“So both sides were locked into a frighteningly small area onto which an enormous amount of firepower was poured.” French excitementĪ French liaison officer, who acts as a link between the British and French armies, told Reuter’s correspondent with huge glee of the consternation which spread among the Germans when these flat-footed monsters advanced, spouting flames from every side, and careless alike of rifle and machine-gun fire, right up to and over the barbed wire entanglements, crushing everything before them, seeking out hidden machine-guns, and silencing them, making the advance of the German reinforcements through their communication trenches impossible by enfilading fire, and holding up terrified bands of Germans eager to flee.“The German doctrine was that not a single yard of ground should be surrendered and the French and the British were determined to never stop the attack,” says Spencer Jones, senior lecturer in Armed Forces and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. The unexpected appearance of the new British armoured cars seems to have been not only effective from the military point of view, but also to have created a panic among the enemy. The Paris newspapers are enthusiastic over our brilliant advance, which is described as the most important and decisive we have made since the battle of the Marne. In the early days of last week occurred the triumph of the French troops the past three days have seen the turn of the British. ![]() Although the attack proved a failure, the tanks proved highly effective, and proved a great propaganda asset, as demonstrated by the Telegraph's excited report on their appearance. ![]() ![]() On 16 September 1916 the British Army made it first use of tanks in the attack on Flers Courcellet, part of the Battle of the Somme.
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