<P> The first fifty had been delivered to France on 30 August . They were' male' or' female', depending upon whether their armament comprised two 6 - pounder cannon and three Hotchkiss machine guns or four Vickers machine guns and one Hotchkiss . It had a crew of eight, four of whom were needed to handle the steering and drive gears . The tanks were capable of, at best, 6 km / h (4 mph), matching the speed of marching infantry with whom they were to be integrated to aid in the destruction of enemy machine guns . In practice, their speed on broken ground could be as little as 1 mph . </P> <P> After the war the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors decided that the principal inventors of the Tank were Sir William Tritton, managing director of Fosters, and Major Walter Gordon Wilson . </P> <P> The first use of tanks on the battlefield was the use of British Mark I tanks at the Battle of Flers - Courcelette (part of the Battle of the Somme) on 15 September 1916, with mixed results; many broke down, but nearly a third succeeded in breaking through . Of the forty - nine tanks shipped to the Somme, only thirty - two were able to begin the first attack in which they were used and only nine made it across "no man's land" to the German lines . The tanks had been rushed into combat before the design was mature enough (against Churchill's and Ernest Swinton's wishes) and the number was small but their use gave important feedback on how to design newer tanks, the soundness of the concept, and their potential to affect the course of the war . On the other hand, the French Army was critical of the British employment of small numbers of tanks at this battle . They felt the British had sacrificed the secrecy of the weapon while employing it in numbers too small to be decisive . Considering that the British attack was part of an Anglo - French offensive while the Russians were also attacking at the same time, Haig felt justified in making a maximum effort, regardless of the limitations of the tank force . </P> <P> The Mark Is were capable of performing on the real battlefield of World War I, one of the most difficult battlefield terrains ever . They did have reliability problems, but when they were working they could cross trenches or craters of 9 feet (2.7 m) and drive right through barbed wire . It was still common for them to get stuck, especially in larger bomb craters, but overall the rhomboid shape allowed for extreme terrain mobility . </P>

When was the first tank used in battle