BIG & LITTLE WILLIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9824, 22 November 1917, Page 3

BIG & LITTLE WILLIES

STORY OF THE TANKS "MOST WONDERFUL WEAPON IN MODERN WARFARE.” The arrival in. thV "United States ot Colonel E. D. Swinton, C. 8., D. 5.0., R.E., Assistant Secretary of the British War Cabinet, who developed the British “tank," is coincident with the first authentic account of the tank s development. Colonel Swinton, nho is on his first visit to America, tells a correspondent of the "Now lork Herald” that the original idea for the invention came from America in what what is known as the Holt tractor. ‘Tr. the B’ritish Army certain of us had been talking a long time about tho necessity ot some now war machine capable of climbing over .rough ground and being able to fight, Colonel Swinton told tho "Herald correspondent. "Wo had our eyes open for it, but made little headway until July, 1914, a. mouth before, tho war began, when ah officer reported to mo that ho had seen a tractor near Antwerp which was able to climb over rough ground, and which might servo as the principle of tho machine for which wo were searching. This tractor was being used in a field, ho said, and was a remarkable contrivance, which might be investigated to advantage. “I wont out to soo tho machine, and found a farmer at work with it in a field. Without letting him know my identity or purpose, I got him to demonstrate tho thing to mo. I pretended to think highly of its possibilities, and the farmer, who was enthusiastic about it, tried to prove that it was a wonderful • invention. Ho climbed over some rough ground" with it just to show of what it was capable. I saw immediately that there were possibilities in the tractor. “Then the war broke out in August, and events came in such rapid succession that it was October before we were able to give our attention to the development of the tank. 1 am not an inventor, hut I obtained the services of two officers who are inventors, and we set about making a war machine along entirely new lines. The development of the machine was slow, and it was almost two years later before the first tank appeared upon the 'battlefield to terrify the Gormans. NAMING THE TANK.

What to name the tank, according to Colonel Swinton’s article in “The Strand Magazine,” puzzled its makers. A name that would reveal nothing of ita nature was deemed essential, end finally tho non-committal word ‘‘tank was chosen. Aside from being called “PanzerkraftwageaV and r‘Sonut2on-grabenvornichtung-antomobil” by th^ Germains the machines wore otherwise miscalled. During tho summer or 1916 an otnomy trying to tap the wires in England, might nave been mystified to pick up some such messages as “Twelve Willies reach yon today,” or “Send tails for six females. "Willie,” a pot cognomen adopted) as Buitaible for tho telephone and ohirating the use of a code for telegrams, was suggested by tho fact that the first experimental “landship” completed, though equally malevolent, was smaller and loss powerful for evil than its immediate successor —©ventually the type adopted. When the two creatures were together they gave the ludicrous impression of being child and parent of a monstrous evil brood. Hence, naturally a liittl<j Willio * and Bis Willie.” „ . . The “Big Willies were also somewhat unbiologioally and interestingly classified as males and females, according to their armament. “The male is par excellence the ma-chine-gun hunter and destroyer. Ho carries light, quick-firing guns, capable of firing shell, atnd is intended to be to the machine-gun what the torpedo boat destroyer was designed to be to the torpedo boat, or the ladybug is supposed to be to the aphis. Tho female, which, in accordance with tho law of Nature, is the. man-killer, carried nothing hut machine-guns tor employment against tho enemy personjnel. Hot special rolo is to Ireop down hostile rifle fire, to heat hack counterattacks and rushes of infantry, and to act generally as a consort to her lord and master.” NEED OF strict secrecy.

Tho utmost secrecy enveloped the tanks from their manufacture to their arrival at tho front. To help conceal their destination at tho stag© when any reference to their purpose was precluded, thtey were painted with tho inscription “With Care. To Petrograd,” in largo Russian characters, following up . the suggestion that they were meant for snow-ploughs in Russia. While being transported hy rail they were covered by tarpaulins, and wore always loaded after night. Tho trains were of flat trucks, and the special lengths of sido-track needed were brilliantly lit by acetylene flares. ‘ ‘From out tho gloom, into tho circle of light and back again into the outor dark, over glistening mud or through, shimmering clouds of dust, continually crawled a procession of slug-shaped monsters, purring, panting, and emitting flames as they slid over the ground.” On one occasion Zeppelin raiders broke in upon this Dantesquo scene of loading. “At onpo every light in the loading yard was extinguished, and every tank froze to stillness where it stood, darkness and uncanny silence taking tho place of glare and the throbbing bustle of work. After a few minutes of tense expectancy . . . .a faint humming noise made itself heard afar off on high. Tho sound approached, grew louder, and gradually changed to a high-pitched purring, which seemed to fill the whole sky as a Zeppelin droned up overhead and circled above tho sta. taonary machines in the ‘tankodrome,’ like a night owl quartering a field of corn above a colony of paralysed field mice.

“No hint was given, however, to betray to the Hun skipper that directly underneath him lay a collection of new and secret weapons for the slaying of his Gebruderei —a nost of scorpions in pickle for his kameradeu on terra fiiuna, which, even to his mind., might have seemed a target worthier of high explosive than sleeping women and children: and after a few ininues the airship sailed away, to unload its murderous cargo of bombs at a point some miles distant. Thrice was this visit repeated during the _ night—whether by the same Zeppelin or by others it is not easy to say. Finally, after a respectful interval, up went the lights, the tanks came back to