Secret Weapon That Was Never Used

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 3, 4 October 1948, Page 2

Secret Weapon That Was Never Used

Major General F. C. Fuller, inventor of tank warfare in World War I and one of Britain’s greatest military strategists, has revealed in his book “The Second World War” that Britain had a weapon in her hands from 1917 onwards that would have enabled tanks to hace fought at night. It was never used.c The weapon consisted of an infantry tank equipped with a powerful projector which threw out a dazzling beam of light. With it an attack could be carried out more effectively than in broad daylight because although the attacker could see everything in front of him the defender could only see a dazzling expanse of white light. In 1940 the War Office had 300 projectors made and special schools were set up to train men in its use. About 2000 tanks were adapted for it and two brigades formed for the task of going into action with it. Eventually the brigades were broken up and the tanks stripped of the equipment. Major General Fuller says on the subject: “If in this scientific and technical age futur enovel weapons meet with thej same fate the soldier will be completely unprpared for the next war as he was for this.”