Bonekickers

The history behind ‘The Lines of War’: The Development of the Tank and Winston Churchill

By Dr. Mark Horton

The lineage of the tank goes back to the Landships Committee set up in February 1915, by Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty. The naval origins may seem surprising, but a similar proposal had been rejected by the army.

Churchill took a deep personal interest in the scheme, attending the early trails with Lloyd George. Although he resigned from the Government in November 1915 after the Gallipoli disaster, development work on the new design continued with a prototype Mk 1, known as the ‘Big Willie’. This was tested between 29 January and 2 February 1916, and 150 of the new tanks were ordered. The code name ‘tank’ was used as the factory workers were told that they were making water tanks to be shipped to the Mesopotamian front.

Mk 1 tanks were first used on September 15 1916 during the Battle of the Somme at Flers-Courcellette, but were fairly ineffective, although they proved their mobility to cross trenches and break through wire. The replacement Mk2 and 3 were training tanks developed in late 1916, and the Mk 4 tank was introduced in May 1917, several months late, which attempted to get over these drawbacks.

The French army were also keen on the development of tanks, but had their own production problems and rivalry between different manufacturers over the merits of heavy and light-weight vehicles. The French first used a tank in battle on 16^th April 1917, several months after our fictitious morale-boosting visit to Verdun in Bonekickers.

Early tanks were very vulnerable to fumes from the engine and cordite, and were extremely hot. Many of the crew fell unconscious inside. They also had inadequate armour, and were vulnerable to direct hits from shells and grenades. They were classed as either male or female, depending on their armament, and often soldiers gave them a name. Recently, a Mk 4 tank from the Battle of Cambrai (November 1917) has been excavated by archaeologists with the name Deborah painted on the side.