German soldiers standing around a German tank as other soldiers work on the tank, circa 1914-18. 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. Their first use in combat was by the British Army on September 15, 1916 at Flers-Courcelette, 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. While the French and British built thousands of tanks between them, Germany developed and brought into service only a single design, the A7V, producing 20 vehicles due to lack of capacities or resources.