Landship Committee

The Landship Committee was a small British committee formed during the First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now called the tank. Established in February 1915 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the Committee was composed mainly of naval officers, politicians and engineers. It was chaired by Eustace Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty. For secrecy, by December 1915 the name was changed to "the D.N.C.'s Committee" to disguise its purpose.

Formation

, in The Tank Museum in Dorset The committee was formed at Churchill's instruction in February 1915, in part from ideas by Colonel Ernest Swinton, who was then employed as a war correspondent for HM government, and by Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, who wrote Churchill a missive on 26 December 1914. Churchill on 5 January 1915 disclosed the committee notion to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith by letter in which he wrote: ==Tank development==

Tank development

The Committee conducted a number of trials with various wheeled and tracked vehicles, and work was in progress on a prototype vehicle (later to become Little Willie) when in July 1915 the Committee's existence came to the attention of the War Office. This led to its operations being taken over by the Army and a number of its members transferring from the Navy. From December, 1915 the word "tank" was adopted as a codename for the vehicles in development, and the Landship Committee became known officially as the Tank Supply Committee. ==Tank deployment==

Tank deployment

The tank was first deployed to the battle of the Somme in September 1916. ==Immediate aftermath==

Immediate aftermath

In 1919 the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors held a session to determine the inventor of the tank. ==See also==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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