TANKS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 9

TANKS.

m WHO INVENTED THEM? UNSOLVED BIDDLE OF THE WAS. Ever sine© the spring of 1915 two military mistakes hare constantly and in various phases of acrimony or toleration been laid at the door of Lord Kitchener, then the British Secretary of State for War, declares Walter Littlefield, in a recent issue of the "New York Times." One mistake was that the troops he sent to Gallipoli did not arrive in time to take advantage of the bombardment to wmch the Turkish fortifications were subjected by the British Fleet; the other was that he sent to the British Army on the Somme shrapnel, when it should have had high explosive shells. These two charges have, in the last half-dozen years, been made to serve many remorseless purposes in both the political and military life of England, many of which were far from praiseworthy. Possibly with the idea of laying a corner-stone in a structure to rehabilitate his memory, possibly with the idea _ of merely annoying his enemies, or his fair-weather friends now in the Government, or clinging to its skirts. The London "Morning Post" asserts, with a certain amount of convincing documentaary evidence, that it was Lord Kitchener who first suggested the idea of the tank and that the suggestion was made to his friend and coni-p'anion-in-arms of the South African war, Captain Bentley, the engineer and transport expert, who put the suggestion into material, practical form. The inventors who have charged that the British Government adopted, borrowed, or actually stole their idea for the famous, destructive weapon of war are legion—there are Frenchmen, Americans, and even Germans among them. In the autumn of 1919 a British Royal Commission on Awards to Irventors for* Beveral weeks heard the claims of fifteen persons and finaJy awarded £15,000 jointly to Sir William Tritton and Major Wilson, for having produced "the tank in a concrete ; practical war shape," although the originality of the idea was conceded to have been Major-General E. D. Swinton's. Kitchener's name was only mentioned in the testimony of Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, 191116, to show that what the War Office discarded the Admiralty gladly availed itself of, until the tank returned to the department in a 6tate of perfection. Of Bentley's name there was no mention whatever. There had been, of course the "tortoise" of the Romans, the "war car" invented by Leonardo da Vinci, and the armoured cars' propelled by steam invented for the Crimean War, but which never reached the battlefront, as adequate means of transportation was lacking seventy years ago., Even a quarter of a century before the World War a movable war engine was invented, armour plated, propelled by steam, and running on- the so-called "caterpillar" wheels. All had' their day and were'discarded for one reason or another, until the invention of the oil engine revived their three essen-tials-—armour plating, guns, and the ability to surmount obstacles. Unheralded Appearance. | ■■■■■■ These were the essentials .shown in tha first tanks .which so dismayed the Germans when they made their Unheralded appearance before them in the - spring of 1916. Whose brain or num- : ber of brains worked together had been instrumental in designing this specific apparatus? ' That . was the problem which the Eoyal; Commission tried to solve, in justice to all. And " now the says:—:" We feel that it.is.,pur duty to make public the facts set out below; first, because we have every possible reason to believe that they are facts, and secondly, because, but of ignorance of them, too little honour has.been paid to the great soldier who saved England in her dark-, est hour, and a definite .injustice has been done to a brilliant and,able engineer, whose inventive genius a prime factor in the encompassing victory." ... The Government has placed itself on record by saying:—. '' Mr- Winston Churchill submitted the scheme to Mr Asquith in a letter dated January sth, 1915." The Kitch-encr-Bentley connexion with the '' scheme''' dates from just three months before. The "Morning Post" presents it in the form of a dramatic interview:— "The story begins on October 19th, 1914. Captain Bentley had just'returned to England to rejoin the army for service during, the European War. On October 19th he was rung up on the telephone by Colonel Fitzgerald, Lord Kitchener's Military Secretary, and asked to come to the War Office at once. When he' arrived \there he was at once taken to, the Secretary of State. " 'Downstairs, in the quadrangle,' said Lord Kitchener, 'there's an. ar- ' moured car Woolwich has made for me. It's the result of the united brains of the Navy and Army experts. We want it for this trench fighting which they have begun in France. Go down, have a look at it, and then come back and tell me what you think about it.' "Captain Bentley and Colonel Fitzgerald went downstairs to the car. Within five minutes they were back again. "Well"? said Lord Kitchener. "'lt's no good lor your jiurpose.' Captain Bentley replied. '"ioii can't ! take it off a road.' | "Exactly," said Lord Kitchener. J 'My own opinion. Now,' he continued,' | 'will you design me one of the right ! type. At once, please. It's urgent. | .Let me have it to-morrow.' J "By the first post in the morning, i October 20th, Colonel Fitzgerald received from Captain Bsntiey a packet containing a rough, though complete, ! spscification of a cross-country armour-' 1 ed car, together with a covering: letter j briefly explaining the apinisd" prin-' ! ciples of a 'pedo-rail," or 'caterpillar,' the consequent possibility of mounting j a heavier gun, and also a suggestion for painting or 'camouflage.' Colonel, Fitzgerald acknowledged receipt by telegram. "On October 22nd, Captnin Bentley ' was again summoned to the War 03ice. There it was arranged that he should! • meet Lord Kitchener in the evening at his house in Carlton Gardens, fm\ there should go carefully through die spec-ific.ttions. This meeting" duly tcok pi. ce. and for some th:ee hours Paptar.i Bentley and Lord Kitchstfxjr - vovicod upon the idea and plans, turning the whole matter inside out. discussing all i the principles. Briefly these were: (a) The front wheels hot to be used for steering; (b) "caterpillar" track to be carried through car like escalators; (c) two engines, port and starimrd, controlling each truck for steering: (d) armouring of body to suit positions. "At the end of the discussion Captain Bentley told Lord Kitchener that he proposed to go at once to the Patent Office and register the design. 'Wait/ said Lord Kitchener. 'Are you satisfied to leave this in my hands? I'll look after you.' Upon the understanding that the matter was to be kept entirely secret and that Captam Bentley's interests would be fully secured by Lord Kitchener, the interview closed. Lord Kitchener was, of course, unable to fulfill the pomise which he made to Captain Bentley. He died, as all the world knows, on active sen-ice in June, 1916." - ' Eoad of Bed T2pe, Now there is no doubt that these specifications were to be found in .the. fjzsi-

tanks to make their appearance on the British battlefront. All are to be found, and much more besides, in the! archives of the British War Office —so we are told by the writer in the "Morning Post." Captain Bentley was ordered to Russia in the first week of November, 1914, A year later he was sent to German East Africa. When he returned early in 1917 he found that the tanks, his tanks, were.au accomplished fact. Kitchener, the principal witness of his invention, was dead, and Fitzgerald had died with him. Captain Bentley appealed to a friend in the House of Commons. He appealed to the Government. Nothing happened. In .November, 1918, he submitted a formal claim to the Tanks Award Committee, enclosing a copy of the Fitzgerald letter dated October I9th, 1914. The committee acknowledged the receipt of the claim, but informed the claimant that it was making no awards for mere "suggestions." bater, after a somewhat heated discussion with one of the members of the War Cabinet, Captain Bentley was said to have exclaimed : "Well, if no award of any kind or decoration is given to anyone claiming them, I will make the country a present of my invention." In August, 1919, Captain Bentley learned that an official history of the tank was being prepared, and wrote to the Director of Historical Becords for information. The director replied by making an admission which later on had to be circumvented. "I have, however, already incorporated a note (in the book) to the elfect that the application of 'caterpillar' traction to armoured cars was put by you to Colonel Fitzgerald in the month of October, 1914." Then when the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors was assembled in October, 1919, Bentley was asked to appear as a "witness for the Grown, with reference to your memorandum of 19th October, 1914, to Colonel Fitzgerald. Bentley attended as instructed. He was not called to testify. Later, a day was set by the Commission to hear his testimony. But on that day the Commission did not appear. So the victim of British red-tape or worse sought his solicitor, and formulated a direct and formal claim against the Commission. His claim was adjudged "unsuitable." The War Office was next formally ap- . pealed to. but this time the War Office knew nothing— it didn't even rememlier the famous Fitzgerald note. So la«t ot all Captain Bentley appealed to the King, through the Homo Secretary, or rather his solicitor did, in what is called a "Petition on behalf of ." Months passed. Repeated, periodio enquiries brought forth the information that the petition was slowly wending its way through various departments of the Government, and 'The Secretary of State hopes to be in a position before long, etc." Then, on March 29th, 1922, came the final answer: "The petition of right of your client has been laid before the King, but the .Secretary of State was unable to advise His Majesty to grant his fiat thereon." There ends for the moment a remarkable case. The facts of whioh repose m the War Office unchallenged, yet unrevealed; potential in their certain evidence, yet unavailable for the unfortunate captain of engineers, the comrade of the dead Lord Kitchener.