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Tanks and Men on the Western Front by Ktera Bartels a Thesis

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Tanks and Men on the Western Front by Ktera Bartels a Thesis View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ASU Digital Repository “Not Quite Mechanical:” Tanks and Men on the Western Front by KTera Bartels A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Approved August 2018 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Christopher Jones, Chair Volker Benkert Victoria Thompson ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2018 ABSTRACT In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, Britain developed and deployed the first military tanks on a battlefield, signifying a huge step forward in the combination of mechanization and the military. Tanks represented progress in technical and mechanical terms, but their introduction to military goals and military environments required the men involved to develop immaterial meanings for the tanks. Tactically, tanks required investment from tank commanders and non-tank commanders alike, and incorporating tanks into the everyday routine of the battlefront required men to accommodate these machines into their experiences and perspectives. Reporting the actions of the tanks impelled newspapers and reporters to find ways of presenting the tanks to a civilian audience, tying them to British perspectives on war and granting them positive associations. This thesis sought to identify major concepts and ideas as applied to the British tanks deployed on the Western Front in the First World War, and to better understand how British audiences, both military and civilian, understood and adopted the tank into their understanding of the war. Different audiences had different expectations of the tank, shaped by the environment in which they understood it, and the reaction of those audiences laid the foundation for further development of the tank. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Early Trials ............................................................................................................ 12 Deployment .......................................................................................................... 18 Ups And Downs Of 1917 ...................................................................................... 23 Advances in 1918 ................................................................................................. 31 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Initial Battles ......................................................................................................... 44 Joining the Tanks ................................................................................................. 48 Trials at the Front ................................................................................................. 54 Cambrai and Victory ............................................................................................. 63 Amiens and New Models ...................................................................................... 67 Aftermath .............................................................................................................. 72 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 74 Tanks in Print ........................................................................................................ 75 Material Goods ..................................................................................................... 84 Visual Appeal ........................................................................................................ 88 Tank Banks ........................................................................................................... 92 A Public Image ..................................................................................................... 96 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 99 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 101 Primary Sources .............................................................................................................. 101 ii CHAPTER Page Secondary Sources ......................................................................................................... 107 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. A few conceptions, picked up from Press accounts here and there, of what the “tanks” are really like...................................................................................................................... 79 2. Our artist’s fanciful drawing of the new motor ‘tank’. ..................................................... 80 3. A photograph of a model tank being prepared for exhibition. ....................................... 84 4. St. George Out-Dragons the Dragon (with Mr. Punch’s jubilant compliments to Sir Douglas Haig and his Tanks). ........................................................................................... 88 5. Message dropped from British Aeroplane. .................................................................... 92 iv INTRODUCTION In September 1916, the British army utilized tanks on the Western Front for the first time, introducing a new weapon into a war that had witnessed many similar transformations. As technical innovations, the tanks were part of a shift towards mechanization, slowly developing alternatives to raw manpower or horsepower in military environments. However, the usage and the presence of the tanks in the First World War did not mean that everyone who interacted with the tanks understood their purpose or even supported their production. Developing the tanks as machines required initial investment from engineers, but gathering support from the army, the government, and the civilians of Britain was a process that developed throughout the war. People responded to the tanks in different ways and adapted them into their memories of the war and their understanding of the war based on their perspective or position. For tacticians and designers, the tank was most useful as a concept, an indicator of mechanical progress that would revolutionize warfare. For the early tank crews, the tank made physical demands and enforced organizational boundaries that defined them as tank men without removing them from the stresses of the front line. For civilians on the home front, the tanks became part of the expanding propaganda efforts, providing a tangible reference to the war effort and a visual display of patriotism. Studying the tank through the lens of its different audiences reveals the variety of interpretation applied to the early British tank. To consider the various audiences for the tanks and understand them in turn, clear definitions of these audiences are necessary. Beginning in 1914, an administrative nucleus of men who focused on the tanks emerged, drawing on technical knowledge and innovation to propose a solution to the apparent stagnation on the Western Front. Their work had begun with early proposals bandied between the War Office and the Admiralty, but delays and miscommunication stalled tank production until 1916.1 In the face of this resistance, the men who believed in the concept of the tank clung to their projections of a mobile tractor or enormous 1 Sir Albert Gerald Stern, Tanks, 1914-1918: the Log-book of a Pioneer (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919). 1 armored car capable of penetrating enemy lines.2 As the tanks emerged onto the battlefield, it became clear that they did not fit easily into traditional military roles: they were too slow to substitute for cavalry, yet their armor capabilities made them more resilient than the infantry, and their 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns gave them firepower enough to perform like artillery guns. The development of the Tank Corps administration allowed Major J.F.C. Fuller to begin outlining his own presentation of tank tactics, waging a private war of correspondence against Haig’s administration and fighting with the War Office to insist that tanks were viable weapons if given the proper chance.3 Though the physical tanks had their own material needs, Fuller hoped to provide for their administrative needs, giving them the tactical theory necessary to justify their continued production. Another important audience can be found in the tank crews and tank men who formed the personnel of the early Tank Corps. The tank crews interacted with the tanks daily, whether training behind the lines or active on the front lines.4 Unlike Fuller or tank designers, tank crews did not develop theories about tank use and focused instead on the immediate needs of their unit. Commanders found the collection of a new branch of men, hastily designed and haphazardly collected from other branches, a serious barrier to any kind of cooperation or community.5 The process of training, the rigor of battle, and even the freedom to play and relax all provided tank crews with material to ground their understanding of their new roles,
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