PMI0003A A7V GELADEWAGEN

The A7V was a German WW1 tank and the first German-made tank to be used in combat. The first prototypes of the vehicle were created in 1917, and it entered the A7V line in March 1918. Out of the ordered 100 copies, only 20 were produced by the end of the war. The A7V was powered by two 100hp carburettor engines. Its main armament was the 57mm Nordfeld cannon, and the auxiliary armament was 5 7.92mm machineguns. The first use of tanks by the British in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 was a big surprise for the Imperial German army. The Germans, noticing their backwardness in this field of military technology, set up a special technical commission in November 1916, which was to develop guidelines for the construction of a new vehicle. The first effects of her work were visible in the spring of 1917, when wooden models of the German tank were created, and in October of the same year, the first mechanically functional prototypes appeared. However, due to the overload of the German arms industry, the large-scale production of the A7V tank was impossible. Despite a large number of disadvantages (e.g. terrible working conditions of the crew, rocking of the vehicle while driving off-road, numerous and difficult to command the crew)[aż 18 osób!] or relatively thin armor) A7V did not differ significantly in terms of technology from British designs. The A7V tank was used in combat for the first time on March 21, 1918 in the Battle of Saint Quentin, and a month later (April 24, 1918) it also took part in the first history of a tank skirmish.