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As a result of the involvement of inexperienced army officers ordered to devise a new tank based on the larger 75 hp Holt chassis in a very short period of time, the first French tanks were poorly designed with respect to the need to cross trenches and did not take the sponson-mounting route of the British tanks.
Prototype-World War I Tanks that entered service after, but as designed in World War I Name Country Year Planned prod./actual total Crew Armament [ammo (rds.)] Armour thickness (front/side/top) Weight Engine Speed Range FCM Char 2C: France 1918 300+/10 12 Canon de 75 modèle 1897, 4× 7.92 mm MG 45/22/10 mm 70 t Petrol 2×200/250 hp
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.
Perhaps the most famous fighter plane during World War 1 was the Fokker as it was the first to include a synchronized machine gun. [23] [24] [25] Towards the end of the conflict, aircraft carriers were used for the first time, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a raid to destroy the Zeppelin hangars at Tønder in 1918. [26]
Tanks were initially deployed in World War I, engineered to overcome the deadlock of trench warfare.Between the two world wars, tanks were further developed.Although they had demonstrated their battlefield effectiveness, only a few nations had the industrial resources to design and build them.
The Schneider CA 1 (originally named the Schneider CA) was the first French tank, developed during the First World War.. The Schneider was inspired by the need to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare which on the Western Front prevailed during most of the Great War.
They were much too short in relation to the vehicle's length and weight (23 tons). Later models attempted to rectify some of the tank's original flaws by installing wider and stronger track shoes, thicker frontal armour and the more effective 75mm Mle 1897 field gun. Altogether 400 Saint-Chamond tanks were built, including 48 unarmed caisson tanks.
Tanks were used for the first time in action in the battle of the Somme on 15 September 1916. The intention being that they would crush the barbed wire for the infantry, then cross the trenches and exploit any breakthrough behind the German lines. In November 1916, they were renamed the Heavy Branch MGC and in June 1917, the Tank Corps. [101] [102]