31july1917-summery

31 July 1917 - Summary

Tank Distribution 31^st July 1917

The Tank Corps Administrative Summary No 4 Dated 5^th August 1917 (see bleow) indicates Haig had over 400 fighting tanks available on 31^st July 1917, more than were used at Cambrai on 20^th November 1917.

D and E Battalions were in Corps /Army reserve at Oosthoek Wood ^(W4)(H5).

H Battalion – In England

I Battalion – In Erin

G battalion had drawn three spare tanks prior to the battle.

1^st Tank Brigade: G Battalion supporting XVIII Corp (39, 51, 11, 48 Div)

2^nd Tank brigade Supporting II corps (24, 30, 18, 8, 25 Div)

3^rd Tank Brigade supporting XIX Corp (15,55,16,36 Div)

Brg = Brigade, Btn = Battalion, Coy = Company,

Sup = Supply tanks (Mk I and II),

oth = 2 x Radio tanks (C and F battalion), 2 x cable layers (G Battalion),

Int = The number of fighting tanks that were supposed to attack

Res = Reserve tanks, only included when they actually replaced a fighting tank

Start = Fighting tanks at the start point.

DNS = Did not start, tanks that failed to leave the star point, due to break downs or being Hit.

EE = Engaged enemy,

D/Bk = Ditched broke down after starting, unable to continue the attack, may have rallied later.

KO = Knocked out by enemy fire after starting, may have rallied damaged.

Ral = Rallied, does not include tanks in the DNS, D/Bk or KO columns.

It is possible that nore supply tanks were also deployed but no records kept.

The reserve companies with each Battalion probably provided some reserve tanks to the two attacking companies.

9 Company had lost a tank to shellfire on 4^th July. Another broke down prior to the start of the action and was replaced. Both the replacement vehicles may have come from 8 Company which only committed ten fighting tanks on 22^nd August.

6 Company had two tanks KO by shellfire on the approach march.

Total Fighting Tanks

The Tank Corps Administrative Summary No 4 Dated 5^th August 1917 (PRO WO 95-92) indicates the following:

Distribution of Mk IV tanks on 5^th August 1917:

Each company should have had 12 fighting tanks and two spares, 42 tanks per battalion.

Indications are that all companies were allocated two supply tanks.

Records show that on 31^st July 5, 16 and 17 companies deployed two supply tanks each and 7 company deployed three.

It seems likely that each battalion also had a Mk I / II Wireless tank allocated to it. For a total of 8 tanks.

Thus ta total of 56 Mk I / II Supply and Signal tanks were also available on the 31^st July, though a number were lost on that date.

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