On this day, September 6th the first tank in the world was made. On September 6th, Little Willie was born into this world weighing 14 tons and having a maximum speed of two miles per hour. The prototype tank also got stuck in trenches easily. This rough start for the prototype had set the military warfare possibilities, from then on improvements were made and the production of the tank shot off like a rocket.
Britain created this tank prototype, which is also where it took its first steps. The idea first came from a British Colonel (Ernest Swinton) and a Secretary committee for Imperial Defense (William Hankey) they needed something to counter trenches so they thought of a vehicle that has tracks on wheels that makes it possible to cross dirt, mud, and other rough terrains without getting stuck. The way tanks got the name “tank” was because the British wanted to keep the tank project under wraps from the enemy so Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister) told the men working on it that the purpose of the vehicle was to carry water across the battlefield or tanks of water so they were labeled as tanks in boxes and from there on the name was stuck like a stick in the mud.
little Willie made its name known in the Battle of the Somme in Courcelette, France. These first generation tanks are called Mark 1’s, the Mark 1 tanks were undeveloped and had many issues that came with them. Some of these issues are that the tank heats up easily, is very loud, and had plenty of mechanical problems. This battle allowed people to see the potential of this machine and sponsor the creation of the tank for future battles.
“New tech, it did what it needed to do, not very efficiently but still did its job,” Laisha Castrejon (12) said.
Impressions 