Inside an A7V
A7Vs were crewed by 18 men (all volunteers), although as many as 26 travelled with the vehicles on occasion. The crew were squeezed into a hot, dark, noisy, cramped, smelly space just 7 m long, 3 m wide and about 1.5 m high along with their personal weapons, ammunition, supplies and equipment, including gasmasks. The noise from the two 100 hp engines and the din of battle was terrific.
The crew communicated by shouting in the ear of the next person, by a system of lights to the gunners, and by runner and carrier pigeon to base (radios were tried, but the aerials were too easily torn off). The commander and the driver sat in the turret and peered through small apertures, seeing nothing closer than 10 m immediately in front of the tanks.
As the tank lurched across the rough ground, the crew were tossed mercilessly about. Steel helmets were essential, and aiming the weapons was all but impossible. The vehicle's heavy armour protected it against almost everything except direct hits by artillery, but the crew were constantly vulnerable to metal splinters and to splashing by molten lead from bullets hitting the hull around the gun ports. On top of all this was the heat, which could be 60°C and more. It is small wonder that a major limitation on the use of early tanks was the exhaustion of their crews.