BIG AND LITTLE WILLIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1917, Page 4

BIG AND LITTLE WILLIES.

STORY OF THF TANKS. “ MOST WONDERFUL WEAPON . IN MODERN WARFARE ” The arrival in the United States of Colonel E. D. Swiutou, 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, who is on his first visit to America, tells a correspondent of the “ New Work Herald ” /that the original idea for the invention came from America in what is known as the Holt tractor.

“In the British Army certain of us had been talking a long time about the necessity of some new war machine capable of over rough ground and being able to fight,” Colonel Swinton told the “ Herald ” correspondent.

“We had our eyes open for it, but made little headway until July, 1914, a month before the war began, when an officer reported to me that he had seen a tractor near Antwerp which was able to climb over rough ground, and which might serve as tiie principle of the machine tor which we were searching, This tractor was being used in a field, he said, and was a remarkable contrivance, which might be investigated to advantage.

“I went out to see the 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 the thing to me. I pretended to think highly of its possibilities, aud the farmer, who was enthusiastic about it, tried to prove that it was a wonderful invention. He 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. lam not an inventor, bat 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 Germans. NAMING THU 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 its nature was deemed essential, and finally the non-committal word “tank” was chosen. Aside from being called “ Panzerkraftwagen ” and '•"Bcßutaexigrabenvex’niclitung-autonn-bil ” by tlie Germans the machines were otherwise miscalled. During the summer of HUG an enemy agent, trying to tap the wires in England, might have been mystified to pick up some such messages as ‘‘Twelve Willies reach you to-day,” or “ Send tails for six females.” “ Willie,” a pet cognomen adopted as suitable for the telephone arid obivating the use of a code for telegrams, was suggested by the fact that the first experimental “ landship ” completed, though equally malevolent, was smaller aud less powerful for evil than its immediate successor — eventually the type adopted. When the two creatures were together they gave the ludicrous impression of being child and parent ot a monstrous evil brood. Hence, naturally “Little Willie” and “ Big Willie.”

The “Big Willies” were also somewhat uubiologically and interestingly classified as males and females, according to their armament.

“ The male is par excellence the machine-gun hunter and destroyer. He carries light, quick-firing guns, capable of firing shell, and is intended to be to the machine-gun what the torpedo boat, or the ladyIbug is supposed to be to the aphis. The female, which, in accordance with the law of Nature, is the man-killer, carried nothing but machine-guns for employment against the enemy personnel. Her special role is to keep down hostile rifle fire, to beat back counterattacks and rushes of infantry, and to act generally as a consort to her lord and master.” NEED OP STRICT SECBECV. The utmost- secrecy enveloped the tanks ifrom their manufacture to their arrival at the front. To help conceal their destination at the stage when any reference to their purpose was precluded, they were painted with the inscription “ With Care. To Petrograd,” in large Russian characters, following up the suggestion that they werb meant for snow-ploughs in Russia. While being transported by rail they were covered by tarpaulins, and they were always loaded after ! night. The trains were of flat trucks, ' and the special lengths of side-track ' needed, were brilliantly lit by acetylene flares. »

“ From out the gloom, into the circle of light and back again into the outer dark, over glistening mud or through shimmering clouds of dust, continually crawled a procession of sing-shaped monsters, purring, panting, and emitting flames as they slid over the ground.” • On one occasion Zeppelin raiders broke in upon this Dantesque scene of loading. “ At once every light in the loading yard was extinguished, and every tank froze to stillness where it stood, darkness and uncanny silence taking the place of glare and the throbbing bustle of work. After a few minutes of tense expectancy, .... a faint humming noise made itself heard afar oft’ on high. The 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 the stationary 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 o

new and necrefc weapons for the slay- ' ing of his Gebrudefei —a neat of scorpions in pickle for If is kameraden < on terra firma, which, even to his mind, might have seemed a target worthier of high explosive than sleeping women and children: and after a few minutes tlie 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 life, and the circus performance proceeded. “ It was a curious phase of modern war as waged in three dimensions.” SAVED 20,000 LIVES AT THE SOMITE. What the tanks have done is now history', their use in increased numbers alone testifying to their essential success. According to Frederick Palmer, American war correspondent with the British Army

“ In the latter stages of the battle of the Somme the intervention of the tanks—though many machines failed from mechanical and other defects —saved some 20,000 British lives.

“In spite of the ridicule usually poured on the new weapon by their uewspapers—tlie object of which is plain—articles do occasionally appear which sound another note. For instance, Lieutenant-General Baron von Ardenue has recently' stated in the ‘Berliner Tageblatt’ that:

“These powerful armoured cars, which were first used by the British, are undoubtedly the most wonderful weapons which modern tactics have revealed in warfare.”