September 15th, 2016

nice one..forgot about the WW1 tanks and did not know what date they were first used, even though I saw two documentaries about Somme and the Messines tunnels, especially the German Schacht counter-tunnels, recently...

I thought this was going to be about Battle of Britain day, but of course this year is not a round-number anniversary of that..

It was during the battle of the Somme. The tanks were not ready; they were deployed out of sheer desperation, as far as I have been able to determine.

- What are you gonna do, when the world catches on?

And here it is. 100 years, practically TO THE HOUR (depending on your Time Band, or course).

Brave men in brand-new technology were rolling forth in untested and flawed vehicles, in the dark.

The vast majority of tanks in WWI and WWII were lost to mechanical breakdowns, as opposed to enemy action. The Mark I Brit tanks in WWI were built so badly for combat that the flywheel of their engine could catch on the floor of the vehicle and shut the engine down, when the tanks flexed just a little bit as they rolled over rough terrain - WHICH WAS WHAT THEY WERE DESIGNED TO DO.

In WWII, those rolling coffins kept my grandfather alive - and damned nearly killed him - on Iwo Jima.

I think that I only existed in the first place, because of the Sherman tank.

But it ain't fair to blame them.

- What are you gonna do, when the world catches on?