New Britain herald., 1917-12-13
SEVERAL PERSONS IN
ON THE INVENTION
No One Man or Department Re-
~SpOnSible for British Tanks

of the Associated Press)-No one man
or one department of the British gov
eminent can take credit for invent
ing the tanks,-they came into being
as the result of a long period of study
and co-ordinated effort by many men
acting under three separate depart
ments, the War Office, the Admiralty,
and the Ministry Of Munitions.
In the autumn of 1914 when the
belligerentS on the Western front had
settled down to trench warfare, it be-
came obvious that some means of car
rying the danger of well-directed and
well-protected machinery fire from
the German trenches must be discov-
cred if the English infantry was to
carry out assaults with success.
One Of the first proposals put for
ward was for a machine 100 feet
| long, 49 feet high and so feet wide,
! weighing some 800 tons, propelled by
an 500 horse power engine, and with
driving wheels 40 feet in diameter. An
other carly suggestion, and the one
which led most directly to the tanks,
was made by Colonel Swinton in Oc-
tober, 1914, to build armored cars on
tractor system, an American invention.
Experiments with various tractors
flee and by small expert committee
of the Admiralty under Winston
Churchill, then First Lord. Through
the medium of the Committee of I'm
prial Defense the various efforts for
the solution of the problem were CO.
ordinated and certain conditions were
laid down which had to be fulfilled by
the proposed car.
From among the numerous types of
tractor inspected the most satisfactory
was found to be a caterpillar with an
endless seIf-laid track, over which in
ternal driving wheels could be pro-
PEELED by the engines.
In February, 1916, the first tank
was completed and taken down to a
farm near London. Here pits, trenches
and ramparts had been constructed.
The tests were so satisfactory that an
order. was given on the spot for 100
machines. The Ministry of Munitions
became responsible for the speediest
possible construction of the order.
Many improve1n ents were made during
this period of construction and the
first delivery was made in July, 1916.
The new machines were Of two
slightly different types. One was
called the male type, and was armed
with two Hotchkiss quIckfirers and a
subsidiary machine-gun armament.
These were designed for dealing at
close quarters with the concrete en-
placements of German machine guns
The other or female type, was armed
only with machine guns and was more
suitable for dealing with machine gun
personnel and rihemen.
At the end of July, 1916, the tanks
and their crews had become so PROM
cient that it was possible to hold two
exhibition COM bats over a prepared
trench system reproducing a line OF
German dcfenSeS.
At the end of August, fifty tanks
were loaded at night and sent to
Franco. When delivered in France
the tanks only travelled at night and
during the day were covered with a
huge tarpaulin and strictly guarded.
The first tanks were all paintd in
camoufage style for purposes of con-
cealment, and each tank had It's own
name, like a ship. A whole series OF
them were named after various drinks,
such as Cafee- au-Lait, Chartreuse,
Chablis, Cognac, Champagne, Creme
de-Menthe. Another series bore names
of Scotch clans,-Clan Cameron, Clan
Ruthven, Clan Gordon, Clan McTavish.
49,
that portion Of the Somme offensive
| which began on September Is. The
| object was to drive the Germans out
of some high ground running east and
south Of Thiepval. The effect was as
exhilarating on the British troops as
! it was dumbfounding to the Germans.
| 1t is recorded that many of the British
| infantrymen were so overcome with
| laughter at their ungainly antics that
they were scarcely able to keep up
| with the procession.
There is no doubt that the element
of surprise had much to do with the
extraordinary success of the tanks on
their first appearance. But their
achievements proved that they had
more solid qualities than the gift of