The first tank to engage in battle was designated D1, a British Mark I, during the Battle of Flers-Courcellette on 15 September 1916. The workers gave the machine the logical nickname 'tank' and the name stuck. Staff was told that the devices were to be water carriers for use in the Middle East. The 'tank' moniker was the consequence of a security strategy during development. Landship development, originally conducted by the British Navy under the auspices of the Landships Committee was sponsored by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill and proceeded through a number of prototypes, importantly among them the Little Willie, designed by William Ashbee Tritton and Walter Gordon Wilson as the first-ever completed tracked tank prototype vehicle, culminating in the Mark I tank prototype, named Mother. His idea was rejected, but after the Great War the British royal commission awarded de Mole £965 for expenses, and in 1920 he was appointed C.B.E. 252 815 DRP).Īround the same time de Mole designed 'a tracked armoured vehicle' and sent his sketches to the British War Office. He submitted his idea of a 'land torpedo boat' to the Military Technical Committee in Vienna but the idea was rejected as lacking sufficient merit he did, however manage to patent his invention (Zl.

Some eight years later, in 1911, the first two practical tank designs were developed independently by Austrian engineering officer Günther Burstyn and Australian civil engineer Lancelot de Mole.īurstyn designed his tank with a sprung suspension and armed with a single gun located in a revolving turret - a design quite similar to modern tanks - but he was unable to design a track that could carry the weight of the vehicle and propel it at reasonable speed. Wells short story, 'The Land Ironclads', in the Strand Magazine, December 1903. I'll go into a bit of history of tanks first:Īpart from Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of a round, tank like armoured wagon, the first description of a tank-like vehicle and its usefulness in trench warfare is found in an H.G. This post was inspired by a few other websites which have done something similar. I thought I'd give this a bit of exposure, since I have a bit of a passion for all things tanks.

Modern light tank blueprints