Invention of the Military Tank



Locations
Participants

Timeline

Y/M/D Description Place
1915/02/00 First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, establishes the Landships Committee to develop "land ships" - an armoured vehicle with an internal combustion engine and tracks that can drive across battlefield trenches. The Admiralty, London
1915/10/00 Designed by William Tritton and Walter Wilson, Little Willie, a prototype 'landship' is built by William Foster and Co of Lincoln in the autumn of 1915. The oldest surviving military tank, Little Willie, is in the Tank Museum in Bovington, England.
1916/09/15 British Army fields thirty-two Mark I tanks at Flers-Courcelette. The eight-man machines crawl at 3 miles per hour, break down often, falter on shattered ground and prove vulnerable to grenades and armor-piercing rifle fire. Departement du Somme,
1917/07/31 The British Army deploys tanks in the Allied push to Passchendaele. Deluged with heaviest rainfall the region has had in 30 years, the deep mud will trap tanks, incapacitate weapons, and drown men and horses. Yorkshire Trench and Dug Out, Ypres, BE
1918/03/00 Never actually seen a tank, Eisenhower is informed that he is to command the US Army 301st Tank Battalion which is to be deployed to France in the spring. The War Dept will change these orders.
1918/05/31 The French Renault FT, the first tank with a fully rotating turret, enters the battlefield east of Chaudun, between Ploisy and Chazelles, during the Third Battle of the Aisne. Thirty tanks advance and successfully halt a German attack. Hauts-de-France, France
1918/08/08 East of Amiens in France, British Mark V tanks break through the German line, beginning the end of the world war. "the black day of the German Army" - German General Erich Ludendorff Amiens, Hauts-de-France
1918/09/26 The 333rd Tank Co and its Renault FTs led the 170th RIs breakthrough of German lines at Bois de Vignon. Armor specialist Georges Estival dies in the assault. His grave rests at the foot of the infantry memorial as a permanent tribute. Calvary of Bois de Vignon, Sommepy-Tahure
1919/11/17 "it was primarily due to the receptivity, courage and driving force of the Rt Hon Winston Spencer Churchill that the general idea of the use of such an instrument of warfare as the 'Tank' was converted into a practical shape." - Royal Commission on Awards

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