When I look back to human history the beginning of mechanized warfare started in WWI due to the need for tanks to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Without trench warfare (or at least the monster of a stalemate WWI tech made it) would their be a drive to develop armored vehicles at all? If a species never developed armored vehicles would infantry based war continue to prevail or would a different form of mechanized warfare take shape?
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Once vehicles become widespread enough I’d expect someone somewhere would try to fight from them, and would eventually add features like armor. It might take a couple more decades if there wasn’t necessity, though.
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I was thinking more what the natural transition to armored vehicles would be. We started with tanks due to necessity and then began brining in other vehicles for other roles. What would have developed first without the grueling stalemate of WWI trench warfare.
They would probably want to mechanise cavalry first, replacing horses with a mechanical equivalent that’s faster, cheaper and more reliable. Oh, and probably tougher and stronger too.
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You talking they would weaponize motorcycles (or similar machines) first? Would make sense but animals would move faster on a battlefield (mud and such) faster than a wheeled vehicles. Maybe they develop tracks for them.
I don’t think cavalry would be mechanized first. Animals would be able to navigate the battlefield better than any vehicle could. Cavalry is also used for harassment after the invention of guns since: 1. They are easy targets for guns when close (chivalry charge = very dead), and 2. Cavalry can run and gun. I think that the first battlefield vehicle would probably be and APC, a truck/car that has an anti-infantry weapon on it (machine gun, flame thrower, etc.).
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No actually the cavalry should be the first one mechanised. Early vehicles were some sort of an wierd things that wouldnt last long. But the armored cars were lightly armored but enough to not be penetrated by infantry to infantry weapons and as they evolved to be more agile and then by the middle of WW2. The cavalry excluded and no the apcs werent created worldwide untill the late 50s the earliesed were in Germany in the late 30s. And the tank could be created as fast allterrain vehicles since the tracks are good on off road.