France Tanks First World War

Tanks are the symbol of modern warfare and the most important military innovation since gunpowder. Their development was a response to the static and trench warfare that characterised the First World War, where available military technology favoured the defenders over the attackers.

Ten-part series based on the book by Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford which tells the story as never before, dispelling the myths and offering new and provocative answers to core questions about the war's causes, conduct and legacy. It features hundreds of eyewitness accounts from frontline soldiers, generals, statesmen, children and women from all sides in the conflict. The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution and launched America as a world power.