1916 saw the year in which the tank was first seen and the British were trying to use it to stop the deadlock that trench warfare had brought. The word tank actually comes from the British as when the tank was in development they lied and said that they were water tanks to transport water.

These are just a few of the many tanks we have seen since that famous battle of Somme.

WW1 is when the first tank entered the battlefield which is why the article is going to start there too.

The first tank known simply as the Mark I Tank or “Mother” was designed by William Ashbee Tritton and Walter Gordon Wilson.It was several tanks later when we saw the D1 which was the first to enter a battle. The battle of Flers-Courcellette was actually the first time but most famously it was used in the Somme.

The problem with the tanks in WW1 is that they were just not suitable for the muddy conditions of the trenches. The main issue with the tanks was actually that they were always getting stuck in the middle of a battle. The Germans actually only managed to make around 15 tanks during the course of the entire War and tanks from opposite sides did not meet until 1918. Although the British came out on top in this case it is clear that both of the sides had some serious problems.

So although none of these tanks had mil spec cables within them they still proved to be feared in the battlefield and without a doubt they at least made a small impact on the war effort.

Part two of this in depth feature will go into a lot of details about WW2 and how tanks made a huge impact on how we saw war.