Tanks were used in battle for the first time, by the British, on 15 September. Still mechanically unreliable, the tanks were rushed into action in small groups. Many broke down, and the Germans soon devised ways to stop them.
The old and the new. A horse-drawn team passes a tank that seems to have broken down on the side of the road. Over 100,000 British horses were estimated to have been killed in the Somme offensive.
