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[Powerbits]

100 years since tanks first appeared on the battlefield

A British tank advances over trenches on the Western Front. Photograph: Library of Congress/Getty Images

One hundred years ago the face of modern warfare changed forever when tanks were used for the first time. On the morning of 15 September 1916 the British attacked German positions at Flers-Courcelette – part of the larger Somme offensive – with 32 tanks.

The results were decidedly mixed but this faltering introduction was not reflected in contemporary press reports. The Guardian and Observer enthusiastically reported on their deployment and the hope that they might break the stalemate.

The Battle of Flers Courcelette 15 – 22 September: The Mark I tank (D 17) surrounded by some of the infantry from 122nd Brigade whom it led into eastern part of Flers on 15 September 1916. Photograph: IWM via Getty Images

An initial report of ‘mystery machines’ appeared in the Observer on 17 September, containing a multitude of questions and speculations. ‘Do they attack as battering rams or as gun carriers, or both? Are we to conceive them as a sort of ironclad van…ploughing ponderously onward through hedges of wire, over holes, over trenches to the bewilderment and affright of the Hun?’

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