British Mark IV Tank

Clearly, as the number of tanks increased the way they were organized would have to change. It was no good simply expanding the number of companies without arranging some sort of structure to manage them. So in October 1916 it was announced that the four existing tank companies in France would be expanded and elevated to the status of battalions, while five new battalions would be raised at home. In November the title of the tank forces was changed from Heavy Section to Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps, which presumably indicated greater independence, but it was all largely academic until the new tanks were ready.

In fact at this time, at least in Britain, the administration was more concerned with the transfer of the home training base from Thetford in Norfolk to Bovington Camp near the village of Wool in Dorset. Another administrative change in January 1917 saw the creation of the 1st Tank Brigade to oversee the activities of C and D battalions. This step was repeated in February when A and B battalions came under 2nd Tank Brigade.

The organization of a battalion went through numerous modifications on paper before it was confirmed. It would inevitably be a compromise between what was available in terms of tanks and men, and what was manageable in terms of structure and command. Finally, the authorities settled upon an arrangement whereby each battalion was split into three companies, but after that an element of choice appears to have crept in. For example, D Battalion's history is quite emphatic that throughout 1917 each company had three sections with four tanks per section (two male and two female if this could be arranged), whereas the history of G Battalion is equally clear that its companies were organized into four sections of three tanks each: one male and two female. Companies were numbered in continuing sequence so that A Battalion had 1st, 2nd and 3rd Companies, B Battalion 4th, 5th and 6th and so on. Within the battalion, sections were numbered consecutively 1 through 9 or 12 and the tanks in the same way so that, for example, in A Battalion tank A1 would be the first of four tanks in the first of three sections in 1st Company. Not that it always worked out so neatly in practice. The first 76 Mark IV tanks to arrive in France were handed over to A and B battalions in 2nd Tank Brigade in May 1917 — they would be the first to take them into action.

Meanwhile, as they left the factories in Britain, new Mark IV tanks underwent a basic mechanical test on some adjacent site. In Birmingham, for example, this was at Oldbury, where men from 20 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service, maintaining the Admiralty link with &lsquoLandships&rsquo, put them through their paces in a large field that was soon churned into a landscape of mud. The new tanks were then taken by rail to Avonmouth, shipped around to Le Havre and then delivered, over the French railway system, to what became known as the Tankodrome at Erin, near St Pol, where they were tested again and prepared for service. Further south, a section of the old trench system at Wailly, close to Arras, was acquired for use as a practical driving school. F (later 6th) Battalion was sent there on 1 June 1917, being newly arrived from Bovington. Here, according to its history, it took over a number of Mark IV tanks for driving instruction over the old German trenches. Tanks were not available for every crew so the work had to be done in shifts, but it was generally agreed that the training was invaluable.