"Ironsides": Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments

By Harold A. Skaarup

Major Hal Skaarup has woven together an informative and detailed synopsis of the carefully preserved and restored armoured fighting vehicles on display in Canada. He highlights the importance of these upon key turning points in history when these AFVs were in use as tools of war at home and overseas. We often associate the evolution of military prowess with the advancement of sophisticated technology. Major Skaarup's descriptions of Canadian armour as it evolved to the level it has today reveals that military planners have had to be continuously creative in adapting to the changes in modern combat. They had to devise many intricate techniques, tactics and procedures to overcome the insurgents and opposition forces faced in Afghanistan and future overseas missions where Canadian armour will be brought into play. This guide book will show the interested reader where to find examples of the historical armour preserved in Canada, and perhaps serve as a window on how Canadas military contribution to safety and security in the world has evolved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462034659

Harold A. Skaarup

Major Hal Skaarup has served with the Canadian Forces for more than 40 years, starting with the 56th Field Squadron, RCE and completing his service as the G2 (Intelligence Officer) at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick in August 2011. He was a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, served three tours with the Skyhawks Parachute Demonstration Team, and worked in the Airborne Trials and Evaluation section. He served as an Intelligence Officer overseas in Germany and Colorado, and has been on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. He has been an instructor at the Tactics School at the Combat Training Centre in Gagetown and at the Intelligence Training Schools in Borden and Kingston. He earned a Master's degree in War Studies through the Royal Military College, and has authored a number of books on military history.

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Ironsides

Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums & Monuments

Harold A. Skaarup

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Ironsides

Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments

Copyright © 2011 by Harold A. Skaarup

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Many significant elements of the use of armoured fighting vehicles in Canadian military history have not yet been told. The information that is found within this collection of technical data, historical reports and military photos may not be complete or fully accurate. The story will continue to unfold as additional research turns up the missing data.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-3464-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-3465-9 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 8/3/2011

Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter I

The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps

Chapter II

Canadian AFV History and Technical Data

Chapter III

War Prizes and Foreign AFVs on Display in Canada

Chapter IV

Canadian Artillery, Anti-Tank Guns and Rockets

Chapter V

Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments

Annex A

Canada’s Military Museums

Annex B

A Brief History of Canada’s Armed Forces in World War Two

Annex C

Operation JUBILEE, the Raid on Dieppe - 19th August 1942

Annex D

The War in Europe, 1943 - 1945

Annex E

Canadians in Korea, 1950-1953

Annex F

Canada’s Cold War Brigades

Annex G

German War Prize Equipment Brought to Canada

Annex H

Lieutenant-Colonel D.V. Currie, VC

Annex I

Colonel-Commandants of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps

Annex J

Major-General F.F. Worthington, MC, MM, CD

Annex K

Brigadier-General S.V. Radley-Walters, CMM, DSO, MC, CD

Annex L

Major-General C.J. Addy, OMM, OStJ, CD

Appendix A

Canadian AFV Checklist

Bibliography

About the Author

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the highly professional men and women of the Canadian Forces, past and present. Many of them have fought in, served in or serviced the preserved military vehicles described in this handbook.

Because of their service, you and I can sleep soundly at night.

Epigraph

Corporal Harold Jorgen Skaarup had come a long way from the rural community of Carleton County, New Brunswick to the battlefields of Italy. On the morning of 31 August 1944, he was in charge of a Sherman tank named Acorn in A Squadron of the 5th Armoured Regiment of the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s). He and his tank crew had just fought the Germans who were defending a position known as The Gothic Line from a hill identified as Point 111. That morning, the Hussars were in the process of attacking the Germans again, while moving forward towards another hill known as Point 136. A Squadron had already lost ten of their 19 tanks, mostly to German 88 mm anti-tank shells. Another tank went for reinforcements and one broke down reducing their numbers to seven.

Ten of A Squadron’s men had been killed and six more had already been wounded that morning, although the Squadron had knocked out one German tank, two anti-tank guns and killed 25 German soldiers. Sometime between 0915 and 1030 hours, Harold’s tank was hit by a shell fired from a German anti-tank gun. The 88 mm shot entered the side of the tank just under the turret Harold was commanding, and tore off both of his feet. He and the three other members of his tank crew bailed out of the burning Ironsides and took cover behind it. Shortly after they did this, a salvo of German mortar shells (possibly from a six-barrelled Nebelwerfer mortar) landed in the midst of the survivors.

Already badly injured, Harold was hit again, this time with shrapnel fragments entering his chest. Although he was evacuated to a field hospital in the rear area, he died from his wounds on 6 September 1944. He was 24 years old. Today he lies buried in a Commonwealth War Grave near the village of Montecchio, Italy. He never got home to tell his story. This guidebook by his nephew is about some of the equipment he would have used during his service. We never met, but I do carry his name. Major Harold Aage Skaarup, Canadian Forces.

Cover Photo: Ram II Cruiser Tank, British Columbia Regiment Armoury, Vancouver, BC. (BCR Photo).

Wikipedia

Author’s Note: Much of the reference material found in this handbook is sourced from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopaedia project based on an openly editable model. Wikipedia’s articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles (except in certain cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism). Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose. Internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About.

Foreword

Major Hal Skaarup has woven together an informative and detailed synopsis of the carefully preserved and restored armoured fighting vehicles on display in Canada. He highlights the importance of these upon key turning points in history when these AFVs were in use as tools of war at home and overseas. We often associate the evolution of military prowess with the advancement of sophisticated technology. Major Skaarup’s descriptions of Canadian armour as it evolved to the level it has today reveals that military planners have had to be continuously creative in adapting to the changes in modern combat. They had to devise many intricate techniques, tactics and procedures to overcome the insurgents and opposition forces faced in Afghanistan and future overseas missions where Canadian armour will be brought into play. This guide book will show the interested reader where to find examples of the historical armour preserved in Canada, and perhaps serve as a window on how Canada’s military contribution to safety and security in the world has evolved.

Brigadier-General Steven S. Bowes

Commander

Land Forces Atlantic Area

Halifax, Nova Scotia

01 June 2011

Preface

Armoured Fighting Vehicles have a played a constant role throughout my 40 years of service with the Canadian Forces. My father served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for many years, retiring as a Warrant Officer in 1974. As a dependent member of his family, we lived at a number of bases and stations including overseas in Germany and at home in Canada during his service. As both a dependent back then, and in my current service as an Army Intelligence Officer, I have had the chance to see NATO firepower when its list of combat ready AFVs numbered in the thousands. Today, to have hundreds of Canadian combat vehicles available at any given time would be unusual.

I served as an Army Intelligence Officer (G2) in Germany with HQ Canadian Forces Europe from 1981 to 1983, and with 4 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group, 1st Canadian Division Forward from 1989 to 1992. During this time, the brigade’s Intelligence Section was provided with a large number of various Soviet-made AFVs and equipment used to familiarize our soldiers with foreign weapons while training on various NATO bases such as Hohenfels, Grafenwohr and Munster.

The equipment we handled included T-55 and T-62 tanks, a T-80 tank mock-up and BRDM-2, BTR-60, BTR-152, BMP-1 and BMP-2 AFVs. On exercises we (Blue Force) fought against mock enemy (Red Force) forces (sometimes called Fantasians) from other nations, and would often observe our Leopard C1 tanks engaging American M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley IFVs, German Leopard tanks and Marder IFVs and British Challenger Tanks, Chieftain Tanks and FV432 APCs. We moved every night and hid by day in our M577 Command Post Vehicles in duplicate sets of HQ vehicles leapfrogging each other from hide to hide and laager to laager. We often covered hundreds of kilometres as the exercise unfolded while ranging from the south-eastern area of Germany near Regensburg on up to the Rhine and Mosel Rivers near Koblenz and beyond.

During a battlefield tour of Normandy with the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College in May 1989, our course had the privilege of being escorted and briefed by Brigadier-General S.D. Radley-Walters, CMM, DSO, MC, CD. Listening to him describe the battles he took part in while standing on the ground in bare farmer’s fields where the action took place was a fascinating experience. The stories have been told that General Rad had been shot out of four tanks and two armoured cars during his earlier visit to Normandy. We stayed in Caen, and by day were driven by bus to St Aubin-sur-Mer and the Normandy beaches with a group of Canadian and German veterans. Our group hosted Col Helmut Ritgen of the Panzer Lehr Division, and his perspective of the actions that took place on the ground we were standing on was sobering to say the least. There are always two sides to a battlefield story, and it is rare to speak with people who were actually there when things recorded later took place. Suffice it to say, there is a lot that isn’t in the history books from the participants perspective. We visited Bernières-sur-Mer and Courseulles-sur-Mer, both invasion beach landing sites, as well as Creully, Putot-en-Bessin, Buron, and Villons les Buissons. (We were also provided with a French Army box lunch, which included a bottle of red wine).

The Canadian and German vets described their experiences at Marcelet, Carpiquet, Caen and a number of other battlefield sites, with lectures and briefings on site at Hill 112, St André, Troteval Farm, Bourgebus, Tilly and the area covered during Operation Totalize. The tour ended with a visit to one of the Canadian cemeteries some of which had a large number of unknown Canadian soldiers. Our visit ended with a Hercules flight from Carpiquet Airport, the site of a major battle involving Canadians early after the D-Day landings. If you have not had the opportunity to do so, please visit these sites for yourself. It is a moving experience to walk the battlefield grounds of Normandy where our soldiers fought – and where many are buried - for what we have today.

Throughout our training at home and abroad and during preparations for operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan, we had to become familiar with how effective our own equipment was and what we were likely come up against in engagements with opposition forces. Seeing the damage that could be and often was inflicted by the wide variety of AFV weapons we had to confront brought home the very real need to ensure our troops were well-trained and familiar with equipment recognition, both friend and foe. As such, we taught courses that trained men and women in how to recognize the difference in armoured vehicle glacis plates, bore evacuator placement, road wheel spacing, camouflage patterns, and signature weapons and equipment for vehicle and unit recognition.

It would seem that the value of AFVs is such that once the vehicles have served their use; many have been disposed of as range targets or sold as surplus. A few have been set aside for display in Museums, outdoors as gate guards or as memorials. There are, for example, at least 82 Sherman tanks in various versions on display in Canada. Even fewer captured enemy vehicles have been kept for display, although Canadians have a good number of German, Italian and former Warsaw Pact AFVs preserved.

This handbook is one attempt to identify historical AFV survivors in Canada and to list them in a catalogue format that will enable the serious researcher and AFV enthusiasts to find them. The list includes AFVs in Canada that have been or are currently being salvaged and preserved, particularly where they are of significant historical interest.

There are unfortunate numbers of Canadian-related military firepower and combat equipment that saw service on the battlefields of Europe where no examples exist. A good number brought back to Canada, including captured war prizes, were destroyed on the ranges (a German Panzer V Panther tank at CFB Petawawa, for example) or sold to support a Museum that had it (a German StuG III Assault Gun formerly on display at CFB Shilo, for example). Many others have been lost to scrap yards or sold to people in other countries. On the up side, there is a wonderful collection of historic AFV survivors in Canada that can still be found and viewed in Museum collections, and many are on display as gate guards, monuments and memorials.

The purpose of this handbook is to provide a simple checklist of where the surviving AFVs in Canada are now, and to provide a photograph of each of the major types mentioned for recognition purposes. This list is also appended with a brief summary of the AFVs presently on display within each province by location, and a bit of the vehicle’s history in the Canadian military. Due to space limitations, the details contained in this handbook are limited to a selection of only those AFVs that can be found in or have a connection with Canada.

If you are interested in other books on military equipment like this one, they are available through online bookstores (including the Warplane Survivor series). It is my sincere hope that the list of Canada’s preserved historically significant armoured fighting vehicles will continue to grow as more of them are recovered and restored. Grant that you find this handbook useful.

Major Harold A. Skaarup

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and thank each and every member of the Canadian Military Museum staffs, particularly including the volunteers of the Canadian Military Museums Association. Their patience and assistance in helping to ensure that the data that has gone into the compilation of this handbook is as complete as it can be to the time of printing has been invaluable. Each and every visitor to your Museums and AFV displays owes you that same appreciation, and to all of you, thank you for preserving our military heritage.

I extend special thanks to the archival staffs in the Directorate of Heritage and History, and to Clive Prothero-Brooks with the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, CFB Shilo for his photos of his museum’s AFVs and historical data.

LCol W.R. Foster, Maj B.D. Corbett and Capt A.J. Pitre from the Armour School, and LCol M.A. Lipcsey with the Tactics School. Sgt R.F. Elward, CFSEME Weapons School, CFB Borden, and O.S. Clarkson with the CFB Borden Military Museum were extremely helpful in tracking down answers to vehicle locations and status.

The members of the New Brunswick Military History Museum, including Marcel Richard and Jason Meade with the original CFB New Brunswick Military Museum (and the Friends of the Museum) provided extensive documentation for the background research found here.

Rory M. Cory, Senior Curator/Director of Collections, The Military Museums, Calgary, Alberta provided a wonderful list of contacts and information. Al Judson with the King’s Own Calgary regiment knew his AFVs inside out and was a great help with contacts in the AFV collections world.

Author Clive Law was generous with his offer of photos and reference notes from his historical AFV series of books. Roxanne den Hollander and MWO K.C. Krone with CFB Wainwright provided valuable information and photos of their AFV display.

AFV collector Jack Cross from Fort McMurray was a fountain of information on his amazing collection. Brad Mills in Nova Scotia put me in touch with Maritime AFV collectors and added a number of details and photos for those accounted for here.

Professors Lee Windsor, David Charters, Marc Milner and Brent Wilson with the Brigadier Milton F. Gregg, VC, Centre for the Study of War & Society, at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton have been a great source of inspiration and support. Sgt Darren Spicier, 8th CH, Sussex, provided good information on AFVs in New Brunswick. Ken Lee provided photos and data for the AFVs in the Ontario Regiment Museum.

My colleagues and instructors at 3 Area Support Group and the Combat Training Centre Tactics School, Infantry School, Armour School, Royal Canadian School of Artillery and Engineer School, CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick are some of the most dedicated professional soldiers in the Canadian Forces and it has been a great privilege to have served with them.

For all who gave their support, time, assistance and expertise on armoured fighting vehicles, your patience and assistance has been invaluable, particularly in tracking down the information pertaining to each of the individual AFVs listed. Again, I would like to extend my thanks to each and every one of you

Acorn sends.

List of Abbreviations

Dedication

For all the outstanding soldiers who have trained or served on AFVs in Canada and overseas. This guidebook is intended to honour our military heritage, because it needs to be remembered and preserved for all of those who have served or continue to serve in the Canadian Forces on our behalf.

Introduction

I would imagine that many of you who are reading this book are very likely familiar with the standard routine of military training exercises and the rigours of being in the field in all seasons, not to mention the conditions found on deployment these days. Whether or not you have experienced it, I am sure you can well imagine what it is like to train and work in the heat, the dust and the mosquitoes in summer, the wind, the rain and the mud in the spring and fall, the snow and the cold in the winter and of course the routine day-to-day challenges of combat exercises in the training areas of the Canadian Forces. For most in the Army, this includes CFB Gagetown, CFB Valcartier, CFB Petawawa, CFB Kingston, CFB Shilo, CFB Edmonton, CFB Wainwright, CFB Suffield and all the fields and exercise areas of LFAATC Aldershot and LFCATC Meaford and their environs.

As an Army Officer in the Canadian Forces, it has been my privilege to have served alongside a tremendous number of highly professional military men and women of our nation while taking part in training in Germany, the UK and the USA and while on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Afghanistan. During my training and military professional development, I have learned much about our long military history. My interest in our multi-faceted historical record has led me to write about it and to seek out the stories about Canada’s military servicemen and women and the tools and equipment they used to preserve our security when warclouds darkened our horizons.

As a military history enthusiast, I have learned over the years that there are many with similar interests in preserving our story. We have all seen the odd old gun or retired tank placed on display outside a Militia Drill Hall, War Memorial, city park site or Royal Canadian Legion Hall, and many will have enjoyed visiting a number of our military Museums. The vast majority of retired wartime AFVs used by members of the CF have dwindled in number, many being scrapped, others being shot up as targets, while a few have been sold to overseas operators and collectors. Fortunately, a handful of important examples of retired CF war machines have been preserved and may be found in a wide variety of locations throughout Canada.

Curators, docents and volunteers working in Canada’s military museums have been successful in preserving a good number of retired military weapons of war and many are still being sought after and in some cases, being restored to running condition again. As an artist, photographer and military history enthusiast, I have attempted to keep track of where these AFV survivors are presently located and to make that information available to others with the same interest. For those of like mind, the purpose of this handbook is to provide a simple checklist of the classic armour that is part of our military heritage and a location guide to where they can be found in Canada. The book includes a number of photographs to illustrate an example of each AFV wherever possible, and lists the locations of the survivors by province.

The numbers of restored Canadian AFVs is actually increasing as a few rare examples are being recovered from gunnery ranges and scrapyards and salvaged for restoration. (Ultra rare items such as Skink AA turrets come to mind). One of the aims of this book is to help an enthusiast track down these AFVs and to have a simple reference book on hand with more detailed information about them such as a serial number, a Museum location and contact information which might be helpful in learning a bit of the history of a particular vehicle. The AFVs detailed in this handbook are listed alphabetically by manufacturer, number and type in the order that they came into service with the CF. The data is also appended with a list of most of the current AFVs found in the various collections and Museums in Canada.

It is my sincere hope that more of the AFVs like those listed here will one day be added to the list of historically important survivors that have been recovered and restored.

Major Harold A. Skaarup

Fredericton, New Brunswick

Chapter I

The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps

The formation of the Armoured Corps started in 1936 when the Canadian Army began the process of transformation into a mechanized force, but claimed lineage from the Canadian Tank Corps of the First World War. By order of the Chief of the General Staff, Major-General E.C. Ashton, effective 1 November 1936 a permanent school of instruction known as the Canadian Tank School was organized at London, Ontario. Canadian armoured regiments split their heritage between the cavalry, from which many armoured regiments were created, and the infantry. By December 1936, five infantry battalions were redesignated as Tank Battalions and a new unit, The Essex Regiment (Tank) was raised. At the same time four units were designated as Armoured Car Regiments.

The Canadian Armoured Corps was formed on 13 August 1940 with Major-General (then Colonel) F.F. Worthington as its first colonel-commandant. The Corps served with distinction throughout the major campaigns of the Second World War and the royal designation was added in 1945 by King George VI. With the integration of the Canadian Army into the Canadian Forces, the Armour Branch has continued to use the title Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.

Since 1945, the Regiments and soldiers of the RCAC have served with honour in all major overseas operations including Korea, Cyprus, Bosnia and most recently in Afghanistan.

The Armour School is part of the Combat Training Centre and is located at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick. The School supports CF and Army readiness through the conduct of individual training for both tank and reconnaissance, including leadership, tactics and technical training for both armour officers and crewmen. The School conducts advanced courses in direct-fire gunnery and acts as the Centre of Excellence for mounted manoeuvre.

The Combat Training Centre Tactics School at CFB Gagetown develops, conducts and monitors combined arms operations. Within a battle group context, the Tactics School focuses on tactics, techniques and procedures at the combat team level. The Tactics School’s mission is to educate and train army junior officers in the integration of combat functions at the combat team level on the tactical battlefield.

Regular Force Armour Regiments:

Royal Canadian Dragoons - armoured/armoured reconnaissance

Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) - armoured/armoured reconnaissance

12e Régiment blindé du Canada - armoured reconnaissance

Reserve Force Armour Regiments:

The Governor General’s Horse Guards - household cavalry/armoured reconnaissance

The Halifax Rifles (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) - armoured reconnaissance

The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

The Queen’s York Rangers (1st American Regiment) (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

Sherbrooke Hussars - armoured reconnaissance

12e Régiment blindé du Canada (Milice) - armoured reconnaissance

1st Hussars - armoured reconnaissance

The Prince Edward Island Regiment (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

The Royal Canadian Hussars (Montreal) - armoured reconnaissance

The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own) (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

The South Alberta Light Horse - armoured reconnaissance

The Saskatchewan Dragoons - armoured reconnaissance

The King’s Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

The British Columbia Dragoons - armoured reconnaissance

The Fort Garry Horse - armoured reconnaissance

Le Régiment de Hull (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

The Windsor Regiment (RCAC) - armoured reconnaissance

Chapter II

Canadian AFV History and Technical Data

Background

To outline the history of Canada’s AFVs, one has to look at the Canadian Army and its training and operations from the beginning of its transition from horsepower to its modern use of armour in battle. The history of the tank began in World War I, when armoured all-terrain fighting vehicles were first deployed as a response to the problems of trench warfare, ushering in a new era of mechanized warfare. Though initially crude and unreliable, tanks eventually became a mainstay of ground armies. By World War II, tank design had advanced significantly, and tanks were used in quantity in all land theatres of the war. The Cold War saw the rise of modern tank doctrine and the rise of the general-purpose main battle tank. The tank still provides the backbone to land combat operations in the 21st century, as demonstrated by the Canadian Forces serving in Afghanistan.

The advent of World War I generated new demands for strongly armoured self-propelled weapons which could navigate any kind of terrain, leading to the development of the tank. The great weakness of the tank’s predecessor, the armoured car, was that it required smooth terrain to move upon, and new developments were needed for cross-country capability.

The tank was originally designed as a special weapon to solve an unusual tactical situation: the stalemate of the trenches on the Western Front. It was a weapon designed for one simple task: crossing the killing zone between trench lines and breaking into enemy defences. The armoured tank was intended to be able to survive artillery bombardments and machine-gun fire, and pass through barbed wire in a way infantry units could not hope to, thus allowing the stalemate to be broken.

Few recognized during World War I that the means for returning mobility and shock action to combat was already present in a device destined to revolutionize warfare on the ground and in the air. This was the internal combustion engine, which had made possible the development of the tank and eventually would lead to the mechanized forces that were to assume the old roles of horse cavalry and to loosen the grip of the machine-gun on the battlefield. With increased firepower and protection, these mechanized forces would, only some 20 years later, become the armour of World War II. When self-propelled artillery, the armoured personnel carrier, the wheeled cargo vehicle, and supporting aviation - all with adequate communications - were combined to constitute the modern armoured division, commanders regained the capability of manoeuvre. Wikipedia.

Landships

Numerous concepts of armoured all-terrain vehicles had been imagined for a long time. With the advent of trench warfare in World War I, the Allied French and British developments of the tank were largely parallel and coincided in time. One of the earliest tank designs was a machine developed and completed in December 1915 in the UK that was nick-named Little Willie. Its trench-crossing ability was deemed insufficient however, leading to the development of a rhomboidal design, which became known as the Centipede and later Mother, the first of the Big Willie types of true tanks. After completion on 29 January 1916 very successful trials were made, and an order was placed by the British War Office for 100 units to be used on the Western front in France, on 12 February 1916, and a second order for 50 additional units was placed in April 1916. Although the French were also testing tank designs, the British were the first to put tanks on the battlefield, at the battle of the Somme in September 1916.

In an effort to keep the real purpose of the early models Secret, when they were being shipped to France, the British labelled them as tanks - for use as water tanks by Russia, instead of the official designation of Landships. Also some of the early special tanks were built at North British Locomotive Works in Glasgow at its ironically named Tank shops. Thus originated the name tank for the new weapon. There was a naval element in the background of the tank’s development, which also explains the use of such nautical tank terms as hatch, hull, bow, and ports in its nomenclature. The great secrecy surrounding tank development, coupled with the scepticism of infantry commanders, often meant that infantry at first had little training to cooperate with tanks before they engaged in battle. Wikipedia.

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First Tank Battles

The first offensive operation which made use of 31 British Mark I tanks took place on 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, under Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, meeting with limited success. Not until 20 November 1917, at Cambrai, did the British Tank Corps get the conditions it needed for success. During this battle, about 400 tanks penetrated almost six miles on a 7-mile front. This was their first large-scale deployment in combat. Unfortunately, success was not complete because the infantry failed to exploit and secure the tanks’ gains. The British scored another victory the following year, on 8 August 1918, with 600 tanks in the Amiens salient. General Erich Ludendorff referred to that date as the Black Day of the German Army.

The German response to the Cambrai assault was to develop its own armoured program. Soon the massive A7V Tank appeared. The A7V was a clumsy monster, weighing 30 tons with a crew of eighteen. By the end of the war, only fifteen had been built. Although other tanks were on the