During the First World War Germany struggled to produce its own tanks, with no more than 20 A7Vs being built, instead the Imperial German Army made liberal use of captured allied tanks.
Be sure to check out our accompanying article for this video here.
Hi guys, here’s a special Halloween episode of our new podcast, Fighting On Film, that looks at classic and obscure war films.
In this episode we discuss Death Trench (also known as Trench 11), a 2017 First World War horror movie set in the final months of the war. A rag tag band of soldiers investigate a German biological weapons bunker with predictable results!
Also available on other platforms and apps - find them here
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @FightingOnFilm and let us know what you thought of the episode and if you’ve seen Death Trench.
Happy Halloween and Thanks for listening!
The Armourer’s Bench recently reached 7,000 subscribers over on YouTube (thanks guys!) so what better way to celebrate than some original archival footage of the Browning M1917 in action. It was filmed in April 1918 by the US Army Signal Corps.
This is the first of a couple of extra videos we’ll post this week so keep an eye out. Thanks again for all your support guys!
The Five of Hearts was one of 144 Renault FT light tanks operated by the US Tank Corps on the Western Front during World War One. During the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918, the Five of Hearts, the battalions of the Corps named their tanks after card suits, was supporting US infantry pinned down by German machine gun positions. The tank was armed with a 37mm gun and managed to destroy one set of German positions before the driver was wounded in the throat and the tank was immobilised and its gun mantlet and turret jammed by German small arms fire.
The Five of Hearts’ commander, Sergeant Arthur Snyder, later recalled defending the tank with his sidearm:
“My wounded driver kept filling pistol clips and I produced as much fire as possible with our pistols and the crippled 37mm. I paid more attention to the volume of fire than its accuracy for I fear the enemy would close in if the volume diminished. Three machine guns were set up at very close range, but just out of range of our piece with its limited elevation.
The fragmentation of our shells did afford some protection but I could not train this fire on the German field piece. The constant hammering of these machine guns at close range was terrific. The hinges on the doors could not stand up under it for long, but it was the mushroom ventilator on top of the turret that gave way. I was hit in the back of my head with fragments of it and bullet splinters.”
Luckily for Snyder the German infantry made no attempt to rush the tank, content instead to pepper it from a distance, and they quickly retreated when men of the 16th Infantry arrived.
In terms of protection Snyder felt that “the armor plate on those old French Renaults was good, but when you came to close quarters the splinters from bullets hitting around the vision slits did considerable damage.” Two of Snyder’s drivers were badly wounded; one by bullet splash splinters and the other in the throat.
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In this week’s Armourer’s Bench video looking at the US Tanks of WW1. It’s the end of a series of videos looking at the three tanks the US developed or built during the war.
We look at the Ford M1918 Light Tank, the M1917 Renault FT copy and the MkVIII ‘International’ Heavy Tank. Each has a fascinating story.
Check out the accompanying blog for the video, here!
A British MkIV heavy tank ploughs through a series of wooden buildings during a 1917 demonstration.
This week’s bonus Armourer’s Bench video features some contemporary footage of a MkVIII Heavy Tank showing off what it can do during a demonstration outside Bridgeport, Connecticut, in October 1918.
Check out the full episode on the MkVIII detailing its history and development here
The MkVIII was the last of the rhomboid heavy tanks developed during World War One. It was a collaborative effort between the US, UK and France. With the UK providing the armour plate and guns while the US provided the engine and automotive parts.
The tanks were to be assembled at a factory in France - all in time for the planned offensives of 1919.
But the war ended and orders for thousands shrank to hundreds and the French factory went unfinished. Some MkVIIIs did, however, see service with the US Army during the interwar period. In this video we explore the development and history of one of World War One’s lesser known but most interesting tanks.
Check out the full length blog about the Mk VIII over on the TAB website here.
The US Army entered the Great War with no tanks or experience in armoured warfare. When the American Expeditionary Force’s Tank Corps was formed in early 1918, they needed more tanks than France & Britain could provided and production of a licensed version of the Renault FT began in the US. The war ended before any of the M1917 Light Tanks saw action.
Originally over 4,000 tanks were ordered with the great offensives of 1919 in mind but as the war ended in November 1918, in total just 952 M1917s were produced. 375 of these are believed to have been equipped with 37mm M1916 cannons, while 526 armed with Marlin M1917 tank machine guns. The remaining 50 were outfitted as unarmed signal tanks.
The M1917 remained in service into the 1930s, making up the backbone of the early US tank forces. During World War Two some of the tanks remaining in store were shipped to Canada to assist training.
You can find more photos and a full blog over on the Armourer’s Bench website.
The CLB 75 is not what it seems. The photograph above was taken during a
California
National Guard exercise which was widely publicised but the tank featured at its centre is little more than a tractor encased in stamped sheet metal.
Developed by the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Francisco, the CLB 75 is based on the chassis of a CLB 75hp ‘Tracklayer’/’Autotractor’. It had a sheet metal outer-skin and a rounded turret. It’s an eye-catching design, like something straight out of an H.G.Wells novel.
A C.L. Best Autotractor, the basis of the CLB 75 (source)
The tank has a set of tracks and a front steering wheel. The CLB 75 appears to be bristling with a pair of cannons and at least two machine guns in the turret. The CLB 75 was what is often described as a ‘parade tank’, an impractical tank designed as a showpiece for parades at home rather than in the field on the frontline. Similar parade tanks were built on Holt and Caterpillar tractors. This particular example even features in Pathe newsreel where it’s described as a ‘land dreadnought’ and shown in mock attacks mounted during National Guard exercises.
In reality during the First World War the US developed or produced three actual tanks: the M1917 Light Tank - based on the French Renault FT, the Ford M1918 3-Ton Tank and the MKVIII ‘International’ heavy tank. While none of those saw action during the war they were more practical, actual armoured fighting vehicles than the parade tanks like the CLB 75.
Sources:
Caterpillar Chronicle : History of the Greatest Earthmovers, E.C. Orlemann
Early US Armor: Tanks 1916–40, S.J. Zaloga
American Tanks In Action 1917, British Pathe, (source)
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This week’s Armourer’s Bench video is a collaboration with a friend, Richard Fisher, who runs Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association.
The Vickers Gun is an iconic weapon, developed from the Maxim and adopted by the British in 1912. It served for over 50 years in conflicts all around the world. In this video Richard shows us how to disassemble a the gun and talk us through its internals.
Big thank you to Richard for taking the time to help with this video and provide the voice over explaining the process!
We’ll have more videos on the Vickers Gun in the future, check out the accompanying blog for some more photos over on the TAB website.
You can check out Richard’s work over on the Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association’s site here.
My good friend Rich, who runs the Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association, has shared the first of a series of videos showing off some of the items in the collection. I’m looking forward to the next video in the series.
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the collection a couple of times and Rich has a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
During my last visit we collaborated on a video for TAB demonstrating the disassembly of the Vickers which I’m looking forward to sharing soon.
Check out Rich’s website for the Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association here.
In the 70 years since the Allied Landings in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord the term D-Day has become a synonym for the landings.
The term ’D-Day’ designated the day an operation or attack is scheduled to begin with the exact time similarly being called ‘H-Hour’. The term originates from the First World War with one of the earliest documented uses dating from September 1918, in a field order issued to the 1st Army, American Expeditionary Forces ordering an attack against the St. Mihiel Salient, in northeastern France. The term was also used during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 and during numerous other operations before Operation Neptune.
Contrary to popular belief the ’D’ does not stand for ‘disembark’ or 'debarkation' but rather confusingly stands for 'day’. As such this means that D-Day represents a set pre-ordained date, the use of the designation removes the need to place the date in orders and communiques that might be intercepted. It also allows for the use of plus and negative days from the operational start day for example 4 days after D-Day is designated D+4 or meaning start day + four days.
Almost immediately D-Day became synonymous with the landings leading to later landing’s in the Pacific using the alternate terms: 'A-Day’ at the Battle of Leyte and 'L-Day' Battle of Okinawa.
This photograph shows troops from the US Army’s Tank Corps (National Army), not to be confused with the Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Force, in France. The US arm of the Tank Corps was based at Camp Colt near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The photograph was taken in June 1917, and shows troops learning how to use the various guns mounted in Allied light and heavy tanks.
From foreground to background we have a 37mm canon (the French Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP) which was mounted in the FT light tank, a Hotchkiss Mle 1914, mounted in most French tanks, next is an M1917 Marlin Rockwell tank machine gun (which had an improved gas system designed by Carl Swebilius) which was planned to be mounted in US-built tanks. Next to the Marlin is the gun it evolved from, the Colt-Browning M1895, (likely present for comparison purposes) and finally is a Lewis Gun, mounted in several types of British heavy tanks.
Interestingly, there is no Hotchkiss M1909 Benét–Mercié present, which at the time was in the US inventory and was also in use by the British as the Hotchkiss Mark I/I* Portative and was used in a number of British tanks including the Medium Whippet MkI. The US entered the war with no tanks of its own and the Tank Corps in the US was without tanks of its own for much of the war, while the AEF’s Tank Corps used a mixture of British and French tanks and did see action in Autumn 1918.
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