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British heavy tanks were a series of related armoured fighting vehicles developed by the UK during the First World War. The Mark I was the world's first tank, a tracked, armed, and armoured vehicle, to enter combat. The name "tank" was initially a code name to maintain secrecy and disguise its true purpose.
The Tanks of World War I: The History and Legacy of Tank Warfare during the Great War (2017) [ISBN missing] Foley, Michael. Rise of the Tank: Armoured Vehicles and their use in the First World War (2014) [ISBN missing] Townsend, Reginald T. (December 1916). " 'Tanks' And 'The Hose Of Death' ". The World's Work: A History of Our Time: 195– 207
The battle involved over 400 tanks and 120,000 British, Dominion, and French troops, and by the end of its first day a gap 24 kilometres (15 mi) long had been created in the German lines. The defenders displayed a marked collapse in morale, causing Ludendorff to refer to this day as the "Black Day of the German army".
The bright spots of British tank design included the Valentine, Churchill (A22), Cromwell (A27M), and Comet I (A34), which together made up a little over half of total British tank production during WWII. The Valentine was a reliable, heavily armoured infantry-support tank used successfully in the desert and by the Red Army as a light tank.
They were developed to break through barbed wire and destroy enemy machine gun posts. The British and the French were the major users of tanks during the war; tanks were a lower priority for Germany as it assumed a defensive strategy. The few tanks that Germany built were outnumbered by the number of French and British tanks captured and reused.
"WWI Timeline". The Great War. USA: Public Broadcasting System. "WWI Timeline". National Wwi Museum and Memorial. USA: National World War I Museum. "World War One Timeline". UK: BBC. "New Zealand and the First World War (timeline)". New Zealand Government. "Timeline: Australia in the First World War, 1914-1918". Australian War Memorial.
Before World War II, the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply the World War. [1] In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". [2] In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War."
The first American-produced heavy tank was the 43.5-ton Mark VIII (sometimes known as the "Liberty"), a US–British development of the successful British heavy tank design, intended to equip the Allied forces. Armed with two 6-pounder cannons and five rifle-caliber machine guns, it was operated by an 11-man crew, and had a maximum speed of 6.5 ...