Tanks invented before WWI

Petike

Petike

I'd like to hear you opinions about doing this scenario in a realistic way. What will we need, which POD would be the best ?
 

merlin

Well as the saying goes "Demand, is the mother of invention".

So - why? That is where is your demand/need?

Tanks were invented/developed to break the impasse of trench warfare of WW1 - to cross and break the entanglements of barbed wire, to destroy the machine gun posts that guarded 'no-man's land' and enable a breakthrough of the enemies defensive position.

Before WW1 no one anticipated what industrial warfare would look like. The only model had been the American Civil War, but the Europeans didn't think that applied to them!!
The other 'model' was the Russian v Japan war of 1905, again too far away to be of relevance to Europe!
Plus, you need advances in the internal combustion engine, to make it possible
 

Consumerist

I am pretty sure it's "Necessity is the mother of invention," but then again necessity is just another form of demand.

But as for POD I'd say it depend on the earliest they could make a tank would depend on how soon an efficient fuel engine and a mass-producible bulletproof/resistant metal alloy/compound could be created. Perhaps someone more educated in industrial history could pitch in on that. You'd also need a demand as mentioned like a static war like world war 1 like Merlin mentioned.
 

Dure

Banned
If you are willing to settle for steam-tanks the a good POD would be the Crimean war where the British used steam traction engines to pull heavy artillery for the first time. Have it be an huge success. In the late 1850s and early 1860s the British armour the boiler and cab. Several are purchased by the CSA which mounts riflemen and small canon on them, they are used with great success and are responsible for several break throughs. The Union also purchase several one comes into the hands of Erricson who puts a small turret abaft of the cab. This works well and is successful. A nameless navy officer takes the idea and changes things around boiler at the back, cab and fire box in the centre and turret and firing ports at the front. The idea travels back across the Atlantic and the British, French and Prussians embark on an arms race to develop the idea, Erricson turrets are soon replaced by Coles and small muzzle loaders by larger breach loaders. Armoured steam traction engines are used in the German wars of the next 10 years with some success but they all have limited mobility. In the mid-1870s British Farmers on the Lincolnshire Fens start testing out caterpillar tracks for traction engines, this idea is taken up by the British Army and by 1877 the steam tank is in service with the British Army. Its first great success is in 1877 when a single tank turns the tide at Isandalwanna.
 
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