The Devil's Chariots: The Birth and Secret Battles of the First Tanks

by Glanfield, John

• ISBN13: 9780750941525
• ISBN10: 0750941529
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-15
• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd

Summary

If the view of the military had prevailed in 1915, no tanks would have rolled out of British factories in World War One to become the first to enter battle. Controversy surrounded the new weapon from its inception until the Armistice and beyond. John Glanfield's intensive research has unearthed much new information on the events and personalities surrounding tank production and development to paint a refreshingly different picture of the tank story. "The Devil's Chariots" is a revelatory account of the pioneer builders and their strange machines, of the men who backed them, and their disbelievers.

Author Biography

John Glanfield has contributed articles on tank history to publications in Britain and the USA, and edited Not for Themselves Alone, the story of the Royal Air Force. A retired director of London’s Earls Court and Olympia, he lives near Guildford.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Abbreviations	p. xiv
Introduction	p. xv
The Trackless Waste	p. 1
Early Trials - and Verdicts	p. 18
Winston's Circus	p. 36
Preliminaries to a Dinner Party	p. 54
The Silent Service	p. 68
Combined Operations?	p. 92
Landships	p. 109
Preparations for Battle	p. 126
First Blood	p. 152
Divisions	p. 174
Crisis	p. 201
The Production Battlefield...	p. 215
...and a Body Count	p. 239
Power Down	p. 254
But Who Invented the Tank?	p. 259
Principal British Tanks, 1916-18	p. 275
Production Histories of Principal British Tanks, 1916-19	p. 303
British Tank Constructors, Output by Type, 1916-19	p. 314
Quarterly Output of British Tanks by Type, 1916-18	p. 315
References	p. 317
Selected Bibliography	p. 325
Index	p. 331
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