First World War
When tanks were first used in action in 1916, they were operated by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps. This constituted six companies, A through F. With the rapid growth of the tank forces, these companies were used as the cadre of new battalions, which were quickly transferred to the newly formed Tank Corps, and then changed from letters to numbers. F Company thus became F Battalion of the Heavy Branch in November 1916, then F Battalion of the Tank Corps, then redesignated as 6th Battalion of the Tank Corps in January 1918.
During this time, the unit saw heavy action; it fought at the Battle of Messines, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Amiens (using Whippet Mk A light tanks), Baupame, 2nd Arras and Cambrai-St Quentin.
During this time, a Victoria Cross was awarded to Captain Richard Annesley West of the North Irish Horse, at the time an acting Lieutenant-Colonel commanding 6th Battalion Tank Corps. This was one of only four VCs awarded to the Corps during the Great War.
Read more about this topic: 6th Royal Tank Regiment
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“...I had grown up in a world that was dominated by immature age. Not by vigorous immaturity, but by immaturity that was old and tired and prudent, that loved ritual and rubric, and was utterly wanting in curiosity about the new and the strange. Its era has passed away, and the world it made has crumbled around us. Its finest creation, a code of manners, has been ridiculed and discarded.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“This is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the people, of all the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield but in the cities and the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home and in the heart of every man, woman and child who loves freedom.”
—Arthur Wimperis (1874–1953)