on mass over 500 of them we're now using the mark four tanks which are much much better the mark fours have thicker armor making them less vulnerable to machine gun fire november 20th 200 000 troops and almost 500 tanks are poised for an all-out strike on the hindenburg line and the first masked tank attack in history begins advancing with them is major william watson to right of me and to left of me in the dim light were tanks tanks lined up in front of the wire tanks swinging into position there was one tank to every 30 yards of front when the guns began the tanks were moving over the crest of the hill the enemy trenches were already enveloped in thick smoke the german defenders are taken by surprise all hell broke loose i could see the trench lit up by a sea of flame caused by the incessant exploding shells century suddenly made an extraordinary remark hello something four cornered is coming then we saw a whole chain of these steel monsters advancing towards our trenches i clung onto the hope that the french would be light enough to present the tanks with an impassable obstacle it's also realised that some of the tanks need to be equipped with for scenes or very big bundles of brushwood and these are put on the nose of the tank the intention is they can drop them into the very deep german trenches the hindenburg line has enormously deep trenches without them they'll become bogged they had a system to go over trenches while one tank was dropping uh wood in the trenches covering the second thing the same thing was going over the trend and that was like a murderous belay rolling towards them so the mass attack of the british tanks was very successful the tanks made rapid progress crossing the trench to our left and right maintaining heavy fire against the trench we were utterly defenseless in the face of these monsters this was no longer a battle this was a massacre the germans facing the mass attack at cambray were facing a new dimension of tank attacks and they had no technical and psychological instruments to cope with it they were completely overwhelmed on a military and a psychological base it looks like an overwhelming victory but the battle for cambray is far from over and the germans have prepared a lethal surprise for the steadily advancing allies [Music] november 20th 1917 the allies launched history's first mass tank attack almost 500 new british mark iv tanks lead infantry across the first trenches of the hindenburg line and advance towards their objective the french city of cambray it's incredibly successful the enemy would appear have no way of dealing with this large number of tanks the tanks have crossed two lines of german defenses and now stand poised to break through the hindenburg line tanks of h battalion are among waves of armor moving up the right shoulder of fleskier ridge tank harrier commanded by gordon hassell and the others stop at the summit cambray the allied objective lies in the distance it seems too good to be true i said to my driver sergeant callahan i don't like this somehow i don't know why a shell from a german field gun destroys hong kong [Music] harrier and the other tanks tried desperately to get out of its range we're going downhill and we're able to get up a bit of speed then i heard a tremendous explosion and saw one of our tracks go flying through the air then we got another hit which carried away our roof then a third shot crashed through the back and we were out of action the gun that destroys harrier also hits huntsman and harvester the germans have sprung their surprise unleashing fire from a weapon that quickly becomes their main tank killer the 77 millimeter crop field gun normally used for indirect fire on trenches the 77 has been modified for direct fire against tanks and its 6 kilogram armor-piercing shells are accurate at distances of up to a kilometer now the germans had started by the summer of 1917 to train their gunners in anti-tank work and the first real evidence we have of this is a location on the comrade battlefield at a village called fl where a line of british tanks run across the front of a german battery trained in anti-tank fire [Music] and the tanks with their fuel stored inside are highly vulnerable to field guns petrol the gasoline was actually here in the front 25 gallons of it either side so the chances are that if a shell came in the tank would ignite it would probably then set the ammunition off the tank would blow up [Applause] and nobody would come out of it alive tanks suddenly appear to our front around fleskier i ordered sides to be set at 700 meters and with our third shot we knocked out a tank in short order we followed this with three more then with my one remaining gun dealt with four more tanks it was like a shooting gallery the bridge tanks were rolling over the hill not knowing what was coming he was waiting for them knowing what was coming [Music] at close quarters with direct fire our courageous artillery destroyed all tanks within range an impressive number of these expensive pieces of fighting equipment we're strewn around the battlefield like so much scrap iron in two days of fighting the allies lose 179 tanks but take fleskier clearing the way to their main objective cambray it's really regarded as a tremendous success this is a victory the success of cambria however is illusory at the battle of cambray which is often referred to as the first big tank battle yeah the tanks made good progress they they covered ground up to 30 kilometers but was always forgotten the german stormtroopers took back the same area within few days with very few losses and now the germans come up with another response to the rolling british armor a monster tank of their own history's first tank on tank battle is about to begin in world war one the tank has become the allies best bet for crossing german trenches by 1917 hundreds are in action on the western front but unknown to the allies the german high command has been secretly developing a tank of their own the misconception many people of our age have is that this was an easy task building an armored vehicle in the first world war was an enormous challenge it's it's like nuclear technology nowadays by march 1918 a year and a half after the debut of the british tank the german empire sends a 30-ton monster to the front the a7v is powered by two 100-horsepower gasoline engines protected by 15 millimeters of side armor and armed with a 57 millimeter main gun and six heavy machine guns the german tank in use in 1918 is a strange beast in many ways it is however very big it mounts a big field gun right in the nose and it's got machine guns lots of people in there are 18 to 23 people so it's pretty crowded in there but a villas better know in 1918 it goes into action april 24th 1918 the germans armed with their new tanks capture villar's britain oh and send the tanks south to the nearby village of kashi three british tanks advance unaware that they're about to make history led by lieutenant frank mitchell the order came proceed to cashy hold it at all costs [Music] suddenly an infantryman shouted through our flap look out jerry tanks about i looked out there some 300 yards away a round squat looking monster was advancing and farther away to left and right pulled two more of these armed tortoises a great thrill ran through us all so we had met our rivals at last for the first time in history tank was encountering tank the most interesting thing about this fight is both sides didn't have the slightest idea how to fight a tank to tank battle both sides were astonished at the side of the other and both sides were improvising and after a second of astonishment on both sides the british fired the first shot in the first tank battle of history we kept on a zigzag course the right gunner made a sighting shot three british and three german tanks bear down on each other over the shell-cratered ground the lead german tank opens fire with its main gun hitting both female mark fours and blowing holes in their sides their machine guns are useless against the heavy armor of the a7v they withdraw leaving mitchell's tank to face the a7vs alone two of their mark tanks fled the battlefield not because they were scared but because of the female tanks so they just had machine guns but the male marketing the third mark tank with a gun shut it out with the a7v the right gunner made a sighting shot the shell burst some distance beyond the leading enemy tank no reply came [Music] a second shot boomed out landing just to the right but again no reply suddenly against our steel wall a hurricane of hail patterned and the interior was filled with myriads of sparks and flying splinters my face was stung with my new fragments of steel the jerry tank had treated us to a broad side of armor-piercing bullets the ground was heavily scarred with shell holes we kept going up and down like a ship in a heavy sea making accurate shooting difficult another raking broadside of armor-piercing bullets gave us our first casualty the lewis gunner after piercing the side of the tank we turned i took a risk and stopped the tank for a moment it's a dangerous move mitchell is now a stationary target for the german tanks april 1918 three british and three german tanks meet in history's first tank on tank battle after his two companions are forced to retreat british commander frank mitchell stops his mark iv to give the gunner a better shot of the german a7v i took a risk and stopped the tank for a moment the mark iv is now a stationary target the pause was justified and a carefully aimed shot hit the turret of the german tank bringing it to a standstill the shot instantly kills a gunner and mortally wounds two others another raw and yet another white puff at the front of the tank denoted a second hit then once more with great deliberation he aimed and hit for the third time we had knocked the monster out the two remaining a7vs creep forward if they both pour concentrated fire on the british tank it will be obliterated along with mitchell and his crew now i thought we shall not last very long we sprinkled one of them with a few sighting shells went to my intense joy and amazement i saw it go slowly backwards its companion did likewise and in a few minutes they both had disappeared from sight leaving our tank the sole possessor of the field it's all over in minutes this first chance encounter in the spring of 1918 between the germans and the allied armies becomes a defining moment in the history of modern warfare seven months later the great war finally ends although tanks can't be said to win the war the fact that they're available is very very important for the allies they're part of that mix which allows ultimate victory to be achieved the advent of tanks changes warfare completely it will never be the same again once you've let this out of the box you can't put it back again the motto of the british tank core is through the mud and the blood to the green fields beyond and that was what had been looked for throughout the great war and that was what they hoped to achieve you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, ww1 history, tank history, tank war, history of tanks, the first tanks, when were tanks invented, the first tank war, british history, ww1 germany, somme, the somme offensive

Id: ZBOH95IXzdM

Length: 44min 11sec (2651 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 22 2021