A battle rages between British and German
forces during World War I. The British soldiers are pinned down in their
trenches. Bullets fly overhead, grenades explode all
around. The Germans are confident that victory is
within their grasp. But then a rumbling can be heard across the
battlefield. It sounds like a mechanical monster, grinding
up everything in its path. The Germans begin to cower in their trenches. Could this be the new British war machine
that they have heard about? The rumbling gets louder. The Germans peer over their trenches to watch
the vehicle of their demise come over the hill. What they see makes them stare wide eyed. Their jaws drop. Then the entire German army bursts into laughter
as they point at Little Willie, the useless tank. Little Willie was the first tank as we think
of them today. However, there were vehicles that came before
it and contributed to the tank design. For example, in 1899 Frederick Simms designed
the “war-car,” which had a bullet-proof casing and revolving machine guns. It was basically a heavily armed truck, but
you can see how something like the “war-car” eventually developed into tanks. 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 with “conveyor-belt-like tracks” over
its wheels. Their thought process was that the tracks
would be useful for driving over rough terrain and breaking through enemy lines. They presented their plans to Winston Churchill
who quickly got on board with the “land boat” 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. It is for this reason that we call these vehicles
“tanks” today. The very first tank, that later would be called
Little Willie, rolled off the assembly line on September 6, 1915. It was designed by an agricultural firm called
William Foster & Co. of Lincoln and was built in England. The first name given to the tank was No. 1
Lincoln Machine. It weighed 14 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 the nickname that the British
gave to the German Crown Prince Kaiser Wilhelm. The mocking of the crown prince ended up as
an affectionate name for the first tank. The design for Little Willie consisted of
a large body, shaped similar to a water tank. It had 10mm thick armor and could hold a crew
of five soldiers. Little Willie was powered by a Daimler 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 on a good day. Most of the time Little Willie traveled around
at two miles per hour. It was not the speediest tank ever built. In order to keep Little Willie from tipping
over, a wheeled counterbalance was attached to the tail of the tank. This also helped Little Willie steer, but
not very well. The ride inside of Little Willie was anything
but comfortable. It had no suspension whatsoever. It was like riding around in a giant tin can
on tracks. Needless to say, Little Willie was not going
to be the best vehicle to use when it came time for combat. The weaponry on Little Willie worked fine. The tank’s main armament was a Vickers 2-pounder
gun. It was also equipped with various secondary
armaments such as Maxim, Hotchkiss, Lewis, and Madsen machine guns. These guns would all later be removed from
Little Willie and dispersed to it’s big brother, Big Willie, or soldiers that were
able to do Little Willie’s job better than the tank itself. So how useless was Little Willie actually? You probably are thinking it couldn’t be
that bad. But it was… oh it was. Little Willie was designed to cross the trenches
during World War I. This was its main job. Under the assumption that Little Willie would
be able to do what it was designed for, The British Army ordered 100 of the tanks to be
used in the war. Unfortunately, during testing Little Willie
kept getting stuck in the trenches and couldn’t get out. The one job Little Willie was created for,
it could not do. The order of 100 tanks was quickly canceled. When traveling across the battlefield Little
Willie could barely reach two miles per hour. This is about one mile per hour slower than
the average human walks. Not runs, but walks. Little Willie was slower than a grandpa taking
a stroll in the park. Not ideal in a war time situation. Imagine you are in the midst of trench warfare
during World War I. Bullets are flying over your head, screams and whistles fill the air. You need support badly. You look to your left, the men in your platoon
are hunched down, afraid that if they peek above the trench they will be sniped. The men to your right are tending to wounded
soldiers. You begin to panic as you realize this may
not only be the trench you’ve lived in for the past few weeks, but the trench you might
be buried in as well. Then the ground starts to shake. You hear the rumbling of a motor and squeaking
of tracks on wheels. You carefully peer over the trench and see
a large metal contraption coming towards you. It’s Little Willie! You cheer and signal for the driver to come
over and provide cover for your men. Little Willie lumbers over at 2 miles per
hour. You have to wait over ten minutes just for
it to get to you. Then when Little Willie does arrive one of
its tracks gets stuck in the trench. It spins and spins, but Little Willie is stuck
and can’t get out. Now Little Willie needs rescuing. You just shake your head at the useless tank. This is what happened in training exercises
during the Little Willie testing phase. The constant breakdowns, and getting stuck
in trenches, was why Little Willie never deployed to the battlefield. It was probably for the best that Little Willie
didn’t see battle. It probably would have caused more harm than
good. Another problem with Little Willie was that
the engine had to work extremely hard just to get the tank moving at a speed of two miles
per hour. This strain on the engine caused it to overheat. An overheating engine inside a large, enclosed,
metal vehicle is like turning on the burners of an oven full blast while you’re inside
it. The crew in the tank would literally begin
to cook and would have to open hatches or abandon the tank. This overheating problem was another reason
that Little Willie never made it to the battlefield. Probably the biggest problem Little Willie
faced was that it was redundant. Using what they learned from Little Willie
the Brits built a bigger, better, version called Big Willie before its predecessor was
even tested. Little Willie was never destined to be more
than a first step. But in the hearts of military historians Little
Willie means so much more. When you think of it, was there any actual
benefit to having built Little Willie? Well, you might be surprised. Little Willie did provide some benefits, which
may have made it not completely useless. Or maybe the cons outweigh the pros. We’ll let you decide. The first benefit that Little Willie provided
was the lessons learnt from its construction. Little Willie was not easy to build and the
engineers ran into several difficulties, including how to keep the tracks from falling off and
how to keep Little Willie from tipping over. The tracks themselves started by only going
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 made the tracks more durable and helped
keep them on their wheel bearings. It was due to the trial and error of Little
Willie that tanks today have tracks that go around the entire body of the base of the
tank. Therefore, one could argue that without Little
Willies flaws, tanks today would have taken longer to develop or would be less efficient. Thanks Little Willie. Another aspect of Little Willie that was useful
was the potential that political and military leaders saw in it. Sure Little Willie was not able to drive over
trenches without getting stuck. Or would break down in the middle of a testing
field because of overheating. But it was the first tank ever built. The potential was there, and Little Willie
had to be built to show the world it was possible. Once Big Willie and subsequent other tank
designs were built using the foundation that Little Willie set, the British Army found
another use for the first tank. Little Willie was used for driver training. The thought may have been that if you could
drive Little Willie, you could drive anything. Countless men were able to do their jobs and
conquer the enemy because they received their training driving Little Willie. That is something to be proud of. 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 off the assembly
line the automobile had been around for just over 35 years. That is a long way to go from a basic horseless
carriage to a tank that could be outfitted with guns and a crew of five in such a short
time. Without Little Willie and its struggles we
may not have tanks today. It was through the processes of engineering
and modern science of the time that Little Willie was made a reality. The British basically took the idea of an
armored boat and brought it on land. It had never been done before Little Willie. Sure the tank itself was pretty useless and
never saw combat, but without Little Willie so many ideas that led to modern useful tanks
may never have been thought of. So yes, Little Willie may have been the most
useless tank ever made, but in our hearts it was a true hero. 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.
