Landships II

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Little Willie name

Paul Bonnett · Hero

Only "official" name I've seen is here :- � http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Willie

-- Edited by Paul Bonnett on Tuesday 12th of October 2010 01:21:38 AM

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Thanks Paul, I know it was called� 'Number 1 Lincoln Machine'� when it had the Bullock tracks.� I wondered if anyone had seen any refence to an official name when it had the Tritton track.

airdave · Major

From what I know the Tritton machine was called "No. 1 Lincoln Machine" right from the beginning.
This never changed from the original Bullock built tracks, right through all of Tritton's modifications.

I assume the Landships Committee earlier attempts at track driven vehicles did not have any names.

-- Edited by airdave on Friday 4th of July 2014 12:22:53 AM

James H · Legend

I raised this a little while ago, but got no response. It's the accepted wisdom that the vehicle was called the "No. 1 Lincoln Machine", but why? I should have thought that, like the Tank Mk I or World War I, it would only become the No. 1 when there was a No. 2 from which it needed to be differentiated. And I've never seen a primary source for the name. Happy to be corrected, as always.

But then there's this: In July 1918, Popular Science Monthly reported, "Because a fellow of the Royal Historical Society has unintentionally misled the British public as to the origin of the famous "tanks," Sir William Tritton, who designed and built them, has published the real story of their name ... Since it was obviously inadvisable to herald "Little Willie's" reason for existence to the world he was known as the "Instructional Demonstration Unit." "Little Willie's" hull was called in the shop orders a "water carrier for Mesopotamia;" no one knew that the hull was intended to be mounted on a truck." I know that's on Wikipedia, but don't worry - I put it there, in the teeth of the usual opposition, of course, so it's correct.

That is from Tritton himself. No mention of the Lincoln Machine at all. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible to identify the misleading member of the RHS. I also think Tritton was being rather pointed in his inclusion of the word "unintentionally."

So is there evidence for the name, and why does Tritton's claim receive so little acknowledgement?

airdave · Major

agreed...although "No.1 Lincoln Machine" is considerably less descriptive or interesting to a spy (than "Instructional Demonstration Unit.")
I think it sounds like farm implement.
The other name sounds like a Military term and gets me curious.
Generally you'd go for something more cryptic... and Lincoln Machine is definitely more cryptic.

I would argue one thing...
When Tritton was contracted, it was already understood that everyone was working toward the Mk.1
It was already understood that more than one testing vehicle would be built.

Although the name might not have come into existence until the vehicle was presented to the press and public
(which seems like the obvious place to give it an actual name...since the press seem to demand a catchy name for everything)
there was probably an immediate understanding (from the original contract)
that this would be the "Number One machine from the Lincoln factory"