Source: File: Holt Tractor
hauling a 9.2 inch Howitzer to a forward area. See an original
image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holt_tractor_hauling_a_9.2_inch_Howitzer_to_a_forward_area.jpg>
[Accessed
1 September 2016]
Source: File: Little Willie. See an original image at:
<http://www.historywiz.com/tank.htm> [Accessed 1 September
2016]
http://www.historywiz.com/tank.htm
Source: File: Little
Willie - The world's first tank. The Tank Museum. See YouTube: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fLCdNudUxk/>
[Accessed 10 July 2016]
i
Virtually a year
to the day had been
In the making a
new concept of war -
Though such an
idea had been around
For centuries -
born 'Bohemia one.'
Hussite leader, called One-eyed Žižka,
Conceived in the
1400s an idea
Of wagons of
armour and cannons.
Five centuries
later came idea of self
Propelled cannon
by Levavasseur -
Captain of an
artillery battalion this
French man had proposition for a petrol
Machine driven on
roues articulées -
The crawler
tracks would carry 75 mm
Gun cross-country, on a steel
caisson.
Objections were
raised as directions
Could not be
controlled - machines
That could cross
multiple terrains had
Proved
unsatisfactory - artillery drawn
By horse was
perfectly fine - not put
Down, Captain
Levavasseur revised
His project in another 1908 prototype.
Yet the plan was
rejected by August -
The British had
already invented
A chain track, by
company Hornsby
And Sons -
various trials had led to
Fitting of
rolling tracks onto tractors -
After a wheeled
tractor was beaten
By trial
display, came other changes.
July 1907 in
Aldershot, an improved
Chain track was
shown a possibility.
David Roberts
engineer for Hornsby
Showed a trailer
mocked up to carry
A gun - the tracked
trailer prompted
The nickname 'caterpillar,' appropriate
To evoke that
particular insects crawl.
Trials continued
with this caterpillar
Tractor - adding
trailers by November
1907, David
Roberts displayed this
Tracked trailer
to the Royal Artillery -
And then again some
months into 1908
At
Aldershot, with King Edward present
They displayed
the engines versatility.
The caterpillar
tractor and trailer showed
The possibility
to cross rough grounds,
By
obstacles scattered in its path - a mock
Up of a dummy gun
was added, along
With a horse team
stuck in mud freed
By this machine - the caterpillar crossed
40 miles non-stop to
gain a £1000 prize.
ii
Two years later
1910, a third version
Towed ammunition
and 60 pound gun
Over difficult
earth - this prompted Major
Donohue's suggestion,
how a tractor
Might be fitted
with gun and iron shields;
This left Roberts to later regret not
Taking on an idea
of an automated gun.
Conceptions had
emerged over time
To include a
fictional thought in a story
Of 'The Land
Ironclads' - H. G. Wells took
The invention of
pedrail mobility - being
Wheels of pivoted
feet - until war's reality
became impeded by a landlocked conflict,
became impeded by a landlocked conflict,
Prompting the need
to break stalemate.
Matters began to
alter after a trial took
Place in Wales -
artillery officers gave
Questions over the
tractors lack of power,
Prompting a
conversion to petrol driven
Engine - a
difference of opinion between
Mechanical
Transport committee and
Royal Horse Artillery noted shortcomings.
Into 1911 and
David Roberts hopes to sell
His idea faded; the war office retracted all
Interest - for
£4000 he sold patents to Holt
Manufactures, USA
- who also registered
Term 'Caterpillar'
as a trademark - matters
Took another turn, when war across Europe
Opened up
opportunities for inventions.
Based in
California USA, Holts producing
Crawling tractors
became favoured as
A way to pull
artillery and haul trains
Over rough French
tracks - parallel ideas
Had no borders; Colonel
Jean Baptiste
Eugène Estienn, commander of French
Artillery
Regiment, became tank's father.
Estienn stated
how victory belonged
To first who would devise a cannon
On a vehicle over
multi terrains - while
French had
limited Holts tractors, use
Of them by the
British prompted this
Colonel's caterpillar track ideas to carry
An armoured
vehicle - his other idea
Included a
personal shield on wheels.
Another Estienn
development was how
To overcome enemy
trenches and wire -
The 'Boirault'
was a special machine;
A large open
frame driven by a central
Engine - an
oblong that could tilt, this
Large rotating track crushed obstacles.
Yet slow
fragility led to its end, mid 1915.
iii
As Boirault 1 was
abandoned June 1915,
Parallel British
industry in July saw a new
Prototype for a
land fighter underway.
Developments for
fighting vehicles given
To the Landslips
committee, prompted
Trails of various
wheel and track vehicles -
But single and triple
track systems failed.
The project began
1 August 1915, given
To William Foster
and Company - just
Under four weeks 'number 1 Lincoln
Machine' did its
maiden run in the yard,
Problems showed
up one by one to be
Met by challenges
to solve resistance,
This in turn led to suspension changes.
This in turn led to suspension changes.
Need to traverse five-foot trenches found
Tracks sagged
off the wheels and jammed,
While a 16 ton
body was too much weight
For the tracks - this led to various track
Designs - William
Tritton tried out methods
With tracks held firmly, to be unsprung -
Cast links with
steel plates were riveted.
Though the
machines speed was limited,
This proved a
successful method - then
Into the autumn
1915 rolled out 'Llittle
Willie,' the
little sibling of Mark I tank -
This test machine
showed issues that
Could be resolved in the next generation;
Work was set out
on an improved design.
The
main fundamental difference to Willie
Came
in a body of a parallelogram, with
Unequal
adjacent sides - a rhomboidal
Shape - in considering centre of gravity,
A
gun turret on the body’s centre would
Be
too high - guns were therefore placed
Either
sides; a shape to echo the Boirault.
The army’s armour
and armaments needs
Were worked into
the finished designs -
Within months, December '15, came names
Like 'His majesty’s
ship centipede,' Wilson
Machine and Big
Willie, were melded down
Into 'Mother' - to perform
before Land ships
Committee at the very beginning of 1916.
A repeat
performance was given before
Cabinet ministers
and more senior army
Members - 'Mother' was driven over
A prepared
landscape of parapets, wire
Craters and over
trenches - though the
Secretary of
state for war Kitchener was
Wary, Lloyd George
prompted production.
With the Land Ships Committee renamed
'Tank supply
Committee,' the staff officer
Hugh Elles would
be commander of tanks
In France -
initial orders began 12 February
Followed by a
further 50 in April - the reality
Of land ships
codenamed 'tanks' arrived by
British
engineering ingenuity, ready for battle.
by Jamie Mann.
Source: File:
History of the tank. Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_tank> [Accessed 1 September
2016]
Source: File:
British heavy tanks of World War I. Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_heavy_tanks_of_World_War_I#Mark_I>
[Accessed 1 September 2016]
Source: File: Boirault
machine. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boirault_machine>
[Accessed 1 September 2016]
Source: File:
Little Willie. Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Willie> [Accessed 1 September 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 1 September 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Tanks
