What association arises in most people with the word "tank"? That's right, a formidable fighting machine with excellent armor and weapons. And how can it be otherwise, if after
First of all, it should be noted that the massthe use of armored vehicles was out of the question, since the total number of combat vehicles even at the end of the war barely reached hundreds for the whole of Europe. Positional warfare and constant artillery shelling - that's the routine of that war time. But back to the technique. Her role was rather modest - the support of the attacking infantry, in accordance with what they were designed.
The appearance of these steel monsters was able tofrighten only people who have never seen anything like it. For the modern person, the spectacle will be funny: something resembling a box of riveted armor plates, with machine-guns sticking out in all directions (less often, guns in the side turrets) - here they are, typical tanks of the First World War. The photos of such cars are not even a bit like even the images of 40s armored vehicles.
None of the "blitzkrieg" strategists of the timethought, but because the speed of the combat vehicle was depressingly small. The cavalry coped with its tasks and did not give up its positions until the early 40's. The tank of the First World War could not influence the outcome of the conflict, too late development began. A bad review, the constant gas contamination of the fighting compartment, the imperfection of the design and the lack of serious advantages over the field artillery of that time are the reasons for the low combat effectiveness of technology of the beginning of the last century.
Therefore, when meeting in textbooks or infiction literature mention of the tank of the First World War, imagine a formless mobile fire platform, then you can avoid any mistakes in the evaluation of combat operations of the time when 3-5 tanks to the front did not mean absolutely anything compared to the widely used cavalry or howitzer artillery.
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