On the morning of Sept. 15, 1916, soldiers of the German 1st Army rushed to their defensive positions between Flers and Courcelette, on the Western Front. The lifting of the Allied artillery barrage typically presaged an infantry charge, and the defenders made their machine guns ready to cut down advancing British and French troops. But this time, instead of onrushing infantry, from the smoke and mist emerged grinding mechanical contraptions, spewing bullets and shells. The Germans poured machine-gun fire onto the strange, new vehicles lumbering across the ragged mud and wire of no man's land, but the bullets had little effect. The day of the tank — a concept that would go on to define land warfare in the 20th century — had arrived.
The concept of a mobile, protected engine of war has been around for millennia. A means of collectively defending assault troops from projectile weaponry — with the potential inclusion of offensive capability — has fascinated the greatest minds of every era. Greek hoplites employed bronze armor to good effect in phalanx formation. The Romans also pioneered protective siege engines that were designed to deliver troops to the enemy's doorstep in one piece and were less dependent on individuals managing to maintain formation. In 1487, Leonardo da Vinci conceptualized an armored fighting vehicle, although his design was impractical because of the technology of the age. War engines or battlewagons pulled by horses were employed throughout history, but not until the Industrial Age did the armored fighting vehicle really come into its own.
In the early 20th century, at the insistence of Winston Churchill, the British Landships Committee sought to develop an armored fighting vehicle prototype. The aptly named "Little Willie" was tested Dec. 3, 1915, but was found insufficient for the breaching and crossing tasks envisaged. This led to the development of the now-classic rhomboidal tank design, which serves to this day as the insignia of the British Royal Tank Regiment. Following a successful demonstration during which the fledgling Mark I defeated a number of typical Western Front obstacles, including low wire entanglements, cratered ground, trench systems and parapets, an initial order of 100 vehicles was made. The development of the vehicles was shrouded in secrecy, and the terminology associated with them is attributed to Maj. Gen. Ernest Swinton, then a lieutenant colonel who was heavily involved with the clandestine project. Some of the steel originally used on the Mark I design was repurposed from water boilers, and the original factory paperwork referred to the new inventions as "water carriers," nomenclature adopted by workers who said they were manufacturing water tanks. Swinton then made the "tank" code name official.
The tank's impact on the World War I battlefield was localized and, while they contributed to tactical success, tanks were not independently responsible for it. But where infantry proved vulnerable, the tank plowed on, cleaving a path for skirmishers to follow. And that in itself was revolutionary.
