Anything heavier would smash straight through the plate and probably wreck the tank. The art of manufacturing thin armour was still in its infancy so the quality varied. Bullets were known to pierce the armour, particularly on the sponsons. Even if bullets failed to penetrate, the crew suffered a great deal from 'splash' - molten lead from the core of spent bullets that found its way through gaps in the armour to burn exposed skin and damage eyes.
The sponsons on 'male' tanks were naval in origin and were adopted in place of a rotating turret. A turret would have raised the centre of gravity to an unacceptable height, and being directly above the engine might well have roasted the crew. The sponsons also had their flaws: they added weight, made it difficult for the driver to judge the width; would often become wedged in soft ground; and had to be removed and refitted when the tank was transported by train.
The male sponson included a pedestal for the gun and a curved shield of armour plate that rotated with the gun as the gunner swung it round, ensuring that the aperture was adequately covered at all times. The doors of the tank were located to the rear of each sponson. In addition to the fumes, the cramped conditions and the deafening noise, it was virtually pitch black inside the Mark I when going into action.
Every door, flap and hatch was shut tight against bullets, shrapnel and bullet 'splash' yet the crew had to be able to see outside both to drive and fight. At the front, the commander and his driver had large flaps that could be opened in layered stages as required, and slim periscopes which poked up through holes in the cab roof.
Elsewhere in the tank were narrow vision slits with crude periscopes which used shatterproof strips of shiny steel rather than glass blocks. German troops soon learned to fire at the tank's vision devices, which the crews tried to camouflage with paint. Other apertures, covered by teardrop-shaped flaps, were designed not for vision but to allow crew members to use their revolvers. If conditions inside the Mark I were appalling - deafening noise, roasting heat, suffocating fumes from the engine and the choking smell of cordite when in action - the men learned to live with it and still function as a team.
Given that they were often in extreme danger and working in near-total darkness, their commitment was remarkable. Although the tanks were originally regarded as expendable, their crews took much pride in them, christening each one with an individual name, and repairing and recovering them after an action where possible.
The Mark I crew comprised eight men. In , he would have been a young officer. Besides the usual duties of command - determining the route, watching out for targets and the care of the crew - he was responsible for working a pair of steering brakes in conjunction with the driver. If the ground was bad or the route uncertain, the commander would often get out of the tank and walk ahead, testing the ground with a stick - holding a lit cigarette behind his back if it was dark - at the risk of enemy fire and being run down by his own tank.
The driver was regarded as the most skilled and valuable member of the crew. He was responsible for navigating the tank, gear changing, operating the throttle, applying the foot brake and operating the steering tail device by means of a steering wheel.
He also supervised maintenance of the engine, clutch, gears and tracks. The gearsmen were stationed on each side of the tank. They operated the secondary gearboxes relating to the individual tracks. They also passed forward ammunition, greased the tracks and operated the light machine guns. In a 'male' tank, each six-pounder gun was served by a gunner and a loader. The gun was moved by the sheer physical exertion of the gunner, using a shaft under his right armpit to elevate and swing the weapon.
He aimed using a telescopic sight and operated the firing mechanism manually. The first tank crews came from virtually every regiment in the British Army. Consequently, there was little conformity in cap badges or uniform early on, but eventually they were made a branch of the Machine Gun Corps.
Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. Some minor actions took place later in the year and fifteen Mark I tanks were earmarked to take part in the Battle of Arras in April After that, as new tanks were coming along the surviving Mark Is were relegated to subsidiary roles as Supply or Wireless tanks.
The Tank Museum has the last surviving example of a Mark I. It was presented to Lord Salisbury in for display on his Hatfield Park estate in Hertfordshire to commemorate the use of his grounds for some of the earliest tank demonstrations in In less time than it takes to tell, the Boches had ceased to run; they all seemed to go over like shot rabbits. The tank never paused but went straight on over the trenches, firing right and left as it did so.
Over our own trenches in the twilight of the dawn those motor-monsters had lurched up, and now it came crawling forward to the rescue, cheered by the assaulting troops, who called out words of encouragement to it and laughed, so that some men were laughing even when bullets caught them in the throat.
In spite of the tank, which did grand work, the assault on Courcelette was hard and costly. Again and again the men came under machine-gun fire and rifle fire, for the Germans had dug new trenches which had not been wiped out by our artillery. These soldiers our ours were superb in courage and stoic endurance, and pressed forward steadily in broken waves. The first news of success came through the airman's wireless, which said: "A tank is walking up the high street of Flers with the British army cheering behind.
They the tanks looked like blind creatures emerging from the primeval slime. To watch one crawling round a battered wood in the half-light was to think of "the Jabberwock with eyes of flame" who "came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled as it came. Bernstein's tank was within reach of the German trenches when a shell hit the cab, decapitated the driver, and exploded in the body of the tank.
The corporal was wounded in the arm, and Bernstein was stunned and temporarily blinded. The tank was filled with fumes. As the crew were crawling out, a second shell hit the tank on the roof. Birkett went forward at top speed, and, escaping the shells, entered the German trenches, where his guns did great execution. The tank was hit twice, and all the crew were wounded, but Birkett went on fighting grimly until his ammunition was exhausted and he himself was badly wounded in the leg. Then at last he turned back.
Near the embankment he stopped the tank to take his bearings. As he was climbing out, a shell burst against the side of the tank and wounded him again in the leg. The tank was evacuated. Birkett was brought back on a stretcher, and wounded a third time as he lay on the sunken road outside the dressing station. Skinner came right to the edge of an enormous crater and stopped. He tried to reverse, but he could not change gear.
The tank was absolutely motionless. The Germans brought up a gun and began to shell the tank.
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