From the left: a Mk.I Light Tank, a Vickers A6E2 Medium Tank, and a Vickers A1E1 ‘Independent’ Tank. Facing an opposing force that had made substantial developments in both how a tank should be designed and how it should be utilised as a tool of warfare, British tanks would undergo a steep learning process across multiple, diverse theatres.Ī trio of interwar tank designs developed by the British Army. The Second World War and the new realities of armoured warfare would pose an immense challenge to Britain and its armoured fighting forces. Chief amongst these issues was the British Army’s views on tank doctrine and design the incredible success of Germany’s Panzer divisions in carrying out swift attacks against British troops and tanks highlighted how far behind Britain’s armoured forces had fallen, and the need for reform was made clear. The defeat highlighted the deep-seated issues within the British military’s understanding of the new realities of warfare.
The outbreak of the Second World War and the rapid defeat the Allies would suffer in France in 1940 at the hands of Nazi Germany would come as a shock to the British Army. © IWM (Q 68975)īy 1939, this was clearly no longer the case. Thus, ‘Little Willie’ was redundant almost as soon as it was built.A British Mark V ‘Landship’ tank. This would become the classic British tank design of the Great War. Its designers, William Tritton and Walter Wilson came up with a set of workable tracks which were fitted to the ‘Landship’ now known as ‘Little Willie,’ said to be an irreverent nickname for the German Crown Prince, Kaiser Wilhelm.īy the time ‘Little Willie’ was built, Wilson and Tritton had already come up with an improved idea of a machine with tracks running all the way around the vehicle, which would be able to cross trenches. of Lincoln, was contracted to build a prototype machine. After many experiments and false starts an agricultural firm, William Foster & Co. In 1915 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, created a Landships Committee to tackle the problems of trench warfare. It proved that a vehicle encompassing armoured protection, an internal combustion engine, and tracks was a possibility for the battlefield. Little Willie was the first working tank in the world.
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