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| ISBN-13: | 9780750986595 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 11/02/2017 |
| Sold by: | INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| File size: | 27 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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CHAPTER 1
'LITTLE WILLIE'
The first tank prototype was designed under the auspices of the British Admiralty not the Army, which surprisingly had nothing to do with it. Winston Churchill, 1st Lord of the Admiralty at the time, had grown impatient at the way the war was going in France and was convinced there were better ways of conducting it. He formed the Landships Committee, which included Royal Navy engineers, and told it to come up with a solution. This is why lots of the terms used to describe tank components were those used in the Navy, such as decks, hatches, sponsons, cupolas, cabins and hull.
In February 1915 the committee granted William Foster & Co. of Lincoln the contract to build the first prototype British tank. Part of the requirement was to utilise an extended agricultural tractor crawler track system developed by Bullock Creeping Grip Tractor Company of Chicago, USA.
The task of designing the first Landship fighting vehicle was shared between William Tritton, the Managing Director of William Foster & Co., and Walter Wilson, a British Navy officer assigned to the company, who was also an engineer.
The first prototype, named by the company the 'Number One Lincoln Machine', was completed on 9 September 1915. It had a turret fixed to the top of a riveted steel box body and the front metal plates were angled to help the vehicle negotiate undulating terrain.
The American tracks were set back from the front of the vehicle; they were too short and not strong enough to cope with the 16-ton vehicle weight. Modifications were made but cross-country performance during tests was poor.
William Tritton and Walter Wilson worked on a solution to the track problem. They developed a new wider, longer and stronger system that ran the length of the vehicle.
A track frame was built, with a series of rollers mounted on the frame for the track to run on. To stop the tracks getting clogged with mud, openings were cut into the frame that acted as mud chutes.
The track drive sprocket wheel was at the rear. The track tension could be adjusted by repositioning the front idler wheel, one on each side. There was no suspension and hence the ride was very bumpy.
To enable the tracks to be fully tested the turret was removed and the circular hole in the roof was plated over. It was at this stage that the Number One Lincoln Machine was renamed. It was given the derogatory nickname 'Little Willie' after the German Kaiser Wilhelm II's eldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm.
The Prince was causing some problems for the Kaiser. In an interview in October 1914 he stated, 'Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times ...' It was hoped that this new fighting machine would also cause the Kaiser a few problems. (The second, bigger tank prototype that followed was called 'Big Willie', but this was later changed to 'Mother'.)
The engine was fitted at the rear of the vehicle. It was a British Daimler 13-litre straight-six petrol engine. That sounds extremely powerful but it could only produce 105hp at 1,000rpm. The transmission only had three options: first, second and reverse gears.
As this new armoured fighting vehicle did not have wheels, the design team had to work out how it was going to be steered. Agricultural tractors used steering brakes; to turn right the driver pulled the right lever and to turn left he applied the left track brake lever.
It was felt that the longer tracks on the tank needed the additional help of two large wheels, and these were placed on a frame that protruded from the rear of the hull on a hydraulic arm. It was hoped that this would act like a rudder fitted to the back of a boat. When going over very uneven ground the rear steering wheels could be raised.
CHAPTER 2
'MOTHER'
The next prototype started to look like British tanks that fought in the First World War. Walter Wilson wanted to give the tank better cross-country performance and he enlarged the track frame used on the 'Little Willie' prototype, making it a rhomboid shape. He also fitted a lengthened track to go all around the outside of the frame that enabled the vehicle to cross enemy trenches. It still had the rear steering wheeled trailer that could be raised or lowered.
The prototype was finished by December 1915. At first it was known as the 'Wilson' in the factory, although officially it was designated 'His Majesty's Land Ship Centipede'. It was also known as 'Big Willie' because it was bigger than the 'Little Willie' prototype, and eventually, 'Mother', because from this design lots of other tanks were spawned. It was transported from William Foster & Co.'s factory in Lincoln to Hatfield Park in Hertfordshire, where it underwent trials.
The Royal Navy had a stock of 6-pounder cannons that were a 1915 modification of the French Hotchkiss 75mm gun. It had a muzzle velocity of 606yd/sec (544m/sec) and a maximum range of 4.26 miles (6.86km). The gun barrel length was 7ft 5in (2.28m).
However, fitting a 6-pounder gun in a turret was impractical. It would have been located above the very hot and noxious engine, which would have made working the cannon uncomfortable for the gun crew. The other major concern was that a turret would have raised the tank's centre of gravity too high and caused it to topple over when negotiating undulating landscapes found on battlefields caused by shell craters.
Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, Director of British Naval Construction, suggested using side-mounted sponsons that gave each weapon a 110-degree traverse. A curved armoured gun shield was fitted to the cannon. When the gun was moved in the sponson's aperture the shield sealed off the crew compartment.
The gunner moved the weapon manually. He had a folding stock under his right arm that he moved to his left or right and up and down to elevate or depress the gun. He had a pistol grip with a trigger to fire the gun when it was on target. To find his target the gunner used a telescopic sight fitted to the gun mounting that looked through a small vertical slit.
Compared with modern tanks there appears to be a lot of room inside both 'Little' and 'Big Willie' but it has to be remembered that they were designed to have a crew of eight. The sponsons helped increase the space available slightly but they were fitted with bulky machine guns and cannons.
The same British Daimler straight-six 13-litre petrol engine, producing 105hp, which was fitted to 'Little Willie' was also used in its bigger brother. The engine was moved more towards the centre of the vehicle, while the radiator and cooling fan were mounted at the rear of the engine.
The engine had to cope with an increase in vehicle weight from 16 tons to 28 due to the addition of sponsons, weapons, ammunition, and the increased size of the track frame and track. Additional gearboxes were added to give four forward gears and two reverse gears.
The first cross-country trials took place in the grounds of Hatfield House on 29 January 1916 and they went well. These were repeated four days later in front of an audience of government officials and senior officers, including Field Marshal Kitchener. 'Mother' managed to successfully negotiate all the obstacles placed in her way: trenches, lines of barbed wire, hills, waterlogged ground and large holes dug to have the same characteristics of an artillery shell crater.
The Army Council placed an order for 100 tanks ten days after the last presentation. The contract was split between William Foster & Co. of Lincoln and the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company of Birmingham. Seven may have been built by Robey and Company in Lincoln but this has not been confirmed by surviving documents. Unfortunately, 'Mother' was cut up for scrap metal after the war.
CHAPTER 3
MARK I TANK
The first production tank was only given the designation 'Mark I' after new versions were built. The Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company of Birmingham had a large production capacity; it built seventy-five tanks of the original 100-tank order at its Oldham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company factory, while the remaining twenty-five tanks were built in William Foster & Co.'s factory in Lincoln.
The Mark I tank needed good quality armour plate to protect the crew, and the standard steel plate used on the 'Mother' prototype was not good enough. Two thicknesses were used: 10mm to cover important areas and 6mm for non-vital ones. The steel was cut and drilled in a soft state by the manufacturer and then hardened by heating and cooling rapidly while being pressed flat.
The War Office wanted to create six tank companies equipped with twenty-five tanks each, so it increased the initial order from 100 to 150. However, this caused a problem: there were not enough 6-pounder guns available to equip all the vehicles.
A decision was made to fit seventy-five with a pair of 0.303in (7.62mm) Vickers water-cooled machine guns in each sponson and the remaining seventy-five with a forward-facing 6-pounder (57mm) gun and a side-facing 0.303in (7.62mm) Hotchkiss air-cooled machine gun in each sponson. The machine gun-only tanks were called Mark I Female tanks and those armed with two 6-pounder guns and three machine guns were called Mark I Male tanks.
There was a gun port at the front of the tank situated between the driver and commander. It was covered with a movable armoured plate and was used to enable a 0.303in (7.62mm) Hotchkiss air-cooled machine gun to be fired forward.
To modern eyes it may seem strange to build a large tank armed only with machine guns. You have to remember that in 1915 the enemy did not possess any tanks, so they only had to deal with infantry and machine-gun nests. The Male tank's 6-pounder guns were intended to be used against enemy fortified positions.
Eight Mark I tanks fought in Gaza and they formed 'E' Company, Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps (later renamed the Palestine Tank Detachment). They left England in January 1917 and were to be part of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force that was going to attack the Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman Empire in what was then called Palestine.
After arriving in March 1917 they were transported to the British Army positions outside Gaza. The four Male gun tanks were called 'Sir Archibald', 'Otazel', 'Pincher' and 'Ole Luk Oie'. The four Female machine gun-only tanks were called 'War Baby', 'Kia Ora', 'Nutty' and 'Tiger'.
These were not deployed in a close group as a hammer to smash through enemy front lines. The senior officers disregarded the advice given to them by the young officers who commanded the tanks and instead they were used in pairs, spread apart.
The Turkish Army used artillery to stop the tanks, although the desert sand also helped the enemy. It got into the mechanical systems and the abrasive effect caused damage, hence breakdowns were common. The sand also caused the tracks to come off, which could be fatal on the battlefield as a stationary target was easier for the artillery to target. They were last used in combat in Palestine during the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917 but had very little impact on the overall campaign because they were so few in number.
SURVIVING MARK I TANKS
There is only one Mark I left and it is on display at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK. It was originally placed in Lord Salisbury's Hatfield Park in Hertfordshire on 8 May 1919 as a 'Presentation Tank' by the Army Council to commemorate the secret tank trials and inspection there by HM King George V in February 1916 of the first type of tank approved for use by the British Army in the war. After fifty years at Hatfield Park it was moved to the Royal Armoured Corps Tank Museum on 7 May 1969.
When it arrived it was fitted with the Mark IV Male tank short-barrelled 6-pounder gun rather than the early long-barrelled naval gun. The gun shield had been changed to fit the later gun. It was also missing the Mark I rear steering tail and hydraulic lifting and lowering apparatus. The tail hydraulics attached to the back came from a Mark II tank. These were all removed and replaced when the tank was restored.
The anti-hand grenade wood and wire mesh roof had to be newly fabricated. Some tanks had this roof mesh extended over the top of each sponson for added protection. Not all Mark Is had these roofs fitted.
Research has not been able to confirm its wartime identity or service history, although the museum believes it was used as a tank crew training vehicle.
The museum restoration workshop painted the vehicle in similar camouflage colours used on the Mark I Male tank No. 705 C19 called 'Clan Leslie', of 4 Section, 'C' Company, Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps, commanded by Maj. Holford Walker. Mark I tanks took part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, as part of the Somme offensive on 15 September 1916, the first time tanks were deployed in battle.
CHAPTER 4
MARK II TANK
The British Army needed a vehicle with which to train new crews to use the Mark IV tank so fifty Mark II training tanks were built to serve this purpose: twenty-five Males and twenty-five Females. The Males were constructed by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company of Birmingham, the Females by William Foster & Co. of Lincoln.
These tanks were not intended to go into battle; they constructed in mild, not hardened, steel and could not stop a rifle bullet. Some sponsons taken from recovered, battle-damaged Mark I tanks were fitted to Mark II tanks. They were made in hardened steel and gave the crew some protection. Amazingly, these death traps were used once in action at the Battle of Arras in April 1917 as not enough Mark IV tanks had been delivered to the front lines in France in time for the next attack.
They were very similar in design to the Mark I. Most were built as Males armed with the 6-pounder gun and three Hotchkiss 0.303in air-cooled machine guns. Female Mark II tank sponsons were armed with a pair of 0.303in (7.62mm) Vickers water-cooled machine guns in an armoured sleeve on each side and one Hotchkiss 0.303in (7.62mm) air-cooled machine gun in the front cabin. Some Mark II Female tanks, like Nos 578 and 593, had their sponson machine gun apertures modified to accept the smaller 0.303in (7.62mm) Lewis machine gun instead of the large Vickers machine gun used on the Mark I Female tank. A few that were built were used as testbeds for different transmission systems.
The steering tail wheels arrangement at the back of the tank and the hydraulic lifting equipment, fitted to Mark Is, were not a feature of the Mark II. At this stage in tank development they were considered unnecessary.
The only surviving Mark II is at The Tank Museum in Bovington and is a Female version. It is the only tank with an early First World War version of the double Vickers 0.303in water-cooled machine gunarmed Female sponson. Each machine gun was mounted in an armoured jacket and both weapons could sweep a total of 180 degrees on one side of the tank.
A major problem with this design was that the crew escape hatch at the rear of the sponson was reduced in height to accommodate a second machine gun. If the tank was hit and caught fire the men inside would have difficulty getting out quickly as the hatch was only 61cm long and 41cm wide. The Mark V Female had a hatch that was 145cm high and so was much easier for the crew to escape from.
During the restoration of the Mark II the number 'F53' and the words 'The Flying Scotsman' were discovered under the layers of paint. It served with 'C' or 'D' Company during the Battle of Arras and there are some battle damage holes caused by enemy shells still visible in the back of the vehicle.
The Mark II driver's and commander's cab is a little bit narrower than the Mark I's; this was to accommodate the fitting of wider tracks but these were never used.
The same British Foster-Daimler, Knight sleeve valve, water-cooled, straight-six, 13-litre, 105hp petrol engine and transmission system was used as on the Mark I. It still took four people to drive it.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Tank Hunter"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Craig Moore.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
THE TANKS,
'Little Willie',
'Mother',
Mark I Tank,
Mark II Tank,
Mark III Tank,
Mark IV Tank,
Mark V Tank,
Mark V* Tank,
Mark V** Tank,
Mark V Composite Tank,
Mark VI Tank,
Mark VII Tank,
Mark VIII Tank,
Mark IX Infantry Carrier,
Medium Mark A Whippet Tank,
French Schneider CA Tank,
French Saint-Chamond Tank,
French Renault FT Tank,
Sturmpanzerwagen A7V Tank,
German LK II Light Tank,
A7V Flakpanzer Anti-Aircraft Tank,
A7V Überlandwagen,
British Supply Tanks,
Schneider CD Supply Vehicle,
Gun Carrier Mark I,
US Holt Gas-Electric Tank,
US Steam Tank (Track Laying),
US Model 1917 6-Ton Light Tank,
US Model 1918 Ford 3-Ton Light Tank,
US Skeleton Tank,
Killen-Strait Armoured Tractor,
Russian Tsar Tank,
THE BATTLES,
The First Tank Battle,
The Battle of Cambrai,
French Tank Battles,
The First Tank v. Tank Battles,
Beutepanzern,
Mark IV v. Mark IV Tank Battles,
The Battle of Amiens,
American Tank Battles,
Tank Banks,
Presentation Tanks,
Bibliography,