Landship Committee facts for kids
The Landship Committee was a special British group created during World War I. Their main job was to invent new armored vehicles that could help soldiers on the Western Front. What they ended up creating is now known as the tank!
This committee was started in February 1915 by Winston Churchill, who was then the head of the British Navy (called the First Lord of the Admiralty). Most of the people on the committee were naval officers, government officials, and engineers. It was led by Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, who was in charge of building ships for the Navy. To keep their secret project hidden, they changed the committee's name to "the D.N.C.'s Committee" by December 1915.
How the Committee Started
Winston Churchill officially formed the committee in February 1915. The idea for these new vehicles came from people like Colonel Ernest Swinton and Maurice Hankey. Hankey wrote to Churchill in December 1914, suggesting the need for something new.
On January 5, 1915, Churchill wrote to the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, explaining his vision. He said that soldiers needed a way to cross the dangerous "no man's land" between trenches, which was full of wire fences. Churchill believed it would be easy to build "tractors with armoured shelters." These machines would be bulletproof and could carry men and machine guns. He thought their caterpillar system (like a tank's tracks) would easily cross trenches and smash through wire. These new engines could then move into enemy trenches and clear them out with machine gun fire.
The committee began with just three members: d'Eyncourt as the leader, Flight Commander Thomas Gerard Hetherington from the Royal Naval Air Service, and Colonel Wilfred Dumble from the Naval Brigade. Hetherington had suggested a huge wheeled "landship" that would weigh about 300 tons! Dumble, who used to manage the London Omnibus Co., recommended R. E. B. Crompton to the committee. Crompton was an expert in heavy vehicles that could travel across rough land.
The committee's work was kept secret from other important government departments like the War Office, the Board of the Admiralty, and the Treasury. This was because they expected these groups might try to stop the project. Experiments and tests for the new vehicles were carried out secretly at Hatfield House.
Developing the Tank
The Landship Committee tested many different vehicles, some with wheels and some with tracks. They started building a prototype vehicle, which later became known as "Little Willie." In July 1915, the War Office found out about the committee's secret work. Because of this, the Army took over the project, and some of the Navy members moved to work with the Army.
To keep the project a secret, the word "tank" was chosen in December 1915 as a special codename for the new vehicles. From then on, the Landship Committee became officially known as the Tank Supply Committee.
Tanks Go to War
The very first tanks were used in battle during the battle of the Somme in September 1916. This was a major moment in military history!
