This Day in History: 6 September 2020
6 September 1915
105 years ago, today, the first tank, nicknamed 'Little Willie' was produced. Initially, it weighed 14 tons, got frequently stuck in trenches and crawled over rough terrain at only two miles an hour. However, tanks eventually transformed military battlefields as improvements were made to the original prototype. A second prototype, Big Willie, was produced after Little Willie's underwhelming performance. By 1916, this vehicle was deemed ready for battle and made its debut at the First Battle of the Somme. The first batch of tanks was hot, noisy and suffered malfunctions on the battlefield, but people realised the tank's potential.
The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare of World War One. The idea of an armoured vehicle with conveyer-belt-like tracks over wheels was championed by two men named Ernest Swinton and William Hankey. They appealed to Winston Churchill, the navy minister, resulting in a Landships Committee begin organised to start developing a prototype. In order to keep the project secret from enemies, production workers were told the vehicles they were building would carry water on the battlefield. Tanks rapidly became an important military weapon and played a prominent role during World War Two.
Want to find out more about Little Willie? Click here for more information, or here for a video about how useless Little Willie was.
No comments:
Post a Comment