As artificial obstacles had proved of little use from the end of July, when the Germans withdrew behind the rivers Ancre and Avre, until the signing of the armistice every effort was made to use river lines as a defence against tanks. Road obstacles and stockades were still in use, but though they proved a hindrance to the movement of armoured cars they proved none to tanks.
A great deal of energy and explosive material was expended in laying minefields. At first, special mines in the form of a shallow box were used; later on these were replaced by shells. Lack of time, however, prevented the enemy from developing sufficiently large minefields to produce an important result.
The idea of combining the various forms of anti-tank defence under one command in such a way as to form an anti-tank fort had been dealt with on paper, but was only in a very few cases put into practice. The idea was a sound one, and if well combined with natural obstacles it would have formed the best defence against tanks that the enemy could have created with the means at his disposal.
Four field guns, 2 flat-trajectory minenwerfer, 4 anti-tank rifles, and 2 machine guns firing A.P. ammunition. The fort was to be sited several thousand yards behind the outpost guns and close to the main line of defence.
Throughout the last two years of the war occasional successes were gained by the Germans by various means of anti-tank defence, these usually being due to a combination of the following circumstances:
(i) The use of tanks outside their limitation.
(ii) A hitch or failure in carrying out the plan of attack.
(iii) An exceptional display of resource, initiative, and courage on the part of some individual German soldier.
In general the keynote of the German anti-tank defence was lack of foresight, the development of tanks not being appreciated. Among the very large number of captured orders dealing with anti-tank defence there is no recorded instance of any anticipation of superior types of tanks to those already in use. The German General Staff lacked imagination and the faculty of appreciating the value of weapons that had not been explained to them whilst at school; obsolescence dimmed their foresight.