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Great discoveries of mankind. The very first tank

Already in late XIX centuries there were all the technical prerequisites for the invention of such a formidable weapon as tank. By this time, the internal combustion engine, caterpillar propulsion, armor, cannons and machine guns had been invented. Before the start of the 1914 war, the Holt tracked tractor was created, which was the predecessor of the tank. At the very beginning of the First World War, the warring parties faced the question of breaking the positional deadlock, creating a weapon with which to break through the front and achieve the desired victories.

The idea of creating an armored tracked combat vehicle that could easily overcome enemy ditches, trenches and wire fences was first expressed by the English Colonel Swinton. On October 20, 1914, he presented his proposals to the War Ministry. After careful study and discussion, the ministry accepted his idea as a whole. The basic requirements for the future combat vehicle were immediately formulated: to have small dimensions, bulletproof armor and caterpillar tracks, move at a speed of at least 4 km/h, overcome wire fences, ditches, trenches, craters up to 4 meters wide, have 2 machine guns and a cannon.

The firm "William Foster and Co" for a record short term(40 days) created a tank based on the Holt tracked tractor. The main designers of the tank, called "Little Willie", were Lieutenant Wilson and Engineer Tritton. During testing, the car showed good driving performance and in November the Holt company decided to begin manufacturing the car. The disadvantage was the small width of the obstacle to be overcome in the form of a ditch or trench. In order for the tank to easily overcome 4-meter trenches, steep elevations and vertical embankments, the designers increased the length of the vehicle by 1 m, giving the shape of a parallelogram to the outline of the caterpillar and running it over the hull. At Deincourt's suggestion, the weapons were placed in the side half-turrets - sponsons. This is how it appeared new tank— “Big Willie.” The hull and chassis of the tank were covered with armor 5-10 mm thick. Inside, the “land cruiser” looked like the engine room of a small ship; the driver and commander had a separate control room in front. The Daimler engine, transmission and gearbox took up a lot of space, and initially there were also fuel tanks inside the cars. Between the roof and the top of the engine was an ammunition shelf. When driving, gasoline vapors and exhaust gases accumulated inside the tank; due to the running engine, the temperature rose to 50 degrees. Acrid powder smoke filled the tank after the gun fired. The crew of the car suffered from overheating and burned out. The heavy tank often landed on the ground and rocks due to its narrow tracks; there was no radio communication or even an internal intercom. Observation from the tank was carried out through unprotected slits, which did not provide inspection, but was the cause of facial wounds for tank crews.

The tank was controlled by 4 people: the driver, his 2 assistants and the commander. The tank was equipped with three gearboxes, one was near the driver and served to change the speed of movement, the other two stood on the sides of the vehicle and were used to change the speed of the tank and its rotation. The tracks were braked using two brakes; the tank commander was responsible for this. On September 15, 1916, tanks were used for the first time at the Battle of the Somme. Thanks to the participation of tanks in the attack, infantry losses were 20 times less.

This was followed by a number of modifications of the Mk (“Big Willie”), subsequent models were more advanced. Thus, the MkC tank weighed 19.5 tons and reached a speed of 13 km/h. It was armed with 4 machine guns and had a crew of 4 people. The last amphibious tank, MkI, created in 1918, had a rotating turret, 3 machine guns and 4 crew members. Weighing 13.5 tons, it had a speed of 43 km/h on land and 5 km/h on water. During the war years, the British created 13 different modifications and produced 3 thousand tanks.

The best tank of the First World War is considered to be the Renault FT, from the Renault company, which became the prototype of future tanks. Weighing only 6 tons, it reached a speed of 9.6 km/h, It was armed with a machine gun (later a cannon), and the crew consisted of two people. For the first time, on-board radio stations were installed on these tanks, which instantly increased the controllability of tank units. The layout of the main components of the tank is classic: engine, transmission, control compartment in front, drive wheel in the rear, and a rotating turret in the center. The German company Bremerwagen was unable to establish mass release tank A7V.

The Russian version of the tank was proposed by the master of the machine-building plant Porokhovshchikov back in August 1914. When tested, his car developed a speed up to 25 km/h. The first British and French tanks did not have such speed. Then the master improved his tracked vehicle, creating it as a wheeled-tracked vehicle, anticipating tank building of that period by several years. Porokhovshchikov's tank was waterproof and easily overcame all kinds of water obstacles. Unfortunately, the Russian industry was not ready to produce such complex vehicles and the tank was not used in the Russian army.

The word "tank" comes from English word tank, that is, “tank” or “tank”. The origin of the name is as follows: when the first tanks were sent to the front, British counterintelligence started a rumor that in England the tsarist government had ordered a batch of tanks for drinking water. And the tanks set off railway under the guise of tanks It is interesting that in Russia the new combat vehicle was originally called “tank” (one translation of the word tank).

The first mechanical cart of this kind was probably invented in 1769 by the Frenchman Cugnot, who installed a steam engine on the cart. He managed to achieve a speed of 4 km, but he was forced to stop every 20 minutes to increase the steam pressure. When the inventor, showing his invention to representatives of the French government, knocked down a stone wall, he was put in prison.
The caterpillar propulsion device was invented by a native of the peasant class of the Saratov province, Fedor Abramovich Blinov (1827-1902).
In 1877, Blinov invented the “crawler car,” a kind of tracked trailer moved by a steam-horse team; a prototype was built in the summer of 1880 and tested, including in swampy areas. The effect was very, very promising, in particular, in a double-horse carriage, a “wagon” could transport cargo, which required at least ten horses to transport on a wheeled cart.

The first real step towards creating a tank was a steam-powered self-propelled carriage on endless caterpillar rails, invented by an American in 1888; in turn, the caterpillar was invented by the Englishman Richard Lovell Idgeworth, who patented it in 1770.
In 1888, the Samokhod was manufactured, which was essentially the first caterpillar tractor. The engine was two 12 hp steam engines. at 40 revolutions each, boiler at 6 atm. was with an oil furnace. The movement from the steam engines to the drive sprockets of the caterpillar tracks was transmitted by cast iron gears. Each caterpillar was driven separately. The rotation of the “self-propelled” was ensured by turning off or on the corresponding machine. The machine was demonstrated at the agricultural exhibition in Saratov in 1889, an improved model was presented at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition in 1896, and the author received a certificate of commendation for his invention; nevertheless, the mass construction of crawler tractors in Russian Empire was not produced.

The predecessor of the tank in terms of many parts, especially the control mechanism, was the tractor with the creation of the internal combustion engine. Its further development was quite clear, since the combination of this engine with a caterpillar chain made it possible to construct a vehicle capable of moving without roads and on marshy ground due to the distribution of the weight of the vehicle over a large area.
But I would still recognize the final and irrevocable primacy of the machine made in England, 1910, in a single copy. This unit was intended for hauling cargo in Alaska - the roads there were bad, wheeled tractors did not have the necessary maneuverability, and horses and dogs could not carry large loads. However, the thermal power plant built in Yukon was in need of coal, and there was nothing to deliver it in winter when the river was frozen. Therefore, Hornsby, who by that time already had experience in building a slightly smaller-scale caterpillar steam tractor (10 tons of dead weight with an engine of only 20 hp) - created such a land locomotive, which was supposed to transport coal from the sea to the station all winter...

The giant's mass was 40 tons, and Steam engine developed 80 hp On a flat road and without a load, the tractor could accelerate to 40 km/h, and the total weight of the train consisting of a tractor and eight (!) trailers weighing 12.5 tons each was, as is easy to calculate, 140 tons. The result for 1910 is not just good, it’s fantastic! With the dead weight of each trailer being about 5 tons, in one run the train delivered, as is easy to calculate, 60 tons of coal

Even before the World War, the War Department carried out various experiments with tracked tractors equipped with internal combustion engines, although it did not pursue direct combat goals, and in 1903 the writer H. Wells predicted and vividly described strange combat vehicles similar to tanks.
In 1912, the Australian Mole proposed to the War Ministry a project for a crawling combat tracked vehicle. Thanks to the use of pins at the ends and flexible track chains for driving around curves, this vehicle apparently had advantages over tanks. However, this sensational proposal was soon forgotten, and Molay's project had no influence on the actual invention of the tank; the War Ministry did not take any part in it, and Molet's proposal was not known at all until the end of the war.
There is also a well-known story about a plumber from Nottingham who presented a project for an all-terrain vehicle to the War Ministry several years before the World War. This plumber received several of the usual letters in such cases, but heard nothing further. A few years after the end of the war, the project was discovered in one of the dusty cabinets with the resolution: “This man is sick.”

The Germans can also lay claim to the invention of the tank, since in 1913 a certain Gebel designed an armored land cruiser, terrifying with its bristling guns. This cruiser crossed to Poznan through triangular obstacles 90 feet high. (about 27 m). In 1914, he attempted to repeat the demonstration of his car in front of the general public at the stadium in Berlin, but while overcoming a short climb of 30°, the car stopped, and no efforts of the inventor could make it start moving again. The public became tired of the long wait and began to protest and demand the entrance fee back; Even stones were thrown at the unfortunate inventor, and he no longer dared to show his invention publicly.
Long before the First World War, the Russian Ministry of War received a project for an extraordinary combat vehicle, developed by the son of the famous Russian chemist, Vasily Dmitrievich Mendeleev.
The Mendeleev combat machine project is a talented project super heavy tank, the design of which was a decade ahead of the entire development of tank technology. Many elements of the periodic machine look modern these days.
Mendeleev designed a tank weighing 170 tons, serviced by a team of 8 people. It was a huge armored box, with tracks necessary for movement, an engine and ammunition hidden inside.
During movement, the caterpillars, using compressed air, were supposed to lift the armored hull above the ground and ensure the movement of the tank at speeds of up to 24 km per hour.
In addition to the cannon, Mendeleev intended to arm the tank with a machine gun installed in a special retractable armored turret that allowed all-round firing.

All these preliminary attempts yielded no results, because they lacked the terrible impulse of war, but World War made the invention of the tank inevitable.
In October 1914, the regiment. Swinton - a man of great vision and imagination, working as a war correspondent for the British Expeditionary Army - came as an "eyewitness" to the recognition of the need for an armored vehicle that would be able to force its way through barbed wire, cross trenches and destroy or crush machine gun nests.

One of his friends wrote to him about an American Holt tractor that could climb steep slopes.
Swinton came up with the idea of using this machine, and on October 20, 1914, he sent a project for tracked machine gun fighters to the War Office. They had to be heavily armored, armed with cannons, machine guns, and be able to cross trenches and destroy barbed wire barriers.

Thus the idea of a tank was born. Its history (while this idea took shape and became a real tank 15 months later) is the story of a long struggle with bureaucracy. To develop a new chassis, I had to turn to W. Foster & Co. (Lincolnshire), which in those years was engaged in the assembly of Hornsby tractors. These vehicles were unique in that they were essentially tracked steam locomotives and were used as tractors for “land trains.” In addition, the company produced wheeled tractors for field artillery.

Testing of the prototype began on September 10, 1915 and did not end very well. The total length of the vehicle was 8 meters, weight - 14 tons. The tank had low cross-country ability, and the chassis turned out to be poorly suited for increased loads. However, the maximum speed of Lincoln Machine No.1 was 5.5 km/h, which was slightly higher than the required figure.

The length of the tractor chassis was not enough to overcome trenches and craters, so it was crossed with a wheel pair, attaching it to the rear of the body.

Two engineers, Tritton and Lieutenant Wilson, working day and night, completed the Little Willie project. Regiment. Swinton, having examined a life-size model of him in Lincoln, described it as follows in his letter to the General Staff:
“The sailors have produced the first copy of a tracked vehicle that is capable of crossing ditches 135 cm wide and rotating around its axis, like a dog with a flea on its back.”

During the war, the “neutral” United States became a real arsenal for the Entente countries, and the “technicians” knew about the needs caused by the world war, almost better than military observers. In addition, the United States had a developed mechanical engineering industry, the potential of which was further increased due to foreign orders. So the development of all-terrain combat vehicles was carried out regardless of the opinion of the military leadership.

One of the most technically advanced American developments in the field of tracked combat vehicles can be considered the Holt gas-electric tank.

The tank had a compartment for infantry and a separate door for its disembarkation.

The tractor itself was the well-known Holt 75 model of 1909, produced by C.L.Best under license. The tractor turned out to be so successful that it was widely used in the American and British armies until 1919 inclusive, and during Civil War Holt 75 was supplied to the Russian “white” armies. The last examples of these vehicles, although no longer army ones, were decommissioned only in 1945!

The fate of this tank, called the Best 75 Tracklayer, remains quite vague. Only one thing was clear - the American army, after examining the prototype made of non-armored steel, came to the conclusion that they absolutely did not need such a monster.

The next ones were again the Americans from the Holt company, who developed their own wheeled tank project at the end of 1916. The work was carried out with the direct participation of the Army Corps of Engineers and with the assistance of Stanley Steamer. The tank received a massive hull, in the bow of which they decided to place two 2-cylinder steam engines of the Double system with a power of 75 hp each. Each of the engines had an individual drive to one wheel with a diameter of 2.4 meters, made entirely of steel, and was installed vertically. Since both wheels were unsteerable, a third “drum” type wheel was provided for turning the tank, mounted on a rotating bracket in the rear of the hull.

The construction of the first prototype was delayed and was completed only in the winter of 1918. The tank was sent to a training ground in Aberdeen, where the military began testing the tank, which... ended just before it began. The American vehicle suffered the same fate as Lebedenko's wheeled tank - barely moving, the Steam Wheeled Tank drove about 50 feet (15 meters) and became firmly stuck in the ground. It was obvious that the power of the steam engines was clearly not enough to get the tank out of this “trap.” Representatives from the army who were present were very upset by this fact and refused further work by Steam Wheeled Tank.

Another miracle of American technology.

Alas, during the First World War, our country was not part of the elite club of great tank powers. The fact that Germany, our main enemy, was also not a member of this club is little consolation (the Germans produced 21 (twenty-one) during the entire war serial tank own construction).

But several prototypes of different designs were produced. At the very beginning of the war, in August 1914, the master of the Russian-Baltic Engineering Plant in Riga, Porokhovshchikov, approached the headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Russian Army with a proposal for an original design for a high-speed combat tracked vehicle for off-road driving. At the same time, he turned to the Special Committee for Strengthening the Fleet, promising to create an all-terrain tracked armored vehicle. Porokhovshchikov did not provide any significant documents at that time, and only on January 9, 1915, after long delays at a reception with the chief of supplies of the North-Western Front, General Danilov, the inventor already had ready-made drawings and estimates for the construction of a combat vehicle called the “All-terrain vehicle.”

On May 18, 1915, Porokhovshchikov tested his car on a good road on a caterpillar track, without switching to wheels. When tested, its speed reached 25 km/h (neither the first British nor French tanks had such a speed). After minor modifications, they decided to hold an official demonstration of the “All-terrain vehicle”, which took place on July 20, 1915. Contrary to Porokhovshchikov’s calculations, the capabilities of his vehicle were very far from combat ones. Even worse, the turning mechanism on the move turned out to be extremely unreliable and during testing, in a number of cases, the driver had to use a pole. The design of the chassis was considered imperfect, since the caterpillar often jumped off the drums. Already during the testing process, Porokhovshchikov tried to eliminate this drawback by making three annular guide grooves, and on the inner surface of the caterpillar, respectively, three centering protrusions.

Later, Porokhovshchikov improved his car, making it a wheeled-tracked vehicle: on the roads the car moved on wheels and the rear drum of the caterpillar, when it encountered an obstacle on its way - the “all-terrain vehicle” lay down on the caterpillar and “crawled” over it. This was several years ahead of tank building at that time. Porokhovshchikov made the tank's hull waterproof, as a result of which it could easily overcome water obstacles.

At the same time (in the spring of 1915) Porokhovshchikov proposed armor of his own design: “The armor is a combination of elastic and rigid layers of metal and special viscous and elastic gaskets.” The boiler iron was annealed “according to a method that is the secret of the inventor,” and as a gasket “after an enormous number of experiments,” he chose dried and pressed sea grass. The author especially emphasized the cheapness of “iron armor” and the ability to bend and weld it.

In 1916, he conducted tests in Petrograd - on December 29, 1916 he reached a speed of 40 versts/hour, which was an exceptionally high figure.

Porokhovshchikov’s most interesting development was the shape of the hull and the design of the armor: it was made multi-layered. However, in the winter of 1916, the military stopped funding the work. And tanks with spaced multi-layer armor appeared only in the early 70s of the 20th century... There is also a version that Porokhovshchikov’s drawings were used by British engineers for their developments.

But no one will dispute the fact that it was in Russia during the First World War that the world’s largest tank was created - 17 meters long, 9 meters high, 60 tons of weight!

The idea of building such an unusual machine came from the captain Russian army Nikolai Nikolaevich Lebedenko during his service in the Caucasus, even before the war. He appreciated the cart - vehicle local residents. There were no roads in the usual sense of the word in the Caucasus at that time, but the cart, a cart with two wheels with high rims, easily overcame all the bumps and potholes on what were considered roads there.

On August 27, 1915, the first sea trials of the giant tank took place near Dmitrov. The first and the last. The car walked ten meters along the road, but instantly got stuck on soft ground - the rear guide truck was stuck in a ditch. The large wheels were unable to pull it out, even despite the use of a powerful propulsion system, which consisted of two captured Maybach engines of 250 hp each. With. each taken from a downed German airship.

The first production tank was already Soviet. And traditionally seamless.

Russian "Renault"(Also "Renault Russian", "Tank M", "Tank KS" (Krasnoe Sormovo); in a number of sources it is called “Tank “Freedom Fighter Comrade” Lenin"", after the proper name of the first tank of the series) - the first soviet tank and the first Russian tank put into mass production. Classified as light tanks for direct infantry support. Was almost full copy French light tank Renault FT-17. Produced in 1920-1921 at the Sormovo plant ( Nizhny Novgorod) in a small series of 15 cars. Despite the official adoption by the Red Army in 1920, the Renault-Russians did not take part in any military operations. They were in service until 1930. It is also interesting that its machine gun armament was made on the basis of the Fedorov universal assault rifle.

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At the very beginning of the First World War, in August 1914, the master of the Russian-Baltic Engineering Plant in Riga, Porokhovshchikov, approached the headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Russian Army with a proposal for an original design for a high-speed combat tracked vehicle for off-road driving.

At the same time, he turned to the Special Committee for Strengthening the Fleet, promising to create an all-terrain tracked armored vehicle. Porokhovshchikov did not provide any significant documents at that time, and only on January 9, 1915, after long delays at a reception with the chief of supplies of the North-Western Front, General Danilov, the inventor already had ready-made drawings and estimates for the construction of a combat vehicle called the “All-terrain vehicle.”

Apparently, Porokhovshchikov’s preliminary calculations pleased the top military leadership: in addition to high maneuverability, Porokhovshchikov also promised the vehicle’s buoyancy. The project was approved - permission to build the “All-terrain vehicle” was received on January 13, 1915, 9660 rubles 72 kopecks were allocated, and the design data were specified in special report No. 8101. The construction of the vehicle was supervised by the head of the Riga department for housing allowances for troops, military engineer Colonel Poklevsky-Kozello. On February 1, in the Riga auto repair shops of the Russo-Balt plant, which were located at the barracks of the Nizhny Novgorod Infantry Regiment, 25 soldier-craftsmen and the same number of hired skilled workers began manufacturing a prototype of the world's first tank, developed by the famous pilot and designer Alexander Aleksandrovich Porokhovshchikov. The design of the "All-terrain vehicle" was unusual. The welded frame rested on one wide track made of rubberized fabric, stretched on four drums, and the front drum was noticeably raised above the supporting surface. The fifth drum pressed the caterpillar from above. The rear drum was the driving one, rotation was transmitted to it through a gearbox and driveshaft from a 10 hp carburetor engine. The specific pressure on the ground should have been only about 0.05 kg/sq.cm. On the sides of the caterpillar there were two columns with small wheels, which the driver controlled using a steering wheel - thus turning the entire body.

The car was equipped with a streamlined body with an air intake niche in front. Interestingly, the all-terrain vehicle’s armor was multi-layered: it consisted of a front cemented 2-mm steel sheet, a shock-absorbing pad made of hair and algae, and another steel sheet with a total thickness of 8 mm.

The design of this tank already included all the basic elements of modern combat vehicles - an armored hull, weapons in a rotating turret, an internal combustion engine, and a tracked propulsion system. The car was equipped with a streamlined body with an air intake niche in front. On a good road, the “All-terrain vehicle” had to move on the rear drum and wheels, and on loose soil rest on the caterpillar. Such a scheme, despite its relative simplicity, had one global drawback - in fact, the “All-terrain vehicle” could only move in a straight line, since turning the guide wheels left and right could lead to their complete breakdown.

The supporting structure of the tank was a welded frame with four hollow rotating drums, around which one wide caterpillar belt was rewound. The belt tension was adjusted using a tension device and a tension drum. The vehicle was controlled using two rotary steering wheels located at the sides. In Porokhovshchikov's tank, side clutches were used for turning for the first time - mechanisms that later began to be installed on most tanks; on some machines they have been preserved to this day.

When moving on hard ground, the tank rested on these wheels and on the drive drum, and on soft ground it “lay down” on the caterpillar track. The length of the vehicle was 3.6 meters, width - 2 meters, height (without turret) - 1.5 meters, final weight was assumed to be 3.5-4.0 tons, crew - 1 man, machine gun armament, bulletproof armor. Engine power 15 kW, planetary transmission, combined wheel-tracked propulsion (one caterpillar and two steered wheels) provided maximum speed 25 km/h..

May 18, 1915 Porokhovshchikov tested his car on a track on a good road, without switching to wheels. When tested, its speed reached 25 km/h (neither the first British nor French tanks had such a speed). After minor modifications, they decided to hold an official demonstration of the “All-terrain vehicle”, which took place on July 20, 1915

In 1916, he conducted tests in Petrograd - on December 29, 1916, he reached a speed of 40 versts per hour, which was an exceptionally high figure.

The experimental vehicle continued to be tested, intermittently, until December 1915, after which a corresponding report was sent to Lieutenant General Kovalenko. In particular, it was stated that “the built copy of the All-Terrain Vehicle did not show all those qualities that are stipulated by report No. 8101, for example, it could not walk on loose snow about 1 foot (30 cm) deep, and no tests of running on water were done...”

Meanwhile, Porokhovshchikov’s vehicle was not considered a combat vehicle, due to the lack of armor and weapons on it, and in the documents it appeared as a “self-propelled gun” - that is, a car. According to the designer himself, the first sample of the “Russian tank” he created did have a number of shortcomings, but all of them were reasons for the departure from the project. In his opinion, much could be achieved best results, if the All-Terrain Vehicle had a larger distance between the drums, a more powerful engine and a grooved track.

They decided to abandon further work on the All-Terrain Vehicle, especially since 18,090 rubles were spent during this time. The military department ordered Porokhovshchikov to return the money allocated for the construction of the vehicle to the treasury, and send the “All-terrain vehicle” itself to the State Technical University.

Andrey Chernomorsky

Russian Lugansk

Inventor: William Tritton and Walter Wilson
A country: England
Time of invention: 1915

The technical prerequisites for creating a tank appeared at the end of the 19th century - by that time a caterpillar propulsion device, an internal combustion engine, armor, rapid-fire and machine guns had been invented. The first steam-powered tracked vehicle was created back in 1888 by the American Beterom. On the eve of the First World War, the Holt industrial tracked tractor appeared, which can be considered the direct predecessor of the tank.

But the prerequisites alone were not enough - the urgent need was missing. The First World War, which only began in 1914, harshly determined this need.

When the opponents launched millions of armies on the offensive, they never imagined that machine guns and cannons would literally sweep away the regiments and divisions going on the attack. Enormous losses forced the soldiers to eventually hide in trenches and dugouts. In the West, the front froze and turned into a continuous line of fortifications stretching from the English Channel to the border with Switzerland.

The war has reached a so-called positional deadlock. They tried to find a way out of it with the help of artillery - thousands of guns plowed every meter of enemy positions with shells for several days, or even weeks. It seemed like there was nothing alive left there. But as soon as the attacking infantry got out of the trenches, the surviving cannons and machine guns of the defenders again inflicted terrible losses on them. That's when tanks appeared on the battlefield.

The idea of creating a combat tracked vehicle capable of moving over rough terrain through trenches, ditches and wire fences was first expressed in 1914 by the English Colonel Swinton. After discussion in various authorities, the War Ministry generally accepted his idea and formulated the basic requirements that the combat vehicle had to meet. It had to be small, have caterpillar tracks, bulletproof armor, overcome craters up to 4 m and wire fences, reach a speed of at least 4 km/h, have a cannon and two machine guns.

The main purpose of the tank was to destroy barbed wire barriers and suppress enemy machine guns. Soon, William Foster and Co., in forty days, created a combat vehicle based on the Holt tracked tractor, called “Little Willie.” Its chief designers were Engineer Tritton and Lieutenant Wilson.

"Little Willie" was tested in 1915 and showed good driving performance. In November, the Holt company began manufacturing a new machine. The designers were faced with the difficult problem of increasing its length by 1 m without making the tank heavier, so that it could overcome four-meter trenches. In the end, this was achieved due to the fact that the outline of the caterpillar was given the shape of a parallelogram.

In addition, it turned out that the tank had difficulty climbing vertical embankments and steep hills. To increase the height of the toe, Wilson and Tritton came up with the idea of running a caterpillar on top of the body. This significantly increased the vehicle's cross-country ability, but at the same time gave rise to a number of other difficulties associated, in particular, with the placement of cannons and machine guns.

The armament had to be distributed along the sides, and so that the machine guns could fire to the side and backwards, they were installed in the side projections - sponsons. In February 1916, the new tank, called "Big Willie", successfully passed sea trials. He could overcome wide trenches, move across a plowed field, climb over walls and embankments up to 1.8 m high. Trenches up to 3.6 m did not pose a serious obstacle for him.

The tank's hull was a frame box made of corners to which armored plates were bolted. The chassis, which consisted of small unsprung road wheels (the shaking in the car was terrible), was also covered with armor. Inside, the “land cruiser” resembled the engine room of a small ship, which you could walk around without even bending down. There was a separate cabin in the front for the driver and commander.

Most of the remaining space was occupied by the Daimler engine, gearbox and transmission. To start the engine, teams of 3-4 people had to rotate a huge starting handle until the engine started with a deafening roar. The first brands of cars also had fuel tanks inside. There were narrow passages left on both sides of the engine. The ammunition was stored on shelves between the top of the engine and the roof.

While driving, exhaust gases and gasoline vapors accumulated in the tank. Ventilation was not provided. Meanwhile, the heat from the running engine soon became unbearable - reaching 50 degrees. In addition, with each cannon shot, the tank was filled with caustic powder gases. The crew could not stay in combat positions for a long time, they burned out and suffered from overheating. Even in battle, tankers sometimes jumped out to breathe fresh air, not paying attention to the whistling of bullets and shrapnel.

A significant drawback of “Big Willie” was its narrow tracks, which bogged down in soft soil. At In this case, the heavy tank landed on the ground, stumps and stones. It was bad with observation and communication - the viewing slots in the sides did not provide inspection, but the spray from bullets that hit the armor near them hit the tankers in the face and eyes. There was no radio communication. Carrier pigeons were kept for long-distance communication, and special signal flags were used for short-range communication. There was no intercom either.

Controlling the tank required significant effort from the drivers and commander (the latter was responsible for the brakes on the right and left side tracks). The tank had three gearboxes - one main and one on each side (each of them controlled a special transmission). The turn was carried out either by braking one track, or by switching one of the onboard gearboxes to the neutral position, while on the other side they engaged first or second gear. With the track stopped, the tank turned around almost on the spot.

Tanks were first used in battle on September 15, 1916 near the village of Flers-Courslet during a grandiose battles of the Somme. The British offensive, launched in July, produced insignificant results and very significant losses. It was then that the commander-in-chief, General Haig, decided to throw tanks into battle. There were 49 of them in total, but only 32 reached their original positions, the rest remained in the rear due to breakdowns.

Only 18 took part in the attack, but in a few hours they advanced along with the infantry into the German positions 5 km on a front of the same width. Haig was pleased - in his opinion, it was the new weapon that reduced infantry losses by 20 times compared to the “norm”. He immediately sent a demand to London for 1000 combat vehicles at once.

In subsequent years, the British released several modifications of the Mk (that was official name"Big Willie") Each subsequent model was more perfect than the previous one. For example, the first production tank Mk-1 weighed 28 tons, moved at a speed of 4.5 km/h, and was armed with two cannons and three machine guns. Its crew consisted of 8 people.

The later MkA tank had a speed of 9.6 km/h, weight - 18 tons, crew - 5 people, armament - 6 machine guns. MkC, weighing 19.5 tons, reached a speed of 13 km/h. This tank had a crew of four people and was armed with four machine guns.

The last amphibious tank, MkI, created already in 1918, had a rotating turret, a crew of four and an armament of three machine guns. Weighing 13.5 tons, it reached a speed of 43 km/h on land and 5 km/h on water. In total, the British produced 3,000 tanks of 13 different modifications during the war years.

Gradually, tanks were adopted by other warring armies. The first French tanks were developed and produced by Schneider in October 1916. Outwardly, they bore little resemblance to their English counterparts - the tracks did not cover the hull, but were located along its sides or under it. The chassis was sprung with special springs, which made the work of the crew easier. However, due to the fact that top part The tank hung heavily over the tracks, the Schneiders' cross-country ability was worse, and they could not overcome even minor vertical obstacles.

The most best tank The First World War was the Renault FT, produced by Renault and weighing only 6 tons, crew of two, armament - machine gun (cannon since 1917), maximum speed - 9.6 km/h.

Renault FT became the prototype of the tank of the future. On it, for the first time, the layout of the main components was resolved, which still remains classic: engine, transmission, drive wheel - at the rear, control compartment - in front, rotating turret - in the center. For the first time, on-board radio stations began to be installed on Renault tanks, which immediately increased the controllability of tank formations.

Drive wheel large diameter helped to overcome vertical obstacles and get out of craters. The tank had good maneuverability and was easy to operate. For 15 years it served as a model for many designers. In France itself, Renault was in service until the end of the 30s, and it was produced under license in another 20 countries.

The Germans also tried to develop new weapons. Since 1917, the Bremerwagen company began production of the A7V tank, but the Germans were never able to organize their mass production. Their tanks took part in some operations, but in quantities not exceeding several dozen machines.

On the contrary, the Entente countries (that is, England and France themselves) had about 7 thousand tanks by the end of the war. Here armored vehicles received recognition and firmly established themselves in the weapons system. Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister during the war, said: “The tank was an outstanding and stunning innovation in the field of mechanical aid to war. This final English response to German machine guns and trenches no doubt played a very important role in hastening the Allied victory."

Tanks were widely used by the British in combat. In November 1917, a massive tank attack was carried out for the first time. 476 vehicles took part in it, supported by six infantry divisions. It was a huge success of a new type of weapon. Firing from cannons and machine guns, the tanks demolished the wire fences and overcame the first line of trenches on the move.

In just a few hours, the British advanced 9 km deep into the front, losing only 4 thousand people. (In the previous British offensive near Ypres, which lasted four months, the British lost 400 thousand people and managed to penetrate the German defense by only 6-10 km). The French also used tanks extensively several times. So, in July 1918, more than 500 French tanks took part in the battle of Soissons.

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