A new Excalibur: the development of the tank, 1909-1939

Description

The idea of a mobile strong-point, out of which the tank developed, probably occurred to most minds after our first experience of attacking strongly entrenched positions; I first heard it suggested by an Intelligence Corps officer as early as the Battle of the Aisne....the suggestion of using the 'Caterpillar tractor, which has been experimented with at Aldershot in 1914, immediately arose....but it was so obvious a development that it must have occurred simultaneously in many regiments and staff messes.' Thus stated Jphn Charteris, Sir Douglas Haig's Director of Military Intelligence Obvious development it may have been, but the birth and infancy of the tank were nevertheless weighed down by the by a truly remarkable burden of handicaps in which the endeavour to solve the enormous number of technical problems which the construction of such a vehicle presented at times to pale into insignificance compared with the endless squabbles between the headstrong band of 'midwives' and...