Field Marshal Haig’s preference was to use the assault to break through German defences between the villages of Flers and Courcelette. The battle was, like 1 July, an ambitious operation fought on a front from the Reserve Army, across all of 4th Army and down to the French area, where the 6th Army also attacked. These decisions, and that to commit the tank to battle ‘early’, before it had been improved or was available in larger numbers, remain controversial. However, Lieutenant General Rawlinson chose to spread the ‘runners’ along the front of the attack, but also to include in his artillery plan ‘lanes’ for the tanks which were not to be shelled for fear of obstructing them. They were brought forward to their ‘battle positions’ in the dark to maintain the element of surprise. On 15 September only forty-eight tanks were available and of these just over a dozen were able to join the attack that morning as others had simply broken down. However, they offered the infantry support with firepower, destroyed strongpoints and could advance protected from virtually all enemy small arms. Conditions for the crew inside the vehicle, with an exposed engine and uncertain ventilation, were difficult and the Mark I tanks were slow and mechanically unreliable. The vehicle was armoured against rifle and machine gun fire and operated on tracks that could cope with uneven ground, crush barbed wire and cross trenches. The vehicle had a crew of six, was armed with either two 6-pounder guns and machine guns (the male), or just machine guns (the female). Developed in secret by the ‘Land Ship Committee’, the tank, as it was codenamed, was intended to overcome the problems faced by infantry in crossing trenches and barbed wire whilst under fire from machine guns. This battle saw both New Zealand and Canadian divisions committed and the successful first employment of the tank. The Battle of Flers-Courcelette was a set-piece operation which began on 15 September and ended on the 22nd.
Although their initial effectiveness is debatable and designs were primitive, the face of modern warfare was changed forever. The first ever tanks used in combat were unleashed onto the battlefield during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916, during the larger Somme offensive.
0 kommentar(er)
