The German troops’ morale soared in the wake of their victory because they had been on the receiving end of ever-increasing Allied armor attacks since the British first introduced tanks at the Somme in September 1916.ĭuring the three-division assault, Lieutenant Wilhelm Blitz, commander of an A7V tank named Nixe from Sturm Panzer – kraftwagen Abteilung 2 (Assault Armored Motor Vehicle Detachment 2), approached a British switch trench near Cachy to support accompanying infantry from the 77th Reserve Division. Hundreds of British troops, shocked by the unexpected tank attack, surrendered.

The lumbering armored giants advanced slowly over ground surprisingly untouched by months of artillery fire, and soon straddled the British trenches, raking the defending infantry with machine gun fire or crushing them while storm troopers finished off survivors with rifles and bayonets.

apparitions suddenly appeared out of the fog in front of the Allied lines, but unlike in most previous attacks, these German infantrymen were accompanied by tanks. General Erich Ludendorff decided to launch a new offensive in Flanders, but first he wanted to take Villers-Bretonneux to stabilize the front.Īt 6 a.m. It was early in the morning on April 24, 1918, and the German Second Army offensive toward the strategic city of Amiens had stalled just east of the villages. The first tank battle signaled the beginning of a new era of modern warfare centered on firepower, protection, and mobility.ĭENSE FOG SHROUDED THE AREA AROUND THE FRENCH VILLAGES of Villers-Bretonneux and Cachy, made even thicker by dust, smoke, and mustard gas from a thunderous German artillery barrage.

The first tank vs tank battle