Tanks in the Great War, 1914-1918

by J. F. C. Fuller

(ii) All maintenance to be carried out by the crews of the machines themselves.

When the Tank Corps was first formed, each Company of Tanks was provided with its own workshops. At the end of 1916 Company Workshops were abolished and Battalion Workshops were formed. Towards the end of 1917, after much consideration had been given to the question, Battalion Workshops were abolished and merged into Brigade Workshops, while a small number of skilled workshop men were left with each Company. In 1918 it was realised that the gradual withdrawal of special workshop facilities from the Company organisation to the Brigade had resulted in a considerable improvement in the skill and ability of the tank crews themselves in the maintenance of their tanks. It was decided, therefore, to go one step further, and not only withdraw all Brigade Workshops into a central organisation known as the Central Workshops, but also to withdraw the special workshop men from the Companies, while tank crews themselves were made entirely responsible for the maintenance of their machines.

In this way it was possible to draw a clear line between maintenance (i.e. the replacing of damaged parts, which was done entirely by the crews) and repairs (i.e. the mending of broken parts, which was done entirely by the Central Workshops). At this time the argument was frequently heard that a man who uses a machine should be able to repair it, and that, if all repair work is done by a different organisation from the one which actually fights the machine, there will be a serious loss of mechanical efficiency. This idea was based upon a misconception of the difference between the functions of repairs and maintenance. On the contrary, it was found that the efficiency of the crews increased several hundred per cent. after the crews themselves were made responsible for the maintenance of their machines. To carry out this system it is, however, necessary that stores and spare parts should be readily available in the field; this entails an intelligent system of Advanced Stores.

One very great advantage of this centralisation of repair work is the considerable saving in man-power effected by employing all skilled men exclusively on one particular job. As an example, broken unions of petrol pipes commonly occur in all petrol engines, and if a small unit workshop exist, the brazing out and repair of such broken unions can be carried out there. In order to do this a coppersmith must be kept at the unit workshop, and only part of his time will be employed in this work of brazing petrol unions. If now, however, the unit workshops are abolished, and all broken unions, from every unit, are sent back to a Central Workshop for repair, there is a sufficient amount of work of this description to keep one man, or possibly two or three, fully employed all their time. These men become absolute experts in brazing broken unions, and before very long can do in a few minutes a job of this sort which would take a coppersmith with the unit workshop considerably longer.

The complete organisation for the maintenance and repair of tanks can be briefly described by tracing the itinerary of a tank from the day it left the manufacturer until the day it was received at the Central Workshops for repair.

From the manufacturer the tank was first sent to the tank testing ground at Newbury, which was manned and administered by No. 20 Squadron, R.N.A.S. From here it was sent to Richborough and shipped across the channel by channel ferry and received by another detachment of No. 20 Squadron at Havre. From Havre it was sent to the Bermicourt area, and after being put through further tests was handed over to the Central Stores. The Central Stores were situated at the village of Erin on the Hesdin-St.-Pol railway, and consisted of some seven acres of railway sidings and some six acres of buildings. These stores were built in 1917, and at first included the Central Workshops; in 1918, however, these workshops were installed at Teneur, about a mile and a half away, and covered some twenty acres of ground.

From the Central Stores tanks were issued to battalions, and after repair at the Central Workshops were received again at these stores for reissue as they were required.

As the battalions carried out all their own mechanical maintenance, Advanced Stores were instituted, these being sent out from the Central Stores into the forward area immediately behind the front to be attacked by the tanks. These stores were organised on a very mobile footing and proved invaluable in all battles since October 1917.

Besides the moving forward of these Advanced Stores, Tank Field Companies, originally known as Salvage Companies, were despatched from the Central Workshops to the battle areas. The duty of these companies was to take over from the fighting units all damaged tanks, such as those knocked out by the enemy’s artillery fire; they were, in fact, the clearers of the battlefield so far as tanks were concerned. Apart from salving complete tanks an immense quantity of other material was reclaimed, such as 6-pounder guns, machine guns, ammunition, tools, track plates, gears, transmissions, and engine parts, etc., which in the two years of the existence of these companies totalled in value several millions of pounds.

The work carried out by the Tank Field Companies was particularly dangerous, and many casualties amongst their personnel occurred. In the actual reclaiming of machines or parts they were constantly under shell fire, and the actual carrying to and fro of the material made use of required great physical strength, since the ground to be traversed was frequently a mass of shell-holes; incidentally a great deal of work had to be done at night since many of the machines to be salved were frequently situated in full view of the enemy.