First World War
The tank, when it appeared on the Western Front in September 1916, was a total surprise to the German troops, though not to the German General Staff. The French Army Staff was highly critical of the British Army's early fielding of the Mark I vehicles in small numbers because the French trials showed the armored vehicles to be highly unreliable. They judged that large numbers had to be employed to sustain an offensive despite losses to mechanical failure or vehicles being foundered in intractable no man's land terrain. These losses, coupled with those from enemy artillery fire, later amounted to as high as 70% of the starters during some operations. Deploying small numbers of tanks would therefore cause the Allies to lose the element of surprise, allowing Germans to develop countermeasures.
Read more about this topic: Anti-tank Guns
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“We devastate them unreligiously,
And coldly ask their pottage, not their love.
Therefore they shove us from them, yield to us
Only what to our griping toil is due;
But the sweet affluence of love and song,
The rich results of the divine consents
Of man and earth, of world beloved and lover;
The nectar and ambrosia, are withheld.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The connection between dress and war is not far to seek; your finest clothes are those you wear as soldiers.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)