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Today, September 15, is the day when tanks were used for the first time in battle
Tanks were used by the British on September 1916, 15, during a large-scale offensive against German forces in World War I - the Battle of the Somme.
There were 49 Mk.I armored vehicles in the tank attack, but due to their poor technical characteristics, only 18 combat vehicles participated in the battle, the rest were disabled or sunk due to malfunctions.
Nevertheless, the tanks that participated in the battle managed to break through the 5 km defensive distance within 5 hours.
The first line of German defense was captured almost without losses due to the psychological effect: many Germans, who had never seen anything like this before, threw down their weapons in panic and ran away.
In the morning, the fuel supply in the tanks began to run out, the crews had to stop the attack and return to the base.
With this, the attack was practically over, and the losses of the British were 20 times less than usual.