WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 Welcome to today's deep dive. If you're the kind 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:06.000 of person who wants the shortcut to knowing exactly 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.560 how the modern world was forged, you are definitely 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:11.359 in the right place. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:13.919 for having me. Of course. Today, we've gathered 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.179 a massive stack of historical overviews and encyclopedic 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:20.320 sources detailing the invention, the evolution, 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.739 and the frankly horrifying reality of British 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:26.399 heavy tanks during the First World War. It is. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.289 It's just a phenomenal subject to explore. Our 00:00:30.289 --> 00:00:32.869 mission today is really to show you how a completely 00:00:32.869 --> 00:00:36.250 desperate attempt to break the agonizing, deadly 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:39.350 stalemate of trench warfare resulted in a machine 00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:41.850 that revolutionized modern combat. Because when 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:44.310 you think of a tank today, you probably picture 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:46.929 these sleek, fast, turret -spitting machines 00:00:46.929 --> 00:00:49.310 of modern militaries. Right, the modern main 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:51.590 battle tank. Exactly. But looking through these 00:00:51.590 --> 00:00:53.369 sources, the very first ones were top secret. 00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:56.429 oddly shaped, and just absolute nightmares to 00:00:56.429 --> 00:00:58.369 operate. Oh, without a doubt, they were practically 00:00:58.369 --> 00:01:01.210 experimental iron boxes that barely even functioned. 00:01:01.549 --> 00:01:04.030 And to really understand why they looked and 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:06.170 functioned the way they did, we sort of have 00:01:06.170 --> 00:01:08.890 to set the stage first. Let's do it. Picture 00:01:08.890 --> 00:01:12.489 the year 1915 on the Western Front. The war has 00:01:12.489 --> 00:01:16.269 just devolved into this deadly, unmoving stalemate. 00:01:16.329 --> 00:01:19.090 Right. The battlefield is completely dominated 00:01:19.090 --> 00:01:22.299 by two main factors. devastating machine guns 00:01:22.299 --> 00:01:25.719 and miles upon miles of impenetrable barbed wire. 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.659 It was just a meat grinder. It was. Neither side 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:31.200 can advance without suffering catastrophic casualties 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.400 in the open space they called no man's land. 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.180 So the British military recognized they desperately 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.519 needed a vehicle that could survive the gunfire, 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:41.659 crush the wire, cross the trenches and assault 00:01:41.659 --> 00:01:44.079 fortified positions. OK, let's unpack this because 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:45.879 the first thing that jumped out at me in the 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:49.079 sources is the word tank itself. Yeah. Seems 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:51.840 like such a weirdly mundane word for a devastating 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.299 weapon of war. Where did that actually come from? 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:57.000 It was a code name. Really? Yeah. When these 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.920 machines were first being developed, the British 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.500 needed to maintain absolute secrecy to disguise 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:04.019 their true purpose from enemy spies. Right. You 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:05.299 don't want the Germans knowing you're building 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:08.400 a land battleship. Exactly. So they floated a 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.620 few cover stories, but eventually they pretended 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:14.020 these massive steel structures were just mechanized 00:02:14.020 --> 00:02:17.259 water carriers. Like literal water tanks. Literal 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:18.939 water tanks. Yeah. They said they were being 00:02:18.939 --> 00:02:21.300 built for troops on the front lines in desert 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:25.379 campaigns, and the named tank just stuck. That 00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:27.639 is wild. The most intimidating land weapon of 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:31.099 the era named after A giant bucket. Pretty much. 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:34.240 But looking at the design diagrams of these early 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.699 vehicles, they didn't look like modern tanks 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:39.520 at all. They had this very unique rhomboidal 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.780 shape. The squashed diamond. Yes. From the side, 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:44.599 they look almost like a squashed diamond with 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:46.639 the tracks wrapping completely around the entire 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:48.879 perimeter of the hull. Why didn't they just build 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:51.259 a fortified box on tracks? Well, that squashed 00:02:51.259 --> 00:02:54.039 diamond shape was entirely dictated by the environment 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.789 they had to conquer. How so? The British military 00:02:56.789 --> 00:02:59.930 requirement was highly specific. This machine 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:02.250 had to be able to cross a trench that was eight 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:05.090 feet wide. Wow. And it had to climb up a German 00:03:05.090 --> 00:03:07.490 trench parapet which was typically about four 00:03:07.490 --> 00:03:10.550 feet high. And I imagine that climbing requirement 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:12.449 is exactly why they couldn't just stick a gun 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:16.300 turret on top. Precisely. If you mount a heavy 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:19.300 rotating shirt on the roof, your center of gravity 00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:21.500 becomes dangerously high. It would just be too 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:23.960 top -heavy. Right. The moment it tries to climb 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:26.919 up a four -foot wall of dirt, the whole vehicle 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:29.060 would simply tip backward and flip right over. 00:03:29.419 --> 00:03:32.379 Ouch. So to solve that, the engineers moved the 00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:34.900 center of gravity down by putting the main guns 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:37.360 inside compartments that stuck out of the hull. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.419 These were called Sponsons. Yeah, I saw some 00:03:40.419 --> 00:03:43.419 really weird classifications in the sources regarding 00:03:43.419 --> 00:03:46.840 those Sponsons. Uh, male and female tanks. Yeah, 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.120 that's a croaky one. What on earth did that mean? 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:51.680 That was a piece of terminology invented by Ernest 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.240 Swinton. He was one of the key figures promoting 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.860 the tank concept early on. He categorized the 00:03:56.860 --> 00:04:00.000 vehicles by their armament. Okay. tank was equipped 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.819 with heavy firepower, specifically two six -pounder 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:06.639 cannons along with three machine guns. They saw 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:08.819 the male tanks as the heavy hitters meant to 00:04:08.819 --> 00:04:10.900 destroy physical emplacements. And the female 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:14.319 tanks. A female tank was armed exclusively with 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:17.579 machine guns, four Vickers and one Hotchkiss. 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.839 They were designed specifically to suppress enemy 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:24.970 infantry. It's an incredibly bizarre way to classify 00:04:24.970 --> 00:04:27.430 heavy artillery. It really is. But getting these 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:29.529 machines built at all couldn't have been easy. 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:31.529 I mean, I imagine military leadership back then 00:04:31.529 --> 00:04:33.730 was pretty traditional. Oh, they were incredibly 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:36.199 traditional. The Secretary of State for War, 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:39.379 Lord Kitchener, saw the prototypes and was highly 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:41.620 skeptical. Really? Yeah, he thought they were 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:44.939 pretty much useless toys. Wow. But Winston Churchill 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:47.540 actually championed the idea long before it became 00:04:47.540 --> 00:04:51.079 a reality. He pushed it forward. And at the Ministry 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:53.459 of Munitions, they managed the production by 00:04:53.459 --> 00:04:56.579 bringing in naval experts. Naval experts for 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:59.180 a land vehicle. Think about it. The people who 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:01.319 knew the most about heavy armor plating at that 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:04.079 time were the Admiralty experts who built battleships. 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:06.120 Oh, that makes total sense. What's fascinating 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:09.180 here is how the extreme terrain of the Western 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:13.160 Front dictated the entire bizarre shape and structure 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:16.100 of the vehicle. It was an engineering solution 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:19.439 to an unprecedented geographical problem. They 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:22.220 essentially built a landship. Landship is a perfect 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:24.379 word for it, especially when you consider what 00:05:24.379 --> 00:05:26.879 it was like for the crew inside. Oh, it was brutal. 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:30.060 The sources paint a picture of just a sensory 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:33.480 nightmare inside these early Marquet tanks. The 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:35.879 hall was completely undivided internally. Right. 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:38.220 No separate engine compartment. Exactly. You 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:41.120 have a crew of eight men sharing the exact same 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:45.199 enclosed space as a deafening massive 16 liter 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.300 engine. The heat alone was staggering. Temperatures 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:51.199 inside that metal box frequently reached 122 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.519 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 50 degrees Celsius. 00:05:53.579 --> 00:05:55.800 That is basically an oven. Add the humidity of 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:58.740 eight sweating men, and it was literally an oven. 00:05:58.980 --> 00:06:01.079 But the heat wasn't even the primary danger. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:03.040 It was the toxic atmosphere. The ventilation 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.370 was practically non -existent, right? It was 00:06:05.370 --> 00:06:08.850 incredibly poor. The air inside was this swirling 00:06:08.850 --> 00:06:11.509 mix of poisonous carbon monoxide from the engine 00:06:11.509 --> 00:06:15.250 exhaust, fuel vapors, vaporized oil, and choking 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:18.310 cordite fumes from firing the weapons. For those 00:06:18.310 --> 00:06:20.970 of us who aren't munitions experts, what exactly 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:23.850 is cordite? Cordite is a family of smokeless 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:26.310 propellants used in artillery shells and bullets. 00:06:26.350 --> 00:06:30.329 When it burns, it produces a distinct acrid gas. 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.180 In an enclosed space, breathing those fumes causes 00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:37.519 severe nausea, headaches, and respiratory distress. 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:40.000 That sounds awful. It gets worse. Combined with 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.759 the carbon monoxide, conditions were so brutal 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.040 that crews frequently lost consciousness while 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.199 operating the tank. Just passed out at the controls. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:49.759 Exactly. And some would manage to survive the 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:51.939 battle inside, but the moment they opened the 00:06:51.939 --> 00:06:54.680 hatch and inhaled fresh oxygen, their bodies 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:56.259 would just shut down from the shock and they 00:06:56.259 --> 00:06:58.639 would collapse on the spot. The physical toll 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:01.290 is unimaginable. And to protect themselves from 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:03.910 the enemy fire, the crews were issued gear that 00:07:03.910 --> 00:07:06.370 honestly sounds medieval. The chainmail masks. 00:07:06.750 --> 00:07:10.129 Yes. The early armor was only about eight millimeters 00:07:10.129 --> 00:07:13.209 thick. So when heavy machine gun fire hit the 00:07:13.209 --> 00:07:16.569 outside, it created something called bullet splash. 00:07:17.189 --> 00:07:19.069 Yeah, the kinetic impact of the bullets on the 00:07:19.069 --> 00:07:21.410 outside of the hull would cause red hot flakes 00:07:21.410 --> 00:07:24.069 and fragments of metal to instantly shear off 00:07:24.069 --> 00:07:26.170 the inside of the armor. It essentially turned 00:07:26.170 --> 00:07:29.009 the interior walls into shrapnel grenades. Right. 00:07:29.290 --> 00:07:31.790 So, to protect their faces from this flying metal, 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:34.750 the crews were actually issued masks made of 00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:38.230 leather and chainmail. Wait, did chainmail actually 00:07:38.230 --> 00:07:40.389 work against modern bullets, or was it just a 00:07:40.389 --> 00:07:42.569 placebo for the crews' peace of mind? Well, it 00:07:42.569 --> 00:07:44.649 wouldn't stop a direct bullet, but it wasn't 00:07:44.649 --> 00:07:47.540 meant to. The chainmail veils draped over their 00:07:47.540 --> 00:07:50.160 mouths and the leather covering their eyes were 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.139 specifically to stop those low -velocity red 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:55.639 -hot flakes of bullet splash from blinding them 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:57.620 or embedding in their skin. So it was actually 00:07:57.620 --> 00:07:59.420 effective? It was effective for that specific 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:02.360 hazard, yeah. They also wore heavy leather helmets 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:04.439 to protect their heads from being slammed against 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.500 the steel interior as the tank violently lurched 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:09.319 over craters. Right, because there's no suspension. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.959 None at all. And they had to carry standard issue 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.420 gas masks, too, because chemical weapons were 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:18.000 actively being deployed outside. So picture this. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.699 Eight men sweating in 122 degree heat, breathing 00:08:22.699 --> 00:08:25.800 poisonous exhaust and cordite, wearing chainmail 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:30.379 masks, completely deafened by an exposed engine. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:33.139 It's horrific. And on top of all that, just trying 00:08:33.139 --> 00:08:36.240 to drive the thing was a monumental task. Oh. 00:08:36.409 --> 00:08:39.210 Steering the Mark, I was absurdly complex. It 00:08:39.210 --> 00:08:42.070 took four men just to drive it. Four men? Yeah. 00:08:42.570 --> 00:08:44.990 You had the primary driver, who also acted as 00:08:44.990 --> 00:08:47.590 the commander, operating the brakes and the primary 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:50.649 gearbox. But then you needed two additional gears 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:53.389 men sitting further back, manually managing the 00:08:53.389 --> 00:08:56.210 secondary gears for each of the tracks. By varying 00:08:56.210 --> 00:08:58.230 the speed of the left or right track, the tank 00:08:58.230 --> 00:09:01.149 would slowly turn. Gears rig is really interesting 00:09:01.149 --> 00:09:03.230 because the noise inside is so deafening you 00:09:03.230 --> 00:09:05.370 can't just yell out steering instructions. How 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:07.429 on earth did the driver coordinate with the Gearsman? 00:09:07.889 --> 00:09:10.490 Well, he used hand signals when possible. But 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:12.610 to even get their attention in the darkness and 00:09:12.610 --> 00:09:14.809 the noise, the driver would take a heavy metal 00:09:14.809 --> 00:09:16.970 spanner and violently smash it against the engine 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:20.409 block. You're kidding. Nope. That shirt metallic 00:09:20.409 --> 00:09:22.809 crack was the only sound that could cut through 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:25.690 the roar of the engine. Smashing the engine with 00:09:25.690 --> 00:09:28.970 a wrench just to turn left. That was the reality 00:09:28.970 --> 00:09:31.309 of early armored warfare. And communicating with 00:09:31.309 --> 00:09:34.250 the outside world was just as primitive. Early 00:09:34.250 --> 00:09:37.169 wireless radios just shattered from the violent 00:09:37.169 --> 00:09:39.850 vibrations of the tank. Right. The glass vacuum 00:09:39.850 --> 00:09:42.330 tubes would just break. The sources mention they 00:09:42.330 --> 00:09:44.750 use colored flags and semaphore lamps. But my 00:09:44.750 --> 00:09:47.909 absolute favorite detail is the use of carrier 00:09:47.909 --> 00:09:51.259 pigeons. It is an incredible juxtaposition. It 00:09:51.259 --> 00:09:53.500 really is. You have these cutting -edge, smoke 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:56.360 -belching industrial beasts of war, and inside, 00:09:56.779 --> 00:09:59.279 a soldier is hastily writing a note, strapping 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.000 it to a bird's leg, and pushing it out of a tiny 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.419 custom -built exit hatch in the Sponson so it 00:10:04.419 --> 00:10:07.259 can fly back to headquarters. It's mind -blowing. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:09.659 It is. But despite all these internal nightmares, 00:10:09.940 --> 00:10:12.299 the tank eventually had to perform on the battlefield. 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:15.539 The Mark I debuted at the Battle of Fleurs -Courcelette 00:10:15.539 --> 00:10:19.009 in September 1916. How did that actually go? 00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:21.669 Mechanically, it struggled heavily. Many broke 00:10:21.669 --> 00:10:23.789 down before they even reached the enemy lines, 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.570 or they became hopelessly stuck in the artillery 00:10:26.570 --> 00:10:29.450 -churned mud. But the psychological impact was 00:10:29.450 --> 00:10:32.730 massive. I bet. The sheer terror of seeing these 00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:36.470 slow, unstoppable steel behemoths crushing barbed 00:10:36.470 --> 00:10:39.190 wire and driving straight over trenches sent 00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:41.789 absolute shockwaves through the German lines. 00:10:42.070 --> 00:10:45.490 But innovation breeds counter -innovation. The 00:10:45.490 --> 00:10:48.289 Germans quickly realized standard rifle fire 00:10:48.289 --> 00:10:51.309 couldn't pierce the armor, and the sources outline 00:10:51.309 --> 00:10:53.509 a whole ways of countermeasures they developed. 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:57.289 They moved remarkably fast. They introduced armor 00:10:57.289 --> 00:11:00.269 -piercing K bullets, which had a steel core capable 00:11:00.269 --> 00:11:03.090 of punching through that early 8mm armor. And 00:11:03.090 --> 00:11:05.269 they built that massive rifle too. Right, the 00:11:05.269 --> 00:11:08.769 13 .2mm T -Gewehr. It was essentially the world's 00:11:08.769 --> 00:11:11.990 first dedicated anti -tank rifle. And when specialized 00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:14.769 weapons weren't available, German infantry improvised 00:11:14.769 --> 00:11:17.210 with what they call bunched charges or gabal 00:11:17.210 --> 00:11:19.009 to the doom Yeah, that's what they take several 00:11:19.009 --> 00:11:21.169 stick grenades bundle them together around a 00:11:21.169 --> 00:11:23.190 single explosive and throw them at the tracks 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:26.789 for a massive blast Yes, a concentrated explosion 00:11:26.789 --> 00:11:29.549 capable of blowing a track entirely off the vehicle, 00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:32.470 so the British had to adapt rapidly to survive. 00:11:32.649 --> 00:11:34.870 Right. This evolution under fire brings us to 00:11:34.870 --> 00:11:37.490 the Mark IV, which became the most heavily used 00:11:37.490 --> 00:11:40.649 version of the tank. Over 400 of them were used 00:11:40.649 --> 00:11:44.190 at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. The 00:11:44.190 --> 00:11:46.190 upgrades on the Mark IV make a lot of sense. 00:11:46.590 --> 00:11:49.210 They increased the armor thickness to 12 millimeters 00:11:49.210 --> 00:11:52.110 to stop those K bullets. Essential upgrade. And 00:11:52.110 --> 00:11:53.929 they shortened the barrels of the six -pounder 00:11:53.929 --> 00:11:56.799 gun. because the older, longer barrels kept digging 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.500 into the dirt when the tank dipped into a trench. 00:12:00.059 --> 00:12:02.399 Exactly, they would just snap or jam. But the 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:04.639 change that struck me the most was moving the 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:07.419 fuel storage. In the early models, the fuel tanks 00:12:07.419 --> 00:12:09.919 were right up front by the drivers. Feeding the 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:12.720 engine by gravity. It was a terrifying design 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.659 flaw because a direct hit meant the crew was 00:12:15.659 --> 00:12:18.679 instantly incinerated in a confined space. Horrifying. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:21.779 The Mark IV moved all the fuel into a single 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:24.940 external armored tank at the rear. It drastically 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:27.559 improved crew safety. Oh, that's a relief. They 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:30.100 also added an incredibly simple but effective 00:12:30.100 --> 00:12:33.639 feature on the roof. The unditching beam. Because 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:37.059 the mud in Flanders was notoriously deep. Yes. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.080 Tanks would sink into craters, their tracks spinning 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:44.440 helplessly. The unditching beam was just a massive 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.259 heavy wooden log chained to the roof. Right. 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:50.320 If the tank got stuck, the crew would detach 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.059 the beam, chain it to the tracks, and as the 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:56.120 tracks rotated, the log would be dragged under 00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:58.740 the tank, giving it the necessary traction to 00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:00.879 literally pull the vehicle out of the mud. It 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:04.059 was brilliantly simple, but the really massive 00:13:04.059 --> 00:13:06.980 mechanical leap came with the Mark Veeve in mid 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:10.179 -1918. The Mark V completely changed the driving 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.960 experience thanks to a brilliant engineer named 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.440 Walter Gordon Wilson. What did he do? He designed 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.779 an epicyclic gear system. Okay, explain that 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:19.840 to me like I'm five. What is an epicyclic gear 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:22.000 and why did it matter? Think of the previous 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:24.139 tanks like a rowboat, where you have to manually 00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:27.200 disconnect or drag an oar on one side to turn. 00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:29.559 It required multiple people pulling different 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:33.559 levers. An epicyclic or planetary gear system 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:36.340 allows the engine's power to be distributed to 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:39.179 the tracks dynamically using a single steering 00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:41.980 control. Oh wow. It basically did all the complex 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.500 mechanical math for you. For the first time, 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:47.720 a single driver could steer the massive machine 00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:50.690 all by himself. with a set of levers. No more 00:13:50.690 --> 00:13:53.370 smashing the engine block with a spanner. Exactly. 00:13:53.570 --> 00:13:55.950 A huge quality of life improvement. They also 00:13:55.950 --> 00:13:58.090 started experimenting with the actual dimensions 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.669 of the tank to counter the Germans widening their 00:14:00.669 --> 00:14:03.470 trenches. The British built the Mark V -Star 00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:06.389 by simply stretching the hull, lengthening it 00:14:06.389 --> 00:14:08.990 by six feet so it could span wider gaps. And 00:14:08.990 --> 00:14:11.669 that extra space served a vital dual purpose. 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:14.250 They realized they could fit a squad of infantry 00:14:14.250 --> 00:14:16.870 inside that lengthened section to drop them off 00:14:16.870 --> 00:14:19.440 safely behind enemy lines. Sneaking troops across 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.779 no man's land. Right. It was the absolute beginning 00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:24.740 of mechanized infantry transport. They followed 00:14:24.740 --> 00:14:26.799 this concept up with the Mark Knys, which was 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:29.360 specifically designed as a trip carrier, making 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.980 it the world's first tracked armored personnel 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:34.679 carrier. What I found totally wild in the sources 00:14:34.679 --> 00:14:37.220 is that it wasn't just the British utilizing 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:40.320 these machines. The Germans, who had been completely 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:43.360 terrified by these tanks, actually started gathering 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.179 them up and using them. War forces unparalleled 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:48.870 resourcefulness. True. After the Battle of Cambrai, 00:14:48.950 --> 00:14:51.029 the British advanced but then had to fall back, 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:53.250 leaving dozens of knocked out or broken down 00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:55.570 Mark IVs on the battlefield. Free tanks for the 00:14:55.570 --> 00:14:58.509 taking. Pretty much. The Germans recovered about 00:14:58.509 --> 00:15:01.129 50 of them, dragged them back behind their lines 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:04.370 to an engineering plant and painstakingly restored 00:15:04.370 --> 00:15:07.070 them to running order. And they completely rebranded 00:15:07.070 --> 00:15:08.889 them so their own troops wouldn't shoot them. 00:15:09.330 --> 00:15:12.330 They painted them with giant iron crosses and 00:15:12.330 --> 00:15:15.049 bold disruptive camouflage patterns. Right. They 00:15:15.049 --> 00:15:17.159 even rechambered the captured machine guns. to 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:19.960 fire standard German ammunition and swapped out 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:22.820 the main cannons for captured Belgian guns. By 00:15:22.820 --> 00:15:24.799 the end of the war, the Germans actually had 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:27.360 seven tank battalions equipped with captured 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:30.480 British tanks. That is ironic. It is. And this 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:33.279 dynamic led to a truly historic moment in April 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.580 1918 at the Second Battle of Villers -Bretonneaux. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:40.059 The first tank battle. Yes. It was the first 00:15:40.059 --> 00:15:43.259 ever tank versus tank battle where British Mark 00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:46.480 IVs faced off against German A7B tanks. I bet 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.120 that was a chaotic scene. It was slow and clunky, 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.940 but it was a deeply prophetic glimpse into the 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:54.379 future of armored warfare. And the footprint 00:15:54.379 --> 00:15:56.899 of these British tanks didn't stop when World 00:15:56.899 --> 00:15:59.929 War I ended. During the Russian Civil War, the 00:15:59.929 --> 00:16:02.870 British sent dozens of Mark V tanks to aid the 00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:05.190 white Russian forces fighting against the Bolsheviks. 00:16:05.230 --> 00:16:07.450 They did? But the Red Army managed to capture 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:09.409 many of them and actually used them to take the 00:16:09.409 --> 00:16:12.600 city of Tbilisi in Georgia. The Soviets? kept 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.279 some of those captured World War I tanks in active 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.639 service all the way until 1938. Why would they 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.240 keep such outdated, clunky machinery around for 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:23.860 20 years? Because the sheer intimidation factor 00:16:23.860 --> 00:16:26.279 was still incredibly valuable. Inter -war tank 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:29.460 development was very slow. So a massive, heavily 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:32.460 armored beast from 1918 still commanded respect 00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:34.919 against unarmored troops or in suppressing rebellions. 00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:36.779 That makes sense. It was far better than having 00:16:36.779 --> 00:16:39.559 no armor at all. And that leads to the craziest 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:43.580 part of the Russian Surge story. In 1945, at 00:16:43.580 --> 00:16:46.240 the very end of World War II, occupying Allied 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.080 troops found two badly damaged Mark 5 tanks sitting 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.659 in the rulers of Berlin. Yeah, that's an amazing 00:16:52.659 --> 00:16:54.460 detail. They had apparently been captured by 00:16:54.460 --> 00:16:57.120 the Germans from a monument in Soviet Russia 00:16:57.120 --> 00:16:59.899 during their 1941 invasion, dragged all the way 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:03.120 to Berlin, and just left there. Possibly used 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.319 as desperate street barricades in the final days 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:07.559 of the war. If we connect this to the bigger 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:10.259 picture... It is astonishing to see how the tank 00:17:10.259 --> 00:17:13.339 went from a top -secret, highly localized British 00:17:13.339 --> 00:17:17.720 experiment in 1916 to a globally repurposed weapon 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.859 of war that echoed across decades and continents. 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.019 You even saw massive international cooperation 00:17:24.019 --> 00:17:26.099 at the end of the war with the Mark 8 Liberty 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:29.019 tank. This was an Anglo -American effort utilizing 00:17:29.019 --> 00:17:31.519 British -designed hulls and massive American 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:33.619 Liberty V -12 engines. And the impact wasn't 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:35.849 just military either. Back home in the UK, the 00:17:35.849 --> 00:17:38.150 public became completely obsessed with the tank. 00:17:38.309 --> 00:17:41.130 Oh, tank mania was real. The early press reports 00:17:41.130 --> 00:17:43.940 didn't hold back. Because military sensors wouldn't 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:46.220 allow clear photographs of the top secret weapons 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:49.799 at first, journalists relied on wild, hyperbolic 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:51.980 descriptions. They called them wonder weapons. 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:55.279 They compared them to dragons, giant crabs, land 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.180 whales, and armored toads. Armored toads. For 00:17:59.180 --> 00:18:01.619 a public that had only heard about the grinding, 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.119 depressing misery of the trenches for years, 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.920 that mystique was intoxicating. Absolutely. When 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:09.980 the government released documentary films featuring 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:12.920 the tanks in action, An estimated 20 million 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:15.380 people in the UK went to the theaters to watch 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:18.500 them. It permeated everyday life. Music halls 00:18:18.500 --> 00:18:20.599 featured popular songs like the tanks that broke 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:23.539 the ranks. Manufacturers rushed to meet the demand 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:26.240 for tank toys, tank -shaped teapots, and even 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:29.200 tank -shaped handbags. Handbags? Yes. The government 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.640 quickly realized they had a massive public relations 00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:34.460 asset on their hands. They utilized the tanks 00:18:34.460 --> 00:18:37.599 for immense fundraising efforts by creating tank 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:39.900 banks. Right. They took a battle scarred tank 00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:42.160 named Julian and toured it around the country 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.359 to places like Blackpool. They would park a tank 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.059 right in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London. 00:18:47.819 --> 00:18:50.319 Huge crowds would gather and soldiers would encourage 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:53.640 the citizens to buy national war bonds to finance 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:56.859 the war effort. People would buy miniature ceramic 00:18:56.859 --> 00:19:00.160 piggy banks shaped like tanks just to save their 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.640 loose change for the war. Towns and cities fiercely 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:05.579 competed to see who could raise the most money 00:19:05.579 --> 00:19:08.420 per capita when a tank visited their municipality. 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:11.740 It was a brilliant campaign. So what does this 00:19:11.740 --> 00:19:14.539 all mean for us today? Amazingly, you can still 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:16.880 see these incredible machines in person. You 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:20.180 can. A handful survived the scrap yards. The 00:19:20.180 --> 00:19:22.660 Bovington Tank Museum in the UK has the largest 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:25.279 collection in the world. They even have Little 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:27.660 Willie, the very first experimental prototype 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:30.000 that preceded the Mark I. And the mechanical 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.279 fascination remains so strong that modern filmmakers 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.740 like Peter Jackson have actually commissioned 00:19:35.740 --> 00:19:38.319 fully functional full -scale replicas like the 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.440 Mark IV named Old Crusty just to keep the visceral 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:43.799 heavy metal history of these machines alive and 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:45.799 moving. It's incredible to see them rumbling 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:48.509 around today. When you look at the entire story 00:19:48.509 --> 00:19:51.450 of these British heavy tanks, you are looking 00:19:51.450 --> 00:19:55.109 at the absolute limits of human endurance. The 00:19:55.109 --> 00:19:57.250 men who operated those early machines suffered 00:19:57.250 --> 00:19:59.809 through unimaginable suffocating conditions. 00:20:00.150 --> 00:20:03.599 Truly. But it also shows how extreme constraints, 00:20:04.099 --> 00:20:07.180 the deadly immovable stalemate of the trenches, 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:10.099 forced an entirely new paradigm of engineering. 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:12.960 They literally had to invent their way out of 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:15.519 a slaughterhouse. They did. This raises an important 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.500 question about how crisis accelerates innovation 00:20:18.500 --> 00:20:21.339 and how quickly an experimental piece of machinery 00:20:21.339 --> 00:20:23.700 becomes the global standard for conflict. It 00:20:23.700 --> 00:20:25.599 really does. And it leaves you with a final thought 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:28.859 to ponder. The very first tank was developed 00:20:28.859 --> 00:20:32.059 in absolute secrecy under the incredibly mundane 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:35.160 guise of a water carrier. It makes you wonder 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:38.220 what world -changing paradigm -shifting technologies 00:20:38.220 --> 00:20:40.279 are currently being developed right now, hidden 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:43.039 behind completely boring project names, just 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.740 waiting to reshape our future. That is a fascinating 00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:47.640 thought. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:49.960 this deep dive into the sources. We hope it gave 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:52.180 you that shortcut to understanding how the modern 00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:54.380 battlefield was born out of the mud of the Western 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.170 Front. Keep questioning the world around you 00:20:57.170 --> 00:20:59.289 and keep exploring the history that is hidden 00:20:59.289 --> 00:21:00.430 just beneath the surface.