However, General Heinz Guderian, the German military leader who pioneered mobile armoured warfare, had ensured that German armour had a good balance between firepower, mobility and protection. It came equipped with a 3.7 cm gun, and faced challenging battles because the Western Allies had more heavily-armoured tanks. Pz IIIs formed the backbone of German armour during the invasion of Western Europe. In total, 1,200 German and French tanks took part in the fighting. This was the first large-scale tank battle of WWII. The Tank Battle of Hannut: The First Tank Battle of WWIIįrom 12th May to 14th May 1940, the 3 rd & 4 th Panzer Divisions of the XVI Motorized Corps of the Wehrmacht clashed with the 1 st & 2 nd Light Mechanized Divisions of the French cavalry in Hannut, Belgium. What led to this battle? Who finally won? What tactical and strategic significance did this battle have? Let us learn about the fierce fighting that went on at Hannut in this article. Thus, ‘Little Willie’ was redundant almost as soon as it was built.The Tank Battle of Hannut is said to be the first real tank battle of WWII. This would become the classic British tank design of the Great War. Its designers, William Tritton and Walter Wilson came up with a set of workable tracks which were fitted to the ‘Landship’ now known as ‘Little Willie,’ said to be an irreverent nickname for the German Crown Prince, Kaiser Wilhelm.īy the time ‘Little Willie’ was built, Wilson and Tritton had already come up with an improved idea of a machine with tracks running all the way around the vehicle, which would be able to cross trenches.
of Lincoln, was contracted to build a prototype machine. After many experiments and false starts an agricultural firm, William Foster & Co. In 1915 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, created a Landships Committee to tackle the problems of trench warfare. It proved that a vehicle encompassing armoured protection, an internal combustion engine, and tracks was a possibility for the battlefield. Little Willie was the first working tank in the world.
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