page_title: Boirault machine
section_title: Second Boirault machine
hierarchical_section_title: Boirault machine / Development / Second Boirault machine
caption_attribution_description: Second_Boirault_machine
context_page_description: The Boirault machine, was an early French experimental landship, designed in 1914 and built in early 1915. It has been considered as "another interesting ancestor of the tank",
  and described as a "rhomboid-shaped skeleton tank without armour, with single overhead track". Ultimately, the machine was deemed impractical and was nicknamed Diplodocus militaris. It preceded the design and development of the English Little Willie tank by six months.
context_section_description: A new model was developed, more compact and lighter, with armour for the engine and the driver compartment.  It was composed of six metal plates rotating around the core chassis, and had some level of steering control, allowing for a turning radius of 100 meters. Speed however was extremely low, at 1 km/h. The new model was tried by the Artillery Arm on 17 August 1916 at Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus, until complete abandonment of the project.
  General Henri Gouraud commented on the performance of the machine on 20 August 1916, explaining that it ran for 1,500 meters in flat terrain, at about 1 km/h. It managed to cross a railroad, flatten a line of barbed wire, and crossed trenches 1.5 and 1.8 meters wide, and a hole two meters in diameter.
  General Gouraud commented on the sheer strength of the machine, but its poor ability to properly steer itself:
  The steering is imprecise (...) Consequently, while the machine is capable of flattening everything in its path, it cannot be affirmed that it will be able to meet with certainty any given enemy organisation of limited dimensions that may be assigned to it, such as a bunker, machine gun housing, observatory... The trials, conducted far from the enemy, on a training ground, under conditions that in no way reflect reality, are far from conclusive."
  — General Gouraud, 20 August 1916.
caption: Second Boirault machine, with Paul Boirault standing (bottom).
exif: {}