In fact, this armored raid was not the first tank appearance in human history, due to the large-scale use of machine guns and trench systems, the British and French found that the swarm charge of soldiers turned into a senseless suicide. The mode of operation on the battlefield has changed to "trench warfare". In order to restrain the superiority of the machine gun and break the stalemate on the battlefield. The British also had the idea of using land warships to raid the enemy's fortified areas.

However, the aesthetics of the British have always been more strange, and the appearance of this tank "ancestor" invented by the British is really difficult to compliment. Its core component is an agricultural tractor made by the American company Ford, which is surrounded by boiler-rolled steel plates around the tractor chassis, and the bulky track shoes go over the roof. It requires 8 occupants to operate, and 4 people are required to drive alone. At that time, there was no radio or intercom on the tank, and the deafening noise made the crew have to rely on gestures to direct the manipulator to steer, coupled with the high temperature in the car and the violent bumps of the vehicle, working in such a tank was simply "living and suffering".

What is even more interesting is that the British also developed a "gender" standard for the "Great Nomad" tank, which was divided into two types of tanks: "female" and "male". The "female" tank was armed with only 5 machine guns and was designed to deal with the German infantry, while the "male" tank had much more firepower, armed with 2 57mm guns and 4 machine guns, which could destroy German fortifications. Churchill, who was the Minister of the Navy at the time, said excitedly after seeing the fruitful results of the "Great Nomad" tank: "With this guy, we can win this war!" As a result, the famous crow's beak of World War II was once again tragically lost, and the British Mark I tank not only did not bring victory, but reminded the Germans to put anti-armor combat on the agenda.

Compared with the naïve and bizarre Mark 1 tank of the British, China's practical use is a very mature tank, and it is also the "watchtower" tank developed as the prototype of the Renault FT-17 light tank, which was recognized as excellent in World War I.

At that time, the tank design of this "watchtower" tank was in full bloom among all countries in the world, and it was difficult to achieve a good balance between the ideal design and combat needs. Its overall design is: the engine, gearbox, driving wheels in the rear, driving and other control devices in the front, and only one driver is needed. Its turret is located in the front of the hull, with the commanding height of the whole car, can rotate 360 degrees, so that the commander's field of vision is very broad, improve the fire response and speed of the tank, which is also the mainstream development direction of the tank in later generations.

The original Renault FT-17 light tank had three basic models: the first was equipped with a 7.62 mm machine gun with 4,800 rounds of ammunition (5,400 rounds are also available), and the second was equipped with a 37 mm short-barreled gun with 137 rounds. The third type is a communication command vehicle, with the turret removed, equipped with a fixed armored capsule, and equipped with a radio station. Although in a sense, the "watchtower" tank is the earliest tank used by the Chinese National Defense Forces, but the Chinese national defense forces use this kind of tank as an export-oriented tank, so their own purchases are not large, only equipped with Xuanyuan instructor and the 15th mechanized infantry division of the Seventh Group Army and the 16th mechanized infantry division of the Eighth Group Army, and with the entry into service of the new tank, the "watchtower" tank has begun to gradually become reserve equipment. When the First World War broke out, the French had not had time to develop their own tanks, and the Chinese Defense Force, a mature tank model that had been used for more than five years, naturally became another major military purchase project between China and France.

The battle used an improved version of the "watchtower" tank, which mainly improved the operational part of the tank, increased the diameter of the load-bearing wheels, added rubber tracks, and adopted a highly elastic suspension device, which increased the driving speed of the tank, with a maximum speed of 23 km / h and a range of 160 km. Self-propelled guns of the same type of chassis were also developed, armed with 75-mm cannons, although only a small number were equipped with troops. Along with the Xuanyuan Instructor, there were also some car-towed 105 howitzers and 85mm cannons, which, unlike the bulky guns of this era, were derived from the main battle equipment of World War II and completely defeated their opponents in terms of weight and range. The 20 armored trucks with those strange cylinders on them were another militaristic weapon that had not yet been launched, the Type 1917 6-barreled towed rocket launcher.

This rocket launcher is equipped with a fire snake high-explosive rocket, with a length of 979 mm, a diameter of 153 mm, a weight of 34.2 kg, a propellant charge of 6.35 kg, a warhead weighing 2.5 kg, a muzzle velocity of 342 m/s, and a maximum range of 7055 m. Or use the Fire Serpent smoke rocket, the length of the projectile is 1020 mm, the diameter of the projectile is 158 mm, the weight of the projectile is 35.9 kg, the propellant charge is 6.35 kg, the warhead weighs 3.86 kg, the muzzle velocity is 342 m / s, and the maximum range is 6905 m.

The whole rocket artillery is composed of 6 circular launch tubes bundled together in a star-shaped distribution and a gun carriage modified from an 85 mm cannon, with an elevation angle of 5~45 degrees, a launch tube length of 1300 mm, 3 guide slides inside, and 6 launch tubes arranged clockwise. The electric igniter is fired in the order of 1, 4, 6, 3, 5, 2, with a firing interval of 2 seconds and a reloading time of 90 seconds. This rocket is faster, farther and more accurate than the previous cage launch tube, with a salvo of 6 rockets in just 10 seconds, a muzzle velocity of 340 m/s, a range of 6,000 meters, and a dispersion area of less than 130×80 meters. Perhaps this is the humor of history, as the German rocket launcher was originally invented by the Germans to deal with the Katyusha, but it became a weapon to exert coercion against the Germans in World War I.

At 8:30 a.m., as accurate as an office worker's clock, the French artillery began to roar. More than 100 eagles of the 4th Wing also filled the sky from the west, and 40 "Swan" bombers called B2 also appeared in the formation of fighters, and their mission was to carry out battlefield shelter missions, and German reinforcements would enjoy their professional dismantling services on the road.

As soon as the artillery fire began, the tank clusters were already starting with diesel fumes, and behind them were wheeled personnel carriers and wheeled armor, and the three wheeled armored clusters began to assume their original roles, covering the flanks and rear of the tank units, and at the same time serving as the lead work of the rear vehicle-mounted infantry units. Waiting for one after another chariots with eagle emblems to cross the trenches, the New Zealand soldiers began to poke their heads out of the trenches to watch. There were not many firing points on the front-line positions of the Germans on the opposite side to start firing, and apparently they did not expect that the Chinese troops would step on the bombing points and start a surprise attack after the barrage, and their soldiers were still in the anti-artillery holes and did not deploy.

The dull sound of the gunshots rang out, sparks erupted from time to time on the gray-green camouflage hull, but none of the tanks were penetrated, and the frontal armor and turret of these improved "watchtower" tanks were hung with a layer of case-hardened armor plates, plus the thinnest armor itself was 15 mm thick armor and the silk padding layer between the two layers of armor. The other side's bullets simply have no way to help the tank.

The machine guns on the "watchtower" tank spit bright lines from time to time, knocking over the German soldiers in the trenches, although the power of the 37mm guns is small, but the effect of close shooting is also a barrage, one by one the machine gun positions reinforced with sandbags were torn apart, the first trench did not even hold out for 5 minutes before it collapsed, under the fire of the machine guns, the Germans scrambled to move from the communication trench to the second position, but unfortunately the wheeled armored fighting vehicles behind the "watchtower" tank stepped forward from the gap between the tanks, A 12.7 mm machine gun began to strafe the ruler-shaped communication trenches, occasionally blasting the heads of German soldiers and tearing their limbs, leaving the Germans with dead bodies.

Although it was known that the Germans did not have the habit of standing up, after the door behind the chariot was opened, one or two soldiers with "plumber" submachine guns took grenades from their waists, pulled the fuse and let the white smoke grenade * bullets stay in their hands for a second or two before throwing them into the trenches. The temporary bridge sent by the sappers behind was erected on the trench, and the tanks began to pass along the iron temporary bridge, at this time, the German artillery reacted, but their positions detected by the aircraft did not have time to open fire, either the bombs dropped by the Chinese "swan" exploded in all directions, or the French artillery suppressed the head and could not raise their heads, only the scattered mortar positions could really play a role, but the Germans did not command the mortars scattered in the trenches to form a joint force, The ability to bombard a certain section together had to take the first line of trenches as the target, and let the mortar group shoot shells into the first line of trenches as quickly as possible, but unfortunately the trenches that the Chinese armored group had broken through at this time began to launch a new round of assault on the second trench less than five hundred meters away. At this moment, several young eagles followed the trend of the German trenches, directly strafing, the curved trenches may be good for artillery defense, but when they encountered the Chinese Air Force, which was lined up with four fighters, they had no more ideas, the planes roared, the machine guns roared, and the ground seemed to be whipped by eight whips woven with warheads and gunfire to beat the creatures in the trenches.

The German firepower was suppressed, and the Chinese tanks were like bulls in heat and began to move, if it weren't for the New Zealand and Canadian foot infantry behind them, they could indeed start to push the second and third trenches at a speed of more than ten kilometers per hour, and from time to time there were anti-infantry mines that were pressed by the tracks and exploded, but the anti-infantry mines with less charge could make a foot infantry lose a lower leg, but there was no way to hold the iron shoes of the tank.

"Smack" O'Keeffe spotted a German suddenly standing up from the trench with a bundle of * grenades in his hand, which was clearly pulled from the constant snorting and smoking. O'Keeffe's panicked shot missed the target, and remembering Sergeant Kron's explanation, he immediately lay down and hugged his head tightly, waiting for the Germans' grenade * shells to explode in front of the Chinese tanks. However, the moment he lay down, he saw a Chinese soldier in an armored vehicle beside him, leaning out halfway. And the open cover was just in front of his chest, and the strange gun in his hand that looked like a combination of tubes made a popping sound, the German wrist was hit, and the grenade * fell into the trench with the severed palm, and when everything was quiet, the Chinese soldier turned his head to look at Private O'Keeffe lying on the ground, and suddenly cracked his mouth and smiled, and the snow-white teeth looked so sharp against the background of his face that was smoked by gunsmoke.

Armored chariots, artillery roars, warplanes roar, machine guns chant, a beautiful battlefield march is commanded by the two antennas of the armored command vehicle parked in the woods, majestic, fierce and methodical. O'Keeffe got up, turned his head to look at a number of comrades behind him, and he also cracked his mouth and smirked.