The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-12-14
TANKS INVENTED
AFTER LONG STUDY
In the Autumn of 1914 the Attention OF
British Became Directed Toward
Parrying German Machine
Guns.

London. Dec. a. Correspondent o
the Associated Press No one man o.
one department of the British govern
ment can take credit for ''inyenting" thu
Itanks-they came into being as the re
suit of long period of study and co
ordinated effort by many men acting un
DEP three separate departments, the wal
/ Office. the admiralty and the ministry OF
munitions.
In the autumn of 1914 when the bellig.
erents on the western front had settled
down to trench warfare, it became oh.
vious that some means of parrying the
danger of well directed and well.pro-
! tected machine gun fire from the German
+, trenches must be discovered if the Ing
lish infantry was to carry out assaults
with success.
| One of the first proposals put forward
was for a machine 100 feet long, AZ 1eet
high and so feet wide, weighing some 300
tons, propelled by an 800 horse power on
gine and with driving wheels Az feet IN
diameter. Another early suggestion, and
the one which led most directly to the
tanks, was made by Colonel Swinton in
October, 1914, to build armored cars on
tractor system, an American invention,
Experiments with various tractors were
made on behalf of the war Office and by a
small expert copmittee of the admir-
atty under Winston Churchill, then first
lord Through the medium of the com
mittee of imperial defense the various
efforts for the solution of the problem
were co -ordinated and certain condi-
tions were laid down which had to be
fulfilled nv the proposed car
From among the numerous types OF
tractors inspected the most satisfactory
was found to be caterpillar with an
endless self laid track, over which in
ternal driving wheels could be propelled
by the engines.
In February, 1916, the first tank was
near London. Here pits, trenches and
had been constructed. The
tests were so satisfactory that an order
was given on the spot for 100 machines,
The ministry of\ munitions became re-
sponsible for the speediest possible con
struction of the order. Many improve /
ments were made during this period of
and the first delivery was
made in July, 1916
The new machines were of two slight
" different types. One was called the |
male type, and was armed with two
quickfirers and a subsidiary
armament. These were de
signed for dealing at close quarters with
he concrete emplacements of German
machine guns The other, or female
.ype, was armed only with machine guns
md was more suitable for dealing with
machine gun personnel and rifiemen
At the end of July, 1916, the tanks
md their crews had become so proficient
hat it was possible to hold two exhibit
ion combats over prepared trench sys
EN- reproducing line of German de-
enses.
At the end of August, fifty tanks we're
oaded at night and sent to France
When delivered in France the tanks only
raveled at night, and during the day ,
we're covered with a huge tarpaulin and
tricky guarded. :
The first tanks were all painted in !.
style for purposes of conceal
lent, and each tank had its own name. .
Ike ship. A whole series of them were :
AIMED after various drinks, such as
afe -auLait, Cbartreuse, Chablis, Cog. :,
c, champagne, creme de -menthe Anoth-
stIltS DoIt tHe HttIits Oh ScDlcH cldfls =
Clan Cameron, Clan Ruthven, Clan :
ordon, Clan McTavish.
The tanks first went into action in :
nat portion of the Somme offensive :,
hich began on Sept. Is The object was =
, drive the Germans out of some high =
round running east and south of Thiep- 7
ii. The effect was as exhilarating on !
lie British troops as it was dumbfound- :,
g to the Germans 1t is recorded that :, :,
any of the British infantrymen were so "
7ercome with laughter at their ungain- =
antics that they were scarcely able to ~ y,
aep up with the procession, "
There is no doubt that the element of
rprise had much to do with the extra Z
binary success of the tanks on their =
st appearance. But their achievements !"
owed that they had more solid qualities !,
an the gift of surprise. Later in the "
ar tanks were sent out to Egypt and
ere in action at GAIA.