May 1917 - first prototype A7V complete. Sep 1916 - proposals for armoured vehicles first discussed. In Germany, the timeline was approximately: Sep 1916 - a small number of Mark I are first used in combat. Jun 1916 - first production tanks issued to units. Feb 1916 - first Mark I tanks go into production. Dec 1915 - first Mark I tank completed for tests. Sep 1915 - construction began on prototype Mark I. Jul 1915 - construction began on small experimental vehicle. Feb 1915 - proposals for armoured vehicles first discussed. The timeline in the UK was approximately: Knowing that tanks could work would speed some of this up - you would not need to spend as much time developing tactics if you've seen them used, for example - but it would not really help with practical engineering issues, which would take up a lot of the development time. All of these aspects inevitably took a lot of time for both sides - the Germans were just starting later. While the Germans knew in principle that tanks could be built, they still needed to design a tank, develop a prototype, work out the problems, put it into mass production, develop tactics, and train crews to use it. Question: Why did it take so long for the Germans to develop the first tank model in World War I? Indeed the British tank did not reach the maturity until 1917, but there is still about 1 year gap between the first used tank by British and Germans. The tanks were given toĪssault Tank Units 1 and 2, founded on 20 September 1917. The first pre-production A7V was produced in September 1917, followedīy the first production model in October 1917. However, the Germans seem to have reacted quite slow to this change:įollowing the appearance of the first British tanks on the Westernįront, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee Its debut at the First Battle of the Somme near Courcelette, France, The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare ofīy 1916, this armored vehicle was deemed ready for battle and made When the British managed to invent the first tank, that seemed like an important advance in warfare: 
World War I still featured a lot of trench warfare due do a lack of mobility that placed an advantage upon the defender.
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