I create plans for weapons, vehicles and tactics from different time periods as a hobby. I recently started thinking about making a WWI breakthrough doctrine, and designing the weapons/vehicles needed for it. I was thinking about having heavier tanks similar to a British Mark IV, supported by lighter vehicles. I was wondering if these lighter vehicles could perhaps be wheeled, with just enough armor to stop rifle fire, and maybe a machine gun in a turret, or if they should be more like the British Whippet or French Renault FT. Thanks in advance!
I was thinking about having heavier tanks similar to a British Mark IV, supported by lighter vehicles.
That would follow their relatively rare historical usage. Given the rough terrain and obstacles encountered (even tanks had fascines and unditching beams to traverse trenches and ditches which had been widened explicitly to prevent tanks from crossing), any vehicles would face sustained machine gun fire (quite capable of causing spalling, where the inner surface of the armour plate flakes and fragments due to exterior impact, and those pieces could hit the crew and cause other problems), hurled grenades, anti-tank rifle fire, as well as indirect and possibly direct fire from guns encountered once the vehicles had pushed through the initial defensive lines. The use of lighter vehicles as a penetrating force could be extremely costly in those conditions, if not fruitless. Wheeled vehicles with thinner armour would be prone to be mobility killed, if not simply killed.
or if they should be more like the British Whippet or French Renault FT.
I should say so. Their armour was much more respectable, giving them much more survivability, and while not as fast as a wheeled armoured car on road, they would probably manage a higher practical speed, on average, off-road.