There is of course nothing new in the army’s refusal to consider tanks as the War Office was well known for being resistant to new ideas. Those in charge of the army were obviously of the same mind. Lord Kitchener was present at a number of early trials of machines that could have led to use as a tank but had little interest in the new inventions. H.G. Wells described those who commanded the army as men who walked and thought in spurs.

It seems as if those in command of British forces were prepared to send endless thousands of men across no man’s land in the face of German machine-guns, perhaps because this was how wars had always been fought. It took some time for them to realise that the First World War was like no war fought before and that it needed new tactics.

The development of the tank was left to the navy with their experience of fighting in armoured craft. It was, it seems, a simple step to move from armoured ships on water to armoured land vehicles. The Royal Naval Air Service Armoured Car section had its origins in the ideas of men who were willing to make changes to what they had and try something new.

The support of men like Winston Churchill, himself an advocate of armoured vehicles, helped to force the issue despite the reluctance of others in government and the army. Unlike the conception of the armoured car, the tank had a slow and sporadic development. There was even a point where help was requested from suffragettes due to the army’s refusal to allow any men to take part in the development of tanks.

Perhaps the most surprising event though was the refusal of the German army to consider the weapon even after it first appeared on the Somme. The tank played very little part in the German war effort, a lesson they obviously learnt from by the time of World War Two.