WW1 Tanks

Here is a cross section of a British Mk I tank from 1916. Designers hadn't yet solved the steering problem (slowing and speeding up the tracks) and relied on a pair of guiding wheels attached to the rear

Now that really is weird. The Russians nicknamed the Tsar Tank the "bat" because from above it resembled a roosting pipistrelle.

France's FT-17, one of the best tanks of the war. These were used well into the 1940s and two were recently discovered in Afghanistan

Cross-section of Britain's late-war "Hornet" tank Mark C

Inside the final variant of the British lozenge tank, the Mk V

Old Da Vinci thought up everything before us :p. But weren't WWI tanks prone to mechanical problems? And what carried the extra fuel trucks?

Fuel, believe it or not, wasn't a major issue for the tanks of WWI, since they were created solely to waddle a couple of hundred yards across No Man's Land, breach the wire, cross the initial trench line and fend of or destroy the enemy machine gunners to allow the accompanying infantry to exploit the breakthrough.  Beyond that, no actual role existed for them until much later.

The French need for armored fuel trucks appears to have been primarily for their armored, self-propelled artillery units.

St. Chammond




Edited by Mountain Man - 16-Aug-2012 at 19:25

Originally posted by Nick1986 Originally posted by Delenda est Roma Old Da Vinci thought up everything before us :p. But weren't WWI tanks prone to mechanical problems? And what carried the extra fuel trucks? Indeed. As Centrix will tell you, tanks were slow, unwieldy, and caught fire easily. The French solved the fuel problem by creating "chars de ravitaillement:" armored supply carriers capable of following the tanks.

A good solution,

Model of a French Schneider Char de Ravitaillement
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/new_pages/schneider_rev_model.htm

I'll try again:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-7rte-1JmFgJ:www.landships.freeservers.com/new_pages/schneider_rev_model.htm+char+de+ravitaillement&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk