As World War I raged on in Europe, Allied forces were facing some of the most destructive
and brutal fighting the world had ever seen.
Trench warfare had caused stalemates across battlefields, and the British were desperate
to find a way to turn the tide of the war.
The solution: tanks.
And it all started with a tank nicknamed Little Willie.
This was the first tank ever developed.
Little Willie never saw the field of battle, but the development and lessons learned from
its construction allowed British forces to create tanks that would aid in the war effort
and allow the Allied Powers to be victorious.
Little Willie was the first tank as we think of them today.
However, there were vehicles that came before it, which were designed to aid infantry in
battle.
For example, in 1899 Frederick Simms designed the “war-car,” which had a bullet-proof
casing and Maxim guns.
It was basically a heavily armed truck and was the precursor to the armored cars used
by the military today.
It was in 1914 that Ernest Swinton, a British army colonel and William Hankey, secretary
of the Committee for Imperial Defence came up with the idea of a heavily armored vehicle
that would be able to aid infantry troops in moving across the battlefield.
Their thought process was that the vehicle would be useful for driving over rough terrain
such as shell craters, deep mud and trenches.
But the most important obstacle the vehicle needed to overcome was barbed wire to break
through enemy lines.
They presented their plans to Winston Churchill who quickly got on board with the “land
ship” idea.
He then organized the Landships Committee to begin developing the prototype of what
would become Little Willie.
In order to keep this new project secret from British enemies, workers were told the vehicle
they were building would carry water on the battlefield.
It was not too far fetched as the new prototype did resemble a water tank.
Though the “tanks” during this war would be referred to as landships among military
circles and once they were unveiled on the battlefield, the original secret term of tank
was utilized after the war by historians and the name has stuck ever since.
The very first tank, later called Little Willie, was completed around September 8, 1915.
It was initially designed by R.E.B.
Cromptonby as half of an agricultural vehicle called Juggernaut or Slug.
This design was then sent to August Tritton who modified it so it would work on its own.
Finally, the design was sent to William Foster & Co. of Lincoln who built Little Willie.
The first name given to the tank was No. 1 Lincoln Machine.
It weighed 16.5 tons and was designed to aid the allies in trench warfare.
The name of the tank was changed to Little Willie based on an insult to German leadership.
Little Willie was alleged to be the nickname that the British gave to the German Crown
Prince Kaiser Wilhelm.
Though historians debate when exactly and who started calling this machine Little Willie,
the mocking of the crown prince has forever ended up as an affectionate name for the first
real tank ever produced.
Putting together Little Willie was no easy feat since such an ambitious project had never
been attempted before with this early design looking quite foreign to the tanks we see
today especially with its tracks and running gears separate from the hull.
Assembling the tank was also a product of inter-country cooperation with the tracks
themselves coming from the United States though it is doubtful any Americans knew the true
purpose of these tracks due to the top secret nature of the program.
The body and turret were built separately and eventually welded together, adding the
holes in the hull late in the design process.
The uncut hull looked similar to a water carrier from Mesopotamia, hence giving the perfect
top secret cover in case any word ever made it back to the Germans about their potentially
groundbreaking invention.
The final model had 10 to 15 mm thick armor and could hold a crew of five soldiers.
Little Willie was powered by a Daimler inline six-cylinder engine that put out 105 horsepower.
Considering the bulkiness and weight of Little Willie, the engine gave the tank a top speed
of about three miles per hour, which was a good pace during the time of the tank’s
inception.
In order to help Little Willie steer, rear wheels were attached to the tail of the tank.
On rougher terrain the tank would slow down one of the tracks to turn.
Due to transmission limitations of the time, the constant breaking of a single track would
cause the engine to lose half of its power, causing significant stress to the tracks,
brakes, transmission, and clutch.
On good terrain the rear wheels would allow Little Willie to turn slightly, thus alleviating
some of the stress on other parts of the tank.
These rear wheels also helped with trench crossings as they would allow the tank to
go over longer stretches of trenches The ride inside of Little Willie was a little uncomfortable,
because like almost all vehicles of the day, it had no suspension.
This would make for a rough ride, but at 3 miles per hour it wasn’t too bad.
The weaponry on Little Willie would have worked well in combat.
The tank’s main armament was a Vickers 2-pounder gun on a revolving turret on top of the tank.
If necessary the tank was also designed to replace the Vickers with other armaments such
as a Maxim, Hotchkiss, Lewis, or Madsen machine guns.
These guns were never fitted onto Little Willie, as the tank would not see combat.
However, its big brother, Big Willie, would make it into battle and help in the war effort
against the Central Powers.
The British Army ordered 100 No. 1 Lincoln Machines to be used in the war.
Unfortunately, during testing Little Willie was found to have significant transmission
problems that resulted in getting stuck in trenches or rendering the tank immovable.
The initial tracks on Little Willie would not reconnect properly while going over rough
terrain, and could cause the tank to sometimes throw a track.
This led to a redesign and inclusion of Tritton tracks, which fixed the problem, but at this
point Little Willie had been relegated to testing only and would not be used in battle.
Little Willie and subsequent tanks during World War I were designed to be used exclusively
for long offensive operations.
These missions tended to be in a very specific area and the tanks would be used to slowly
move across no man's land and the trenches.
The soldiers would follow the tank across the battlefield using it as mobile cover as
they advanced.
They were also designed to be a mobile pillbox that could suppress enemy trenches so they
soldiers could traverse no-mans-land safely.
It would not be until World War Two that the concept of tank on tank battles would be formulated
though there would eventually be one such battle later in World War One.
Once they reached the enemy trench, the soldiers would enter and clear it of Central Power
soldiers as the tank continued on.
One main problem that engineers ran into with tanks was that the massive weight would cause
strain on the engine.
This would lead to overheating.
Unfortunately, an overheating engine inside a large, enclosed, metal vehicle is like turning
the burners of an oven on full blast while you’re inside it.
This overheating problem was the same for Little Willie, and would not be solved for
many generations of tanks.
Little Willie was very useful for engineers when identifying problems and coming up with
solutions.
Using what they learned from Little Willie the Brits built a bigger, better, version
of the tank called Big Willie.
This was done between Little Willie’s first design and second design.
Big Willie ran into some similar problems as its “little brother,” such as the tracks
falling off.
This meant that the difficulties engineers ran into with Little Willie were vital problems
to solve as other tanks designs would have run into them as well.
On the first version of Little Willie the tracks only went part of the way up the body
of the tank.
This seemed like a good idea at the time because it saved on material, and made the tank a
little lighter.
But the tracks would damage easily or come off when driving over rough terrain.
So, the engineers went back to the drawing board and came up with a new idea.
They re-designed the tracks to encircle the entire body of the tank from top to bottom.
This was done to allow Little Willie and future tanks to traverse wider trenches and allowed
the use of an unditching beam.
It was due to the trial and error of Little Willie that better track systems were made
and flaws that may have been fatal in battle were identified and fixed.
Without Little Willie the British may never have designed their new rhomboid shape tracks
and the evolution of the tank could have taken many, many, more years.
Little Willie also validated that the engine, transmission, steering, and braking system
would all work for tanks.
Without this validation the whole project may have been scrapped, and the Britain might
have given up on tanks altogether.
So, even though Little Willie never saw combat, without it Britain may very well have never
fully developed tank technology that helped win World War I.
Another aspect of Little Willie that made it so important to history was the potential
that political and military leaders saw in it.
Although flawed in some ways, due to all sides wanting to break the stalemate of trench warfare,
new and ambitious ideas were given intense study when before they might not have ever
seen the light of day.
Even though Little Willie never saw combat, the lessons learned helped accelerate the
British tank program greatly and showed strategists that it was possible to build a machine that
could traverse trenches and no man’s land to support Allied troops in World War I.
Even though Little Willie contributed much to the development of tanks and is a crucial
stepping stone in the history of armored warfare, it was almost lost to history.
The British government wanted to scrap it but thanks to military history enthusiasts
within the army, Little Willie found its final resting place at Bovington training ground
where it remained until the end of the war and was eventually sent to the Tank Museum
in Bovington after the end of World War Two.
Despite being almost lost to history, without those initial tests valuable lessons and information
learned from the building of Little Willie would never have been gained.
The success of British tanks during World War I may have been hindered and the course
of history may have gone a different way.
Maybe Little Willie’s biggest contribution to the world of warfare is the nostalgia that
went along with it.
Curators at The Tank Museum in England are proud to display the first tank ever made.
At the time Little Willie rolled onto the testing field the automobile had only been
around for about 35 years.
That is a lot of progress in such a short amount of time.
Little Willie could be outfitted with guns, a crew of five, and could successfully cross
trenches in the heat of battle; something that no other vehicle at the time could do.
Without Little Willie, and the lessons learnt from it, the development of the tank may have
taken years longer to complete.
There is no telling what impact this may have had on the course of history.
It was through the processes of modern engineering and science that Little Willie was made a
reality.
The British basically took the idea of an armored battleship and brought it onto land.
Even though Little Willie never saw combat, it was something that had never been done
before, and had a lasting impact on history..
Now go see what Little Willie evolved into by watching the Top 10 Most Powerful Tanks.
Or for tank battles watch The Battle of 73 Easting - The Most Intense Tank Battle In
History.