The Devil's Chariots

by John Glanfield

  7. Ibid.

  8. A.R. Bellamy to War Office, 27.3.1922. TM, Hornsby papers.

  9. MT Committee Report, 1910–11. Ray Hooley archive, Lincoln.

  10. MT Committee Report, 1911–12, PRO, WO107/63.

  11. R.M. Wik, Benjamin Holt and the Caterpillar Tracks and Combines (American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1984), pp.83–4.

  12. ‘Good-bye to the Gun Horse’, The Commercial Motor, 27.3.1913.

  13. Wik, Benjamin Holt, pp.86–8.

  14. PRO, WO32/6782.

  2. Early Trials – and Verdicts

  1. Scott-Moncrieff to Maj Gen F.R. Bingham, 4.11.18, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  2. Swinton, interview, Oxford Mail, 19.11.1942.

  3. Tulloch, interview at MoM, 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/27. Also Tulloch’s letter of same date to Lloyd, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  4. Tulloch to MoM, 18.12.1918, PRO MUN5/210/1940/13. Also Maj Hardcastle, reference in Royal Artillery Journal, vol XXXIV, p.377 et seq.

  5. Tulloch, interview at MoM, 18.12.1918, and Tulloch to Lloyd of MoM, 2.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/27. Also Tulloch to Lloyd 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  6. Marriott to M. Jules Schnerb, 11.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/27.

  7. Swinton to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors (henceforth Royal Commission), 7.10.1919, Minutes of the Proceedings, p.15, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  8. Swinton to Hankey, 11.11.1914, LHC, Swinton Papers.

  9. Swinton to Liddell Hart, 14.4.1918, LHC, LH9/28/62.

  10. Hankey, evidence before the High Court, The Times, 27.11.1925.

  11. Hankey to Liddell Hart, 3.4.1948, LHC, LH9/28/60.

  12. Hankey, memorandum, 28.12.1914, PRO MUN5/210/1940/13.

  13. Hankey to Swinton, 13.10.1919, LHC, LH9/28/62.

  14. Hankey to Liddell Hart, 3.4.1948, LHC, LH9/28/60.

  15. Churchill to Asquith, 2.1.1915, Bod, MS Asquith 14, fols 7–10.

  16. Asquith to Churchill, 6.11.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  17. Jackson to Scott-Moncreif, 20.1.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  18. Tulloch to Jackson, 19.1.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  19. Jackson to D of A, DFW and MGO, 20.1.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  20. Holden to DFW, 25.1.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  21. Haynes, report, 19.2.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  22. Jackson to von Donop, 23.2.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  23. Scott-Moncrieff to Holden, 1.3.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  24. Holden to Scott-Moncrieff, 1.3.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  25. Tulloch to MoM, 2.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/27.

  26. Tulloch to Swinton, 20.8.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  27. Scott-Moncrieff to Tank Awards Committee, 10.10.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  28. C. Callwell, The Experiences of a Dugout, 1914–1918 (London, Constable, 1920), pp.118–19.

  29. Crompton to Counsel, 1919, TM, 069.02 (41) Crompton/29.

  30. The Scotsman, 27.11.1925.

  31. Law Report, The Times, 27 November 1925.

  32. Bacon to members of the Tank Awards Committee, 1918 (undated Records of Proceedings, p.16). PRO, MUN5/394.

  33. W.S. Churchill, The World Crisis (4 vols, London, Thronton Butterworth, 1923, repr. 1927), vol. 2, pp.72–3.

  34. W.A. Tritton, The Tank, Its Birth and Development (Wm Foster & Co. Ltd, c. 1919), pp.15–17. Also his evidence to Royal Commission, 1919, p.148, para 2486A, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/33.

  3. Winston’s Circus

  1. Samson, reports from Dunkirk, 1 September–31 October 1914, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  2. Inspecting Captain of Aircraft, Sheerness, Report, September 1914, PRO, AIR1/346/15/227/1.

  3. Wedgwood to DAD, 3.10.1914, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  4. It is clear from an undated progress report that the armour was to be delivered to the chassis builders for erection by them, see TM, RNAS papers. This is datable to mid-September by reference to a memo DAD to ICA of 17.9.1914 which also confirms that the first eight chassis went to Sheerness for plating – PRO, AIR1/185/15/226/2. See also ICA to DAD, 11.9.1914, PRO, AIR1/185/15/226/2.

  5. Maj Risk reported in October that the consignment had comprised six armoured cars, but Scarlett’s despatch report went out ‘same day’ and stated five: ICA to DAD, 25.9.1914, PRO, AIR1/346/15/227/1.

  6. Wedgwood’s delivery: ICA to DAD, 27, 28 and 30.9.1914. Hetherington’s delivery: ICA to DAD, 2.10.1914, PRO, AIR1/346/15/227/1.

  7. Report, 5.10.1914, PRO, AIR1/358/15/227/14.

  8. Samson’s service records, entry 21.12.16, PRO, ADM273/2.

  9. Murray Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank (London, Hutchinson & Co., 1937), pp.32–3.

  10. Samson, report, 30.11.1914, PRO, AIR1/671/17/128/2.

  11. DAD to ICA, 12.10.1914, PRO, AIR1/185/15/226/2. Also Churchill’s instructions to Admiralty Commands, 10.10.1914, PRO, Kitchener Papers, PRO30/57/72.

  12. Rawlinson to Churchill, 14.10.1914, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  13. Admiralty Paper, 30.6.1915, Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, p.245.

  14. Asquith to Churchill, 18.12.1914, CAC, CHAR26/1.

  15. Kitchener to Churchill, 23.12.1914, PRO, Kitchener Papers, PRO30/57/72.

  16. Churchill to Kitchener, c. 24.12.1914, PRO, Kitchener Papers, PRO30/57/72.

  17. MS draft, undated and unsigned, PRO, Kitchener Papers, PRO30/57/72.

  18. Asquith to Churchill, 17.2.1915, CAC, CHAR13/47.

  19. Asquith to Venetia Stanley, 18.2.1915, CAC, Montagu Papers.

  20. Churchill to Kitchener, 19.2.1915, PRO, Kitchener Papers, PRO30/57/72.

  21. Wedgwood to Churchill, 19.2.15, CAC, CHAR13/47/81.

  22. PRO, MUN4/3460. BT31/18780/102286. ADM1/8403/428.

  4. Preliminaries to a Dinner Party

  1. Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, p.53.

  2. Admiralty press release, 28.7.1915, PRO, ADM1/8428/215.

  3. Delacombe to Royal Commission, Proceedings, para. 1131. Hetherington said he made this remark at another time and disputed Delacombe’s ability to recall it, paras 1242–5, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  4. Aeronautics Journal, July 1911.

  5. R.F. Macfie, report, 5.11.1914, TM, Macfie papers.

  6. Air Station daily report, 16.11.1914, PRO, AIR1/188/15/226/5.

  7. Air Station Vehicle Return, 16 November and 10 December 1914, PRO, AIR1/188/15/226/5.

  8. Air Station Vehicle Return, 16.11.1914, records this as ‘Seabrook lorry fitted with 3-pdr arrived yesterday evening from Huntingdon’, PRO, AIR1/188/15/226/5.

  9. Westminster to Churchill, letter, 18.4.1915, CAC, CHAR13/51/21–22.

  10. Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, p.53.

  11. Churchill to Tudor, 18.1.15, PRO, T173/34B/Part 2.

  12. Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, pp.55–6.

  13. Ibid. p.57.

  14. ‘Proposed [sic] to Build a New Type of Gun Carrying War Machine’, unsigned undated T/S in Ministry of Munitions file, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13 and 22. In his The Evolution of the Tank, p.51, Sueter confirms his authorship saying he sent it to Churchill ‘early in January’. This was contradicted by Hetherington and Briggs who indicated an end of January date to the Royal Commission in 1919; see esp. paras 629–30 and 1800 of the Proceedings. They said that Adm Scott dismissed the idea in the first week of February. As Churchill expected immediate action, Scott was unlikely to have delayed some three weeks before responding. Sueter’s memoirs are unreliable concerning the dates of events at this period.

  15. Churchill, obituary for the Duke, The Times, 22.7.1953.

  16. Churchill to Royal Commission, Proceedings, para. 33. Also his written statement to the Commission, 1.9.1919, PRO, MUN5/394.

  17. Hetherington, statement, 28.11.1918, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  18. Churchill to Royal Commission, Proceedings, para. 127.

  19. Churchill to DCIGS, minutes, 29.9.1917, LHC, Stern papers 1/4/2.

  20. Sueter to Royal Commission. Proceedings, paras 441–453.

  21. Sueter, The Evolution
of the Tank, p.66.

  22. Churchill to Royal Commission, Proceedings, para. 35. Also his written statement to the Commission, 1.9.1919, PRO, MUN5/394.

  5. The Silent Service

  1. Crompton, diary, 30.4.1915, SML, ARCH CRO/B130 (original diary). Incomplete copies at PRO, T173/181 and TM, Crompton papers, but some transcripts are unreliable.

  2. Crompton to Holden, 7.9.1914, TM, Crompton papers.

  3. Crompton, diary, 23.10.1914, SML, ARCH CRO/B130.

  4. Crompton to Tanks Awards Committee, ‘Proceedings’, 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  5. Crompton to Long, 19.2.1915, TM, 069.02/(41) Crompton 35.

  6. Crompton, diary, 19.2.1915, SML, ARCH CRO/B130.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Mansell to von Donop, 20.5.1915, confirms Churchill’s placing and later cancellation of order, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13. Also W.S. Churchill, The World Crisis, 2nd edn (4 vols, London, Thornton Butterworth, 1923), vol. 2, 1915, p.73, in which Churchill confirms the date of placement of the order. Also A History of the Ministry of Munitions, internal pub. (14 vols, London, Ministry of Munitions, 1920), vol. XII: The Supply of Munitions, pt 3: Tanks, p.7, which confirms Churchill’s cancellation on 20 February.

  9. Churchill, undated draft statement to Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, 1919, CAC, CHAR2/109.

  10. Crompton, ‘A Self-Moving Armoured Fort for the Attack and Destruction of Enemy’s Trenches’, 22.2.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/22.

  11. Churchill, holograph annotation, 24.2.1915, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  12. Crompton, paper, ‘Admiralty Land-Ships’, 11.6.1915, LHC, Stern papers.

  13. Legros, draft proof of evidence to his solicitor H.C. Witt, 20.9.1919, TM, 069.02 (41) Crompton 1–39.

  14. Tritton to Tanks Awards Committee, 1.11.1918, PRO, T173/776.

  15. Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, p.69.

  16. Addendum to Minutes of meeting, 24.3.1915, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  17. Brig Gen Holden in evidence at Capt Bentley’s High Court action, Law Report, The Times, 27.11.1925.

  18. Crompton’s diary entry for 12 April records ‘Hetherington … went to War Office about Armour’, PRO, T173/181.

  19. Crompton, reply to his solicitor Mr R. Witt, 9.9.1919, TM, 069/02 (41) Crompton 1–39.

  20. Crompton to Palmer, 6.5.1915, TM, 089.02(41) Crompton 35.

  21. Crompton to Smith-Dorrien, 30.4.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  22. Crompton, diary, 30.4.1915, SML, ARCH CRO/B130.

  23. Sueter to Hetherington and Crompton, 30.3.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  24. Crompton to E.W. Moir, MoM, 30.7.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  25. Tritton to Crompton, 5.6.1915, LHC, Stern 1/6/1–82.

  26. Tritton to Capt Moore Williams, Secretary, Tanks Awards Committee, 10.7.1918, TM, 623.438 (41) Tank Design/53.

  27. Crompton to d’Eyncourt, 20 May 1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  28. Crompton to Tanks Awards Committee, 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  1. Tritton to Legros, at Lincoln, 2.3.1915. Legros’ draft proof of evidence to his solicitor Mr H.C. Witt, 20.9.1919. TM, 069.02 (41) Crompton 1–39.

  2. Sueter, The Evolution of the Tank, p.244.

  3. Metropolitan CWF Co., letters of 10 May and 11 June 1915 to MoM, PRO, T173/34B.

  4. Tudor to Scott-Moncrieff, 30.5.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  5. Scott-Moncrieff to von Donop, 10.6.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  6. The substance of Scott-Moncrieff’s letter is quoted in the agenda for a DNC’s Committee meeting held 22.6.1915. PRO, T173/34B.

  7. Swinton to CGS at GHQ, 1.6.15, PRO, T173/34B.

  8. Fowke to Sub-Chief Gen Staff, 3.6.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  9. Swinton to Sub-Chief Gen Staff, 4.6.1915, PRO, T173/463.

  10. Cavan to Swinton, 12.6.1915, PRO, WO158/831.

  11. Churchill, World Crisis, vol 2, pp.404–5.

  12. Scott-Moncrieff to d’Eyncourt, c. 30.6.1915, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/22.

  13. Boothby to Crompton, undated letter c. June 1915, TM, 069.02 (41) Crompton 1–39.

  14. Wilson, Proof of Evidence to Royal Commission, undated but c. September 1919, TM, Wilson papers.

  15. Tritton to Stern, telegram 27.7.1915, TM, Tritton papers. See also Tritton to Royal Commission, 21.10.1919, Proceedings, p.150, para. 2536.

  16. Tritton to d’Eyncourt, criticising Crompton’s chaintrack design, 8.9.16, NMM, DEY/50.

  17. The Tank. Its Birth and Development (Wm Foster & Co. Ltd., c. 1919), p.18.

  18. Lt Col Sir Albert Stern, Tanks 1914–1918. The Logbook of a Pioneer (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919), pp.41–2.

  7. Landships

  1. Tank. Birth and Development (Foster), p.22.

  2. Crompton to Lord Moulton’s Tanks Awards Committee, 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  3. Crompton to d’Eyncourt, 6.8.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  4. Field, note written aboard Lapland, 13.8.1915, PRO, T173/218.

  5. Churchill, in cross-examination before the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, 7.10.1919, Minutes of the Proceedings, paras 199–200, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  6. Crompton, to the Tanks Awards Committee, 18.12.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  7. D’Eyncourt to Swinton, 28.9.1915, NMM, DEY/45.

  8. Macfie to Boothby, 13.4.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  9. Macfie’s name is pencilled on the back of the drawing found among Stern’s papers, LHC, Stern 1/19/5 and 1/19/1 (orig. 016/20).

  10. Stern, to the Tanks Awards Committee, 10.10.1918, PRO, MUN5/394.

  11. Macfie, letter to Stern, 8.12.1916, Bod, MS Addison dep. c56, fols 28–9.

  12. Churchill, minute of 21.10.1915, PRO, ADM/116/1339.

  13. Von Donop, minute to Lt Gen Sir J. Wolfe-Murray, CIGS, 19.10.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  14. Moir to Lloyd George, 16.10.1915, PRO, MUN5/43/263/8/7.

  15. Swinton to War Office, 13.8.1915, PRO, T173/34B.

  16. Glasfurd, ‘A Suggestion for Neutralising the Power of the Trench and Obstacle’, 23.9.1915 (Foreign Office pub.), HLRO, (LLG) D10/6/2.

  17. Rose to Swinton, undated but c. September 1915, PRO, CAB17/120B.

  18. Field, Statement of Claim to the Royal Commission, 1919, PRO, T173/218.

  19. Tritton to d’Eyncourt, Tank. Birth and Development, (Foster), p.22. Tritton confirmed the track was codesigned with Wilson; see Tritton to the Royal Commission, 21.10.1919, p.153, para. 2638, PRO, T173/218.

  20. Swinton, letter to Liddell Hart, 30.4.1948, LHC, L HART 9/28/62.

  21. Tritton, marginalia in his personal copy of Col J.F.C. Fuller’s Tanks in the Great War (London, John Murray, 1920), p.29, TM library.

  22. Sgt Chadwick to Capt Basil Liddell Hart, May 1967, LHC, Liddell Hart papers.

  23. Churchill, ‘Variants of the Offensive’, memorandum to Sir John French, 4.12.1915. CID paper 7.1.1916, PRO, CAB42/7/4/6/2/229B.

  24. D’Eyncourt, Admiralty minute, 4.11.1915, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  25. E.D. Swinton, Eyewitness (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1932), p.187.

  8. Preparations for Battle

  1. Churchill, letter to Capt Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt, 29.12.1917, Thurso papers. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of Sir Winston S. Churchill. Copyright Winston S. Churchill.

  2. Swinton, letter to The Royal Tank Corps Journal, 1937. Swinton added that Tritton had recently confirmed to him these details of his discussion with Kitchener, TM, archives.

  3. Swinton, Eyewitness, p.196.

  4. David Lloyd George, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, 1st edn (6 vols, London, Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1933), vol. 2, pp.643–4.

  5. FM Sir William Robertson, From Private to Field-Marshal (London, Constable & Co., 1921), p.268.

  6. War Committee, meeting 3.2.1916, Secretary’s Notes No. 26, p.13, PRO, CAB42/8/22/3/2.

  7. D’Eyncourt to Churchill, 14.2.1916, PRO, ADM116/1339.

  8. Tritton, initialled holograph marginal note on his copy of Fuller’s Tanks in the Great War, TM archive.

  9. Haig
to War Office, 9.2.1916, PRO, WO32/5754.

  10. Swinton to War Office, 8.2.1916, PRO, MUN5/210/1940/13.

  11. Lloyd George, unsigned undated fragment of a memoir, probably for the Ministry of Munitions historian, PRO, MUN9/37.

  12. T. Pidgeon, The Tanks at Flers (2 vols, Cobham, Surrey, Fairmile Books, 1995), vol. 1, p.30. Great Eastern Rly Co. to Board of Trade, plan of rail spur. 22.6.1916. PRO. MT6/2438/5

  13. Swinton, Eyewitness, p.234.

  14. Hankey to Sir Wm Robertson, 20.4.1916, PRO, CAB17/167.

  15. Stephen Roskill, Hankey, Man of Secrets (2 vols, London, Collins, 1970), vol. 1, 1877–1918, p.266.

  16. Burnett Stuart to Bird, 7.6.1916, PRO, WO158/843.

  17. Ref. sponsons, Swinton to Butler, 20.6.1916. PRO. WO158/833. Ref. guns, Swinton, Eyewitness, p.259

  18. The Tank Supply Committee initially decided (15 May) to number male tanks 500–74 and females 800–74. This was changed on 22 May to 701–75 and 501–75 respectively. LHC, Stern 1/3/2.

  19. Kiggell to War Office, 1.5.1916, PRO, WO32/5754.

  20. Robertson to Haig, 25.7.1916, PRO, WO158/843.

  21. Burnett Stuart to Bird, 10.7.1916, PRO, MUN4/4979.

  22. Swinton placed the order with Stern on 24 July. War Office confirmed by letter to MoM, 25 July. PRO, MUN4/2790.

  23. Stern, questioned by Mr G. Cunningham, Ministry of Supply, 23.5.1942, PRO, AVIA22/3336.

  24. Stern to Wilson, 1.9.1916, TM, box 069.02(41) Wilson.

  25. Wilson, 4.9.1916, TM, box 069.02(41) Wilson.

  26. Stern to Montagu, 3.8.1916, PRO, MUN4/4979 (folder 15).

  27. Whigham to Kiggell, 25.8.1916, PRO, WO158/843.

  28. Butler to Whigham, 26.8.1916, PRO, WO32/5754.

  29. Burnett Stuart to Butler, 10.8.1916, PRO, WO158/843.

  30. Lt Col Brough returned home. He went back to France with the 61st Division Staff in mid-1917. On 30 July he walked alone into the countryside and, tragically, shot himself in the head. His body was found next day. Just two days earlier the Heavy Branch MGC had become The Tank Corps by Royal Warrant. An ironic coincidence?

  9. First Blood