Chapter 277: Turning the Tides at Isonzo
The introduction of tanks in 1914 by the Germans, or at least the revelation of them, had prompted an arms race of the highest caliber. Every nation, including the Reich's allies, were racing against time to field something viable to compete with the overwhelming supremacy the Germans still had on the battlefield.
And they had been for months now. Immediate solutions to a dire problem were seldom ideal. In fact, they were more often haphazardly felt together for the sake of fielding something, anything, to compete with the enemy's overwhelming power.
And while nations like Britain and France were working hard to build some kind of inferior clone of the German Panzer I.
A design they had no captured examples to truly examine, and were primarily operating off of written reports taken from verbal statements by soldiers who survived their onslaught, as well as one or two hazy photographs.
Such a design would take time to build, as they had no functional knowledge of the engine powering the German Tanks, the torsion bar suspensions they made use of, or even the caliber of the main gun. No, all they really had was an overall shape of the hull, and a moveable turret concept to copy.
Even then, the exact sloped shape of the hull was not something precisely recorded, as reports from soldiers who did not quite understand what they were looking at varied. And as far as photographs were concerned, they were, as previously stated of lesser quality, and were few and far in between.
If anything, the other members of the central powers had a better understanding of how to properly manufacture tanks as they were constantly around the German armored vehicles. Sure, like the Allies they did not understand the internal components, but the hull and turret shape could be more easily replicated.
With all of this in mind, the Austro-Hungarians and Russians were rapidly pursuing the development of their own tanks at a similar pace as the allies. But at this point in time, anything that could be used to shield troops from a hail of bullets would be slapped together and tossed into the field.
Because of this, a tank that resembled the legendary Bob Semple Tank was slapped together by the British Forces for use in the Alpine theater as a temporary measure until a better tank could replace it.
For those who do not know what the Bob Semple Tank was, it was a tank designed by New Zealand during the second world war of Bruno's past life that was more or less a square box of corrugated iron slapped together on a tractor base. This Tank had never seen combat in Bruno's past life. And the one the British were using now wasn't an exact copy.