Wonder weapon or Peripheral weapon?

The first tanks were siege weapons, conceived and designed to overcome the deadlock imposed by barbed wire, trenches and machine guns. (S100 p9ff)

It is important to remember this when considering the tactics the tanks used in the first world war, exploitation was still the preserve of the cavalry. Armoured cars and whippet tanks would start to take up the pursuit and exploitation role in 1918 but the former could not move off road and the latter were still much slower than the cavalryman. Also, having secured an objective, armoured vehicles cannot hold ground, dismounted cavalrymen can.

Tanks were normally used in well planned set piece attacks, there are only a few instances of tanks being committed on an ad-hoc basis .

In essence the tactics adopted by the Heavy Tanks of WW1 can be summed up as advancing in front of the infantry or advancing behind them. It is worth noting that in both instances the tanks would normally still be advancing behind a creeping artillery barrage.

The original designers intended that the tanks to be used in front of the infantry.

On 15th September 1916 they were committed in advance of the infantry companies, the intention being for the tanks to be astride the enemies front line trenches at zero where they could supress the German defenders and allow the infantry's advance. Normally this suppression was carried out by the artillery who laid a barrage on the German trench, to ensure the tanks were not knocked out by their own artillery gaps were left in the barrage. When the unreliable tanks failed to arrive these gaps would prove fatal to the attackers, the unsuppressed Germans flaying them with fire as they crossed no mans land. This most notably happened in to the Guards Division who's tanks failed to arrive, amongst the casualties was the Prime Ministers son who was fatally wounded, the future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who was severely wounded.

General Tank Information