Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms Space By Flag By Year By Tag

Tank Mk II

1917 WORLD WAR 1

History of the Mk II Tank

Breaking the deadlock in trench warfare during World War I would not have been possible without the contribution of the "tanks" (then called "landing ships"). During the war, the British took the lead in practical tank design, followed by the French and Germans in third.

The British approach took the form of a diamond with long chains placed on either side of the fuselage that spanned the fuselage superstructure to create an armadillo-like vehicle. The armor protection was barely adequate, and after the Germans developed armor-piercing machine gun ammunition, the artillery became the main enemy threat to this landing ship.

However, the bigger pervasive threats were poor engine reliability and the type of rough, soft terrain that often doomed these early systems to fail.

Tank Mk I (known as "Mother" or "Big Willie") was developed from lessons learned from the one-off prototype "Little Willie" tank. While hardly designed to engage the enemy head-on, Little Willie was designed to traverse 5-foot trenches and carry small numbers of combat-ready infantry (defenses were machine guns and boiler plates) over a variety of enemy terrain and obstacles.

Riveted armor plate). Little Willie was disappointed in this regard, but it was a step forward for armoured warfare; many of its car components will be used in several upcoming British tank designs, including the Tank Mk I.

The Grand Willie (Tank Mk I) was the first true British main battle tank and was produced in viable quantities for use in the troops. Despite being heavily influenced by the terrain, the tank took part in the famous Battle of the Somme in 1916. Nonetheless, progress was assured, and the stalemate in trench warfare soon gave way to massive coordinated infantry attacks, artillery salvos, and aircraft attacks led by land ships. Tank Mk I is certainly limited in many ways, but for the most part, it proves the concept of armored warfare sounds.

Its main threats remain general unreliability and terrain.

The "Tank Mk II" followed, intended as an improved version of the Tank Mk I. However, it was essentially the same creature, with only minor changes, and the British Army wasn't entirely overwhelmed by the Tank Mk I as its primary combat vehicle, limiting procurement of the Tank Mk II series to 50 examples. Like the Tank Mk I series, the Tank Mk II is available in two different versions - "Male" and "Female". The male version is the main cannon-armed variant, while the female version is a machine-gun-armed vehicle tasked with protecting the male version as they approach enemy ground.

Usually two females are assigned to each male for this purpose, so all blind spots can be covered by the available machine gun firing angles. Of the 50 participants, 25 were male and 25 were female.

From late December 1916 to January, production was carried out by the Foster Company and Metropolitan.

Since the Panzer Mk proved rather tedious in every move they saw, most of the Panzer Mk II was reserved for training purposes. Tanks were brand new equipment at the time, and for obvious reasons, training was an imperative to learn the nuances of armored warfare.

However, delays in the greatly improved tank Mk IV series forced the tank Mk II to be delivered to the front together with the existing tank Mk Is during the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917). The Panzer Mk II inevitably exhibited the same limitations as the previous Panzer Mk I series in terms of reliability and flimsy armor protection, although they still proved valuable in the desperate cause of the British Army and the Allies.

The upcoming Tank Mk III turns out to be 50 examples of another trainer variant. These were never shipped to the front and thus never fought in World War I. Tank Mk IV finally entered production in May 1917, peaking at 1,220 units.

The Tank Mk IV later became the main battle tank of the British Army in World War I, while the Tank Mk II went down in history.