1105 BRITISH TANK CREWMAN, WWI

The British Tank Corps was formed in 1916 as the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps, as a unit consisting of completely new combat vehicles, i.e. tanks. In July, it changed its name to the Armored Corps. The unit was used in combat for the first time on a larger scale during the fighting on the Somme on September 15, 1916. It was also the first large-scale combat use of the tank in military history. On a really massive scale, the British command used it Tank Corps during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, when as many as 476 tanks entered the action! Also in August 1918, during the Battle of Amiens, armored forces were used on a large scale. It is worth adding that the Tank Corps served primarily on the Western Front of the Great War, only a few of the vehicles from this unit were transferred to the Middle East in early 1917 to fight against Ottoman Turkey. From November 1916, the basic organizational unit of the Corps was a tank battalion composed of three companies. One battalion served 32 officers and 374 non-commissioned officers and soldiers. At the end of World War I as part of the Tank Corps served approximately 22,000 men.