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154-698: The city is home to a military fortress constructed by the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri . This fortress , which covers an area of 300 square meters, is similar in design to a fortress built by Al-Ghuri in Aleppo , Syria . The castle encompasses a military industrial city and a glass factory. It is postulated that the construction of a tunnel beneath the Suez Canal , linking Qantara Sharq and Qantara Gharb , would stimulate investment activity in Qantara Sharq. This

308-447: A turret . They are a mainstay of modern 20th and 21st century ground forces and a key part of combined arms combat. Modern tanks are versatile mobile land weapons platforms whose main armament is a large- caliber tank gun mounted in a rotating gun turret , supplemented by machine guns or other ranged weapons such as anti-tank guided missiles or rocket launchers . They have heavy vehicle armour which provides protection for

462-631: A Mamluk army in the Battle of the Pyramids and drove the survivors out to Upper Egypt . The Mamluks relied on massed cavalry charges, changed only by the addition of muskets . The French infantry formed square and held firm. Despite multiple victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, mounting conflict in Europe and the earlier defeat of the supporting French fleet by the British Royal Navy at

616-402: A Mamluk rose to become Sultan of Egypt . The Mamluks in medieval Egypt were predominantly of White Turkic and Circassian origins, and most of them descended from enslaved Christians. After they were taken from their families, they became renegades. Because Egyptian Mamluks were enslaved Christians, Muslim rulers and clerics did not believe they were true believers of Islam despite

770-613: A caterpillar track. It is true that in 1770 he patented a "machine, that should carry and lay down its own road", but this was Edgeworth's choice of words. His own account in his autobiography is of a horse-drawn wooden carriage on eight retractable legs, capable of lifting itself over high walls. The description bears no similarity to a caterpillar track. Armoured trains appeared in the mid-19th century, and various armoured steam and petrol-engined vehicles were also proposed. The machines described in Wells's 1903 short story The Land Ironclads are

924-448: A challenging endeavor, as the tactics employed in urban warfare differed significantly from those employed in the desert. Consequently, the intensity of combat persisted throughout the day. At the conclusion of October 7th, the military forces of the 18th Infantry Division, commanded by Brigadier General Fouad Aziz Ghali, had managed to encircle and control the city, thus laying the groundwork for its ultimate liberation. On Monday, October 8,

1078-505: A defeat on the Japanese 6th Army with his massed combined tank and air attack, the Soviets learned a lesson on the use of gasoline engines, and quickly incorporated those newly found experiences into their new T-34 medium tank during World War II . Prior to World War II, the tactics and strategy of deploying tank forces underwent a revolution. In August 1939, Soviet General Georgy Zhukov used

1232-512: A field gun in an armoured box on tracks . Major William E. Donohue, of the British Army's Mechanical Transport Committee, suggested fixing a gun and armoured shield on a British type of track-driven vehicle. The first armoured car was produced in Austria in 1904. However, all were restricted to rails or reasonably passable terrain. It was the development of a practical caterpillar track that provided

1386-473: A great army for the conquest of Egypt, but gave out that he intended further attacks on Persia. In 1515, Selim began the war which led to the conquest of Egypt and its dependencies. Mamluk cavalry proved no match for the Ottoman artillery and Janissary infantry . On 24 August 1516, at the Battle of Marj Dabiq , Sultan Al-Ghawri was killed. Syria passed into Turkish possession, an event welcomed in many places as it

1540-503: A humorous objection to this, remarking that the War Office pundits would probably contract the description to 'W.C.'s for Russia', and that we had better forestall this by merely labelling the packages 'Tanks'. So tanks they became, and tanks they have remained." This appears to be an imperfect recollection. He says that the name problem arose "when we shipped the first two vehicles to France the following year" (August 1916), but by that time

1694-795: A large number of Egyptian antiquities experts, including Dr. Mohamed El-Saghir, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, and Dr. Fikry Hassan, professor of Egyptology at the University of London . Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk ( / ˈ m æ m l uː k / ; Arabic : مملوك , romanized :  mamlūk (singular), مماليك , mamālīk (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave ") were non- Arab , ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic , Caucasian , Eastern and Southeastern European ) enslaved mercenaries , slave-soldiers , and freed slaves who were assigned high-ranking military and administrative duties, serving

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1848-586: A large scale, and it was their superior tactics and French blunders, not superior weapons, that made the "blitzkrieg" so successful in May 1940. For information regarding tank development in this period, see tank development between the wars . Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union all experimented heavily with tank warfare during their clandestine and "volunteer" involvement in the Spanish Civil War , which saw some of

2002-769: A meeting took place of the Inter-Departmental Conference (including representatives of the Director of Naval Construction's Committee, the Admiralty, the Ministry of Munitions, and the War Office). Its purpose was to discuss the progress of the plans for what were described as "Caterpillar Machine Gun Destroyers or Land Cruisers." In his autobiography, Albert Gerald Stern (Secretary to the Landship Committee, later head of

2156-530: A more traditional role in close cooperation with infantry units, but in the Battle of France deep independent armoured penetrations were executed by the Germans, a technique later called blitzkrieg . Blitzkrieg used innovative combined arms tactics and radios in all of the tanks to provide a level of tactical flexibility and power that surpassed that of the Allied armour. The French Army , with tanks equal or superior to

2310-522: A powerful military knightly class in various Muslim societies that were controlled by dynastic Arab rulers. Particularly in Egypt and Syria , but also in the Ottoman Empire , Levant , Mesopotamia , and India, mamluks held political and military power. In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan , while in others they held regional power as emirs or beys . Most notably, Mamluk factions seized

2464-570: A repeat of the German successes of 1940. Despite early successes against the Soviets, the Germans were forced to up-gun their Panzer IVs, and to design and build both the larger and more expensive Tiger heavy tank in 1942, and the Panther medium tank the following year. In doing so, the Wehrmacht denied the infantry and other support arms the production priorities that they needed to remain equal partners with

2618-513: A small number of middle-ranking British Army officers tried to persuade the War Office and the Government to consider the creation of armoured vehicles. Amongst their suggestions was the use of caterpillar tractors, but although the Army used many such vehicles for towing heavy guns, it could not be persuaded that they could be adapted as armoured vehicles. The consequence was that early tank development in

2772-491: A smaller caliber and lighter gun. These smaller tanks move over terrain with speed and agility and can perform a reconnaissance role in addition to engaging hostile targets. The smaller, faster tank would not normally engage in battle with a larger, heavily armoured tank, except during a surprise flanking manoeuvre . The word tank was first applied in a military context to British "landships" in 1915 to keep their nature secret before they entered service. On 24 December 1915,

2926-754: A squadron of 250 Mamluks. On 7 January 1802 the previous order was canceled and the squadron reduced to 150 men. The list of effectives on 21 April 1802 reveals three officers and 155 of other rank. By decree of 25 December 1803 the Mamluks were organized into a company attached to the Chasseurs-à-Cheval of the Imperial Guard (see Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard ). Napoleon left with his personal guard in late 1799. His successor in Egypt, General Jean-Baptiste Kléber ,

3080-472: A step closer, insofar as they are armour-plated, have an internal power plant, and are able to cross trenches. Some aspects of the story foresee the tactical use and impact of the tanks that later came into being. However, Wells's vehicles were driven by steam and moved on pedrail wheels , technologies that were already outdated at the time of writing. After seeing British tanks in 1916, Wells denied having "invented" them, writing, "Yet let me state at once that I

3234-516: A token force of about 18,000 men as a garrison. The Mamluk army, led by Qutuz, drew the reduced Ilkhanate army into an ambush near the Orontes River , routed them at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, and captured and executed Kitbuqa. After this great triumph, Qutuz was assassinated by conspiring Mamluks. It was widely said that Baibars, who seized power, had been involved in the assassination plot. In

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3388-532: A total of 150. Production models of "Male" tanks (armed with naval cannon and machine guns) and "Females" (carrying only machine-guns) would go on to fight in history's first tank action at the Somme in September 1916. Great Britain produced about 2,600 tanks of various types during the war. The first tank to engage in battle was designated D1 , a British Mark I Male, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of

3542-484: A variety of intense combat situations, simultaneously both offensively (with direct fire from their powerful main gun) and defensively (as fire support and defilade for friendly troops due to the near invulnerability to common infantry small arms and good resistance against heavier weapons, although anti-tank weapons used in 2022, some of them man-portable, have demonstrated the ability to destroy older generations of tanks with single shots ), all while maintaining

3696-532: Is also connected to the unified electrical grid of Egypt , and it is considered the first city liberated in the October War . In 2004, the city was subjected to an infestation of locusts . Qantara Sharq is one of the cities of the Sinai Peninsula . It was established as Qantara Sharq following the construction of the Suez Canal , although it had been inhabited for a considerable period prior to this. Indeed, it

3850-474: Is also used colloquially. The Polish name czołg , derived from verb czołgać się ("to crawl"), is used, depicting the way of machine's movement and its speed. In Hungarian the tank is called harckocsi (combat wagon), albeit tank is also common. In Japanese, the term sensha ( 戦車 , lit. "battle vehicle") is taken from Chinese and used, and this term is likewise borrowed into Korean as jeoncha ( 전차 / 戰車 ); more recent Chinese literature uses

4004-479: Is because the tunnel would eliminate the daily inconvenience currently experienced by investors and workers in their daily commute between the east and west banks of the Suez Canal . El-Salam Canal passes through the city after crossing the Suez Canal through a dam. The Sinai Railway passes near the city, which crosses the canal through the El-Ferdan Railway Bridge and heads to Bir al-Abd . The city

4158-515: Is believed to have served as the burial ground for the site of Tell Abu Safi, also known as the Roman castle of Silat, situated approximately 2.5 kilometers to the east of Qantara Sharq. The mosque is situated in a village of the same name, approximately 30 kilometers from Qantara Sharq. This region is characterized by a prevalence of palm trees. The mosque building is constructed of red bricks and has an area of 13 x 10 meters. It features three porticoes and

4312-499: Is really to Mr Winston Churchill that the credit is due more than to anyone else. He took up with enthusiasm the idea of making them a long time ago, and he met with many difficulties. He converted me, and at the Ministry of Munitions he went ahead and made them. The admiralty experts were invaluable, and gave the greatest possible assistance. They are, of course, experts in the matter of armour plating. Major Stern , (formerly an officer in

4466-410: Is supported by four octagonal pillars. The minaret is located on the northwestern side. The site is accessed via a staircase. The mihrab is situated on the exterior of the southern wall, while the area in front of the mosque is designated for ablution . This includes a water well, cistern, and ablution basins. The North Sinai Antiquities District has undertaken the restoration of the mosque , employing

4620-501: The Samokhodnaya ustanovka families of AFV's for the Soviets: such turretless, casemate -style tank destroyers and assault guns were less complex, stripped down tanks carrying heavy guns, solely firing forward. The firepower and low cost of these vehicles made them attractive but as manufacturing techniques improved and larger turret rings made larger tank guns feasible, the gun turret

4774-694: The Bahri mamluk dynasty . The first Mamluk dynasty was named Bahri after the name of one of the regiments, the Bahriyyah or River Island regiment. Its name referred to their center on Rhoda Island in the Nile . The regiment consisted mainly of Kipchaks and Cumans . When the Mongol Empire 's troops of Hulagu Khan sacked Baghdad in 1258 and advanced towards Syria, the Mamluk emir Baibars left Damascus for Cairo . There he

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4928-511: The Balkans such as Albanians , Greeks , and South Slavs ( see Saqaliba ). They also recruited from the Egyptians . The "Mamluk/­Ghulam Phe­nom­enon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class, was of great political importance; for one thing, it endured for nearly 1,000 years, from the 9th century to the early 19th century. Over time, Mamluks became

5082-473: The Battle of the Nile decided the issue. On 14 September 1799, General Jean-Baptiste Kléber established a mounted company of Mamluk auxiliaries and Syrian Janissaries from Turkish troops captured at the siege of Acre . Menou reorganized the company on 7 July 1800, forming three companies of 100 men each and renaming it the "Mamluks de la République". In 1801 General Jean Rapp was sent to Marseille to organize

5236-539: The Burji dynasty took over when Barquq was proclaimed sultan. The name "Burji" referred to their center at the citadel of Cairo . Barquq became an enemy of Timur , who threatened to invade Syria. Timur invaded Syria, defeating the Mamluk army, and he sacked Aleppo and captured Damascus. The Ottoman sultan, Bayezid I , then invaded Syria. After Timur's death in 1405, the Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Faraj regained control of Syria. Frequently facing rebellions by local emirs , he

5390-655: The Buyid dynasty used Turkic slaves throughout their empire. The rebel al-Basasiri was a Mamluk who eventually ushered in Seljuq dynastic rule in Baghdad after attempting a failed rebellion. When the later Abbasids regained military control over Iraq, they also relied on the Ghilman as their warriors. Under Saladin and the Ayyubids of Egypt, the power of the Mamluks increased and they claimed

5544-753: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre as envoys, he threatened Pope Julius II that if he did not check Manuel I of Portugal in his depredations on the Indian Sea, he would destroy all Christian holy places. The rulers of Gujarat in India and Yemen also turned for help to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. They wanted a fleet to be armed in the Red Sea that could protect their important trading sea routes from Portuguese attacks. Jeddah

5698-575: The Cold War , the main battle tank concept arose and became a key component of modern armies. In the 21st century, with the increasing role of asymmetrical warfare and the end of the Cold War, that also contributed to the increase of cost-effective anti-tank rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) worldwide and its successors, the ability of tanks to operate independently has declined. Modern tanks are more frequently organized into combined arms units which involve

5852-488: The Hussite-wars . The continuous " caterpillar track " arose from attempts to improve the mobility of wheeled vehicles by spreading their weight, reducing ground pressure, and increasing their traction. Experiments can be traced back as far as the 17th century, and by the late nineteenth they existed in various recognizable and practical forms in several countries. It is frequently claimed that Richard Lovell Edgeworth created

6006-494: The Levant . In a sense, they were like enslaved mercenaries . Daniel Pipes argued that the first indication of the Mamluk military class was rooted in the practice of early Muslims such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Uthman ibn Affan who, before Islam, owned many slaves and practiced Mawla (Islamic manumission of slaves). The Zubayrids army under Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , son of Zubayr, used these freed slave retainers during

6160-854: The Muslims in Spain , who were suffering after the Catholic Reconquista , by threatening the Christians in Syria, but he had little effect in Spain. He died in 1496, several hundred thousand ducats in debt to the great trading families of the Republic of Venice . Vasco da Gama in 1497 sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and pushed his way east across the Indian Ocean to the shores of Malabar and Kozhikode . There he attacked

6314-516: The Republican side were equipped with cannon, and of those 64 nearly all were World War I vintage Renault FT tanks, while the 331 Soviet supplied machines had 45mm main guns and were of 1930s manufacture. The balance of Nationalist tanks were machine gun armed. The primary lesson learned from this war was that machine gun armed tanks had to be equipped with cannon, with the associated armour inherent to modern tanks. The five-month-long war between

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6468-559: The Second Battle of El Alamein , the Afrika Korps, crippled by disruptions in their supply lines, had 95% of its tanks destroyed and was forced to retreat by a massively reinforced Eighth Army , the first in a series of defeats that would eventually lead to the surrender of the remaining Axis forces in Tunisia . When Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa ,

6622-623: The Sennar as a base for their slave trading. In 1820, the sultan of Sennar informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to comply with a demand to expel the Mamluks. In response, the Pasha sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan, clear it of Mamluks, and reclaim it for Egypt. The Pasha's forces received the submission of the Kashif, dispersed the Dunqulah Mamluks, conquered Kordofan , and accepted Sennar's surrender from

6776-509: The T-34 , one of the predecessors of the main battle tank . Less than two weeks later, Germany began their large-scale armoured campaigns that would become known as blitzkrieg ("lightning war") – massed concentrations of tanks combined with motorized and mechanized infantry , artillery and air power designed to break through the enemy front and collapse enemy resistance. The widespread introduction of high-explosive anti-tank warheads during

6930-742: The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company in Birmingham and tested in Switzerland and Norway, and can be seen in action in Herbert Ponting 's 1911 documentary film of Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition . Scott died during the expedition in 1912, but expedition member and biographer Apsley Cherry-Garrard credited Scott's "motors" with the inspiration for the British World War I tanks, writing: "Scott never knew their true possibilities; for they were

7084-448: The 18th Infantry Division was able to liberate the city of Qantara Sharq after a prolonged siege, both internally and externally, and a subsequent assault. The conflict took place in the city's streets and within its buildings until the opposing forces were forced to withdraw. The division seized a considerable quantity of enemy weapons and equipment, including a number of tanks , and captured thirty enemy personnel, all those who remained in

7238-492: The 870s. It included the systematic training of young slaves in military and martial skills. The Mamluk system is considered to have been a small-scale experiment of al-Muwaffaq , to combine the slaves' efficiency as warriors with improved reliability. This recent interpretation seems to have been accepted. After the fragmentation of the Abbasid Empire, military slaves, known as either Mamluks or Ghilman, were used throughout

7392-509: The Abbasid caliphs, especially al-Muʿtaṣim (833–842). By the end of the 9th century, such slave warriors had become the dominant element in the military. Conflict between the Ghilman and the population of Baghdad prompted the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim to move his capital to the city of Samarra , but this did not succeed in calming tensions. The caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by some of these slave soldiers in 861 (see Anarchy at Samarra ). Since

7546-474: The Arab world, tanks are called Dabbāba (after a type of siege engine ). In Italian, a tank is a " carro armato " (lit. "armed wagon"), without reference to its armour. Norway uses the term stridsvogn and Sweden the similar stridsvagn (lit. "battle wagon", also used for "chariots"), whereas Denmark uses kampvogn (lit. fight wagon). Finland uses panssarivaunu (armoured wagon), although tankki

7700-408: The British War Office . In Russia, Vasiliy Mendeleev designed a tracked vehicle containing a large naval gun. All of these ideas were rejected and, by 1914, forgotten (although it was officially acknowledged after the war that de Mole's design was at least the equal to the initial British tanks). Various individuals continued to contemplate the use of tracked vehicles for military applications, but by

7854-465: The British and French built thousands of tanks in World War I, Germany was unconvinced of the tank's potential, and did not have enough resources, thus it built only twenty. Tanks of the interwar period evolved into the much larger and more powerful designs of World War II . Important new concepts of armoured warfare were developed; the Soviet Union launched the first mass tank/air attack at Khalkhin Gol ( Nomonhan ) in August 1939, and later developed

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8008-412: The Cold War had been hammered out in the closing stages of World War II. Large turrets, capable suspension systems, greatly improved engines, sloped armour and large-caliber (90 mm and larger) guns were standard. Tank design during the Cold War built on this foundation and included improvements to fire control , gyroscopic gun stabilization, communications (primarily radio) and crew comfort and saw

8162-429: The Committee in view of his experience with the engineering methods it was felt might be required; the two other members were naval officers, and a number of industrialists were engaged as consultants. So many played a part in its long and complicated development that it is not possible to name any individual as the sole inventor of the tank. However leading roles were played by Lt Walter Gordon Wilson R.N. who designed

8316-420: The Egyptian sultan as-Salih Ayyub died, the power passed briefly to his son al-Muazzam Turanshah and then his favorite wife Shajar al-Durr , a Turk according to most historians, while others say she was an Armenian . She took control with Mamluk support and launched a counterattack against the French. Troops of the Bahri commander Baibars defeated Louis's troops. The king delayed his retreat too long and

8470-436: The English-derived 坦克 tǎnkè (tank) as opposed to 戰車 zhànchē (battle vehicle) used in earlier days. The modern tank is the result of a century of development from the first primitive armoured vehicles, due to improvements in technology such as the internal combustion engine, which allowed the rapid movement of heavy armoured vehicles. As a result of these advances, tanks underwent tremendous shifts in capability in

8624-412: The FT was its engine located at the rear. This pattern, with the gun located in a mounted turret and the engine at the back, has become the standard for most succeeding tanks across the world even to this day. The FT was the most numerous tank of the war; over 3,000 were made by late 1918. Germany fielded very few tanks during World War I , and started development only after encountering British tanks on

8778-455: The French expedition of the Suez Canal Company during the canal's construction in 1914. The Egyptian Antiquities Authority subsequently uncovered several sites of the necropolis during the seasons of 1981-1983 and 1986. The shape of the burials and tombs recovered from the excavations of the Roman necropolis can be described as follows: On occasion, stelae inscribed in Ancient Greek are discovered that contain funerary phrases elucidating

8932-506: The German tanks in both quality and quantity, employed a linear defensive strategy in which the armoured cavalry units were made subservient to the needs of the infantry armies to cover their entrenchment in Belgium. In addition, they lacked radios in many of their tanks and headquarters, which limited their ability to respond to German attacks. In accordance with blitzkrieg methods, German tanks bypassed enemy strongpoints and could radio for close air support to destroy them, or leave them to

9086-439: The Ilkhanids and their Christian allies at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299. Soon after that the Mamluks defeated the Ilkhanate again in 1303/1304 and 1312. Finally, the Ilkhanids and the Mamluks signed a treaty of peace in 1323. By the late fourteenth century, the majority of the Mamluk ranks were made up of Circassians from the North Caucasus region, whose young males had been frequently captured for slavery. In 1382

9240-434: The Islamic world as the basis of military power. The Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171) of Egypt had forcibly taken adolescent male Armenians, Turks , Sudanese, and Copts from their families to be trained as slave soldiers. They formed the bulk of their military, and the rulers selected prized slaves to serve in their administration. The powerful vizier Badr al-Jamali , for example, was a Mamluk from Armenia . In Iran and Iraq,

9394-401: The Israeli army, at sunset on October 8, Qantara Sharq was liberated, marking the first Egyptian city to be liberated. Since that day, October 8th has been commemorated as a national holiday for the city of Qantara Sharq. In 1978, within the framework of public policy, the state initiated the process of restoring normal life and established the local unit of the city of Qantara Sharq to commence

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9548-414: The Levant, ending the era of the Crusades. While Mamluks were purchased as property, their status was above ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. In places such as Egypt, from the Ayyubid dynasty to the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt , mamluks were considered to be "true lords" and "true warriors", with social status above the general population in Egypt and

9702-430: The Mamluks defeated the Turkish forces in several clashes. in June the rival parties concluded an agreement by which Muhammad Ali , (appointed as governor of Egypt on 26 March 1806), was to be removed and authority returned to the Mamluks. However, they were again unable to capitalize on this opportunity due to discord between factions. Muhammad Ali retained his authority. Muhammad Ali knew that he would have to deal with

9856-427: The Mamluks if he wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and their land was still the source of wealth and power. However, the economic strain of sustaining the military manpower necessary to defend the Mamluks's system from the Europeans and Turks would eventually weaken them to the point of collapse. On 1 March 1811, Muhammad Ali invited all of the leading Mamluks to his palace to celebrate

10010-420: The Mamluks, who acted semi-autonomously as regional atabegs . The Mamluks increasingly became involved in the internal court politics of the kingdom itself as various factions used them as allies. In June 1249, the Seventh Crusade under Louis IX of France landed in Egypt and took Damietta . After the Egyptian troops retreated at first, the sultan had more than 50 commanders hanged as deserters . When

10164-523: The Mechanical Warfare Supply Department) says that at that meeting: Mr. (Thomas J.) Macnamara ( M.P. , and Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty ) then suggested, for secrecy's sake, to change the title of the Landship Committee. Mr. d'Eyncourt agreed that it was very desirable to retain secrecy by all means, and proposed to refer to the vessel as a "Water Carrier". In Government offices, committees and departments are always known by their initials. For this reason I, as Secretary, considered

10318-435: The Ottoman Empire, which captured Constantinople later that year, causing great rejoicings in Muslim Egypt. However, under the reign of Khushqadam , Egypt began a struggle with the Ottoman sultanate. In 1467, sultan Qaitbay offended the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II , whose brother was poisoned. Bayezid II seized Adana , Tarsus and other places within Egyptian territory, but was eventually defeated. Qaitbay also tried to help

10472-499: The Ottomans. Mameluk Egyptian sultan Al-Ghawri was charged by Selim I with giving the Persian envoys passage through Syria on their way to Venice and harboring refugees. To appease him, Al-Ghawri placed in confinement the Venetian merchants then in Syria and Egypt, but after a year released them. After the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, Selim attacked the bey of Dulkadirids , as Egypt's vassal had stood aloof, and sent his head to Al-Ghawri. Now secure against Persia, in 1516 he formed

10626-445: The Ottomans. However, the Ottomans crushed the movement and retained their position after his defeat. By this time new slave recruits were introduced from Georgia in the Caucasus. In 1798, the ruling Directory of the Republic of France authorised a campaign in "The Orient" to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. To this end, Napoleon Bonaparte led an Armée d'Orient to Egypt. The French defeated

10780-500: The Portuguese viceroy's son Lourenço de Almeida . But, in the following year, the Portuguese won the Battle of Diu and wrested the port city of Diu from the Gujarat Sultanate . Some years after, Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Aden , and Egyptian troops suffered disaster from the Portuguese in Yemen. Al-Ghawri fitted out a new fleet to punish the enemy and protect the Indian trade. Before it could exert much power, Egypt had lost its sovereignty. The Ottoman Empire took over Egypt and

10934-407: The Red Sea, together with Mecca and all its Arabian interests. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II was engaged in warfare in southern Europe when a new era of hostility with Egypt began in 1501. It arose out of the relations with the Safavid dynasty in Persia . Shah Ismail I sent an embassy to the Republic of Venice via Syria, inviting Venice to ally with Persia and recover its territory taken by

11088-617: The Royal Naval Air Service) a business man at the Ministry of Munitions had charge of the work of getting them built, and he did the task very well. Col Swinton and others also did valuable work. Whilst several experimental machines were investigated in France, it was a colonel of artillery, J.B.E. Estienne , who directly approached the Commander-in-Chief with detailed plans for a tank on caterpillar tracks, in late 1915. The result

11242-479: The Somme. The A7V , the only type made, was introduced in March 1918 with just 20 being produced during the war. The first tank versus tank action took place on 24 April 1918 at the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux , France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs . Captured British Mk IVs formed the bulk of Germany's tank forces during World War I; about 35 were in service at any one time. Plans to expand

11396-518: The Soviet Union and the Japanese 6th Army at Khalkhin Gol ( Nomonhan ) in 1939 brought home some lessons . In this conflict, the Soviets fielded over two thousand tanks, to the around 73 cannon armed tanks deployed by the Japanese, the major difference being that Japanese armour were equipped with diesel engines as opposed to the Russian tanks equipped with petrol engines. After General Georgy Zhukov inflicted

11550-570: The Soviets had a superior tank design, the T-34 . A lack of preparations for the Axis surprise attack, mechanical problems, poor training of the crews and incompetent leadership caused the Soviet machines to be surrounded and destroyed in large numbers. However, interference from Adolf Hitler , the geographic scale of the conflict, the dogged resistance of the Soviet combat troops, and the Soviets' massive advantages in manpower and production capability prevented

11704-645: The Soviets, when entering World War II six months later (December 1941), the United States' mass production capacity enabled it to rapidly construct thousands of relatively cheap M4 Sherman medium tanks. A compromise all round, the Sherman was reliable and formed a large part of the Anglo-American ground forces, but in a tank-versus-tank battle was no match for the Panther or Tiger. Numerical and logistical superiority and

11858-597: The Sultan to allow them to negotiate for a cease-fire, and a return to their homeland Georgia. The Russian ambassador in Constantinople refused however to intervene, because of nationalist unrest in Georgia that might have been encouraged by a Mamluk return. In 1805, the population of Cairo rebelled. This provided a chance for the Mamluks to seize power, but internal friction prevented them from exploiting this opportunity. In 1806,

12012-561: The US, Charles de Gaulle in France, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the USSR. Liddell Hart held a more moderate view that all arms – cavalry, infantry and artillery – should be mechanized and work together. The British formed the all-arms Experimental Mechanized Force to test the use of tanks with supporting forces. In the Second World War only Germany would initially put the theory into practice on

12166-732: The United Kingdom was carried out by the Royal Navy . As the result of an approach by Royal Naval Air Service officers who had been operating armoured cars on the Western Front, the First Lord of the Admiralty , Winston Churchill , formed the Landship Committee , on 20 February 1915. The Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy, Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt , was appointed to head

12320-450: The Xiongnu's powerful cavalry charges , and allowed Han troops to utilize their ranged weapons ' advantages of precision . This forced a stalemate and allowed time for his troops to recover strength, before using the cover of a sandstorm to launch a counteroffensive which overran the nomads . Many sources imply that Leonardo da Vinci and H. G. Wells in some way foresaw or "invented"

12474-503: The age, occupation, and title of the deceased, in addition to prayers. A substantial assemblage of pottery and gold artifacts was unearthed within the tombs. It can be demonstrated that the cemetery was utilized during the Roman era , although its usage can be traced back to the Ptolemaic era , as evidenced by the discovery of tomb remains and monuments dating to that era. The Qantara Sharq cemetery

12628-562: The ancient Horus Warpath. The current site of Qantara Sharq did not yield any evidence of the Pharaonic era or the New Kingdom in particular. Instead, the remains of the Roman cemetery , upon which the modern city on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal was built, were uncovered. The archaeological work in the area commenced with the Department of Antiquities' investigations in 1911, as well as

12782-453: The barracks of the Citadel of Cairo . Because of their isolated social status (no social ties or political affiliations) and their austere military training, they were trusted to be loyal to their rulers. When their training was completed, they were discharged, but remained attached to the patron who had purchased them. Mamluks relied on the help of their patron for career advancement, and likewise

12936-489: The basis of blitzkrieg in the opening stages of World War II. During World War II , the first conflict in which armoured vehicles were critical to battlefield success, the tank and related tactics developed rapidly. Armoured forces proved capable of tactical victory in an unprecedentedly short amount of time, yet new anti-tank weaponry showed that the tank was not invulnerable. During the Invasion of Poland, tanks performed in

13090-402: The city. At 9:30 pm on October 8, the city's liberation was announced on Radio Cairo , which had a positive effect on the morale of the population. Galal Amer , a highly regarded journalist, held the rank of company commander in the 18th Infantry Division and played a role in the liberation of the city. The Technology Valley is situated in the northwestern region of the Sinai Peninsula , under

13244-532: The combined force of tanks and airpower at Nomonhan against the Japanese 6th Army; Heinz Guderian , a tactical theoretician who was heavily involved in the formation of the first independent German tank force, said "Where tanks are, the front is", and this concept became a reality in World War II. Guderian's armoured warfare ideas, combined with Germany's existing doctrines of Bewegungskrieg (" maneuver warfare ") and infiltration tactics from World War I, became

13398-412: The construction of numerous facilities in the area, the excavation and construction work led to the discovery of the remains of a cemetery. Additionally, several attempts were made to uncover the cemetery's remains through visits to the site or archaeological survey work from 1888 to 1913, in addition to historical studies on the site. The term "Qantara" may have originated from an earlier designation, as it

13552-410: The crew, the vehicle's munition storage, fuel tank and propulsion systems. The use of tracks rather than wheels provides improved operational mobility which allows the tank to overcome rugged terrain and adverse conditions such as mud and ice/snow better than wheeled vehicles, and thus be more flexibly positioned at advantageous locations on the battlefield. These features enable the tank to perform in

13706-771: The declaration of war against the Wahhabis in Arabia. Between 600 and 700 Mamluks paraded for this purpose in Cairo . Muhammad Ali's forces killed almost all of these near the Al-Azab gates in a narrow road down from Mukatam Hill. This ambush came to be known as the Massacre of the Citadel . According to contemporary reports, only one Mamluk, whose name is given variously as Amim (also Amyn), or Heshjukur (a Besleney ), survived when he forced his horse to leap from

13860-644: The defense system of the eastern Egyptian gate in the New Kingdom era. Inscribed on the walls of the Karnak Temple in Luxor from the era of King Seti I , this system was constructed on the ruins of a Hyksos-era military base that had previously protected the area from the east. These discoveries provide insight into a pivotal aspect of the Egyptian liberation war against the Hyksos and their subsequent expulsion from Egypt through

14014-521: The direct ancestors of the 'tanks' in France". In 1911, a Lieutenant Engineer in the Austrian Army, Günther Burstyn , presented to the Austrian and Prussian War Ministries plans for a light, three-man tank with a gun in a revolving turret, the so-called Burstyn-Motorgeschütz. In the same year an Australian civil engineer named Lancelot de Mole submitted a basic design for a tracked, armoured vehicle to

14168-512: The earliest examples of successful mechanized combined arms —such as when Republican troops, equipped with Soviet-supplied tanks and supported by aircraft, eventually routed Italian troops fighting for the Nationalists in the seven-day Battle of Guadalajara in 1937. However, of the nearly 700 tanks deployed during this conflict, only about 64 tanks representing the Franco faction and 331 from

14322-453: The early 21st century, historians have suggested that there was a distinction between the Mamluk system and the (earlier) Ghilman system, in Samarra , which did not have specialized training and was based on pre-existing Central Asian hierarchies. Adult slaves and freemen both served as warriors in the Ghilman system. The Mamluk system developed later, after the return of the caliphate to Baghdad in

14476-527: The eastern entrance of North Sinai . Tharu is one of 11 fortresses constructed during the Pharaonic period at the beginning of the road between Qantara and Rafah . The Egyptian archaeological mission has revealed the architectural characteristics of the largest Egyptian fortified city from the New Kingdom era. This was achieved through the archaeological excavation of the ancient Horus Road fortresses situated between Egypt and Palestine , spanning from Qantara Sharq to Egyptian Rafah. The mission discovered

14630-507: The fact that they were deployed for fighting in wars on behalf of several Islamic kingdoms as slave-soldiers. By 1200, Saladin 's brother al-ʿĀdil succeeded in securing control over the whole empire by defeating and killing or imprisoning his brothers and nephews in turn. With each victory, al-ʿĀdil incorporated the defeated Mamluk retinue into his own. This process was repeated at al-ʿĀdil's death in 1218, and at his son al-Kāmil 's death in 1238. The Ayyubids became increasingly surrounded by

14784-515: The first time in September 1915 and served to develop the form of the track but an improved design, better able to cross trenches, swiftly followed and in January 1916 the prototype, nicknamed "Mother", was adopted as the design for future tanks. The first order for tanks was placed on 12 February 1916, and a second on 21 April. Fosters built 37 (all "male"), and Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company , of Birmingham, 113 (38 "male" and 75 "female"),

14938-507: The fleets that carried freight and Muslim pilgrims from India to the Red Sea , and struck terror into the potentates all around. Various engagements took place. Cairo's Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri was affronted at the attacks around the Red Sea, the loss of tolls and traffic, the indignities to which Mecca and its port were subjected, and above all for losing one of his ships. He vowed vengeance upon Portugal, first sending monks from

15092-693: The following centuries, the Mamluks ruled discontinuously, with an average span of seven years. The Mamluks defeated the Ilkhanids a second time in the First Battle of Homs and began to drive them back east. In the process they consolidated their power over Syria, fortified the area, and formed mail routes and diplomatic connections among the local princes. Baibars' troops attacked Acre in 1263, captured Caesarea in 1265, and took Antioch in 1268. Mamluks also defeated new Ilkhanate attacks in Syria in 1271 and 1281 (the Second Battle of Homs ). They were defeated by

15246-472: The former route of the Horus Military Road, which connected Egypt and Palestine during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period. It encompasses an area of 150 by 150 meters and is constructed of adobe bricks, with rectangular defensive towers supporting the structure. The walls of the fortress are four meters in thickness. This discovery represents a significant advancement in our understanding of

15400-416: The future arrangements were under discussion for transporting the first landships to France a question arose as to how, from a security point of view, the consignment should be labelled. To justify their size we decided to call them 'water-carriers for Russia' —the idea being that they should be taken for some new method of taking water to forward troops in the battle areas. Lt.-Col. Swinton ... raised

15554-627: The gearbox and developed practical tracks and by William Tritton whose agricultural machinery company, William Foster & Co. in Lincoln, Lincolnshire , England built the prototypes . On 22 July 1915, a commission was placed to design a machine that could cross a trench 4 ft wide. Secrecy surrounded the project with the designers locking themselves in a room at the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln. The committee's first design, Little Willie , ran for

15708-490: The gearbox and hull, and by William Tritton of William Foster and Co. , who designed the track plates. This was a prototype of a new design that would become the British Army's Mark I tank , the first tank used in combat in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme . The name "tank" was adopted by the British during the early stages of their development, as a security measure to conceal their purpose (see etymology ). While

15862-572: The increasingly sophisticated tanks, in turn violating the principle of combined arms they had pioneered. Soviet developments following the invasion included upgunning the T-34, development of self-propelled anti-tank guns such as the SU-152 , and deployment of the IS-2 in the closing stages of the war, with the T-34 being the most produced tank of World War II, totalling up to some 65,000 examples by May 1945. Much like

16016-452: The infantry. A related development, motorized infantry , allowed some of the troops to keep up with the tanks and create highly mobile combined arms forces. The defeat of a major military power within weeks shocked the rest of the world, spurring tank and anti-tank weapon development. The North African Campaign also provided an important battleground for tanks, as the flat, desolate terrain with relatively few obstacles or urban environments

16170-427: The insistence of Colonel J.B.E. Estienne , rejected in favour of char d'assaut ("assault vehicle") or simply char ("vehicle"). During World War I, German sources tended to refer to British tanks as tanks and to their own as Kampfwagen . Later, tanks became referred to as " Panzer " (lit. "armour"), a shortened form of the full term " Panzerkampfwagen ", literally "armoured fighting vehicle". In

16324-510: The jurisdiction of the city of Qantara Sharq in Ismailia , and approximately 10 kilometers east of the Suez Canal . The area in question has a total area of 16,000 feddans, with the work itself divided into several phases. Each phase involves 3,000 feddans, with 215 feddans of the first phase designated as an urgent phase. An agreement was reached between the Egyptian and Korean governments to assess

16478-578: The largest number of mamluks, but lesser amirs also owned their own troops. Many Mamluks were appointed or promoted to high positions throughout the empire, including army command. At first their status was non-hereditary. Sons of Mamluks were prevented from following their father's role in life. However, over time, in places such as Egypt, the Mamluk forces became linked to existing power structures and gained significant amounts of influence on those powers. In Egypt, studies have shown that mamluks from Georgia retained their native language , were aware of

16632-401: The last Funj sultan, Badi VII . According to Eric Chaney and Lisa Blades, the reliance on mamluks by Muslim rulers had a profound impact on the Arab world's political development. They argue that, because European rulers had to rely on local elites for military forces, lords and bourgeois acquired the necessary bargaining power to push for representative government. Muslim rulers did not face

16786-550: The mobility needed to exploit changing tactical situations. Fully integrating tanks into modern military forces spawned a new era of combat, armoured warfare . Until the invention of the main battle tank , tanks were typically categorized either by weight class ( light , medium , heavy or superheavy tanks ) or doctrinal purpose ( breakthrough- , cavalry- , infantry- , cruiser- , or reconnaissance tanks). Some are larger and more thickly armoured and with large guns, while others are smaller, lightly armoured, and equipped with

16940-591: The modern tank. During the 119 BC Battle of Mobei of the Han–Xiongnu War , the Han general Wei Qing led his army through a fatiguing expeditionary march across the Gobi desert only to find Yizhixie chanyu 's main force waiting to encircle them on the other side. Using armored heavy wagons known as "Wu Gang Wagon" ( Chinese : 武剛車) in ring formations that provided Chinese archers , crossbowmen and infantry protection from

17094-464: The name "tank" had been in use for eight months. The tanks were labelled "With Care to Petrograd," but the belief was encouraged that they were a type of snowplough. The term "tank" is used throughout the English speaking world, but other countries use different terminology. In France, the second country to use tanks in battle, the word tank or tanque was adopted initially, but was then, largely at

17248-453: The necessary independent, all-terrain mobility. In a memorandum of 1908, Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott presented his view that man-hauling to the South Pole was impossible and that motor traction was needed. Snow vehicles did not yet exist, however, and so his engineer Reginald Skelton developed the idea of a caterpillar track for snow surfaces. These tracked motors were built by

17402-570: The outbreak of the War no one in a position of responsibility in any army seems to have given much thought to tanks. The direct military impact of the tank can be debated but its effect on the Germans was immense, it caused bewilderment, terror and concern in equal measure. It was also a huge boost to the civilians at home. After facing the Zeppelins, at last Britain had a wonder weapon. Tanks were taken on tours and treated almost like film stars. From late 1914

17556-492: The patron's reputation and power depended on his recruits. A Mamluk was "bound by a strong esprit de corps to his peers in the same household". Mamluks lived within their garrisons and mainly spent their time with each other. Their entertainments included sporting events such as archery competitions and presentations of mounted combat skills at least once a week. The intensive and rigorous training of each new recruit helped ensure continuity of Mamluk practices. Sultans owned

17710-558: The politics of the Caucasus region , and received frequent visits from their parents or other relatives. In addition, they sent gifts to family members or gave money to build useful structures (a defensive tower, or even a church) in their native villages. The practice of recruiting slaves as soldiers in the Muslim world and turning them into Mamluks began in Baghdad during the 9th century CE, and

17864-399: The proposed title totally unsuitable. In our search for a synonymous term, we changed the word "Water Carrier" to "Tank," and became the "Tank Supply" or "T.S." Committee. That is how these weapons came to be called Tanks. He incorrectly added, "and the name has now been adopted by all countries in the world." Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Swinton, who was secretary to the meeting, says that he

18018-511: The receipt and service of citizens. On April 12, 1979, the President of the Republic issued a decree that divided Sinai into two governorates, North and South , and annexed Qantara Sharq to Ismailia governorate . At that time, the local unit received the city, which had been reduced to a state of ruin. The houses had been demolished, the facilities were in a state of disrepair, and the infrastructure

18172-470: The remains of the headquarters of the Egyptian army in Sinai during the reign of King Ramses II . The adobe citadel, which measures 500 meters long and 250 meters wide, features high towers each four meters high and 20 meters wide. It served as the headquarters of the Egyptian army from the New Kingdom (1569-1081 BC) until the Ptolemaic era (31-305 AD). During the excavation of the Suez Canal , which involved

18326-570: The ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties in the Muslim world . The most enduring Mamluk realm was the knightly military class in medieval Egypt , which developed from the ranks of slave-soldiers . Originally the Mamluks were slaves of Turkic origins from the Eurasian Steppe , but the institution of military slavery spread to include Circassians , Abkhazians , Georgians , Armenians , Russians , and Hungarians , as well as peoples from

18480-570: The same brick material and a height of one meter. The inaugural international conference on the study of human strains, bones, tombs, and burials in ancient Egypt was convened by the Council in collaboration with the Scientific Center for Antiquities in Qantara Sharq. The conference drew participation from 100 scientists representing 1 In addition to Egyptian archaeologists, the conference was attended by representatives from two foreign countries and

18634-457: The same pressures partly because the Mamluks allowed the Sultans to bypass local elites. Tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat . Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower , strong armour , and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; their main armament is often mounted within

18788-510: The second civil war. Meanwhile, historians agree that the massive implementation of a slave military class such as the Mamluks appears to have developed in Islamic societies beginning with the 9th-century Abbasid Caliphate based in Baghdad , under the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim . Until the 1990s, it was widely believed that the earliest Mamluks were known as Ghilman or Ghulam (another broadly synonymous term for slaves) and were bought by

18942-574: The second half of World War II led to lightweight infantry-carried anti-tank weapons such as the Panzerfaust , which could destroy some types of tanks. Tanks in the Cold War were designed with these weapons in mind, and led to greatly improved armour types during the 1960s, especially composite armour . Improved engines, transmissions and suspensions allowed tanks of this period to grow larger. Aspects of gun technology changed significantly as well, with advances in shell design and aiming technology. During

19096-496: The successful use of combined arms allowed the Allies to overrun the German forces during the Battle of Normandy . Upgunned versions with the 76 mm gun M1 and the 17-pounder were introduced to improve the M4's firepower, but concerns about protection remained—despite the apparent armour deficiencies, a total of some 42,000 Shermans were built and delivered to the Allied nations using it during

19250-628: The sultanate centered on Egypt and Syria , and controlled it as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The Mamluk Sultanate famously defeated the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ain Jalut . They had earlier fought the western European Christian Crusaders in 1154–1169 and 1213–1221, effectively driving them out of Egypt and the Levant. In 1302 the Mamluk Sultanate formally expelled the last Crusaders from

19404-595: The sultanate in 1250, ruling as the Mamluk Sultanate . Throughout the Islamic world, rulers continued to use enslaved warriors until the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire 's devşirme , or "gathering" of young slaves for the Janissaries , lasted until the 17th century. Regimes based on Mamluk power thrived in such Ottoman provinces as the Levant and Egypt until the 19th century. Under the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo, Mamluks were purchased while still young males. They were raised in

19558-402: The support of infantry , who may accompany the tanks in infantry fighting vehicles , and supported by reconnaissance or ground-attack aircraft . The tank is the 20th-century realization of an ancient concept: that of providing troops with mobile protection and firepower. The internal combustion engine , armour plate , and continuous track were key innovations leading to the invention of

19712-399: The tank programme were under way when the War ended. The United States Tank Corps used tanks supplied by France and Great Britain during World War I. Production of American-built tanks had just begun when the War came to an end. Italy also manufactured two Fiat 2000s towards the end of the war, too late to see service. Russia independently built and trialed two prototypes early in the War;

19866-444: The tank. Leonardo's late-15th-century drawings of what some describe as a "tank" show a man-powered, wheeled vehicle surrounded by cannons. However, the human crew would have difficulty moving the heavy vehicle over long distances, while usage of animals was problematic in a space so confined. In the 15th century, Jan Žižka built armoured wagons known as ‘ Wagenburg ’ containing cannons and used them effectively in several battles during

20020-486: The tracked, two-man Vezdekhod and the huge Lebedenko , but neither went into production. A tracked self-propelled gun was also designed but not produced. Although tank tactics developed rapidly during the war, piecemeal deployments, mechanical problems, and poor mobility limited the military significance of the tank in World War I, and the tank did not fulfil its promise of rendering trench warfare obsolete. Nonetheless, it

20174-517: The viability of the project from a marketing and economic perspective. Despite the expenditure of EGP 37 million on the infrastructure of the initial phase of the Technology Valley, and the engagement of six international companies in 1997 to construct factories with 70% of their output destined for export and 30% for the local market, work in the Valley was abruptly terminated. The site is situated on

20328-408: The walls of the citadel. During the following week an estimated 3,000 Mamluks and their relatives were killed throughout Egypt, by Muhammad's regular troops. In the citadel of Cairo alone more than 1,000 Mamluks died. Despite Muhammad Ali's destruction of the Mamluks in Egypt, a party of them escaped and fled south into what is now Sudan . In 1811, these Mamluks established a state at Dunqulah in

20482-471: The war years, a total second only to the T-34. Tank hulls were modified to produce flame tanks , mobile rocket artillery , and combat engineering vehicles for tasks including mine-clearing and bridging . Specialized self-propelled guns, most of which could double as tank destroyers , were also both developed by the Germans—with their Sturmgeschütz , Panzerjäger and Jagdpanzer vehicles—and

20636-509: The wider Somme offensive ) on 15 September 1916. Bert Chaney, a nineteen-year-old signaller with the 7th London Territorial Battalion, reported that "three huge mechanical monsters such as [he] had never seen before" rumbled their way onto the battlefield, "frightening the Jerries out of their wits and making them scuttle like frightened rabbits." When the news of the first use of the tanks emerged, Prime Minister David Lloyd George commented, It

20790-556: The world he was known as the "Instructional Demonstration Unit." "Little Willie's" hull was called in the shop orders a "water carrier for Mesopotamia"; no one knew that the hull was intended to be mounted on a truck. Naturally, the water carrier began to be called a "tank". So the name came to be used by managers and foremen of the shop, until now it has a place in the army vocabulary and will probably be so known in history for all time. (*F.J. Gardiner, F.R.Hist.S.) D'Eyncourt's account differs from Swinton's and Tritton's: ... when

20944-471: The years since their first appearance. Tanks in World War I were developed separately and simultaneously by Great Britain and France as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front . The first British prototype, nicknamed Little Willie , was constructed at William Foster & Co. in Lincoln , England in 1915, with leading roles played by Major Walter Gordon Wilson who designed

21098-512: Was an area that was settled by the Holy Family approximately 2000 years ago, with the intention of resting in its land for an extended period. Qantara Sharq was recently one of the cities of Sinai Governorate , the second largest city in the Sinai Peninsula. Since the inception of local government laws, the Sinai Peninsula was subject to military rule as a border governorate until 1965, when it

21252-545: Was assassinated on 14 June 1800. Command of the Army in Egypt fell to Jacques-François Menou . Isolated and out of supplies, Menou surrendered to the British in 1801. After the departure of French troops in 1801 the Mamluks continued their struggle for independence; this time against the Ottoman Empire. In 1803, Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Bey and Osman Bey al-Bardisi wrote to the Russian consul-general, asking him to mediate with

21406-407: Was captured by the Mamluks in March 1250. He agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 livres tournois to gain release (150,000 livres were never paid). Because of political pressure for a male leader, Shajar married the Mamluk commander, Aybak . He was assassinated in his bath. In the ensuing power struggle, viceregent Qutuz , also a Mamluk, took over. He formally founded the Mamluke Sultanate and

21560-400: Was clear to military thinkers on both sides that tanks in some way could have a significant role in future conflicts. In the interwar period tanks underwent further mechanical development. In terms of tactics, J.F.C. Fuller 's doctrine of spearhead attacks with massed tank formations was the basis for work by Heinz Guderian in Germany, Percy Hobart in Britain, Adna R. Chaffee, Jr. , in

21714-408: Was forced to abdicate in 1412. In 1421, Egypt was attacked by the Kingdom of Cyprus , but the Egyptians forced the Cypriotes to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Egyptian sultan Barsbay . During Barsbay's reign, Egypt's population became greatly reduced from what it had been a few centuries before; it had one-fifth the number of towns. Al-Ashraf came to power in 1453. He had friendly relations with

21868-423: Was ideal for conducting mobile armoured warfare. However, this battlefield also showed the importance of logistics, especially in an armoured force, as the principal warring armies, the German Afrika Korps and the British Eighth Army , often outpaced their supply trains in repeated attacks and counter-attacks on each other, resulting in complete stalemate. This situation would not be resolved until 1942, when during

22022-406: Was instructed to find a non-committal word when writing his report of the proceedings. In the evening he discussed it with a fellow officer, Lt-Col Walter Dally Jones , and they chose the word "tank". "That night, in the draft report of the conference, the word 'tank' was employed in its new sense for the first time." Swinton's Notes on the Employment of Tanks , in which he uses the word throughout,

22176-436: Was not their prime originator. I took up an idea, manipulated it slightly, and handed it on." It is, though, possible that one of the British tank pioneers, Ernest Swinton , was subconsciously or otherwise influenced by Wells's tale. The first combinations of the three principal components of the tank appeared in the decade before World War One. In 1903, Captain Léon René Levavasseur of the French artillery proposed mounting

22330-413: Was published in January 1916. In July 1918, Popular Science Monthly reported: Because a fellow of the Royal Historical Society * has unintentionally misled the British public as to the origin of the famous "tanks", Sir William Tritton , who designed and built them, has published the real story of their name ... Since it was obviously inadvisable to herald "Little Willie's" reason for existence to

22484-420: Was recognized as the most effective mounting for the main gun to allow movement in a different direction from firing, enhancing tactical flexibility. During the Cold War , tension between the Warsaw Pact countries and North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) countries created an arms race that ensured that tank development proceeded largely as it had during World War II. The essence of tank designs during

22638-407: Was referenced on the map of the French campaign as the Qantara Bridge and is postulated to have been influenced by the Qantara, which spanned the ancient Belusian branch of the Nile that traversed into Sinai until its termination at the city of Beluzium Tal Al-Farma Al-Hayala. The ancient Qanatra is inscribed on the walls of the Karnak Temple and depicts the return journey of King Seti I via

22792-435: Was seen as deliverance from the Mameluks. The Mamluk Sultanate survived in Egypt until 1517, when Selim captured Cairo on 20 January. Although not in the same form as under the Sultanate, the Ottoman Empire retained the Mamluks as an Egyptian ruling class and the Mamluks and the Burji family succeeded in regaining much of their influence, but as vassals of the Ottomans. In 1768, Ali Bey Al-Kabir declared independence from

22946-417: Was severely degraded. In March 1996, the Prime Minister issued a decree to transform Qantara Sharq into a city and center, encompassing the villages of Al-Taqaddam, Al-Abtal, and Gilbana. The forts constructed by the adversary in the Qantara Sharq sector constituted some of the most formidable forts of the Bar-Lev line , with as many as seven forts in total. Engaging in combat within the cityscape proved to be

23100-406: Was soon fortified as a harbor of refuge so Arabia and the Red Sea were protected. But the fleets in the Indian Ocean were still at the mercy of the enemy. The last Mamluk sultan, Al-Ghawri, fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels. As Mamluks had little expertise in naval warfare, he sought help from the Ottomans to develop this naval enterprise. In 1508 at the Battle of Chaul , the Mamluk fleet defeated

23254-429: Was started by the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim . From the 900s through the 1200s, medieval Egypt was controlled by dynastic foreign rulers, notably the Ikhshidids , Fatimids , and Ayyubids . Throughout these dynasties, thousands of Mamluk slave-soldiers and guards continued to be used and even took high offices. This increasing level of influence among the Mamluks worried the Ayyubids in particular. Eventually,

23408-412: Was subjected to local government and the first municipal council was established. However, this did not last long, as the 1967 war soon broke out. In the days following the fifth of June, the Egyptian region under occupation was completed by Qantara Sharq and the days then proceeded according to their well-known cycle until the crossing of the Suez Canal happened. On the third day, following a defense from

23562-414: Was two largely unsatisfactory types of tank, 400 each of the Schneider and Saint-Chamond , both based on the Holt tractor . The following year, the French pioneered the use of a full 360° rotation turret in a tank for the first time, with the creation of the Renault FT light tank, with the turret containing the tank's main armament. In addition to the traversable turret, another innovative feature of

23716-407: Was welcomed by Sultan Qutuz . After taking Damascus, Hulagu demanded that Qutuz surrender Egypt. Qutuz had Hulagu's envoys killed and, with Baibars' help, mobilized his troops. When Möngke Khan died in action against the Southern Song , Hulagu pulled the majority of his forces out of Syria to attend the kurultai (funeral ceremony). He left his lieutenant, the Christian Kitbuqa , in charge with

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