Interesting details were made public recently by Major-General Sir E. D. Swinton regarding the invention and development of the "schuetzengrabenvernichtungspanzerkraftwagen," better known as the "tank," which from a novelty in the last war has proved to be one of the most effective of military weapons in the present war. Maj.-Gen. Swinton said the tank was entirely British in conception and it was in reality, from a military point of view, a cure for a disease, the disease being the deadly cém-bination of machine-gun and barbed wire entanglement which took such a huge toll of Allied troops as soon as they started to advance. Cognisant of this defect, he was watching the demonstration of the one of the earliest forms of caterpillar tractors on a farm when it dawned on him that a modification of such a machine which would overcome all obstacles, provide it with a bullet proof protection for its crew, and arm it sufficiently, would be the solution. The first machine started its trials in January, 1916, and a strange feature of its development was that the experiments and trials for the use of the British Army were carried out by the Admiralty, which designed and paid for the new invention out of naval funds. The first fleet consisted of 150 tanks which, under the camouflaged title of the Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps, was started in March, 1916, and in September of that year a certain number took the field on the Somme, It was originally known as a "land-cruiser" but the need for secrecy resulted in giving the new weapon the name "tank" because of its appearance and to deceive the enemy regarding its real purpose. Final vindication of the use of this new mobile fortress was not obtained until the battle of Cambrai in 1917, and afterwards no advance was made by the Allies without the use of tanks, All countries immediately adopted the idea, the French, with their customary vision and imagination, advancing far beyond the original idea, but Germany did not do so well, failing to realize their importance until it was too late to compete, although it was admitted that tanks did a lot to beat them on the land. Since the war, tank development and construction have been tremendous, each country building thousands, but tank defences have also considerably improved. But whatever name they may be given abroad in technical or other language, the original camouflage term of "tank" still sticks.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.