CHESTERFIELD WFA

Newsletter and Magazine issue 59

Co- Patrons -Sir Hew Strachan & Prof. Peter Simkins Welcome to Issue 59 - the President - Professor Gary Sheffield November 2020 Newsletter and MA PhD FRHistS FRSA Magazine of Chesterfield WFA. Vice-Presidents Andre Colliot In view of the current public health Professor John Bourne BA PhD FRHistS pandemic engulfing the globe, your The Burgomaster of Ypres committee took the prudent The Mayor of Albert decision, before the introduction of Lt-Col Graham Parker OBE Government legislation, to cancel until Christopher Pugsley FRHistS further notice our monthly meetings. Lord Richard Dannat GCB CBE MC DL Roger Lee PhD jssc Meetings and other activities will be Dr Jack Sheldon restarted as and when the authorities Branch contacts deem it safe for us to do so.

Tony Bolton (Chairman) In the interim this Newsletter / Magazine will [email protected] continue Mark Macartney (Deputy Chairman) We would urge all our members to adopt all the [email protected] Jane Lovatt (Treasurer) government`s regulations that way we can keep safe and

Grant Cullen (Secretary) hopefully this crisis will be controlled, the virus defeated, [email protected] and a degree of normality restored. Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/15 Stay safe everybody – we are all – in the meantime - 7662657604082/ `Confined to Barracks`

Grant Cullen – Branch Secretary

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Western Front Association Chesterfield Branch – Meetings 2020

Meetings start at 7.30pm and take place at the Labour Club, Unity House, Saltergate, Chesterfield S40 1NF

January 7th . AGM and Members Night – presentations by Jane Ainsworth, Ed Fordham, Judith Reece, Edwin Astill and Alan Atkinson

February 4th Graham Kemp `The Impact of the economic blockage of Germany AFTER the armistice and how it led to WW2`

March 3rd Peter Hart Après la Guerre Post-war blues, demobilisation and a home fit for very few.

April 7th Andy Rawson Tea Pots to Tin Lids…how the factory which inspired his research (Dixons) switched from making tea services for hotels and cruise ships to making Brodie helmets in the Great War. CANCELLED May Nick Baker . The British Army has always fought a long battle with 5th the debilitations cause to its soldier’s efficiency through venereal disease, a combination of behavioural change and civilian interference resulted in an ‘epidemic’ of VD which threatened military effectiveness.CANCELLED June 2nd Rob Thompson 'The Gun Machine: A Case Study of the Industrialisation of Battle during the Flanders Campaign, 1917.CANCELLED

July 6th Virtual Meeting….On Line. Tony Davies entitled `The Knutsford Lads Who Never Came Home`. Jointly with Lincoln and North Lincs WFA .Fullest details of how to participate elsewhere in this newsletter August 5th Virtual Meeting – On Line . Beth Griffiths ` The Experience of the Disabled Soldiers Returning After WWI`. Details of how to join in this meeting elsewhere in this Newsletter. Starts at 7pm September John Taylor. ‘A Prelude to War’ (An Archduke’s Visit) – a classic and true 1st tale of `what if` ? Cancelled

October Virtual Meeting – On Line Peter Harris in the 100 Days. 6th Peter will present some of his researches for his Wolverhampton MA course. Details of how to join in this `meeting` elsewhere in this newsletter. Starts 7pm. November 3rd Paul Handford Women Ambulance Drivers on the Western Front 1914 – 1918. Cancelled

December John Beech 'Notts Battery RHA - Nottinghamshire Forgotten Gunners' 1st

- 2 - Issue 59 – list of contents

2 Meetings and Speakers Calendar 3 Contents Page + WFA Virtual Meeting details 4 Secretary`s Scribbles 5 - 8 Branded Goods Update 9 – 36 Tanks in the 100 Days Offensive – Peter Harris 37 – 39 The 100 Days Offensive 40 Could Tanks have done more ? 41 – 42 The Last WW1 Corps Casualty 43 – 46 – Battle of Amiens 47 Going Up!...... with the RFC

WFA ZOOM MEETINGS For November Follow these links for registering (please note dates and times, as this is to accommodate viewers)

2nd November The work of the IWGC, 1917-1939 by by Prof Mark Connelly http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-the-work-of-the-iwgc-1917-1939/

4th November 'From limited war to total war' by Prof Sir Hew Strachan http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-from-limited-war-to-total-war-by- prof-sir-hew-strachan/

14th November Haig and his Dominion Commanders by Dr Christopher Pugsley, http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-haig-and-his-dominion- commanders/

16th November Lessons from the Mud by Paul Knight http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-lessons-from-the-mud/

18th November The Centre Cannot Hold: Arras 1918 and the Failure of German Counterattack Doctrine by Dr Bill Stewart, http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-the-centre- cannot-hold-arras-1918-and-the-failure-of-german-counterattack-doctrine/

23rd November Cambrai: dawn of an era now ending? by Brigadier Alexander Turner http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-cambrai-dawn-of-an-era-now- ending/

30th November A Month in the Life of the Chief: Douglas Haig in September 1917 by Clive Harris, http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/events/online-a-month-in-the-life-of-the-chief- douglas-haig-in-september-1917/

Mark Macartney | Branded Goods Trustee | The Western Front Association

- 3 - Secretary`s Scribbles Welcome to issue 59 of the WFA Chesterfield Branch Newsletter and Magazine. By the time you read this we may well be beginning a full national lockdown. When I read this in this morning`s papers, I was reminded of the words of the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey hours before Britain entered The Great War. Grey had just returned to the Foreign Office from the House of Commons when he met his friend JA Spender editor of the Westminster Gazette the two looked out of the window with the gas lamps in the street below being lit….Grey paused, turn to Spender and said….`the lamps are going out all over Europe we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime…` Will another total lockdown work…??....or are we entering an era of total unpredictability just as Grey forecast in 1914 ?? There will be no `Demio` meeting (at the moment) for Tuesday November 3rd as our invited speaker, Paul Handford declined to present on this platform. Understandable as he has been dealing with his father`s death and the serious illness of a brother. Paul will get another opportunity, hopefully in 2021. We are talking to other parties with a view to having a presentation in November…watch this space. We pass on condolences to one of our Branch `regulars`, Rob Nash, who wife Anne passed away last month. On behalf of the Branch a donation in Anne`s memory has been sent to Ashgate Hospice, Chesterfield. Good wishes from all of us are sent to Alan Atkinson who had spell in hospital recently. We all hope you are on the mend, Alan. A member has donated a full set of the WFA magazine `Stand To`…many in binders..including the special issues, to be used to raise funds for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal which has been hit hard this year by the ongoing restrictions. Ideally we would want these to go as a complete set, but if there are no `takers`, then we will split and sell as single units. Anyone who is interested is invited to contact myself for further details. As many of you know I am Poppy Appeal Organiser for Worksop and District and this year is going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Many of those who man tables in the supermarkets are in high risk categories and, regrettably, I have had to decline their offers of help. As a charity our first priority is the health and welfare of those who help us. I visited one elderly veteran (he has complex health issues) a couple of weeks back to tell him we couldn`t let him man a supermarket table this year. You try to be as gentle as possible when letting him down, but there was a tear in his eye as I left. He lives on his own and just loves getting on his regimental blazer and taking his place on the table……. Hopefully next year.Best wishes to you all…stay safe and well

Grant Cullen – Branch Secretary 07824628638 [email protected]

Any opinions expressed in this Newsletter /Magazine are not necessarily those of the Western Front Association, Chesterfield Branch, in particular, or the Western Front Association in general

- 4 - BRANDED GOODS NEWS WFA 2021 Calendars Because of the Covid 19 Situation and Government Regulations we realise that the sale of Calendars is a bit later this year and to this end as most Branches are as yet not holding meetings we will NOT be automatically sending out 10 calendars to Branches, The situation will be monitored regularly, so as it stands at the moment once the calendars are available the only purchase option will be to buy on line or phone Sarah at the Office, Calendars are now available.

WFA 40th Anniversary Coaster To celebrate the WFA's 40th anniversary, we have produced a 'special edition' coaster. The coasters are 4" in diameter and made of handcrafted slate. They are individually polished, screen printed by hand and backed by a baize to avoid damage to surfaces. These are selling so well that we had to order a second batch. If you would like a new 'WFA' Anniversary Coaster, please order through Website or ring Sarah at Head Office

- 5 - WFA Mousemats We have recently produced a mousemat which is currently selling so well that we've had to order a second batch. If you would like a new 'WFA' mousemat, please order through Website or ring Sarah at Head Office,

Info on all Branded goods (Including those mentioned above

Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and notified members of the situation that we are doing our best to supply the service that we can within the Governments quidelines

Accepted Orders are:

Clothing; These are supplied direct from the Manufacturer (Check Website for Ordering Details)

Orders on the following items will be accepted as normal as these can be dispatched via Royal Mail Letter Box

Bookmarks

Baseball Caps

WFA Classic Ties

Lapel Badges

WFA Coasters (Special Edition)

Mousemats

DVD's (Individual -not sets)

The following items will be dispatched on a weekly basis (Dispatched from a RoyalMail Drop off Box)

WFA Mugs

Messenger Bags & Shoulder Bags,

- 6 - The following items will not be available until further notice:

DVD (sets)

Binders (Stand To and Bulletin)

No Orders will be accepted on these items until the situation is improved, The current thinking is that as such this is likely to endure through to the summer. Apologies for any inconvenience

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The Eshop on the Website has been updated. The link to the Website is here

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/shop/

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October Meeting

Once again we had to settle for a `virtual` meeting, capable organised by Dudley Giles. Had we been `live at the Labour Club`, the presentation would have been by Branch regular, Peter Harris, who kindly agreed to deliver his presenttaion via the Demio platform. His talk was based upon the research he carried out for his dissertation as part of the Masters degree he completed earlier this year at Wolverhampton University. 81 folks signed up for the talkand there were over 50 in the `room` when Peter got underway. Peter has kindly shared his slides and notes to make available his presentation to all on our mailing list via this newsletter.

This is an overview of what I am going to talk about tonight. In the first half I will give an outline of the Hundred Days Campaign and the Tank Corps’ involvement and follow that with an overview of the tanks, the Tank Corps Staff, the critical historiography by several historians and the Tank Corps, bases in France. In the second half I will talk about several elements of my research and how these throw light on the functioning of the Tank Corps and the criticisms made by some historians.

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I should just say how this came about. I am a chartered civil and structural engineer, now semi- retired. I have always been interested in military history and for the last 53 years I have been a wargamer specialising in 16/17th Century warfare, Napoleonic, WW2 and more recently the First World War.

About 17 years ago I began to trace my family history. My father served in WW2 in the RAF and my grandfather served with the 9th Battalion Sherwood Foresters in 1917 and 1918 (possibly somewhat reluctantly). I worked for British Coal as a civil engineer, my father worked for the National Coal Board as a clerk and in sales promotion, my grandfather worked at Sherwood colliery in Mansfield, my great grandfather at South Wingfield colliery and my great great and great great great grandfathers were coal miners in the Black Country.

But it was my grandfather’s service in the FWW and my Wargaming hobby which lead me to do the MA in the History of Britain and the FWW when I partly retired, that and my wife Caroline’s threat that I would drive her mad if I didn’t do something.

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Firstly I would like to summarise the events of the last five months of the war.

Starting with the Battle of Hamel the BEF went back on the offensive after the German spring attacks ground to a halt, 60 tanks were used in a short sharp assault by the Australian divisions and was a complete success.

This was followed by the Battle of Amiens in which the Canadian Corp, Australian Corps and BEF 3rd Corps were supported by 414 tanks

From then on the BEF made a series of hammer blows at different sections of the German line with an operational tempo that the Germans could not resist. Eventually the most comprehensive of the German defensive positions the Hindenburg Lines was broken by the BEF Third and Fourth Armies.

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The Germans were then pushed back from the Hindenburg line and a period of semi open warfare followed as they fell back to further defensive lines that were hardly existent on the ground

I would next like to cover the equipment with which the Tank Corps were equipped. 1917 had been fought with the Mark IV tanks and from May 1918 these were being phased out and replaced with the Mark V tank. Many MkIV’s were converted in France to supply tanks.

- 12 - At the Battle of Amiens 13 of the Tank Corps 16 tank battalions had been committed but three battalions, the 7th, 11th and 12th had been out of action retraining to use the Mark V but after Amiens there were only enough new MkV’s available to equip the 11th Battalion and the 7th and 12th were re-issued with reconditioned mark IV tanks and continued to use them until the Armistice. The mark IV still had the separate gear changes and need two crew just to change gear in addition to the driver. The engine was a 100 horse power Daimler with a radiator at the rear pushing air out of the tank. This did cause some problems when MkIV tanks were fitted with Lewis guns as air was being drawn into the tank at all openings and this air flow was contrary to that the guns induced to cool themselves, by the time of the 100 days the Lewis guns were replaced with Hotchkiss guns which became the standard Tank Corps machine gun. Their Maximum Speed was 3.7 mph and the Average was speed 2 mph. Their radius of action was about 9.5 hours or 35 miles.

The Mark V tank was a considerable improvement over the MkIV. It had an epicyclic gearbox which enabled the driver to change gears on his own, thus freeing up two crew members.

However the cooling for the more powerful 125 horse power Riccardo engine was done by sucking air into the tank by air vents in the sides of the tank. This caused a build up of hot carbon monoxide filled air in the tank and I will talk about the effects of this later.

Their Maximum speed was 4.6 mph and the Average speed was 2.4 mph. Their radius of action was about 10 hours or 45 miles.

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The Mark V* (five star) was substantially the same as a MkV but 6 ft (1.8m) longer. This was in response to the problems that MkIV and MkV tanks had crossing the wider trenches of the Hindenburg line. After the first use of tanks on 15 September 1916 the Germans had deliberately increased the width of their trenches. The MkV* could cross 13 ft wide trenches as opposed to the 10ft of the Mark IV and V. It also had the space to carry a few infantry or machine gun teams into action but as I will explain later this was soon discontinued. The longer length of the MkV* made it much more difficult to turn

The medium Mark A tank known as the Whippet was much faster than the MkIV and MkV being able to do 8mph. It had a crew of 3 and had 3 Hotchkiss machine guns. rd th The 3 and 6 Tank Battalions converted to Whippets just before the Battle of Amiens, and at that battle the attempt to get them to work in conjunction with cavalry was not successful.

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The 17th Tank Battalion was equipped with 16 Austin Armoured cars and performed very well at Amiens after being towed over trenches by MkV tanks. They penetrated many miles behind the German front line, disrupted the German reserves and captured a local headquarters at Framerville where they seized a set of German trench maps which later proved valuable as they detailed the defences of the German Hindenburg Line. Their maximum Speed was 35 mph and they had a Range of 124 miles. The armoured cars were originally equipped with 2 water cooled Maxim guns, as shown above and were destined for shipment to the Middle East but those allocated to the 17th Battalion were refitted with 2 Hotchkiss guns

I would like to mention a few of the Tank Corps staff. This is a portrait of Lieutenant General Hugh Elles the Commanding Officer of the Tank Corps. He had commanded the Tank Corps since the end of September 1916. He was an inspiring leader and actually went into action in a tank called Hilda at the Battle of Cambrai, he directed the fire of the tank with his head out of the roof hatch by kicking the gunners in the ribs, his tank crossed the German first and support trenches before breaking down.

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And this is J. F. C. Fuller who was the Chief Staff Officer and tactical expert in the Tank Corps. He was a prolific writer and developed the tactics used at the Battle of Cambrai and in 1918. From August 1918 Fuller was transferred back to the London offices of the Tank Corps to act as their representative on the new Tank Board – a joint War Office and Ministry of Munitions committee that was set up to better co-ordinate the production of tanks with the needs of the Tank Corps. While he was in London he started to produce a magazine called ‘Weekly Tank Notes’ to popularise the Tank Corps and the tank as a weapon. He was responsible for the planning for ending the war in 1919 by increasing the number of tank battalions from 18 to 34. After the war he wrote many papers and he also wrote one of the most comprehensive accounts of the Tank Corps. Unfortunately between the wars he fell under the influence of Oswald Mosely and became a fascist. His papers are held in the archives at Kings College in London.

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Major Clough Williams-Ellis was the Tank Corps Reconnaissance expert. He wrote what became the manual on reconnaissance for the Tank Corps and after the war he went back to his career as an architect and designed the welsh village of Portmeirion. He and his wife Amabel wrote another history of the Tank Corps. Major Frederick Hotblack was also a reconnaissance officer but became the main intelligence officer for the Tank Corps producing weekly intelligence reports. He is renowned for leading his tank into action at Beaumont-Hamel on 14 November 1916 as shown in the illustration on the right. nd He also served as CO of the 2 Armoured Division in WW2.

I would like to mention just four of the writers on the historiography of the FWW and the impact of tanks. One of the most important is John Terraine, the first of the real scholars to make revisionist analysis of the war based on research into the archives when they were declassified. His most well known work is ‘To Win a War’ and in it he makes his infamous comment ‘The was not going to be overthrown by six tanks’ This refers to the end of the battle of Amiens when the number of tanks fit for use declined from 430 on 8 August to only 6 when the battle closed. I will refute this later.

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The second most quoted author is the Canadian Tim Travers and he dedicated a lot of his book ‘How the War was won’ to criticising Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and GHQ for their lack of understanding of how tanks should have been used and the lack of vision in the ‘penny packet’ use of tanks after the battle of Amiens. The use of tanks in small numbers was also complained about by some of the Tank commanders themselves (Byon). Travers has been roundly vilified by most modern academic authors since then for the shallowness of his research and his fixation with criticising Haig.

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Paddy Griffith is one of my own personal heroes. I admire his analysis and clarity of writing and he was also a wargamer but sadly I never met him. His views on Travers’s work is not overly critical but very realistic and he points out that using tanks in penny packets did achieve results in pushing the Germans back and that withdrawing them and waiting till they had 400 or more before launching another large attack like Amiens again was unrealistic.

The last historian I would like to mention is David J Childs. He wrote ‘A Peripheral Weapon? The Production and Employment of British Tanks in the First World War’ in 1999. After then he appears to have moved from Glasgow to Bukkyo University in Kyoto and he has not produced anything since then. This is probably the most comprehensive study of the Tank Corps and the production of tanks. However there are some significant gaps in his analysis and Childs made some very simplistic calculations based on only a few figures quoted in Elles’s report on operations in 1918.

- 19 - The Tank Corps established its headquarters in the chateaux of Bermicourt, the house is now a restaurant and there is a small tank monument in the grounds. The senior staff are shown here on the rear steps of the house. From the left are J. F C. Fuller (Operationss), T. J. Uzielli (Quartermaster), Hugh Elles, Frederick Hotblack (Intilleigence) , Gifford Le Q Martell ( Fuller’s assistant in operations) & unfortunately I have not been able to identify the officer on the right.

As the Tank Corps established itself in France it set up a stores at Erin just 2 miles from Bermicourt. This section managed the stores arriving from England and the spare parts for the tanks and the despatch of tanks to the battalions.

- 20 - The Central Workshops were set up at Teneur 5 miles from Bermicourt on the opposite side of the river Ternoise. Both Erin and Teneur were linked to the existing French railway network. The staff were equipped for repairing tanks and completing the last works on the new tanks arriving from England to make them ready for sending to the battalions. The staff were supplemented by over 500 Chinese artificers of 51 Chinese Labour Company. The Chinese workers became very proficient at several types of work.

In the archives at Bovington there is a plan of the workshops together with a demolition plan created during the when there was a concern that the Germans might actually get to Teneur . The plan show the Chinese area of the camp and their own separate latrines. In April 1918 the workshops were reviewed by Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson of the Royal Engineers and whilst he praised the set up at Teneur and the staff he recommended installation of more machinery but he concluded overall that the workshops would not be able to cope with all the repairs after a major battle.

These extracts from Google maps show the relative positions of Bermicourt, Erin and Teneur and secondly the main routes from Bermicourt to Arras and to Amiens. The area around Bermicourt also had numerous camps and training areas for the Tank Corps. Bermicourt was 28 miles from Arras and 39 miles from Amiens.

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So now back to the most cataclysmic event of the 100 days campaign – the Battle of Amiens. The BEF had secretly concentrated the Australian and Canadian Corps at Amiens together with 414 fighting tanks from the Tank Corps and supporting supply tanks. I am not going to describe the battle but the significant thing to note here is the rapid decline in the number of tanks fit to fight down to the last 6 tanks mentioned by John Terraine. However we must remember, as Terraine did not, that 3 battalions ( 7, 11 &12) were refitting at Erin th equivalent to another126 tanks. The 16 tank battalion was also arriving from Bovington.

- 22 - A feature of the distribution of tanks between the BEF Armies can be illustrated by this map taken from Andy Rawson’s book ‘The Final advance’. No tanks were allocated to the Belgian Army or to the BEF Second and Fifth Armies. Throughout the Hundred Days the tanks were concentrated with the Third and Fourth Armies with just a small number allocated to the First Army when the Canadian th Corps returned to the First Army after the battle of Amiens of these the 9 Bn only remained with th First Army till 27 August, the 11th Bn till 2 September and the 7 Bn till 30 September. This to some extent explains the distorted view that Tim Travers had of the use of tanks in that the Second and Fifth Armies had to rely entirely on Artillery and Infantry as the tanks were concentrated where they would be most effective which he did not recognise. There was quite a degree of flexibility in the distribution of tank battalions and the brigades were re- arranged several times in those last three months. But one of the key factors was that the Tank Corps itself did not want to commit tanks to operating in what could again turn out to be the Flanders mud at Passchendaele.

This map is taken from the Tank Corps HQ war diary for November 1918 and shows the areas in which the Tank Corps units were in action from the Battle of Amiens to the Armistice. This shows clearly the concentration of tanks with the Third and Fourth Armies with just a few actions with the Canadian Corps of the First Army. The gaps between the coloured areas show the intervals where the Tank Corps rd were re-fitting and re-organising and also the removal of battalions from the 3 Army and th concertation with the 4 . The coloured areas have the number of tanks employed and the date of the action. The numbers of tanks in some of these actions can be described as penny-packeting.

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The Mark V and MkV* tanks were a considerable improvement over the MkIV in many ways but the new Ricardo engine cooling system sucked air in through vents in the side of the tank. This resulted in carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust accumulating inside the tank. After the battles of Hamel and Amiens many of the crews were exhausted from the heat and suffering headaches and tiredness. This was reported back to Tank Corps HQ but it was not taken seriously at higher level. It was not until October that testing was carried out by Major Broster which found levels of Carbon Monoxide from 900 to 1200 part per million. I found a copy of his report in the minutes of the Tank Board at the National Archives. By comparison UK legislation now makes Carbon Monoxide detectors sound the alarm at 50ppm and the Health and Safety regulations for the mining industry limits exposure to 200ppm in 30 minutes. The crews were clearly fighting in conditions that were excessively hot and with Carbon Monoxide levels far above safe limits. This was reported to the Tank Board and was initially denigrated by Admiral Bacon who said that Carbon Monxide exposure was not the cause based on his experience ‘in submarines’, he had been transferred from the Navy after his dubious performance at the Battle of Dogger Bank. But by the time of the Battle of Epehy on12 September the tank crews themselves were already taking action and were sealing the joints in the exhaust pipe sections before the tanks went into battle.

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The crew casualties suffered in the Tank Corps were collated and later published by Fuller in his ‘Weekly Tank Notes’. I photographed these at the and calculated the % from the st raw data. The level of casualties in the Tank Corps varied from battalion to battalion with the 1 battalion suffering 74% casualties and the 16th battalion (which only arrived in France in mid September) only suffered 35.7% casualties. The companies of supply tanks and gun carrier tanks that brought up supplies for the tanks and advancing infantry suffered less than the fighting companies. The overall average casualty rate worked out at 42.3% which is relatively close to the 40% value reported by Childs and in a summary report by Elles.

Two of the sources that I used extensively in my research are shown here. On the left is a Weekly State Report. From mid August 1918 in the minutes of the Tank Board Fuller presented a weekly summary of the numbers of tanks and crews in the tank battalions and 12 of these can be found in the minutes of the Tank Board for the period of the 100 days. The production of these reports was a new development from August 1918 and I have discussed this with Bryn Hammond of the IWM and with Tim Gale of Kings College and they think that this is indicative of the increasing level of professionalism shown by the Tank Corps. - 25 - On the right is a daily Situation of Tanks and Crews report. Fullers weekly reports are in fact summaries of these daily reports made by each tank battalion to the Tank Corps HQ. The war diary of the Tank Corps HQ contains 71 of these daily reports of which 40 are complete and 31 have a few omissions. I was also able to create a similar set of data for 8 August from the battalion War Diaries and the Order of Battle for Amiens.

Each battalion at establishment had 42 tanks and 50 crews which gave a reserve crew level of 19%. From the data collected I produced a spreadsheet and this showed that the % of reserve crews varied from 14.2 to 36.3% for the fighting crews and much less for the supply tanks. The graph shows that the % of reserve crews was slowly increasing towards the Armistice as the number of tanks fit to fight declined. The actual number of reserve crews is far less that that calculated by David Childs in his one line oversimplified and misunderstood analysis.

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From the same Weekly Reports and daily Situation of Tanks and Crews reports I was able to graph the total numbers of tanks with the tank battalions and the proportion of them that were deemed Fit to Fight. As you can see this varied through the Hundred days. There is an absence of data just after Amiens.. You can also see the rapid recovery in the number of tanks after the battle of Amiens and the figures include the three battalions which were re-fitting and were not present at Amiens. Later you can see the changes after the attacks on the Hindenburg Line due to losses there. However the tank numbers are still considerably higher than in John Terraine’s quote about the German Empire not being defeated by 6 tanks. And during the Hundred Days over 800 tanks were committed to attacks.

The next source of information I used was a series of reports made by HQ Tank Corps which looked at each of the individual actions that the Tank Corps took part in and assessed them as Unsuccessful, Moderately Successful or Successful. These reports can be found in the HQ war diaries and later they were printed over several issues of Fuller’s Weekly tank notes. I took the data from the Weekly Tank Notes for the 110 actions from 16 September 1916 to 6 November 1918 and divided them into six sets depending on the number of tanks in action. This is shown in the upper graph. Here you can see on the right that attacks with 20 to 47 and 48 to 430 tanks had a higher success rate and lower unsuccessful rate. Attacks with 1 to 5 tanks had the highest unsuccessful and Moderately Successful rate. But interestingly attacks with 6 to 8 tanks had the overall best Moderately and Successful scores. - 27 - In the lower graph I have extracted only the results for the Hundred Days Campaign from the total period. This shows that in that period there were more successful and moderately successful actions and very few Unsuccessful actions. Small penny-packet actions with 1 to 8 tanks had no Unsuccessful results which gives the lie to the often expressed opinion that penny–packets were a waste of tanks.

The war diaries of the HQ Central Stores at Erin record the arrival of new tanks from England to France and the departure of tanks from there to the battalions. New tanks arriving needed 90 man hours work each in the Central Workshops to do the final fit out with all the extra equipment made in France such as cribs, un-ditching beams and final testing. At the end of June1918 104 MkV tanks were sent from the training centre at Bovington and the commander of the Central Workshops Major J. G. Brockbank complained that these second hand tanks previously used for training were so worn out that they each took 200 man hours of repairs to make them fit for issue. The poor performance of the female tanks at the battle of Villers-Brettoneaux against the German A7V tanks on 24 April 1918 and in other actions led to the Central Workshops partially re-building nearly all new female MkV and MkV* tanks that arrived into Hermaphrodite tanks with one female machine gun sponson and one male 6pounder sponson. Officially these were referred to as Composites rather than hermaphrodites. th th As you can see from the table the Mark IV tanks re-issued to 7 and 12 battalions were still 58% female. But the Mk Vs issued were mainly composites and of the MkV* only four females were issued st to the US 301 Tank Battalion that operated with the BEF. - 28 -

Throughout the war the manufacturing of tanks was given the highest priority by Colonel Sir Albert Stern, originally Secretary of the Landships Committee and later the Head of the Mechanical Warfare Supply Department of the Ministry of Munitions. Despite continued complaints from the Central Workshops and Stores, from the Tank Battalions themselves and from HQ Tank Corps there were never sufficient supplies of spare parts. From June 1918 the situation got worse and from the records of the Central Stores the number of truckloads of stores arriving from England can be seen to decrease. At the same time the Tank Corps set up a group of Advanced Workshops and Salvage companies with each Tank Brigade and these managed to Salvage broken down and wrecked tanks and scavenge spare parts but despite their efforts the overall volume of supplies fell.

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From the Central Stores war diary it was possible to analyse the delivery of new tanks from England. As you can see in this table from 1 April to 30 June 455 tanks were delivered of which 359 were MkV, 27 MkV* and 50 Medium MkA Whippets. The pattern changed from 1 July to 30 September with only 17 new MkV being delivered but production of MkV* then increased and 368 of those were delivered and 80 Whippets. After 1 October new deliveries virtually ceased and only 12 tanks were received. This appears in part due to the completion of the orders then in place with the manufacturers and due to diversion of new tanks to the training centre at Wool/Bovington where new battalions were being formed.

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It is also possible to examine the numbers of new and repaired tanks despatched from the Central Stores to the battalions by cross referencing the arrivals from England and the returns from the Central Workshops. From this it seems most likely that 106 MkIV and 109 MkV tanks were repaired and returned to the front. The other most significant issue of tanks – 115 was to the various training schools set up in France such as the Mechanical School, Engineer’s School, Gunnery School and the newly set up Inter-Allied School of Instruction, which can be seen as a large investment for the expected campaigns of 1919.

It had been predicted by the inspector Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson of the Royal Engineers as early as March 1918 that the Central Workshops would not be able to keep up with the repair of tanks after a large battle such as Cambrai and this came true in the 100 days campaign. Since March the Tanks Corps had increased in size by nearly 50% with the arrival of the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17(AC) battalions. From the graph it can be seen that the trend is for the number of tanks under repair at the Central Workshops, the number of temporarily unfit tanks that have been salvaged and the number of unfit tanks still on the battlefield to be increasing. By 15 October there were almost twice as many unfit tanks than those fit to fight and as the Official History of the Ministry of Munitions says ‘The wastage of tanks had been five times as great as was anticipated’

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One of the main factors that limited the potential of the Tank Corps was the mechanical life of the tanks themselves, irrespective of the repairs due to damage inflicted by the enemy. This table was part of a report by Leftenant General Elles to the Tank Board on 13 October 1918 and shows the life of th various components based on the experience gained in 1918 of tank performance in the field. The 10 tank battalion was one of the last battalions in action and was by then 37 miles from its original railhead. In August the battalion trekked at least 84 miles with two rail movements, this is equivalent to about 40 hours of travelling at an average speed of 2 miles per hour and about 40% of the running life of the MkV tanks which were issued as new tanks from Central Stores and were then st handed over to the US 301 Tank Battalion. In October with a new issue of tanks the battalion trekked at least 63 miles from their detraining station at Tincourt-Boucly, although those tanks had been taken th over from 4 Battalion were probably already well used.

- 32 - It can be seen from the battalion war diaries that from the 18 October 1918 battalions were progressively withdrawn from the front. The War Diaries give different descriptions. Seven battalions were definitely in winter quarters these are marked in Red. Seven battalions are described as withdrawn these are marked in Yellow. Only four battalions remained in action or were returning to the front at the time of the Armistice and these are marked in green.

In view of the withdrawals the numbers of tanks available at the front and the proportion of those actually fit to fight can be revised as shown in this graph which shows the downhill trend from th October onwards. There is a gap in the records from the end of October to the 7 November due to a change in the method or reporting.

The minutes of the Tank Board record the plans being made for the war in 1919. Fuller produced this schedule for increasing the Tank Corps from 18 to 34 battalions with an increase to 1632 tanks based on the new design of the Medium Mark C Hornet and the heavy Mark VIII Liberty tanks

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The photograph on the right shows the factory almost complete in October 1918 with its nine bays. There had been considerable delays in building the factory and the first contactor had been dismissed and replaced. The factory still exists today as part of a French Army base and you can see its nine bays in the satellite view in Google maps. Another new factory had been built on Newbury racecourse where tanks built in Britain would be tested in 1919 before sending to France and although it was finished it was demolished within weeks of the Armistice as the racecourse wanted the land back.

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There had consistently been difficulties between the aims of the War Office for the design and development of tanks and those of the Ministry of Munitions responsible for the placing of contracts to build the tanks. This antagonism had been exacerbated by Stern’s abrasive attitude. In 1917 a Tank Committee had been set up to get the two bodies together but the mix of characters had made it unworkable. In August 1918 a new Tank Board was set up and this functioned much better with the specific aim to improve tank production. The minutes of the meetings are contained in two files which still have not been digitised. Whilst the basic content of minutes and agendas are identical each file contains different letters and reports produced by board members in the War Office or Ministry of Munitions. These files provided me with a huge amount of information.

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The presentation being over, Peter fielded a number of interesting questions submitted by `attendees`. These being concluded, `Votes of Thanks` were made by Tony Bolton and Jonathan D`Hooghe……well received with `virtual applause` by all in the `room`

Following on from Peter`s excellent talk and maintaining the `Tanks in the 100Days` theme we have several articles from `Tracklink` - the magazine of at Bovington

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