Tanks were designed in two formats ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ depending upon the size and nature of the armament they carried. Because of the poor state of Russian roads these tanks would need caterpillar tracks in order to master the terrain. Factory workers building the new machines were informed that they were part of a project to construct mobile water tanks for the Russians, who were a British ally at the time. In order to maintain secrecy around the project and prevent the Germans from learning what they were creating, the British military authorities crafted a careful cover story. After a series of trials it was ‘Big Willie’ also known as ‘Mother’ that proved to be the most successful design and the British military ordered 100 machines to be constructed. Two main prototypes were constructed during this process and were known as ‘Little Willie’, and ‘Big Willie’ respectively after a popular nickname for the Kaiser and his son. For some time these two groups were entirely unaware of the existence (or thoughts) of the other and it was only when Sir John French insisted on progressing with armoured vehicle exploration that Swinton and the Navy were brought together to form the Landships Committee. In order to expand upon this basic model they began to investigate the possibility of creating an armoured weapon on caterpillar tracks.Īt exactly the same time Ernest Swinton, a British officer and War Correspondent, was also grappling with the stalemate in Europe and began to consider the possibility of a large vehicle on caterpillar tracks that could be used to destroy machine gun nests. The Admiralty Armoured Car Division had already seen some success with the deployment of cars protected by light armour plating and equipped with machine guns. The Navy had been the best resourced arm of the British military before the war but had rapidly found themselves on the sidelines as the conflict largely stayed land-based in Europe. At this point it was the Royal Navy who found themselves at the forefront of the development of armoured land weaponry.
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