Slide 2 of 24

Winston Churchill: Father of the Tracked Tank

The sad truth is that trench warfare was NOT a new thing; we knew about it in the American Civil War in 1860-1865 and the Boer War in 1899-1900. H.G. Wells warned about it and described the need for tanks in his Land Ironclads in 1903!. That these warnings were NOT heeded is explained the systemic psychologically-driven incompetence of authoritarian military organizations composed of weak, insecure egomaniacs and co-dependants. Even a civilian inventor producing a prototype in 1912 had no impact on the corrupt military mind! It took MILLIONS DYING.

One will note that in 1916, Churchill was serving with the British Army, as was for part or all of that time, a battalion commander with the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He did not return to the ministry of munitions until July 1917.

Previously, in 1911, Churchill was appointed the first Lord of the Admiralty with a mandate to bring the British fleet to a state of full readiness for war. In 1915, he strongly pressed for a British attack on the Darnelles and Gallipoli Peninsula, which would have aided Russia, the British ally. However, the attack was a disaster and Churchill was blamed. He resigned from the Admiralty, considered his career finished and went off to serve in the British Army (1915-1917).

However, Prime Minister David Lloyd George appointed him minister of munitions in July 1917. Churchill greatly increased the production of war materials, including tanks -- which had been known as "Winston's folly", so ridiculous was deemed the idea of tanks. Had it not been for Churchill, officers like Swinton and JFC Fuller would have never seen their invention make it to the battlefield. When the war ended in 1918, he became secretary of state for war, in charge of demobilization, and in 1921 was appointed colonial secretary, playing a conspicuous role in the settlement of the Irish question.

Great men like Winston Churchill do great deeds and often have to fight for what's right against a multitude of idiots. This same situation exists today in 2004. We need not wait 100 years to realize that there are heroes among us fighting like Churchill to save our men and defend freedom however, its likely their deeds will remain unsung, but since they do what they do for others, their lack of personal appreciation does not concern them.

While the British didn't exactly used the mechanized combined-arms flexible tactics we think of today, they were the first to try them in WWI. Their artillery barrage was scheduled and not responsive at all. There was almost no communication beyond running courier range after trenches were crossed. This is where the inter-war year reformers would solve with the use of radios.

An U.S. Army Armor officer writes:

"As I have begun writing a new book about how history would have developed if Germany had not lost WWI during the past two weeks, I researched the development of the tank and the use of armored cars in that war. I found out that armored cars were quite popular when the war began because of their relative mobility in a tankless age of foot infantry but when trench warfare began they lost all operational utility and their frontline usage was more or less abandoned entirely while tanks became extremely popular due to their ability to punch holes in enemy lines combined with their unparalled off-road mobility. Armored cars are obselete in major 21st century warfights for largely the same reasons. So Shinseki and his ilk are ignoring the lessons of World War I and every major war which we have fought since in forcing the wheeled Strykers and FCS armored cars upon us. I think its time we send the generals back to school for a little remedial 20th century military history so they will realize the errors of their ways, which should be crystal clear to anyone that knows anything at all about recent military history.

Our enemies are elated to see us unilaterally disarm ourselves of our tanks and tracked vehicles. They only wish we would implement this program now rather than later so they could get on to winning the war against America in the Middle East and get back to studying Islam for versus that support their fundamentalist viewpoints."