In 1931 a permanent tank brigade was established and by 1937 two armoured divisions had been formed. In 1927 the Experimental Mechanical Force was set up to test their theories.
Some saw fleets of tanks operating independently, while others thought they should form the core of mobile, combined-arms formations. Tank specialists such as Colonel J F C Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart rejected the old First World War concept of the tank and called for lighter, faster designs suited to mobile warfare. To their advocates, tanks were weapons of rapid exploitation, not to be mired in the mud and wire of the trenches. A new Directorate of Mechanisation was established to work on tank design alongside the manufacturers, which at this time consisted only of Vickers Ltd and the Royal Ordnance Factory at Woolwich. Despite the cavalry's insistence that the horse still had a role to play, the War Office was keen to see the army mechanised. The Tank Corps survived, but shrank from 25 battalions to just four. After the war the Army was greatly reduced in size. The lumbering machines were designed to support the infantry in frontal attacks across no man's land, but there were glimpses of their future potential in August 1918 when faster Whippet tanks broke through and caused mayhem behind German lines. Tanks evolved from a need to end the deadlock on the Western Front during the First World War and proved reasonably effective even if their mobility and reliability were poor. The British had previously been pioneers in tank warfare. These factors all had a huge impact on the development of Britain's tank force and its performance during the Second World War. There was little money available to equip a mechanised expeditionary force. The government's strategic priority was home defence, which meant the lion's share of resources went to the Royal Air Force, the Navy and anti-aircraft defences. As a new war loomed and Britain re-armed, the cavalry finally relinquished their horses, but the Army lagged behind the other services in funding. There was some experimentation with the deployment of mechanised formations, but no real impetus to properly incorporate tanks into the Army's structure, nor firm decisions made about doctrine or what sort of tanks were required. The seeds of failure had been planted pre-war, when disarmament, economic retrenchment and the Army's deeply rooted conservatism inhibited the development of armoured forces. So why had it taken Britain so long to produce a truly effective tank? Pre-war developments The Centurion would have been a game changer, but belongs to the post-war world. Its more powerful successor, the Comet, was certainly the best British tank of the war, but only saw action in the last weeks of hostilities. Britain's belated equivalent, the Cromwell, was outmoded by the time it entered service. It was a testament to both American industrial might and British procurement failure. This tank, though itself nearly always outclassed by the opposition, was at least reliable, adaptable and available in large numbers. Most lacked the armour to resist enemy anti-tank weapons, and nearly all were under-gunned.įrom 1943, British armoured divisions were equipped en masse with the American Sherman.
Others spent too long in development, or only achieved a degree of usefulness after numerous modifications. Some were rushed into service too quickly and proved notoriously unreliable. Germany was defeated, but its tanks and anti-tank guns had proved lethally superior to the very end.įor much of the Second World War, the British Army was saddled with a succession of tanks that ranged from the bad to the barely adequate. Sadly for many British tank soldiers of the Second World War, it was far too late. After years of struggle, Britain had finally produced a well-armed and well protected battle tank. The tank was the Centurion, which went on to become one of the most successful of all post-war British designs. In May 1945, as the war in Europe drew to a close, six prototypes of a brand new British tank were hurried to the front in the hope that they could be tested in action.
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