This week we examine a First World War film with a difference, The King’s Man, a prequel to the successful Kingsman franchise. The film explores the founding of a high-minded intelligence agency against the backdrop of the Great War. Weaving in real historical events as plot points we follow the protagonists as they foil a plot to control Europe. Directed by Matthew Vaughn the film boasts a stellar cast including Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance.
During the First World War Germany struggled to produce its own tanks, with no more than 20 A7Vs being built, instead the Imperial German Army made liberal use of captured allied tanks. In my recent video looking at the British No.44 anti-tank rifle grenade I briefly touched on German use of capture tanks or ‘Beutepanzern’.
The German Army form ed its first Heavy Tank Detachments in late 1917, three of these were equipped with German-built A7V, but the rest were eventually armed with captured British MkIVs. Many of the British tanks were captured following the Battle of Cambrai. Little was changed on MkIVs except for armament with German quick-firing 57mm Maxim-Nordenfelt guns and MG08 machine guns replacing the British 6 pdrs and .303 chambered machine guns for ease of logistics. Though some Lewis Guns pressed into German service were reportedly used aboard the captured tanks.
A Beute MkIV in the field
In this footage from a German newsreel, we see some of the British tanks captured at Cambrai, as well as German soldiers examining the tank and demonstrating how it works. Finally the Kaiser watches a demonstration of the captured vehicle during a visit to the front.
German workshops converted most captured machine gun-only armed ‘female’ MkIVs into gun and machine gun armed ‘males’. They also added a 13mm T-Gewehr anti-tank rifle in place of their British tank’s forward Lewis machine gun. Some also had one of their sponson guns replaced with a T-Gewehr. An escape hatch was also added to the tank’s cupola-roof. Externally the Beutepanzern were simply painted with Iron Crosses (Eisernes Kreuz) for recognition purposes. Repair workshops were set up to repair and salvage captured British tanks including one near Charleroi (Bayerischer Armee-Kraftwagen-Park Nr. 20).
A Beute MkIV in the field
In terms of doctrine the use of tanks didn’t fit well with the Stormtrooper tactics used in 1918. The slow and cumbersome tanks weren’t ideal for keeping up with the rapidly moving stormtroopers but the tanks did see action throughout 1918. The captured tanks first saw action in March 1918, during Operation Michael, Germany’s Spring Offensive and later during the Hundred Days Offensive. The use of the Beutepanzern also lead to the unique situation – and the first instance of it happening in history – where the same type of tank engaged one another. MkIVs reportedly clashed near Mont Neuve Farm during the second Battle of Cambrai in October 1918.
Alongside battle losses the reliability of the Beute MkIVs also meant attrition of the captured vehicles was high. By September 1918 most of the German Army’s tank detachments had lost all of their vehicles.
Bavarian Army Motor Vehicle Park No. 20 (Bundesarchiv)
The British MkIV was the most commonly used captured vehicle, although a small number of Whippet Light Tanks were captured as well as were various types of French tanks. Several MkIVs appear to have also been used during Germany’s internal strife in 1919.
While the use of captured tanks was far from ideal, the familiarisation with MkIVs did lead to them to influence German design thinking and a rhomboid layout was used on the A7V-U which was being developed at the end of the war.
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The British Army’s first dedicated anti-tank weapon was a rifle grenade. The No.44 Rifle Grenade was developed towards the end of the First World War to take on the emerging threat of German tanks.
A British officer firing a No.3 Mk2 Rifle Grenade (IWM)
The No.44 could be fired from a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield MkIII rifle, the British had developed a plethora of rod and cup discharger based rifle grenades but the No.44 was the first specifically designed with tanks in mind.
By 1918 the German Army had responded to the threat of British and French tanks by developing their own, the A7V, albeit in small numbers, and by fielding captured allied tanks.
The A7V was a leviathan at over 3.3m tall and more than 30 tons. It would be crewed by at least 18 men. It was decided that the infantryman needed an effective means of taking on tanks.
A German A7V (US National Archive)
Sources suggest that the grenades were developed by the by the Royal Engineers Experimental Station with input from the Tank Corps. The No.44 was largely based on the earlier No.24 rifle grenade. The British Army had been using rifle grenades with rods since February 1915 with the No.2 rifle grenade.
No.44 Anti-Tank Grenade (IWM)
A myriad of grenade designs were developed during the war with dozens of designs entering service between 1915 and 1918. Eventually the British Army moved away from using rodded rifle grenades, because of the implications of barrel wear from the friction of the rods, and focused on discharger cup based designs. The No.44’s spiritual descendent, the No.68, introduced in 1940, would follow this trend and be fired from the same discharger cup used by to fire No.36 grenades fitted with a gas check.
The No.44 grenade itself is made up of a pair of pressed tin plate pieces which make up the top and bottom of the bomb with a rolled sheet of tin making up the central body. The parts were soldered together with a filling plug also soldered into the top of the grenade. The grenade itself contained either Amatol 80/20 or Amatol 83/17 explosive, sources suggest about 11.5 ounces. While externally it may resemble later shaped charges, it was not, the explosive filled the space around the central detonator assembly.
Sectional diagram No.44 Anti-Tank Grenade
The ignition system was essentially a .297/230 cartridge case and a detonator. On firing a release socket moved to allow the retaining bolts to release the striker (or needle pellet) it had been retaining. The striker was then simply held back from the detonator by a spring. When the grenade struck its target inertia cause the striker to over come and compress the spring, allowing the striker to ignite the detonator and set off the grenade’s main filling. Given mass of the bomb and the type of detonator used the No.44 was probably intended for use at very short ranges.
Soldiers firing rod rifle grenades (IWM)
To use the grenade the firer would remove the wire fastening around the grenade to free the canvas vane. This would also allow access to the safety pin. The top plug could be undone and the detonator inserted. The rod was then slid down the muzzle of the user’s rifle. The safety pin could then be removed. A blank cartridge would be loaded into the rifle and when the trigger was pulled the was grenade launched by the gases from the cartridge pushing the rod out of the barrel. The No.44’s flight would be stabilised by the canvas skirt or vane.
There’s no mention of the grenades in the British Army’s Small Arms Committee Minutes so its development must have been documented elsewhere. It does, however, appear in the List of Changes and is known to have been issued from April 1918 onwards but further primary research is needed to find out more about its development, designers and testing.
No.44 Anti-Tank Grenade (Matthew Moss)
The No.44 remained in service into the inter-war period but does not appear in any of the post-war Small Arms Training manuals. Several were published during this period, the first in 1924 and a second in 1931 – the No.44 appears in neither of them. The final pre-war Small Arms Training pamphlet on grenades, published in 1937, is confined to just the No.36 grenade. According to Ian Skennerton’s book on British grenades there were no No.44s remaining in stores by April 1931 and it was declared obsolete.
Sources disagree on the number of No.44s manufactured with some suggesting just under 100,000 while others suggest between 125,000 and 150,000. According to Skennerton 9,800 were issued between April and November 1918. A very small amount when compared to the hundreds of thousands of other, more widely used grenades held in stores at the end of the war.
The German A7Vs were first deployed in March 1918, but only saw their first action the following month. With only 20 A7Vs built and the design proving relatively impractical the Allies had little to fear from German tank attacks. Sadly, there are no readily available records of the No.44’s use or its effectiveness.
British solider firing a cup discharger rifle grenade (IWM)
The A7V’s armour consisted of 5 to 30mm of steel plate depending on location on the tank. This steel plate was not hardened which may have increased the No.44’s effectiveness against it. It may be that the No.44 would have had to have been fired at close range and strike a vulnerable point on the attacking vehicle to have the most effect.
While not the only anti-tank grenade to be developed during the period, the French also developed several rifle grenades, and not as famous as the German T-Gewehr, it does represent Britain’s first dedicated infantry anti-tank weapon.
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Bibliography:
An Introduction To British Grenades, I.D. Skennerton, (1988)
British Grenade Rifle No. 44 Anti-Tank, AmmunitionPages, (source)
Grenade, Rifle No 44 A.T. (Anti Tank), Imperial War Museum, (source)
Grenade, Rifle, No 44 Anti-Tank (Sectioned), Imperial War Museum, (source)
British No.24 Mk.II Rod Grenade, Inert-Ord.net, (source)
We are joined this week by Andy Moody, who is currently undertaking his Masters degree exploring popular cinema depictions of the Great War to talk about Great War films made between the wars. We enjoyed an in-depth discussion of a range of early films made during the interwar period, including: Ypres (1925), Mons (1926), Big Parade (1925) and Journey’s End (1930).
This week we are joined by historian Olivia Smith, one half of the brilliant Khaki Malarkey podcast, to examine 2014’s ‘Testament of Youth’. We discuss the book the film is based on, World War One nursing and Vera Brittain – the protagonist and author of Testament of Youth. Released around the centennial of the beginning of the Great War the film stars Alicia Vikander, as Brittain, alongside a stellar cast including Kit Harrington, Colin Morgan, Taron Egerton, Dominic West and Hayley Atwell.
Join us as we discuss a modern adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s classic First World War play ‘Journey’s End’. The 2018 adaptation stars Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Tom Sturridge and Toby Jones.
We’re lucky enough to be joined by a very special guest, Taff Gillingham historical advisor and co-director of Khaki Devil, who was instrumental in giving the film its impressive authenticity. The film follows a group of British officers in the days before German Spring 1918 Offensive!
In the UK we’ve gone into another COVID-19 induced lockdown, so why not put out another episode of the Fighting On Film! In this first episode of a new additional format ‘Show & Tell’ we talk about a couple of war movies we watched recently and see if you guys think we should cover them in a full episode. We discuss a new Latvian film ‘The Rifleman’ and a British 50’s movie featuring a young Richard Attenborough – ‘Sea of Sand/Desert Patrol’.
Hi guys, here’s a special Halloween episode of our new podcast, Fighting On Film, that looks at classic and obscure war films. If you missed our first episode discussing the unique 1946 classic Theirs Is The Glory, you can catch up here.
In this episode we discuss Death Trench (also known as Trench 11), a 2017 First World War horror movie set in the final months of the war. A rag tag band of soldiers investigate a German biological weapons bunker with predictable results!
You can listen in the video below. Or find the podcast on other platforms and apps – here
Some scenes from the film:
Be sure to follow us on Twitter@FightingOnFilm and let us know what you thought of the episode and if you’ve seen Death Trench.
We recently reached 7,000 subscribers (thanks guys) so what better way to celebrate than some original archival footage of the Browning M1917 in action.
M1917 in action (US National Archives)
I found the footage in the US National Archives’ digitised collection when doing some research. It was filmed in April 1918 by the US Army Signal Corps.
The US entered the Great War with no tanks of their own – by the end of the war they had designed and built their first tank, collaborated on a leviathan heavy tank with Britain and built their own copy of the French FT. In this video we look at how the US Army hit the ground running and formed two tank corps and built their first tanks.
In recent videos we’ve looked at all of the US Army’s early tanks, here’s a round up:
The tinny 3-ton Ford was the first American designed and built tank. Aiming to use readily available parts and materials it took inspiration from the French Renault FT but was smaller and lacked the FT’s revolutionary turret. The Ford was only lightly armoured and did have the best cross country handling. Check out our full article on the Ford here.
The MkVIII was a truly ‘international’ effort with the US, UK and France all working on the project. The US and UK provided the mechanical components while France provided a factory to assemble the formidable vehicles. The MkVIII wasn’t ready in time to see action during the war but remained in US service into the 1930s. Check out our full article on the MkVIII here.
The US also sought to produce their own licensed version of the French Renault FT, making some slight changes the tank was adopted as the M1917 but despite production being well underway by late 1918, none of the M1917s reached the front. Instead they became the backbone of the US Army’s interwar tank force. One even climbed a mountain!Check out our full article on the M1917 here.
The Armourers Bench 