The Tank in Action

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. The Tank in Action is a vivid first-hand chronicle of the British Tank Corps in the First World War, tracing the machine's rise from desperate experiment to battlefield weapon. Captain D. G. Browne follows the tank from the deadlock of 1914–15, when trenches, wire, and machine guns shattered hopes of quick victory, to the great actions of Cambrai, Ypres, the German offensives, and the final advance to the Armistice. This is both a tribute to the men who served in the Tank Battalions and a practical study of a revolutionary new arm of war. Browne shows how innovators such as Swinton, Bacon, and Churchill pushed the "landship" idea through skepticism and bureaucratic rivalry, producing the early prototypes and the Mark I. He explains the tank's primitive design, male and female armament, and the hard lessons that shaped later models. The book also details the precise tank-and-infantry tactics developed for breakthrough attacks, the massive preparations for Cambrai, and the use of fascines against the Hindenburg trenches. Throughout, Browne argues that the tank helped end the age of costly bombardments, forced armies to adapt, and played a decisive part in Germany's defeat.