#landships committee

[historyofguns]

The British Mark I tank, introduced during World War I, revolutionized warfare in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on September 15, 1916. The daunting conditions faced by German forces, including relentless artillery and unbearable living situations, were contrasted by the introduction of this unprecedented armored vehicle. As detailed by Will Dabbs, MD, the Mark I tank, inspired by the Royal Navy and supported by figures like Winston Churchill, signified a new era in combat, enabling soldiers to advance under protection from enemy fire. Initial designs featured 'male' and 'female' variants, each equipped with different armaments, and despite being primitive and prone to breakdowns, these tanks intimidated enemy troops. The name "tank" itself was a product of wartime subterfuge. However, internal conditions were harsh, with extreme temperatures and noise, and crew communication was rudimentary. Despite its flaws, the tanks' psychological and tactical impact was profound, marking the beginning of tank warfare that has evolved into a crucial aspect of military strategy today.

[eltristan]

"What is a tank?" is a trap because a tank isn't defined by what it is; *it's defined by what it _isn't_*

WWI context: the term "tank" is a bit of a pun to emphasize that it wasn't a "barrel machine" -- which is how the French trench-breacher _Boirault Appareil_ is pronounced when you're not making "Diplodocus militaris" jokes.

Because the name tells us what a tank _isn't_ (it isn't French), by looking at the myriad shortcomings of the _Boirault_ it's immediately inferable that a tank must *a)* be effective (sorry _Boirault_ ) *b)* mobile across trenches and obstacles *c)* dominate enemy infantry with firepower *d)* be resistant to the enemy weapons *e)* continuously support the infantry advance through the battlespace and not be something impractical to intermittently parade around for the movie cameras (why we have more footage per unit of the barrel machine than of the Mk.I tanks)

(PS "tank" also means it's not a "landship" -- despite the British War Department specifically asking for an LSD fever-dream landship contraption and even tasking the Landship Committee to create it...

Landship Committee delivered the Mk.I "tank" instead of the bloated "landship". They're the ones responsible for specifically calling it a "tank" in the first place. Now you know too!)

[wanderingchernobylite]

Since I am an avid fan of military vehicles, especially tanks, might as well start posting about them!

Might as well start with the first production tank, Little Willie, an apt humble name for what will start the global tank cannon (penis) measuring contest.

Autumn 1915, World War I.

Europe is engulfed in flames, seeing grand losses across the nations as a result of emerging problems with trench warfare. The technologies developed created a stalemate on the Western Front, neither side could gain ground and if they did it was insignificant for the tragic loss of life or soon after the gained ground would be reclaimed.

The British War Office called for a solution for these stalemates, that coming in the form of an all armoured all terrain vehicle that could cross the arduous 'No Man's Land' perceived a year before. When in July of 1914 Lt. Col Ernest Swindon was sent to France as a War Correspondent and recognised the need for a 'machine gun destroyer' and so set about convincing the War Office to use Holt Tractors as a basis for development, and although not entirely receptive Swindon did managed to convince the War Office to give him the green light on the project.

So in 1915 the Landship Committee was formed by, at the time Lord of Admiralty, Winston Churchill. A tiny committee set to the development and trials of armoured vehicles and so in Febuary of 1915 it began using an Holt Tractor as a basis however it proved that the tracks got bogged down by mud and the British War Office being the British War Office decided to close the project with no investigation.

Undeterred the Landship Committee moved to their next prototype, the Triton Trench Crosser, using large tractor wheels instead of treads. Using girders to allow the wheels to cross trenches. It was a concept that would ultimately fail, it was too cumbersome to be used effectively and so the project was abandoned. More projects faced similar issues, the key problem being they were thinking too big, too grandiose and had to scale back in concept.

Enter No.1 Lincoln Machine, serving as the basis for what will be known as Little Willie, a machine scaled back and realistic enough to be practical. While it was deemed insufficient yet again for its trench crossing inadequacy and lacklustre cross-country performance, two men being the agricultural machine expert William Tritton and mechanical engineer Major Walter Gordon Wilson worked tightly together to develop the tank Little Willie with better tracks and while insufficient YET AGAIN this led to the development of the rhombus design and the development of Big Willie or known as Mother, Mark I. Finally satisfied, the War Office ordered One Hundred units to be used on the Western Front in France and were first deployed on the Somme in 1916.

To a colossal failure, BUT that's a story for another time!

There is not much to say about Little Willie but it's impact on armoured warfare development is outstanding. Serving as the basis for the Mark I, it is the Mother of the 'Mother' and serves as the oldest example of a surviving tank at Bovington Tank Museum.

Anyway that is my first little spiel about tanks. Will be more in the future and if no one cares whatever, still be posting.

So the word 'tank' how was that conceived? Well, the Landship Committee needed to keep this project a secret and so labelled these behemoths as 'water carriers' like water tankers. So eventually the name got less descriptive and tank just stuck.

[lookstupidtakingphotoswithanipad]

Tanks in World War I United Kingdom The direct military impact of the tank can be debated but its effect on the Germans was immense, it caused bewilderment, terror and concern in equal measure. It was also a huge boost to the civilians at home. After facing the Zeppelins, at last Britain had a wonder weapon. Tanks were taken on tours and treated almost like film stars.

— David Willey, curator at Bovington Tank Museum. From late 1914 a small number of middle-ranking British Army officers tried to persuade the War Office and the Government to consider the creation of armoured vehicles. Amongst their suggestions was the use of caterpillar tractors, but although the Army used many such vehicles for towing heavy guns, it could not be persuaded that they could be adapted as armoured vehicles. The consequence was that early tank development in Great Britain was carried out by the Royal Navy.

British World War I Mark V* tank As the result of an approach by Royal Naval Air Service officers who had been operating armoured cars on the Western Front, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill formed the Landship Committee, on 20 February 1915. The Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy, Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, was appointed to head the Committee in view of his experience with the engineering methods it was felt might be required; the two other members were naval officers, and a number of industrialists were engaged as consultants. So many played a part in its long and complicated development that it is not possible to name any individual as the sole inventor of the tank.

However leading roles were played by Lt Walter Gordon Wilson R.N. who designed the gearbox and developed practical tracks and by William Tritton whose agricultural machinery company, William Foster & Co. in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England built the prototypes. On 22 July 1915, a commission was placed to design a machine that could cross a trench 4 ft wide. Secrecy surrounded the project with the designers locking themselves in a room at the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln. The committee's first design, Little Willie, ran for the first time in September 1915 and served to develop the form of the track but an improved design, better able to cross trenches, 비아그라 swiftly followed and in January 1916 the prototype, nicknamed "Mother", was adopted as the design for future tanks. The first order for tanks was placed on 12 February 1916, and a second on 21 April. Fosters built 37 (all "male"), and Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon, and Finance Company, of Birmingham, 113 (38 "male" and 75 "female"), a total of 150. Production models of "Male" tanks (armed with naval cannon and machine guns) and "Females" (carrying only machine-guns) would go on to fight in history's first tank action at the Somme in September 1916. Great Britain produced about 2,600 tanks of various types during the war.The first tank to engage in battle was designated D1, a British Mark I Male, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of the wider Somme offensive) on 15 September 1916. Bert Chaney, a nineteen-year-old signaller with the 7th London Territorial Battalion, reported that "three huge mechanical monsters such as [he] had never seen before" rumbled their way onto the battlefield, "frightening the Jerries out of their wits and making them scuttle like frightened rabbits." When the news of the first use of the tanks emerged, Prime Minister David Lloyd George commented,

It is really to Mr Winston Churchill that the credit is due more than to anyone else. He took up with enthusiasm the idea of making them a long time ago, and he met with many difficulties. He converted me, and at the Ministry of Munitions he went ahead and made them. The admiralty experts were invaluable, and gave the greatest possible assistance. They are, of course, experts in the matter of armour plating. Major Stern, (formerly an officer in the Royal Naval Air Service) a business man at the Ministry of Munitions had charge of the work of getting them built, and he did the task very well. Col Swinton and others also did valuable work.

[veale2006-blog]

THIS DAY IN HISTORY SEPTEMBER 06 First tank produced On September 6, 1915, a prototype tank nicknamed Little Willie rolls off the assembly line in England. Little Willie was far from an overnight success. It weighed 14 tons, got stuck in trenches and crawled over rough terrain at only two miles per hour. However, improvements were made to the original prototype and tanks eventually transformed military battlefields.

The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare of World War I. In 1914, a British army colonel named Ernest Swinton and William Hankey, secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, championed the idea of an armored vehicle with conveyor-belt-like tracks over its wheels that could break through enemy lines and traverse difficult territory. The men appealed to British navy minister Winston Churchill, who believed in the concept of a “land boat” and organized a Landships Committee to begin developing a prototype. To keep the project secret from enemies, production workers were reportedly told the vehicles they were building would be used to carry water on the battlefield (alternate theories suggest the shells of the new vehicles resembled water tanks). Either way, the new vehicles were shipped in crates labeled “tank” and the name stuck.

The first tank prototype, Little Willie, was unveiled in September 1915. Following its underwhelming performance–it was slow, became overheated and couldn’t cross trenches–a second prototype, known as “Big Willie,” was produced. By 1916, this armored vehicle was deemed ready for battle and made its debut at the First Battle of the Somme near Courcelette, France, on September 15 of that year. Known as the Mark I, this first batch of tanks was hot, noisy and unwieldy and suffered mechanical malfunctions on the battlefield; nevertheless, people realized the tank’s potential. Further design improvements were made and at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, 400 Mark IV’s proved much more successful than the Mark I, capturing 8,000 enemy troops and 100 guns.

Tanks rapidly became an important military weapon. During World War II, they played a prominent role across numerous battlefields.

[historicalfirearms]

The Evolution of the Landship

At the outset of the First World War the British Army had a motley collection of motor vehicles including staff cars, trucks and a handful of artillery tractors. The early fighting on the Western Front saw the hasty deployment of rudimentary armoured cars but as the front lines became static thoughts began to turn to a different kind of armoured vehicle. One which could punch through tracts of barbwire, cross enemy trenches and was impervious to enemy fire. The development of what later became known as the tank began in early 1915. 

The name ��Landship’ comes from the Landships Committee established by Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who was one of a number of key figures that drove the tank’s development. While early designs had been referred to as Landships by February 1916, the new armoured vehicles had been codenamed 'tanks', Landships was believed to be too descriptive. 

The following is a brief overview of the evolution of the various tanks developed by the British during the Great War.

Little Willie

'Little Willie' evolved from the Foster Company's first attempts to build a tank, No.1 Lincoln Machine, with improved tracks developed by Sir William Tritton. Powered by a huge 105 horsepower Daimler engine, the 16 ton 'Little Willie' was no more than a proof of concept. The development of a robust and reliable track system was paramount and 'Little Willie' was instrumental in testing various track and steerage systems. Today 'Little Willie' is displayed at the The Tank Museum at Bovington.

Image #1

Caption: Little Willie photographed at Cricklewood, near London, during trials in late 1915.

Big Willie

Major Walter Wilson's design for a vehicle with a track that encompassed the whole circumference of the vehicle was realised with the construction of  'Big Willie' in late 1915. 'Big Willie' also nicknamed 'Mother' and 'His Majesty's Landship Centipede' weighed in at an impressive 28 tons and was the first tank to use the instantly recognisable rhomboid track shape and introduce the gun sponsons either side of the vehicle.

Image #2  

Caption: 'Big' Willie undergoing testing in Burton Park in Lincoln, in January 1916. Note the rhomboid shape which formed the pattern for all future tanks.

Mark I

The Mark I was Britain's first tank to see action during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. A refined version of 'Big Willie' it utilised the now standard rhomboid shape and was built in both male and female configurations. 150 of this first batch of tanks were built. As lessons were learnt in the field improvements to the design were made leading the Mark II.

Image #3 

Caption: Tank 'Clan Leslie' preparing to advance on Flers during the Battle of the Somme, 15th September 1916. Part of the first wave of tanks to go into action. 

Image #4

Caption:  A Male Mark I tank that broke down on its way to attack Thiepval on 25th September, 1916. Note the steering tail and anti-grenade frame on top of the tank.

The interior of a British heavy tank, note the empty shell racks next to the driver and the exposed engine and gears behind him (source)

Mark II / Mark III

The Mark II (see image #5) differed very little from the earlier Mark Is, incorporating some small changes it was intended to be used as a training tank but shortages saw them pressed into service during the Battle of Arras in April 1917. Just fifty Mark IIIs were built, none saw action overseas, instead they remained in Britain and were used to train tank crews.

Image #5

Caption: The drolly named 'Lusitania', a Mark II male tank, of the 1st Tank Brigade moving along a ruined street in Arras.

Mark IV

The Mark IV was the first true improvement over the earlier Mark I, with thicker armour and shorter 6 pounder guns which were easier to aim. Production began in May 1917, with over 1,200 built. They first saw action at Messines Ridge during the summer of 1917 and later more successfully at Cambrai. The Mark IV was the most widely produced and used British tank of the war.

Image #6 

Caption: A Mk IV Female Tank moves over dense mud at the testing ground at Cricklewood. 

Image #7 

Caption: A tank crashing through barbed wire at the Tank Driving School at Wailly, during the special training for the Battle of Cambrai, October 1917.

The effects of a direct hit could be devastating, this Female Mark IV lost its tracks and took heavy damage (source)

Mark V

An improved version of the Mark IV it utilised a new 19 litre six cylinder in-line Ricardo petrol engine and transmission. 400 Mark Vs were built, first seeing action in the spring of 1918. Several lengthened variants, the Mark V* and V**, experimented with carrying a section of infantry but these proved to have poor manoeuvrability and never saw action.

Image #8

Caption: A column of Mark Vs carrying fascines to help them cross the ditches of the Hindenburg line, September 1918.

Mark VIII

The Marks VI and VII were cancelled to enable concentration on production of earlier models and the new Mark VIII 'Liberty', co-developed and manufactured with the US. The great improvement of the Mark VIII was that the engine was sectioned off from the crew, however, the war ended before any of the new tanks saw action.

Image #9 

Caption: With a twelve man crew the Mark VIII had seven Hotchkiss machine guns and two quick-firing 6 pounders.

Whippet Medium Tank

Designed to be faster and more agile than the earlier heavy tanks, the Whippet could reach speeds of up to 8.5mph and was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns. Again developed by Sir William Tritton at Fosters of Lincoln, the Whippet was intended to exploit gaps made by the heavier tanks.

Image #10

Caption: The Whippet was Britain's principle light tank with a small, three man crew, it first saw action March 1918.

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[angrybell]

I’m going to go with the following theory: Burstyn was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army and the Landship Committee was made up primarily of naval officers and engineers. I’m thinking that Burstyn may have been institutionally trained to think of artillery as something that is one to a machine served by a small crew. On the other hand, naval officers think of big machines with big crews carrying multiple main guns.

Both were trying to get to the same end point, but I’m wondering if the Burstyn design would have been able to cross the trenches and other field obstacles successfully under fire. His design predated the war by a few years so may not have been right size given what was eventually erected on the fronts during the World War. The British machines were built big enough to do that, maybe more so than necessary.

Motorgeschütz Burstyn at the Vienna Panzerhalle.

[darkageofwar]

Zahkan Empire, Domain of the Lord Protector

“There are no gods. There are no kings. I am but a man. I am only your Protector. Follow me, and I shall guide you all to victory!” -Lord Protector Zahkan Xaerexes, to the first Central Diet

The Great Confederation, the realm of a million stars, the greatest of all realms is the story of a single person, a single human, and his vision for the Galaxy. Before him when he first ventured into the Heavens was the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the officious corpse of a hundred thousand failed governments pretending to be the equals of uncaring Outlanders. After a century of war, all of that false power were gathered under the banner of the Lord Protector, his Coronation declaring to the Heavens that he would protect all he could for as long as he pleased.

This is a task he has never failed, ruling as the Lord Protector far beyond the lives of all who could oppose him.

Through an invasion of endless Outlanders, seeking only to drown the galaxy in blood, his Committee of Public Safety brought us salvation. Through the subversions of the Binary Star Senate when it tried to replace him, he came back to lead a great new army, sundering those traitors who had attempted to replace him. Through the endless rebellions, the endless wars, the endless invasions, and even the Great Shadow War, the Lord Protector has remained firm.

Those who opposed the Lord Protector find nothing by defeat before them: rows of bayonets and rifles millions of men long; endless rain of artillery of countless guns; fleets of landships vaster than any ocean; even the greatest engines of war every created, those capable of killing the very planets that dare tread upon them.

This is the Zahkan Empire.

Glory to the Lord Protector, may his reign last forever.

Titles: Zahkan Empire, The Great Confederation of Humanity United, The Realm of the Lord Protector, Former Co-Prosperity Sphere Capital System: Nefelheim Reach: ~1,200,000 Star Systems Leadership: The Lord Protector Zahkan Xaerexes of Nefelheim Age: 3748 ARC (After Royal Coronation)

[socollectordreamlandposts-blog]

According to history, they introduced the first battle tank on September 1915 by the British Army and named it Mark I Tank. They utilized almost 32 of these types of tanks during the Somme Battle back in 1916 to penetrate the boundary of Germany as part of the plan. From the shared information online through Wikipedia.org, William Foster & Co. constructed the first tank and even nicknamed it as “Little Willie” during that time.

The Landships Committee initially named the first tank as “Landships” and later on produced more of the units and recognized them as “Tanks.” However, the committee needed to hide the assembled battle tanks for security reason. Because William Foster designed the vehicles like a replica of a steel water tank, they decided to finally call them as “Tanks.”

Because of the continuing fight or land battle that time, the armies needed to rely more on the units as their main weapon in winning the war. During the World War II, it appeared that our advancing technology likewise improve the weapons they use for the battle and that includes the improvement of the battle tanks. These warfare vehicles featured more significant features, better designs and advanced weapons that made them more vital during wars.

The history itself likewise revealed that from the first Mark I Tank, different nations had created their own tanks and came out with different sizes, capacities and names. To date, there are not small, medium, heavy, cruiser, destroyer, assault, main battle and super heavy tanks across the world. They all use these vehicles during wars ort battles to provide enough land power.

Going back to the first battle tank in the world, it weighs about 28 tons, featured 4 hotchkiss machine guns, a pair of 6-pound guns, can move about 3.7 mph and with eight personnel operating on it. During that time, the British Army became more dominant because they have deployed several of these tanks to help them conquer the battlefield.

[oneguywithaniphone]

September 06, 1915: First tank produced

On this day in 1915, a prototype tank nicknamed Little Willie rolls off the assembly line in England. Little Willie was far from an overnight success. It weighed 14 tons, got stuck in trenches and crawled over rough terrain at only two miles per hour. However, improvements were made to the original prototype and tanks eventually transformed military battlefields.

The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare of World War I. In 1914, a British army colonel named Ernest Swinton and William Hankey, secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, championed the idea of an armored vehicle with conveyor-belt-like tracks over its wheels that could break through enemy lines and traverse difficult territory. The men appealed to British navy minister Winston Churchill, who believed in the concept of a “land boat” and organized a Landships Committee to begin developing a prototype. To keep the project secret from enemies, production workers were reportedly told the vehicles they were building would be used to carry water on the battlefield (alternate theories suggest the shells of the new vehicles resembled water tanks). Either way, the new vehicles were shipped in crates labeled “tank” and the name stuck.

The first tank prototype, Little Willie, was unveiled in September 1915. Following its underwhelming performance–it was slow, became overheated and couldn’t cross trenches–a second prototype, known as “Big Willie,” was produced. By 1916, this armored vehicle was deemed ready for battle and made its debut at the First Battle of the Somme near Courcelette, France, on September 15 of that year. Known as the Mark I, this first batch of tanks was hot, noisy and unwieldy and suffered mechanical malfunctions on the battlefield; nevertheless, people realized the tank’s potential. Further design improvements were made and at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, 400 Mark IV’s proved much more successful than the Mark I, capturing 8,000 enemy troops and 100 guns.

Tanks rapidly became an important military weapon. During World War II, they played a prominent role across numerous battlefields. More recently, tanks have been essential for desert combat during the conflicts in the Persian Gulf.

from History.com - This Day in History - Lead Story http://ift.tt/PKnqCo

[makersley]

Little Willie | 9 Sep 1915

#OTD in #WW1 #LittleWillie, usually called the first tank prototype, is given a first test run

Little Willie No, we’re not casting aspersions on anyone’s manhood. Little Willie, currently known as the No. 1 Lincoln Machine, is usually cited as the first tank prototype. It’s also the oldest surviving tank, on display at the Tank Museum in Bovington. Today it gets a first test run, yet another important landmark in the ongoing experiments conducted by the Landships Committee. It doesn’t go…

[makersley]

Nicholas II | Stavka | 8 Sep 1915

#OTD in #WW1 #NicholasII takes personal command of the Russian army, effectively signing his own death warrant

Stavka In the wake of the Russian retreat from Poland, it’s obvious that something now needs to be done. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that Tsar Nicholas II fully understands how serious the situation is, and that something big and revolutionary needs to be done in response to it. Accordingly, he sacks his brother, Grand Duke Nicholas, as head of Stavka. Possibly he’d have…

[makersley]

Mother | 23 Aug 1915

Aug 23 in #WW1 Sports day for the Army Service Corps as the Landships Committee designs Mother, an important prototype

Landships Let’s check back in with the Landships Committee, shall we? They’ve been making considerable progress while we’ve been distracted with this “war” business. A few days ago, they had a very important and useful failure. It’s thoroughly put to bed the concept of an articulated machine. The prototypes were two tracked tractors (say that three times quickly after testing the quality of the…

[makersley]

Balfour and the Landships | 8 Jun 1915

#OTD in #WW1 Spicer-Simson prepares to leave England for #LakeTanganyika, the Landships Committee adds important men

There’s a big question mark over the fate of the Landships Committee. With Winston Churchill out at the Admiralty, will he be able to protect his petty-cash project? Mimi & Toutou Lieutenant-Commander Spicer-Simson today conducts final trials on the Thames of Mimi and Toutou. In a week’s time, they’ll be in crates, ready for one of the most ridiculous military expeditions ever conceived. Our…