'As the fundamentals of modern warfare get altered, tanks can no longer operate in isolation.

Ian Maine, an assistant director at the National Army Museum, London thinks that the tank's much-vaunted ability to dominate the battlescape has been somewhat blunted.

However, a century later the world has changed and warfare has had to evolve too, forcing armaments companies and generals to rethink the role of their armored vehicles. While it had little impact that day, what followed was the coming of age of an extremely lethal platform that could shock and awe, overwhelm enemy defences and cover vast distances in a matter of hours.

Making its debut on September 15, 1916, was the British Mark I, 'the cavalry of modern times'. The battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest episodes of World War I and the largest campaign on the Western Front, killed or injured over a million allied and German soldiers.Īmid the horror, a new weapon was born that would come to define warfare for the rest of the 20th century and into today.

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