The Sturmpanzerwagen A7V was a heavy tank introduced by Germany in 1918 during World War I. One hundred chassis were ordered in early 1917, ten to be finished as fighting vehicles with armoured bodies, and the remainder as Überlandwagen cargo carriers.Zaloga (2006), pp. 7–10. The number to be armoured was later increased to 20. They were used in action from March to October 1918, and were the only tanks produced by Germany in World War I to be used in combat, as well as being the first operational German tank. Although various German armoured vehicle proposals were shown a modest amount of support early in the war, enthusiasm among German high command was low and they were given little funding and attention. The sudden appearance of the British Mark series of tanks causing panic amongst the German infantry led this to be reconsidered however, and development on the German tank program began.
History After the first British tanks appeared on the Western Front, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee, under the auspices of its Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, Abteilung 7 Verkehrswesen ("General War Department, Section 7, Transportation"), to investigate tank development.
The project to design and build the first German tank was placed under the direction of Joseph Vollmer, one of Germany's foremost automobile designers. It was to weigh around 30 tons, be capable of crossing ditches up to wide, have armament including a cannon at the front and rear as well as several machine-guns, and reach a top speed of at least . The running gear was based on the American Holt tractor, copied from examples loaned by the Austro-Hungarian Army. After initial plans were shared with the army in December 1916, the design was extended to be a universal chassis that could be used as a base for both a tank and unarmoured Überlandwagen ("over-land vehicle") cargo carriers.
The first prototype was completed by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft at Berlin-Marienfelde and tested on 30 April 1917. A wooden mockup of a final version was completed in May 1917 and demonstrated in Mainz with 10 tons of ballast to simulate the weight of the armor. During final design, the rear-facing cannon was removed and the number of machine-guns was increased to six. The first pre-production A7V was produced in September 1917, followed by the first production model in October 1917. The tanks were given to Assault Tank Units 1 and 2, founded on 20 September 1917, each with five officers and 109 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.
Naming The tank's name was derived from that of its parent organization, Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, Abteilung 7 (Verkehrswesen) (General War Department, Section 7, Transport). In German, the tank was called Sturmpanzerwagen (roughly "armoured assault vehicle").
Design
The A7V was long and wide, and the maximum height was . The tank had 15 mm strong armoured plates at the sides, 30 mm at the front and 10 mm for the roof; the steel was a hardened steel with a brinell hardness between 400 and 440.
The crew officially consisted of at least 17 soldiers and one officer: commander (officer, typically a lieutenant), driver, mechanic, mechanic/signaller, 12 infantrymen (six machine gunners, six loaders), and two artillerymen (main gunner and loader). A7Vs often went into action with as many as 25 men on board.
Armament
The A7V was armed with six 7.92 mm MG08 machine guns and a 5.7 cm Maxim-Nordenfelt cannon mounted at the front. Some of these cannons were of British manufacture and had been captured in Belgium early in the war; others were captured in Russia in 1918 and appear to have included some Russian-made copies.
Some A7Vs originally were built with two forward-facing machine guns instead of a 57 mm gun. Most were converted to carry a 57 mm before entering service. Number 501, Gretchen, took part in the action at St. Quentin before her 57 mm was fitted.
Ammunition The A7V carried between 40 and 60 cartridge belts for its machine guns, each of 250 rounds, giving it a total of . Officially, it carried 180 shells for the 57 mm gun, of which 90 were canister, 54 were armor-piercing, and 36 were high-explosive; in practice, however, A7V crews stowed up to 300 57 mm rounds for combat.
Propulsion
Power came from two centrally mounted Daimler 4-cylinder petrol engines delivering each; the A7V carried of fuel. The top speed was about on roads and across country. The A7V's power-to-weight ratio was 5.1 kW/ton (6.8 hp/ton), it could cross trenches up to wide, and its ground clearance was .
Compared to that of other World War I tanks, the A7V's road speed was quite high, but the vehicle had very poor off-road capability and a high centre of gravity, which made it prone to getting stuck or overturning on steep slopes. The large overhang at the front and the low ground clearance meant that trenches or very muddy areas were impassable. The driver's view of the terrain directly in front of the tank was obscured by the vehicle's hull, which meant that there was a blind spot of about . However, in open terrain, the A7V could be used to some success, and offered more firepower than the armoured cars that were available.
The full 60 road wheel suspension (both tracks combined) consisted of six bogies in total, each sprung by two or four square section coil springs. Each bogie held five axles, each axle held two road wheels, for a total of ten road wheels per bogie. The road wheels featured flanges that interleaved, though to a limited extent. (Some sources incorrectly count 30 or even 24 road wheels.)
Combat history
St. Quentin Canal The A7V was first used in combat on 21 March 1918. Five tanks of Abteilung I (Detachment I) under the command of Hauptmann Greiff were deployed north of the St. Quentin Canal. Three of the A7Vs suffered mechanical failures before they entered combat; the remaining pair helped stop a minor British breakthrough in the area, but otherwise saw little combat that day.
Villers-Bretonneux
Overview The first full employment of A7V was an attack in the area of Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918. Four German infantry divisions had the task to storm the British lines and take the town, therefore all three detachments (Abteilungen) of A7V had been allocated to these divisions. The offensive operation spread over a front. The detachments were transported from the Cambrai tank workshop to the front, but of originally 15 tanks, only 13 reached the starting position. The German High Command ordered that they had to follow the infantry attack and destroy resistance, when the assault of the infantry is stopped. After the battle the British recorded that their lines were broken by the tanks.
First Tank Battles of History During this German operation the world would see the first but not forseen tank battles. During World War 1 German tanks were much to rare to expect an encounter of French or British tanks with German tanks. But in April 1918 the number of British and French tanks had become more significant along all the western front.
So when the German attack set of on 24th April 1918 the large scale employment of all available A7Vs create the conditions for a tank battle. The idea what exactly happend that day, was always influenced by the persons who told the story.
According to a participant of the battle, Second Lieutenant Frank Mitchell, who was one of the commanders of the tank crews of three British Mark IVs (two female machine gun-armed tanks and one male with two 6-pounder guns) which were send out to support own forces north of Villers-Bretonneux, their tanks encountered a German A7V tank (chassis number 561, known as Nixe) and two further German tanks. He wrote that during the battle, tanks on both sides were damaged. While he had a "Male" tank able to fight back, the two British "Female" Mk IV retreated, as they where not able to damage an enemy tank with their machine guns.
Mitchell then attacked the German tank nearest to him, commanded by Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Biltz, with the 6-pounders of his own tank and knocked it out. He hit it three times, and killed five of the crew when they bailed out. He stated that he then went on to rout some infantry with case shot. According to his memories two remaining A7Vs turned and withdrew.
After examining several reports from all available sources the museum director of the German Panzer Museum Munster, Ralph Raths, in 2026 came to different conclusion. The German tanks had received an order to opperate in pairs. Tank 561 "Nixe", lost his escort tank early that day, before it reached a position northeast of Villers-Bretonneux, where it was fighting infantry, when the three British tanks showed up. No other tank was close to it. The next German tanks were "Siegfried" and "Schnuck" operating a bit further south in an attack on the village Cachy. Facing a tank with a gun the "Femal" tanks retreated directly without any chance of winning a duell for them, but one received hits from "Nixe" according the available battle records. Mitchell's tank attacked "Nixe" with one of its guns and succeed to place a direct hit. The engagement finally ended with a damaged and immobilized German tank.
The German defense targeted Mitchell's tank, which therefore lost a track due to damage from an exploding mortar shell and was abandoned, while it was moving forward (according Mitchell in the intention to attack the two tanks south of Villers-Bretonneux). Before the heavy damaged A7V "Nixe" limped back to the German lines, but broke down not far behind the line. It was later destroyed by a German demolition squad, to prevent its capture and reuse by the Allies.
During the same day however, another tank-against-tank fight took place where an A7V ("Siegfried") directly south of the first duell, engaged a group of Whippet tanks and destroyed one of them. The Whippet's developed as cavalry tanks to use a breakthrough in enemy lines without the idea of a tank battle at all, were armed only with machine guns. "Siegfried" used its 57-mm-gun and knocked out three of this relative new tanks, while the rest managed to demoralize two German infantry battalions they caught in the open to the rear causing them to break and flee. These new tank models had been reported in German after battle reports as French tanks, as they had nothing in common with the British romboid tanks.
A counterattack later re-established the Allied line, by which time three A7Vs were out of action in No Man's Land or behind German lines. Nixe was badly damaged, and a German team destroyed it with explosive charges during the night of the 24th. Elfriede had overturned; it was righted and recovered from No Man's Land three weeks later by French troops and British tanks, and handed over to the French for examination. Mephisto lay stuck in a crater behind German lines for almost three months. After the area was taken by Australian troops, in July, the tank was towed to the rear by British tanks and, eventually, transported to Australia.
Other actions In May, A7Vs were used with limited success in an attack on the French near Soissons, during the Third Battle of the Aisne.
On 15 July, at Reims (during the Second Battle of the Marne), the Germans put eight A7Vs and 20 captured Mk IVs against the French lines. Although 10 of the Mk IVs were lost in this action, no A7Vs were lost.
The final use in World War I of A7Vs was in a small but successful action on 11 October 1918, near Iwuy.
Assessment
Germany did not consider the A7V a success and planned other designs. However, the end of the war meant none of the other tanks in development or planned ones – such as the Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien and the 120-ton K-Wagen – would be finished.