GERMAN TANK TRAPS 1918 [Allocated Title]

Disjointed film of Tank Corps members inspecting types of German tank traps and anti-tank mines, Western Front, 1918.

There are three types of trap, all working on the same principle. The Tank Corps men look firstly at a simple 'hedge' of wooden stakes driven at an angle into the ground. A Mark V male tank demonstrates how these are meant to stop tanks by driving up to the 'hedge' until one stake is directly against the forward sloped section of its right-hand track, so that any further pressure from the tank would only drive the stake more firmly into the ground. The tank then demonstrates that by approaching the stakes at a slight angle it can simply drive over and crush them without difficulty. The second type of trap is another 'hedge' of thin metal rods set closely together, probably worn railway tracks. The tank again bends and crushes these without difficulty, coming almost up to the camera. British soldiers, digging between these stakes, unearth two unexploded large calibre shells, probably intended to explode as the stakes are knocked over as a primitive form of anti-tank mine. The third type of stake defence is a combination, the thin metal rods being reinforced on either side by wooden stakes. Part of this 'hedge' has been bent right over by a tank.

35mm