Tanks in Amiens

[Tomb1302]

Hello everyone,

 

Want to write about Allied tanks during the battle of Amiens, so I just need a general overview.

 

How were they deployed, and what was their role? Does anyone have a list of names of tanks and crews?

 

Could anyone provide me with maps of tank positions and offensive objectives?

 

Let me know if you have any questions. I feel kind of clueless in a forum this experienced haha.

 

Thanks.

[Marilyne]

Hi,

 

That's quite the general question...

The best place to start is Charles Messenger's "The Day We Won the War". It is a very detailed account of the battle and you'll find in there which tank units supported which attacks on what days and with what missions.

Then for a more general overview of tank battles I can adivse you to read Brian Cooper's "Tank Battles of World War one".

 

Happy readings,

 

Marilyne

 

 

[HenryTheGerman]

Hi

There is an excellent Ph.D thesis dealing with the tank matters of the Great War in general but also pointing to the usage of tanks in the Battle of Amiens. Unfortunately the thesis is written in German language. Only the abstract is also published in English. I pasted and copied it here:

 

"The central theme of this thesis is the appearance on the battlefield of the first armoured vehicles, an event generally held to have been a revolution in military affairs. The exploits of these so-called ‘tanks’ of 1916 -1918, which had the inherent capability of breaking the bloody deadlock of trench warfare, contributed greatly during the interwar period to the promotion of a myth, which went roughly as follows: The Allies had recognised the potential of this new weapon; did not allow themselves to be deflected by early setbacks and so, towards the end of the war, their modern offensives, founded on the joint principles of fire and manoeuvre, possessed an armoured spearhead, against which the Germans had no answer. The German High Command, seemingly technophobic and blundering, ignored right to the bitter end, the chance to throw their weight behind the development and mass production of weapons, which to this day play a key role in land warfare. In the summer of 1918 the German lines simply folded in the face of British, French and American tank squadrons which rolled forward unstoppably to assault a defence which was suddenly and hopelessly tactically and technically inferior. The fundamental question of this thesis is to what extent this apparently plausible representation of the facts actually corresponds to the reality, both in the High Commands of both sides and on the battlefield. On the basis of historical-operational analysis of the most notable tank actions between the first appearance of the new weapon in September 1916 and its advance to victory during the summer of 1918, the thesis explores how much credit for the Allied victory is due to these early armoured vehicles and to what extent the German High Command itself was actually responsible for this final, catastrophic failure."

 

The complete thesis can be downloaded from the server of the Humbold University Berlin:

https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/16336

 

Regards

 

Heinrich

[Marilyne]

Danke schön !!!!

 

760 pages... insane!!!!! I'l keep it in mind tough ...

 

M.

[Robert Dunlop]

Check out this link here.

 

Robert