During September 1916, Australians discovered a new meaning for an old word. The tank, once a large, mundane and often corrugated receptacle for liquids, would henceforth be a word whispered in awe—it was the name given to a new and terrifying super weapon.1 To a war-weary public already horrified by the slaughter of Gallipoli and the Western Front, the tank appeared to offer a means of overcoming the enemy’s defences and advancing to a decisive victory.2 Australians were eager to learn more about the tank, and to actually see one was an opportunity that few members of the Australian public could resist.
Almost from their unveiling on the Western Front, moves were underway to secure a tank for Australia. The initial requests were for a veteran of the fighting on the front for inclusion in the growing list of acquisitions for the future Australian War Museum. However, with the success of public exhibitions and demonstrations of tanks in the UK and the US in support of events to raise money for patriotic causes, the proposal to send a tank on a lengthy journey to Australia acquired a new purpose. By the beginning of 1918 when the British War Office finally agreed to allocate a tank to Australia, its primary role was no longer simply that of historic war relic, but had become one of an object of such public interest and curiosity that it could be successfully utilised to raise money and lure precious recruits for the war effort.
As an item of curiosity rather than a war relic, it needed to be functional. To function, the tank needed a crew. These men were initially drawn from available invalid AIF personnel who were then trained in the UK and repatriated to Australia as the ‘special tank personnel’. As such, this crew constituted the first officially trained and mobilised tank crew in the AMF. Subsequently, additional crewmen, drawn from Permanent Military Forces (PMF) RAE personnel, were also trained in the maintenance and operation of the tank. The tank was very successfully utilised on several occasions in Australia from July 1918 until it was formally transferred to the Australian War Museum in October 1921.