Battle of Flers-Courcelette, British Mark I debut

Battle of Flers-Courcelette, British Mark I debut

The battle of Flers-Courcelette, began on September 15, 1916. This battle was intended to reap the fruits of all the hard work that has been done so far. A victory could shorten the war; a failure could certainly prolong it. Over ten Divisions belonging to the British 4th Army and Reserve Army would advance together against German lines. 

It was an operation whose scale would have been unthinkable for the British Expeditionary Force just a year earlier. It also meant an important step forward in the way the British targeted an offensive, using armoured cars for the first time. The management of the tank has been the subject of numerous controversies, but it is evident that it was the result of the imperative need to have some kind of armored vehicle to be able to cross no man's land, sweep the wires and assault the German reds using the weapon he was carrying equipped.

Many tests were carried out before the appearance of the Mark I rhomboid "tank", an armored vehicle equipped with long caterpillars, based on the Hold tractor and manufactured in two variants: the "male", armed with two 57 mm barrels and four machine guns; and the "female", with only six machine guns. No one knew neither their virtues nor their faults: the only way to find out what they were capable of doing was to see them in action, and what better time to prove them than the climax of the major allied offensive of 1916, a battle as crucial as that of Flers-Courcelette?

Once out of range of support campaign artillery, tanks would try to aid the infantry. It was a very ambitious program for cannons whose true effectiveness remained unknown. In the end, the tanks' little reliability would be greater than expected. 

Of the 49 Mark I destined for the offensive, only 36 had been able to reach the starting line when the last curtain of fire stopped at 06.20 on September 15. When they jumped into action, several broke down or got lost, which meant that the infantry would be left practically alone in the "lanes" left by that curtain of fire moving furiously. The most shocking thing for the Germans was the British's new bombing technique, not their tanks.

The communication between tanks and infantry can be said to have shone through their absence. Fighter cars were often left stranded because infantry wanted to keep up with the pace of the curtain of fire that offered safer protection. 

The so-called procession of tanks through the main streets of Flers was the fruit of the imagination of a journalist in an article written days later, as the participating tanks did nothing but roll up road and road down before being unused. On the other hand, Germans are likely to observe among astonished and stunned the appearance of tanks on the battlefield, but the truth is that they responded with anger. 

The "female" tank C-22, commanded by second lieutenant Basil Henriques, went into operation, for reasons unknown, before "Zero" hour, and began to advance toward the positions of the Germans in the quadrilateral. At first, the German trenches did not react, but as soon as the vehicle crossed the front line and opened fire, the Germans responded with small weapons using armored-drilling projectiles as employees normally do against the steel-plated thrones used by British snipers.

The tanks had another problem: they were vulnerable to certain artillery fire. In short, they achieved few things that they couldn't have been achieved using more conventional means, although sometimes they also ignored the powerful weapon they would end up becoming. And it's true they impressed the Germans.

However, Haig felt satisfied enough with the tank's allowances to order a thousand units shortly after the battle. He also felt great relief after checking the success of the latest version of the offensive tactic used by the British.

 Many positions on the German front line had been overturned along a nine thousand meter front, and in the sector of Flers could have opened so many gaps on the second line that after a couple of days the Germans withdrew to the hills from The Transloy. The Brothers were in a very urgent situation, but the British had yet to make significant progress.

In just ten days, the British had assimilated some of the lessons learned. In their plans for the Morval offensive, launched at 12.35 on September 25, they stopped their ambitious project based on the concept of "bite and not let go", to seek a lead of about 1,500 meters with the aim of conquering the last reductions of which it was the German front line. 

This stance allowed for more concentrated, crack-free artillery shelling, increased attention to contraband fire, and a return to the concept of fire curtain held in front of the captured terrain to prevent any attempted German counterattack. 

Tanks were also used in a more concentrated manner, following the infantry to collaborate in the destruction of problematic shortages: in other words, as a useful, but secondary weapon