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Damm that Lloyd George!... he will mean the death of the Liberals and the rise of the socialist scum Labour party!, you mark my words... soon we will be paying people to do nothing!
 
Damm that Lloyd George!... he will mean the death of the Liberals and the rise of the socialist scum Labour party!, you mark my words... soon we will be paying people to do nothing!

Paying people to do nothing? Oh, please. That will never happen. Enlightened men will make sure of it.

Seriously...where do you come up with these ideas? Next you will probably tell me that governments will spend money they don't have on things they can't afford. :p
 
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1917


1917 began with the Allies firmly commited to see the war ending in a complete victory. After two years of gruelling figthings, all the nations implied in the war were beginning to face serious political troubles, which had economic, social and military causes, that had began to develop in 1915-16.

In Britain, as we have seen, this crisis had led to the downfall of Asquith's government. In France, this problem was not only political, but also military. The trench war had almost bleeded white the French army (nearly 850,000 French soldiers had been killed by early 1917 -1-) and its moral was quite low (in spite that summary procedures were abolished and the pre-war system reintroduced in April 1916, from the autumn of that year, the number of desertions began to grow). In addition to this, the French High Command had imposed its authority over the civil government. Both Viviani and Briand had had to stand the attrition battle and the high tolls, and this was having a high social cost.

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The present Prime Minister of France, Aristide Briand (left) and his predecessor, René Viviani (right)
Even in Germany tension between the military and the civil goverment was increasing, in part caused by the lack of results in the fronts and the appalling naval defeat at Jutland. This lack of success, plus the damage caused by the British naval blockade persuaded chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg that it was time to initiate peace negotiations with the Allies. With possession of substantial French and Russian territory, Germany was confident that it could offer peace without the fear of embarrassment. However, the Russian, French and British governments declined Germany’s peace offering in the first week of January 1917.

The Allied powers agreed on the strategy to be pursued in 1917: offensives on all fronts were due to take place in spring, following the old principle that simultaneous, sustained pressure in several theatres would exhaust the last reserves of the enemy and the opportunity of a breakthrough would present itself somewhere (2). The French C-i-C, General Robert Nivelle, proposed to attack in spring along the Chemin des Dames and promised quick success. The plan was accepted by the Prime Minister, Aristide Briand, and the Munitions Minister, Albert Thomas, and by the War Cabinet in London without too many complaints. True, Lloyd George expressed reservations at Paris regarding the viability of a renewed onslaught in the west and he argued for the concentration of forces elsewhere, but in the end the plan received the "go-ahead" from No.10.

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The Isonzo Front: eleven Italian armies (56 divisions) faced fourteen Austro-German armies (69 divisions).

At the Rome Conference (January 1917) Lloyd George went on with with his proposal of attacking elsewhere and suggested transfering 700 heavy guns to the Italian army to help Cadorna’s next offensive. However, the French were determined to see Nivelle’s proposal for an offensive accepted without radical alteration so Lloyd George’s suggestion that the heavy guns be sent to Italy and returned in time for the opening of the Chemin des Dames offensive was shot down as utterly impractical. The same fate met when general Palizine, who represented the Russian Empire, asked for an attack against the Dardannelles that would help Russia to evade the enemy blockade (3).

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The Western Front: the Belgian army (one cavalry and six infantry divisions), two Canadian Corps (six infantry divisions), two Portugese Corps (six infantry divisions), twelve British corps (six calvary and thirty infantry divisions), two South African Corps (six infantry divisions), two Australian Corps (six infantry divisions) and fifteen French corps (nine cavalry and ninety infantry divisions) faced ten German armies (110 divisions) and a small Austrian-Hungarian expeditionary corps (three infantry divisions)

The French would attack at the Chemin des Dames and the British would provide support by attacking between Vimy and the River Oise. For once, Field Marshal Haig was willing to commit the BEF to Nivelle’s scheme, although he regretted the change in French command, as Joffre’s strategy had made allowance for a British offensive in Flanders. As in 1915 and 1916, Haig wanted to attack from the salient around Ypres. With Nivelle requiring British support close to the Chemin des Dames, the planned Flanders offensive was put on hold until later in the year – the French commander-in-chief insisted that the success of his own offensive would compel the Germans to withdraw from Flanders, thereby negating the need to attack there later in the year.

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The Eastern Front: fifteen Russian armies (140 divisions) faced nine German (60 divisions) and four Austrian armies (40 divisions).

Meanwhile, Russia was on the brink of disaster. The country was heading towards a crisis as a consequence of production and transport difficulties, which led to a lack of food in the cities. Increasing hunger eroded national morale, plus the shortage of fuel that curtailed production and left vast numbers of homes without heat led a growing criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. This had caused the January and February 1916 strikes and, in September 1916, a combination of Octobrists and Kadets in the Duma demanded the forming of a responsible government. However, the Tsar rejected these demands. He had made a fatal mistake: he took over the position of C-i-C of the armed forces and left most of the day-to-day government in the hands of the Tsarina Alexandra, who was intensely unpopular, owing to her German origin and the influence that Rasputin, an unsavoury monk, was thought to exercise over her. In the end, Rasputin was murdered in December 1916 by a relative of the Tsar, prince Felix Yusupov, but the discredit the tsarist government went on.

As the French, British and Italian governments expressed doubts that Russia would be able to take the offensive in 1917, the Tsar expressed to his commanders the necessity of a Russian offensive in the spring. Doubts remained over the Russian Army would be able to carry out any offensive action, as it still was short of ammunition and heavy artillery. In fact, the General Brusilov, who became Chief of Operations in September 1916, recommended to the Tsar in December of that year to shorten the Russian front line. In particular, Brusilov argued that the Russian Army’s withdrawal from Transylvania to the Carpathian Mountains in Galicia was crucial for the provision of extra units for a concentrated offensive. Brusilov had cast his eyes on the German salient jutting into Russian territory, stretching from east of Bialystok and situated astride the River Narew. Successfully cutting this protrusion at its base offered the potential of thousands of captured German prisoners and a significant victory on the eastern front. The Tsar gave his assent to the plan, and Brusilov worked with General Ruzsky, commanding the Northern Front and the aged General Kuropatkin, commanding the Central Front, to prepare the withdrawal and the offensive against the Narew Salient.

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Generals Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov (left) and Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (right)

Germany’s ally, Austria-Hungarywas facing also a crisis as grave as the suffered by Russia: the massive losses caused by the war were exhausting the military, economic and political resources of the Empire. The armed forces and the civil population were suffering from supply shortages and the loyalty of Czech and other Slav units began to crumble. In fact, the ethnic nationalisms were becoming a threat to the empire’s very existence. War weariness and political instability just exploded in the assesination of Stürgkh, Prime Minister of Austria since 1911, by the socialist politician Friedrich Adler on October 21, 1916 in a Vienna restaurant. Thus, when the old Kaiser Franz Josef died in November and archduke Karl rose to the throne, the new emperor, determined to save his empire, attempted a moderate reform program and entered into peace negotiations with France through his brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, an officer in the Belgian Army.

This crisis led General Luigi Cadorna, the Italian Chief of Staff, to prepare an offensive aimed to capture Trieste, hoping to exploit to enemy internal turmoil its fullest extent. However, as we have already seen, the Italian army was still short of heavy artillery and Cadorna was under pressure, as the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Boselli, sought to curb his autocratic tendencies. In any case, it was decided that, Cadorna would storm the Austro-Hungarian lines, with the objective of capturing Trieste and the naval base at Pola, in concert with the Russian offensive against the Narew Salient.



(1) In OTL, the French casualties in early 1917 were around 1,000,000. As I'm taking care of the French army, the casualties are slightly lower. Had not been for Verdun...
(2) 1916 redux, so to speak.
(3) As neither Venizelos has not given his coup d'etat nor Sarrail has landed in Salonica, Greece is living quite peacefully and there's no way to change that. And sending troops or invading the country isn't an option.


@quaazi: Indeed. Windsor Churchill, for instance. Sharon Windsor, in "Windsorial Instinct". Austin Windsor in "The Spy who Windsored me". Windsor Shakespeare and his inmortal "Hamlet, Prince of Windsor".

@Agent Larkin: I'm glad to make you happy :D

@Enewald: For the free and mighty Finland, ye fool! :D:D:D

@Nathan Madien: I'm planning something, but I fear that Teddy may be too much for his British cousin.

@SirCliveWolfe: Paying People for doing nothing? That's hardly a novel concept :D (no Appleby's joke intended here).

@Nathan Madien: Governments wasting money? That's impossible!!! :D

PS: January 1917 will be a month to be remembered by the Tankies Chums :D (YES; FINALLY!!!!)
 
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Wow, I am surprised the Russians are still fighting the good fight. Although come to think of it, before Brest-Litovsk the Germans weren't that far into Russia.
 
Invading Greece is not an option?
Britain has never needed a reason to invade a country. Just send some Indians there. The Empire has unlimited resources. :p
 
"A war hasn't been fought this badly since Olaf the Hairy, High Chief of all the Vikings, accidentally ordered eighty thousand battle helmets with the horns on the inside." :p

Sorry couldn't resist :) Good job my man it'll all be over by Christmas!

If you need any help just remember wellington's wise words; "There's only one way to win a campaign: SHOUT, SHOUT AND SHOUT AGAIN!"
 
Chapter fifty-five: When Teddy goes marching in...


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source: The Frikipedia, the useless encyclopedia

Since the election of Theodore Roosevelt to the office of President of the United States, America’s entry into the war on the Allied side was just a matter of time. Thus, von Holtzendorff and von Hindenburg were eager to see the German submarines unleashed to sink as many Allied merchants as possible. And, of course, the sooner, the better. On 8th January 1917, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, his hopes for a negotiated peace vanished, acceded to the demands of the warlords. Thus, on 10th January, Germany’s Ambassador in Washington D.C., Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, informed the American government of the impending resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. The submarines would fight without restraint from 1st February.

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The American opinion was greatly concerned as the prospect of another Lusitania incident reappeared. Roosevelt was quite lucky (and thankful) as Amendment XVIII of the Constitution, passed the previous year (1), facilitated an Inauguration Day on January 20th. This dilemma was seen most notably in 1861 when Abraham Lincoln had to wait four months before he could deal with the secession of Southern states. As an indication of what was to follow, on January 10th, Roosevelt spoke unambiguously of the need of the U.S. Navy to venture into the Atlantic to protect merchant shipping from German submarines. When this was known, Berlin began to devise a scheme for an alliance with Mexico in case the United States declared war against Germany. Six days after Roosevelt's speech, the Imperial Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, prepared a note to be transmited to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.The telegram instructed Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared likely to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military alliance in return for financial support and recognition of any Mexican claim of territory lost during the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase.

As the respectable Great War veteran, The Right Hon. Captain Sir Edmund Blackadder, MM and bar, KCB, MP, would say, the Zimmerman telegram had only a fault: "it was bollocks" (2). Mexican President Venustiano Carranza ordered a careful examination of the feasibility of a Mexican takeover of their former territories and it was concluded that it would not be possible or even desirable (i.e The USA were too strong and the only sizable arms manufacturer in the Americas; the Royal Navy controlled the Atlantic sea lanes, so Germany could not supply Mexico with war supplies directly; even if Mexico had the military means to re-take the area in question, there would be the trouble of dealing with the large, English-speaking population). Thus, Carranza formally declined Zimmermann's proposals on April 14.

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To make worse this shameful event, the cryptographers of the Royal Navy's codebreaking operation, Room 40, under Rear Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, KCMG, CB, RN, decoded the German note and immediately recognised its significance. The British government wanted to use the incriminating telegram to draw the U.S. into the war on the Allied side. However, London had to find a way to to explain to the Americans how they got the ciphertext of the telegram without having them discover that they were reading their diplomatic communications. Assuming that the German Embassy in Mexico City would take receipt of the telegram, a "Mr. H.", a British agent in Mexico, bribed an employee of the commercial telegraph company for a copy of the message, and its contents were decrypted. Now the British government could pass the ciphertext to the Americans without embarrassment.

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Meanwhile Roosevelt was about to begin an unprecedented third term as President of the United States. In his inagurational adress he spoke about the nation's “manifest destiny in world affairs” and of the “responsible use of power”, while warning Germany that her bully ways were no longer tolerated. When Roosevelt finished his speech, spectators burst into spontaneous cheering and applause, demonstrating the immense popularity the President had developed during his time in public life. As soon as he arrived to the White House, one of his first acts was to assure Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador in Washington D.C., and Jean Jules Jusserand, the French Ambassador (3), that the United States was committed to supporting the Allies in the war against Germany. The honour of the United States, he assured them, was at stake.

Then, on the morning of 22nd January, Balfour called for Walter Page, the American Ambassador in London, to show him the Zimmerman Telegram. Page was stunned by the document presented to him, and he soon transmitted it to Washington D.C., where the new Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes received it. Roosevelt was enraged at the content of the Zimmerman telegram (4) and he convened an emergency meeting of his Cabinet, where it was agreed that the document offered the nation with a legitimate casus belli. To prepare the ground, the telegram was presented to the press. Of course, popular reaction was indignant. Suggestions from pro-German lobbies that the telegram was a fabrication and a sinister British plot to entice the United States into the war were shot down when Zimmerman candidly admitted the telegram’s authenticity on 24th January during a press conference (5), even if he added that the note’s proposals would only be carried out in the event of an American declaration of war. It was enough to arouse the public into a patriotic fervour which helped to forget the failure of Pershing's Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa.

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If you're a true American, buy War Bonds!

Congress was summoned by Roosevelt on 26th January. Roosevelt addressed Congress, accusing Germany of fighting a war “contrary to civilisation” and of plotting to dismember the United States, and he implored Congress to sanction a declaration of war in order to facilitate the United States’ rise as a positive force in world affairs. After debate, the Senate voted in favour of a declaration of war by 84-4 on 29th January, with the House confirming the decision 375-48 on 31st January. The warlords in Berlin were presented with a finite amount of time before the balance of power would be unalterably weighed against them.

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(1) Originally, the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices, was ratified on January 23, 1933. The Eighteenth Amendment.defined "intoxicating liquors" to exclude those used for religious purposes and established Prohibition in the United States, was passed on January 16, 1919. Well, now the Twentieh is the Eighteenth, which, if Teddy decided to go Prohibitionist, will become, in due time, the Nineteenth, which will become the Twentieh in the fullnest of time, so everybody could vote regardless of their sex (hi suffragettes. Let me quote Lord Flasheart: "Any girl who wants to chain herself to *my* railings and suffer a jet movement gets *my* vote!". After him the British suffragettes were known as sufferjets. Blessed be Lord Flasheart).
(2) I suppose that the German point of view about the Zimmerman telegram was "in a war where so many stupid ideas have been used, no one will notice another one". Of course, every rule has an exception.
(3) Both were old friends of TR: sir Cecil was best man at TR’s wedding, and Jusserand was TR’s old tennis partner.
(4) In fact, when TR knew of the Telegram, the whole world noticed it. Teddy's roar was quite noticeable (The Krakatoa's eruption, you say? A puff, sir, a puff).
(5) Who needs enemies having civil servants?!?!?!



@Faeelin: Me too, until I took a look about their army and saw half of their divisions in half strenght, few guns and fewer machine guns. What came later did not surprise me so much after that.

@Enewald: The Aussies, Boers, Channucks, and Kiwies are busy in France, the Indians in Mesopotamia. Unless I manage to send there fome Falklandese pinguins, I have no one to spare.

@Nathan Madien: Here!

@quaazi: I have the odd feeling that this AAR is no longer about WW1 but about moustaches.... am I the only one?

@Agent Larkin: YES! And quite soon!

@SirCliveWolf: Horned battle helmets! Yes, that's the way to defeat the darned Hun and his picklehaube!

Over by Christmas... thank God you were so kind not to mention the year :D
 
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The Zimmerman Telegram...it sounds great on paper. So did General Burgoyne's proposal in 1777 to launch a three-prong attack aimed at capturing Albany, New York and cutting New England off from the rest of the 13 Colonies.

Both, of course, were such smashing successes when it came time to implementing them in the real world. :rolleyes:
 
Chapter fifty-six: Arms and the Man.


In one of his first moves as Prime Minister, Lloyd George sought to undermine the influence of Haig and Robertson. He was determined to achieve some unity of Allied command on the Western Front and to achieve that, he would explot the differences that existed between the French C-i-C, General Nivelle against Haig. In fact, Lloyd George would have liked to remove Haig and to replace him with another commander. However, he knew he could not do that: Haig enjoyed the support of the King (when, on 1 January 1917, Haig was made a field marshal, George V wrote him a handwritten note ending: "I hope you will look upon this as a New Year's gift from myself and the country") and of the Unionist party. Worse still, Lord Northcliffe admired the general and the public was overwhelmingly supportive of the BEF C-i-C, believing that Haig was doing a good job. Lloyd George could not afford to remove Haig, so he attempted to undermine him instead.

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Lloyd George vs Haig: A Game of Wills.

Meanwhile Nivelle kept implementing the plan he had outlined in December 1916. The French Army was to attack the German front line at the Chemin des Dames by utilising a vast creeping artillery barrage, while the British Army would provide support by taking the offensive between Vimy and Montdidier. Nivelle believed that a large saturation bombardment, followed by an extensive creeping barrage and by aggressive infantry assaults, would be able to break the enemy's front defences and help his troops reach the German first line during a single attack, which would be followed by a breakthrough within two days. Haig had his reservations about the plan and supported it only in general terms, and only as long as planned British operations in Belgium were not curtailed.

The planification was delayed by a series of squabbles with Haig and disputes within the French Army, as a lot of high ranking officers, led by Petain, opposed the plan. In fact, Nivelle's "great design" was the same of Joffre in 1915, and the only difference was mainly in scale and in the use of light tanks. True to his scheme to undermine Haig, Lloyd George supported Neville during a meeting in Calais (26th February 1917). Nivelle outlined his objections to Haig’s proposal to concentrate on Vimy Ridge, a position he regarded as impregnable and, instead, attack Roye, located much closer to the French sector of front. Haig answered by refering to the intelligence reports that revealed that the German line surrounding Roye was formidable, and pointing out that the capture of Vimy Ridge would allow British artillery to dominate the surrounding territory in future engagements. To the vexation of Nivelle, the French War Minister, Lyautey, supported Haig’s reasoning. Meanwhile, Lloyd George waited, with his French colleague, Briand, for Nivelle to raise the issue of a system of joint command. They waited in vain, as the French general finished his intervention without mentioning the subject.

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The Schneider CA1 was the first French tank and, during the Nivelle offensive, it proved to be a failure (0). It suffered from the fate that the British Mk I avoided: it was used too soon and in too small numbers, as we shall see.

When the topic was finally raised, Haig and Robertson were astonished, as the whole scheme made it clear that Nivelle would assume operational command of the BEF with immediate effect and would be responsible for its supply and reinforcement. To help him in his task, a British Chief of the General Staff and a Quartermaster-General would be appointed to Nivelle’s headquarters, which would form a communicative link between the War Cabinet in London and Nivelle. The five British armies in France would effectively come under Nivelle’s direct orders. Nivelle's plan would left Haig without his armies and Robertson would be reduced to become a mere clerk at Horse Guards. To say that the two British Generals were furious would be an understatement. Even Colonel Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the War Cabinet, was as astounded by the French proposals. He assured the generals that the War Cabinet had not authorised Lloyd George to go so far as to subordinate the British Army to the French. Robertson and Haig then confronted the Prime Minister and Haig told him, in plain words, that he thought the scheme to be “madness” and that British troops would refuse to fight under French leadership. Robertson threatened with resigning as he was not to submit to the French proposals. Of course, Lloyd George had no option but to admit that the proposal required modification and Hankey, startled at the prospect of the British Army being commanded by a person responsible solely to the French government, began to work on a compromise.

In this quarrell, Robertson and Haig found an useful ally in General Lyautey as the French War Minister disliked Nivelle's proposal. Even the War Cabinet considered that the proposals placed by the French government were unworkable. Then Hankey introduced his proposal: Haig would retain operational command of the BEF, and would be compelled to act under Nivelle’s orders for the upcoming offensive only. At Nivelle’s request, the ardently Francophilic Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Wilson was appointed to head the British mission to French GQG. This was of little concern to Haig, who had now received the staunch support of the new Secretary of State for War as well as the King. Thus, Nivelle's position was weakened, as he would send orders to the British armies via Haig, whilst operational orders given by Haig would have to be copied for the benefit of GQG. Thus, an agreement was reached, although at a high cost: Haig and Lyautey were now best of friends, but the BEF C-i-C’s opinion of Nivelle had sunk to new depths, and whatever trust that had previously existed between Lloyd George and Haig had now been utterly destroyed. Haig wrote in his diary that ‘It is too sad at this critical time to have to fight with one’s Allies and the Home Government in addition to the enemy in the field!’.

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Nivelle trusted that heavy guns like this one, the 520 Mle 1916 (Model 1916 - 520 mm), a French railroad gun, would rip off the German trenches.

Meanwhile, new weapons were reaching the British armed forces. In late November 1916 the Royal Navy began to receive the first submarines of the H class. The first one (Group 1 -submarines H1 to H10-), were to be build in Canada at the Canadian Vickers Yards in Montreal before being transported across the Atlantic and deployed from Britain. This was necessary because British shipyards were too overcrowded and busy to construct submarines at this time. It was hoped that they would be ready for service by March 1917 (1) and the next batch (Group 2 -submarines H11 to H20-) would follow in August (2). The works on a third batch of 30 submarines were to begin in 1918.

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January also saw the introduction of a new fighter, the Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10, a two-seat quadruplane (i.e., four wing) fighter aircraft. While it was ordered in small numbers for the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service, it was not used operationally, as it proved to be inferior to the Sopwith 1½ Strutter, which was already in service as a successful two-seat fighter. It is one of the few quadruplane aircraft to reach production. (3)

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And, finally, after many delay, the tank was ready to be mass produced. After the last trials performed at Thetford, Norfolk, the mass-production began in earnest, and it was expected that, by March 1917, three brigades of Mk I tanks would be ready for service. As the Mk I was readying to enter into service, the development of a successor began in earnest. Th Mk II incorporated minor improvements and was destined directly into training only and the Mk III was a training tank. This, the efforst was concentrated into the Mk IV, an up-armoured version of the Mark I. It incorporated short-barrelled 6-pounder guns (QF 6 pounder 6 cwt. Hotchkiss Mk 1.), as the long ones used by the Mk I had proved to be too long for practical use in the trials -something that would take place again in battle-; the Mk IV was to have further mechanical improvements and it was hoped that it was to be ready by late 1917 (4).

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Finally!



(0) France has nothing similar to tanks at this stage -in fact, France ended the war without having a single tank in their army :eek:-, but I had to mention the historical Schneider somehow.
(1) Well, in fact, this class of submarines entered into service in May-June 1915 :D
(2) The second group was all built in America but were interned by the United States government until the USA entered World War I. They were so late, that the British transfered six to the Chilean Navy as partial recompensation for the appropriation of two 28,000-ton dreadnoughts (Almirante Latorre and Almirante Cochrane) and two to Canada
(3) Well, this time I almost got them at time, because the FK 10 flew for the first time in late 1916. Do you know want to know something funny? When I finally got the bombers... I couldn't add the scort fighter brigades!!!!! A clear example of Kaiserist sabotage. I'm sure that the one behind that was the darned spy called Enewalden. Dirty fellow... :D:D:D
(4) Actually, the Mark IV was first used in mid 1917 and I got the 1917 tank section in October 1917, as we shall see.

@Enewald: You, on the German side? What a surprise, von Enewalden...

@quaazi: Provided that the AEF arrives to France before the war is over...:p

@Nathan Madien: Burgoyne... a classic. He would have felt at ease in this war :D
 
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We have now achieved the ability to make truly invincible machines of war! These newly-christened "Mark I" contraptions are, as we call them, "Tanks"! They have impenetrable armor of less than half an inch and can travel at a pace at which no man or horse could hope to catch - 4 miles per hour! They can also carry a 57mm low-velocity cannon for absolutely obliterating enemy lines or firing extremely efficient water-cooled Hotchkiss and Vickers machine guns into the midst to cut down any Hun that may dare to get in our way!

Not only this, but production is expected to be at a whopping 5 tanks per month! We cannot be stopped! Onwards! Destroy the Hun! Huzzah!
 
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The Schneider CA1 was the first French tank and, during the Nivelle offensive, it proved to be a failure (0). It suffered from the fate that the British Mk I avoided: it was used too soon and in too small numbers, as we shall see.

Good lord! That's actually a tank? :eek:

It looks more like a refrigerator of sorts.
 
Never mind the tanks, how's the Armstrong Whitworth bank without inducing ridiculous torque in its wingtips and snapping all four wings off???