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I recently completed a short story set during the battle of the Somme showing the first use of tanks in history (Shameless plug) and it got me thinking. Yes nearly fifty tanks was quite alot of a completely new type of vehicle to commit to a battle. But when they were finally used in 1916 only 32 were in fighting condition, the rest having broken down along the way.

But what if rather than committing what vehicles they had to that battle and forgetting the vehicles undergoing repairs the British field commanders had instead waited a week or two for the tanks to be all repaired before sending them out. Lets say by this point that forty to forty five are operational and all of them are committed to the attack.

What would the affects be? I would imagine they would be better, if we follow the logic that more means better. In which case forty five is far superior to thirty two. But could the British, given a few extra tanks and some more time to work out a strategy, achieve the hoped for breakthrough of the German lines? Perhaps bringing in more tanks for further pushes into Germany proper? Or is this all outlandish and borderline ASB?
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