The day tanks changed war forever

One hundred years ago Thursday, when tanks went into battle for the first time, warfare changed forever. These giant armored killing machines have been a central feature of combat ever since.



A British Mark One tank, of the type that was used in the first tank attack in history, Sept. 15, 1916. Credit: Library of Congress

September 15, 2016 · 5:15 PM EDT
By Christopher Woolf

The first tanks were British, and they went into action against the Germans on Sept. 15, 1916, near Flers in northern France, during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Just imagine being a German soldier that day 100 years ago: You think you've seen every terror war can offer — machine guns mowing down your comrades, barbed wire traps, artillery blasting whole platoons to oblivion, poison gas torturing your friends who were too slow to put on their gas masks. You're probably a pretty hardened soldier.

Then from off in the distance comes rumbling a giant machine, rolling over craters and ditches and crushing through the barbed wire obstacles that have stopped so many infantry attacks before. Then it starts spitting death from its cannon and machine guns. You attack it with every weapon you have, but it simply can't be stopped. What do you do? You can stay and die, or you can panic and run.

The Germans on the front line ran that day. It was one of the few occasions in all of World War I when any defensive force broke off in terror. One survivor said after the war he thought they would have to retreat all the way to Berlin. (You can hear more voices from that day here.)

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-15/day-tanks-changed-war-forever

4:30 audio at link.