The Battle of Fler-Courcelette
September 15th-22nd, 1916
The early tanks of the First World War were known to be unreliable both in action and in practice. They weighed approximately 28 tons and would move from a half mile per hour to four miles per hour. These tanks had thin armour that could be penetrated by small fire arms, especially machine gun fire. What would happen is that when a bullet hit the tank, small metal chips would fly around inside. Plus, shells would often and did easily destroy a tank. Visibility was poor and navigation wasn't so good and due to these problems these tanks would often fire its guns at their own men.
The battle of Fler-Courcelette was apart of the Somme Offensive that was launched in 1916 and is known to be where tanks were noblily introduced into battle. Sir Douglas Heig commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) wanted more tanks to be ready to use during the launch of the Somme Offensive on July 1st, but was determined to use the tanks at Fler-Courcelette in less numbers. The attack was going to be launched across a estimated 19 mile front off of Sir
Henry Rawlinson's 4th army salient of trenches on September 15th. Twelve divisions were going to be deployed along with all of the tanks in the British army which was only 49 tanks.
In preperation for the assult, all of the 49 tanks slowly made their way to the frontlines but 17 of them were not able to make it due to their unreliability. Out of the 22 tanks that did make it, 7 failed to work by the start of the battle so only 15 out of the original 49 tanks started their advance across 'No Mans Land' to the German trenches on Sept. 15th. Despite these set backs, the tanks did manage to intimidate the Germans and caused their moral to decrease. The BEF along with some Canadian division were able to gain 3 miles within the first three days as hoped and which at the time was considered some what of an achievement. Led by the tanks, the villages of Martinpuich, Flers and Courcelette were captured by the Allied troops along with the much desired High Wood.
Due to bad weather and German reinforcements, the British and Canadian advance was halted on Sept. 17th and once again heavy Allied casualities started to pile up. The attack was then called of on September 22, but even though the tanks didn't lead to any planned breakthrough, impressed Douglas Heig, requested that 1,000 of these tanks be made.
The battle of Fler-Courcelette was apart of the Somme Offensive that was launched in 1916 and is known to be where tanks were noblily introduced into battle. Sir Douglas Heig commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) wanted more tanks to be ready to use during the launch of the Somme Offensive on July 1st, but was determined to use the tanks at Fler-Courcelette in less numbers. The attack was going to be launched across a estimated 19 mile front off of Sir
Henry Rawlinson's 4th army salient of trenches on September 15th. Twelve divisions were going to be deployed along with all of the tanks in the British army which was only 49 tanks.
In preperation for the assult, all of the 49 tanks slowly made their way to the frontlines but 17 of them were not able to make it due to their unreliability. Out of the 22 tanks that did make it, 7 failed to work by the start of the battle so only 15 out of the original 49 tanks started their advance across 'No Mans Land' to the German trenches on Sept. 15th. Despite these set backs, the tanks did manage to intimidate the Germans and caused their moral to decrease. The BEF along with some Canadian division were able to gain 3 miles within the first three days as hoped and which at the time was considered some what of an achievement. Led by the tanks, the villages of Martinpuich, Flers and Courcelette were captured by the Allied troops along with the much desired High Wood.
Due to bad weather and German reinforcements, the British and Canadian advance was halted on Sept. 17th and once again heavy Allied casualities started to pile up. The attack was then called of on September 22, but even though the tanks didn't lead to any planned breakthrough, impressed Douglas Heig, requested that 1,000 of these tanks be made.