The action at Bullecourt, it is thought, opened the German eyes to the possibilities of a tank attack, that is an attack in which tanks are used as the resistance-breakers in advance of the infantry. If two tanks could accomplish what the two Mark I’s did on April 11, 1917, there was no reason why 200 should not win a great victory, and 2,000 end the war. Be this as it may, it was at about this time—the spring of 1917—that the first German tank construction was begun at the Daimler works near Berlin, and the result of this was the production of fifteen machines known as “Type A.7.V.” (see [Plate VI]), some of which first took the field in March 1918.
The chief characteristics of this tank were: its good speed on smooth ground, on which it could attain some eight miles an hour; its inability to cross almost any type of trench or shelled ground on account of its shape. In weight it was about 40 tons, it carried very thick armour especially in front, capable of withstanding A.P. bullets at close range and field-gun shells, not firing A.P. ammunition, at long; it was, however, very vulnerable to the splash of ordinary bullets on account of the crevices and joints in its armour. The most interesting feature of this otherwise indifferent machine was that its tracks were provided with sprung bogies. The use of sprung tracks in so heavy a tank was the only progressive step shown in the German effort at tank production.
The German tank was 24 ft. long and 10 ft. 6 in. wide; its armament was one 1·57 mm. gun and 6 machine guns; its crew, one officer, eleven N.C.O.s, and four private soldiers—exactly twice the strength of the crew of a British Mark IV tank. This crew comprised three distinct classes, drivers (mechanics), gunners (artillerymen), and machine-gunners (infantrymen). These three classes remained distinct, little co-operation existing between them.
Both the tanks of German manufacture and the captured British tanks were divided into sections (Abteilungen) of five machines each, the personnel establishment of which was as follows:
| German Tanks. | Captured Tanks. | |||
| Captain Commanding. | 1 | 1 | ||
| Lieuts. or 2nd Lieuts. | 5 | 5 | ||
| Drivers | 81 | 81 | ||
| Machine-gunners | 48 | 20 | ||
| Artillerymen | 22 | 14 | ||
| Signallers | 12 | 12 | ||
| Medical Corps | 1 | 1 | ||
| Orderlies, etc. | 6 | 6 | ||
| Total | 176 | All ranks. | 140 | All ranks. |
This establishment was a very extravagant one when compared with that of a Mark IV section of five tanks, namely, six officers and thirty-five other ranks.
Besides the “A.7.V.” machines the Germans employed, during their various offensives of 1918, a number of caterpillar ammunition carriers known as “Munitions Schlepper,” or “Tankautos.” These could proceed across country as well as by road.
The moral of the German Tank Corps was not high, and as regards the personnel of the captured Mark IV Tanks it was decidedly low, the Germans having made considerable efforts to prove to their own troops, by means of demonstrations, that this type of tank was both vulnerable and ineffective. The training of this Corps appears to have been indifferent; a certain number of Assault Divisions were trained with wagons representing tanks, and in a few cases it is believed that actual tanks were used with infantry in combined training.
The tactics of the German tanks simply consisted in the “mopping up” of strong points. On several occasions they did get in front of the attacking infantry, but they do not appear in any sense to have led the attack. The following extract from the German G.H.Q. instructions, “The Co-operation of Infantry with Tanks” (!), indicates that no real co-operation was ever contemplated. It reads:
“The infantry and tanks will advance independently of one another. No special instructions regarding the co-operation with tanks will be issued. When advancing with tanks the infantry will not come within 160 yards of them on account of the shells which will be fired at the tanks.”