US tank development and employment in World War I and II

Tanks

With the development of armored warfare visionary tacticians saw that it was possible to produce armored fighting vehicles which were able to not only protect but provide tactical support to the soldiers they were designed to carry and support. Initial hesitancy upon the part of allied and German powers that be were the greatest issues which kept armored vehicles from turning the tide in battles, and it can easily be argued that only the reluctance on the part of the Germans to advocate the use of tanks until later in the war was likely a major factor in their loss. In most cases, each country was unwilling to apply the amount of design knowledge and capital, and lacked the industrial capability to use tanks to their most effective means.

The British were the first to seriously consider the development of an armored vehicle capable of covering various types of terrain using a track system. The First World War saw the production of the Killen-Strait Armored tractor, which was deemed useful by Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.

In 1914 the use of the Killen-Stait armored tractor showed military officials that the vehicle was able to maneuver through highly difficult environments such as barbed wire and interest in developing the product increased. Still, the high ups balked at the idea of committing resources and manpower to an unknown commodity. To them, war had never been fought in this manner. The British Land ship Committee was formed, essentially to work on the design of a new weapon. Since the first prototype was similar to a water carrier, the machine was called a "tank," an appellation that has stuck in all subsequent forms. Colonel Ernest Swinton and Secretary of Imperial Defense Michael Hankey were early supporters of tanks. These men saw the fallacy of believing warfare would continue in the manner it had been fought for centuries.. It was finally Winston Churchill, at the behest of Swinton and Hankey, who pushed for the development of tanks for the British Army.

Squeamishness on the part of commanders also hindered the soldiers in the deployment of armor in the war.

During the First World War, tanks were only used sporadically, with tank teams sent out in groups of only a few at a time. This grouping of the slow and somewhat unwieldy tanks made them good targets for artillery. Tanks were originally designed and deployed without any significant consideration of how armored vehicles could provide support to cavalry, artillery or infantry.

The Germans were not initially predisposed to the use of tanks and felt that they would be able to overcome any tank the Allies could use against them by basing artillery fire on the slow moving tanks. British and French artillery counterattacked the artillery by using low flying aircraft and using artillery of their own in counter battery attacks. The tanks still seemed more than a liability, since they required so much in the way of support and had not yet been discovered as a way to deliver soldiers farther into the field of battle.

Immediately before the outbreak of the First World War in the United States the Holt Company built a tractor with caterpillar tracks that was used to move over difficult territory. Although it was suggested that this machine might be adapted for military use, those in positions of authority failed to see the significance of this new development. The Germans, however, were quick to see that the Holt machine would be useful in land battles. Allied offensive attacks of 1918 were held back by the massive movement of the Germans, who were still working without tanks of their own. Most of the German General staff at the time was unwilling to commit to the idea that the use of armored vehicles for warfare would significantly change the tide in the war.

The French also initially saw opposition against tank manufacture, especially in light of the failures seen with early prototype machines.

Colonel Estienne of the French Army advocated to French Commander in Chief, Joseph Joffre on behalf of the development of the tank, and Joffre quickly became a believer.

When Renault, the motorcar company, developed the tank that was to be known, as the M-17 this vehicle became the forerunner of the tank standard with which the French were to build for the next twenty years.

The Americans were keen to get into the field of developing armored vehicles for use in the war, especially when their entry was a certainty. The light armored vehicle was of more interest to Americans than was the heavier tanks built by the French and the British. This was in direct opposition to the somewhat rhomboidal shaped tanks favored by the British, although it should be noted that the speed and maneuverability attained by the British with this breed of tanks encouraged others to build larger tanks, an idea eventually adopted by the Americans. Even the French eventually joined the foray; developing a larger land tank not to replace but to supplement the lighter Renault-based tanks. All in all, however, the development of the armored vehicle did little to change the tide of the war in World War I, but did open the lid of some mechanical developments which were to be further refined in World War II.

The French appeared to be best advanced in terms of technical know who when the Renault FT-17 tanks series were started in 1918. The French, however, saw their place in the tank development drop significantly after World War I, mostly due to the fact that the French saw no reason to make significant modifications to the design between 1918 and 1939. Both the British and the French lacked the foresight to see that any future war with Germany would likely occur under different battlefield conditions, therefore doing little to change the military machinery that had worked so well for them in the past. The Germans had more foresight in the development of lighter and faster tanks that would easily outperform the older and bulkier Allied tanks. Germans also took the technological disadvantage that they had experienced in the First World War and made them into lessons learned, adding radio sets to allow communication throughout battles.

It is important to note that by the end of the First World War, the Germans were actually likely ahead of the allies in the development of armored vehicles and had by this time developed their own large-scale vehicle called the "K tank." However, with the advent of the Treaty of Versailles, Germans were required to work under severe restrictions in the construction of any vehicle that may have had a military application. Tank development was essentially sidelined, until the Wehrmacht began developing tanks in secret, a secret that was hidden from the European Allies until the beginning of World War II.

Ultimately, World War II was the first time the mechanized vehicle played a significant role in the war. Even Germany was not able to develop enough armored units, which could work in place of traditional infantry, and cavalry units. Each player lacked sufficient industrial support that would allow the development and productions of such vehicles. The reluctance to deploy a new technique or technology in the armored division is not unlike that which was seen in the use of air support for ground troops in World War I and World War II. German Panzer groups were slow to be deployed, mostly due to a lack of faith by the German High Command regarding what the tank could do. Initially lighter and more rapidly mobile-wheeled vehicles for the movement of troops still mostly supported the Germans. The Germans still failed to commit the amount of time and money that the Allies had into the development of armor, and the result was the early tanks were significantly inferior to those of the allies. Both sides continued to develop experimental larger size tanks but for the most part the behemoths never entered into service.