Detail showing the plaque for 1918 from the monument to the Tank Corps, Pozières, France. The base bears plaques commemorating the Tank Corps and the years 1916, when tanks were first used in battle, 1917, when they were proven to be a weapon that could change the war, and 1918, when tanks were decisive in the Allied victory. The plaques for each year list the engagements in which the Corps fought. © 2013 by John M. Shea
19182nd SommeRiver LysHamel — Marne — MoreuilAmiens — BapaumeArras — EpehyCambrai — St. QuentinSelle — Mormal Forest
"On the Somme, a potentially dramatic turn in the Entente fortunes took place on September 15 [1916], when tanks were used for the first time in battle. Forty-nine tanks took part in the attack, moving forward on a wide front. Ten of the tanks were hit by German artillery fire, nine broke down with mechanical difficulties, and five failed to advance. But those that did manage to go forward were able to advance more than 2,000 yards, capturing the long-sought High Wood, and three villages, Flers, Martinpuich and Courcelette. Churchill wrote to Admiral Fisher, both of them then out of office and out of power: 'My poor "land battleships" have been let off prematurely and on a petty scale. In that idea resided one real victory.' Recognising the potential of the new weapon, Haig asked the War Office for a thousand of them. The Germans were far behind in their tank experiments."
The September 15, 1916 British attack in the Battle of the Somme — the Battle of Flers-Courcelette — was the first use of the tank in battle. As First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill had been a member of the Asquith cabinet until being forced out in May, 1915 in the aftermath of the failed Gallipoli campaign. Churchill, an imaginative man, believed a surprise attack of tanks in great numbers could achieve the breakthrough the Entente allies so ardently desired. British Commander in Chief Douglas Haig, a man of more limited imagination, looked for some advantage in a battle that had already cost enormous numbers of British causalities. Although their use was premature, Haig recognized the tank's value. Asquith's son Raymond was killed in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 286, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1916-09-15, 1916, September, tank, Battle of the Somme, Somme, High Wood, Flers, Martinpuich, Courcelette, Churchill, Winston Churchill, Haig, Douglas Haig
