Book excerpt: Includes more than 30 maps, plans and diagrams The world-renowned military expert Major-General J.F.C. Fuller DSO, noted for his many works on military strategy, tactics and history, turns his attention to the famed Royal Tank Corps of World War I. He was in a particularly good position to write such a work as he served from 1916 as part of the Tanks Corps and planned the famous tank attack at Cambrai in 1917, he also took a leading role in the planning of the 1918 autumn offensives that broke the back of German resistance and ended the War. He covers in comprehensively the development of the tank, mechanical characteristics of early British tanks, particularly the Mark I, as well as the early battles at the Somme and Ancre. He also describes the growth of the Tank Corps itself, tank tactics, tank engineering plus the tank battles in 1917-1918. There are also appreciations of German, French and American tank activities.